Even More Sites.............

It was a wonderful weekend here. Very busy and very few problems. No bathroom tales to tell. A few of you have asked questions and I would appear to have ignored them. Sorry about that, but I get interrupted a lot and then lose my train of thought. One question was about our pool and if we allowed folks other than campers to swim. We do. The nearest town is very small and there is not a lot for families to do. We open our pool daily from 11 am until 7 pm for "day swimmers" to pay and swim. My competitor across the interstate does also. Her pool is deeper, while mine has a huge shallow area great for small kids. We each appeal to different ages. It is a friendly competition and if someone doesn't find my park to their liking or I am full I am more than happy to call over and get a space from her and she does likewise. We also share information about problem campers and swimmers to warn each other. It is a win-win situation. The state park is just down the road from my park and they have a camping area also, but no full hook-ups. They don't have a pool and will send their campers here to swim and shop in my camp store. They do have beautiful hiking and biking trails, though.

Another question was about recommending other parks that I might know or be affiliated with in other parts of the country. Since we are privately owned and not under a franchise of any kind, I really don't have any basis on which to recommend a park. I would say to do a little research for the area you will be stopping at. There are RV review sites. Just keep in mind that some reviews might be written in anger or by someone with unreasonable expectations. Not all my reviews are good. One in particular was written by a man who got stuck and had to be pulled out by a tow-truck. He got stuck because he turned way short. I had warned him to stay on the gravel road because we had had so much rain and my husband even offered to guide him in the site. He was, shall we say, disinclined to follow the suggestions of others........ and he got stuck. His efforts to get himself out only made it worse and he who got more than a little annoyed with the man and expressed himself. We paid for the tow truck, but the customer felt that we should have also comped his stay. I have good reviews, too; but, I admit that I don't like seeing the negative in print. I guess I am saying to keep a good perspective while reading the reviews. Some of my followers are full-timers and would no doubt have a better idea of good parks than me.

Not the best picture here of this really cute bench. This is the area between sites 24 and 26. This is shady and they always have the leaves cleaned up. The white rock looks almost like a beach if you walk over at dusk.

The little areas of plants add a nice pop of color, too.


Sites 24 and 26 are hard to even think of separately, as the tend to hang out between the two in this little oases. Good thing they are close friends! Actually, they are related by marriage.


Now, on to the land of garden gnomes! This will be site N. The sweet little lady here loves her statuary in her gardens.

Looks different when occupied, but I never have time to get out on the weekend. I need to go mow this site, too. When it cools down and the pool is empty.....

Site N is on the end of the row and boasts a bigger area in the woods.


Always know the temp and what time it is on site N!


Just chillin ............ on site N.

Always ready for a crowd on site N. I have been treated to a small feast more than once here myself.

Site N is so far back in the park .......... they have transportation. This was the very first golf cart to make its appearance in our park.


Pots of flowers adorn every nook and cranny on site N.


This site 29. This site is situated at the end of a row and boasts a nice shady odd shaped lot. They have raked and cleaned it up. Check out how neatly they stacked the wood!
Site 29, different angle. Big fire pit.


This little garden is from site 34 ....... totally out of sequence here. I will be adding to this garden tonight, since right next to it is the water hydrant that has been hit three times in two weeks. I am adding another BIG rock and some nice dirt and flowers. Now if someone cuts too close the damage won't be mine.

Pink flamingos will welcome you to site 37.


The fire pit at site 37 is a favorite gathering place for those inclined to listen to tall tales from Crazy Tom! I was going to call him Tommy Boy, but Crazy Tom just suits him!


Long shot of site 37. We refer to sites 30-37 as "the hill". They are all out in the open with no pesky trees to block satellite reception. We had intended these to be the only sites we kept open year round and I was a little surprised that my seasonal campers didn't all want shade. This does eliminate any worries of a limb falling on your camper in a storm, though.

Site 36 is also a good place to get a free meal from time to time. I put in a little garden there last year and now they have enhanced it and even added a small tree. Competitive bunch there on "the hill". I must confess that I stopped for a moment from my photo shoot and dead headed the marigolds and even pulled a weed or two.


Site 35 also boasts a garden due to the generous efforts of a nice man who will soon make an appearance on my blog.


Long shot of site 35. That is the infamous barn of he who tinkers there-in in the back ground.

This is site 34. The grass is lusher here. They did indeed sow a little seed!



Site 34 is on "the hill", but this is the only site with a couple of trees. Still gets an open sky for satellites, though.


I mow all these sites, so if they would all decide to eliminate any hard to get to areas I would be sooooo happy! Site 34 concludes my tour for today and I have but a few sites left to post tomorrow, maybe tonight if I can leave the office on time. I would love to have the plaque on a site by next weekend for all to see and one proud site holder to gush over.

More Sites To See

Went on a little ride with my camera yesterday. Some of the sites aren't numbered since they aren't rented out nightly, so I will give them a letter for voting purposes.

This will be known as site K. This is one of the newer sites that we put in when we started to expand with our seasonal campers. Neat and clean. This site is located in the woods part of the campground. Bugs are more prevalent back here, note the screen room. When winter is over there is a heavy cover of leaves in this section.

The next two photos are different views of site M. Located next to site K. Everybody loves the bolt ends for landscaping. That and lots of rock filler for patios. Screen room here, too.

Here we have site B. Notice the table base is a tree stump. I just love using what is there. I think that may have been a tree that was cut down and the stump was not removed. I am often unaware of what exactly is going on, since I am the one designated to man the office/store.

Now this is a fire pit big enough to keep you warm! No grass to speak of back here and that makes me extremely happy as I would no doubt be the one to mow it. This is site S.

Site S has a concrete pad to sit on and they just moved in this season. They have been busy planting and trying to find what will grow in all that shade.

The perennials should start to really grow next season.

Front view of site S.

Site G below. They put a lot of work into all that rock and those bolt ends. They are heavy ........... I know from experience.

Oops, same shot. Hey I was helping a kid count change for ice cream!

The next site is site V. All of these sites are in the woods and the clean up is tedious in the spring. The sound of leaf blowers is a welcome sound every spring.

Site V from the back. Looks peaceful, doesn't it?

Next is site 17. Still in the shady part, but on an established row. This was one of the original sites here when we purchased the park. Used to have different seasonal campers and they built the patio area.

Site 8 is next. This area had to be excavated when we replace part of the sewer system. No grass to mow here.

I got a little distracted by the rabbits on site 1B.

I drove my golf cart right up to them ............. I think they thought I was the intruder!

Site 1B planted trees to hide the ugly electric boxes.

Site 1B also sits on a concrete pad and boasts a little garden area in the back that I put there a couple of seasons ago. This is one of the first sites you see when you enter the park.

Tomorrow I will try to post the remainder of the seasonal sites for your consideration. My camera battery ran out of power, so I stopped and watered a few gardens while He Who watched the store for me.

Please Vote ................

Me again with the stumps and the frogs. I sent out an e-mail to all my seasonal campers and proposed a little competition. I was riding through the park on my trusty golf cart and liking all the changes I was seeing. We have quite a few new seasonal campers and they have been busy cleaning and planting their sites that are their home away from home. I have been known to throw down a garden or two in an attempt to make my mowing a little easier ........ but, these folks were doing it on their own. That got me thinking ................. what if I set out some ballots and decided to give a little incentive to sweeten the deal. I can't vote, of course, but anybody coming through can and I encourage them to do so.

The lucky winner will get to display this sign on their site and have bragging rights for an entire month until a new site is chosen. There are only 7 days left in the month and I only have a few ballots in the cookie jar (a Coca Cola cookie jar, of course ........... frogs and Coke, people). I do not want to choose a site myself. That would be wrong and way too hard for me!

This is site 28. New to our kampground this year, Marcy is a flower lover.

She is using what was already there and adding her own touch with annuals and perennials.

Patriotic, too! Rusty will no doubt be on the other side of the pond with he who plays with fireworks on the weekend of the 4th. You will remember that Rusty installed my head lamps allowing me to roam the park at night.

I will try to feature a different site as often as I can for the remainder of the month. I need my followers to vote, since the campers aren't doing this for me!!

If you are my camper and you are reading this blog .............. I happened to have the camera with me when I stopped and took these few shots. This isn't my favorite ....... just one of my many favorites. Stay tuned, more are coming, yours is in there, I promise!!

Kiley's Garden

There is a certain young lady who comes to camp quite often that I have become very fond of. She reminds me of my granddaughter Layla. She is sweet and sensitive like my Layla. She likes to help me with the price gun and putting merchandise in the store. She is also great with hugs...........

With this in mind, along with my love for tree stumps, I asked he who handles the chainsaw to fashion a sort of chair for Miss Kiley. He did, it is very rustic, but perfect for what I have in mind. I drew her name on it ..........

then with my handy dandy Dremel did a little carving. I think this particular font captures her fun loving personality. I was going to paint the letters, but have decided that Kiley can do it herself. This morning I spent my outside time at Kiley's Gramma's site doing a little digging.

This will be known as Kiley's Garden. I long to be outside spreading dirt and planting flowers. I can just see it in my mind's eye. We have what is known as bolt ends from the stave mill (they make the "staves" that create the barrels that hold wine, etc.). This the the part of the tree that is cut off before they begin ripping the boards or "staves". We use them to landscape. Not only are they inexpensive, but they maintain that rustic look that I like.

Very versatile, these bolt ends. I used the half rounds to create the border and then the round ones for stepping stones. This garden will be my most ambitious project so far. I plan to use lots of hostas and day lilies, plus some periwinkle as a ground cover. I changed it a little after the picture and created a patio of sorts in front of the chair. It may need a table and another "chair"........... in case there is a need for a tea party.

I absolutely love to play in the dirt! I would be out there right now if I weren't sitting here checking in campers and swimmers. I like watching it evolve as I go, sometimes I don't end up with what I had in mind when I started ....... but that's what is so fun.

Anonymous

It is hot and humid here. It zaps your energy and as I sit here doing my least favorite chore ........... billing, I find that my patience is at an all time low. Took a little break to see what was going on in the land of blog. I love to interact with others and I don't mind if you don't share my views. It would be a boring place if we all saw the world through the same eyes.


Apparently my last post riled another blogger and they commented. I don't mind that they commented, I just wonder why they did so anonymously. If you have an opinion that you are not willing to put your name on, then perhaps you should just not give voice to it at all. The statement that I should do my homework on my subject matter (WalMart) really annoyed me today. Everything in my post is my opinion and I don't present it as anything but that ............ and I own it. It is not anonymous. So, I suppose I would like to say to all the anonymous folks out there .............. try owning your words. Just my opinion .........

Stumped by Great Value

After all the snow and freezing temperatures that accompanied winter there were lots of trees on the ground. We put in a bid to the state park down the road and bought all the fallen trees to split for firewood. Most of them had been cut into good sized chunks to make for easy removal. He who wields the chain saw picked them up on a trailer and unloaded them behind the barn. He simply let them fall and roll out so that he could go retrieve the next load. We have been pulling them off the pile to split and stack to use. Other than being unsightly, the pile presented no problems until the grass started growing and I was afraid it would become a snake haven. I spent a whole day and lots of energy flipping and rolling them out of the way so that I could mow. But, look at my new flower pot!! I love "found" treasures. A hollow stump or two takes up a good chunk of space in a big garden bed.


A few weeks ago I made my big list and put on my walking shoes for my store stocking. The first one before the pool opens always involves two trips through WalMart to get everything needed. Not this time. To my absolute horror I found them eliminating the fabric department. I need frequent fabric fixes and the nearest Joann's is an hour away! This is a half day event, an hour to get there, an hour to get back and two hours to shop. I never have that kind of time during camping season.


I took advantage of the close-out sales and got some fabric, but it is already in a box to go to Minnesota as outfits for my granddaughters. On to the aisle of pool toys. Used to be a whole long aisle of goggles, swimmies, rafts and rings. I like to keep a nice variety available for my swimmers. There is a certain price point I can't exceed or the stuff will hang there on the wall until it dry rots. I don't do outrageous mark-ups, just enough to pay for my time and trouble to stock it. I was shocked at not only the price increase, but the lack of selection they had. No rafts for my swimmers to turn blue in the face while blowing them up. A pitiful few goggles, I wiped them out and the dive sticks that were so popular last season no longer available. I wanted some 6" clay pots. They had the tiny pots and the giant pots .... nothing in between. I would have settled for 8", but none to be had. I went on to the health and beauty section for toothpaste and antiperspirant. They feature lots of double packed items, supposed to save you money. The Degree was in a two-pack for $4.33. The single was $1.97. Fortunately for me, I can add and I picked up two singles for less than $4.00. Kept me on my toes as I continued to shop the paragon of mega values.


Sam Walton is gone and, apparently, so is the concept of one stop value shopping. The employees seemed dispirited about the changes, too. I was told that soon the Great Value label will dominate the aisles and that there will no longer be a variety of other brands to choose from. I buy generic items all the time. But there are some brands I prefer. Hellmann's mayo, Jif peanut butter, Lays potato chips, to name a few. Argue all you want, they do taste better. Does WalMart think these companies have survived without customer loyalty? I remember when Albany, Georgia got their very first WalMart. We lived there and at the time K-Mart dominated the city with its low prices. It was truly an event and a boost to the economy there. WalMart anchored a shopping center and employed many of the good citizens in that city. While living there I took a part-time job at a fabric store..... The Piece Goods Shop. WalMart was our biggest competitor. WalMart did not have a large fabric department, but as the years went by they increased it and became large enough to swallow up all the small fabric stores and put them out of business. Same with the addition of the WalMart Pharmacy putting your corner drugstore in the hole. In some very small rural areas WalMart has become the only game in town and now they would appear to be streamlining their operation to exclude many of the things that have made them what they are.


Great Value ............. not really a great value. I compare prices like most everyone else and find the Great Value brand to be overpriced on some items. I will no doubt continue to buy things at WalMart, but find myself shopping at other stores more and more. It is no longer the one stop shopping store it once was.

Racism

I was just accused of being a racist. A woman came in this afternoon with two children to swim. She was white and the children were black. No matter to me. They went to the pool and I didn't give her or the children a second thought. They had been here for awhile when I went outside and heard water running. The pump had been coming on and off and I wanted to see if a toilet was running and needed a quick fix. Both the showers were going full blast, only hot water and the shower head had been tilted up for maximum flooding of the floor. It was like a sauna and I burned my arm turning the water off.


As the person who pays the bills for the pump that uses electricity to pump the water and the propane to heat the hot water I was pretty pissed off. Not to mention that I had just scrubbed the bathrooms this morning (once a week I do a major scrub down and then I do a daily cleaning the rest of the week) and I was now faced with mopping up a mess that included some wet toilet paper. I went out to the pool and asked who had been in the showers. Dumb stares was all I got. I looked back at everybody (about 20 people) and told them that pranks such as these causes the rates to go up. I went up 50 cents this year and you would have thought I had doubled the price from all the negative comments. Not everyone. Most folks appreciate having a nice place to go and there are new chairs this year.


He who was watching the desk momentarily caught all of my wrath as I came back in to get the mop. He told me he knew who did it, that he saw them go into the restrooms and then heard the water come on. He was working on a problem at the time and didn't stick around, so was unaware that the water was left running. It was the black children. They were the only black children in the pool.


I have made up my mind this year to not simply complain about these situations, but to address them. I was talking to a nice gentleman about a site when the woman who had brought the children came in. She wanted to let me know that she was going to bring her camper and come back tomorrow because it would be a lot cheaper to swim if she just brought a bunch of people in her camper and rented a site. That isn't exactly how it works. I felt a headache inching up the back of my neck as I anticipated explaining that she would have to pay extra for extra people. I didn't really want to address the issue of the water with her while the other customer was in the store........... but I did. At first she told me that they weren't hers and she was going to tell the mother. I explained to her that she had brought them here, and as the adult with them she was responsible for supervising them.


"Are you sure it is not because they are black?" she asked accusingly. Then she told me that she had heard I was a racist! "No, ma'am, it has absolutely nothing to do with the color of their skin. It has to do with the fact that they were not supervised and went into the restrooms and created a mess. If they are not going to be supervised, then I don't want them back here." "Yeah, I heard all about you and it's because they are black. We just won't ever come to this place again." I am okay with that. She went out to find he who was on his tractor moving rock and told him that I had screamed at her. He told her that he was the one who saw the children doing their prank and she called him a liar and a racist. Apparently she has never seen my granddaughters. Irony.


I am happy that I did address this, because she is just the type person that I don't want here at my campground. I do hold some prejudices. We all do. Mine is not skin color, though. I suppose mine is stupidity. Not ignorance. Ignorance is simply not knowing something and is easily corrected by learning. Stupidity is a lifestyle that some choose to live.


The plot thickens............ The mother of the children just called me and told me that she is suing me for discriminating against her children. She is going to take an "ad out in the paper against me". She told me that I had not heard the last of her. Shaking in my shoes. Said she knew her rights. I am privately owned and my literature and registration forms point out that I have the right to refuse service at my discretion. I chose to let that opportunity to educate her simply go. I laid the phone down and let her go on until I heard her hang up.


Like most every one else in the world I dislike confrontations and wish that I could avoid them. I find that if I simply let these things go I end up dealing with the same problem all year. I just hope this doesn't lead to a late night prank. These are the things that disenchant me..........