Stepping Easy!

Princeton, Texas

Clear Lake Park

Weather Condition; High 93 Low 71, Sunny

It’s startling to get really HOT around here. Even though we both grew up in north Texas, neither of us cares for the heat of the summer. It might be we’re just getting old!

We are still enjoying our gate attendant job but we are looking forward to returning to Rockport for the winter. We both miss south Texas.

Rockport is a sleepy little town with friendly people and we feel at home there. Today we bought my mom a plane ticket to Corpus Christi. I told her for her Christmas gift we would be flying her down to visit us in early December. She is very excited and wants to see the beach and see all the sites.

It will be fun to show her where we spend our winters.

We are almost half way through with this year’s summer gig as gate attendants and I can say it has been fun and interesting!

We sure miss Teddy and Barbara. They are the first partner gate attendants we had the pleasure of working with. They were only subbing here until the other gate attendants (Joe and Dorothy) arrived from Arizona. They didn’t get here until mid-May. The delay was due to Joe having heart surgery.    

Joe and Dorothy are nice people and have been doing this work for many years.

We have met some really nice people while doing this job. We have met people from all over the states and many from this area that frequently camp at this park.

We are looking forward to returning here next summer. 

We are busy on our four days off. This week we had doctor appointments, picked up eye glasses, grocery shopping, laundry, lunch with friends and built new steps.

That’s right, I built new steps. The indoor steps in our fiver are steep and high. There are only three steps with a rise of nine inches each. That’s tall for short legged people. The steps are only eight inches each.

To remedy this, I took some free lumber and built steps over our existing steps. I framed them up the have a six and half inch rise with ten inch steps. The framing work wasn’t very pretty but it works. Remember I’m NOT a carpenter!

We spent ten dollars on carpet which almost matches our existing carpet and twelve dollars on screws and nails.

This is the finished product.

Dawn loves them and it’s much easier to go up and down now.

Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010

Tire Spikes !

Princeton, Texas

Clear Lake Park

Weather Condition; High 83 Low 62, Partly Sunny

Things here have been kinda laid back until last night. It was about 11:45 P.M when Dawn and I both woke up to the sound of a vehicle speeding past our fiver. There is a circle drive in front of our fiver that is used for a turnaround for vehicles that decide not to enter the park. We’re use to the occasional vehicle driving through at night. People do get lost!

This is the circle drive

Last night the vehicle drove around the circle several times kind of fast. We were watching out the window when the vehicle finally stopped in front of our fiver. A woman stepped out of the SUV. She walked past our fiver and went to the fiver behind us. That fiver belongs to our partner gate attendants. She knocked on the door. The sleepy gate attendant opened the door slightly. We couldn’t hear the conversation but it didn’t last long.

She soon returned to her SUV and sped off to the exit side of the gate house. Dawn and I watched as the woman drove past the DANGER – Tire Damage Sign and put the pedal to the metal. She drove right over the tire spikes going the wrong way. All four tires blew. She drove half way to the boat ramp before coming to a complete stop.

This is the warning Sign which is by the way, Very Bright at night!

Dawn and I just looked at each other in shock! What on earth is going on?!

We watched out the window waiting to see if she would walk back to the entrance of the park. About forty-five minutes later a deputy drove through the circle drive very slowly. We turned on the porch light and the deputy stopped in front of our fiver.

I went out to meet him and see what was going on. He told me the department had received a call from a woman saying she was lost and that she had driven over something that had flattened her tires. The deputy said they knew exactly where she was. He asked if we saw anything. I told him what we saw and told him she was in the park near the boat ramp.

He asked me to unlock the gate and to keep it open so the tow truck could also get in.

I unlocked the gate and the deputy drove in. It was approximately thirty minutes later when the tow truck arrived.

Thirty minutes later the tow truck left the park with the SUV. The deputy stopped to help me lock the gate and to tell me that the woman was very lost and very upset. He said he believed she might have been drinking earlier in the evening. YOU THINK!!!!

Needless to say, it was 2:30 A.M before Dawn and I got back into bed. We got up at 5:30 A.M this morning and already had a line of fishermen waiting for us at the gate house!

Like I said before, Never a Dull Moment Here!!!!

Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010

The Travel Channel- Rock My RV

Interesting new show premieres Sunday May 26th at 9:00 P.M. EST.

From the creators of Overhaulin’  and the producers of Extreme RVs comes a new series on The Travel Channel called Rock My RV!

Hope you tune in and set your DVRs!  Premieres Sunday, May 26 at 9PM EST.

SNEAK PEAK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hIlPNkX3o4

http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/rock-my-rv-with-bret-michaels/photos/rock-my-rv-meet-bret-michaels-pictures

Additionally, there is a contest to win a free RV.  The link below is to the press release:

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/05/20/travel-channel-announces-rock-my-rv-with-bret-michaels-epic-rv-giveaway-contest/183242/

Being a Park Gate Attendant

Being a gate attendant for the US Army Corp of Engineers is sometimes trying! We didn’t go in without doing our research.

We are actually contractors with Our Lands and Waters Foundation who partner with the US Army Corp of Engineers. This is the web site in case anyone is interested in checking out the gate attendant bidding process (http://ourlandsandwaters.org/index.html)

We’ve read articles and blogs written by people that have been gate attendants. Opinions range from it was a lot of fun to we’ll never do that again.

We both have a local government background and are very familiar with all the red tape, rules and regulation that working with the government entail.

Getting a contract to be a gate attendant is no easy feat. First of all, it is difficult to learn anything about the bid process. You must bid on the gate attendant jobs as a contractor. You must be bonded by an insurance company with a VIP (Volunteer in Parks) bond.  The bond is not expensive, cost $75.00 to $100.00 per year. The purpose of the bond is for theft. We ran into a problem getting bonded because NOT all insurance companies have an underwriter that does VIP bonds. It took us a while but we finally found an insurer in Rockport, Texas.

You also have to provide your own office and cleaning supplies. The office supplies needed are minimal. We use permanent markers, ink pens, highlighters, staples, stapler and tape. One a week we mail a money order and a report to the government. We have to pay for the money order and stamp. 

Once a week we drive 17 miles to headquarters to pick supplies and turn in more reports. We have to travel the furthest distance to headquarters than the other gate attendants because we are across the lake from headquarters.

We bought cleaning supplies so that we can keep the gate house looking good. We clean windows, sweep & mop floors.

The office supplies, postage, and mileage are all tax deductible. In 2 months here we have used maybe $20.00 worth of supplies.

What we were not prepared for was the lack of training on the reservation software and the first impression of the park rangers attitudes that the gate attendants were all a pain in the butt. We have since learned that the park ranger are very nice guys and generally deal with the same gate attendants year after year.

We are the youngest gate attendants at this lake and most of the other gate attendants are older than my parents.  Most of them have been doing this for a good many years. They all seem to enjoy the work. Some of the gate attendants are full-timers and about half are not.  Some do this to supplement their incomes and some do it because they don’t care to travel during the heat of the summer.

I can tell you that the gate attendants at this lake are some of the nicest people we’ve met.

The reservation software is very easy to use. If you do have a problem, you can call any of the other gate attendants and they are more than happy to help.

We are enjoying the job. We are meeting a lot of nice folks and having a great time.

We will work from April 1^st to Oct 1^st. The hours are long. We work four days on and four days off. Our hours are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. We’ve been told that we’re only making about $2.50 per hour. That’s fine with us. We’re not really doing it for the money as much as a necessity. We had to be in this area this summer due to a few medical appointments, school dedication, and wedding and family visits. If we have to be in the area, we might as well be getting paid for it! The extra money is nice to have too.

We’re paid for each day worked once a month via direct deposit and are provided a nice roomy site and all utilizes.

We work in a nice brick air-conditioned gate house with a restroom. We have our TV and a recliner.  I’ve had a lot worse jobs for much less pay and it didn’t kill me.

I realize this kind of work is not for everyone but neither is living in an RV!

Every day is a learning experience. We’ve met a lot of nice people and some really strange people too. We are looking forward to returning next summer. After that, we might check out other Corp parks for future jobs.

Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010