Happy Thanksgiving

We thought we would take a few moments to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and to also let you all know that the blog entries may be a bit light for the next few weeks. We begin the busy season tomorrow, working long hours and learning all we need to learn to do an efficient well done job. Our crew is the best, a nice bunch of hard working guys with some very good work ethics, we are going to have a great, fun season. Today, we will get together with the other managers for dinner with all the traditional fixings and a bit of relaxation before the hustle and bustle begins.

We hope that you all have safe travels, many blessings and the best holidays ever.

Our Fabulous Thanksgiving Dinner - It was absolutely wonderful getting together with the other managers, the food was out of this world. There were new and different dishes and new and different ways to cooking just about everything. There was scalloped corn, citrus brined turkey, homemade from scratch pumpkin pie (of course since they did the pumpkin lots before the Christmas tree lots that had to be a given), cranberries, and so much more.

First Official Working Day

Today is our first official working day, even though we have been actually working since we arrived. All of this is brand new, but the good things are that we have managed employees before, sold merchandise before and worked hard before, so we are truly on top of things. We are not open for business until Friday, but that’s not to say if somebody comes in to buy a tree that we will not sell them one.

The owner is overwhelmed at times with all he has to do but he handles it in such a calm and even manner that is refreshing. Out of the six couples working, three of us our new and the other three are veterans to either this lot or other lots and they are all open to sharing their many helpful tips with us.

The weather has been marvelous, highs in the 60’s lows in the 40’s, clear sunny days, they are calling for rain for the next few days but that is certainly welcomed as well.

We Made It!

We are here in San Francisco, actually in a surrounding city, Pleasanton, California but we do plan to make our journey to the Bay area, once this assignment is completed. We had planned to do some sight seeing during the month we are here but it is such a short time, we have decided we will do it afterwards.

The trip here was interesting, traveling our first time without the Jeep and what a difference it made. Our mileage towing was anywhere around 7mpg, but without the Jeep, we did 8.5mpg and above. As we said before, traveling without a toad may not be for everyone but it is something we are really looking forward to doing for the next year. We were also pushed for time, so we did 750 miles in just a day and a half, not the way we like to travel but for this trip it worked for us.

Had our first meeting with the crew, a nice group of folks. We also received our first delivery of Christmas trees, what a great smell We are going to do just fine in yet another new adventure in our lifestyle. Our life is so wonderful and we are so very grateful for all the great opportunities we have been receiving lately.

Meeting Another Workamper Couple

Through the Internet we have made many friends…yes, we call them friends even though we may have not yet met in person. Bob & Sharon Miller, aka rvingmillers, are two people we are happy to call our friends…they started this lifestyle the same year we had and they, like us, work their way around this country. We have kept in contact via emails and our blogs, so when we found out we would be in the same area, we just had to meet, so we did.

We walked around the campground and talked, it is so amazing that even though we had never met before, it was as if we knew each other well and the conversations flowed. We showed them around the Phoenix area, gave them tips on local businesses, roads, etc., then went to Mimi’s Café for lunch. The food was excellent and we even got free muffins because it was our first time there, make sure you tell them it is your first time and they give you 4 muffins per couple, a nice treat for free and you all know how we love “free”.

Shysters in the Auto Business

As many of you know, we are letting go of our Jeep and we have been dealing with many different types of people. One, that truly gave himself a bad name was Dino Eli with Fast Cash For Carz, he made an outlandish offer of $1000, then when we asked if he could come on a certain day, he lowered the price to $500. This vehicle is in tiptop shape with new brakes and tires and with just a few hundred dollar alternator replacement it would be well worth the bluebook value of $3000. We had an offer for $2000 but they couldn’t come up with the total cash for about a month and we wanted to get it sold now before we leave Phoenix and would only take payments from friends, not strangers.

We will now head out of Phoenix without selling the Jeep but we will not be taking it with us either, we would rather donate it to a good cause then to give it to someone who will make a substantial profit for his own cause…greed. No wonder why the auto business gets such a bad name…because of people like this…what a shame!


Stopping To Smell the Roses or Watching the Roadrunner...What A Life!

Hook Us Up

We have to find that happy medium with boondocking and hooking up…almost a month is way too much time for us to boondock. It seems that the rig gets dirty and the only way to get it clean is with free flowing water. Also, laundry was not at the top of our priority list for that period of time so we had 6 loads today. This park has a weird laundry setup, the laundry room is located quite a bit away from any of the sites, so we had to drive our rig (no toad vehicle any longer) over to the laundry facilities and it was a good walk from where we could park our vehicle. But now we have clean clothes, a clean rig and extra clean bodies…life is marvelous! Another reason for us letting go of our toad was for us to walk and ride our bikes more which has already begun…it has been a great day!

Things Always Have a Way of Working Out

We started getting into a bit of a funk, with all the things going wrong for us lately, but today is another new day with hope, love and tons of avenues to take us to our next adventure. One of our past tile clients gave us a call and wanted a small bathroom tiled…once again perfect timing. So, while waiting on our checks and getting the Jeep sold, we now have a little breathing room until we head out on our next adventure awaiting us in San Francisco. We so wanted to take it leisurely there, but looks as if we will have to push our travels so we can get there on time for the manager’s meeting but we are so ready to move forward and looking forward to once again do something different.

Adding new experiences to our resume is always fun, but adding new places for us to see together as a couple is really awesome. Jerry has been to San Francisco but I have not and he is looking forward to showing me around, riding the trolley, crossing over the bridge and many other sight seeing adventures we have planned for the short time we will be there. A very photogenic area…indeed!

Family Dysfunction

Why do they insist on contacting us just to be nasty? We have not attempted to contact them during this entire fiasco because we are so past the chaos crap that always ends up happening when we do but instead of them leaving it alone or calling us to talk about it, they continue to call and email with some really malicious stuff.

As hard as it has been for us because we miss our grandson very much, we had made the choice years ago when the arguments happened that it was better for all of us to discontinue any contact with any of the family members, which we have done but they continue. My sister continues to repeatedly attempt to take us to court with false allegations, each time thankfully the courts see through her vengeance and denied her claims but it just doesn’t stop her. To make things worse, my sister has made it her mission to advise my daughter to also take some desperate measures to try to make our lives miserable; again, we have met each attempt with only love and understanding towards our daughter and grandson. However, the lies continue and the remarks, especially from my sister are beyond dysfunctional and have almost crossed the line of being downright threatening.

It doesn’t seem to matter what we do or say, they are not willing to let it go and forgive. Even when we say or do nothing at all to them, they continue to contact us with some outlandish and rude remarks. We would love to be able to put this all behind us and if their emails and phone calls were to apologize or want to work this through we would be more than happy to talk, but to continue with the threats and mean spiritedness is completely uncalled for and we wish they would stop.

New Day…New Attitude

Wow…yesterday was a total meltdown…mostly because we were so exhausted from working 12 hour shifts for 3 days straight plus all the other hours and then because we had been rationing our peanut butter sandwiches all week. I kid you not…we had survived on water, coffee, bread, and peanut butter all week long. But because we are doing what we love and loving what we do it is always easier to adjust ourselves to look at the brighter side.

We are now…once we sell our Jeep or get our checks from PIR…heading for San Francisco to work a Christmas tree lot for about a month. In the meantime we are once again boondocking in the desert and by getting creative we were able to get a few bucks for food. First, while hosting the tram on Saturday night I began receiving tips…YeeHaw! Then, Jerry got the bright idea to go to the few casinos in the area and get our free money…totaling $40...thank goodness since even our bread and peanut butter was gone on Sunday…but now we have food until the money begins to once again roll in in a week or so.

I know a few of you out there are cringing…trying to figure out why on earth we live this way and all I can say is we make it work. Yes, we would love to have a monthly check coming in or hit the lottery or work at better paying jobs but since those things are not going on for us at this time, we prefer to be out here enjoying the freedom we have and doing it now instead of waiting for that perfect timing that may never come. Life is too short to wait for that perfect moment to begin living your dream, we choose to live it now, as is!

Our Total Experience at PIR

Our intent was to give a daily report while at the races but once work began, this seemed to be on the back burner, especially when the 12 hours shifts began, so today will be an overview of our first work experience at PIR.

I was lucky to be able to have a taste of a variety of positions while working at PIR, I did RV Sales for a few days, then hosted on the Trams for a few days and then drove the Trams for a day, each had it’s own uniqueness about it that I could not pick just one as my favorite. The one thing they all had in common was working with the fans, we still feel that NASCAR fans are the best fans in the world. Now, yes there will be many workers that will disagree but when you weigh it out they would have to agree with the fact that out of the thousands of fans that we dealt with in our course of the week, there were only a few that were disruptive, now those are great odds.

We had more issues with some of the other workers than we had with the fans, why on earth would people do this sort of work if all they do is complain about the fans? We feel it‘s because, no matter what they would be doing, they would be bitching and moaning anyway. As for us, we enjoy working with the public and always have a great time no matter what we do and this was no exception.

The pay was decent…the hours were long…we were not able to see any portion of the race but we were able to listen to it on the radio as we drove around and around in the Chevy trucks pulling the trams. For us, we were doing what we love and that is being in the environment of NASCAR and we would definitely consider working at PIR in the future.

This Morning Started With A BOOM…Literally

Just after daybreak, there was this boom, not really loud enough to jolt us out of bed but enough to get our attention. Lying there wondering what it could have been, then the sounds of sirens, many sirens rushing our way, passing us by and headed further into the Unreserved area. Being in the desert we find ourselves more observant than usual about fires because of all the dry brush around us so we immediately jumped out of bed and ran outside. The flames were ravaging around some campers and the smoke was bellowing high into the air. The fire department did an excellent job and had it out in no time at all. The only information we received was it was a 5th Wheel that was dropped off, nobody was in it and that it was caused by the refrigerator.

Working The RV Sales

Why they use that term (RV Sales) to describe the work that is actually done is totally out of my understanding. What it entails is standing at the entry to the Unreserved RV Parking area and checking for stickers, then selling to those who did not yet have them. Of course, there are other things we look for but for the most part this is it. Anyway, whatever they call the job, it was fun, I really enjoy talking with the race fans.

Jerry helped with gathering the trams, gassing them up and bringing them to their parking area. We are both anxious to start this part of our adventure on Friday, Jerry especially after getting a taste of it.

First Day On The Job

We are actually doing two different types of work while here, I will be working RV Sales for a few days and then together we drive the trams for the weekend. Today, selling stickers from the booth for a few hours to help alleviate some stress to the campers who had been dry camping, some for over two weeks in the staging area was our task. Manning the gates is not new for us so this part of the job is easy, now driving the trams will be an entirely new adventure for both of us, one that we are really forward to doing.

We watched the Texas race, what a great effort on Edwards part to narrow the point spread down to a reachable 106 points. This makes the last two races even more exciting.

Let’s Go Racing Boys!

Arrived at the track mid morning, driving right past the hundreds of campers that had been staging now for two weeks. Our supervisor directed us to the area where we would be setting up camp with the other Workampers. We decided that we would do it a little differently this year, instead of just being spectators, we thought we could see it from a different perspective and work it this time. For the rest of the day, we just set up our site with our NASCAR décor and conversed with our co-workers. It was a good group of folks with many tales to tell about their travels and other events they have worked. Many had worked the Vegas race back in March when we were there, a few were recognizable but none we knew personally until now.

It was still peaceful through the night with only the sounds of coyotes howling. This silence of course will soon end as the “knuckleheads” arrive and begin their howling throughout the night.