Friday, May 19, 2017

The Season Has Begun

It was late when I went to bed last night so, rather than hang my clothes in the closet, I laid them over a basket in the bedroom.  This morning, after I was dressed and made the bed, I picked up my dress slacks to put back in the closet.  I found Andy's name badge from last night on the seat of my pants. He was waiting in the kitchen and burst into laughter when I yelled, "Hey!"  He knew what I had discovered. He assured me that I wasn't wearing his name on my butt at the event; he put it there after we got home.

We passed the car of young people from Texas as we were walking up to the campground in the morning.  We had insisted that they hike to the Midnight Hole, Mouse Creek Falls, and the upper bridge yesterday morning.  The did and were ecstatic.  It was the best ever! It warmed my cockles to get that feedback.  We made a difference.

That reminded me of Superintendent Cash's remarks last night.  Andy and I (and Spence) are the face of the Smokies here in Big Creek.  All the camp hosts here fill the role in turn. We play a part in park visitors having a great experience.  That gives them a life-long memory and an emotional connection to the park. That emotional connection is what makes them supporters of this park and the park system in general. They will love the park and respect the resources the park protects.

The tent campground was full in the morning. The slot was out of pay envelopes. I replenished it so the people who were staying another night could pay up.  Some people had already left for the day's hike without paying, but I knew I would catch up with them in the evening.  All had paid by the time we made our evening rounds. We sent anyone else asking for a site to Cosby.  Two backpackers who had gone out earlier in the week returned looking for a campsite and I put them in Site 6 in the horse camp.

The group site has been reserved several times since we've been here.  Today is the first day a group has shown up in two weeks.  The high school chemistry teacher arrived first he had a car loaded to the top with camping gear.  The rest of the group, high-school kids and a few smaller ones (children of the adults) showed up several hours later.  The rain came down in buckets while they set up their tents.

We got our bundle of mail from the Marathon UPS store yesterday but did not look at it before we went out for the evening.  The bundle included our house plans from Arlington Ridge.  Then, late last night I saw an email.  They were wondering why we had not signed and returned the plans.  Because we don't get our mail regularly when we are on the road. I replied that we would review them this morning and get them in the mail today. It was not hard since we had not made many structural changes to the standard house plan.  Our only change was to add some windows. We did notice that we needed another hose bib near the back of the house.  I called Jose, the Director of Home Design, he FAX'd me a change order to print and sign, and we were ready to go to the post office.

We passed the maintenance crew from Cosby going down Big Creek Road.  Juan, Robert, and Linda came over.  Juan told us the visibility on the interstate was terrible because of the heavy rain.  I was sorry not to be there to visit with Linda, but we had to get to the post office before it closed.

There was a woman at the counter talking non-stop as the postal clerk weighed, stamped and charged her postage.  By the time she was done, a good line had formed behind us. The woman turned around and announced to everyone in line, "Don't buy those bamboo bras!  It cost $17 postage to get them and then $17 postage to send them back!  ........I mean the women."

I turned around to see several befuddled men in the line behind us.  Andy asked with puzzlement in his voice, "Bamboo bras?" I reminded him of the bamboo baby booties we bought for one of the grandsons.  They were sooooo soft.  A woman near the back of the line announced, "I love my bamboo sheets".

When Andy decided it made sense, he said to the crowd, "I guess she was bamboozled!  The post office was filled with groans and laughter as we walked out the door.


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