Thursday, August 20, 2015

Life in the Park ......

Well, getting settled in to our new home was actually pretty easy.  With my brother Tom coming up with us we were able to get the trailer stashed in its new home and of course getting the bus placed and leveled.  He was pretty impressed on how well the Bus leveled itself with the on board system.  The popping the slides and hooking up the utilities only took a matter of minutes.  Glad he was there to assist.
Even though the park was put together back in the 60s, they had upgraded the electrical service and had maintained the gravel parking areas very nicely.  Some of the parking spots were a little challenging as the lead in roads are pretty narrow.  The park maintenance guys were great in helping folks get situated.  And of course we loved the trees.  We were fortunate enough to be in a spot where we were able to get Direct TV the first shot out.  Some around us were not so lucky.  But I guess that's the trade off for shaded areas.
The first week was fun, getting to know some of the folks around us and just learning about our new area.  Shopping of course was important and we were able to make a couple of outings.  First were a couple of trips up Highway 34 West toward Estes Park.  Such a beautiful area.  Actually one of my favorite drives along the Big Thompson River.




After only one more quick road trip for us to visit some areas where I grew up, it was time for me to start spending some time working with the maintenance team at the park.  It was great seeing the house I spent my younger years in, going to school and helping on the family farm.  Those memories are the best.


It was amazing to see that more then 50 years since living there how well the old place had been cared for and up dated.  Even some of the out buildings and silo were still standing.


The farm is now a boarding facility for horses.  What a fun adventure!

Starting my new temporary part time duties at the park I found to be quite interesting,  What I thought would be some clean up, mowing and RV escort work turned out to be a little more.  My first week, we found ourselves digging up a sewer line that had broken in one of the premium sites.  We thought it wouldn't be too much of a project, just some digging by hand 2 or 3 feet down to where we thought the break would be.  ahhhh... yeah, right!  Can you say manual labor???
Now this mite seem bad to some, but I hadn't done any work quite this physical in some time.  And after a few hours, I thought I was gonna die!  Thankfully, because of lots of tree roots and the pipe being a bit deeper than we first thought, it was decided to bring in a back hoe.  After several more hours on day two, we were able to make the necessary repairs and start putting things back as they were.  My hope was to never have to do that again. Please, God never again!
After a few more days "on the job" I found it to actually be a lot of fun .... I worked with some great people and learned a whole lot about what it takes to run a park.
Even with not so nice weather, we settled in with scheduling activities with the family and enjoying our stay.  Did I mention not so nice weather? ... in the first few weeks, we saw lots of rain and even some snow.


And of course, it was about this time when we got the Grandma Jackie call from Phoenix ...
Grandson Cash was missin his grandma real bad, so we put her on a flight, leaving me to take care of business at the park. And leaving me to enjoy the snow and rain on my own.  ahem!  After she spent a few days in Phoenix, she thought a quick trip out to SanFran mite be in order, so she flew out there and helped the kids move into their new digs in the city.  Ahhh, you guessed it, the weather was still bad in Loveland!  My honey ditched me for better weather I think.
As for me, I just took advantage of the time to work some at the park and make trips to visit Mom & family.  Too much fun.
One of the big advantages of working in the park was meeting people as they arrived.  With the little golf cart, we would escort them into the camping spots and assist as needed to get them set up, with electric, water & sewer.  And in many cases these meetings would turn into many conversations during their stay, sharing adventures, trading information about our rigs, etc.  And oh the stories of how and why they began full time RVing! More to come on that.