Travels with AURORA

Date:                           October 11, 2008

Location:                    Horn Lake, MS

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Oct 11, 2008

As the day illuminates Connie and I are about to embark on a new adventure at the Audubon Point RV Park in Horn Lake, MS.  This is not our first time as new workampers, but we “Yankees” are in a new environment in the Deep South.  We have been further south, geographically, but I feel we are to enjoy a new realm of southern philosophy and living as we venture forth.

We are, already, enjoying the warmth and acceptance that has been afforded us as we step into the life of a southern charm.  Many questions will be asked and answered as we investigate the pleasures and adventures of working in Mississippi for the winter.

I am sure it will be, at least, interesting.

            And so begins my new BLOG as posted on the Workamping Web Site.  It is a lot smaller and much truncated, but I am sure that my loyal reader, or readers would expect that this cerebral meandering would still fill a page or two of typing frivolity and not be limited to just a few short sentences of BS.  I will attempt to not disappoint you.

            Connie and I have, indeed, arrived in Mississippi and are about to begin our winter’s adventure as workampers at this RV Park.  We have left New York to allow it to enter into the doldrums of winter and ventured to the edges of the Deep South to find new adventure.  The finding, I am sure, will be easy.  The enjoying may need some encouraging.  As I stated in my opening WK BLOG, “Many questions will be asked and answered as we investigate the pleasures and adventures of working in Mississippi for the winter.”  Come along with me for the ride and the adventure.

            Our summer was, as most of you are well aware, spent at The Grand Island KOA.  It was a Tale of Two Cities many times. It was “The best of Time . . . . .  “  It was, most meaningfully, near our family and that managed to balance any other emotions, or frustrations, that we ventured through.  As time marches on we will, hopefully, accentuate the remembrances of the good things that spending the summer on Grand Island allowed us to enjoy.  One of which was having a pop-up camper parked behind us for the summer.  That was a very well appreciated gift from our campground manager.

            Many of the frustrations we dealt with this summer were economy induced, and as you read or listen to the morning news I am sure you do not need me to “rehash the hash” as my wife says.  The economic stress felt by all families was well evident at our campground.  There were some busy days, but over the season the campground business was down over 50%.  Remember that Election Day is  a scant 3 weeks away and changes do need to be made.

            Many of our frustrations were centered around this home we call Aurora.  To quickly summarize:  We had a bad fuel pump, turbo thruster valve, and we had to have her towed off our lot at the KOA, where they broke our entrance steps.  We had a new alternator installed in Nashville, and we are now licking our wounds, both emotionally and financially.  Living in an RV is not cheap, especially when she has a penchant for the repair shop. 

            Aurora is now located in a very new and spacious campground just outside of Memphis, TN.  Yes, our address is Mississippi, but we are less than 5 miles form the border of Tennessee and less than 10 miles from downtown Memphis.  The area that we are in is very new and upscale.  It is a prime example of the growth and expansion of the past few years as the Yuppies of center city have moved to the suburbs along with their chain restaurants, boutique shops and large malls. We are just on the outer edge of the Memphis expansion south.  The campground is very new and little expense was spared in the initial development.  It will be interesting to watch as the slumping economy and financial stress of 8 years of Bush’s economy are played out on the retirement investments of the owners of this park.

            For now the sun is shinning, the temperature is warm and new adventures begin tomorrow as we actually start our work assignments.  Connie is going to be working in registration and I am going to be involved in outside maintenance.  It will be a very interesting challenge to see if our “Yankee” personalities can fit into the southern mold of a workampers.  I am sure this story is nowhere near over and that many new chapters are just over the horizon.  Wish us well and, maybe even say a little prayer.

Have a nice day, Y’all.

Date:                           August 18, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

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            Another week of our tenure at the KOA has receded into history and we are still trying to make plans for the winter.  Being a free life styled full timer can be very taxing on someone that is not the world’s greatest at making plans.  I do know that we are going to be on the east coast or maybe the west coast.  Of course there is always the chance that we might be in the desert in Arizona or mid Texas someplace.  Having so many options can be a challenge.

            Yesterday we received a call from a past NOMAD team mate and he implored that we think seriously about coming to Phoenix and work at the UMOM facility there.  It is under going some major changes and he thought that we might love being in on the growth process.  We have also received a note form another team member that wants us to come to Florida and join a team that will be working on building new church in Umatilla.  All of these plans sound great on some level and yet we have not the slightest idea which way to head this beast when we do decide to leave New York.  Life is an adventure and it is great to have choices.  It may be confusing, but it is great.

            We also have a phone meeting scheduled with Sally Phillips on Wednesday.  Sally was our campground manager in Santa Cruz at the Monterey KOA.  Keep your hats on; you never know what we are going to do.  By the way, we are also expected to be in Stone Mountain, Georgia for the fall and maybe winter of this coming year.  That is if they ever get their collective heads together and decide what and where they might need us.  Boredom is not an option.

            This week end we had a Family Olympics competition at our KOA. It was in honor of the profession competition masquerading as an amateur gathering in China.  Ours was much lower key and I hope more meaningful.  Each family received a score card with a list of events to be completed and scored on the team’s own honor.  They had to do things like walk or run, bike, visit Fantasy Island and jump on our jumping pillow.  The secret was for families to play together and enjoy each other.  The plan worked extremely well and many of the families took it upon themselves to personally thank us for our efforts.  It was cool to see families enjoying each other’s company.

            At our awards ceremony, which was not really an awards ceremony, we gave out prizes for participation.  It was kind of mystical how every team seemed to win something and it was never relevant to the score that they tallied on their submitted score cards.  We still had many smiles and happy athletes and that is really what we were attempting to achieve.

            As one family was leaving the hall with their bundle of prizes I told one of he little competitors that there was a secret connected with the whole Family Olympic weekend.  I explained to him that it did not matter what the final score was on the score sheet.  It was more important that he had had fun and that he had spent the weekend playing with his whole family in some new games and athletic endeavors.  He kind of looked at me like I was from the planet GAGA.  His father smiled and thanked me full heartedly for the effort we had placed in making this a wonderful weekend for him and his family.

            There were families with smiles, families laden with prizes and a recreation team very satisfied; it was a good weekend.  It was a busy weekend at times but it was a good weekend.

Wfdo2@msn.com

Date:                           August 11, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

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The rain of a wet New York summer is pelting our home as I gaze out my window into the grey funk of a depressing day.  It is a mystery how Mother Nature can mimic your inner attitude by her manifestations of weather.  Yes, I must admit that there is a bit of rainy funk clouding my perceptions of life at this very moment.  I am not sure if the weather is placing me in the doldrums of a self imposed depression, or if life has presented that to me on her silver platter.  No mater what or why, life seems to be full of clouds this morning.  I can only hope that the weather is better in your world.

            Our summer is coming to a slow but eventual end at the Grand Island KOA.  I would be less than honest if I tried to tell you that everything went just as well as we had planned and hoped it would.  It has not been a bad summer, but it has been less than it could have been.  The economy has been against us as we attempt to serve within the travel and summer enjoyment industry.  Families have been hard pressed to find enough money to pay for camping, food, entertainment and gas for their vehicles.  This fact of economics 101 has been very evident in the business at our summer home.  Budgetary restraints and reality has caused the KOA Corporation to cut back on expenses and the first area of sacrifice seems to be customer services.  At least as we see it from our narrow minded perspective.  It is difficult to justify spending money on a customer experience whose returned value is not shown on a business ledger somewhere.  Accountants can sum up camper nights, income per camper night and expenses related to such, but they do not see, nor can they evaluate the smiles on a child’s face as they hand mom or dad a new memo pad that they just made themselves in Arts & Crafts.  Nor can a corporation evaluate the value of the returned smile of happy parent as they receive the treasured gift.  Smiles and hugs do not appear on the balance sheet.  It is a sad but true reality.

            As Connie and I sit in our self imposed funk of grey depression we are attempting to make plans for our winter and the portending summer that lurks on the horizon.  Where that will take us is still to be determined.   One can only hope that it will be into fair weather and brighter days.  We are fair-weather people and at this geriatric age I refuse to apologize for that attitude.  It is not that we demand fair weather for ourselves, all though we do enjoy it.  We would rather find a manner in which we can help direct other people to a few moments of bright sun and warmth in their lives.  It may be a craft made that can be shared or a newly repaired door on their home.  In either case we, truly, just want to make their lives a little bit better for the honor of allowing us to share a few moment of their life with them.  We are not interested in finding that that value did not tally on a ledger someplace, nor are we waiting for a superfluous amount of pats on the back.  We simply desire to be of use to someone and to be appreciated by them for the effort that we graciously offer.  It is a simple wish, but one that is increasing difficult to achieve.

            The clouds have gotten even thicker, the sun has retreated even further into a sequestered hiding place and my mode is all the greyer as I finish my daily blog.  We have made no permanent decision on our future plans, but I have updated my blog, such as it is.

            If life, or the weather, has you in a grey funk or if you are wrapped in the warmth of a beautiful day, either internally or externally let us know.  Maybe we can share a new cure for “Grey Funk.”  Often a single ray of blue sky and warm sunlight can illuminate a new perspective.  Any new perspective, right now, might be a good thing on a rainy day, on a clay rock in the m idle of a river, which is really a straight, between to great lakes.

Wfdo2@msn.com 

Date:                           July 26, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

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            It is a cloudy Saturday afternoon at the Grand Island KOA and Connie and I have just finished our morning chores which consisted of providing our campground with a pancake breakfast.  It is a time to meet and greet all of the adventurous people that brave the morning air and threat of rain to enjoy our offering.  Until we arrived here I did not know that I could cook pancakes on any type of a regular schedule.  I have learned that I can flip a fry cake about as well as anyone.  The customers have been very kind and pretend to enjoy the breakfast.  They even stop to thank me on their way back to their site, sometimes, complimenting me on the tasty breakfast.  Actually, Connie does all the work in mixing the batter and all I have to do is pour it out on to the griddle and flip the cake halfway through the cooking.  I gratefully take their compliments anyways.

            This morning I had an experience that I must pontificate on just a bit.  I know you were expecting no less.  If you have spent much time reading my prior blogs you are quite aware that I often do just that.

            There are many cabins that surround the pool area where we have our breakfast.  It is in these wooden denizens that we often have families set up house and enjoy the experience “camping” at our KOA.  The cabins are little more than a wooden tent, but seem to be very popular with many people.  They are not cheap, but they are popular.  In two of these log houses we have family gathering this weekend of some 12 or so people.  These huts have beds for 4 people each so it must be interesting sleeping arrangements.  Most of the occupants are young and I am sure quite able to sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag or such.  It is the interaction with some of the young boys that inspires my blog today.

            After breakfast my wife let me know that there was a lot of noise coming from the men’s room and requested that I investigate.  The boys from the afore mentioned cabins had already made their presence know to all staff members at the campground by racing their skateboards up and down the sidewalk in front of our Rec Hall and by being less than pleasant in the swimming pool.  It was now to be my opportunity to interact with the group of young dark skinned full blooded boys.

            As I entered the shower room there was a lot of noise and inappropriate behavior being exhibited by this group of very over energetic young fellows.  I had previously had a few talks with them about using proper behavior and safe actions around public areas and was, by this time, not full of patience and calm understanding.  In a rather gruff and very adult voice I kicked the lot of them out of the restroom.  One poor young fellow asked, with a slightly fearful look his face, if he was going to be allowed to finish getting dressed.  I told him that if his behavior did not immediately improve I did not care if he went running naked into the parking lot.  He decided to quickly regain his proper composure and soon exit the restroom fully clothed.  His other companions had already gathered all of their belongings scattered to the four winds looking for safety.

            This is not an odd situation, nor an unexpected event in a campground.  Kids will be brats at times and often those times are at a campground.  It was in reflection that I feared that these kids might cry foul.  I was an old white man yelling at a group of black kids.  In so many times in our society a clamor of racism might swell up from this situation.  It did not this time, but the fear that it might did cloud my mind for a moment.  I was not acting in a racist manner, but that may not be the deciding factor many times.

            It was at this time that I realized that it was not the thought of racism that entered into this situation until my fertile imagination entered a reflective state.  It was not a racist urge that prompted me to act.  It was the simple act of inappropriate behavior that spurred me.  Mischievous boys are not bound or fueled by color.  They are fueled by unbridled energy and the need to test boundaries.  These young gentlemen had learned my boundaries this morning and if they viewed them through color sensitive lenses that was their choice. Both the boys and I know that by the way they quickly obeyed me that they had been caught on the other side of a fence of proper behavior that we both understood.  Proper behavior and actions are not color relevant nor should the enforcement of those rules be color selective.

            I do not know if the world changed this morning.  Race relations have not been improved nor damaged by my morning experiences.  I did notice that, in my behavior, my actions are most often directed by deep rooted feelings of fairness and expected proper behavior, not color tainted bigotry.  I also realized that deep within my unbiased soul society has placed a fear that I might be governed by inappropriate racist behavior and that I must be aware of that ill.  It is sensitivity that an age of inequality dictates.  We have made strides, but the dream is not yet a full reality.  I also learned that honest enforcement of rules is seldom a problem and is accepted by both the enforcer and the violator.

            It may not have been an epiphany of knowledge that I experienced this morning, but it was something to think about as I cleaned the dishes and wiped off the griddles.  And now, you too have walked through the cobwebs of my mind.

Wfdo2@msn.com

Date:                           July 23, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

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            Another busy weekend and another series of longs days at the Grand Island KOA are behind Connie and me and it is on to the living the life of a retired full timer.  When we are enjoying the “activity team” assignment it is difficult to call this work, but at the end of a busy weekend we do feel a bit exhausted.  This weekend was no exception and it has taken us a couple of days to return to whatever normal might be considered.  After our short work day Monday we spent most of the rest of the day trying to find our tails.  They were dragging somewhere behind us and we needed a bit of down time to see if we could elevate them to a regular buoyant position.  It was a chore that we did finally accomplish.

            On Tuesday we are supposed to be in the beginning of our “weekend” except that my lovely wife has a penchant for helping out and volunteered to cover for our park manager at the days “Color Time” activity.  What a nice lady.  I got to stay home and catch up on house chores.  Yes, I do help out around the house on occasion.  I may not be a great help, but I do my miniscule bit and it allowed us to go and play the afternoon away.  Even old geriatric retirees need a day or two of play on periodic occasions.  It is from this sojourn that my morning diatribe will emanate.

            Even on our time off we were doing “work” as we ventured out to accomplish some of shopping needed to replenish he supplies we used over the last weekend at the campground.  This is not a major burden to us and we needed some personal replenishing of our larder so it was not a big sacrifice to us.  We headed out on our shopping rounds and planned a visit to an Old Country Buffet as a treat to us for all the hard work we had accomplished over the weekend.  We were very successful on many levels.  We found most of the supplies we needed and we found an Old Country Buffet, all though it was not the one we had originally planned on attending.  It seems that the sign was still on the building, but all of the insides were someplace else.  Bless Sackie, she found an other place for us to fill out tummies and we arrived just minutes after most of Buffalo arrived to enjoy the over abundance of food.

            It is a shocking revelation to watch the amount of food that is consumed at a buffet by we Americans.  This Old Country Buffet was located in a shopping plaza that is not at its top in performance.  There are some stores located I in the plaza but it is not, obviously, one of the most popular shopping destinations in Buffalo.  This restaurant was, however, a very popular food destination and we actually had a slight problem finding a table at which we could eat.  The tables remained full and occupied all the time we were there and we did not notice sign of declining patrons as we left.  Plates were traveling up and down the aisles from table to buffet counter in a constant parade of over weight and under exercised food revelres.  I must admit that I also, probably, fit in that category.  At least, the eager food revelers did get some exercise as they trudged from their tables to the troth.

            After our foray into over eating, at least on my part, Connie and I decided it would be a nice thing to walk off some of our calories at the nearest mall.  We were in the market for an apron to use at the arts and crafts activity at the campground and we felt we might find something at a mall.  We were kind of wrong, but not totally.  The point at which I am headed is that we found one apron in the mall and it was a rather large mall.  There is just not the demand for aprons in today’s world.

            What does this have to do with the way the world turns, you ask?  It seems that we do not have the “at home” cook mentality in today’s busy world.  Why would you need an apron if you are not going to cook?  I sadly remember the picturesque scene with a mom standing in the kitchen, apron draped around her with steam and the aromas of a fresh meal filling the house making it a true “HOME.”  Today we do not see that scene and anecdotally we do not seem to need stores to carry aprons to sell to those picturesque statues of virtue and Americana.  We have become a country of fast food, buffet stuffing over weight Americans.  I have to believe that somewhere there is a connection between the lack of tables at a buffet and the lack of aprons at the mall.

            As Connie and I strolled off our evening meal at the under shopped mall I could not help but pontificate to my wife the failings of America as I saw them.  Somehow, in my simple mind, I was making a connection between over weight and under exercised buffet attendees and the lack of aprons in American malls.  I think that if you take a moment to reflect you will, at least, understand my weird foray into tangled logic. You might even find, deep in your logical mind, a stronger reason to support my postulations.

            Connie and I did have a good meal while eating with a few hundred of our closest friends from Buffalo.  We did, wisely, decide to walk off a few of the calories we consumed at the buffet troth.  And, I did get a subject on which I could fill a page or two on my blog.  It was a pretty good day in reflection.

Wfdo2@msn.com