Just one hour to go and I can lock the door! I was booked solid on full hook up sites weeks ago, but for some reason everyone wants to camp this weekend. If only I could stack them on top of each other .........
Travelers think that we should be slow as the weather cools down and will often not bother with a reservation. They wonder why all the campgrounds are full and have no sites to spare. Fortunately I have 24 sites with water and electric. No sewer, but you can use our dump station. Most people are thankful to have them. Beats the Walmart parking lot ........
It is Oktoberfest, people! Not to mention homecoming for Mizzou is nearby and creating miserable traffic for those heading east to get to me.
I have filled a dozen or so of those sites lacking sewer hook ups. Not the best sites, these were the tent camping sites when we bought the park. We converted them several years ago when the pipeline workers invaded our area and took all the full hook up sites available. I didn't want to lose my weekend business or my repeat passers-through. We would have put sewer in, but for the fact that sewer does not flow uphill. A lift station could be installed, but it is cost prohibitive. It would take many years to recoup the investment.
Enough potty talk. Or maybe not. A camper who stays here from time to time on the weekends called TODAY to make a reservation for TODAY. He is a gruff and somewhat crude man and not someone I look forward to seeing. He is easy to anger and the fact that I was booked angered him. He demanded to know WHY. He has a kid with him when he comes, maybe he is the grandson. I would be hard put to guess the child's age, but he is rude and obnoxious. He is apparently around adults a lot and tries to talk like he is an adult.
They arrived just as I had ladled myself a bowl of the beef stew I had managed to make. It was close to 7:00 and I had not eaten all day, except for some apple slices. The man announces himself and the kid says they will take a full hook up. I tell them I have no full hook ups. The man starts yelling at me and telling me I told him I did on the phone. I assure him that I told him no such thing. I told him the only sites left were without sewer.
I assign him a site and he leaves, map in hand. Grumbling all the way, saying he stays here all the time (maybe 4 times a season). He returns shortly to tell me he can't find the site. I had a remark about his ability to find things on the tip of my tongue, but swallowed it. I provide him with an escort ... HeWho drives. No sooner did HeWho drives returns to finish his cooling bowl of stew than the phone rings. He just doesn't like the site and can he have the one next to it. I say "sure" in hopes that this will appease him.
My stew bowl is empty and I have made the most incredible apple pie in the history of apple pies. I am eating this when he calls and this could be why I failed to realize that he was going over the line into 30 amp territory and he has a 50 amp camper. But, this pie has my taste buds singing and I am in heaven. This pie that I literally threw together with wild abandon in between customers and phone calls is so good I want to eat the entire pie. I measured nothing and would be hard put to recreate this pie and I am trying to remember what I did.
He calls again to tell me that the "electric box" is 55 amp ...... there is no 55 amp out there, I am quite certain it is a 30 amp .... 55 is the site number. I am done. I sent HeWho is in charge of all things electrical to handle the situation. I now have 11 minutes until I bang the door shut and lock it. The moral to the story is to park where I put you and all will be well. And the phone rings again .....
Tomorrow will be here before you know it and I will be problem solving yet again. I had a group of three show up and they had only reserved 2 sites. I have a camper coming tomorrow with no site, since I used his. I will solve this one tomorrow!
