What is it with people around here!?
My last post back in early May signed off with us hopeful that we had seen the last of the mean people. Memorial weekend had been a marked improvement in the clientele and it had been a very pleasant three day holiday to work. Alas, it did not last. School let out and wave after wave of campers that said; "we live just down the road" showed up. There truly were some gems in that bunch and we looked forward to seeing them but the mean and nasty crowd returned in force. Unfortunately the Corps of Engineers do not have any regulations against being a prick so we just had to deal with it.
That being said, I am going to turn my writing attention to the more positive experiences and the oddities. Although there are a couple of high drama moments that have played out over the summer that are worth mentioning. That will be in following posts.
May - June 2017
We continue to get settled in even though it has been weeks since arriving. The work schedule is pretty grueling and leaves little energy to photograph and write about our experiences. Hence me writing about things five months in arrears. Slowly but surely we are getting a rhythm down and recording little tidbits here and there.
Victoria Campground was "remodeled" in 1988 and it was a very well done project. Whoever did the engineering for upgrading the ancient campsites to a more modern camper (read big RV's with lots of power requirements) knew what they were doing. It is really, really nice in this campground. However, they didn't do or were not allowed to give the same attention to our driveway. We have two skinny lanes for entering the park, one lane to park in for registering and one lane for passing through to the campground. The registration lane will hold two truck/trailer combinations and then there might be room for a car behind that. That works okay if your check-ins are spread out over the whole week and the whole day of each week but it never works out that way. There is usually a rush of campers starting mid-afternoon on Friday and lasting until 9:00 pm. We'll have them lined up out in the (very narrow) street that serves not only as our entrance but also the entrance to the private marina and the Corps of Engineers boat ramp, day use area and public beach. The street turns into a jumbled up mess of RV's, trucks, bass boats, giant speed boats, and party boats every Friday afternoon and pretty much all day Saturday.
The Corps leaves us little flexibility in what we can and can't do while on duty in the gatehouse. One concession is that we can have a TV and that was justified on the need to monitor local news and weather. However, we had to supply our own equipment and since over the air TV signals don't reach here either, it was satellite TV or nothing. Luckily our partners had dealt with this last year so they were prepared with all the equipment necessary. All we had to do was help set it up.
There are two teams running this campground, Team A and Team B. We are Team B and when on duty there is a sign hanging on a post that marks the path to our rig that says so. From the post to our rig at the other end of the path constitutes our entire "commute" to work. If you walk slow you might be able to stretch it into a 45 second travel time. As if 15.5 hours a day in the gatehouse was not enough, the purpose of the sign is to direct middle-of-the-night campers to us to unlock the gates for emergency departures or noise complaints or whatever that can't wait until morning. So far that part of the job has thankfully been minimal.
We are also getting familiar with the animals that call the campground home. One morning, walking to work I heard faint squeaking noises as I went by the post that held our "On Duty" sign.
Animals of the feathered persuasion are not all that we are seeing. This little lady has been showing up regularly since discovering the bird feeder. Based on the girth of her belly and the splay in her hips I expect we will be seeing a fawn with her soon.
She is an accomplished bird feeder eater. She can drain nearly the whole three pounds of seed in just a few minutes.
The Canada Geese have their families well on the way. We've got at least three mated pairs with about twenty newly-hatched waddling around.
One critter that we have not seen lately is a squirrel that I wrote about in a previous post. We had even gone so far as to name him. Stumpy disappeared only days after that post and has not been seen since. However there have been many to come in his place. The squirrel-proof bird feeders are driving them crazy and it is very entertaining watching them trying to noodle out a way get those seeds that are so close yet so far away. There is one exception. Walking home one evening we noticed something on the feeder but it was too dark to make out so we whipped out the trusty iPhones and turned on their flashlights. Much to our surprise there sat a big-eyed flying squirrel having his way with the bird feeder. This guy was so small and light he did not trigger the spring loaded doors and was enjoying a leisurely midnight meal. We had never seen a flying squirrel before, got to put a notch in our journal for this one.
That being said, I am going to turn my writing attention to the more positive experiences and the oddities. Although there are a couple of high drama moments that have played out over the summer that are worth mentioning. That will be in following posts.
May - June 2017
We continue to get settled in even though it has been weeks since arriving. The work schedule is pretty grueling and leaves little energy to photograph and write about our experiences. Hence me writing about things five months in arrears. Slowly but surely we are getting a rhythm down and recording little tidbits here and there.
Victoria Campground was "remodeled" in 1988 and it was a very well done project. Whoever did the engineering for upgrading the ancient campsites to a more modern camper (read big RV's with lots of power requirements) knew what they were doing. It is really, really nice in this campground. However, they didn't do or were not allowed to give the same attention to our driveway. We have two skinny lanes for entering the park, one lane to park in for registering and one lane for passing through to the campground. The registration lane will hold two truck/trailer combinations and then there might be room for a car behind that. That works okay if your check-ins are spread out over the whole week and the whole day of each week but it never works out that way. There is usually a rush of campers starting mid-afternoon on Friday and lasting until 9:00 pm. We'll have them lined up out in the (very narrow) street that serves not only as our entrance but also the entrance to the private marina and the Corps of Engineers boat ramp, day use area and public beach. The street turns into a jumbled up mess of RV's, trucks, bass boats, giant speed boats, and party boats every Friday afternoon and pretty much all day Saturday.
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| This little gate house is where we spend 15.5 hours a day. |
It is odd that we are located in such a densely populated area yet there is virtually no cell phone signal. The Verizon signal is just enough to barely get a text message, a voice call is impossible. AT&T does just enough better to hold a voice call if you are standing in the right place. Getting a good enough quality link to get on the web with our jetpack is an exercise in futility. The Corps has done nothing to bring modern communications to the campground either. There is a single, traditional land line to the gatehouse that can be used to only dial the headquarters office or 911. Our computer link for operating the national reservation system is via an ancient HughesNet satellite dish. Data transmission rates are reminiscent of dial-up modems and we loose our connection altogether when a thunderstorm rolls by to our southeast.
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| Our internet link is via the big dish on the roof and our TV link is the little dish on the tripod. |
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| Our commute to work. |
We are also getting familiar with the animals that call the campground home. One morning, walking to work I heard faint squeaking noises as I went by the post that held our "On Duty" sign.
As I approached I noticed that the core of the post had a hollow rotted out and the sound seemed to be coming from there.
It was dark in the bottom of the hollow but once I got some light on the subject, four little black-headed chickadees came into view.
The nuthatches wasted no time in getting comfortable with the bird feeder.
We have goldfinches but their visitations have been erratic. Some days we'll have a dozen and then not see one for several days.
There are several mated pairs of cardinals hanging around. I bet we start seeing juveniles soon.
Animals of the feathered persuasion are not all that we are seeing. This little lady has been showing up regularly since discovering the bird feeder. Based on the girth of her belly and the splay in her hips I expect we will be seeing a fawn with her soon.
She is an accomplished bird feeder eater. She can drain nearly the whole three pounds of seed in just a few minutes.
The Canada Geese have their families well on the way. We've got at least three mated pairs with about twenty newly-hatched waddling around.
One critter that we have not seen lately is a squirrel that I wrote about in a previous post. We had even gone so far as to name him. Stumpy disappeared only days after that post and has not been seen since. However there have been many to come in his place. The squirrel-proof bird feeders are driving them crazy and it is very entertaining watching them trying to noodle out a way get those seeds that are so close yet so far away. There is one exception. Walking home one evening we noticed something on the feeder but it was too dark to make out so we whipped out the trusty iPhones and turned on their flashlights. Much to our surprise there sat a big-eyed flying squirrel having his way with the bird feeder. This guy was so small and light he did not trigger the spring loaded doors and was enjoying a leisurely midnight meal. We had never seen a flying squirrel before, got to put a notch in our journal for this one.
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