A SURPRISE PARTY

Planning a surprise party for some one you just met isn’t always the easy thing to do.  But it is something that I like to do and if I can  add a little fun to it, than it makes it all well worth it.

One of our rangers that have been here at the Colorado State Park for many years is temporarily leaving us.  She first started here as working for maintenance, then started to help out in the office, eventually becoming a park ranger.  She has brought a sister on board and now a baby brother, both working in the maintenance area.

Heidi, Hope & Sam, are good kids (as we call them) and work very  hard.  They were raised in a strong Christian family setting and part of the reason why Heidi is leaving for a period of time is to do mission work, with Hope only being gone for a month.

They first are flying over to London where a family member is getting married, then they are sailing on a boat.  Hope will be back with us by August, when she also starts back up in College.  Heidi will be going on doing mission work for several months.

Of course we had to bring Hope in on the mix, only to find out what Heidi likes for cake and what she don’t like, not knowing that part of the party was also for her.

I had the great pleasure of making their cards for all  to sign.  Then collected money from volunteers and other workers.  One of our other volunteers ordered the cake through Sam’s Club and got the ice cream.  Brian and I took the remainder of the money and bought Heidi a Black Hills Gold Guardian Angel necklace and the rest was to buy prank gifts for both girls.  We bought them both pail and shovel to play on the beach, Pepto for sea sickness, arm floaties to float along the ocean, repair patch to “fix” the ship if it should spring a leak, eye goggles to explore underneath the ocean, a straw hat so they won’t burn their faces and Luau flowers.  they looked soooo cute!

 

Of course we had the surprise party on Sunday afternoon, and of all times, I got busy at the window!  Thank goodness for our program interpreter that was there to help us out.  All turned out great and  our Lake Manager, Pete, took time out from his busy schedule to come and say Bon Voyage to Heidi & Hope.

CAMP HOSTING

So many State and Federal Parks are always looking for good camp host.  But the question is: What makes a good Camp Host? 
Brian and I have done camp hosting at several state parks in Texas, Arkansas and now Colorado.  We have seen good host and some bad host.  We also seen camp host that have been in that position for so long in just one park that they start to become obsessive with their position and start thinking the park belongs to them.  We have this case going on right now in the park that we are in. The folks have been here for so long that they think they set the standard on how this park is run.
I remember one park host in particular in Texas.  He was a single gentleman and when we introduce ourselves to him, he greeted us in his underwear!  Then the park was getting ready for spring break and we started to get busy, we had trouble with the septic tank over running into one of the sites.  When the folks went to let this host know what was going on-they were greeted with the man wearing nothing but a Tutu! (no joke).  He had to be carried back to his camper, because he kept falling down-stone cold drunk!  Needless to say the manager gave him only 24 hours to pack up and get out of the park.  Leaving us to camp host a huge park by ourselves over spring break.
Being a camp host varies from park to park and state to state.  Most require at least 20 hours per week, per person for a campsite-most having full hook-ups.  Duties will varies as well.  But all requires good PR for the park.
Our very first camp host position was in Arkansas basically being a campground babysitter.  All we had to do was go through the park at least twice a day to make sure there was no vandalism.  But in other parks we have done trail maintenance, rake sites of leaves & debris, clean fire rings and help relocate bird houses.  We have also helped in the office/gate house; which is what we are doing right now.
To become a good camp host,

• you must first like to camp-of course, being outdoors and around other campers of ALL ages.
  
• You shouldn’t be afraid of  getting a little dirty or grimy.   Labor work might come into play, but they never require you to do more than you are able.
  
• Always remember when doing PR for the park, talk to the ones visiting the park, the way you would want to be treated as a guest.  Even if the camper/guest maybe breaking a rule or doing something wrong, coming across aggressively won’t get you cooperation from that party, but doing it in a friendly manner will get you a long ways- even with a difficult person.
  
• Remember-you set the example.  A clean campsite, dog on leash and following all park rules yourself, helps make it easy for others to follow.
  
• another camp host is NOT your boss, and only the ranger in charge should be telling you your does and don’t.  If you have questions about how another host is dealing with certain duties, let the rangers know-but make sure you have your facts in order.
  
• Remember, you as a host will see more, hear more and probably know more of what’s going on inside the park, than even the rangers, but communication is a key factor between host(s), visitors and rangers.  You are the ears and eyes and represent the park you are working in and only you can make it either enjoyable or miserable. 

That’s not going without saying that maybe there is a park where no one gets along and as much as you try to make it enjoyable it can’t be.  Then my advise to you is try to communicate with the ranger in charge of camp hosting, and then trying going up the chain of command if you don’t feel you are getting anywhere.  State Parks are becoming more and more self sufficient as state funding are getting cut.  Therefore they have to depend on visitors coming into the park.  If a park isn’t up to standard-folks won’t come to visit and then all goes down hill from there.  So it’s very important for all parties involve to work together to make happy campers keep on returning.
How long is too long in hosting in just one park?  In my personal humble opinion anything over 3-5 years is long enough. I personally feel it makes you become obsessive in that park and then you tend to want to “boss” the new host when they come in-making them feel uncomfortable.  That’s not saying you need to stop camp hosting, but maybe check out other parks to host in.  I look at it this way: when camp hosting, after a couple of years, a new scenery gives you a new outlook and allows you to explore new areas.
Camp hosting can be lots of fun with perks to it.  It gives you new areas to explore, and you only have to work just a few hours a day with 3+ more days off to do other things.  It allows you to meet new people as they travel through.  You can spend hours outdoors enjoying natures wonder.  Parks are looking more and more for new camp host as budget cuts affects them, so they rely on us to help them out.
If interested in camp hosting in a state park or federal park, simply Google the state you are interested in and then check out their web page.  A phone call to a particular park wouldn’t hurt either.  maybe if in the area, go visit the state park.  ask for either the Manager or for the ranger in charge of camp hosting. 
State parks are not the only ones looking for volunteers, there is also Corps of Engineer, National Forest, National Parks as well as State Forest & Parks.
Hope to see you down the road as a camp host-It can be fun and very enjoyable.

A FAMILY SEPERATED

Up early and adam as we started our day on one fine Wednesday Morning.  As we are checking campsites to see who is staying and who is leaving, we started in our B loop; which is the tent area.  One of our tenters comes up to us and said he just seen a cub bear walking on the burm trail.  We asked us to show us where the cub at. 

As I walked up on the burm, sure enough there was a cub walking on the trail as if nothing was amidst.  He did look back once to see if anyone was following me, and then just kept on going.

As volunteer and workers of the state park our first protocol was to get a hold of a park ranger.  Being it was very early in the morning and no park rangers were on as of yet, but maintenance was, we approached the maintenance guy and then he made the necessary phone calls while we went back to track the direction the cub was going.

the cub got chased up a tree at one point by barking dogs, came back down, and once again headed towards our B loop; which was still loaded with a group of overnight campers with lots of young kids.  Not wanting to have the kids chasing the baby, we tried our best to divert the cub away from that area, but he would have no part of it.  He looked at us as if he was in charge, and actually-he was!

 Although the pics are blurred, they are my first pics of  a baby cub!
He’s running away from us and right into the paths of lots of kids!!


We eventually lost track of him in the tall grass brush, so we had no clue as to where he actually was.  Then another one of our campers informed us that there was not just one cub, but two!  They had played hours prior to the chase in front of his camper.

The next question that everyone had…if we have cubs in the park, where is mama?  That kept rangers and us on edge through out the day.  The rangers had to contact the Dept. of Wildlife.  He came out and talked with us about the cub.  At first he thought it was last year born and wasn’t an actual cub-until he looked at my picture that I manage to get.

As the day turned to night, we advised campers that there are bears in the area and to keep their site clean of food.  As we went around later that night checking on the park, and talking with campers, one lady came up and said that there is a bear on the other side of the river pacing back and forth.  We later learned that it was mama to the cubs.  All of tenters were awaken through out the night with mama crying for her babes.
Almost of a week later and other than finding bear scat back near the water treatment area, there has been no more sighting of mama or the cubs.  We hope that somehow they have been re-united and have gone back to their homeland, away from the campground.

So what happen to separate mama from cubs?  We are all thinking that somehow upstream the babes fell into the river, after maybe a bank collapse from the raging rushing water.  They swam went downstream, ending up on the opposite side of the bank and landing near us.  Now if somehow we can get them to continue down river for another 2 miles, then maybe cubs could cross over at the Cameo bridge and get re-united with their mama.  Just so long mama doesn’t cross over to our side in the meantime.

By the looks of the scat, the cubs appear to be eating some vegetation, but they are a little on the skinny side-they need their mama back for proper nutrition.

A DEMOTION & A GRADUATION

Now isn’t that a strange combination: A Demotion & A Graduation.  I bet you are wondering how the heck the two work together in a title and a sentence.  Well I guess I better get the answer out.

First thing first, A Demotion:  Brian has been so helpful to both me and to the rangers in the office.  He is learning how the day pass works and now working on how the camping permits work.  He wants to eventually learn how the fishing license works, and I tell him that’s for me to do and for him to keep an eye on the window.  It’s no offense to him, but a major screw up on the fishing license could spell disaster.  I’m still leery on the procedure, but each time I do one, I get better at it, and I have learned how to back out of it, if I do screw up without charging the customer more money. 

Brian also has been working hard on cleaning the office/gate house.  It’s not like it’s a total messy place, but it’s obvious that no one has had the time to move things around and do a thorough cleaning.  For example our brochure rack was really dusty and dirty-but no more.  The office chairs had lots of grime, and now they are sparkling clean once again.  The doors looked like grease monkeys came in and out, now you can actually see the true color of the paint.  The rangers are liking him in the office to help out and also to do the cleaning that they themselves don’t have time.

But now this week-Brian has received a DEMOTION!   He will now be given a golf cart, a rake, a bucket, gloves, a pooper scooper and garbage bags and will have to go out and do really physical labor.  His duties will be cleaning campsites after campers leave, clean day-use area including the beach area and around the two fishing lakes, plus the two group day-use area after a schedule party has left the area.  He will split his duties with another camp host here in the park.  On top of all that he will sell firewood here at our site.

Brian up and early-ready to go to work

He's making sure the grill is ready for the next person to use

This is all temporary, mind you.  We have two sets of camp host, besides us here in our park.  Our one set has had some heart issue and was in the hospital for a couple of days.  He was fitted with a pace-maker this past week and the park rangers wants to give him a few weeks to regain his strength before going back to the hosting position.  So Brian (and of course I will help when ever I can) will be taking over their duties for now.  Once they are  back in the swing of things, then Brian will go back to office duties and if he’s good maybe a promotion….

Now as for the Graduation:  As I have written that I have had a foot issue with a cyst being removed a couple of weeks ago.  I have had to go back to the doctor a few times for re-checks and each time it’s been a little better.  Last week I graduated from a surgical shoe, to wearing my one pair of tennis shoes and the bandage from being thick to thin.  This week I now have graduated from the thin bandage wrap to simply a band-aide and now being able to wear my hiker shoes once again without pain.  Next week I finally go for one last visit where they will finally take out the stitches.  The doctor was impressed on my healing-as she said it carefully: “for someone of my age”….she really wasn’t saying that I”m getting “old” was she???

Still a little bruising around the toes.

An any case, the foot is doing great and very soon I will be back to hiking once again.  But for now, I’m just getting back into the swing of walking more than just a block.

RIVER HOLDIN STEADY

On Wednesday, The Colorado River crested and should be slowly going back down.  Fortunately not a lot of homes have been effected by all this flooding.

As for the I-70, it’s open but traffic limited to one lane both east and west bound between Fruita, CO and the Utah border.

The James M. Robb Colorado River State Park system-the river has made some impact in areas.  The park is divided up with Island Acres being east of Grand Junction, Fruita being on the west side of G. J. then they have Corn Lake and the Connected Lake in Clifton & the G.J. area.  Both the Corn and the Connected lakes had to be shut down earlier this week, due to the rising of the river.

As one of our rangers was at Connected lake, checking the Burm along the river bank, and it gave way and next thing he knew, he was in the river!  Fortunately he was able to pull himself back out, before the  current swept him downward.  He had waiters on that  quickly filled with water, this  ranger was very lucky.  Due to all of this, has prompted our lake manager to close all trails on the burms, including ours here at Island Acres.  We did find a few areas, where the river is starting to cut into the dirt wall, so safety needs to come first.  Our rangers here have been All busy placing barricades and closure signs on the trail.

On Thursday,(the 9th), the Levee at Connected Lake, was breached, causing the closure of the road into Connected Lake.  The park is predicting this will be short live and will have the levee fixed before too long.  with this levee breaking it has caused some flooding into a couple of homes nearby.

Although the river level is slowly dropping, we all are still not out of the wood with the flooding.  We are slowly seeing it going down here, but as the temps are warming up and there is still lots of snow that needs to melt.  they don’t predict the river to go down any time real soon.

Officials have closed the rivers to single chamber blow-up device.  The Colorado River is very popular for tubing, rafting, and kayaking.  the roller dam just above us is a popular place for “surfing’ and it’s been very active with lots of visitors riding the big surf waves it is creating.

the news media stated that if the river reaches 14 feet at the Cameo exit, then our park will flood out.  We didn’t reach that 14 feet-so the park is safe, and ready for lots of visitors to come visit us.

COLORADO RIVER A RISIN’

The spot that we have chosen to park in for the season here at Island Acres, normally does not allow us any view of  the Colorado River because of the Burm that was built.  But because of it’s rapid rising-we actually can see  the river  from where we sit.

Since the burm has been built a few years back, they have not had a flooding issue here at the park, but then the river hasn’t reached flood stage in a very long time.  They are looking for us to crest at 15 feet above normal.  With this burm-the river shouldn’t flood the campground-but the park rangers are a little nervous-not knowing how much this burm can actually up hold with the river rapidly rising and the rushing flow.  I guess by now, the park would have been flooded at various areas like the day-use,  the B-loop which is the tent area and a portion of A-loop.  So we all are sitting on the edge waiting to see what will or will not happen.
 You can see how close it’s getting to the Burm-this is in the Day-Use area
 This is just before the B-Loop and it’s start cut inwards.
This past Sunday Brian had to go for a special meeting.  I guess with the rising of the Colorado River, very few folks like to come out just up river from us and ride the roller dam down; which causes what they call a Big Surf-like a big wave in California.  If they are crazy enough to try it, then they may have to be rescued.  We as volunteer/worker, may need to assist park rangers where ever we will be needed.   They also briefed Brian on evacuation procedure-only if that should arise….
This is not a person, but a part of a tree that is floating downriver…
Also with the rising of the Colorado River, means road closures.  Yesterday they had to start diverting traffic on I-70, to lighten the traffic load over the bridge just past the town of Fruita & Loma and into Utah.  Now this morning they will completely shut down east bound traffic of  I-70.  That part of the Interstate rides low and when the river rises to the flood stage, debris tends to get trap under the bridge, making water to come over onto the interstate and creating a very unsafe driving conditions.  I feel for the truckers, for I-70 is the only Interstate east to west across CO & UT, now making the drive unto very dangerous roadways, creating truckers to get behind on their loads. 
They also may need to close down the Cameo exit, which is the next exit just past us, again, because once exiting off, it drops downward.  There really isn’t much off that exit other than a power plant, which isn’t in use right now, and a single ranch just down the road a ways.  many folks will take that exit to get back into the canyon where the wild horses are known to hang out.
All of this is caused by 200% snow coverage in the Rockies and high elevation this past winter, and warmer temps right now,causing a fast meltdown, creating flooding  not only in the Colorado River, but other small rivers and streams to go over their banks.
The good news to all of this, is that it eventually lands in Lake Mead; which may finally bring that lake back up to normal pool  level for the first time in years.
This year has been a crazy year not just for us in Colorado, but for others that have had to deal with other flooding in the Midwest,  deadly tornadoes, and raging out of control fires in Arizona.  Let’s just hope that the rest of this summer season gets better and not worse.

DOWNTIME

Walk, walk, walk-2 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles.  After working so hard in building up over the course of the winter to walk an average of 7 miles a day, with exception of 10 miles on some days.  Now I have to start all over in re-building.  But that  won’t happen until the 1st of July.

Even though the surgery I had on my foot was considered minor, it’s putting me in a downtime of 21 days of no walking or hiking.  For the first 4 days, only place I am allowed to walk to is to and from the bathroom and maybe to a chair outdoors later on-weather permitting.

For a person use to being on my feet and always moving around, I’m hoping that I don’t go completely bonkers during this down time.  I have the TV with only two channels for some entertainment or “noise”.    I do have many photos that I’m working into putting into videos, so that will help pacify a few hours a day.  I can catch up on emails and Face Booking, now that our Internet works here at the camper.  I am hand sewing covers for our seat cushion to protect against Leah’s claws; plus I have offered to put patches onto shirts & jackets for the State Park.   I have some books to read, and last but surely not least, I can just take a siesta here and there.  So there should be no excuse of me going bonkers-right?

But yet, I’m still not use to just sitting around and doing “nothing”.  I miss walking Leah, or just taking a leisure stroll with Brian or going adventuring in hiking.  when I do finally get the “permission” from my doctor to start the walking again-I know I will have to start out slowly to rebuild all that I have lost…

There is an upside to this down time:  I get catered to from a wonderful hubby, I don’t have to get dress, so therefore I get to stay comfy, and I finally have an excuse for being lazy for a few days!!

CELL PHONE BOOSTER

Sitting between the canyon walls, does not allow us very good access in using our cell phone.  If we leave our cell phone right by the one window and don’t move it-we can make and receive calls.  But it does make it awkward for trying to talk to someone.  Or we can walk around to varies areas inside the park to pick up a half way decent signal to make a call, but by doing this you have lots of background noise and no privacy.
Since I also use our smart phone as a connection to the Internet for the computer, that makes it even more difficult.  I have to be 3g in order for it to work.  Therefore we either have to run over to the truck stop just up the road and use their Wi-Fi signal or go over to our daughter in Clifton.  Going to our Daughter has worked greatly, but again we don’t run in every day so it make it a bit of inconvenience to use the internet.
We used a Wilson Antenna booster a few years ago while parked at North Padre Island, it worked for the most part, but wasn’t a 100% reliable, so returned it back to the store.  We haven’t needed a booster until now….

There is a newer version of a cell phone booster that is specifically for 2g,3g and smart phones and half the cost of the other cell phone antenna booster.  The booster is made by Wilson Antenna and can be purchased at any electronic/computer store like Best Buy; where we bought ours.  Radio Shack use to cell them around here, but discontinue for many claim it didn’t work. 

Has it worked for us?  Well Brian put it up yesterday, and I have been able to jump right onto the Internet, using the cell phone.  Then we fired up the computer and turned on the Mobile Hot Spot and walla, I had Internet once again in the privacy of our little home, using the computer! 

The true test was seeing how it would download files.  So I went to Brian’s Brother and Sister-in-law’s photo web page and downloaded some photos they took while on vacation to WI and it worked beautifully!  I mostly have anywhere from 3-5 bars and staying in 3g.

The next test to see how well it will download to my blog web page.  It’s June 1st, if you see this posted on this date-then it worked!  If you see it posted on June 2nd that means it didn’t work and then it will be decided if it’s worth keeping the booster…

We are limited to mobility, we have to stay at the booth in our motorhome, because it is tethered to a short wire that connects the phone to the antenna.  The antenna needs to be place on the roof onto something medal; which in our case is our a/c.   (note: because of the plactic covering over the a/c, we will need to purchase a piece of medal to make the magnet stick stronger.)                                                                                                                                                Brian has run the wire down into our one window,                                                                                                                                and then we put the cell phone in the cradle.