Last Day At Union...

Today was our last day of work at the Union, NJ site. We spent today and yesterday with the new manager;transitioning her to take over the property. We accomplished alot in the one month + one day that we were there. There are over 20 more units rented vs. vacancies and the collections rate has gone up significantly. We are proud of the work we put in and although it seems to the new manager that there is much left to do, much has been done or is in progress for her to finish up. She is off to a good start and we wish her luck.

Tomorrow we will load up and pull out of here. We have to go to another site...not too far away and take over the property on Monday. This is the first time we've had to do a termination so we'll find out how that goes.

We received alot of rain from the tropical storm that traveled up the east coast. This morning, as we drove into work, there were several places where there was water over the road. Thank goodness that Bertha sits so high and has great ground clearance. I could see where many cars might stall out trying to go through standing water. Intermittently, throughout the day it rained. Tomorrow it is supposed to clear up and be nice so it will be a good day to hook up and pull out. On to new adventures....

Relaxing Day Off...

Today we went to Linda's brother's house to enjoy our day off. Although her brother was away on business we had a great day with his wife, Kathie. She took us to their farmer's market where everything comes from south jersey farmers. We got some cukes, eggplant, potatoes, sweet peppers that are really different from what I've ever seen and some tomatoes. Everything looked so wonderful and fresh. Saw an Amish stand where they had a huge platter of home-made veggie burgers that we were tempted to get but didn't. I've never seen a place, other than a restaurant, where they made their own. They looked great ! The whole experience reminded me so much of the market in Florida that we'd go to each week to get our fresh veggies. This was just on a smaller scale without all the crowds.

Across the parking lot was a place called Halo Farms. They have a bottling facility in the front of the store and while we were there they were packaging grape nectar....here you can see the cartons going through the machine. They process a whole lot of different beverages and they were so cheap ! We bought some chocolate milk and that's to die for ! The white milk was only $1.09 for a half gallon...you can't beat those prices with a stick ! We bought some french bread and something else that slips my mind. It's a really cute little place where you can pick up all sorts of wholesome products, while you're right across the way from the farmer's market..one stop shopping at its' best !

Back to work tomorrow but will finish on Saturday...New manager coming tomorrow to start transitioning everything over to her. Got word tonight that they have a new assignment for us so we will probably pull out of here Sunday morning for parts unknown as of right now...We get the details tomorrow. Kind of makes me feel like Mission Impossible...."your assignment, should you decide to accept it, is _______" This tape will self destruct in 30 seconds." Stay tuned for more....

Busy Day...

Wow, it was a busy day at work. We rented seven storage units today...a personal best for Linda and I. A usual amount would be two to three on average so seven is awesome. One guy, that rented from us today, had been in yesterday to look at units and get pricing. When he came in today he said that I had been right about having the cheapest prices and cleanest facility. Linda was in the middle of going over the paperwork with another new tenant so I went out to the dock with him so he could start unloading his items. We got to talking about stuff....he is a musician and I told him that we are full-time RV'ers. Then explained workamping to him (that took several explanations as he didn't quite understand it). I then told him that we were temporary at that location and that bit of info he wasn't pleased at all to learn....he said, "You mean you might not be here the next time I come in". He joked that this detail almost was enough to make him back out but he was kidding. It's neat to create a relationship with our customers and have them happy to see us when they come in. We've tried to get all the stats for this facility up for the new manager so she'll have a good start on her job here. It is looking like Tuesday, at the latest, will be our last day here. We will have one day of overlap with the new manager once she finishes her training. She has previous experience in this business so she may finish her training on Friday which would make Saturday our last day here. Either way you slice it, we have just a few days to go.

In other news, we received, in the mail today, the Winegard Wingman that I ordered for our antennae. It's a little side antennae that snaps on, to supposedly get better reception. I had read about it on the Excel forum so that we'd give it a try. It takes about 2 minutes to install....just snaps on with four plastic rivets that replace the four bumpers on the underside of the antennae. Rescanned for channels on our tuner and SHA-ZAM !! 10 additional stations that we couldn't get before and several of them are the major networks (FOX, CBS) Yippee !! Tonight we're watching Bones...haven't seen that in quite a while. Seems so great to get more major programming than just hispanic channels or TV evangelists. Wow, well worth the $31.95 we paid on E-bay. It gets my thumbs up !!

We are off work tomorrow so thinking we might head down to Linda's brother's house, an hour away, and hang out by the pool....and relax.

The Stars Are Out...

When we got back to the campground Sunday night, after returning from Chambersburg, we started to see some new rigs in the park. A few "Reserved" signs had gone up on the electrical pedestals over on the far side of the park for the PGA this week. I asked Carmen about it when I stopped in the office Sunday night to pay our weekly rent. She said there were 10 rigs arriving that night for the PGA which was being played over at Liberty State Park. We didn't see any signs of a golf course over there but it's a pretty huge area so apparently there is a really nice golf course there if it's worthy of a PGA tournament. The first rig to arrive was a huge Prevost...then another Prevost with a Hummer. Now tonight we see a big bus over there and a Teton and a motorhome advertising Beuna Vista Motorhome Resort. We wonder who is in the really nice rigs ? Which players might be amongst us ? I'm not a huge PGA fan...have seen an LPGA tournament once in my life. It was fun but alot of work to trek all over a golf course to follow your favorite player. Overall the park is quieting down but....now there are signs going up all over the place for "Monacos in Motion". Must be a Monaco rally....sounds like an aerobics class. It says that they will be here from August 30 till September 4 (I think). Always fun to see different rigs pull in. We never know who our neighbor will be from one night to the next. Makes life interesting !

In other news, we keep bettering our time with the macerator. Tonight I left off the elbow on the sewer pipe and just covered it with a bag/rubber band on each end. Took us about 4 minutes to dump the grey tank...

Work is winding down. The new manager started training today and hopefully will come to our facility on Saturday. She has been a manager of self storage facilities for the last eight years so has alot of experience. She has her hands full with the two assistants that we work with. They have quite the "attitudes" and apparently think that the rules and procedures don't apply to them cause they keep ignoring them. We met the new manager last week and clued her in on their shenanigans. She said they were going to shape up in a hurry when she got there or else. Guess if they thought we were hemorrhoids, while supervising them, they might not like the new manager much either. Sucks to be them ! LOL Shouldn't be here much longer. Fine with us....we're ready for a new adventure !

The Sum Of Its' Parts.....

Today was the day of the funeral for Linda's brother. How do you sum up 64 years of someone's life in less than an hour ? How do you impart the love of a man for his family, career and country in the amount of time it would take you to drive to the corner store for a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk ? Is it possible to reveal the selfless dedication of a man wounded in combat, almost losing his life, and then giving back as a civilian in service to his country.It is and was done today, as seen through the eyes of his family, friends and loved ones. In a manner befitting this family, people spoke from their heart about the wonderful accomplishments of John and his modest life that touched so many people. John didn't think that anyone would attend his services but he was so wrong. There was a steady stream of people at his viewing Friday night and a room full of people today for his service.

After the service and graveside service, we went to the Marine Corp where there were refreshments. There we heard more stories about John, some poignant...most humorous. It was a moving day, one filled with reflection, laughter and tears. A simple service for a simple, humble man. He wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Tidbits....

Lots of stuff to get caught up on at work today after being off for three days. Will work tomorrow and then leave Friday morning to drive up to Chambersburg for Linda's brother's viewing and service. Our employer has been really great with us needing the time off last weekend and then now. We are really new and don't want to mess up our relationship with them but they've told us to take all the time we need to take care of this. Great company!

Tonight we used the macerator to dump the grey tank. Only took about 3 minutes to empty it out...slick as could be.Took longer to get everything out and to hook it up. One of the most time consuming tasks is undoing the short slinky sewer hose from the Pivot EZ. I think what I'm going do in the future is to leave this slinky off and just rubber band a baggie over each opening so it's easier to undo and hook up the macerator. What was really slick about the whole process was that I bought a hose reel for the garden hose that we use to dump with so all we had to do was unreel the amount needed over to the dump station and the rest was still on the reel. Hook up the short connector hose (that came with the reel) and we were off and running (literally). When the tank was empty, Linda just cranked the reel and wound up the hose...

Last night we got a really bad storm through here. There were a couple of minutes of really high winds (the rig was rocking), pouring rain and a whole lot of lightening. There were four guys in the rig beside us having a cookout and drinking beer at their rig. The storm hit and they were trying to gather all their stuff up in the deluge that hit them and get inside but I'm sure all four were thoroughly soaked. The people, up near the entrance to the campground, who gave me a ride to the auto parts store had a EZ up canopy next to their tent and it didn't fare well in the storm. Steve and his wife came home from their son's place, in the city, to find it in a crumpled up pile against the wooden wall behind them. We came home from work today to see them setting up a nice new unit. She told Linda that they went to Sears and bought an actual eight person tent which should work well for them. This one seems to have vented walls so the high winds may blow through the walls instead of blowing them over. We hope they stay safe and dry. There is a potential for more storms tonight.

Brother John

1945 - 2009 Linda B's brother, John passed away quietly at home yesterday afternoon. On Sunday, we took Becky back to Philly and down to Chambersburg so that Linda could spend some time with her brother. He had fallen several times in the last couple of weeks and was steadily getting weaker and more frail. He hadn't been eating or drinking much so we knew that he didn't have long. Linda got to spend some quality time with him Sunday night and Monday before he passed away. John was the oldest of six kids...a Vietnam vet, skilled carpenter and loving brother. He was fondly known as Uncle Grumpy but all who knew him would tell you that he was a big teddy bear who's bark was worse than his bite. He'll be missed!

Dry Camping Just Got Better....

Well, yesterday it was three weeks that we've been here at the campground. We work five days a week so only in the rig a few hours at night and our days off so our black tank doesn't get a lot of use. That's a good thing since we don't have sewer hookups at our site. Is also why we picked a spot as close to the sewer dump as we could get. We figured that if we were going to be here for any length of time beyond three weeks, that would be the point where we'd need to buy a macerator pump. Many of the Mini U locations, where we will be able to park our rig, have water and electric but no sewer. There are sewer cleanouts and rest rooms but all of the locations have different configurations so never sure how close a rest room might be to our rig.

So, when we found out last week that we're going to be here another couple of weeks, I went ahead and ordered a macerator off Ebay. Less than $200 and we get reimbursed by our employer...how cool is that ! I had researched different ones and Flo-jet is the one I wanted to go with for our particular needs. Other similar devices use only water pressure(and no electric motor) to push the waste to a dumping point. This one came with a wiring harness that connects an on/off switch from the motor to a 12v power source. The motor has a whirling propeller that cuts up any solids into tiny pieces so that the final product is sent out a garden hose to a sewer cleanout, dump station (like in our situation), nearby toilet, etc. I bought 6' of 12 gauge wire at Lowes and made the hookup long enough to reach our battery compartment, which is next to the door going into the rig. Strung the wires through the basement and when I get time I will staple the wires up along the wall running across the basement so they are orderly and out of the way.

Saturday night when we got back to the rig, I decided to hook it up and dump our tanks. I had gotten all the wiring done the night before so I'd be ready to go when I was ready to use it. My biggest decision came on the power source to use for the Flo-jet. At first I thought I'd buy a small battery I could keep in the basement and just pull it out to sit alongside the macerator and not have to buy extra wire, as I ultimately did. But I thought, why buy another battery when I already have two on the rig so that is why I bought wire and rigged up a longer wiring harness.

The other thing I thought might be a problem was hooking the macerator up to our valve. If you recall we have the Pivot Ez sewer hookup where the sewer valve has an attachment on it with the sewer hose already attached inside a 4" PVC container. After looking it over, I could see that the short "elbow" piece of sewer hose that allowed the Pivot Ez to pivot was on with a twist type adapter. There is a black metal band that wrapped around the coupling so I loosened that and was able to twist off the sewer hose on the valve where I need to twist on the macerator. There wasn't enough clearance to get the macerator on there so I needed to unhook the other end of the elbow too and then I was in business.

Two garden hoses attach to the macerator....as you look at the picture here...the hose that goes on the port where you see blue is for the water hose to flush the tanks and macerator when done....the small black connection (mid way back, just below the label) is what will carry the waste to the dumping point after it passes through the whirling, slicing, dicing veggiematic.

Linda helped me by running the garden hose over to the sewer dump (70' feet away)and watching it so I could tell when things were empty. This first time it seemed a little awkward...looking at instructions...on with the motor....open the black valve...off with the motor...open the grey valve....on with the motor....on again...off again....rinse...flush..cha cha cha...The Black Water Waltz...hard to learn the steps at first but after a few times we'll be pros at it. It was great though !! After about 10 minutes, both tanks were empty and we can now shower in OUR air conditioned rig and not in the 90 degree, mildewy shower stalls at the RV park AND we don't have to worry about pulling out to go dump somewhere. As long as there is a dump station or toilet within 120' of us, we are good to go !! Ya know....It's the little things in life that make the difference....

Our Day In New York....

My daughter, Becky came up from Philly on Friday night to stay for the weekend. She had some difficulty finding us. Seems there are two Grove St. locations....the one near us is part of the PATH subway system and the other one is in Bloomfield, NJ. After having her chat with the young lady that we work with we got her squared away and back on the train headed to our neighborhood. Worked out well....she got in at the station just as we got home from work so we swung by and picked her up.

We made reservations to take a bus tour of NYC this morning...In my estimation, this is the best way to get the most out of seeing the sights in the city. The bus came right to the campground at 7:15..picked us up and others from area hotels and off we went to the city. They offered 1/2 and whole day tours....we took the 1/2 day one as we didn't care to go to the Statue of Liberty (having grown up in PA, the Statue of Liberty tends to be a popular school trip so we've all been there before). We had a great tour guide who was a wealth of information about all sorts of things. We went to Central Park, which is the fourth largest park in New York. We went to Rockefeller Center, Grand Central terminal, which was gorgeous and so much different than I had imagined. We also went to the site of the World Trade Center. There is construction going on for a new building but there are still squabbles over the design, etc. of the main towers.

This is the site of the World Trade Center, where it's currently a construction zone.


We viewed the World Trade Center from this building..called Winter Garden,
directly across the street from the World Trade Center site.

After seeing the sites in New York, we got off the bus with the tour guide as the 1/2 tour was over. We went up the street and got a bite to eat, before heading off to Coney Island. Becky had a great idea to go to Coney Island....it was something we never would have thought of to do today. What fun !! The weather was great...the beach was packed....it was very nostalgic to see an old amusement park that is part of true Americana.
It was great to see it since I've heard so much about it. It was a long day...Coney Island was a one hour subway ride from New York and it took about 2 hours for us to get back to the RV park after a long day out.

Oh Me, Oh My

We finished work tonight right at 6:00..headed home and was hoping for a quiet, uneventful night. About three blocks from the campground, an alarm on the truck started sounding and there were two lights lit up on the dashboard that usually aren't there. I was hoping we could make it to the campground but just as I approached the right hand turn onto Marin Blvd. the engine quit and the steering froze. I pulled hard on the steering wheel, hoping I wouldn't clip the car that was sitting at the light in the opposite lane on the corner. I cleared him OK but about had a heart attack in the process. Came around the corner and got off on the side of the road as best I could. Luckily once you turn that corner there isn't much traffic that goes down towards the campground. I shut off the switch...we dug out the book to identify the warning light symbols...I thought I'd see if it would start or turn over. It started right up...no lights....no alarms. So put it in drive and headed for the campground. Coasted into our parking spot just as the engine died again.

I smelled an odd smell and asked Linda to open the hood...She did and found that all the bumps and jarring had unhooked the hose from the coolant overflow tank AND there were no nuts holding the tank down anymore....Everything had jiggled loose and all the extra coolant spewed all over the engine those last couple of blocks.

Linda walked up and asked a guy that had camped near us last week if we could pay him to drive me to an auto parts store. Luckily less than a mile from us there is a Pep Boys...off I went. Bought some coolant, some hose clamps and some washers and wing nuts for the tank but the threads on the bolts holding the tanks are odd. Seem to be kind of tapered from top on down and the wing nuts I bought didn't quite fit. I rigged it up by using some teflon pipe tape. Want to get to a GMC dealer tomorrow to get the right nuts to go on there and have them look at it. Filled the tank with coolant, after reattaching the hose. Ran the truck for a few minutes and no bells or lights so keep your fingers crossed that this is what the problem is. I think when all the coolant ran all over things it may have hit a sensor and caused one of the alarms. We will start the truck and let it run for a while in the morning before we head out. No way we can risk stalling out in some of the crazy intersections that we drive through. Everyone keep us in your prayers tonight that we get to work safe tomorrow...it's always somethin' !!

Day Off

It's our day to collapse and recover from work, then back to work tomorrow. We're going to work tomorrow so that we can have a three day weekend this coming weekend. My daughter is coming to visit and we'll go do some sightseeing in the city. We haven't had a chance to check anything out in the area yet so it will be nice to tour a little before we leave the area.

This morning I took the trash out to dump it and saw that our neighbor, who has the huge motorhome, was outside tinkering in one of his bays. I saw what looked to be a macerator laying in there and went over to ask him about it. I am getting ready to order a flo-jet macerator today so that we can dump our tanks without needing to hook up, pull out to dump, and then back in again and get settled. We are about 70' from the dump station and a macerator hooks onto your sewer line and using a regular garden hose you can pump the black and gray water a considerable distance to a dump station, a toilet, or a sewer cleanout. Makes it very convenient for dry camping if you have a house nearby or a sewer cleanout. After asking him questions about how his works we wound up talking about NASCAR. (The talk went from the amount of dry camping he does and his need for the macerator to dump long distances while at a race....ahh, now you see how we came round the horn to this new topic). Anyways....turns out he is a small investor in Childress racing. He knows all the drivers...told me all the scuttlebutt on different drivers....and how he's really close to getting sponsorship for Steve Light (not sure of spelling) for a car next year. He told me to keep an eye out for him. This guy has a three man team that tours the country racing go-carts. Not your typical back yard variety but ones that do 130 m.p.h and have no seat belts....wow !! Sounds like an adrenaline rush...It was fun to talk about NASCAR....he said that NASCAR wants to get the sport back to more of the way it used to be...bumping and pushing....hot tempers, etc. The stuff that fans like. Not sure I would agree. Seems there is enough excitement when 43 cars are traveling 180-200 m.p.h. that we don't need tempers flaring and dangerous antics just so the rednecks sitting at home with their PBR can get a kick out of it. We'll see...

Yesterday at work was rough....we arrived to find that both elevators quit working overnight so a guy that was trying to move out, when we were leaving the night before, was still sitting in the dock with all of his stuff there. So...with the elevators not working we had alot of ticked off customers. I had to lead people to the stairwells but that is not conducive to moving anything heavy. All the access doors have keypads and you can only gain entry through a door or elevator that will take you to your floor. I spent the day literally running from one problem to another. When the elevator repair person arrived at 11:30, she got them working just as a huge Mayflower moving truck backed in to unload someone. She keyed one elevator open for them to load the car and that stranded someone on the second floor....they would buzz the office...Linda would page me....I'd have to go up the stairwell and lead the person back to the first floor....Crikey !!! It was a pretty miserable day overall. The guy who was there at 8:00 when we arrived for work....he came back with the truck at 6:15 (we close at 6) so we got out really late last night by the time we did his paperwork. And there was damage on the truck....that's another whole issue.

The week was long...we are tired....today we'll rest a little...do laundry and get ready for another week.

Week Half Over or Week Half Started ?

It's been a bit grueling this week at work. We are hoping the new manager gets hired and starts soon so we can go to a new location. This is a very busy location and tomorrow it will be just Linda and I working. Hopefully it won't be too overwhelming.

The rv park is still busy. Last night they had people parked in spots that usually aren't sites....just to fit everyone in. There were a few openings tonight when we got home from work but they will probably fill up overnight. The other night we discovered another route to take coming home to avoid the Holland tunnel traffic congestion. It was crazy to sit in six lanes of traffic, inching ahead to get to Marin Blvd and hoping to get home by 8 p.m. some evenings. By taking this different route, we can get home by 6:45....in time to watch the last half of the evening news. Life is good....and it's a whole lot less stress than the other way.

Visit From The Boss...

Linda and I went in early to get some last minute things done around the facility before Mr. Dahn arrived for his site visit. He got there about 2:00 and stayed about a half hour. Nice guy...very soft spoken. He is very customer oriented and conscious of his competition, the impact of the economy and the need for a clean facility with an attentive staff. He thought our facility looked great and was very clean. We'll get a follow-up site letter explaining any areas that the new manager needs to focus on. Overall it was great to meet the man that we work for. Now that we don't have to prepare for this event anymore, we can now focus on the next auction that this facility will hold in September. A storage unit will go into lien and ultimately be sold at auction if payment is delinquent for more than 44 days. Not sure if we'll still be here when the auction is held, on September 8, but there is much that needs to be done before it can be held. Failure to do any of the steps exactly right will mean that the auction has to be canceled. Something happened to cause the last two auctions to get canceled. We don't want that to happen this time so we're being extra careful to follow all the procedures for putting an auction together. One of the Vice Presidents will come on the day of the auction to conduct the proceedings.

Fun Thing to Try Out....

HowManyOfMe.com

There is person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Liberty State Park

After doing laundry and taking a nap, Linda and I felt rejuvenated enough to venture out to do something. We went to Liberty Park which is only a mile and a half from the RV park and is where the ferry picks up people for Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. We stopped at the Liberty Science Center to check it out. It was 5:20 when we got there and the center closed at 6 so we got info and decided to save that for tomorrow. They have an IMAX there that I want to go to. The science museum isn't of any interest to me...The guy said they have bugs on display like cockroaches and I'm thinking, "Well they probably didn't have to travel far to round up their specimens.". I'm sure the city is full of them. Ick !!

What we didn't realize when we headed to the park was that the concert series was still going on today. The people were starting to pour in to the area....crowds were walking down the road to get to the concert area. We talked to one of the security guards and he said that today is the last of three days that it's been going on...from 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. I think today Coldplay was one of the groups playing....we can hear the bass and some of the music over in the RV park. (That is the thump thump thump that I mentioned in a previous post.)The top picture is of the NY skyline. The guard told us that the area where you see the cranes is where the World Trade Center stood. He said that it's still strange to look at the skyline and not see it standing there. It turned out to be a pretty day but not after getting a thorough soaking. We could see the huge mud holes throughout the concert area. According to the guard, the mud holes were popular areas for the people to play in on Friday.

We were on the backside of the Statue of Liberty and she was very close to the park so we got a good view of her. Tomorrow we want to go to the IMAX but we also need to go into work to get some last minute stuff done before the owner comes in Tuesday.

This seafaring cat was lurking around the harbor.

End of Week One at Work...

It's our day off....we are exhausted. It was very busy yesterday, starting with people waiting for us as we arrived for work at 8 a.m. Never stopped from there....people moving in and out all day long. Guess because it was the first of the month that it was transition time. In addition to the day to day stuff, we are still finishing up things to be ready for the owners visit on Tuesday. I've gotten several coats of wax down so far in the restrooms and they are looking much nicer and the dock and crash poles have a fresh coat of paint. We rented a buffer/scrubber from Home Depot and the 1st floor is almost done and looks great. I don't think much more is going to get done before Tuesday as there are other more pressing things to get done relevant to our day to day operations that will take time to get done.

Here at the campground, Sunday seems to be a big turnover day. We arrived here last Sunday afternoon and there were many empty spaces. Many are packing up to leave today so by this afternoon it will probably have the same look as last week. Many of the Rv'ers here are from Quebec. It has been so rainy this week and we feel so sorry for the folks that are in tents. There is a wide mix of camping styles here....very small tents....old pop-ups....camper vans.....5th wheels.....elegant motorhomes. Linda even saw a young lady wrapped up in a blanket sleeping on the ground next to her car the other night. Not sure if she wasn't fit to drive home or what her situation was. I guess it was around mid week that we were absolutely packed. Even up until 10 p.m., when I went to bed, the evening security guard was still helping people get into the few remaining sites. Last night we went to bed to the sound of "thump thump thump" and I walked down to the harbor to see if I could figure out where it was coming from. It wasn't coming from the bar but seemed to be over towards the Statue of Liberty. I could see the sweeping flood lights criss crossing across the sky and hear the music. I asked at the office this morning and Carmen said it was a concert at Liberty State Park. Not a weekly event (thank God as it was very noisy)but something special during the summer.

Not sure what we're going to do today. I asked about getting into the Statue of Liberty and Carmen said she heard they are booked until October (for getting into the Statue itself). We can visit the museum, etc. but wouldn't be able to get up into the statue. Bad storms coming in again today....coming from Pennsylvania way. I know we're gonna get laundry done. May work tomorrow (although should be our day off) so we're sure to be ready for the site visit on Tuesday.