Another Weekend Is Here

The rain didn't last long at all. I snuck away long enough to purchase cat and dog food. The humidity had doubled by the the I raced home from the store. I expected to have lots of swimmers, but it has been fairly peaceful........... except for the phone and in the last two hours I have had a dozen calls. A disgruntled man just left here indignant that I had no site for him. He does not have reservations and wanted a full hook up with cable TV and it had to be a pull-thru, because he doesn't do "that" (back up). He apparently doesn't know how to read and follow directions either as he entered the exit drive and then went out the wrong way in a tiff. He seemed to think that "you campground owners" need to take some sites and leave them available for travelers. I smiled sweetly and told him that I did and that all my travelers had made reservations. I think he wanted to call me a bad name!

I guess he did not see all the posters decorating my office area proclaiming me and my campground to be #1!!! We have some of the sweetest children staying here for the summer with their pipe liner dads. They are very southern with their manners and I love to hear them all say "yes ma'am" in unison. We have Riley and his sister Kaylee. They have become friends with the sisters Kylie and Chelsea. They ride all over the park on their bikes and usually come in for an ice cream in the afternoon. I love to see children have fun and these do, but they are well mannered and that is a big treat. So many kids I encounter are rude and disrespectful. Any way, I have wondered from my purpose here. Today I was given posters by these children thanking me for the celebration on the 4th of July. Just made my day!

Since I seem to be chained behind this desk............... I shall enchant you with another story of campground follies of yesteryear. I'll even stay in the same vein and tell you about reservations... or the lack thereof.

This was back in 07 when I still kept the store hours of 9 am til 9 pm. This was a year that we were particularly busy and every weekend in July found me having to turn people away due to lack of space. On this particular Friday I found myself done with all my morning chores and left with an hour before having to open the office door. I decided to take a stroll through the park and had not gone too far when my cell rang and love of my life summoned me to the office to take care of a reservation. This prompted me to ask how long I had been walking and what time it was. Even though I opened at 9, check-in wasn't until 11 am. The people occupying the space before you get there would like to wake up before they leave.

I go on to the office to take care of it. I have my handy dandy chart right there in full view with all the reservations written in. I have told him a million times how my little system works, but he still screws it up and I will have to fix it when he does. I see two cars full of children and one woman in attendance, so I know right away that it must be a tent site (am I sharp or what?). As I enter the store I ask the name of the reservation and as I look on my chart I casually mention that we don't usually check folks in this early and that, in fact, we aren't really open yet. For this I get the "you are being a bitch" look from my husband. "I'm sorry, but I don't see your name on my list....could it be under another name?" Husband jumps in to inform me that this was the e-mail we had gotten the day before. Now we are on the same page. "Oh, I'm sorry, you never responded to my return e-mail and I rented the site to someone else."

"But I e-mailed you." she whines. "Yes, you did" I say, "You inquired about availability; and I responded that there was only one site left. I asked that you either call or e-mail back to secure the site. You never responded and the site was rented to someone else." I replied. Again she says, "But I e-mailed you." Trying to keep my annoyance in check I offer a site on the full hook-up side of the park. "No, I wanted to be beside the pool. And I e-mailed you!" Again with that! I am starting to lose patience with this, so I say, "Oh, you e-mailed back?"

"Well, no. I was so tired when I got off work last night that I just went to bed and we got up really early this morning and we drove here all the way from Hannibal." she says angrily. Okay, I have had enough; so I tell her that I am sorry that I cannot help her and tell her to have a good day. She once again whined that she had e-mailed me and I was supposed to save her a site. I simply left her standing by her car as I walked away thinking about the 30 minutes of my life I just lost.

It is now 10 pm and I have put in the last reservation of the day. I think I will go to bed and dream