Monday, August 9.

My dispatcher never sent the run on Friday and waited until Saturday afternoon to send it, telling me it needed to be there Sunday night, even tho she said it is a Sunday run....."So this is a Sunday run, correct?".  "Well they said they needed it there Sunday night but Monday morning will work".  Bypassing everything, I got there late morning today - just stuff happens on the road you have no control over - and they said they weren't expecting me until tomorrow morning and they didn't need it out of there Sunday or today.  

I just - whatever.  I busted my @$$ to get up there, I'll say that, leaving early Sunday morning and driving almost 700 miles the first day, getting up very early today and finishing it off.  After a minor breakdown that cost about 2 hours to fix, I was back on the road.  I'm 606 miles from the yard, stopped at a Truckstop in Cross Plains, Tennessee - I've stopped here many times in the past.  It's small, it's clean and it's not far from Nashville.  I couldn't make it any further, the break down cost me on duty hours and anyway, I am in good position to make it back tomorrow.  I'll be left with around 3 hours on the 70 hour clock after I get back so I will definitely have Wednesday off.  

Not that I want it off, I need to drive and make some money right now and get caught up from all of this loss of days of work and low paying runs. This run is a decent paying run at least and it was easier because I bobtailed all the way up there - the plant is shutting down their ethylene rack temporarily so they can clean their tank out and they are doing some sort of construction there as well.  I had originally thought our competitor had managed to steal the account from us - they've been doing that a lot.  This is a decent run and tho it's only once a week, I think anyway, might be 2,  it keeps us busy.  

On to other things.  I find that I have to make phone calls and text messages and send emails to get this thing moving along. The property that is.  My realtor is a nice person but she really isn't well versed in land deals.  Not that I am, but this thing is dragging on and on and ooooonnnnnn.......

So I texted her today about the title company, Then I emailed the lender about the appraisal. He said it would be finished today. Today? I thought, wow, he originally told me it would be 3 or 4 days after they got the survey to finish it.  Several emails later and he came back with one saying the appraisal is finished and the land values look good. I was a little surprised that he made it sound like they were spot on. I was expecting it to come back that the price per acre is less than market value - seriously.  In that area, land is going high.  Well, it's for sale high, doesn't mean it sells I guess. If you can't get a lender to give you the money, well, those sellers are going to be holding on to those properties awhile.  

After that, my realtor texted me back, saying she had called the title company and the lady on the other end of the phone had been extremely rude with her. If what she said is accurate, then yes, that lady was a real piece of work, to put it politely.  Friday is definitely a no go for closing.  My realtor said the only person in that title company office that has authority to close on files is on vacation until Monday.

Figures.  Closing date is  tentatively Tuesday of next week, time of day it will occur is unknown.   I had to cancel Friday off with my dispatcher and inform her that Tuesday is the tentative date, sorry for the inconvenience and last minute stuff, but this is important to me, please make it work.  She said no problem and that was that.  So I informed her Tuesday is tentatively the date, she said fine, just keep her updated.  

We are, hopefully, getting closer folks.  That doesn't mean I'll have an RV park magically appear, it just means the start of a process that is going to take a while to work through.  I'm definitely not getting an SBA loan to start this thing off.  They want to lend too much money and as tempting as that sounds, I don't want to be drowning in 400k worth of debt.  Just not my style.  I'm going to have to make it work with what's available to me. 401k, a personal loan and then credit cards.  I could cancel the last two if I can find a bank to give me a HELOC loan on my house.  About 75 grand would do it.  Well more would be better but I'll take what I can get.

I just have read that banks are hesitant on HELOCs right now so I'm not holding my breath on that one.  I can't think of any other sources of income beyond selling my house, but that is, at least currently, out of the question.  Just by my choice, not because I have to keep it. 

I will start this thing out by going to the road and bridge department of the county and finding out what permits I may need.  I will be contacting all the utility contractors and asking for bids.  I will find some way to get a 20 foot wide drive way cleared out on the west side of the property and get that started. Actually, I think I'll go 15 feet to start with and see if that looks like enough room.  Clear out the front - it will all have to be cleared of trees as there will be an office building there and a small parking lot.  

I've got the beginning of this started in my mind.  The rest of it I will work through and make decisions as the decisions are forced in front of me to make.  I want around 20-25 pull through lots and the rest will be back ins.  RV'ers are used to both, many seem to prefer pull throughs but I have determined that I can't have all pull throughs.  It's likely the east side lots will have to be leveled - meaning dirt removed to make them level lots meaning a wall - small block wall - at the rear of those lots.  That's not a disappointment for me, I had originally thought of doing all pull throughs but after looking at a bunch of RV parks both online and in person I adjusted that view of it.  

It's been difficult to try and come to definitive decisions about things because I've never done this before.  And I don't want to make the wrong decisions.  Wrong decisions cost money.  I am going to have an electrical engineer design the electrical portion of the park, blue print and at least attempt to install it myself.  I just need the experts to show me how to do it, I don't need their help installing it.  I don't think, anyway.  It's really a matter of affordability.  Without a huge loan right at the start it's going to have to be a lot of do-it-yourself stuff.  It will take longer - much longer - yes but in the end I actually have a functioning park. Not a partly completed park and gee, I'm out of money, now what?  

I'd definitely prefer a 150-200k loan and just get it over with.  In reality, if I can get this thing up and going eventually and hopefully some degree of success, I can then take the park's revenue and records into a bank and say, here, I built this, I am generating this much money, etc etc, can I please borrow  X amount of money.  I really would eventually like to have a swimming pool and a jacuzzi on the property and that will cost some serious money.  

OK, well, my ankles.  My hikes through the woods have resulted in my ankles being severely bitten by insects. Namely: tics.  Those things are horrible.  My feet and ankles are all itchy and not feeling so good because of it.  I hiked the other day with the 6 year old through the entire property - I have videos up on my Facebook of that.  I sprayed him with insect repellent, including on his shoes, I did the same for me but I forgot to hit my boots with it.  I won't be forgetting that again.  

I was impressed by the 6 year old's tenacity. He never once complained and the only thing he wouldn't do without help was to cross the stream on a giant, felled oak tree.  Why do we have to cross here over this tree? Because we are on an adventure boy, have some fun!  So he did it with the condition that I hold his hand the entire time.  Of course, I am not going to let you fall off the tree lol.  About half way across he let go of my hand, gaining new-found confidence in his ability to stand up on it.  Again, it was a huge tree.  I had to pick him up a few times and carry him over the  ridiculous thorn bushes and vines, but other than that, he did very well.  I guess I was doing that kind of thing at his age too, now that I think of it.  I'm trying to make the hikes with the kids into the woods an interesting adventure, something they will learn to like and perhaps go off on their own when they grow old on their own hikes.  It's fun, it's adventurous, it is great exercise and it's far better than sitting at home watching tv or playing on computers or phones all the time.  

But I've given up on the 4 year old, at least for now.  He just isn't tall enough to get over the thorn bushes and he cries and screams the entire time. I have another property I am going to take him to that doesn't have all of that nonsense and he can have a bit happier time hiking.  He didn't ask to go this last time anyway, I reminded him of his very bad time the last 2 hikes and he said I'm good, I'll stay home lol. 

I have not found all of the corner markers.  I am going back without the kid next time and search through a portion of woods he wasn't too keen on going into.  I have no choice, there are 2 corner markers I really need to know where they are at.  Both on the east side of the property. The first is at the end of the driveway - somewhere in the trees there is a pipe, so the survey says.  And then on east of there, an easement that goes along that side of property, there is supposed to be another pipe.  I was looking for both of them but without going into the trees, I couldn't find them.  

Well, it's getting time to go to sleep and I  am going to have to move my truck.  A refer unit pulled in next to me. They are noisy - extremely noisy - I have no idea how those drivers can sleep with all that racket.  A lot of them are starting to nose into parking spaces to keep that ridiculous noise away from other drivers, this one chose not to. I will either pull out into the driveway and get away from it or pull out, turn around and nose in myself.  

With that, I am offa here.

G'nite.