Friday July 30th 2010

Today is our day off!!  Going to let Linda sleep in this morning. I have my morning ritual and then down to the office to see Maggie. Maggie is an up beat person, she laughs at almost everything. That is a good way to get the day started.  Nick and Sherry are going to have a pretty hectic day. The main park has the most turn around rooms.  I stopped by to see Nick on my way back home and asked if they needed help.  He said no, that someone over on the other side would have to help. Before I left Roger stopped by and he said they would get the other side if Nick and Sherry could get the Lodge. Worked out quite well, maybe I won’t have to work Saturday!!

Wanted to get a picture of this loaf of bread.  I think it looks pretty good. Has a hole in it where I folded it and it didn’t stick but still looks pretty good and tastes good too!!

Linda got up (later) and we got ready to go to the $100 store.  After getting groceries and walking back out to the car I decided it was pretty hot and I may as well move the camper today since I wasn’t working and really didn’t have anything else to do.  I really didn’t want to move it, not sure why but Nick kind of shamed me into it.

The space is #23 and we were in #25.  Didn’t move far but we are in the shade most of the day. It cooled of nicely after we got set up even though the air conditioner never stopped working during the move.  I started the generator and kept the air running.  Linda couldn’t figure out why the clocks kept time.  That was it and I also found out that the generator would run the air and the microwave at the same time.  I figured it would but had never tried it. With everything running it makes the generator work pretty hard but that is good for it to keep it in good working condition.

After Nick got off work he stopped by and showed us tomorrows sheet.  Lots of check marks on it.  I think every room in the Lodge and motel were on there plus all but one cabin in the main park and the house were on it. Need help Nick???  Duh!!  I am going to do the main park and he and Sherry will take care of the rest and what they can’t get I’m sure Johnny Mac will take up the slack.  We will see tomorrow how it works out.

Linda was really tired today, hopefully she will get rested up before Sunday. We watched a little TV and I worked on the computer for awhile before going to bed.  Y’all have a splendiferous day OK???

Thursday July 29th 2010

This month is almost over!  Summer is going fast, won’t be long and we will be heading back home.  Looking at the calendar I believe our last day will be four weeks from this coming Monday. According to Roger and Heidi next month is supposed to be a lot slower.  We will see.  We told Heidi this morning that we probably wouldn’t be back next year and I definitely wasn’t going to sign a contract or commitment.  We told her that if we decided later on we would give her a call.  To much work for an old man. I’m not going to call her an “old lady”…..

Our workload for today wasn’t to bad except for the cabins and Nick and Sherry were on the third one before we even left for work!! I saw them a couple of times and Nick was sure sweating, it is hot and muggy, think I’ve heard that before!  I think they finished just after noon with all the cleaning and supplying the cabins with linens…THAT WAS FAST!!!   We spent a lot of time over at the main park and started on the house. When Johnny Mac stopped for their break (split shift) we went back to the Lodge and did the refreshes and one of the check outs.  Johnny still had one room left to do plus he was going to finish the laundry.  As busy as Compton Ridge is, we are still a little short of help for the crazy times like this week and next week.  Almost all of the check outs will be on Monday.  That probably gives us a lot of time to finish them.  I don’t think they have to many coming back in.  All in all I guess we had a pretty good day, got everything done and I was in a better mood. 

Linda has an appointment on Monday to see the Doctor about her eyes. Not sure if they will say anything, she has been OK now for 3 days. Still going to take her in though.

After work we were going to go to Wal Mart and on the way out we decided to stop at “Pepper Bellies” a Mexican restaurant to try it out. I had to go out and take a picture of Pepper Bellies.  I am standing right behind our camper taking this picture.  We drove down which would actually be a very short walk…..

This is Belinda, our waitress and Chris, he wanted to be in the picture.  The food was pretty good, Linda got nachos and I got a green chili Verde burrito.  They were pretty good.  After eating we decided to go back home though.  Didn’t feel like going shopping then so we went back home and relaxed.  Will probably feel more like shopping tomorrow.  I think we may go to bed early…..Night everyone……

Wednesday July 28th 2010

Today should be a good day.  I checked with Ginny and the workload for Linda and I is heavy and I know we won’t get it all done but we will make a good stab at it.  Can’t remember now what all has to be done, I know 3 turnarounds and a few check ins and three other check outs plus some refreshes, about 6 I think.  Could be worse.

I got up early and thought I would make bread, we used the last of our cinnamon bread yesterday so need to have something for breakfast.

The bread turned out quite well, not sure what it tastes like but it looks good. Cinnamon rolls look different.  Our oven is a convection oven and the round pan is from the convection oven and works great for nine rolls.  I had to use the oven 3 times for this. I had tried putting one loaf pan on top of another and it worked but the bottom pan didn’t quite get done and this loaf of bread would have touched the top of the oven.  Didn’t take long, about 45 minutes I think, about 15 minutes per item.

Back to work.  Nick had a plan for Thursday to get all the cabins done and furnished with linens before the check in time. So much for plans. That started the day out bad and from there it just got more depressing.  I was almost to the point yesterday I really didn’t care if anything got done.  May have been the heat but was probably my mood or just getting tired.  We finished the day though and still have 3 check outs for tomorrow and one of them is the house.  The house really doesn’t look bad it just takes a long time to do.

Linda and I are going out to eat with Daniel and Rachel.  Think we are going to the Golden Corral.  I should have taken a picture of the sign because I’m not sure if that is the correct spelling.  We  went over and took a couple of pictures of their car that they are trying to sell then came back over to our camper and put them on an email and Rachel sent the email to the interested party.  Sure hope it works out for them. They are trying to get a pop up camper and this one has air conditioning.  Linda and I were surprised at the restaurant when our neighbor from Sikeston came up and said “Hi Neighbor”.  You just don’t expect to see people from back home but it is a small world, and Branson is packed!!  Probably other people here that we know but that was a really pleasant surprise!!

The food at the Golden Corral was really good!  I was surprised.  The last time we ate at one of them was probably fifteen years ago.  We found out why we don’t go to all you can eat places like that, we definitely ate to much.  After the good meal and conversation with Daniel and Rachel we went back home.  I was plum tuckered!!  Linda was stuffed!!  I had to go to bed, she didn’t want to but did and she had some problems during the night.  Woke up about 1AM and she was miserable. What a way to end a fun night!!! Sure hope she feels good in the morning…Nighty night….

Tuesday July 27th 2010

Another gorgeous day in the neighborhood!!  Supposed to be a little cooler today and sunny, maybe muggy but who cares??  Enjoy life, it could be cold and snowing!!!

I was told yesterday’s blog was kind of rambling.  I can’t remember.  I will have to read it again.  I know that one day I lost some things that I had written but not sure if it was yesterday’s or not.  Here I go rambling again.

Went down to see Maggie again this morning.  The workload is actually pretty light.  We only have two refreshes over at the main park.  The golf cart had a low tire which I had Charlie take a look at and he aired it up.  Ended up in the afternoon Nick changed it. Back to the story, while Charlie was working on the cart I went ahead and did the two refreshes and shampooed the carpeting in one of the motel rooms.  Didn’t take long and the room won’t be rented until Friday or Saturday so it will have time to dry.

Over at the Lodge Nick and Sherry were doing rooms and I can’t remember how many there were but we started helping and Nick and Sherry quit about noon or 1PM.  They are going to work a split shift this week.  They will come back in on Thursday for a half day, give or take, to help with an over abundance of check ins and the 7 cabins that we are going to leave for them.  This is Nick’s idea and it sounds good to me.  They are going to knock them out like a well oiled machine and supply them with towels and linens which is a first for the cabins!  7 cabins would take Linda and I all day. They will do it like an assembly line.  Go for it Nick.

Had to put this picture in here, This is Dee and her 3 kids Gianna, Kedric and Jared.  This is Dee’s birthday!!!  Happy Birthday Dee!!  I won’t tell how old you are. You may not read this anyway but I will be nice..

We talked to  Daniel and Rachael today, I am going to take a couple pictures for them so they can email them to someone.  We are going to go out to eat tomorrow night, Golden Corral I think, or someplace.  They are really nice people.  Think the heat is getting the best of Daniel though. Can’t blame them, it is really hot out and humid.

Well, the evening went by pretty nice.  We did laundry and watched some TV…Linda got on me about talking with Nick.  I made her leave the office when she was talking to Maggie, then we stopped by Nick and Sherry’s for about an hour I think, Linda’s feet were starting to hurt so I had to take her home.  OK, time to quit, Bye Y’all….

Monday July 26th 2010

Well we made it through yesterday and woke up this morning!! Think it is going to be a good day!!

As usual I went down to check with Maggie about the workload. Nick and Sherry knocked out a load of rooms yesterday and we have two left over at the main park and we figured we would have time to do the cabins today also. It seemed unusual that when we started on a cabin they would rent it out, before we finished, that happened on 3 out of the 4 we cleaned!! I think the park may make a profit this year, but who am I to think that?? We got some really pleasant help from Nick and Sherry when we were cleaning one of the cabins.  The people came to look at it right after we started and they said they were going to rent it.  They needed linens. Not a big deal but for 8 people that means 8 of everything except sheets and blankets. Nick and Sherry had them all boxed up for us to take down, saved us a lot of time, like working with Nick and Sherry.. The day went well, actually went fast. Linda still worked in the laundry except when we did the cabins and she helped me there. Her eyes seemed to be normal today and we couldn’t get an appointment with the Dr. Actually couldn’t even get an answer. Oh well, will probably go to another urgent care or something.

Found another moth and I can’t remember the name of them but they are sure pretty…

This one showed up a little better on the wood compared to the siding on the Lodge, for some reason this reminds me of the Lily of the Valley in the Bible and how beautiful they are. Wonder why He would make an insect so beautiful???

OK, now for the food part.  I wanted pancakes for supper.  We brought our electric skillet from home and I made pancakes.  What a disaster.  I did something wrong not sure what it was but the first 4 or 5 stuck so bad we couldn’t scrape them off with a spatula!!!

They finally stopped sticking but the mess on our “fine china” didn’t look appetizing.  Wish we still had Bruno, he would have loved this. Oh, the electric skillet, I think it is Miracle Maid and Linda and I bought this before we were married.  He mother had a MM party and this is what we bought. Let me think now, we have been married for over a hundred years so that make it almost 39 years old.  Still works great but one handle is broken. Actually we have been married 38 years (I think) so it is a little over 38 years old, close to my age!!

We had a nice laid back evening. It is cool in the camper, probably because it is cloudy outside.  Comfortable night though.  I don’t get much out of the weather anymore, it is usually the same, hot and muggy!  I’m not complaining though, much rather have the hot muggy than the cold windy weather.

Time to get some sleep so via condios Y’all…..

Sunday July 25th 2010

Today is Sunday, seems like Monday for some reason, maybe because we were off Friday and Saturday.

I think it is supposed to be a little cooler and less humid today, it sure is nice this morning.  

Went down and talked to Maggie this morning and checked the workload. Going to be a long day.  I think there are 27 checkouts but with Nick and Sherry it will go well.

Got Linda a new eye patch.  She has been seeing double and this may help.  She doesn’t see double all the time but we are trying to see if this may help a little….

I’m lost now, I hit the back space and lost a picture and about 2 or 3 paragraphs!!  Not good!

Linda and I went to the main park to clean the motel and we, by the end of the day, finished the motel and helped with two rooms at the Lodge.  I’m not sure how many Nick and Sherry did, I don’t think I can count that high. Linda stayed in the laundry which helped immensely due to all the laundry and folding that had to be done.

On our way over to the main park after lunch we saw something in the trees so we investigated.. Turkey Buzzards…

I made a close up of this one but I can’t get it to download here…Maybe with more practice I can learn how to do it.

Went to church at Friendly Baptist again tonight and guess who I saw???

James and Janice.  They went there this morning (they are in the back) and Bob and his wife.  I don’t know her name.  Bob was one of the founders of the Baldnobbers.  He is the song leader at the church and he sings a lot of songs from the old song book that I have never heard before. Good to learn new old songs! (is that an oxymoron?) Linda wasn’t with me, so we didn’t get to go out for pizza with them at the Pizza Hut, bummer…

Well, that’s about all folks, wish I could have gotten a close up of the turkey buzzard, but I can’t figure out how to get it from my album..I will keep trying…Bye Y’all….

The above picture is the Pastor and the lady is the banjo player!  She is 92 and can play a mean banjo…

If I keep messing around I won’t be able to read this….

Saturday July 24th 2010

This month is going fast!!  Seems like just yesterday was the 23rd!!!

I will have to say that the time at home went fast but was really nice. Nice to sleep in our own bed, the central air is quiet, we can walk around without bumping into counters etc.  Just nice to be home. I was up early of course and walked around out side checking “things”. I see that one of my azalea plants made it the other nine are toast, that’s the color anyway, burnt, dried up etc.  The farmers fields look good though but they irrigate them…

 

I’m still amazed at how straight they make the rows.  I think they use the GPS, at least that is what I’ve heard.  They haven’t irrigated this yet but they put out plastic pipe and cut small holes in it every other row and flood it for a day or two.  This is pretty sandy soil so it soaks up the water pretty fast. 

About 8AM I figured I could go into town to the bank, post office, gas station and the $100 store.  Post office didn’t open until 9AM the bank didn’t open until 9AM so I went and got the oil changed in the car.  Worked out great.  They finished about 9AM and I had to take a couple pictures of this….

Car wash comes with the oil change. It is also a lot cheaper than getting it done at the dealership and they don’t wash it.

Professionals!!  They did a good job but they couldn’t figure out why I kept taking pictures, they kind of thought I might be putting out a contract on them.  I told them I put it on my blog and they figured that was cool.  I told them I would put their picture on a milk carton.  They were quite happy to do their job and even as early as it was it was HOT!!

Thought that I would take a couple of pictures of our “home”.  It isn’t much but every time I think about selling it I can’t think of any place that I would rather be especially since our place is paid for.  There are so many things I can tinker with here that I will never run out of things to do…

Not much to look at but “we have a mansion just over the hilltop”!!! Guess to go on “some day yonder we shall never more wander”.  Some people really wonder why we do what we do and it is hard to put into words, but the challenge of something new is exciting.  Meeting all the wonderful people is also a perk that is without price.  Seeing people again during travels is also a great perk.  If we stayed at home, no relatives and only a few good friends, gets tiresome.  One day we won’t be able to do this anymore and then we will stay home.  As long as I can work and enjoy working I think we will keep on doing this.  Moving along…. I finally got Linda up about 10AM and her double vision (after she got her eyes open) seemed to be gone Praise the Lord!!!  We finished getting packed up and turning off everything and got on the road about 11AM.  Had a pretty good trip back, it was already in the 90s when we left and the highest temp I saw was 95.  I think here in Branson it was almost 95, the camper was still kind of cool.

We checked with Ginny at the office to see what tomorrow was going  to be like.  It is going to be like WORK!!!  I think I counted 27 checkouts!! That would take Linda and I four days to finish.  I’m glad we work with Nick and Sherry, I feel kind of bad though that they have to carry us.  They work so much faster than we do but we can’t go any faster. Think I’m getting old.

We thought about moving the camper to a shaded area but the spot we picked has a truck parked in it and we aren’t in any hurry to move. We will wait until later in the week.  Going to take it easy tonight, had soup and sandwiches for supper and a Klondike Bar!!  The freezer doesn’t keep them frozen very good but they sure taste good!!  Have to get some sleep so I will be on top of the job tomorrow…Night Y’all…

Friday July 23rd 2010

Got up kind of early this morning. We are going to drive back to Sikeston and do a few things.  Went to visit Maggie to check the workload, even though we aren’t working, I like to see what is going on. Nick and Sherry aren’t getting a good deal, hope they ask for help!  They are a lot faster than Linda and me but there is one heck of  a lot of work.  If I had the phone or email I would call just to see how things went.

Hopefully things went better for them than for us.  Almost as soon as we left, Linda had a dizzy spell and we stopped in Springfield for gas and now she has double vision.  We got home about 3PM and I had a few things to do and Linda figured she needed to see a Dr.  We went into town and got to the Urgent Care Clinic about 450PM and they were open until 6PM. I pretty much new what they were going to say and that was she needed to see a Dr.  OK $35 for that assessment.  We will wait until we get to
Branson and try someone from Skaggs. We hear that is an excellent hospital.  Guess I don’t have much faith in the Drs around Sikeston.

Well, to finish up a few things here, I did a little trimming, me an Mighty Mac!!

This is a tree in our backyard.  The suckers really grow fast.

Mighty Mac did a pretty good job on those little suckers!!

This tree even grows mushrooms!

This is our pecan tree.  It will have a few pecans this year.  The small one still hasn’t produced anything yet.

Not much going on tonight, we didn’t get to town in time to get the mail etc. Will have things to do tomorrow for sure.  We still need to get back to Branson then we will have to find a Dr there to see Linda. Lots of things to do and a short time to do it…Got to go, Bye Y’all…

Thursday July 22nd 2010

Today is our Friday!!!  Have two days off starting tomorrow which is Friday and Saturday.. We plan on going back to Sikeston (home) to get our mail and do a few things that need to be done and look at things that should be done but won’t get done.  Sounds exciting huh???  This will probably be our last time home until we finish work the last of August.  Time is going pretty fast.

Have another picture of Karen working her magic with the flowers… 

This picture doesn’t really do justice to the flowers, they are really beautiful and a great cover for the dumpster that I kept out of the picture.

Work!!!  When we got our sheet it looked like a pretty easy day. Something we could get done before quitting time anyway. We cleaned one room at the Lodge (pictured above) then went over to the main park to do a turn around.  Things were going pretty good until I notice the air conditioner running in another room, that is a no no!  I called the office and they said “yes, it is occupied” so that means we have to do a refresh, and I told them it wasn’t on our work sheet. Well, come to find our there was a lot of things left off our worksheet, bummer!  We had some interruptions during our morning so we were a little later than usual. Then with the other things we decided to work through lunch and quit early. Linda got to quit early and I went and cleaned the last cabin at 3:50PM and finished about 4:45PM.  We got most of the laundry done at the main park and Johnny finished the laundry at the Lodge.  I think Nick and Sherry will have a rough day tomorrow, sounds like a lot to do.

 

Tonight was our “mandatory” pot luck, Linda fixed her fajitas and I fixed the fried potatoes and onions. Linda’s fajitas were gone and I had a few fried potatoes left so we will take them with us tomorrow when we go home. I did take a few pictures of the MPL (mandatory pot luck)

The little girl in the above picture sat across from Linda and I and she was quite a little girl.  I know she is Susan’s grand daughter but I don’t know what her name is.  We actually did quite a bit of talking.  She definitely wasn’t bashful.  She said I teased like her grandpa Bubba, not his real name but he likes Bubba!!!

Nothing special about this picture, Don on he left is one of the cooks, very nice, and his wife Carol, who isn’t in the picture worked with us a couple of days on house keeping.  They are very good workers.

This is MY plate!!  Where to start???  The thing on top is a steak, the thing in the front of the plate is fried spam, to the left is chicken lasagna, the thing under the steak is a kabob, you can’t see the salad but I do have a lettuce salad under all that plus tomatoes and fruit.  I couldn’t go back for seconds.  There sure are some good cooks here.  Some people don’t like fried spam but I thought it was delicious! Guess there aren’t many things I don’t like.

Well after eating all that it was time to go home and relax, it was late and we were tired before we went over to the MPL.  We didn’t stay up very long.  Want to be rested for tomorrow so I will say adios Y’all…..

Wednesday July 21st 2010

Today is supposed to be a little cooler, not much but a little. So much for the weather forecast.

The front desk person, Ginny Mac, not her name, is at the front desk until 10AM so I went down to check the workload.  Not bad for today. Johnny Mac is working also and I like Johnny Mac, he is willing to do anything and keeps working until it is done.  Linda and I take care of the cleaning and he does the running and the odd jobs.  We had a couple checkouts and a couple refreshes and some arrivals.  We finished pretty early so I got the carpet shampooer out and shampooed room #111 at the Lodge.  For some reason the room smells like burnt rubber.  Smells like a vacuum cleaner belt that is slipping.  The smell persisted even after the shampoo but the carpet looked nicer.  I put the dehumidifier in the room to help dry the carpet a little and maybe it will help take some of the odor out also.

We finished the laundry at both parks and by that time it was almost 5PM, quitting time!

Today I get to try out the camp stove, going to fry sausage and eggs.  After a little help from Nick I got it lit and it seems to work fine.  Then, I was going to fry some chicken for Linda’s fajitas, that is when the trouble began. I couldn’t get the stove to light again.  I couldn’t get any gas to the burner. After about a half hour trying everything I could think of I finally took the chicken inside, boxed up the stove and parts and took it back to Wal Mart.  Got my money back and decided our stove in the camper will work fine for today and tomorrow.

Guess what?  It’s Wednesday!  I was so into that little stove I forgot it was Wednesday, church night! If you want to know the truth, this is Thursday morning and I just remembered it!  A little slow??  Maybe that is why the stove didn’t work?? Guess I will never know for sure.

Tomorrow night is the pot luck “mandatory”.  Hopefully we will get our stuff done in time to go eat.  Linda is making the fajitas and I will fry some taters and onions.  Going to be hot in here.  By the time we get back it should be cool again.

Hopefully Friday we will be able to go back to Sikeston (home) for a day and get our mail and mow the lawn etc.  I really don’t have a good picture to put on here but I think I will put one of our awning.  I put it down before we went back to work at noon.

This is a close up picture of the dark stripe on our awning and if you look close you can see bubbles.  Not supposed to be bubbles on the fabric. I may have to see about that.  By the time we left the bubbles were almost gone.  Wonder what is making the fabric bubble, maybe the heat?  It was rolled up at the time, I had just unrolled it and I thought it was drops of water. This only happened on the dark blue stripe.  Enough rambling, Linda worked quite awhile tonight getting the chicken and stuff ready, and I watched TV!  Going to get some sleep tonight so, so long Y’all…

Tuesday July 20th 2010

Today is payday!! May have to hire an armored truck to get all that money to the bank!!

I decided to make some bread this morning, no pictures, and decided cinnamon bread would do just fine.  I put a little to much sugar in it and it didn’t stick together very good but it turned out quite nicely. The brown sugar is a little grainy but that’s OK I guess. Still tastes decent.

The workload today was pretty easy and I didn’t get to go over and talk to Maggie early and she thought I probably had the day off or something. When I told her I made bread she kind of understood. She asked for some to see if it was OK.  We took her some.

The main park only had an arrival and a refresh.  That doesn’t take long. Linda and I did a couple little odd jobs that only took a few minutes then we went over to the Lodge and helped Nick and Sherry with a couple rooms. This afternoon we checked cabins to make sure there wasn’t something that looked out of place and the only thing we could find was the grass needed weed eating and Bobby is taking care of that. Other than that they looked great. Nick and Sherry worked on one more room and laundry. That will make a good start for tomorrow.  Johnny Mac will be coming in early, about 7:30AM  I think. Not sure what all he will do in the morning. Pools will need to be cleaned etc.

HMMM.   I just lost a paragraph that I wrote, wonder where it went??? Probably floating around in cyber space some where….  Anyway, I was saying we took the golf cart over to Bob to fix, has a broken wire or something.  He also fixed one of the dryers.  The door that is held up by a chain has the gasket coming out and he glued it back in place.  Should be ready by tomorrow.  We got the carpet shampooer out and shampooed the carpet in Motel #2.  Wanted to do #1 but it is rented tomorrow and really didn’t want a wet floor.  The water was black so I figure the carpet was pretty dirty.  Will do the rest of the rooms, downstairs, when they are vacant for awhile.  #1 room is the worst I think.

After work Linda fixed hamburgers and I lit the grill.  I had a hard time getting paper to burn but after about an hour the charcoal was finally going and I got the burgers on.  Didn’t take long to cook them, it was hot enough outside that I didn’t need a lot of fire, (just kidding).  Burgers were great, I think we will try our new stove tonight.  We will figure out something to fix. Linda is really tired tonight, she should have gone to bed about 8PM but waited until the weather was on.  I think she would have felt better in the morning if she had gone to be.  I felt pretty good for a change, but I was ready after the weather…..sweet dreams Y’all….

Monday July 19th 2010

Got a call last night and I wanted to put this in first.  Our neighbor Daniel called and gave us some good news!!  His son Wesley got saved last night!!  Praise The LORD!!  He was really happy.  I am going to put a picture of the family here, I’m sure you can tell which one is Wesley!

Wesley and Keaton are twins, I can’t tell them apart but Daniel was sure happy, and Keaton is asking questions so it probably won’t take him long.

Now I will go back a ways, it is going to be sunny, hot and muggy again today.  I checked with Maggie this morning about our work load and it doesn’t look real bad.  Next weekend will be the bad one and in the middle of the week it is usually quiet.  Again, Nick and Sherry carried the load.  Linda and I kept busy but didn’t have a lot to do.  I think we may start shampooing carpeting.  Some of the rooms really look bad.  Wanted to wait until Roger came back to work tomorrow.  I’m not sure but I don’t think the owner knows much about that kind of thing but I could be wrong, wouldn’t be the first time.

I don’t know what kind of flowers these are but they are sure pretty.

If you look real close you can see the hummingbird on the left side of the feeder.  They are really fast and seem to know when you are going to take a picture.  There are usually 4 or 5 fighting over the feeder but when you get close or watch, they fly away.

I went the $100 store again last night.  I wanted to get a small propane stove for outside.  It is just to hot inside to use the stove or oven in here. I did find one, I just wanted a one burner stove and the only one they had was a two burner.  It will work.  We are having our “mandatory” pot luck again this Thursday and I didn’t want to heat up the camper any more than necessary. In the afternoon it really gets warm in here, we are parked right in the direct sun for most of the afternoon.  I should probably move to a shady spot, but then it would probably get cold, I doubt that!!

I defrosted our freezer last night.  Our ice cream is really soft and we have a lot of frost on the back of the freezer.  Hope it helps. 

Well, guess I will stop rambling…have a great night Y’all….

Sunday July 18th 2010

Sun is shining and is going to be a beautiful day!!  Hot and muggy though but better than windy and cold.  I think I could get used to this hot weather!

Got a picture of our new microwave and refrigerator!

Not much to look at but we can use the microwave and not have to turn the air conditioner off.  I like that.  Baking will still have to be done in the morning though, to hot in the afternoon.

The day went quite well for us.  I know that Nick and Sherry had a pretty hectic day. They probably did twice what we did, not sure if it is the age but I bet it is because we just aren’t fast.  We got done in time to come to the Lodge and help with one room. Gave them some time though to catch up on the laundry. The laundry at the main park is mostly finished.  Still have a couple blankets to wash and there are still sheets and towels to fold.  Not bad, maybe tomorrow will be a little easier.

Went to church tonight at Friendly Baptist, they had a youth group in from Natchez MS I took a few pictures….

This picture is kind of hard to see but they did a black light skit and it had a really good message, well both of their skits had good messages.

This skit represented the sins of the world and the one on the floor was chained and buffeted by all these sins.  The next picture is the release by Christ from all these sinful habits.

The preachers daughter, from Natchez, was a singer, song writer…

I think she was a good singer but I couldn’t understand any of the words she was singing.  I’m not good that way anyway.  I have trouble with words, tunes I can understand:-)

Now I have another picture that I just have to put in here. It is a spider and we have plenty of spiders here….

This doesn’t show up very well. It is on the tire of our camper. Hope it just eats insects…

We had an early night.  I went to bed about 9:20PM.  I woke up early this morning, about 2AM I think, just couldn’t go back to sleep.  So much for another exciting day in Branson…..Bye Y’all…

Saturday July 17th 2010

HMMMM…wish I could start with something different but it is going to be another hot and muggy day.  When I went outside the camper was just dripping wet and it wasn’t raining!  It is humid!!

After my morning ritual, I  walked down to the office to see Maggie and see what was going on. This is my day off but I like to see what is going on anyway. We go to talking about the weekend and next weekend and it really looks like it is going to be busy.  I think next weekend every room is rented and Sunday there will be 21 checkouts, almost every room. After thinking about this and the schedule change, which wasn’t exactly what I expected, I talked to Linda and asked her if she thought Friday and Saturday would be good days to take off. Reason being, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday will be really hectic and Nick and Sherry will be working alone on Monday and Tuesday.  He doesn’t care but I do, if it were me looking at all that work with no help I think I would get a little stressed!  I talked to Roger and Heidi and asked if we could work Monday and Tuesday and try to get the work done before Nick and Sherry had their weekend. My thinking is that we all take different days off and we will never have to work alone!!  Amazing I would think of something like that huh?

Well, after that was all straightened out we had to go to the $100 store to get some groceries.  I got a new (cheap) watch and some new (cheap) tennis shoes and a small microwave oven that we can use outside.  Our air conditioner and microwave will not work at the same time in the camper..  Pops a breaker. By the time we finished it cost over $165!!!  Amazing how easy it is to spend money.

We didn’t do much the rest of the day. Set the time on my new watch, took awhile, then fixed spaghetti for supper. I like our spaghetti, it doesn’t have tomatoes in it or tomato sauce.  We use smoked sausage, onions and garlic, then olive oil to make it slide down better.  Sounds appetizing doesn’t it?  Later on I had to have some chips and guacamole. I get hungry at night for some reason.  I also had a hard time staying awake until after the weather then to bed…..Have a great night catch you tomorrow….

Friday July 16th 2010

It is supposed to be a little cooler today, sure would be nice even though it will only be one day.

Today will be a light day at work. I walked over and talked to Maggie after 8AM to check out the work load.  I think this will be one of the lightest days we have had for awhile.  Nick and Sherry have the most to do so when Linda and I get done we will try to help them at the Lodge.

Saw a bug at the Lodge and wanted to get a picture. Now this bug is pretty small and I had to get really close to see it and the picture is a little blurry but you can still see the colors…

I think that I was only about 6 inches away from this critter but it was sure colorful.  Nick got to see something that I have never seen, a copperhead. It was curled up under a tree.  I wouldn’t know a copperhead from a half dollar, well, maybe a garden snake.

We had meetings today, the office workers had their meeting and the house cleaners, well, we had ours.  It didn’t take long and was to the point, we are short some people so the schedule was changed slightly to cover the gaps.  Shucks!!!  I should have had Roger take a picture of the cleaning crew, just thought about that.  Talk about slow thinking!!  And to think I took a picture of a bug but not the crew… wonder why???

The day went pretty much as planned. We are getting a few supplies in that are needed and Johnny Mac is trying to fix a vacuum cleaner from the “house” that seems like a good cleaner but has a few problems. We have a couple others that need some repairs also.

I was just sitting here trying to think what we did after work….Oh,  I fixed sausage and toast and Linda fried the eggs.  Good supper. For some reason I was hungry the rest of the night. Had some ice cream then some chips and guacamole, and that seemed to help.  I stayed up to watch the weather but sure had a hard time staying awake.  Think I will sleep good tonight….Adios Y’all….

Thursday July 15th 2010

Well (deep subject) I think that it will be another hot one today. It is decent outside this morning and when I finished with my reading and computing I went outside to see if I could help Ron and Barbara get their camper out of the parking spot, which is pretty tight. To late…he was out, hooked up and ready to go.

They have a lot of “stuff” They had it all packed and ready to go though before I got out there. He drives the truck and she drives the SUV pulling the trailer with a motorcycle.  They have 2 motorcycles.  I guess they rode one while they were here, I didn’t see it though.  They are headed for Cherokee NC for another job, hopefully a full time job.

Had to get a picture of Linda’s first day back at work!  She cleans the nooks and crannies I just don’t have patience for.  This is a cabin, called the “cozy cabin”. One bedroom and a futon. It is small but actually I think it would be very comfortable. Not hard to clean but still takes us quite awhile to clean it.  We aren’t very fast. Nick and Sherry did the Lodge and the cabins. They are fast and efficient.  We cleaned the House and did a bunch of laundry, cleaned some motel rooms and really, had a pretty nice day.  Maybe the rush has passed and we will be able to keep up with the flow.

We went to a show tonight called the “Haygoods”. Before we left we were going to go to IHOP and eat but they wanted everyone to meet at the office at 7PM.  Well, we decided to eat at the “Whistle Stop Cafe” here at the main park.  Had a pretty good meal, Linda had BBQ and I had chicken fried steak.  We got to eat with Don and Lil, the cooks.  Hope that was her name.  They are from Willow Brook, IL I think, somewhere around Chicago. They know where Dixon is anyway.  Back to the show, the show consisted of six brothers and a sister and the youngest was seventeen and the oldest I think was thirty three. They had been performing since 1993.  They were talented!  All played musical instruments and sang. They also danced. This was an excellent show.  After the show they had drawings for prizes and Nick and Sherry won $50!!  YES!!  That was nice, there was a pretty large crowd of people there so even one from Compton Ridge winning anything was really good.

Here are a couple pictures I took during the show.  I was surprised some turned out quite well for low light and me holding the camera. I like my little camera!!

I was surprised that this one turned out at all, they were definitely not standing still (above).

The above picture was almost at the end of the show, why do I think that?? It was the last picture I took:-)  This was definitely a show to see.  There are so many shows here in Branson it would take most of the summer to see them all. One of the couples that went with us said that last year they went to 60 shows. I don’t think I am that energetic. They were telling us which ones are really good and the ones that you should leave until last. Good information.

Well we got back to the camper about 10:30PM and it is way past my bed time.  I wasn’t real tired but I know that we have another day of work. We were going to go home this weekend but our friend, Jim mowed our lawn so we decided to wait another week, that will give us about 5 more weeks before we take the camper home. The summer is going great here, we lose a lot of work campers, two left yesterday and another couple left about 3 days ago.  Roger and Robert can’t figure out why it is so hard to keep workers! Anyway, going to bed and get some sleep…Night Y’all…

Thursday July 15th 2010

Well (deep subject) I think that it will be another hot one today. It is decent outside this morning and when I finished with my reading and computing I went outside to see if I could help Ron and Barbara get their camper out of the parking spot, which is pretty tight. To late…he was out, hooked up and ready to go.

They have a lot of “stuff” They had it all packed and ready to go though before I got out there. He drives the truck and she drives the SUV pulling the trailer with a motorcycle.  They have 2 motorcycles.  I guess they rode one while they were here, I didn’t see it though.  They are headed for Cherokee NC for another job, hopefully a full time job.

Had to get a picture of Linda’s first day back at work!  She cleans the nooks and crannies I just don’t have patience for.  This is a cabin, called the “cozy cabin”. One bedroom and a futon. It is small but actually I think it would be very comfortable. Not hard to clean but still takes us quite awhile to clean it.  We aren’t very fast. Nick and Sherry did the Lodge and the cabins. They are fast and efficient.  We cleaned the House and did a bunch of laundry, cleaned some motel rooms and really, had a pretty nice day.  Maybe the rush has passed and we will be able to keep up with the flow.

We went to a show tonight called the “Haygoods”. Before we left we were going to go to IHOP and eat but they wanted everyone to meet at the office at 7PM.  Well, we decided to eat at the “Whistle Stop Cafe” here at the main park.  Had a pretty good meal, Linda had BBQ and I had chicken fried steak.  We got to eat with Don and Lil, the cooks.  Hope that was her name.  They are from Willow Brook, IL I think, somewhere around Chicago. They know where Dixon is anyway.  Back to the show, the show consisted of six brothers and a sister and the youngest was seventeen and the oldest I think was thirty three. They had been performing since 1993.  They were talented!  All played musical instruments and sang. They also danced. This was an excellent show.  After the show they had drawings for prizes and Nick and Sherry won $50!!  YES!!  That was nice, there was a pretty large crowd of people there so even one from Compton Ridge winning anything was really good.

Here are a couple pictures I took during the show.  I was surprised some turned out quite well for low light and me holding the camera. I like my little camera!!

I was surprised that this one turned out at all, they were definitely not standing still (above).

The above picture was almost at the end of the show, why do I think that?? It was the last picture I took:-)  This was definitely a show to see.  There are so many shows here in Branson it would take most of the summer to see them all. One of the couples that went with us said that last year they went to 60 shows. I don’t think I am that energetic. They were telling us which ones are really good and the ones that you should leave until last. Good information.

Well we got back to the camper about 10:30PM and it is way past my bed time.  I wasn’t real tired but I know that we have another day of work. We were going to go home this weekend but our friend, Jim mowed our lawn so we decided to wait another week, that will give us about 5 more weeks before we take the camper home. The summer is going great here, we lose a lot of work campers, two left yesterday and another couple left about 3 days ago.  Roger and Robert can’t figure out why it is so hard to keep workers! Anyway, going to bed and get some sleep…Night Y’all…