So I sat out in this yard literally all day long, after I left the hotel this morning. They said there would be an empty here in the afternoon. Afternoon is loooooooooonnnnnnnggggggggg gone. It's almost 8:00 pm. What does that mean? It means I get a second night of detention pay. We had 5 trailers full of ethylene, they took one out of here around 3:45 pm, they usually come back a few hours later with an empty - that never happened.
So what's your point? My point is I now get a second night of detention pay. They could show up now with an empty trailer and I'd still get it. Actually hoping they do show up tonight with at least one, I want to go home tomorrow. No way are they going to have 3 of us sitting down here for days without either getting us empties or having us bobtail back to the yard. But, they won't do that because there won't be any empties available if any of us leave. They don't really need any more down here right now, 5 full trailers and possibly another behind the driver that just showed up.
We got to talking. There is one driver who gets Brownsville runs every single time. There have been rumors about him pulling the race card - he's black - to get his way with this particular run. And now it's been verified, as the driver said our manager was confronted by this dude and claiming the - race card.
Of course. Nowadays you can just pull the race card on anything you like. If you're a minority but especially if you're black. Am I a racist for saying such things? Well that depends on who you are and the way you see things. I'm going to call a spade, a spade and if you don't like it, you can go pound rocks. I didn't grow up in a pansied society that has suddenly decided that a few offended people will not only get their way, but if you happen to take a stand against their stupidity, you are "cancel cultured".
In actuality, it is time for white people to stand up to this foolishness and push back. Most white people are NOT racist. This is just a convenient way for people to get their way, that's all it is. Or power grabs. In this case, get the run this person wants, every single time.
I got a taste of Brownsville, I wonder when the next time I'll see it will be. My issue is paychecks, that's all it is. And if some people - there is now another driver I was informed of that is also getting a lot of these runs that isn't even a part of our division - are getting kick-ass paychecks and others are barely scraping by? No, no, and no. I'm going to stand up for myself, that's all I can do. The dispatcher said she'd make it up to me this week, yes please, one Brownsville run is nice, but not enough.
Anyway, that's enough of that. I don't need to get myself worked up over this stuff. I just need to make my needs known - firmly, courteously and respectively - but firm. I am used to X amount of pay, I am now getting Y. Y doesn't work for me, I need the X back. Please and thank you. This is a brand new dispatcher, everyone is in her ears, I can't remain silent. I'm not going to be bi**** about it, but I will be persistent if I need to be.
I wrote up a post on an RV group yesterday about what people like to see in an RV park, boy did I get a lot of replies! It's almost up to 900 the last I checked. There was some consistency: level lots. Yes, I wouldn't want to have sloped lots unless it's just an area where I can't do otherwise - but modern RV's have automatic levelers, so I"m not sure what they are complaining about unless the lots are so sloped even the levelers don't work? 50 amp hookup a recurring theme. That's for electrical outlets available. The newer, bigger RV's have 2 AC units and they have 50 amp plugs. They can use a converter but then they can only run one AC unit. Now, you can have all of those AC units running, that's fine, but be prepared to pay for that luxury. Which I am finding out most of them are. $35 seemed to be a cheap price to them.
A lot of them want fire rings at every lot. Picnic tables. Cement pads - that's not going to happen at first, but it's certainly something I would consider doing down the road. Just very expensive. You'll have to have them lined with rebar to handle the weight and I simply don't have the outlay for that now. It's going to be gravel and many of them were okay with that, a few weren't. I guess those few won't be coming to my RV park, lol.
It was a mix tho on full hookups or not. Some lots full, some with electric and water, some with electric and sewer, some electric only, were the mix of replies. Interesting, tho they all wanted electricity regardless of anything else. Some said at least have an RV dump - where you pull up, dump your grey and black water - instead of having hookups at every site. All well and fine, but that still means having a septic system installed. It would only save on piping and fittings to each pad.
MANY, many of them want a dog run - fenced in. Some just want to be able to walk their dogs open on trails - that's understandable and I am definitely a dog lover, dogs will definitely be allowed. A few were "55 plus" people, no thanks. It's going to be open to any ages - families, loners, couples, doesn't matter, I'm not limiting the available pool of potential customers to age limits. Trees were a plus for many, a definite no for others. Pull throughs are popular as well. I just hate to cut down that many trees to make that possible.
Group sites - where you do a square or rectangle and have 4 or 5 sites around it for groups to hang out with each other. I don't know about that. I just don't. I don't want my options limited, but a group site could be rented to individual units if groups don't show up. Just a different configuration. That option was mentioned several times tho.
Garbage. People don't want to have to walk to the other end of the park to dump their garbage. Understandable, I'll think about it. Running around collecting people's garbage isn't really that wonderful of a notion, so I dunno. Maybe some receptacles strategically placed throughout the park and a golf cart with a trailer to collect it. Or just make them walk it to the big container, where most other parks force them to do it. I don't want to get too labor intensive. Laundry is demanded, not asked for. Bath houses as well. I won't have a bath house at first, tho I'd like to do a small laundry room since you can make considerable money off of such a setup. A small C store - ice was a recurring them. Why they all want ice, I have no idea, but if they want it, I can get an ice freezer outside, just like you see at grocery and convenience stores and have them restock it. No work for me. Money maker, sure, not a lot of money but anything that helps the bottom line, we'll be doing. Firewood as well.
Because everyone wants fire pits, I will sell firewood. And that does make some money. I've seen what they charge for these little bundles of firewood. They must be making $500 per cord or even more profit off of that stuff. I don't want to be quite as stingy as most of them are. Give them enough to have at least an hour's worth of a fire. The woods will be cleaned out quickly of any logs laying around lol, then they'll have to come to papa Ben for their fire wood needs.
More and more things were voiced that I had already thought about. Families isolated from those that want a quieter experience. You know, kids and noise? I live with kids, noise is attached to them. If a kid isn't making noise, there's something wrong.
If I were to get this property, the natural gas operation would get a new road. It makes now sense to have them driving right through the middle of the campground when I could just make a road along the very western edge of the property and they can run whatever they want through there. I don't want to redo an easement agreement, I would rather they just agree to use it and I will do the clearing work to make it happen. Or even ask them if they would do it - I'm the property owner, I can do what I want. They probably will say no to the clearing, I would press for them to say yes to using the new road. They wouldn't have to go up a steep slope anymore and have undoubtedly stuck trucks when it rains.
It's at least something I'd like to look into and keep their traffic away from campers. But, nevertheless, I saw no truck tracks, just pickup truck tracks, that isn't that big of a deal. But when it comes time to do the saltwater thing, I would rather they go down a separate road. They don't have to agree to it, of course, but I can ask them. On the other hand, the inlet road to the property is on the far eastern side of the property. So, lots could be established well away from that road and not really bother people too much when they do run through there. The other half of the property there is no road, all of that I won't have to worry about.
The other thing I did today was look at satellite photos of existing RV parks in the area. They are parking lots, that's all they are. It's a convenience, people to pull in, stay the night and leave. Or live there? I don't know but they have either no amenities - literally just a place to park with hookups. Amazing those places are so full. I have to consider somewhere down the line to open up my own sardine park near the Interstate. That will have me at more of the tax lien sales, something close to the interstate. Something not far off the highway.
Here's the other thing I learned today. RV parks well off the beaten path? Not many RV's in them. The only thing that drives RV'ers to out of the way places is if it's a destination park. It has to have some kind of attraction to draw people there. Such as a river or a lake - those are popular I'm finding out. There is a town near a lake that has property for sale. It's about 20 miles - maybe 25 - away from my house. The thing is, it has to be lake-river-pond front property. People want fishing. I can't do that on this one I'm looking at.
But the idea that people won't drive far off the beaten path got me thanking the good Lord today that I didn't buy one of those properties I was looking at in the middle of nowhere. The one I want? It's about 2-1/2 miles off the Interstate, about 3 miles away from a major Highway going through our town, right off a secondary highway. Location - it's all about location. I guess. I'm learning and I haven't even gotten property yet. The more I learn, the more I feel the drive to do more research. There is a property right off the Interstate that I had looked at - but it's right next to the airport and it's right at the end of the runway where planes do their runups. I just happened to be there the day I was looking at it when a small plane was doing that. It was quite noisy. It's a small airport so I don't know how often that happens. I don't even think a regional jet comes into that airport tho. It's a thought, the price is too high for the available acreage, but it's been on the market for quite a while now. Drive a mile off the Interstate and you're there type of thing.
Well, still no empties. I'm amazed. Usually when they say one or more are coming? They get here. Sometimes later than they say, but not this much later. So, I now have a good paycheck for next week with 2 days of detention pay. This is why I and everyone else likes the Brownsville run, and this is why it is so completely unfair that a couple of people have this run tied up the way they do. I have the choice of finding a movie to watch - or going to bed. I was going to go to bed early for I thought by now an empty would come in. Get home earlier tomorrow by getting up early am.
Now? I'll get up when I darned well feel like it and get my detention pay. And, I'll have a 34 hour reset by tomorrow morning. Mixed feelings about that - I want to work but I don't want to do crappy runs all the time. Give me a mix, like everyone should get, not, 3 garbage runs in a row.
I think I'll get on Dish Network and find something to watch. Usually some movie on there that will entertain me. I have shows and movies saved on there as well.
No, I haven't heard from the realtor, she was expected to hear back tonight. Or she was hoping anyway. I will keep myself reserved on that matter and just wait it out. But, I can still do my research and asking questions and looking at parks and such - whatever I end up with, I'll need all of this knowledge.
G'nite.
