Wednesday & Thursday, January 6 & 7, 2010-Stephen F. Austin SP

Well, today (Wednesday) is my first day on the "job". We went to the meeting at 9 o'clock, which by the way, is a wonderful time to have to be at work. We met with Larry, the volunteer coordinator, to learn what will be expected of us. There was another couple with us, AD and his wife Dee, who went through the indoctrination routine with us. They are more experienced than us at being a Park Host but everyone must go through it.

The main things will be to pick up trash around the park, to clean the fire pits and to keep the rest rooms clean. Our first assignment is to keep up with the restrooms in the tent area. That should be real easy this week with the forecast weather of freezing temperatures all weekend long. Larry also showed us around the shop, the supply areas and the equipment area. We signed the expected agreements and notices that we are not state employees and have no rights to insurance or any other benefits, so be careful! We went to the tent area restroom to actually see one of the restrooms and the supply closet there. This doesn't look too hard to me, but I may change my mind when lots of people come into the park and leave a mess behind....

The first thing we actually had to work on was taking the Christmas decorations down at the main headquarters. We met the other Park Hosts, Don and his wife, AD and his wife, who all worked on the decorations. There is another couple, Leon and his wife who are both being treated at MD Anderson for cancer. They were involved in a bad traffic accident recently and are slowly recovering. They are parked in the tent area in the only RV hookup site.

After getting everything down and loaded onto trucks, we took it back to the shop where it was unloaded and stored. Larry and I also worked on one of the golf carts, but it wouldn't take a charge on the battery, so I won't have a cart to drive around to do my chores. The park ranger took the others over to the day use area where the water lines were drained and secured against the cold weather.

On Thursday, I walked around the circle on my way to check the restrooms and picked up some trash. So far, I like this job, but of course, there's not many people in the park. In fact, there were nine trailers in the park and there are five of us doing Park Hosting. Surprisingly, several more trailers and a couple of motorhomes came in late in the afternoon. One of the new rigs was an A-frame trailer. I know they will be using the restrooms, so tomorrow should be a little busier than today was.

So long.