Day 16 Wednesday April 2, 2025
We woke up to a light drizzle of rain. It was in the forecast so not a surprise but sure different than yesterday which was just a really nice day.
As we drove into the park yesterday we could see evidence of the damage done to the trees when Hurricane Helene came through last September. Ranger Hicks told us they had to close the park for over a month just to get the downed trees cut up and off the roads, trails and campground.
Today is our day off. Not bad huh, get here and immediately get a day off even before we start to work. We went to Jonestown to the River Roast Coffee shop for a latte and cinnamon roll. This shop opened last year and is one of our favorite places to get coffee. It is very popular with the locals. Even the old ‘farts’ like us. It can seat over 30 people inside and at least 12 outside in nice weather and now they have a drive through window. Jonestown is just across the Yadkin River from Elkin.
Before returning to the motorhome we stopped for a few groceries at Walmart and at Combs Meat Market.
The park finally has a new superintendent, Michael Wood, that was hired sometime last year. He was formerly a Park Ranger here, then transferred to New River State Park before being selected as the new superintendent. We remember him from when he worked here before and think he will be a good superintendent.
We can already see improvements in the campground that have been needed for a long time. More are needed so maybe they are coming. Each campsite has a new site number post with new site numbers, some street signs replaced, some pavement repair and it looks like he has had the maintenance crew in loop A cleaning all the mass of Fall leaves off the campsites and the street. This area is really heavily wooded with hardwoods and in the Fall there are a lot of leaves on the sites that we have to try and clean up when we get here. There hasn’t been a campground host here since November so we are assuming the maintenance crew were the ones that cleaned up the mass of leaves. Now if they would replace several of the fire pits that are in bad need of repair and maybe some more pea gravel on the tent pads.
We have also seen several new water hydrants that replaced some that were a constant issue with leaks. I turned one of the new ones on yesterday and it was so easy to turn on. The others are almost impossible to turn on and are constantly breaking/leaking and causing a lot of wasted time by us and the maintenance crew.
We have a new ‘Campground Cadillac’ this year. Ranger Hicks told us last May they had one ordered. The one we have been using is getting kind of long in the tooth. It has been a good one. It has a lot of miles on it. It was here when we started volunteering here in 2015 so it is over 10 years old. It came from a local golf course I was told. We have put a lot of miles on it as have the other hosts.
It caught on fire a few years ago when the campground host set a bucket of hot fire pit ashes in the body, which was plastic. It burnt the rear body off, the rear wheels, rear fenders and melted part of the roof, etc. If it had not been for a local fire volunteer fire department chief that just happened to be riding by the host site it would had caught the fuel tank on fire and probably the host’s camper with her and her handicap daughter inside. It was sitting very close to her camper.
I got it out of the wood storage shed this afternoon to get it ready for us to use tomorrow. It is nice. It has a bigger aluminum tilting work bed that is much bigger than the old one. It has lights, signal lights and a full width rear view mirror and folding windshield. It is quieter than the old one and like ours at home, the engine only runs when you press the gas pedal. Would be nice if it had a heater for these cold morning….just kidding.
Day 17 Thursday April 3, 2025
It was still drizzling rain this morning off/on but we got out and started our morning in the campground. The lady, Sarah, that works in the contact station on Tuesday/Wednesday had already put out the reservation signs for Thursday. We picked up some old reservations signs and checked the grounds as we rode through the campground. So far it looks like someone has been policing the grounds as we didn’t find much litter scattered around.
After we had breakfast I drove to the Lowe’s hardware store in Elkin to buy a couple of bolts to secure the tool rack that the maintenance crew put on the new golf cart. I had asked that the one I made for the old golf cart be transferred to the new one but they decided to make a new one and leave the one I made on the old golf cart since they are still using it in the park. Ever who installed the new tool rack did not do a very good job as the screws only went into the wood about 1/2” and had pulled out. I got two bolts and bolted the rack to the work bed on the golf cart and now it works great.
Then we went out and cleaned all the sites that needed it after the campers checked out today. The NC State Parks has finally changed the checkout time from 3PM to 12 noon and checkin time from 4PM to 3 PM. This gives us more time to clean the sites between checkout and checkin. Most leave before checkout time but some wait until the last minute.
The people on site 7 were almost and hour late checking out and when we went to their site to check it, it was just what we expected, trash scattered all over and a full trash bag of trash left in the fire pit and several pieces of lettuce scattered around. Sometimes you can just tell when someone is going to do something like that and we were correct about this young couple.
Then we stopped at site 24 to ask them to put their checkin card on the site post. They have been here since about 4pm Tuesday and still had not put their checkin card on the post as required. Well they had all kinds of excuses and then finally admitted they had not checked in or paid and today is Thursday. They then said they were planning to pay on the way out, yea right and were planning to soon pack up and leave soon. I reminded them that checkout was 12 noon and it was now almost 1pm. I called Jackie at the contact station and described their vehicle and to be on the lookout for them. I kept a watch and about an hour later they did stop and pay for two nights. Then later they decided to stay one more night and paid for it.
Lena and I both believed they did not plan to leave today or pay when they left until we confronted them. It happens occasionally. It is part of our duties to be aware of those situations.
I also had the pleasant experience of unstopping two commodes in the A Loop bathhouse, one on the men’s side and one in the women’s side. Someone had used way too much toilet paper in them before trying to flush. We are not required to unstop toilets but I have done it several times during our 10 years. It usually only takes me 5 minutes or so and that saves the maintenance crew from having to stop what they are doing to come unstop them.
We were sitting outside in our Clam (screened in six sided tent like thing) and kept hearing a turkey over in the woods in front of us. It gobbled several times then about 30 minutes later Lena looked up and it was walking across our campsite.
Day 18 Friday April 4, 2025
We began our day at 8:15am. We have 61 reservations coming in today which will only leave 2-3 open sites unless we have some drive ups take them. We put out the reservations and then had breakfast before returning to the campground about 11:30 to prep sites that are vacating today before the new arrivals.
We are liking the new checkout/checkin times. It gives us more time to prep the sites before the new arrivals, if they adhere to the 3pm checkin.
The couple that we had the issue with yesterday about not having paid for their site is still a pain in the butt. We reminded them again today at 12:15 that checkout was 12 noon. They had not even started packing up their tent, etc. The lady came up with another lame excuse why they hadn’t vacated the site yet. Their site is reserved for tonight. We can see their site from ours and it was 2:45pm when they finally vacated the site. So I went and cleaned it before the new arrivals got here. The fire pit had lots of trash in it, even though I saw them stop at the dumpsters when they left. Some people are hard to understand.
Events like this are rare. This is our 10th year working as Campground Hosts here and we probably could count on one hand the number of campers that are somewhat of a problem.
Day 19 Friday April 5, 2025
Today should be an easy day. The weather is predicted to be really nice and we only have 15 reservations today but tomorrow will be a different story. Most of the campers here will leave tomorrow and we only have 13 reservations for tomorrow night. So we will have plenty of campsites to prep tomorrow.
We did have one kind of unusual occurrence today. I went out to check a few sites and as I looked across the street from where I was working there was a young boy, probably 4 or so standing by the water hydrant with his back to the street butt naked. I noticed the couple on the site beside where I was looking at him and I said “ I didn’t know we were running a nudist colony here”. The lady said “only to be that young again”.
Day 20 Sunday April 6, 2025
We had a quick heavy shower of rain about 6:30 this morning, just enough to wet all the tents here in the A loop before the campers have to pack them up and head home. But the material they use now to make tents dry much quicker than what we had on the one we had about 50 years ago. And the new tents are so much easier to setup than what we had.
We only have 15 reservations today which is about normal for a Sunday in April. We put out the reservation signs, came back and had breakfast then started cleaning/prepping sites. We concentrated on the B Loop since all but one of the reservations are for the B Loop.
We cleaned 43 sites today. We walked almost 2 miles doing it so we are getting some good exercise. It was slightly overcast so it was very pleasant and not hot. We got all the vacant sites in Loops B and C cleaned and the one in Loop A that was reserved. We will do Loop A tomorrow unless the maintenance crew does them. We have heard the new superintendent is requiring the maintenance crew to help clean sites on Monday. That is the way it was several years ago when Bill was the superintendent but when Jeff became the Superintendent he didn’t put much priority on the campground and the maintenance crew quit helping on Monday.
We looked at the weather forecast for tomorrow morning and decided to put out the 12 reservation signs for Monday this evening because it looks like it might be raining in the morning.
Day 21 Monday April 6, 2025
We made the right decision about putting out the reservation sign late yesterday because it was raining rather heavy this morning so we got up much later than usual.
The rain finally stopped about 10 am so I went out and checked the campground. We probably don’t have but 12-15 RVs here. Loops A and C are vacant. I stopped on the bridge over Big Sandy Creek that splits Loop B in half. The creek was rolling with water after all the rain we have had.
I cleaned a few of the sites in loop A that we didn’t clean yesterday and returned to the motorhome. After lunch we both went back out and cleaned a few more sites in Loop A.
Then we rode up to the Contact Station. Ranger Lynette Hicks ( we work for her) and Ranger Kassie Moore were there so we chatted for a while. They wanted to know how we liked the new golf cart and we told them we really liked it.
They told us about the fire they had at the maintenance building this past Fall. It burned all their mowers except one and some of the other equipment. They were able to get one of the side by sides repaired. They said SBI did an investigation and they believe the fire was intentionally set. Ranger Kassie said she lives up the lane behind the maintenance buildings and when she saw the flames they were about 30 feet in the air and was working towards her house. She called 911 and some of the other rangers for help. Several fire trucks came and put the fire out.
While we were talking the Rangers noticed a car come by heading into the campground that they thought looked a little suspicious so they decided to check it out. Later Lena and I went back down to Loop B to put out the reservations for Tuesday since we will be off Tuesday and Wednesday. The suspicious car was parked at the Loop B bathhouse and the man had gone in the bathhouse to take a shower and they were not campers. We heard the Rangers tell them to get their belongings and leave the park that they could not use the bathhouse. They left and the Rangers followed them to the Park entrance.
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