April 3, 2018. Jim set it up with someone he knows from Tres Rios, Cowboy Steve, to go up to I-35 and get our Foretravel and transport it back to Tres Rios. He got in touch with us to set it up, and in the meantime I got insurance put back on it, and set up a storage place at Tres Rios. Saturday, March 31 he brought the Foretravel back to Tres Rios. At the same time I changed the ad in everything and dropped the price to $27,000. As soon as that happened, we got dozens of inquiries and people wanting to see the Foretravel.
We talked with two different people and have set it up for them to see it on Wednesday, April 4. We have a good feeling about one person and I even asked him if he wanted it, is he prepared to buy it and transport it out, and he said yes, he was. So we decided to drive up to Tres Rios on Tuesday to handle these transactions ourselves. There is paperwork to sign and we also took the motorhome to get a current inspection. It appears to be in pretty good shape considering I-35 did not do a very good job of maintenance on it. So I went in the MH this afternoon with Simple Green and fabric freshner and washed down the counters, frig and bathroom, to get rid of the musty smell. Left the frig open to air out. Only thing – the vacuum would not work. I know it did at one time because the filter is full, and the instructions say that it’s supposed to just come on when the lid is opened. So I could not vacuum.
Tres Rios is blooming green all over and the dogs really enjoyed our walk this afternoon. The place where we would go down to cross the river is now mostly water and yucky muck – the black stuff that you sink into. That was nasty walking in that and I could not find a place across the river, there were deep spots. The path has really changed since last we were here. Hayley did not seem to mind though, she just charged across and had a blast. Lucy tried to get across, and finally did but got into some deep water.
Jim headed up to the clubhouse to play pool with Kerry and Bill, and we also stopped in at the clubhouse earlier and said Hi to everyone playing Vegas.
April 4, 2018. One of the couples that we talked to about the Foretravel came up on Wednesday from Austin, where they were visiting their daughter. They arrived around 10am and Jim & I were already at the Foretravel checking it over. I had dusted it the day before and tidied it up, and we also took it into town and got the inspection done. When we got to the Foretravel on Wednesday morning we were trying to start the generator and discovered that there was no propane in the tank. So when Jeffrey and his wife got there we started going over the MH telling them what we knew, then went on a test drive to Cleburne Propane where we bought propane and filled the tank. The guy at Cleburne was very helpful and talked a lot about the tank and how it worked, etc.
Jim let Jeffrey drive the MH back to Tres Rios and we parked it near Kerry to hook up the 50amp service. We cranked up the generator, discovered that one of the furnaces did not work; pulled the main awning out and discovered that we could not get it back in. One of the maintenance men there came and helped us out, as well as Ed with a big wrench that we used to crank it back up.
Jeff asked about the cost of the various things that needed fixing, and Jim said that it would be about $2,000, so we took $25,000 for the Foretravel. They came to the cabin and we signed all the paperwork and they took off.
Jim & I decided to stay another night and went to Granbury for a late lunch at Flames, then found a jeweler that would cut the rings off of my finger. We had been trying to find one since my finger kept swelling and would not got down and the rings were getting tighter and tighter. They were turned on my finger and would not sit straight up anymore. The jeweler said it would take about a month for my finger to get back to any semblance of normal before I could get my rings resized to fit.
On our way back on Thursday we were able to stop at an affiliate credit union to deposit the funds, which I will then use to pay off the credit cards and put the rest into savings.
April 16, 2018. Still working three days a week, which we will probably do until Memorial Day Weekend. Nancy added another person to our crew – Malinda, and took Sandra away and put her in concessions. This is Malinda and her husband’s first workamping position, so I hope it turns out OK for her. She started off in reservations, and Nancy wants her to learn different jobs, so put her with us. So far she likes being in golf carts over reservations, but she will still have to learn the gate.
Yesterday after work I was getting up from my seat and must have pulled a muscle just right because I could not get it to relax. I had Jim rub it, but that did not work, so I laid on the bed and he put a cold pack on my leg and then heat. I also took 3 ibuprophen and it eventually relaxed and went back to normal. Boy that was painful; it seems lately if I tense my legs or stretch them, they start to cramp up.
Near the end of April we took a day off and drove up to College Station so I could get my bike looked at; the brakes needed tweaking and I just wanted it looked at. We were going to go riding, but then Jim said he wanted to go see the George HW Bush Library & Museum. It just so happens that Mrs. Bush died just a couple days prior and all fees to the museum were waived. So we had a great tour of President Bush’s museum and gardens. Unfortunately, the Bush graveyard was closed in preparation for Mrs. Bush being laid to rest. The special exhibit they had at the museum was Leonardo DaVinci’s Machines In Motion. It was quite spectacular.
May 4, 2018. Well, it sure has been a while since I wrote last. I did say to myself that I should write a bit every night, but somehow that never seems to happen. We have not been doing much sightseeing; just working every weekend having four days off and working three. That will last another week and then we will start working Thursday afternoons, then full time once Memorial Day Weekend is here. So far we have 67 reservations for golf carts and about 271 reservations for guests that weekend. It’s going to be busy and crazy.
Jim has been getting a wild hair up his butt about Ford trucks, ever since Bill and then Josh got one. He keeps looking at them saying, that’s what we need. So we went to Tomball Ford and looked at a few trucks. Oh yes, they are very nice – newer and of course, expensive. The cheapest we saw was in the $40,000 range. We also stopped and looked at a used fleet truck at an HVAC place; diesel with 111,000 miles. But, what do we need another vehicle for? Our Excursion has almost 220,000 miles on it, and yes it misses which seems to be getting worse, but I want to keep it until it dies. It’s just the best vehicle. We need to change the fuel filter and get the misses fixed. Other than that, it runs great.
May 16, 2018. We went down to visit Josh & Karen for Mother’s Day, leaving Sunday afternoon and spending the night, coming back Monday. That worked out real good and we had a good time. Ellie & Jason were so excited to see us and really enjoyed having us there. They were not happy to see us leave.
Josh & Jim decided to see how Lucy & Hayley would get along with Lola, especially since she is so young and rambunctious. I decided to stay in the house so I do not send any signals to Hayley and just let Josh & Jim handle the introduction. They actually did quite well since they were both loose in the back yard and Hayley could walk away if she wanted to. She kind of barred her teeth, but there was no fight. They smelled each other’s butts and decided all was OK. Lola did try to play with Hayley later in the evening when they were both outside together and there was no fight then either. Lola ran around Hayley like Lucy does and Hayley just stood there and acted like she would play.
Lucy was a different story. She would lay underneath my chair or Jim’s chair and did not like it when Lola came close to either of us. She would growl and snap at Lola whenever she came near us.
I think all in all, it turned out good. We will be there over Thanksgiving as I made reservations at Green Caye for the week.
We took the Excursion in to a new auto repair place and they are looking at the misses we have been experiencing. They will probably end up replacing two coils and maybe the spark plugs. They should do the fuel filter as well and if they can, fix the rear lock mechanism.
I did an experiment on different cleaners to get the crud off the roof. I scrubbed a section with Simple Green, Dawn & Vinegar mix, Super Clean, and Fabuloso. The two that did the best was Simple Green and the Super Clean. The section I scrubbed got real clean, but I scrubbed them hard.
I had some Simple Green concentrate, so I decided to mix that with water and wash the roof since it was disgustingly dirty. The tree above of us drops a load of crap on the roof. I also cleaned all of the vents which were loaded with mold and gunk. The bathroom fan was especially dirty. I also oiled the arm on the bathroom and bedroom fans. Tomorrow I will wash the room and rest of the RV with wash & wax. I also have to get up there and clean the A/C vents from fuzz and leaves.
I had purchased some butyl caulk to put around the front window and I started trying to put it on spreading it all over. This did not work out at all and looked horrible. So I pulled that off. It really needed to be cold because when it warmed up it pulled like taffy. I stuck it in the frig to keep it cold. I ended up rolling it in half and sticking it in the curve where the old caulk is. It’s bubbling and shrinking, and not doing its job anymore. I put the butyl in there to stop the leaking, and am now looking for a rubber liquid to seal around the window.
May 24, 2018. Rescued five kittens from the cab of the fire truck a few days before it was taken away to be used for wet-n-wild. I put them in the golf cart maintenance shed with Gary. These were the same kittens that were born in the front of Lee’s 5th wheel, then moved into the fire truck. As they needed to be moved out of the fire truck, Gary wanted them so we got them a cushion, food and water for them.
The kittens are now about seven weeks old, still tiny but full of mischief and fun. They run all over the shop, get in Gary’s tools, and even go on a ride with him. I go and sit with them and they climb all over me, around my shoulders, and then curl up in my lap and go to sleep. They are really enjoying human company and are not feral anymore.
We are coming into season with Memorial Day. We have about 85 rentals on Friday alone, and will be working late to get everyone taken care of. They put a newbie with us, even though she bragged about working in golf carts at another park, I still think she does not know what she is doing. She helped us check in carts last Sunday, but Friday is going to be quite hectic.
Took the Excursion into a local repair shop to have the miss looked into, but they are having a hard time finding it. I finally did a list of all the things we have had done to the Excursion over the years and discovered a lot of things we have had done numerous times, like the fuel filter and spark plugs. I should have had this list done before we took it to this last place; it would have saved us a lot of money. But we think the problem is with the harness on coil 7, and will have them order one and replace it.
June 2, 2018. Memorial Day was quite busy. We had over 90 golf cart rentals, but we pulled it all off quite well. We have our system of how we do the rentals, and there are three of us working in the office, for the most part. We are getting along better with Gary in golf cart maintenance, mostly because we are on the same page when it comes to IT Gary sticking his nose where it does not belong. He is trying to pretend he knows what is going on, when he really does not.
I still go and see the kittens every day. A few days ago Gary was getting the carts back in when he stopped to talk with Anthony. One of the kittens that always follows him around must have gotten under his cart and he ran it over. He pulled it out and was holding it, hoping it was just stunned, but it died in his arms. He was very upset and did not say anything to me when he left, I guess because he was so upset he could not say anything. I heard about it from Laura, our next door neighbor who works in the Café. There are now three kittens left and he doghts over them. They are still small and quite cute.
I get the key to the maintenance shed when Gary is off for three days so I can go in there and play with them and feed them.
June 1 week brought Steve & Willa, Bruce’s Regional Managers to the park for the week. So when they came, IT Gary said that we needed to do a valet service with the golf carts, bringing them up to the window for the guests. We and Gary told him it would not work with so many people coming at one time to rent carts. We have a system that we feel works, and they are trying to change something we have worked out.
They made for a very difficult rental evening on Friday; Jim mentioned to Chuck that he is doing his best, and Chuck’s response was “it’s your ass.” That just set Jim off and Saturday was not an enjoyable day. Jim said we need to get this issue resolved and not let it eat at us. I agreed, and he thinks we need to talk to Steve & Willa, and just go over Gary’s head and Chuck & Nancy’s head to where we thing it all started. If they don’t like the way we are doing it, we will leave. It’s either they let us do the rentals as we think it best, or they can find someone else to do their bidding.
They just changed our hours again because I told Gary I wanted our 40 hours, not 20 something. I don’t like them, but it’s the hours most everyone is working, so I can’t complain that we are being singled out. We are now working Sat 8-5; Sun 8-7; off Monday and Tuesday; Wednesday 8-7; Thurs 3-7; Friday 12-9.
June 5, 2018. Still taking care of the kittens. We have two females and one male. There is one with white feet so Gary named her Mitts; the other female is Dottie and the male is Tiger. When Gary is off – Sun-Tues I go over there a couple times a day to play with them and let them outside.
June 11, 2018. Invasion of red ants. They got in and invaded my pantry. First there was a rotten potato and I guess that brought the ants. Then they got into the tortillas, now I have a procession of ants all over the kitchen counter. I poured a lot of Sevin dust outside and am using Tarro inside to get rid of them.
We had a few things that needed fixing, my keyboard, the fuse holder in the bathroom and the cable outside holding the screen down. My keyboard was losing the color on the keys and the O was broken off and getting worse. So I looked up on Utube about how to change a keyboard, and it looked so easy that I decided to order a keyboard and do it myself. The last time I had it changed I bought a cheap keyboard and they charged me $100 to change it! But I did it myself and it works great!!
I also ordered a new outlet for the bathroom fuse, so Jim changed that today as well. He also fixed the cable on the outside screen to anchor it down better.
Work is crazy. The same stupid stuff that we dealt with last time still goes on. We had a golf cart to use, but that was taken away from us because the housekeepers do not have enough carts. Bruce is so cheap he won’t buy more for them. The Limos are on their last legs; we have four down right now so I have to close them on the grid so we don’t over rent the Limos. They still do not have enough people working in rentals. Debbie is there by herself a lot, and it really takes two people to run it smoothly. I really cannot figure out their reasoning, especially when the store seems to have more than enough people working there.
Plus, they still have not put anyone in their on Tuesday, so Nancy and Gary have to take care of the returns and rentals.
June 18, 2018. Jim is getting increasingly angry that we are still here. He says that we are being “shit” on by Nancy because they will not back us with our decisions in running the rental center. They have hired new workampers at $8.75 an hour and pay for their site, and the only thing they have done for us is give us our site. The young kid in the yard, Anthony, will not listen to us and gives us grief all the time. He thinks he knows what to do and if we ask him to do something, he does not listen and just does whatever he wants. He disses Jim all the time and just does not listen to what we ask him to do.
Jim is angry with me saying that it’s my fault and we have not put in our resignation and that this job is coming between us. I said because he is letting it. But, he is just plain angry and wants to know why I want to stay. I don’t know. He is adamant that he wants to leave and says that I have to be the one to tell them what we want or we leave. He wants to know why I don’t talk with him about things, but when he yells, I just clam up and don’t talk at all.
June 26, 2018. A week ago I put in our 2 week notice. I was kind of wondering if Nancy would ask us to reconsider and say she would let us do our job, but so far she has not. There is a new workamper, Judi, starting in reservations who also came to help us in cart rentals Sunday. I told her as much as possible about how the rentals ran, so I hope it sunk in. Debbie still does not get it all; she does the invoices incorrectly and does not seem to learn how to get it right. She does a lot of talking – mostly about her daughter and dogs. She seems to be spacey a lot of the time. But, when a guest comes up to the window, she gets all that right.
Sunday our computers were down all day. AT&T was doing work on fiber optics, but by the end of the day the claimed it was our computer system that caused itself to go down; that it was not their fault. The Ranger Station had to close; reservations was taking cash only; and rentals turned people away. The only way we did actually do some reservations was Nancy had to call Cynthia in Florida and let her do the transaction. By 5:00 pm the computer system came back up, so I stayed and checked out all our departures, checked in the arrivals, and added a day to another guest’s rental. Nancy has us close at 5pm to keep the guests away since she has such a mess to clean up.
I pulled the paperwork for the Monday person. It was supposed to be Deborah, but she never showed up. Judi ended up being in rentals for the rest of Monday and Tuesday; Debbie will be there Wednesday. They were saying it will be a mess when we get in there on Thursday, so I guess we’ll see what it’s like.
One of the other workampers we talked to a lot, Doc, real name Dawn, who was in charge of housekeeping. She has been having a hard time with the locals to such a degree that she has decided to also put in her notice. She said her health is being compromised because she has to work so much, and has no help from the other housekeepers.
So the other issue we have here is the care of the kittens. So far I get Gary’s key and take care of the kittens Sunday, Monday and Tuesday on his days off. We were hoping that Doc was going to take over the care of the kittens on Gary’s days off, but now I’ll have to talk to him about that.
Our last day of work is Sunday, July 1, and my plan is to grocery shop on Monday and laundry on Tuesday, along with packing everything up Monday and Tuesday. We have reservations starting July 4 at Safari Mobile Home park for a week so we can visit with Josh & Karen, and the grandchildren.
From there we’ll head back toward Austin, then up to Amarillo and toward Colorado. We’ll take three months to do some traveling and be back at Tres Rios in October for doctor’s visits.
Back to Daily Journal 2018
We talked with two different people and have set it up for them to see it on Wednesday, April 4. We have a good feeling about one person and I even asked him if he wanted it, is he prepared to buy it and transport it out, and he said yes, he was. So we decided to drive up to Tres Rios on Tuesday to handle these transactions ourselves. There is paperwork to sign and we also took the motorhome to get a current inspection. It appears to be in pretty good shape considering I-35 did not do a very good job of maintenance on it. So I went in the MH this afternoon with Simple Green and fabric freshner and washed down the counters, frig and bathroom, to get rid of the musty smell. Left the frig open to air out. Only thing – the vacuum would not work. I know it did at one time because the filter is full, and the instructions say that it’s supposed to just come on when the lid is opened. So I could not vacuum.
Tres Rios is blooming green all over and the dogs really enjoyed our walk this afternoon. The place where we would go down to cross the river is now mostly water and yucky muck – the black stuff that you sink into. That was nasty walking in that and I could not find a place across the river, there were deep spots. The path has really changed since last we were here. Hayley did not seem to mind though, she just charged across and had a blast. Lucy tried to get across, and finally did but got into some deep water.
Jim headed up to the clubhouse to play pool with Kerry and Bill, and we also stopped in at the clubhouse earlier and said Hi to everyone playing Vegas.
April 4, 2018. One of the couples that we talked to about the Foretravel came up on Wednesday from Austin, where they were visiting their daughter. They arrived around 10am and Jim & I were already at the Foretravel checking it over. I had dusted it the day before and tidied it up, and we also took it into town and got the inspection done. When we got to the Foretravel on Wednesday morning we were trying to start the generator and discovered that there was no propane in the tank. So when Jeffrey and his wife got there we started going over the MH telling them what we knew, then went on a test drive to Cleburne Propane where we bought propane and filled the tank. The guy at Cleburne was very helpful and talked a lot about the tank and how it worked, etc.
Jim let Jeffrey drive the MH back to Tres Rios and we parked it near Kerry to hook up the 50amp service. We cranked up the generator, discovered that one of the furnaces did not work; pulled the main awning out and discovered that we could not get it back in. One of the maintenance men there came and helped us out, as well as Ed with a big wrench that we used to crank it back up.
Jeff asked about the cost of the various things that needed fixing, and Jim said that it would be about $2,000, so we took $25,000 for the Foretravel. They came to the cabin and we signed all the paperwork and they took off.
Jim & I decided to stay another night and went to Granbury for a late lunch at Flames, then found a jeweler that would cut the rings off of my finger. We had been trying to find one since my finger kept swelling and would not got down and the rings were getting tighter and tighter. They were turned on my finger and would not sit straight up anymore. The jeweler said it would take about a month for my finger to get back to any semblance of normal before I could get my rings resized to fit.
On our way back on Thursday we were able to stop at an affiliate credit union to deposit the funds, which I will then use to pay off the credit cards and put the rest into savings.
April 16, 2018. Still working three days a week, which we will probably do until Memorial Day Weekend. Nancy added another person to our crew – Malinda, and took Sandra away and put her in concessions. This is Malinda and her husband’s first workamping position, so I hope it turns out OK for her. She started off in reservations, and Nancy wants her to learn different jobs, so put her with us. So far she likes being in golf carts over reservations, but she will still have to learn the gate.
Yesterday after work I was getting up from my seat and must have pulled a muscle just right because I could not get it to relax. I had Jim rub it, but that did not work, so I laid on the bed and he put a cold pack on my leg and then heat. I also took 3 ibuprophen and it eventually relaxed and went back to normal. Boy that was painful; it seems lately if I tense my legs or stretch them, they start to cramp up.
Near the end of April we took a day off and drove up to College Station so I could get my bike looked at; the brakes needed tweaking and I just wanted it looked at. We were going to go riding, but then Jim said he wanted to go see the George HW Bush Library & Museum. It just so happens that Mrs. Bush died just a couple days prior and all fees to the museum were waived. So we had a great tour of President Bush’s museum and gardens. Unfortunately, the Bush graveyard was closed in preparation for Mrs. Bush being laid to rest. The special exhibit they had at the museum was Leonardo DaVinci’s Machines In Motion. It was quite spectacular.
May 4, 2018. Well, it sure has been a while since I wrote last. I did say to myself that I should write a bit every night, but somehow that never seems to happen. We have not been doing much sightseeing; just working every weekend having four days off and working three. That will last another week and then we will start working Thursday afternoons, then full time once Memorial Day Weekend is here. So far we have 67 reservations for golf carts and about 271 reservations for guests that weekend. It’s going to be busy and crazy.
Jim has been getting a wild hair up his butt about Ford trucks, ever since Bill and then Josh got one. He keeps looking at them saying, that’s what we need. So we went to Tomball Ford and looked at a few trucks. Oh yes, they are very nice – newer and of course, expensive. The cheapest we saw was in the $40,000 range. We also stopped and looked at a used fleet truck at an HVAC place; diesel with 111,000 miles. But, what do we need another vehicle for? Our Excursion has almost 220,000 miles on it, and yes it misses which seems to be getting worse, but I want to keep it until it dies. It’s just the best vehicle. We need to change the fuel filter and get the misses fixed. Other than that, it runs great.
May 16, 2018. We went down to visit Josh & Karen for Mother’s Day, leaving Sunday afternoon and spending the night, coming back Monday. That worked out real good and we had a good time. Ellie & Jason were so excited to see us and really enjoyed having us there. They were not happy to see us leave.
Josh & Jim decided to see how Lucy & Hayley would get along with Lola, especially since she is so young and rambunctious. I decided to stay in the house so I do not send any signals to Hayley and just let Josh & Jim handle the introduction. They actually did quite well since they were both loose in the back yard and Hayley could walk away if she wanted to. She kind of barred her teeth, but there was no fight. They smelled each other’s butts and decided all was OK. Lola did try to play with Hayley later in the evening when they were both outside together and there was no fight then either. Lola ran around Hayley like Lucy does and Hayley just stood there and acted like she would play.
Lucy was a different story. She would lay underneath my chair or Jim’s chair and did not like it when Lola came close to either of us. She would growl and snap at Lola whenever she came near us.
I think all in all, it turned out good. We will be there over Thanksgiving as I made reservations at Green Caye for the week.
We took the Excursion in to a new auto repair place and they are looking at the misses we have been experiencing. They will probably end up replacing two coils and maybe the spark plugs. They should do the fuel filter as well and if they can, fix the rear lock mechanism.
I did an experiment on different cleaners to get the crud off the roof. I scrubbed a section with Simple Green, Dawn & Vinegar mix, Super Clean, and Fabuloso. The two that did the best was Simple Green and the Super Clean. The section I scrubbed got real clean, but I scrubbed them hard.
I had some Simple Green concentrate, so I decided to mix that with water and wash the roof since it was disgustingly dirty. The tree above of us drops a load of crap on the roof. I also cleaned all of the vents which were loaded with mold and gunk. The bathroom fan was especially dirty. I also oiled the arm on the bathroom and bedroom fans. Tomorrow I will wash the room and rest of the RV with wash & wax. I also have to get up there and clean the A/C vents from fuzz and leaves.
I had purchased some butyl caulk to put around the front window and I started trying to put it on spreading it all over. This did not work out at all and looked horrible. So I pulled that off. It really needed to be cold because when it warmed up it pulled like taffy. I stuck it in the frig to keep it cold. I ended up rolling it in half and sticking it in the curve where the old caulk is. It’s bubbling and shrinking, and not doing its job anymore. I put the butyl in there to stop the leaking, and am now looking for a rubber liquid to seal around the window.
May 24, 2018. Rescued five kittens from the cab of the fire truck a few days before it was taken away to be used for wet-n-wild. I put them in the golf cart maintenance shed with Gary. These were the same kittens that were born in the front of Lee’s 5th wheel, then moved into the fire truck. As they needed to be moved out of the fire truck, Gary wanted them so we got them a cushion, food and water for them.
The kittens are now about seven weeks old, still tiny but full of mischief and fun. They run all over the shop, get in Gary’s tools, and even go on a ride with him. I go and sit with them and they climb all over me, around my shoulders, and then curl up in my lap and go to sleep. They are really enjoying human company and are not feral anymore.
We are coming into season with Memorial Day. We have about 85 rentals on Friday alone, and will be working late to get everyone taken care of. They put a newbie with us, even though she bragged about working in golf carts at another park, I still think she does not know what she is doing. She helped us check in carts last Sunday, but Friday is going to be quite hectic.
Took the Excursion into a local repair shop to have the miss looked into, but they are having a hard time finding it. I finally did a list of all the things we have had done to the Excursion over the years and discovered a lot of things we have had done numerous times, like the fuel filter and spark plugs. I should have had this list done before we took it to this last place; it would have saved us a lot of money. But we think the problem is with the harness on coil 7, and will have them order one and replace it.
June 2, 2018. Memorial Day was quite busy. We had over 90 golf cart rentals, but we pulled it all off quite well. We have our system of how we do the rentals, and there are three of us working in the office, for the most part. We are getting along better with Gary in golf cart maintenance, mostly because we are on the same page when it comes to IT Gary sticking his nose where it does not belong. He is trying to pretend he knows what is going on, when he really does not.
I still go and see the kittens every day. A few days ago Gary was getting the carts back in when he stopped to talk with Anthony. One of the kittens that always follows him around must have gotten under his cart and he ran it over. He pulled it out and was holding it, hoping it was just stunned, but it died in his arms. He was very upset and did not say anything to me when he left, I guess because he was so upset he could not say anything. I heard about it from Laura, our next door neighbor who works in the Café. There are now three kittens left and he doghts over them. They are still small and quite cute.
I get the key to the maintenance shed when Gary is off for three days so I can go in there and play with them and feed them.
June 1 week brought Steve & Willa, Bruce’s Regional Managers to the park for the week. So when they came, IT Gary said that we needed to do a valet service with the golf carts, bringing them up to the window for the guests. We and Gary told him it would not work with so many people coming at one time to rent carts. We have a system that we feel works, and they are trying to change something we have worked out.
They made for a very difficult rental evening on Friday; Jim mentioned to Chuck that he is doing his best, and Chuck’s response was “it’s your ass.” That just set Jim off and Saturday was not an enjoyable day. Jim said we need to get this issue resolved and not let it eat at us. I agreed, and he thinks we need to talk to Steve & Willa, and just go over Gary’s head and Chuck & Nancy’s head to where we thing it all started. If they don’t like the way we are doing it, we will leave. It’s either they let us do the rentals as we think it best, or they can find someone else to do their bidding.
They just changed our hours again because I told Gary I wanted our 40 hours, not 20 something. I don’t like them, but it’s the hours most everyone is working, so I can’t complain that we are being singled out. We are now working Sat 8-5; Sun 8-7; off Monday and Tuesday; Wednesday 8-7; Thurs 3-7; Friday 12-9.
June 5, 2018. Still taking care of the kittens. We have two females and one male. There is one with white feet so Gary named her Mitts; the other female is Dottie and the male is Tiger. When Gary is off – Sun-Tues I go over there a couple times a day to play with them and let them outside.
June 11, 2018. Invasion of red ants. They got in and invaded my pantry. First there was a rotten potato and I guess that brought the ants. Then they got into the tortillas, now I have a procession of ants all over the kitchen counter. I poured a lot of Sevin dust outside and am using Tarro inside to get rid of them.
We had a few things that needed fixing, my keyboard, the fuse holder in the bathroom and the cable outside holding the screen down. My keyboard was losing the color on the keys and the O was broken off and getting worse. So I looked up on Utube about how to change a keyboard, and it looked so easy that I decided to order a keyboard and do it myself. The last time I had it changed I bought a cheap keyboard and they charged me $100 to change it! But I did it myself and it works great!!
I also ordered a new outlet for the bathroom fuse, so Jim changed that today as well. He also fixed the cable on the outside screen to anchor it down better.
Work is crazy. The same stupid stuff that we dealt with last time still goes on. We had a golf cart to use, but that was taken away from us because the housekeepers do not have enough carts. Bruce is so cheap he won’t buy more for them. The Limos are on their last legs; we have four down right now so I have to close them on the grid so we don’t over rent the Limos. They still do not have enough people working in rentals. Debbie is there by herself a lot, and it really takes two people to run it smoothly. I really cannot figure out their reasoning, especially when the store seems to have more than enough people working there.
Plus, they still have not put anyone in their on Tuesday, so Nancy and Gary have to take care of the returns and rentals.
June 18, 2018. Jim is getting increasingly angry that we are still here. He says that we are being “shit” on by Nancy because they will not back us with our decisions in running the rental center. They have hired new workampers at $8.75 an hour and pay for their site, and the only thing they have done for us is give us our site. The young kid in the yard, Anthony, will not listen to us and gives us grief all the time. He thinks he knows what to do and if we ask him to do something, he does not listen and just does whatever he wants. He disses Jim all the time and just does not listen to what we ask him to do.
Jim is angry with me saying that it’s my fault and we have not put in our resignation and that this job is coming between us. I said because he is letting it. But, he is just plain angry and wants to know why I want to stay. I don’t know. He is adamant that he wants to leave and says that I have to be the one to tell them what we want or we leave. He wants to know why I don’t talk with him about things, but when he yells, I just clam up and don’t talk at all.
June 26, 2018. A week ago I put in our 2 week notice. I was kind of wondering if Nancy would ask us to reconsider and say she would let us do our job, but so far she has not. There is a new workamper, Judi, starting in reservations who also came to help us in cart rentals Sunday. I told her as much as possible about how the rentals ran, so I hope it sunk in. Debbie still does not get it all; she does the invoices incorrectly and does not seem to learn how to get it right. She does a lot of talking – mostly about her daughter and dogs. She seems to be spacey a lot of the time. But, when a guest comes up to the window, she gets all that right.
Sunday our computers were down all day. AT&T was doing work on fiber optics, but by the end of the day the claimed it was our computer system that caused itself to go down; that it was not their fault. The Ranger Station had to close; reservations was taking cash only; and rentals turned people away. The only way we did actually do some reservations was Nancy had to call Cynthia in Florida and let her do the transaction. By 5:00 pm the computer system came back up, so I stayed and checked out all our departures, checked in the arrivals, and added a day to another guest’s rental. Nancy has us close at 5pm to keep the guests away since she has such a mess to clean up.
I pulled the paperwork for the Monday person. It was supposed to be Deborah, but she never showed up. Judi ended up being in rentals for the rest of Monday and Tuesday; Debbie will be there Wednesday. They were saying it will be a mess when we get in there on Thursday, so I guess we’ll see what it’s like.
One of the other workampers we talked to a lot, Doc, real name Dawn, who was in charge of housekeeping. She has been having a hard time with the locals to such a degree that she has decided to also put in her notice. She said her health is being compromised because she has to work so much, and has no help from the other housekeepers.
So the other issue we have here is the care of the kittens. So far I get Gary’s key and take care of the kittens Sunday, Monday and Tuesday on his days off. We were hoping that Doc was going to take over the care of the kittens on Gary’s days off, but now I’ll have to talk to him about that.
Our last day of work is Sunday, July 1, and my plan is to grocery shop on Monday and laundry on Tuesday, along with packing everything up Monday and Tuesday. We have reservations starting July 4 at Safari Mobile Home park for a week so we can visit with Josh & Karen, and the grandchildren.
From there we’ll head back toward Austin, then up to Amarillo and toward Colorado. We’ll take three months to do some traveling and be back at Tres Rios in October for doctor’s visits.
Back to Daily Journal 2018