The Job, the People, the Adventure…

I was ill-prepared for the amount of paperwork required to do this job.  My first official work day I pretty much sucked. I felt completely disorganized, and out of my depth, but I muddled through, and thanks to one of my work associates, by the end of the day, I had a much better idea of what the job entailed. 

Okay, the bathrooms are horrifying.  There are just no two ways about it.  They are dark, smell awful, have flies the size of sparrows, and are populated with a vast quantity of spiders.  Or, they WERE populated with a vast quantity of spiders.  The first day, after I forced myself to enter the first bathroom (I have 6 of them to maintain, one is a fourplex, 4 are duplexes, and one is a single), I made it my personal mission to rid the bathrooms of spiders.  Next was sweeping out all the rodent droppings, which replenish themselves almost immediately.  Later in the day, I returned and disinfected toilet seats because they were just nasty.

The paperwork requires your full attention.  Fortunately, before I’d gotten too far into it, D showed up and straightened me out on a couple of things so I was able to complete the permits properly.  Then he stayed and trained me on cash outs, occupancy logs, non-campsite sales summaries (firewood in my case), and a few other week-end reports.  By the time he left, my brain was fried, but most of it stuck, I think.

Before I go any further, let me say that D is the greatest, and everyone who knows him says the same.  He has brought me so many helpful organizational supplies, gave me a 99 minute calling card so I could get in touch with people, even gave me insect repellant (the bugs here are no joke!) and a “screen tent” for outside if I want to hang out in the fresh air without getting eaten alive.   He has a hearty laugh, and a great, bushy beard, is some kind of mathematics savant, and treats EVERYONE exactly the same as he’s treated me.  Just a damn nice guy.  Every time I try to thank him for something, I’m informed that he’s just done the same thing for someone else down the road, and has done the same thing for all the previous hosts.  He is 100% professional, all the time.

V is also great.  She keeps things running smoothly in the office and Mercantile, faxes me my Daily Arrival Reports each morning, answers questions, gives advice, and she thinks Bella is wonderful! I haven’t had as much contact with her as I’d like because she’s in town, and I’m up here, but I always look forward to seeing her.

Campers…  Other than the predator, everyone who has come through here the past few days have been a lot of fun.  So friendly, and interesting, and warm, and encouraging.  My first “official” encounter was Friday morning, at the group campsites.  We’d had a torrential downpour and hailstorm, and temperatures in the 30s the previous night, so I asked them how they were doing.  

A voice from inside a tent called out, “do you have any Tylenol?”  The guy who was in better shape, and already had the fire started and coffee brewing, told me that a day-user had left a bag of garbage behind and a bear had shredded and scattered it all over the next campsite.  I went back to my place to get trash bags and gloves, and also grabbed a couple of Advil.  When I returned, the one with the headache had emerged, and I offered him the Advil, he gratefully accepted, and then he came down to help me clean up the disaster at the neighboring campsite.   We talked while working, and I learned that these guys (10 of them) were all friends from high school, and they meet here each year to catch up.  Every time I checked in on them, they were happy, well-behaved, and thoroughly enjoying being with good friends.  And they did an amazing job cleaning up their three group sites when they left.

Over on the other side of the campground, a nice guy arrived in a Class B RV with a group of other people, and we conversed a bit about RVs, and he showed me the inside of his.  We talked house batteries and solar panels for a bit, then I had to get back to work.  The group decided to stay an extra night though, so this evening we hung out, battling mosquitoes, for a few hours after I was off duty.  He’s nearly got me talked into going to Burning Man next year, and I didn’t think anyone could make me change my mind about that.  As we talked, he threw the rope for Bella, so you know she thinks he’s pretty cool. She’s also sleeping soundly after all that exercise!

Speaking of Bella, she’s been my ride-along buddy on rounds.  There was one guy, M, who she would throw her ball at, out the window of the car, every time she saw him, and he would faithfully pick it up and throw it back to her.  There was a family who she also tried that trick with, while I was cleaning one of the bathrooms.  The look on their faces was precious.  They were in awe of how she would catch the ball through the window every time they threw it to her.  On days there are no campers, I let her run free while I clean, and she has the time of her life trying to keep all the ground squirrels in their holes. 

I was supposed to learn how to hose down the inside of the vault toilets tomorrow, but I got a reprieve.  D called and said he had to collect water samples from the other campsites (drinking water is tested every month), so we’ll have “Toilet Tuesday” instead.  Tomorrow, I’m digging ash out of fire rings, and picking up micro-trash! 

The Adventure Continues…