Sunday, May 03, 2015 – Big Creek
Most of the campers were heading out this morning.
The men in Site 10 had planned to move to Cade’s Cove, but decided Big Creek is
too nice to leave. They will drive to Cade’s Cove as a day trip.
The two women in the horse camp were pulling out. The
one with the fancy RV/horse trailer was having some problems. She thought she
had a dead battery and used her generator to charge it up for several hours. That
didn’t solve the problem. She jiggled a wire and that did the trick. That
incident reminded me that we do not have the battery charger/tire inflator
machine that we used last year. We could tell something was wrong when we saw
her truck and trailer parked diagonally across the road.
When she was ready to go, she led her horse from the
stall to the trailer. He didn’t want to go in and balked on the ramp. The woman
just led him around in a small circle and right into the trailer before he knew
which way was out. She said he is young and is still learning.
I told him goodbye and took his picture as he rolled
by.
Heard on the radio: a car had been broken into and a
purse was stolen from it. A park ranger and dispatch were talking and the
ranger said for them to bring the car to the ranger station so he could see the
damage and determine whether it was a theft or a loss.
A horsewoman named Cindy stopped by as she was
heading up the Big Creek trail. She wanted us to know that when was out there,
in case something happened and she did not come back. She expected to be out
for a few hours. I said I would watch to make sure she returned and would call
the rangers to find her if she did not.
I don’t remember where I took this picture. It looks
like a buttercup, but the stem is very tall, maybe more than twelve inches.
I took my computer and the Jetpack (mobile hot spot)
and drove down to the ranger station. Andy brought his iPad along. No signal
there. Then we drove to the picnic pavilion at the power plant. One bar there.
The pavilion even had electrical outlets overhead.
The pavilion has a wood stove in the front of the
chimney and a huge grill on the backside. There were a number of picnic tables
and two large tables, I assume for the food. It is a great place for a group
picnic.
The Jetpack and the computer power supply were
hanging from the outlet on the beam above.
Yes, I did have to climb up onto the table to plug
them in.
I was able to receive some emails, but could not
send out my logs or function on line. We drove down to the Pigeon River, where
they launch the rafts and kayaks. Two bars there; it is next to the interstate.
I set the Jetpack on top of the car and operated the computer with it sitting
on the back seat while I stood next to the car. The logs went out. I know I
duplicated some that I already sent out, but couldn’t remember which days I had
sent before.
Boss Larry dropped by just as we finished eating
dinner. He brought us the reservation reports for the group and horse camps. There
are no groups scheduled until Friday and no reservations for the horse camp for
the next week. We got to hear more about Larry and Kristen’s trip to Australia
and New Zealand last winter.
Spence and Linda dropped by after they finished cleaning
the toilet buildings. It was Linda’s first day back at work for the season. I
guess her work year is about six months long. Spence had come back earlier than
most seasonal workers because he did some other maintenance work around the
park.
Linda cleans the Cosby campground and sometimes
comes to Big Creek on Spence’s days off. Spence goes to Cosby to help Linda
clean on the weekends. Cosby is a big campground and has eight toilet
buildings.
I listened to Spence and Linda talk about being unemployed
for half the year. Some people get unemployment checks, but apparently some do
not. Spence mentioned a woman who didn’t get her unemployment checks until she
was already back at work the next season. Linda told me that it is very
difficult to get a year-round, full-time job in this area. She said employers
do not want to pay any benefits, especially health care.
Horsewoman Cindy returned while Spence and Linda
were here.
Andy went into the motorhome to get some water and I
asked him to bring me my camera so I could take pictures of Spence and Linda. Tonight,
when I put the pictures on the computer, I saw this one.
I asked Andy, “What is this?”
“I took a selfie!”
I’m still laughing.
There were new campers in the afternoon. This stump
is beside the horse trail and it always fascinates me. It is larger than it
appears in this picture. It looks just right for a cozy fox or bear den, but we
don’t see any signs of animals going in or out.
As we walked down the trail to the horse camp, we
saw some deer leaping in the woods from the horse stalls. We guessed that they
were eating horse hay that had dropped to the ground. We walked around the loop
and saw the deer in the horse camp day-use lot. I found a spot where I could
see them clearly through the trees and took five or ten pictures before I got
one with both deer looking toward me.
I hate to have to tell you this, but they were
eating horse poop.
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