Sunday May 22nd -Saturday May 29th

Sunday morning and I’m up around six thirty, before my afternoon shift, I have a number of things to accomplish today before my first solo shift which includes locking-up and being on-call all night. We purchased a new Clam while in Arizona, and want to get it set up for shelter and privacy as we are in a bit of close quarters with other campsites, as well as doing some trimming our site, and also getting our flag pole up as well.

But first our regular Sunday morning shows Willie Geist for Miss Laurie and CBS Sunday Morning for me, we are still streaming our US streaming service, I occasionally get a warning about being out of the prescribed viewing area, but it is still streaming ok out of Seattle Washington, and I guess as long as it continues to work I will continue with it. I would drop it and pick up a Canadian streaming service, but there is nothing comparable at a reasonable price that gives more than one Canadian network, and this service includes the golf channel and with weekend afternoons off, it seems like good value for now.

First task was the flagpole, I just used the hydraulic jack to raise the right rear dual wheels and slid the base under it, eze peze, next onto preparing the spot for the Clam, our site is deep, but not real wide, so I needed to back the Clam up as much as possible so a little pruning of some bushes was needed, then rake the gravel to get the spot ready. Now pop the Clam up and position it to give as much space in our site as possible, the new Clam is a 12′ hexagon same as the old Clam but is about six inches taller than the last one, but the front of the coach awning goes over the roof giving us shelter on rainy days.

The weed wacking never got done, as the PGA golf tournament was on the television, and we had a mail call with Steve & Karen, that’s when we decide what mail is either needed or worthy of being sent to us. I would say that 90% of all our communication is done electronically, but some things we just can’t seem to stop, like a magazine that is part of a package that we subscribe to, it is available on line, but has no option to stop the paper copy from arriving every couple of months.

So, this is Sunday afternoon, on a holiday weekend, and I’m the newest member of the team and I’m on shift all by my self. Like seriously what could go wrong? So my shift started quiet enough, with a quick run down of the items of concern, the pool, stocking of the firewood, and the problem guests in the park. So after quick survey of the park and pool area, every thing seemed quiet enough for now.

My first task will be the firewood run, so at four thirty I headed up to the woodlot to get the old Mazda pick-up and make sure is was still loaded from the night before, you see sometimes if they need more fire wood in wood-shed at the store they will bring the truck down to refill the shed, and may or may not refill the truck. It was still full, so I throw a few bundles of kindling on top and I was off on the wood-run. The idea is to make two trips around the complete park, nice and slow with a flashing yellow light on the roof. People flag me down, and pay cash for as many bags as they want, then I move on to the next row, that process normally takes a little over an hour, and what ever wood is left I normally unload at the wood shed to be sold from the store, then back up the hill to the wood lot to reload the truck for the next run.

As I was reloading the truck when I got a call on the two-way radio about some problem children in the playground by the pool, I had the same problem the night before, the park has a large piece of equipment in the playground, but it is the old wood style and is equipped with a roof that is made with a coloured tarp draped over a couple of sections, these kids were climbing on the tarped area and sliding down, they were also bullying the younger kids away from the playground. Of course by the time I got back down the hill they were gone, but I was expecting them to come back, as when I spoke to them the night before for the same issue there was no remorse, just lots of attitude, they couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me what site they were from, but I had the area figured it out by time my shift was over.

By now it’s six thirty and I’m headed to the coach for some dinner, some nourishment and a chance to put my feet up and rest after slugging all that firewood. As I headed back out another trip around the park to make sure everything was still quiet, it seems all good, so with an hour to kill before the pool closing I knocked off a couple of small projects. At twenty to eight I was off to the pool, to check and adjust the chemicals, and close it for the night. Unlike back in Ontario where the pool chemicals needed to be monitored every two hours, here in British Columbia it only gets checked twice a day and all chemicals are added after closing, again the new guy is deciding on what pool chemicals to add.

The pool closing takes near half an hour to check and go through all the procedures that are in place. As I locked the gate and headed off for another security round, I noticed the problem kids heading toward the playground. Unlike at a seasonal park, it is more difficult to keep track of what kids belong to what guardian, and believe me, I use the term guardian very loosely. So after this new confrontation I was off to find their said guardian, I was unable to, as there was no one was at the campsite, so I turned it over to the manager and she contacted the guardian by phone, relayed our concerns and we’re reassured that the problem would be handled.

It is a strange night, not a lot of people out tonight, I’m assuming because to the “Battle of Alberta” NHL hockey game, so lots of people, in trailers glued to the game. So here is where I most likely jinxed myself by thinking my first solo night might not be so bad, and that was the beginning of what would turn into a night of alcohol induced stupidity.

It started right around ten o’clock, I was is the workshop which is located under the clubhouse, I could hear a terrible commotion consisting of head banger music coming from the group tent camping area, so I head off it investigate, I get to the campsite and everyone is pretty much drunk, I discover a girl with a needle stuck in her arm, I would assume some sort of drug issue, the “guardian”, seems to be nearly passed-out drunk, but after asking three or four times, I did get someone to understand that they needed to turn off the music, and I use that term music very loosely, there seemed to be five or six females at this site of varying ages.

So I guess some of them decide to start roaming around the park, so three of these girls, managed to find a couple of boys, you know the type, the ones that aren’t able to even pull their pants up to their waist, the type that commonly struggle to form sentences more that two words long. Now they some how end up on the balcony of the clubhouse, so I have to roust them out of there, it is a popular spot because, there is a receptacle on the wall to plug in a phone charger, it’s at this point that I realize it is going to be a long night, because the big fella is trying to talk, but its just words, most of which make little to no sense at all, but after explaining there is no alcohol allowed off of your campsite, as one boy is carrying a bottle of vodka, the other is vaping marijuana, one girl which I know is high on drugs and the other two are drinking coolers, and all these kids are to be at their own site by ten o’clock. But they do head off toward the girls campsite.

I’m now heading out for my last security round for the night for the night, at least in theory, again I’m thinking the park is quiet for a holiday weekend, and then I find these drunken teenagers again this time on the other side of the clubhouse, so again I roust them out of there and this time they decide to head to the boys campsite, at the other end of the park, so I’m hoping other than some noise as they talk, heading that way all will be quiet. I know in my heart the quiet won’t last, so I head to the coach after my shift and wait for the complaint calls to come in, up until now no one has actually complained.

Shortly after midnight I get the call from the manager, there is a noise complaint from near the pool area, a group of teenagers, but they are headed my way, toward the clubhouse, so I asked what steps I should take next, as speaking to them in English has not been working either not understood or just ignored, so the plan is some back-up, and try to get some photos of them and then call the RCMP to deal with the issue. So Larry got called in to help out the new guy, we started our search at the girls site, the guardians are still passed out in lawn chairs, no sign of the group, we walked the whole park, but could never find them, so it is decided to call off the search and see what happens, I filed my report to the manager around one o’clock, and sat by the phone till two before turning in for the night with my phone close at hand.

Monday I rolled out of bed around seven o’clock, as I prepared to finish off some of yesterdays projects, I got the weed wacking done, cleaned up a couple of items, drained the freshwater tank, dumped the black and grey tanks, then sat and had some cereal and finished off last weeks blog, and started this weeks while everything is still fresh in my mind, and Miss Laurie ever the optimist tells me there is only four more holiday weekends left before we pull out. I have now moved to the clam and installed the fly roof over it, it is to help with the rain, and with the floor and the fly it could be used as a tent, and seems to be Mr. Sam escape proof.

There was a mass exudes of guests today, many rigs packing up and pulling out, so my shift should have been very simple and easy, but almost as a test of my patience, a guest somewhat frantic asked if I had seen her husband, as he was missing. They had just checked into the park earlier this afternoon and I had no idea where her husband was, but after speaking with her again I determined that there was possible a touch of a mental concern, so some of the staff and guests assisted in looking for the fellow, he turned up later at a local hospital, and she left to retrieve him, and I did not receive any calls for the rest of the night.

Tuesday the first of my three days off this week, the manager asked if I could write up incident reports on the issues from Sunday night so I made up three reports regarding the issues, I then sat in the Clam with Mr. Sam and enjoyed my day off.

I did take a trip to town to the Post Office, to return my Nomad Internet router as I have cancelled my service, I’m working on a different service option for our return to the States. But more on that a little later as our return becomes closer. Any time you need to sent something across the border it is usually complicated and expensive, this time it was only $22.15, to ship, track, and insure the router.

I also booked the toad into a service shop in Chemainus for next Tuesday for an oil service and a check over, there are a number of issues that need to be addressed, and most involve more equipment that I carry with me.

And just to add to my day off I discovered that I have a leak in our fresh water tank again, so I drained the tank, removed some items from that bay and started a fan to dry things out. I had done a repair before we left Ontario, but I knew it might not hold. the product I picked up to complete the fix was not the best, so now I can do a better repair. The coach just like a house always has something that needs repairing or replacing.

Miss Laurie has a shift in the office, which is where all the bookings are done, as well as where all the complaints end up, she said it all made more sense today, and was felling comfortable changing reservations and booking new ones. The issue is knowing what size rigs fit into what sites, there is no written guidelines, so it is a over time learning process, strange for an organization that seems to have so many written guidelines for everything else.

Wednesday and another day off, Miss Laurie is in the office again today and I am just working on cleaning up some blogs that have been sitting. Miss Laurie has found a supply for rhubarb which is just a few kilometers from the campground, kind of like a drug deal, we need to meet at 6 pm, then off to the local grocery store for the needed supplies to make rhubarb crisp which is a real favorite of ours.

I sat in the Clam with Mr. Sam for a while but it is just too damn cool to be comfortable, I got my June schedule today and it appears that I work Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Monday with Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday off. I’m on security three nights which means on call three nights as well

Thursday and my last day off this week, Miss Laurie is on garden detail today, as she is learning about the operation of the irrigation systems, and how to maintain the different areas. And again I’m working on the computer, doing some banking and paying bills on-line, processing some company bills and just trying to avoid going outside as it is another cool dreary day here on the island.

Friday which is my Monday, starts with me vacuuming the swimming pool, a daily task because of the pine needles from the surrounding trees, there are six skimmers and because of the pine needles they use skimmer socks, and up until recently I didn’t even know that they existed. So the socks have to be cleaned, they protect the pumps as the pine needles can get through the skimmer screens, causing issues in the pump impellors. Today there are only six departures, and I’m the site cleaning today, check out is at 11am and check in is noon so on a busy weekend it could be a busy hour or so, today is not busy and only six sites so should not be to hectic.

This is my only day shift as I swing into the security role for the rest of the week. Which appears to be my regular shift for the month of June, after my site clean up we move on to the book, I refer to it as the “Book of Joy”, it is a daily list of things that need to be addressed in a timely manner, not to be confused with the list of major items to be accomplished that hangs on the wall as a daily reminder of how far we are behind because of the unusually wet, cold, never ending spring.

Because we do not operate noisy equipment on the weekend, just to try not to annoy any more guests than necessary, I spent the afternoon trimming sites on Arizona row. I don’t know why it is called Arizona row, it is not hot and dry, so I’m going to assume it’s because there is such a large quantity of sites jammed into such a small area like many of the Arizona campgrounds. No lawn mover is used, as they can throw stones, so a weed wacker is the weapon of choice, and I spend most of the afternoon trimming the sites.

I guess, I should introduce the players from the Maintenance / Security Crew, Bruce and Larry are the senior members, and both work day shifts as they have fifteen years experience between the two of them. Then there is the three newbies Courtney, Steve and Myself, Courtney works five days shifts a week, her main task is site cleanup along with a list of regular weekly tasks. While Steve and I work opposite shifts, which covers all the security shifts, and also includes lock-up and being on call for any issues, we each work one day a week to cover Courtney’s day off, the joy of being the new guys.

If there is an issue that I’m having, it is the inability to just fix what is broken, now I need to report the issue and wait for the decision to repair comes back, and usually with instruction totally different that I would approach the repair, but I’m the new guy and I also have to realize that we no longer manage the situation, but also don’t have the headache of being in control.

Saturday afternoon, and this afternoon selling firewood is a chunk of my tasks, keeping the wood shed full is where I unload the unsold portion of the firewood from the truck, before returning to the woodlot to reload the truck for the next trip, or restocking the shed. After the wood run usually a quick security check looking for issues or picking out hot spots for later, then a dinner break. After dinner I’m off to close up the pool, eight o’clock is closing time but all the chemical levels need to be checked, skimmers cleaned, filters backwashed, chemical level adjusted, and lock the pool gate for the night.

Now off to the workshop, to check the ‘Book of Joy” for tonight’s task, how many get checked off (completed) depends on the activity in the park, on a quiet night most items get checked off, outside tasks are done on dry evenings and there are normally some items in the shop for those rainy nights, tonight is quiet and dry so I work away at the list until near 10:30 before my last security round, confirming everything is locked and making a final check of the comfort stations, before heading to the coach for an night of being on call.

There are additions made to the “Book of Joy” made almost daily, some items take almost as long to explain, as the time it takes to do the actual item. As the new guy some things seem to just get left for my shift, like digging out old rotten posts to install a new one, I could be wrong, but I’m usually not … jus’saying

Happy Memorial Day to our American Family

Blog 420

Day 1699

Sunday May 15th – Saturday May 21st, 2022

Saturday afternoon and I cut the last blog off as I was preparing to head out for my first shift, an afternoon shift at this brand new to us campground. My first shift was to be from 4 pm till 11 pm and was listed on the schedule as LUOC (Lock-Up & On Call). I was on shift with Bruce, and it was referred to as a training shift, Bruce is the senior person on the maintenance staff having more than ten years experience at this resort.

At my last campground I didn’t have to carry a key for anything, here on our arrival I was handed a key ring with a dozen keys on it. Of course at the previous spot there were more camp sites but far fewer staff. Here the maintenance/security staff alone has a five member crew. With a total staff of twenty five people, and with the May 24 weekend next weekend there is a lot of training going on, in all areas of the park.

The resort is part of a membership group of campgrounds, Holiday Trails membership, there are 175 sites, 50 are tenting sites, the remaining 125 are a variety of combinations, from 50 amp full hook-up to 15 amp partial hook-up. We are in a 30 amp full hook-up site, it is a pull-in site so would only work for a motorhome, our service side backs onto the mini-golf course, and the site is deep enough to park at least three cars behind our 40′ coach. The lot is surrounded by huge spruce trees, the site is graveled so the worst is the spruce needles tracking into the coach and on windy days the pine cones falling onto the coach roof.

I have stripped the toad, removed kayaks, the roof rack, the tow bar from the front, and unpacked most of the pick-up box, we will be a couple of weeks before we are able to get away to do some exploring or getting our kayaks wet. As we are both in learning mode and pretty much whooped after our shifts either physically or mentality, Miss Laurie is trying to learn a list of different rates and rules, depending on membership levels as to what site and length of stay, some pay extra for power usage, some pay a surcharge per pet, lots of different levels and they accept coast to coast and RPI members as well as a host park. The longest stay from now till the fall is 28 days, and most are only two weeks or less.

There is a heated outdoor inground pool 30′ X 60′, a 18 hole mini-putt course, a couple coin operated laundries, two comfort stations with washrooms and showers, a club house for events, a camp store, firewood and kindling for sale, numerous playgrounds throughout the park, and a variety of site sizes to fit lots of different rigs, and we seem to get a lot of different set-ups.

The campground is located on the side of hill, the office is on the top on the side of the Trans-Canada Hwy, and all the sites are a couple of hundred feet down the hill to a reasonable large area, and the Chemainus River is another hundred feet below the level of the camping sites, I ventured down on my day off, and while it was a steep climb back up the toughest part was walking down the path, steep and slippery because of the rain.

There was a lot of water moving down the river, it would make for a great kayak ride downriver, but way to fast to paddle upstream, but definitely a majestic setting. It is Wednesday and I have the day off, but this part of the island is under a wind warning, from what I have been told heavy winds can cause lots of issues with trees falling, but it is more of a winter issue, not so much this time of year.

Well I’m thinking it could be a bit of an issue, as I was working on the blog while streaming some music and the music just quit playing, I thought it strange, but we have mediocre internet here in the park, we are working off of the free hotspot at the camp store. So as I have always said if it’s free you can’t expect much, and because I always have the inverter operating in the coach, power outages don’t usually have any effect on anything electrical in the coach. But because the park power went off, the internet went down, now it is early afternoon on Wednesday, so I never thought too much about it, Then Miss Laurie got back from her work shift in the office, and said it was like a warzone up by the office.

So I ventured out for a walk-about, and there was limbs and branches down everywhere, the camping area is somewhat sheltered on the side of this hill, but the office is fully exposed to much of the wind. And the lawn at the entrance was covered with branches and debris, so the maintenance crew was trying to cleanup while the wind was still blowing, kind of an exercise in futility. I did run across Bruce the head of our maintenance crew, and I told him I could be available to help with the cleanup on Thursday, it was my day off but it was also obvious that they were going to need all hands on deck to get the park ready for the first holiday weekend of the summer.

The park was a huge mess, and it was becoming very obvious that this was going to be a monumental task to get everything back together for the upcoming long weekend, with a number of people coming into the park today, and seventy checking in on Friday alone, every site had to be cleaned in preparation for this coming weekend. We had planned on heading to town for a supply run, Miss Laurie was to spend a couple of hours with Kris on the gardens, but later we would get some supplies.

Well that never happened, as neither one of us got back to the coach till after four o’clock and the decision was made that the next best day would be Saturday, Laurie is off and I’m working the afternoon shift.

Friday was another day of clean up, with those 70 check ins today, and they want to open the pool tomorrow if we can get it cleaned up today, 30′ X 60′ open to the weather pool, surrounded by huge spruce trees. Can you say pine needles? What a mess, the heaters have been on for over a week, and the temperature has climbed up into the seventies, our aim is eighty, but if the chemicals are good it will open tomorrow, even though the daytime temperatures are still only in the mid sixties, quite cold for this area at this time of year.

There are still piles of branches and tree limbs everywhere, we pick them up as we can get to them, we have an old (1988) truck with a dump box, that we use to gather the debris, but we also have all of our regular tasks to complete as we try to make it a great holiday weekend for our guests.

Saturday morning and we are headed to Duncan, the largest town without driving to Victoria or Ninemo, we had driven through part of Duncan on our trip up from Victoria a little more than a week ago. It had a good variety of stores, Walmart, Canadian Tire, Best Buy, Home Depot, a number of grocery stores and it also has a big “Farmers Market” on Saturday mornings.

Our location is on the Trans Canada Highway, and it is a divided road so when we leave the park we must head south to the first turn-a-round, which is around 8 kilometers (5 miles) down the road, which is halfway to Duncan so that was our choice for shopping today. Canadian Tire for a few items, Walmart for some supplies, Pet Smart for cat food, then to London Drugs to get Miss Laurie’s camera repaired.

The last month or so in Arizona Laurie’s camera would take some dark photos, usually at the start of each group of pictures, some research turned up that the Pentax cameras have an inherent fault of the aperture solenoid failing causing the dark photos, so we decided to wait till back in Canada to get it repaired, so it is being shipped to Pentax to be repaired and now we wait.

Our last stop in Duncan was the Farmers Market, and it is a large event, with lots of vendors, I guess we were a little disappointed with the lack of produce, only one vendor had any rhubarb and she was sold out, but a number of wineries and a couple of distilleries. Miss Laurie found some fudge and I picked up a couple of mini Saskatoon berry pies, something we never had back in Ontario but I remember them from many years ago when traveling through the western provinces. And they were just as good as I remembered.

On our way back to the campground, we again can not enter the park with out going to the next intersection to turn around which has us just a few kilometers from Chemainus, the actual closest town if it wasn’t for the divided highway. But we thought it deserved a quick look around, so into the town of Chemainus we ventured, it appears to be about the size of Goderich, it has a beach area, of course it is tidal and the water was near low tide when we were there, a number of breweries, just generally a very nice little town.

This is a photo of the view at the beach and boat ramp in Chemainus, it was a beautiful sunny day, there are a few clouds in the distance and if you strain your eyes real hard you can see the snow capped mountains just under the clouds. There are still snow covered peaks here on the island as well, the iPhone just can not capture the beauty on its own, but it is some beautiful!

Back to the park for a late lunch before I start my afternoon shift at four o’clock till eleven, a big portion of the evening is the firewood run, they have an old Mazda B2000 long box with a 5 speed transmission that we drive through the park selling firewood at $10 a bag and kindling at $9 a bundle, two laps around the park has the truck pretty much empty, and take over an hour by the time you throw in a couple of noisy dog calls, or kids speeding around the park on electric bikes.

The rest of the evening was spent doing the lock-up round, a few security loops, and working on a few little projects in the workshop. I was working with Steve this evening, and luckily my shift was over at eleven, Steve is on-call for the night, so if there is a noise complaint at one o’clock in the morning he is the guy that has to respond.

As you may have noticed this blog did not get published on Saturday night, and this will likely be the case going forward, it just takes time to edit and put the blogs together, and I’m tired of rushing through what I find an enjoyable process

Happy Victoria day Weekend to my Canadian family

Blog 418

Day 1691