This is one of the most sought after sites in my park. Sits on a row end that comes to a point, affording lots of room for family fun. It is a seasonal site and occupied by some of my favorite kampers, Butch and April.
As you can clearly see, they keep their site neat and tidy.
Garden lovers are always welcome here!
I made a sign for April, that is so very appropriate!
Love the deck! Steps down to a nice fire pit.
Lest you be wondering, the fire pit did not come this way. We only provide the site, what you do with it is up to you, as long as it falls within the parameters of good taste. No refrigerators with the door held closed with duct tape are allowed.
Picnic tables come with sites, but some like to build their own.
I love that a lot of my kampers carry on my frog theme and my love of old stumps. A big thanks to Butch and April for being such good kampers and friends!
Dandelions continue to plague my gardens. This is what I see when I close my eyes at night. It is not that I don't carefully weed and mulch ..... they take root on top of the mulch and grow. If I catch them in time, they are quite easy to pluck out, but miss one and the root will go down through the mulch and the weed barrier and form a long tap root .... to China! Can't be helped, unless I convince HeWho mows to spread weed and feed over the entire 30 acres. I have done this on the smaller yards, but that dandelion fluff can go long distances on the wind.
I suppose I could do what one camper told us to do. He thought eliminating all my gardens, just mow them down should be the way to go. In fact, he thought we would be wise to asphalt the entire park. No maintenance, he said. That would be lovely .......
I will not be taking that advice. My peace lily is blooming. It looked like it had died this winter. I left it in the pot and stuck it outside anyway. It got watered with all the rest of my plants and started new little shoots of life.
Just look at it now. How could I deny myself the pleasure of my flowers?
I realize this one is in a pot, but my grounds are looking very full and lush with tiger lilies and purple bearded iris in bloom. The purple cone flowers are making an appearance and soon the black-eyed suzies will pop out.
My hands look awful. I do have gloves and I use them .... when I remember to grab them on my way out the door. I am fighting my way through a jungle of wildflowers in one of my large gardens. Seems like they came in overnight and pushed their way through to cover the entire area. I am trying to carefully pull them out without pulling up my perennials that were trying to come up.
As I was trimming tree branches, in order to be able to go under them and grab the over-takers and other weeds, I am sure I was coming into contact with dreaded ticks and mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes aren't too bad in the park, due to the bats that feed and the colony of purple martens we encourage to nest here. Ticks are another story. We regularly check each other for ticks. I will find them on my neck right at my hairline, probably because I am usually bending over to grab weeds.
Yesterday, as I was manning the desk to take swimmer money, I was itching. On my right breast. When I found myself alone I would discreetly scratch at my itch, but it was not until I was in the kitchen preparing our evening meal that I decided to yank my shirt and sports bra up and have a look. There was something miniscule there on my breast. Smaller that the lead of a pencil. It was foreign, for sure, but what exactly it was I could not tell. It was itching like crazy and I finally located my bifocals. Really I needed a magnifying glass, but at the correct angle, in just the right light, I finally saw the hair-like legs.
It was the smallest tick I had ever seen and required tweezers to be able to grab it and remove it. And .... it hurt! I smashed that little tick between my thumbnails and felt a satisfying little snap.
Now, though, every little blemish I see on my skin is suspect! Did not stop me from continuing my garden deliverance from wildflowers this morning, though! The only way I could have gotten a tick in my bra was when the cordless phone fell and I picked it up and stuck it back in my bra. Surely I would have felt the thing crawling up my body and into my breast sanctuary to latch onto my breast. I wonder just how long that journey would have taken? I am not tall, but compared to that tick .....
How do I title this post? I could certainly make it titillating (pun intended). Like "How Far Would A Tick Travel To Munch On My Breast?" I can come up with a lot more, but fear they would be subject to censor.
Yesterday just got stranger after the caller in the morning. The weather was just beautiful. In the 80's, but with a nice breeze. Swimmers came and went and candy and soda flew off the shelves. A good day. Not so busy that I could not visit my sewing room.
Of course the phone rang, but my morning caller did not call back. As the day was coming to an end I got a call from a man inquiring about my tent sites. He seemed to be annoyed at something. I quoted my price and he exploded. He was not mad at me or my tent site. He was at a competitor's campground some miles away. He then asked if any of my sites might be in the shade and I informed him that all of my tent sites were shaded and roomy, located in a line of trees near the pool and playground. His next question was to ask if I would be adding charges to the base price. I told him that my prices covered 2 adults and up to 2 children. He had 4. It would $3 per person per night, bringing it up to $31 for a tent site with electricity.
He told me where he was and that he had just been robbed of $60 for a basic tent site in the sun with no electricity! He said he would be headed my way as soon as he packed up and got a refund. I knew a refund would not be forthcoming. His is a familiar story. I can bet next time he takes his family camping, it won't be there. As much as I might want to get all the money I can with each camper, I also want return business. Price gouging is not the way to insure that.
After the call, I checked in a small travel trailer. The lady did not want a full hook-up, only electric hook-ups. She had two children and requested to be close to the pool and playground. That was easy enough, since those sites lacking sewer hook-ups are right there next to the pool and playground. I was getting ready to close up and get outside to enjoy the remaining day light when the lady with the small travel trailer returned to ask if she could move to the other side of the park if she paid more. Since she had told me they did not use the bathroom in their camper, I told her to go ahead and pick any open site and there would be no extra charges.
Her reason for moving? She said it was too cold on that side in the trees ...... she moved to another site on the other side of the park, IN THE TREES. I can't imagine there was a big change in the temperature. She pulled in the wrong way, then loosed her dogs. I have a leash rule, just like any other campground does, so the phone started ringing with complaints before I could lock the door and escape.
I wish the corn would grow faster so I can hide in my garden when I am outside and not attached to a mower.
The pool water is reported to be great. Many people have enjoyed it every day since opening. This means I am stuck in this store for 8 hours, itching to escape. I manage to mow and weed in the early morning hours, my fingernails tell the story!
As usual, the phone rings incessantly asking if the pool is open, what hours and cost. It has been the same cost for the past 6 years, the same hours for the past 8 years. But, every season brings the comments "When did you raise the price!!" and "I thought the pool was open until 9!!". I tried leaving it open until 9, but it is hard enough to make people leave by 7, and I am loathe to argue with someone after I have been up and about since the sun came up.
Since the pool does not open until 11, I spend my mornings in my gardens. It is my favorite part of the day. I put an audio book in my ear and pull weeds and clip back limbs water things. I always have the store phone on my person and answer many calls while I am in my happy place. Too many calls. I have caller ID (who doesn't?) and will ignore 800 calls. Today, the same caller has called here 3 times. Same question every time. She has called over a span of about two and a half hours. I don't know if she is calling other parks and calling mine again, forgetting that she already called. "Do you have RV spots?" Yes. "How much does it cost?" 50 amp or 30 amp? "It is a motorhome." Same question from me. Finally she decides 30 amp on the first call. "Are you a Good Sam park?" I offer a discount. "How much?" Ten percent. "How much would it be with the discount?" (It always amazes me that people cannot figure the discount, the price is $30, so it is minus $3) $27. "OK." She hangs up.
Second call. "Do you give a military discount?" Yes, I accept military, veterans, AARP, AAA, or Good Sam (always careful to say OR instead of AND, lest they try to use all the cards). "How much would it be?" I feign ignorance and pretend I do not realize it is the same caller and ask how much for what service. "A motorhome." 50 amp or 30 amp? "30 amp" $27 "OK". Again she simply hangs up.
Third call. "Do you have any discounts?" Now I am annoyed, so I make her work for the information and ask "discounts for ......" And she comes back with her now famous "Motorhome". I am fully vested in playing it out and ask all the same questions I did before and get all the same answers I did before and get the same "OK" and she hangs up.
I am now wondering if she will call back and interrupt my peace again. Some days are just like that.
Good news about the knee of HeWho flips motorcycles. The MRI found the hairline fracture to be healing nicely and did not suck the stent in his heart out of his chest. The doctor applied a sturdy brace that takes the pressure off the injured bone and HeWho reports that he has mended sufficiently to tow again. I beg to differ. What I am wondering, though, is why the brace was not applied last week, when he saw the doctor initially. I was surprised when he came home and told me that he had a hairline fracture and they did nothing to immobilize it. I knew I should have gone with him.
More good news. We now have 24 sites occupied permanently. This is not counting the not paying tenant. He is leaving today! But that is not all!! He paid his past due amount!!! I was shocked. He came in the store and I gave him a piece of my mind, then turned him over to HeWho sympathizes. I had told HeWho that the man had to go. I heard a rumor that the bevy of women occupying his camper in his absence were known to be drug users. Could be why the one answering my knock showed up at the door with her pants open.
I have a nice gentleman interested in that site and that will bring me up to 25 permanent tenants who pay. This makes me a happy kamper!
I find myself to be in a horrible mood today. Overcast and cool outside, you would think that would make me happy. Perfect gardening weather, but, alas, it is Saturday. The store will be open for 12 long hours. The weather is not promising any swimmers, so it will be a long, slow day.
Unable to go haul mulch to a garden I started yesterday in the back of the park, I resign myself to working within sight of the store. It's not like there is nothing I can do. There are always weeds beckoning to be pulled. I decide to tackle the area around the dumpster and propane fill station. Not the most pleasant of tasks, but it needs attention.
I grab gloves for the prickly weeds I will encounter and start pulling and piling. I should have thought to bring a bucket or a wagon, but I didn't. I am starting to really get a rhythm going and happy to see the results when a car with two men come in the driveway. They do not stop at the STOP sign, but I am just annoyed to be bothered and decide to just let it go.
They want to know if I have tire repair kits in my store. I don't and tell them where they will be likely to find them without going to Walmart. They seem to be surprised that I don't have them. Although I try to anticipate camping needs, I have never had a request for this item, so I don't think I want to invest in the inventory and devote shelf space to something that might sit there for another 12 years before someone wants to buy it.
I go back to my weeding and my audio book. My pile is growing quite high and the area is starting to look a lot neater. I am profoundly annoyed at the garbage collector. Every time he empties, he leaves the dumpster a little further out into the parking lot. We built a fence around the dumpster and it now sits a good 8 feet out of it. I would have left a note on the dumpster, but it looked like rain last night. I am not sure he would have seen it. The dumpster was piled high with Memorial Day leavings. I think people must bring their garbage from home, because it usually fills up the first day!
A big white truck comes flying in the EXIT drive and up to the store. I walk up as the man is getting out of his truck and asking for canned peaches. Another item I have never been asked for. I tell him I don't have them, then ask him if he realizes he came in the wrong drive. "Yeah, but I was coming from the other way." My signs are lettered on both sides, what with me realizing that traffic runs both ways on the road. I am smart like that, so I point out to him that the signs can be read from either direction.
"So, you don't want my "godforsaken" business. Not the word he used. This just really flipped my witch with a "b" switch on. I said, "No. No, I don't want your business." He yelled something obscene and I told him to get out of my park.
Now I am in a foul mood. A really foul mood. I hope he tries to get me fired!! I want to pick a fight with HeWho mows, but he is mowing.
So, I took some pictures of the Martens building a nest on my security light. I got several good shots of them sitting on the rail, twigs in their beaks, waiting for me to leave the area. I edited the pictures on my phone. Then I downloaded them to my computer and the edit was gone. The computer refuses my further attempts at editing. My mood continues to deteriorate. It does not look good for the rest of the day!
Swimmers are out in full force. My door seems to be open more than closed. Drives me crazy. I want to shout at them "IN OR OUT AND SHUT THE DOOR"!
Oddly enough, it is the adults who seem to have a problem, HeWho included. They find it necessary to hold the door open and carry on conversations with those who are in the store and those out of the store. I reminded one man that my air conditioner was on, a gentle hint. He said, "It feels great!" I told him it wouldn't feel great if he left the door open and he still did not get it. Now, I just say, "Shut the door, please."
When I was a child, I did not dare to disrespect adults or their property. Not so much nowadays. Children are left to destroy anything in their path. The parents seem to be oblivious, if they even accompany them into the store. For whatever reasons they seem to think this is a place to turn them loose. Children as young as three will come in with money in hand and I am responsible for telling them what the money will buy. If I happen to be busy, which is often the case, the child will grab a candy bar or bag of chips and start eating. They will have some change in their hand, but not enough to pay for what they take. I have to lock the store and trudge out to the pool, holding the child's tiny hand to find the owner of the child and ask for the money.
The parents seem to think the situation is funny, as they sit there, not even knowing the child is missing ...... or so they say. I have taken it upon myself to educate these parents to the perils of the world. I remind them of the close proximity to the Interstate and the rest area that is in walking distance to my park. I remind them of recent Amber alerts for missing children and tell them just how quickly their child could be taken. I also remind them that I am not liable for their attempt at parenting, as one man seem to think he could sue me if his child disappeared
My mother always told my sister and I that we were smarter than the rest of the world. She may just have been right about that. I know I am not the only business to suffer the vandalism of children unsupervised. You see it everywhere you go. The parents don't feel they are responsible for damages their children create. As far as that goes, they do not feel responsible for damages they, they adults, create.
