I did a round trip around the campground in the golf cart picking up any trash and doing a general "security check". I'm looking for things like water leaks, road hazards, and any campers that may need a helping hand. Rudee started her day doing "office stuff". She opens the office up, gets her cash drawer counted and gets ready for any business that comes in. She also does a camper audit and checks out those that have left so their sites can be rented again.
The campground was pretty slow this week end. I am assuming it was because of the Easter holiday and folks wanting to stay home and spend time with family. We only had a few campers in spending the night while traveling. The week end campers have not come out of hibernation yet. The camping season does not get in full swing around here until May and we expect to be pretty busy. We are not too far from the Indy 500 track and expect to get some race fans staying with us as well.
Keith (the owner) and I got the ceiling fan installed in a couple of hours. We did have to do some fabricating as well as run the wiring up to the ceiling. The building is a large pole barn type with a very high ceiling. We used a fork lift with a basket mounted on the front that allowed us to reach the area we needed.
Once we were done with that I installed some more insulation in the walls while Keith finished up "mudding" some of the dry wall. 2:00 rolled around pretty quickly and it was time to put away our tools and get cleaned up for the weekly 2:30 pitch in dinner. Every Sunday the park hosts a meal for the workers by providing the meat and each couple brings a dish to share. We have enjoyed these and it gives us a chance to get to know each other better. We do have a new couple that arrived Saturday afternoon. James and Mary are veteran work campers who travel in a motorhome. They will start their work next week and we are looking forward to learning from them.
We didn't linger too long after our meal since we were driving back to Michigan to exchange the microwave/convection oven. What a screw up that little project turned out to be! I did find the correct oven at a company in South Bend Indiana who supplies all the oven to Keystone for their RV's. They had the correct oven, albeit more expensive, in stock.
We made reservations at a motel to spend the night near the casino (against my better judgment). I knew I couldn't be lucky and win twice in a row but Rudee wanted to go and try again. You can't believe how sore my arm is from her twisting it to get me to agree with this ... "it hurts, it hurts weally weally bad!" :-)
We arrived shortly before 8pm and got settled in and headed for the casino. My premonition was correct and my luck had seemed to change. I had a minor hit for $80 but was soon in the hole again. I gave up and watched Rudee play. Her luck wasn't any better so we decided to leave. I was waiting for her to cash out from the machine she was playing and put my last couple of $$ in a nearby machine. I got lucky on the first spin and hit for over $100, I cashed out and we got the heck outta there! I ended up $30 ahead while Rudee lost a little but we had a good time. We arrived back at the motel and spent some time relaxing in their hot tub ..... ahhhhhhh!
Monday morning we made a quick stop in New Buffolo, Michigan for breakfast and to check out the Lake Michigan shoreline.
We then headed for the RV salvage yard and returned the original "wrong" oven and got a refund. Our next stop was 30 miles away in South Bend where we purchased the "right" one. This time I un-boxed it and compared it to the old oven which I brought with us. All was in order so we loaded everything up and headed back home.
On the way back we picked up some pizza and met at our daughters house and had supper with them. We made it back to the KOA at 8pm and I got to work installing the new oven. The job was no big deal since the oven was the same size (this time!) and slid right into the cabinet. I plugged it in and Rudee gave it a test. IT WORKS! Yea! We're cookin' again!
The new oven has a stainless steel face while the old one had a black one but it looks pretty good. They have also redesigned the handles since the older ovens with the push button door latches tended to break trapping the food inside.
Today (Tuesday) we are meeting with fellow RV dreamers Wayne and Vicki for lunch in Terre Haute. We have been communicating via the RV Dreams Forum http://rv-dreams.activeboard.com/ and by email. They are interested in gate guarding and wanted some first hand experience. We are more than happy to share our experiences with them, or anyone else for that matter. :-) I'll keep you posted.
I am enjoying your blog and your insights. I was wondering if it was even worth my while in your opinion to even consider being a gate guard since we are Canadian Citizens.
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