There is always One

It is only 5:40 AM and I am already over at the registration office even though the park doesn’t open until 7:00PM.  I am an early riser but I don’t usually report to the office before 6:20ish, still way early. Once I woke up this morning I didn’t see any reason to sit in the fiver another forty minutes, mainly because Judy sleeps until 7-7:30ish and I don’t want to wake her up.  There is no reason for both of us getting to the office early because we seldom have anyone come in before 8:30 or 9:00 AM.

Anyone who has worked, which is probably most people who read our blog, knows there are some things that aren’t pleasant about their jobs.  Even camp ground host have some of those unpleasant aspects. As you would expect most (99.999%) of our interaction with campers is super positive. The one aspect of our job that Judy and I don’t relish is informing campers they are breaking some rule and it must be corrected.  In most cases even this interaction goes smoothly, but not always. I have found that in the instances that don’t go well, the offenders often respond like my middle school students used to. EX. (a.) Someone else parked like this and nothing was said to them, (b.) the other host lets me do it, and (c.) It is not hurting anything. Below is a situation we had not had to deal with before. As you read it, keep in mind it was an Adult (50s) not a 20ish yr old! I regret I didn’t take any pics of the situation that resulted in my interaction. 

Friday is the busiest day for new check-ins and increased activity in general. I make more frequent park patrols with increased park activity. It was during one of these patrols that I spotted something that caught my eye. In the tent parking area I saw a conversion van parked in one of the tent parking spots and electric power cords were “running” to one of the tent(#16) power pedestals.  The tent area is located on a horseshoe shaped point and tenter’s must park in a designated (numbered) space. A low rail fence serves as a border between the parking area and the tent sites.  I had a pretty good idea of what was going on but I wanted to confirm my suspicion so I drove my golf cart into the tent area so I could look from the tip of the point back toward the parking area- giving me a view into the back of the van, with its opened rear doors. My suspicion was confirmed. I could plainly see the platform sleeping area. 
                                             Tent Parking lot & Tent Area (beyond rail fence)

I walked over to the only tent that was up (#17) and asked the occupant if that was their van.  She (wife) didn’t want any part of it so she called out to the owner of the van – her husband’s “DAD”.

He came over and I told him he could not use the power at site 16. Next comment, “I’ll plug it into their site”.  I said “no you can’t do that, the power is intended for the paying occupants of the site”.

I see the look of disbelief on the Dad’s face as to say “why should it matter to you what we do (it’s not hurting you!).  He then begrudgingly says “how about if I pay for site 16”, to which I say” that will be fine”.  Then I delivered the fatal blow when I said “ you can’t sleep in the van”. “Why” he asks, “because it is a tent site” I reply, “ I suggest you rent site #26 which is an RV site and you will still be close to the tent area.” Then I got the “I have been coming here for 20yrs and John (former host for previous 9 yrs.) never said anything. I must admit I did get a little flippant at this point when I said “John is no longer here”. For the record, I have met John and know from personal accounts he ran the park like a drill sergeant and he would not have permitted the camper to do what he was trying to do. I told him that was his option or he could leave the park at closing time.  He rented site 26 and all was good! I purposely wasn’t in the office when he came up to pay. Judy said he appeared to be embarrassed and wanted to get out off the office as quickly as he could. He just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. We spoke several times during his stay and he blew his horn and waved as he left on Sunday.

We also had a large number of campers tell us how helpful Judy and I were during their stay.  One camper stopped by to get a comment sheet so they could indicate how “wonderful” we were and how much they enjoyed their stay at the park. He even got the phone number of our boss.

Thanks for stopping by.

Next Blog: Friday