New News from The Park 10-8-04

First a test to see if the program enabling me to compose in the comfort of 
my home is up and running....  Bubba!  Help!  I'd also like you to reformat 
the "News" page.  Is it possible for the old "News" to just curl up behind a 
wall somewhere after a month or two and stay there indefinitely?  I cringe 
at the thought of facing my ignorant pronouncements and sleep deprived 
verbiage.  I shouldn't even read last night's endeavor, but I've got to try 
and fix some of the punctuation... a hopeless task given my English ignorance. 
  I apologize for offended sensibilities generated from anything I write, or 
say, or do, before I even do it, I'm sorry!  Like old fat pictures purposely 
tucked away out of site until you look back and are impressed by the youth 
and not dismayed by the extra poundage... that's kind of it...!
  "Whew!" is the exclamation I would use to describe the past few months.  
We made it!  Our first season as the new owner/operators at
The Pony Express RV Park is coming to an end.  I want to get down on paper, 
so to speak, some thoughts before they evaporate or turn into driftwood 
clogging the banks of my memory.  (There's a lot more of that... sorry!) 
First of all, we survived, and so did all of our customers, employees, and 
visiting family members.  We thank our lucky stars and God for that.  Given 
my pessimistic imagination, I'd dreamed up all sorts of newspaper headlines 
capturing the reader's attention with a succinct, riveting account of the 
tragic though extremely unusual demise of "The New RV Park Owners".  Maybe 
it was just my way of relieving the pressure, an escape if you will... not 
really, The Park is our escape.  The beauty I found exploring its 
boundaries, mostly on my trusty John Deer riding lawn mower, and with said 
mower, making the hinder regions of the park more accessible, will remain 
high on my positive moments' memory list. (My what?!)  The memory of the box 
elder followed by tick, then mosquito infestations I mowed through has faded 
from my psyche if not my skin.
Acquiring an RV Park and running it has certainly been a learning 
experience, and Jeff and I both agree, a very positive one... even if the 
books don't reflect such.
Labor Day weekend generated lots of memorable moments (sounds like the title 
to a new picture gallery on the web).  A great crowd, beautiful weather, 
(although on further  recollection we had a helacious rain Sunday night....)  
That aside, I'll never forget the "Ooohs" and "Ahhhs" generated when I had 
Jeff stop the hay ride to view the "Turning on of the Pier Lights".  Pretty 
hokey really and I warned them of that, the huge crowd sitting on hay bales 
perched on a car trailer sans side rails ...  precarious comes to mind....   And 
they kept coming for more! And each ride was different.  I was going to get 
t-shirts made proclaiming, "We Survived the Third Ride!".... Remember 
Whip-poor-will woods, miscommunication with Jeff (I said don't go in!), it 
was so dark, no lights (long story; moral: "The show must go on"), a narrow 
pass, a fisherman with a lantern guiding us out, fishtailing on the bank.... 
Aghh!  But I go on as usual.  When the one strand of lights on the ramp over 
the water came on (we'd just had electricity put in at the pond, for a 
pretty penny, despite Jeff's trench digging... or in spite of it.... The trench 
line has character, who wants straight?) the exclamations of delight over 
our paltry light show were genuine, fooled me anyway.  Possibly it was just 
the crowd's exhalation of relief on the rides end... not!
  And I'll remember the beautiful sleeping babies after another ride.  One 
lucky baby had mosquito netting over her carrier.  I thought she was going 
to be sacrificed for the greater good when we entered this major bug zone on 
the other side of the creek!  My biggest concern when planning the "Cement 
crossing to the rest of The Park" hayride was getting back!  We still had a 
precipitous decline on a trail trimmed from the backs of golf carts and lawn 
mowers. Thank goodness we lurched above and beyond the bugs (Jeff's getting 
the hang of this tractor driving business, he's a quick study!) and roared 
into the playground area with hardly a scratch.  Only one kid was lost from 
the back of the trailer and word has it she jumped off for fun.  Seriously, 
these people kept coming back for more.  Kids, parents with kids, parents 
without kids, grandparents in the same configurations, all immune to the 
danger or possibly drawn to it!  Really I'm exaggerating here.  All 
"Hayrides" were planned, practiced and executed beforehand, and deemed safe 
by the powers that be.
We've watched our "babies" grow up this summer; Penny, Gertrude, Lleroy, 
Gretel, Bubba, Destin... just kidding you two.  We've been really fortunate 
with our little band of animals. No injuries or serious ailments.  Bubba 
lost a tooth.  Once again, sorry, I can't resist!  I've introduced my horses 
to the rigors of camp living and they too survived albeit not without a 
scratch.  Fabio, the black Friesian pictured in our logo, is adjusting 
admirably.  Exercising him behind the golf cart is such a fun way to go, 
especially given his proclivity to toss me off.  Next in the retraining 
process will be a backing and lunging with Destin aboard.
Did I mention how much we appreciate and how grateful we are to have two 
trusty, stalwart, and tenacious workers?  Who do practically all of the hard 
labor and worrying over what needs to be done, getting us to address the 
important issues like geese.  Seriously, they were destroying our ponds and 
eventually would probably have taken over The Park.  And gravel.  The damn 
stuff never stays put.  I'd better be nice or this will never make it to the 
"News" section on our web site.  I'm sorry Bill, what's my e-mail address 
again and the code to enter my "New News"?
Really, Bill, "Bubba", has been invaluable.  His skills around a computer 
alone, not to mention his relentless mowing, and his acquiescence to staying 
on as caretaker/security chief, all have endeared him to Jeff and me.  He's 
our Web-Master now and was instrumental in producing our brochure.  He's a 
"fine tuner" and would doggedly work at something until he found it 
acceptable.  Not all his best work saw the light of day however, thanks to 
my tardiness in proof-approving and lackadaisical interest towards indoor 
computer work when so much needed to be done outdoors.  His neglected 
efforts, put aside, sifted and secreted themselves away into the computer 
maze-daze all computer geeks must love to create... it's Greek to me! (More 
like I drifted daze-hazed there for a bit)(Cut?)(Nah)  Forget ever mastering 
the intricacies of a computer... what I'm trying to say is you did good Bill; 
we're dolts at the computer!  I was also trying to gracefully lead into 
reasons why I may be elsewhere or at times distracted.... Possibly I was off 
painting signs (another potential picture gallery, though 
it would show you true obsession), or I was with my animals, or at work in 
the city (still every weekend...ugh), or taking care of the farm, four horses, 
a baby mule, and a boyfriend.  Needless to say, for what ever excuse we gave 
for not being there, we want to thank Bill for all he's done at The Park. 
I've missed a lot having to work weekends. The brunt of toilet cleaning 
falls on the weekends as well as floor mopping.  I missed the tornado.  I 
missed my boyfriend. I missed mingling with our patrons.  Problems were met 
with and dispatched without my aid and most likely more expediently.  I 
commend and truly appreciate the effort and hard work "my guys" have 
sustained not to mention the mental anguish they for the most part 
contained.  For what?!  For me and The Park... thank you guys. 
While I'm proffering praise let's get Destin's name in here.  He's a young 
local who came to us looking for a job, but unlike several before him, 
stayed.  I learned after the first two drop-outs that pages of hand written, 
detailed instructions on what to do, didn't work... (I'm new at this).  He 
gets the tree cutting, ladder climbing, fence clearing, tar spreading jobs, 
i.e., the really awful ones, and so far he's met our requests respectfully 
if not enthusiastically.  Thanks Destin, you owe me.
Jeff and I are constantly examining and discussing the courses of events, 
both before and after.  Analyzing, sifting, adjusting, distilling, (I could 
go on, restructuring, redefining, reexamining...) the nature of the beast so 
to speak.  The Park, I'm referring to, learning to run, manage, maintain, 
keep everybody happy, pay the bills, mow, get someone to mow, trim, fix 
everything that's broken or get it to the lawnmower and tractor guys, take 
care of the animals, clean, whine about cleaning (actually the word to 
describe my occasional rant starts with a "b", same number of letters), 
empty the trash, or get someone to do it, ditto: wood cutting and stacking, 
same with the bathroom and shower cleaning, write newspaper ads and new 
verbiage, oversee carpentry work, create a dressing room in the theatre to 
rival all others; our most recent obsession, I mean endeavor... ( it's truly 
amazing what Jeff can do with a staple gun being a pool table coverer from 
way back...) , cater to the customers, order and stock supplies, deal with 
sales people. I was completely bamboozled by one individual to the tune of 
$330.10, a bitter pill, but, well, I'm still mad, he should be ashamed of 
himself, I know his mother would be.
Shall we take a breath?  Needless to say, we concede to family, friends, 
complete strangers, everyone who heard we were buying an RV park, all who 
agreed and continue to  enlighten us with the knowledge that, "It's a lot of 
work!"  Yes it is, but (you may want to initiate gagging at this point) this 
puts me in mind of another fond memory from Labor Day weekend and a chapter 
from "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer".  Bubba, Destin, and I were attempting 
to put up a screened tent.  We'd mixed up two poles and no matter what we 
did, the structure came crashing down.  It was frustrating and hot.  These 
guys came to help me put it up, my tent, my idea, (never used that weekend 
except by Mabeline the mule I might add).  Like Tom said regarding his 
efforts at whitewashing Aunt Polly's fence, "Well, maybe it is, (work) and 
maybe it ain't.  All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer." Unlike Tom yearning 
to be elsewhere, I'd rather be no where else.  Jeff and I, with the help of 
our family, friends, and employees want to keep making The Park more 
functional and beautiful, because that's what suits us; we hope that suits 
you too.  Come see us either real soon (we have temperate plumbing) or we'll 
see you next year.  Reserve early!
Sincerely & with a sense of humor,
Susie and Jeff
At the Pony Express