May 12, 2013. Mother's Day - no cards from the kids, but if they sent it to the Texas address it won't get here for another two weeks. Hopefully they will call later today. Jacklyn did say she was going to go visit Grandma yesterday or today, so I am glad she is going to do that. We have the day off.
One of the workampers that have been here for over three years decided they wanted to buy a house and stop working. They are in their late 70's and have had enough. Their motorhome sold faster than they had expected and poof, they are gone. Now it's just Judi, the manager, me and Sandy in the office. For now Judi is working Sunday & Monday by herself and Sandy and I split shifts the rest of the week. Another woman is supposed to come in by the end of the month but will only work 20-25 hours a week, which I guess will help Judi out. I still work close to 40 hours a week, and with only two days off does not give much time for sightseeing as one of those days is our trip into Maryville for our weekly supplies, cleaning the trailer and laundry.
Have not done much sightseeing as gas costs money, and it's still over $3 a gallon. We did finally make it up Newfound Gap Road to Clingman's Dome, then turned around and came back. There are pictures of our trip in the Photo Gallery, so please check out that sight. Plus it's been raining a lot - our last days off it rained so we did not want to venture out. No fun driving in the rain on these windy roads. The rest of this week will be without rain, cool today and tomorrow but getting warmer by the end of the week.
June 2, 2013. Still working five days a week, eight hours a day with Sunday and Monday off. Campground has not been as busy as the managers would like, but that may be because of the economy, which still is not good and a lot of people are still out of work. This place is expensive as well and they do not give discounts, like Passport America or Good Sam.
Working in the office is OK, and we like it better when Judi the manager is not in the office. She usually takes off Monday evening or early Tuesday morning and comes back Thursday afternoon. She does need her time off and leaves the office to us workampers. The only thing I do not like is when the internet goes down, there is nothing we can do since the main router is in Judi's office and it cannot be rebooted until she gets back. We get some pretty irrate guests at that time but it does not seem to bother Judi at all.
I am learning a lot more about Campground Master as well as balancing the cash register to the computer and credit card machines. This should be a plus for me when looking for jobs in the future.
Jim is having a harder time dealing with the other workampers, namely Scott and Lee. Scott has been here for 8 years and Lee has been here before and they think they are Jim's boss when the manager Jesse is out, especially Lee, and he gets to be a thorn in Jim's side. Worse than when he had to deal with Jerry at St. Croix Haven. He called and talked to one of the old timer workampers that quit and the guy said to just take it in stride and ignore them, so hopefully that is what Jim will do until we get out of here.
Been told that some of the other workampers and people up the hill in the other cabins have seen the local bear. One guy said it was behind PC 9 and then disappeared, which it probably went through the weeds and up the road. I still walk the girls up the switchback every morning about 7:00 am before work, and then down Parkline Road where the other cabins are, but still have not seen any bear. Have seen some scat, which looks like bear scat and some other that looks like coyote scat.
June 5, 2013. Met a couple of women that came to the campground who are studying forensic science at the body farm at UT. One is from Brazil and one from Australia, but are now at the university in UK and living there with their families. Jim was interested in what people from outside the US think about our country and went and scoped them out; found them sitting outside of the cabin and talked to them and then invited them up to our trailer. I got out of the shower to find them sitting at the picnic table and we all talked a while after that. They both are definitely conservative and cannot understand how Obama got elected for a second term. It was very interesting talking with them and finding out how Europeans feel about this country and Obama.
Also talked with another one of our guests who is a wildlife photographer and has some really beautiful photographs. He likes to talk and comes in to talk with us quite a bit; I have also introduced him to some of the campers to see if they are interested in his photographs. He has a website with his pictures, which can be purchased for those nature lovers we know. His name is Jimmy Napoliello (something like that) but check out his website Jimmynappphotos.com to see what he has to offer.
Jack is coming this Saturday with his bike riding friend Dave; they are spending the night and then heading back to Georgia on Sunday. Jim's cousin Jay Schwartz and his bike riding friend Al are coming next weekend for a few days. Looking forward to their visits.
June 12, 2013. Sometimes I wonder if other workamping jobs have managers like the one here at Tremont. It seems that she sets us up to do things and then yells at us when we don't do it right. She then changes how she wants us to input reservations into the computer and gets mad that we don't do it even though she never told us that she wanted us to input it in the first place. Sandy, the other workamper, says that there are managers who are nice and easy to get along with. Judi brought Sandy to tears one day when she was said that Sandy lacked confidence - well, one thing that bothers us is when Judi breaths down our necks - that's enough to make anyone nervous and tend to make mistakes.
Just counting down the days when we can get out of here and thank goodness we don't have to come back. Our schedule usually has us working five days with two off, but this week she has all of us working 7 days straight with two off. That is way too much to work at one time, especially for the guys at their age and in this heat. I don't know what the heck Judi was thinking but this cannot continue and if it happens again, we will have to say something.
Not doing much sightseeing due to the high cost of fuel. Just to get to the other side of the park is about a 2 or more hour drive, just to get to where the Elk are and other parts of the park. There is no good way through the mountains, just around and that is a long and windy road.
Today the weather was real hot - about 90 and high humidity. Jim & Scott worked most of the day even though Jesse called and told them to knock off early. Bad storms are heading through the midwest with a chance of some rain coming down here.
The two girls from UT are back for a few days - got their names this time. Maura Struppl is from Brazil and Toni (short for Antoninette) James from Australia. They are at the University of UK and at the body farm at UT for a class.
Back to Daily Journal 2013
One of the workampers that have been here for over three years decided they wanted to buy a house and stop working. They are in their late 70's and have had enough. Their motorhome sold faster than they had expected and poof, they are gone. Now it's just Judi, the manager, me and Sandy in the office. For now Judi is working Sunday & Monday by herself and Sandy and I split shifts the rest of the week. Another woman is supposed to come in by the end of the month but will only work 20-25 hours a week, which I guess will help Judi out. I still work close to 40 hours a week, and with only two days off does not give much time for sightseeing as one of those days is our trip into Maryville for our weekly supplies, cleaning the trailer and laundry.
Have not done much sightseeing as gas costs money, and it's still over $3 a gallon. We did finally make it up Newfound Gap Road to Clingman's Dome, then turned around and came back. There are pictures of our trip in the Photo Gallery, so please check out that sight. Plus it's been raining a lot - our last days off it rained so we did not want to venture out. No fun driving in the rain on these windy roads. The rest of this week will be without rain, cool today and tomorrow but getting warmer by the end of the week.
June 2, 2013. Still working five days a week, eight hours a day with Sunday and Monday off. Campground has not been as busy as the managers would like, but that may be because of the economy, which still is not good and a lot of people are still out of work. This place is expensive as well and they do not give discounts, like Passport America or Good Sam.
Working in the office is OK, and we like it better when Judi the manager is not in the office. She usually takes off Monday evening or early Tuesday morning and comes back Thursday afternoon. She does need her time off and leaves the office to us workampers. The only thing I do not like is when the internet goes down, there is nothing we can do since the main router is in Judi's office and it cannot be rebooted until she gets back. We get some pretty irrate guests at that time but it does not seem to bother Judi at all.
I am learning a lot more about Campground Master as well as balancing the cash register to the computer and credit card machines. This should be a plus for me when looking for jobs in the future.
Jim is having a harder time dealing with the other workampers, namely Scott and Lee. Scott has been here for 8 years and Lee has been here before and they think they are Jim's boss when the manager Jesse is out, especially Lee, and he gets to be a thorn in Jim's side. Worse than when he had to deal with Jerry at St. Croix Haven. He called and talked to one of the old timer workampers that quit and the guy said to just take it in stride and ignore them, so hopefully that is what Jim will do until we get out of here.
Been told that some of the other workampers and people up the hill in the other cabins have seen the local bear. One guy said it was behind PC 9 and then disappeared, which it probably went through the weeds and up the road. I still walk the girls up the switchback every morning about 7:00 am before work, and then down Parkline Road where the other cabins are, but still have not seen any bear. Have seen some scat, which looks like bear scat and some other that looks like coyote scat.
June 5, 2013. Met a couple of women that came to the campground who are studying forensic science at the body farm at UT. One is from Brazil and one from Australia, but are now at the university in UK and living there with their families. Jim was interested in what people from outside the US think about our country and went and scoped them out; found them sitting outside of the cabin and talked to them and then invited them up to our trailer. I got out of the shower to find them sitting at the picnic table and we all talked a while after that. They both are definitely conservative and cannot understand how Obama got elected for a second term. It was very interesting talking with them and finding out how Europeans feel about this country and Obama.
Also talked with another one of our guests who is a wildlife photographer and has some really beautiful photographs. He likes to talk and comes in to talk with us quite a bit; I have also introduced him to some of the campers to see if they are interested in his photographs. He has a website with his pictures, which can be purchased for those nature lovers we know. His name is Jimmy Napoliello (something like that) but check out his website Jimmynappphotos.com to see what he has to offer.
Jack is coming this Saturday with his bike riding friend Dave; they are spending the night and then heading back to Georgia on Sunday. Jim's cousin Jay Schwartz and his bike riding friend Al are coming next weekend for a few days. Looking forward to their visits.
June 12, 2013. Sometimes I wonder if other workamping jobs have managers like the one here at Tremont. It seems that she sets us up to do things and then yells at us when we don't do it right. She then changes how she wants us to input reservations into the computer and gets mad that we don't do it even though she never told us that she wanted us to input it in the first place. Sandy, the other workamper, says that there are managers who are nice and easy to get along with. Judi brought Sandy to tears one day when she was said that Sandy lacked confidence - well, one thing that bothers us is when Judi breaths down our necks - that's enough to make anyone nervous and tend to make mistakes.
Just counting down the days when we can get out of here and thank goodness we don't have to come back. Our schedule usually has us working five days with two off, but this week she has all of us working 7 days straight with two off. That is way too much to work at one time, especially for the guys at their age and in this heat. I don't know what the heck Judi was thinking but this cannot continue and if it happens again, we will have to say something.
Not doing much sightseeing due to the high cost of fuel. Just to get to the other side of the park is about a 2 or more hour drive, just to get to where the Elk are and other parts of the park. There is no good way through the mountains, just around and that is a long and windy road.
Today the weather was real hot - about 90 and high humidity. Jim & Scott worked most of the day even though Jesse called and told them to knock off early. Bad storms are heading through the midwest with a chance of some rain coming down here.
The two girls from UT are back for a few days - got their names this time. Maura Struppl is from Brazil and Toni (short for Antoninette) James from Australia. They are at the University of UK and at the body farm at UT for a class.
Back to Daily Journal 2013