Really "dismal"...

I had today off from my job at Busch Gardens and Linda didn't need to be into work, here at the office, until 10. She wanted to go to Wal-Mart and get some things so we went out the door to get in the car. We were hit with a stench as soon as we came out the door. It smelled like there was an electrical fire or something smoldering close by. We were concerned so we drove through the campground and stopped by a fellow workampers' rig to ask him if he might need to check things out in the campground. He said that the smell was coming from the Dismal Swamp fire. Made sense since we had encountered the same smell, at Busch Gardens, about a week ago and found out that the smoke had drifted up to the Williamsburg area.
As we drove out of the campground, there was a smoky haze in the air that just hung over everything and the stench was so unbearable that it made me feel like I wanted to hold my breath. We had the car windows down so the dogs could put their heads out the window but we could barely tolerate doing that. The news has had recent reports that the Dismal Swamp fire is mostly contained but apparently there is a lot of smoldering and the smoke is drifting into our area. It seems odd that something that is on the North Carolina/Virginia border could have such an impact on our area but it has. I feel sorry for anyone that suffers from respiratory problems on a day like this. Hopefully the fires will go out soon and no one will have to deal with this problem.

Good Clean Living !

We've been full timing now for a while and we had a pleasant surprise the other day when Linda went for some blood work. Our friends recall what horrible headaches Linda was plagued with for quite a while. These occurred when we were in our sticks and bricks house, back in Woolrich, PA. The pressure in her head was intense and a battery of tests did not show any medical condition for which she could be treated. Since being on the road, she has felt great physically and hasn't had any of these headaches. Her cholesterol count had also been very high (252 in February 2007) and was being watched by her doctor. She didn't want to go on any medication and we added some vitamins, herbs and supplements to her daily regiment to try and help lower it. Recent blood work shows it has come down to 205....almost a 50 point drop !!! And she didn't even have to eat oatmeal to get that... While still higher than we'd like, her doctor was amazed at the reduction and told her "whatever she was doing....to keep doing it". Must be the fresh air, reduction in stress, laughter at my antics, occasional whoopin' in a game of Skip-Bo and loving our new life ! We're happy to oblige and keep "doin' it"....suits us just fine.

Hitch Itch setting in...

We've been getting restless lately to hit the road. Our going to see the local sites probably escalated that since we had figured once we'd finish working this fall that we'd take in the local sites before moving on. Now we've done that so we're ready to move on to new adventures. It seems that the magical time period for "staying put" is two months.....we start getting beyond that and we start getting antsy to get going. It's been two and a half months here so "hitch itch" is setting in.
We had thought that we'd stay here till end of October but we're thinking that end of September will be long enough. Hollo-scream is at Busch Gardens from mid September till end of October and it's not something that either one of us feels we want to stay around for. In my area staffing is getting really tight and some days there aren't enough people to run my unit and it makes it very stressful to try and keep up with business when you don't have anybody to work. Then when there are young people scheduled they stand around and text on their cell phone or "disappear" for periods of time. Drives me crazy !
No definite places to go to come fall....we had made plans to go to the Oyster Fest in Urbanna, VA with my sister, mom, daughter and brother in law. Not sure with the rising cost of fuel if my sister is still coming down for that. The Oyster Fest takes place in early November and attracts thousands of people....crazy event ! Everything oysters !!
We're looking at locations for this fall and winter....south, for sure once the snow flys. Home for Thanksgiving and Christmas but then south for the early part of 2009. We'll keep you all posted.

A walk through history....

Today we went to the Jamestown settlement and to Yorktown. Here are a couple pics...Click on the link at the right to see all of the ones I've uploaded.

Put on your walkin' shoes...

The other day Linda and I checked out the nature trail that starts right near where site. It loops around through the woods and comes out on the far side of the dog run on the opposite side of the property. Took us about 20 minutes to walk it and was a quiet, peaceful walk.....lots of birds and a beautiful tree canopy.

Stonehenge

I think Schroeder, our border collie, is the reincarnated creator of Stonehenge. When I take him out in the morning to go potty, he walks while going…creating this semi circular pattern. I’ve never known a dog to do this. Boomer on the other hand looks like he’s a needle on a compass….. zigzagging wildly….looking for that magical spot or some magnetic force field from the center of the earth that should decide where he needs to do his business. I know….I know…you’re thinking it must be a slow news day if Linda is resorting to talking about her dog’s bowel movements. But anyone who knows me knows the quirky way my mind works and how I “wonder” about lots of things. This is just one of the things that has tickled my curiosity lately. In Schroeder’s situation, it’s a good thing that this isn’t the behavior that us humans would exhibit for such an act. If it did, we’d have to redesign our bathroom and the toilet would wind up in the middle of the floor so there’d be plenty of room to rotate all the way around it. Wouldn’t be a practical matter.
We love our furry friends. RV’ers are no different than folks with sticks and bricks houses. We take our pets on the road with us and they look forward to traveling just as much as we do (maybe more). They can sense when we are packing up to hit the road for our next destination and they are waiting at the door…ready to go. The other weekend, here in the campground, I kept hearing a bird but not the typical sound of the songbirds we have around here. As I was walking up to the pool, I spotted several bird cages sitting outside a small camper. Apparently the owners had several birds that they travel (or vacation) with and they came along for the ride. I couldn’t have tolerated their screeching, especially since I could hear them up where our rig was located…..about 50 yards away. Would have driven me nuts but to each their own.
I took the boys out on hiking trail today for a walk. Knowing it would be under the shady canopy of the woods, I thought it would be cooler than taking them to the dog run plus I thought they’d handle better being out of sight of other dogs. Yesterday and today the temps are in the low 90’s and it’s very humid. I hope this isn’t an indication of what the typical summer weather will be. I know, from checking the temp at the pool this morning, that the hot day yesterday raised the pool temperature another 2 degrees….to a balmy 76 degrees. With today’s hot weather, it will probably be up another couple degrees tomorrow morning when I check it.

Memorial Day

Both Linda and I had a very busy Memorial Day holiday. I worked at BG all weekend (8-10 hour shifts), filled in here at campground each morning cleaning the bathrooms and also cleaned the pool every morning. Linda worked at BG every day and had long days too. Not a very eventful holiday for us although we did get to have supper together Monday evening while I was working. Yesterday (Tuesday), Stephanie and Jessie came by and we went out to celebrate Steph's birthday over dinner. We had a good time and luckily Linda got done work in time to come home and see Steph.
The campground was packed all weekend....I saw lots of campfires when I would come home each night from work and people still sitting out and enjoying themselves. most people left on Monday for the drive home (wherever that might be). Lord help the people who had to drive on Rt 64 as it was a madhouse each afternoon when I had to go to work. I saw another accident that must have just happened as there were no emergency personnel on the scene yet but other cars had stopped to help. The car had gone through the end area of the guardrail and hit a tree. It looked like a pretty bad accident but I hope everyone was OK.
Last night it rained through the night and is dreary outside today. I cleaned the pool, weeded the flower beds and may have to mow this afternoon. Will see how dry it gets after lunch. Back to work tomorrow at BG....

A good time......

We had a delightful surprise this week when we heard from a fellow Excel owner that he and his wife would be coming to American Heritage park on Sunday and would stay for a few days. Tom is a contributor to the Excel discussion forum and someone that we have e-mailed over the last few months so we were pleased to hear that we would finally get to meet he and Donna. We went over Monday night for a cookout and had a great time, chatting with them about their travels thus far. They've been on the road for three years and have been to a lot of neat places. It seemed so good to socialize with another couple and just kick back, have a few drinks and good conversation. We hope to meet up with Tom and Donna down the road again.
I've picked up a new task here at the campground. I've been trained to take care of the swimming pool so each morning, at 6 a.m., I go up and vacuum it, check the chemical levels, back flush it (if needed)and make sure it's ready to go for the day. Takes me about an hour and fifteen minutes to do it and I enjoy being out in the stillness of the morning, prior to going to my other job where it's so noisy and busy.
This morning I had a little helper when I was working on the pool. I opened up one of the skimmers, to check on whether it needed any more chlorine tablets and lo and behold there was a little frog. He popped out from under the pool ledge into the skimmer basket so I scooped him up and took him over to grass. He was just a little thing so I hope he didn't swallow much of the chlorinated water.
The sunlight was especially bright this morning as I was finishing the last leg of pulling the vacuum back and forth around the pool. The light created a prism effect in the water so it was hard to see the dirt on the bottom of the pool as I moved around the edge. Kind of the 60's, trippin' effect that made me a little dizzy. Got it all done though and walked back to the rig, while it was still quiet....serenaded the whole way by the song birds in the trees.
Last night Linda and I went to "Team Night" at Water Country....another Busch attraction just down the road from BG. This park is getting ready to open for the season so they had dinner, games, free t-shirt, etc. for team members who attended. There are some really neat water attractions there that would be wonderful on a hot summer day. The attraction I liked was a "Lazy River" type of attraction where you float on a raft in a continuously flowing river. The thing that was different about this one was that it flowed faster than others I've seen and the rafts could hold two people so it would be a fun way to spend a hot day with a friend or your spouse. They had a big wave pool, chutes and slides, etc. A lot of fun areas and one especially designed with little kids in mind...called "critter ______"(the name escapes me). All the slides, chutes, etc were shaped like animals. It was a cute area ! We had a good time, got lei'd in Hawaii fashion and came home around 7:00. Our timing was great as Tom stopped over, as we pulled in, to say goodbye. His shirt was a complimentary shade of purple to go with the lei Linda and I had received at the party so we gave them to him. Imagine Donna's surprise to see him when he arrived back at the rig to see that he'd gotten lei'd not once but twice while he'd been out. Lucky dog ....hahaha...See ya down the road, Tom and Donna !!

Winds of Change

The storms and wind have continued and last night we had another tornado and severe storm warnings. I worked my last shift in the grounds dept yesterday (5 a.m. - 11 a.m.) and then went to my new dept (culinary) and worked for 3 hours. Linda and I rode together to work but she wasn't done with work by the time I finished up at 3 p.m. so I went home and came back to get her when she finished at 6 p.m. I had noticed that the westbound lane of 64 was backed up, meaning that there probably was an accident so we took the back route home. As we started home, the storm hit.......heavy, heavy rain and wind. We got home and settled in for another night of nasty weather.
Today, the winds are still strong and the drizzly rain comes in waves. I have Monday and Tuesday off and will return for my first regular shift, in my new position as "Lead Supervisor" on Wednesday. The park is still only open on weekends so Wed and Thur will be spent handling incoming orders and moving stock. Teri is the other supervisor in the unit where I will work and she showed me around yesterday. Not much to it....kind of like a concession stand but with some bottled beer thrown in. You have to be "bar coded" to serve the beer so I guess that is something I'll have to be signed up for. Will get to work with my boss on Wed and Thursday so I can learn more about the organization and what they want done. She is from Poland, with a strong accent. I'm interested to learn about the hierarchy of positions within the dept so I understand what the positions are when I see them posted on the openings board. Like my position is called Lead Supervisor but it really isn't a big deal at all. I guess there are Unit supervisors, area supervisors, etc. I will learn more as time goes on. Next week there is a "Team Night" at water country....the water park. There will be a luau, games, chance to use the rides, etc. This comes just prior to us opening for the season when we'll be open everyday from May 23rd on. I picked up my ticket but Linda needs to get hers yet. Sounds like it will be a fun time !
Seems like it's taken forever for us to get to the point where we will really be open (7 days) and not just on weekends. I guess that is a sign that summer is just around the corner. I think it would be more enjoyable to start work, at BG, just before the season gets underway and not earlier than that. We are learning our tolerance for the boredom that comes with the slower seasons and our job for future years work will be to figure out when to move from one region to another (Or one job to another), as the seasons change and business increases in the new area. It is fun learning about all of this. We are already looking into jobs for this winter....More later....

We're in hot water....

Yesterday our hot water tank quit heating the water so Linda looked up the name of a guy that the folks around here have used and called him. I had today off, from BG, so I was home to wait for him to arrive. He got here around 2:00 p.m. and in short order he had figured out that the thermostat was shot in it, since it wouldn't work in either the propane or electric mode. It's a very small part...about the diameter of a quarter. Since we are still under our two year warranty, this will be covered by the factory. With most other manufacturers, they only have a 1 year warranty (or less) and this wouldn't have been covered but Peterson Industries covers everything, bumper to bumper for two years. I did get to try out the beautiful showers here, at the campground (pictures were posted in an earlier post) and enjoyed the massaging shower head.
After the repair guy left, I went to BG to get my paperwork for my new uniforms in the culinary dept. only to find that my supervisor hadn't left them for me. Tomorrow I work my usual shift in grounds ( 5 a.m. - 11 a.m.) and then I'll go back to get my paperwork, pick up the uniforms from costume dept., change and then go work for a while in my new area. Linda works tomorrow too at BG so we may ride together.
Weather here has been a little dicey the last week. You all probably saw on the news about the tornado that touched down in Suffolk, VA....that is about an hour from us. We got a lot of the same storms and had hard showers yesterday periodically throughout the day. In fact, I called Linda (she was here at the campground and I was getting ready to leave work at BG). The sun was out and it looked pretty decent at the park. She said it was raining horribly, at the campground, and to drive careful on the way home. Sure enough, I got within three miles of the campground exit and it was like driving into a wall of water. The wipers couldn't take it away fast enough. Traffic slowed down and I put my four way flashers on so I was sure that other cars would see me. It was pouring the whole way to the campground and I picked Linda up outside the rig and drove her up to the office since it was raining so hard. Part of that storm was a tornado that touched down in Fredericksburg, VA.... within 90 minutes of here. There is a chance for more bad storms in the next day or so. Hopefully tomorrow will stay dry until I get done with my grounds shift in the morning. I hate having to work in a raincoat and the pouring rain!