Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Must Be THe Heat


It must be the heat. This is the week before a holiday weekend. Most folks have already made their plans and reserved their sites. Fortunately for those who have waited until the last minute I am here. Unfortunately for me, I missed quite a few because I was in the land of no internet and because I was not extremely specific with my requests, someone did not check the web reservations. In my defense, I did text him while sitting in a doctor's waiting room with my dad. I even followed up to see if he understood the previous text that had all the pertinent information. He replied yes to "did you understand my last text?" How silly of me not to include the content of the text I was referring to, because he did not get that text and said yes to the text that I had texted the day before when I texted goodnight.

There is one reader out there who will totally understand what I just wrote.

So, when the phone rang at 9:45 pm on Sunday, even though I was all snug in my bed cuddling with my canines, I pulled myself up and came out to the office to take a reservation. The man was surprised I answered since he was so late and was prepared to leave a message for me to return his call the next day. He thanked me profusely for having a site for his family and went on and on about how wonderful I was for being so nice as to have a spot for them.

Next morning as I sipped my coffee and washed mountains of laundry, the same caller rings my bell. "I don't know if you remember me, but I have a reservation for site 26 that I need to cancel." Of course I remember you. "Well, the campground we really wanted to go to called and they have a spot they can put us in. It is not as good as the spot you have , but since we called them first and they put us on a waiting list we feel like we should camp with them. Sorry. Are you gonna charge us?" No, there is no cancellation, just like I told you last night. ......... He hung up. No thank you for not charging us, just hung up. Perhaps he shouldn't have told me his reasoning about changing his plans. It was annoying, but not the end of the world. I am sure I will rent the spot to someone who didn't make reservations in time.

My annoyance only grew when a camper who will be here until tomorrow came in to ask how to get to Graham's Cave. I tell her, then she says, conversationally, "My husband says you have peaches in a tree. It's okay if we pick them, isn't it?" Let me insert here that although I have two trees that produce and lots of baby trees that I have planted, the one and only tree that has peaches on it right now is in my private yard. That would be the yard on the residence side of this building, down the driveway marked 'PRIVATE'. I usually get about a bushel of peaches from that tree, but this year the tree had only a handful that I have been watching daily to grab at the very peak of ripeness. "You are talking about the tree in my side yard down the private drive and I would prefer that you didn't. If you would like to pick an apple or two, please feel free to do so."

I was anxious for her to leave so I could go check my tree. Another camper pulled in and I couldn't check it right away. Not only were the peaches that were on the lower limbs that I had taken note of that morning gone, but so were my tomatoes that I had planned to gather when I closed the store at 8:00. I wanted to have a small fit, but the intense heat from the day had barely faded and I just didn't have the energy.

After mowing the dog park in 90 degree heat this morning I came in to let the sweat dry and cool my body. The phone rang, "Do you have any sites for this weekend?" Yes, I do. Tell me what you need - tent or RV. "Oh, we just need a tent site. Do you have any without reservations?" Right now I still have a few sites left. "But do you have any without reservations?" Do you want to reserve a site? "No, I want to know if you are going to keep sites open and not reserve them all out." Right this minute I have a few sites left, but will  not guarantee they will still be left by this weekend. If I can rent them I will. As she is hanging up, I hear her say "What a stupid bitch, she has no idea what she is doing."

Oh, I am so looking forward to this weekend.

5 comments:

Joanne Noragon said...

Oh, Kathy, I cannot believe how rude the world has grown. My parents taught us to leave a campground cleaner than we found it; apparently this generation reads that to mean carry away the owner's property, too.

joanne said...

It's a little bit strange that they would head down your driveway into your private space to pick peaches...gah, and then help themselves to the rest of the bounty. what is wrong with people???
can't you get shot for that?

Val said...

That's ME, ME, ME! I TOTALLY understand the texting issue! It's as if he lives right here in my house.

I would be SO mad about the peaches and tomatoes. I would drop in on that camper and nose around, looking for evidence. "Oh, I see you have some fresh peaches. And tomatoes, too! Do you have a garden?" But then, I'm a stupid bitch and have no idea what I'm doing!

Erik's RV Blog said...

My wife and I talk about owning an RV park some day. Then I read your blog and remember if I did, I would probably end up in jail...

I don't know how you and he who helps do it but if I did, I would be in jail....

Good luck this weekend. :)

Erik

ellen abbott said...

You should have told that woman about the peaches an unequivocal NO though I imagine it was already too late by that point. So that second woman thinks you should not rent out all your sites on a first come first serve basis? That you should just leave one empty in case the Magi show up?