Really! I Have Not Blogged In Almost A Month!!!

 

I think I need a Ghost Writer! I have not been very good about keeping this blog up! Between supporting our camp hosts, and doing some projects, our weeks go by fast. Friday and Saturday nights are usually pretty hectic due to having full campgrounds and lots of “ issues’ that pop up here and there. By the time our two days off comes on Monday and Tuesday, I have trouble getting into the writing mode.

I probably have a lot of material I could write about. Like the countless people that come up to one of the most popular area’s in southern California on a Friday night, WITHOUT reservations, and expect to get a site for two nights.  The worst is that people think the showers are the bathrooms (insert image here). Or the people that for some reason can not follow three simple rules: Back your car in, all tires must be on pavement, and no fires outside of fire ring. That means no Tiki Torches people! This is a very high fire danger area and I am surprised that the Forest Service is still letting us have fires in the fire rings at all.

Sorry, starting to get into a little rant there. Most of the people here are a lot of fun. Lots of kids camping and fishing and seeing the smiles on their faces makes up for the one percent of crazy people. Like at Jenks Lake, there are two boy’s that come up to fish about four days a week. They are around 10 to 12 years old and they always seem to limit out within a few hours. They are the most pleasant boy’s, always have a smile and a good word to say as they pass by. The funny part is that the grumpy old men complain that there are no fish in the lake. We just point to the two boy’s and tell them to go take lessons from the youngsters.

We have had some excitement also. We had a couple of days with rain and lightening. The lightening is the scary thing up here, it causes fires. We had a lightening strike right behind one of our campgrounds that caused a fire approximately 1/8 acre in size. The fire response here is incredible! Within a short time we had several trucks and firefighters on scene. We did not have to evacuate the campground thank goodness but it filled up with smoke pretty fast.

 

They had to call in a helicopter to help put it out.

If a helicopter is needed for fire support, they come and get it out of Jenks Lake. For safety reasons we have to close the lake down and get all the fishermen off of the water. Here are some pretty cool shots of the helicopter snorkeling the water.

 

There is a bladder between the skids and the snorkel will fill it up.

Here, something must have happened because he dumped the water and then re-filled the bladder.

These guys do a fantastic job of keeping us safe and I feel better knowing how fast they can respond.

On our two days off last week, we took a quick trip to Phoenix to meet up with our oldest son David. He flew in from Indiana for some business for the week. Since this was as close as we were going to get to each other for awhile we figured we would drive out to have dinner with him. So we had a mini family reunion with him, his grandma and His Aunt Betty and Uncle Randy. Of course I did not think to take pictures, but I did get a picture of Grandma with her SMALL order of nachos.

It was a quick visit and a long drive but oh so worth it to get a hug from him!

When we got back to Big Bear we went over to the Serrano campground to meet Rayn and JJ and to meet Rayn’s parents. They were visiting for the week and traveled from Ohio via Amtrak. Rayn was able to rent an rv and have it delivered to her site so her parents could stay right there with them. It was nice meeting you Ray and Rocky! I will try to keep Rayn and JJ out of mischief!

Labor Day is approaching and after that we will really slow down on the reservations. I will have to start planning on shutting down and winterizing all of the campgrounds. I am a little nervous about that because I still do not know were all of the drain valves are for certain hydrant loops. If I miss some we could have some serious water line breaks come this winter. I am not having any luck on acquiring utility maps from 35 years ago, and none of my current employees helped in winterizing any of the previous years. We will just do the best we can and pray that we got it right. Most of our campgrounds will close Sept 28th, Jenks Lake will close on October 12th and we will stay here and keep Barton Flats open until November 15th. We will be letting most of the camp hosts go by Sept 28th and then Max and I will start winterizing one by one.

My biggest dilemma now, is that football season is here. I do not have a DVR for my satellite, and on Sundays I have to drive over to Big Bear to turn in receipts and to get supplies for the week. I am going to miss a lot of football. Maybe instead of a Ghost Writer what I really need is a Ghost Manager, then I can keep the blog up and watch football at the same time!

Enjoy Your Day!!