This Is A First ......

Just when I think I have heard everything. Just when I think there are no more surprises to be had............

Even though my morning routine was interrupted by the very early arrival of kampers who disregarded the rules set forth, I decided to be the bigger kampground hostess with the mostest. I managed to clean the restrooms and fill the Dr. Pepper machine with 6 cases of cans and keep an eye on the entrance to the park. Then I cleaned the popcorn machine and got it going while baking the cookies. I even made a few snow cones.

So, I was just settling in here at my desk for a little rest before the onslaught of those who will be leaving work a little early to check in. A man pulls up in a car with a young boy and enters the store with a sheepish grin. If I have ever seen him, I don't remember it. He says "hi" and just stands there grinning. I ask if I can help him and he says that he will be camping here this weekend and he needs to know where he can drop off his firewood. Do you have a reservation?
"No, but Drew used to work at the station with ****** and my wife is related to her brother-in-law ...." What????? I can only stare back at him, as I am at a loss for words (and that doesn't happen often). "I gotta go to work and we ain't coming til tomorrow, so I want to leave my firewood here. Where can I put it?" I am booked pretty solid, will you need a tent site or an RV site? "We want a tent site, but we need a plug in (truer words were never spoken, he was pretty ripe smelling ......... oh, sorry, he means he needs a site with electricity to plug something in. I was thinking Glade plug-ins .......) I consult my reservation book and find that I have a precious few tent sites left and ask if he would like to reserve one of them. While he ponders this, I call Drew, since, after all, they are acquainted through the in-law system of being friends with someone he had worked with briefly, and ask what I should do with a car full of firewood.

He, who should learn to have patience with his wife if he wants to have supper tonight, spoke to me in less than kindly tones and reminded me that the DNR had requested that all campgrounds discourage firewood from being brought in, due to some bug infestation. I had already relayed this information to the gentleman, who, then wanted to know who the DNR was. As tempted as I was to tell him it meant "do not resuscitate", I didn't and told him it was the Department of Natural Resources. He was confused, because firewood has nothing to do with fishing ..........
I simply told my husband to report to the office and he did. He did not know this man any more than I did. He looked at the wood and told him that we couldn't let him bring most of it in the park, but that some was okay (my man knows his trees, let me tell you).

This issue being settled,he made the reservation and paid for the first night. I told him that if he chose to put the wood on a site that I could not guarantee that it would be there when he came back. This is when he decided to call his wife. In my store. Standing in front of me. He tells her how much it is going to cost, then after a moment, tells her that they have to pay for the extra people ( a total of eight people). After a very long moment he tells her that he did tell her who he was. That was fun, being privy to the butt chewing I could tell he was receiving from his wife.


Then he tells me he wants to see the site. I give him a map and a receipt and he leaves. I spray some air freshener and think I am done. But ....... no, he is back. He thinks the site to be inferior to the one next to it. I explain that it is reserved and he tells me it is empty. By now I want to pull my hair out, but I very calmly explain how reservations work. I give him another option, in fact give him two. I only have three tent sites left. Off he goes again. I watch as he drives away. I can see the firewood in the back seat! The back bumper is very close to the ground.

He comes back and is closing his cell phone as he enters the store. He is grinning that sappy grin again as he tells me that his wife, who is friends with the brother-in-law of a person my husband once worked with, doesn't like to camp around a bunch of people. She is claustrophobic, it seems, but they might try again around the 4th of July and maybe we won't be busy then. I was happy to refund him and then fumigate my store again. I seemed to have dodged a bullet of stinkiness. But, ......... I can't help but wonder how that claustrophobia works in a tent ...........