Day
13 Tuesday March 28, 2017 After a night of thunderstorms and rain we
packed up and departed for Stone Mountain State Park near Elkin, NC.
We arrived about 10:45AM and setup in the Campground Host site. We
will be the Volunteer Campground Host for the month of April. This is
our third year as Campground Host here. We met with the Ranger that
is in charge of the campground to get our keys and review any changes
to our duties since last year.
Our
GPS did not work on the way here so I called Customer Support and
they determined I needed to mail it in for repairs.
Day
14 Wednesday March 29, 2017 Tuesday and Wednesday is the days off for
the hosts so we drove to Hamptonville to check out a couple of Amish
businesses. On the way we topped at Walmart to get some packing
material so we could pack the GPS for shipment. We got several
grocery item in the Amish stores and then drove back to Jonesville to
drop of the GPS at a UPS pickup location. When we got there the UPS
truck was there so we just handed it to the driver.
We
returned to the campground and relaxed for the remainder of the day.
We did take a walk around part of the campground and later drove
through the campground on our assigned golf cart and talked to some
of the campers.
Day
15 Thursday March 30, 2017 We awoke to a drizzly rain. After
breakfast we began our first day as Hosts. We put on our Frogg Toggs
and put out all the reservation signs and cleaned several of the
vacant sites and talked to several of the campers. The rain continued
for most of the day and through the night.
Day
16 Friday March 31, 2017 As usual Friday is the busiest day of the
week with campers coming in for the weekend. The light rain and
clouds cleared about noon and the sun came out. We should have about
68 of the 88 site occupied tonight. We did our normal routine
throughout the day. I relieved the staff person that was working the
contact station about 6PM so she could have dinner. It was so busy
when she got back that I stayed and helped her until almost 8PM.
Day
17 Saturday April 1, 2017 Nice weather today, cool in the morning
followed by sunshine. There was no park staff in the camper contact
station until 5PM due to staff shortage, so we stayed busy selling
firewood and ice and checking in campers that had reservations and
directing those that didn't have reservations to the Visitor's Center
for site assignments. While we were posting the reservations signs on
the sites a lady stopped us and said she was having trouble with her
hot water heater. While I was trying to determine the problem her big
dog jumped up on Lena and wrapped her up in dog hair. After I
checked a few things out I discovered she had not turned on her LP
gas that is required for the hot water heater to work. Later I even
had the pleasure of unstopping two commodes in the men's bath house
in loop B. The staff had to close the bath house in loop A due to a
stopped up drain line caused by tree roots. Later in the afternoon I
had to have a short discussion with two campers about using a hatchet
on one of the trees in the campground. We sold 15 bundles of firewood
and 2 bags of ice between 1:30PM and 5PM and checked in several
campers that had reservations until the staff person came in to open
the Contact Station. All 88 sites are full tonight except for about 5
that did not show up for their reservations.
Day
18 Sunday April 2, 2017 We were very busy today cleaning sites after
most of the campers vacated the sites. We only have about 2 dozen
sites occupied tonight.
Day
19 Monday April 3, 2017 We cleaned several more sites this morning
and then ate lunch and rested. About 1:45PM it started raining and
rained until late afternoon. We cleaned 46 sites of the 88 sites
yesterday and today. Normally the maintenance staff cleans sites on
Monday but no one showed up today. We learned later hey had been
reassigned to pick up trash throughout the park.
Day
20 Tuesday April 4, 2017 Today and tomorrow are our days off so we
drove to Sparta and stopped and ate breakfast at the Circle L Cafe, a
little cafe where the locals eat. I ordered two pancakes and a side
of bacon. When the order came I realized I should have asked how big
the pancakes where because they were as large as a dinner plate but
they were as good as I have ever had. Then we stopped at a local
coffee shop to use their WiFi to catch up on some things before
returning to the park. Later we checked out a RV Park a few miles
from here near the Blue Ridge Parkway where the sites are privately
owned. It did not appeal to us at all so we returned to the park for
the day.
Day
21 Wednesday April 5, 2017 We drove to North Wilkesboro for lunch,
then we explored some of the back roads in the area. There are some
really pretty scenery in the area, beautiful rolling pasture land
dotted with cows, farm houses, barns and mountain streams with great
mountain views.
After
returning to the park we did some prep work around the motor home
because we are expecting some bad weather in the wee hours of the
morning.
Day
22 Thursday April 6, 2017 The weather was not too bad last night,
rain and gusty winds, and cold (upper 30's). Sure felt for the
campers here in tents, It rained some during the day and was windy.
Ranger Hicks and a helper had put out all the reservation signs
yesterday evening so we wouldn't have to do it this morning if was
was raining, We sure was glad she did.
Day
23 Friday April 7, 2017 Several campers with reservations did not
come yesterday due to the bad weather I guess. It was still cold this
morning and we had a tad of sleet and a few flakes of snow while we
were doing our morning duties, putting out reservation signs and
checking the campground. It was really windy again today.
Day
24 Saturday April 8, 2017 We had a lot of reservation signs to put
out today. The weather was much nicer today, we were able to get rid
of the heavy coats and work in shirt sleeves. We stayed really busy
today, cleaned a few sites, sold firewood and ice, worked in the
Contact Station from Noon to about 1:30PM and again from 5 to 6PM. We
have the No Vacancy sign out again in the campground. We had to send
a few campers to other local campgrounds.
Day
25 Sunday April 9, 2017 The sun is out again today and we are glad as
we will be really busy again today. We had lots of campers leaving
and 23 reservations coming in. So there will be lots of sites to
clean. We put out the reservation signs, clean a few sites and opened
the Contact Station just before noon and stayed until relieved about
1:30PM, then ate lunch and cleaned some more sites before today's
campers arrived. We were able to get most of the sites raked and fire
pits cleaned before the campers arrived. While we were cleaning our
last site a couple pulled up to occupy it with a 1966 Shasta camper
that the man had restored. He did a really nice job restoring it.
We
quit after cleaning 23 sites and relaxed and read the remainder of
the day and enjoyed the nice warm sunshine.
Day
26 Monday April 10, 2017 We had 26 reservations for today. We did our
normal routine of putting out reservation signs, cleaned a few sites,
talked to several campers, etc. We had to switch out the golf cart
for a John Deere Gator today. I discovered a few days ago that the
bearings in the right front axle were worn out so the maintenance
crew are going to try and get it fixed while we are off tomorrow.
