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Sunday, July 28, 2013

Busy day!

It's not quite over yet, but it seems this was a pretty smooth weekend. It was busy enough, but again not really warm enough to bring out the day use people, and it was windy yesterday which kept some people off the lake.

But there were still a few odd calls!

Usually if people have a problem they'll go to the office first. Then the office will page me on our two way radios and tell me what the problem is.

The boat launch area.

On Friday evening, I got a call about a motorhome being "stuck". I had seen this one 34 ft Class A unit registering, so I assumed it was him. But we haven't had rain for a few days and the ground has pretty much dried up so I couldn't see where he could get stuck.

Well, he had taken a turn far too tightly and his right rear wheels had missed the road completely! They were now in the culvert and not even touching the ground. I wish I had a picture to show you, but I don't think the guy would have appreciated me running to get my camera! He was not impressed with himself. One of those moments where you go "OOPS".

I figured this guy was not going anywhere. His daughter was already on the phone calling his emergency road service.

We had enough heavy duty trucks and chains around that we could probably have dragged him out. But my opinion was that we would do more damage by doing it that way and I wasn't going to be responsible for that. Of course there were a dozen people standing around offering opinions by that time and most people agreed.

But this guy was not about to give up. He asked for a shovel, and I had one in the truck. To make a long story short, he built up an area under his right rear levelling jack and raised that corner. Worked some of the larger boulders in the culvert under his wheels and lowered the motorhome back down on them. This gave him just enough grip to drive himself out of there. I was impressed. I would have bet $100 that would not have worked the way he was stuck in there!

He's got a few scrapes on his undercarriage, but they appear minor. So, happy ending to that story!

Somebody will be eating well!

Then, I get a call saying there's been an "oil spill" over by campsite 6. Hmm, this one sounds odd. So I go over there, and don't see a thing. This old fellow wanders by and it was him who reported the "problem". Turns out it's at one of the cabins near campsite number 6. There's a patch on the gravel parking area where it looks like somebody spilled a quart or so of diesel fuel. 

Okay, so I'm thinking...what's the problem? Well the old guy figures I'm supposed to dig up this whole area, about a square yard big. Says the "environmentalists" wouldn't be happy to see it. Huh? The cabin owner comes out and he doesn't see the problem either. I actually looked up the rules and anything under 10 gallons isn't even reportable to the authorities. This guy was trying to make a problem where one didn't exist! I kind of alluded to that, and haven't heard a thing since. 

It was sunny, but windy. And because of the wind there was a bit of a chill in the air all day.

Next up. "Kevin, there's a kid at the beach and his towel is in a tree." Hmm. Not sure what I'm dealing with, but I grab my tree branch saw that has a handle that extends about 20 feet. Wander down to the beach, and sure enough this kids towel is about 20 feet up in a tree! I didn't even bother asking how it got there. Managed to get it down though without much effort.

Relatively quiet after our 11:00pm quiet hours. I think because it's been fairly cool at night, 9C (48F) and last night they were even calling for rain.

And so, a lot of people will be heading out today and this week should be steady, but not busy. NEXT weekend will be busy. August long weekend here in Canada, and lots of events happening here at the park.

Ah, don't forget...we have a new giveaway contest starting tomorrow morning! This one will interest any of our RV'ing readers in North America!!

19 comments:

  1. Sounds like a typical weekend at a campground. Good for the Class A driver. Had you tried to pull or push likely there would have been damage to the rig and you would have been responsible. I have heard that cat litter works well at soaking up fuel spills.

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    1. Yes, it is a typical weekend at a campground. Kevin still can't believe that the driver was able to move the unit without the tow truck.

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  2. Hm, with the exception of the motorhome situation, the spills and having things in places where kids think you're going to fetch it for them sounds kinda familiar!
    I was once called to a classroom where some less than brilliant young fellow had tossed his chocolate pudding against the ceiling. (He was usually a pretty good kid, but I think he was showing off for the young ladies in his class)
    I asked him, "Does it hurt?"
    He wasn't sure what I meant, so then I added, "The hole in your head where your brain fell out??" Totally dead panned.
    His teacher was having a hell of a time keeping a straight face, and the kids howled.
    He knew me well enough to know what was coming.
    He had to clean up the pudding, I only supplied the ladder and the cleaning supplies.


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    1. I would think that times have now changed. Nowadays, you would be put on report for insulting a student, and then endangering his life by making him go up the ladder himself. And of course your union rules would mean that you couldn't up the ladder either, that is without two of your coworkers there to help.

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    2. You understand, Kevin... I keep trying to figure out where to go where common sense still prevails - any suggestions?

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    3. No, we haven't figured that out either, you would think it would be easy enough as there should be a hug line up for it!

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  3. Gotta have some fun around the park or it might be a boring routine for you guys.

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  4. I think I might have waited for the tow guys to show, but glad it worked out for him:)

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    1. Kevin said the same thing but it sounded like the tow truck drivers either couldn't come or if they could it wasn't going to be until the next day so I guess he looked at the problem and figured that he could get himself out and thankfully he did with very little damage at that.

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  5. Some of these environmental folks wouldn't be happy if everything was returned to the Stone Age. You did well handling that situation. ;c)

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    1. Thanks for the vote of confidence with us.

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  6. WOW you are sure getting some great stories out of this job, bet you will miss it when you leave (Not). But the way you handle things is good, that much I applaud you (both of you) for. Not sure how I would handle nit picky people like that. Probably quite sarcastically I assume.
    I wonder if they will ask you to come back next year? Have you talked to them about that? Doesn't look like a bad gig.
    :)

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  7. Nice job in all 3 situations. I would bet the owners will want to see you handling everything for them forever if you'd agree. People are interesting that's for sure. All our workcamping friends have amazing stories about campers.

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  8. We'll be waiting for an update on the oil spill. I hope you don't do jail time :). Sounds like silly stuff when I work in Texas high schools.

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  9. I'd bet if you were there for five years, there'd always be some weird or off-beat story that would come up. I'm surprised at some of the complaints people can conjure up. And, I think it's often people who are unhappy with themselves who come up the really outlandish issues. Oh well, life's interesting, right? Wonder if the guy who was complaining about the oil thought about cleaning it up himself? And the towel in the tree - come on kids, take care of yourselves. Geeeezzz Louise!

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  10. I'm sorry I can't vote for you for those extra days. But facebook doesn't allow us to vote unless we sign away our personal list and friend identity. Sorry I won't do that, but good luck.

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    1. No worries Dell. But for future reference, the only reason the application asks for these things is so that you can't cheat. I've never been bothered by any of them and neither have any of my facebook friends. Thanks for trying though!

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  11. Otherwise...I really enjoy your blog!!! :-)

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