Easy Peasy

Day one of my weekend went pretty smoothly.  The repeater for our radios was making a horrible noise yesterday, but it had been off since then.  Apparently the time off was just what it needed and we didn't have any radio troubles today.  There were no pavilion rentals today, so there were no large groups in the park.  It was definitely a summer weekend, but it was a tame one.  We didn't have to close the park because of overcrowding until almost noon.  We stayed closed, aside from a few openings to let 5-15 cars in, until about 3:00.  There weren't any outbursts like the one on my last weekend.  People were kind and as understanding as they could be.  It was a pretty easy day.  We didn't have any accidents or injuries, everything ran smoothly.
It was still a busy day though, and I didn't have the opportunity to take many photos.  I snuck out of the ranger station during a quiet period in the morning and snapped  a photo of the flowers that were blooming in the garden in front of the ranger station.  This one is appropriately called a Firebush.  Not only are the flowers a bright red color, but the stems of each leaf have a reddish tint to them and I read that some bright red berries will follow the beautiful flowers.


One thing that was a little different today was the check-in/check-out processes in the campground.  We are no longer taking reservations in the campground because construction will start very soon on the sewer upgrades.  Until the construction starts and possibly during construction if they are able to work on one loop of the campground at a time, we will accept walk-in campers on a first-come, first-served basis.  As the walk-in check in takes longer than a reservation check in, a lot more time is dedicated to campers.  It is a time consuming process because all of the camper information has to be typed into the computer.  With more face-to-face time spent with the campers, there is more opportunity for chit chat and questions... which makes the information gathering process much longer.  Maybe this will make all of our park staff appreciate our sometimes frustrating reservation service a little more.

The day went by quickly because we stayed comfortably busy.  I even got home before 6:00!  It was a good day and I hope tomorrow will hold more of the same.

Thought of the Day #12
I'm sure that I am going to regret typing this, but I think that my weekend curse may have lifted.  The other Assistant Park Manager and I alternate weekends worked at the park.  Our Park Manager warned us that with Assistants in the past, one of them would have all of the bad weekends and one would have all of the smooth weekends.  It had begun to look like I was the unlucky one.  I was getting a lot of angry visitors and accidents and injuries and missing people while my coworker was getting away easily with very few issues.  My last weekend on and so far, this weekend have been very tame.  I'm glad, but it makes me a little nervous about what may come tomorrow.