As I bumble my way through this RV park mess, I decided to take another, fresh look at the the RV parks in the area.  Refresh my memory, it's been quite a while since I looked and I do remember looking at them gave me inspiration. Not only to have as much of everything they all have, but then some. 

One thing the whole lot of them is lacking is a swimming pool.  I could not find one in any site, even the more "luxury" parks didn't have one.  Some of them have small lakes - something I have plenty of room for in the back of my property, tho I think I'm just going to start with a large fishing pond.  Something like 50 to 100 feet in diameter, so to speak, but I don't want a perfectly round pond. That doesn't look natural and I will be looking at pics of ponds all over the place to see what I want to have dug out - if/when I get there.

Well, not if I get there, it's a necessary part of the operation.  The drawback is the pond will have to be in the rear of the property, people will have to walk a fair distance to get to it from the park area.  I don't know if that's going to cause problems.  From the rear of the RV park it will still be another 700 feet off, the rear of the park will be around 1,350 from the street.....

Still, quite intriguing there are no pools. In fact, there is only one public pool in the entire town.  Some of the hotels have pools tho.  The reason I want a pool wasn't because no one else had one, I wasn't really sure about that until I started looking, but because it gets hot in northeast Texas in the summer and I can't really see a way to get people to want to come without some activity outside of the RV that isn't going to have people dripping with sweat.  You have to give them something to do, that's all I'm saying.

A pool is definitely not in the cards from the get go unless I can get financed for one.  

One of the supposedly better parks in the area had a giant gravel area for the rv's to park in.  There were spaces, I guess, but no grass, no picnic tables, no fire rings, just dirt and gravel.  It had a man made lake. It has a huge laundromat.  I can't compete with that right off the bat but I can put a few machines in.  Other than that, there is a large laundromat about 2-1/2 miles up the road.  I just thought that park, touting itself as the best around, had a long ways to go to make them competitive.  Maybe with the other parks in the immediate area it's better.....everything I plan on doing right at the start will make my park better than that place in many ways and when I eventually get done with upgrades, it will hopefully resemble an RV resort without the RV resort nightly stay prices.  

My intended nightly price is within the parameters of anything around my area.  Low priced, but I think the reason it's that way is because these parks have been around forever yet apparently aren't interested in upgrading to appeal to a much larger audience.  Much of the parks I am looking at here are nothing more than over night parking lots, to put it simply.  

It just reminded me that I'm  on the right track, I think anyway.  I'm going to have to find these parks on satellite and see if I'm missing something. One of them lists nature trails, but it didn't look like much.  I'm going to spend a couple thousand more in getting the trails I have done leveled and completely cleared and finishing up the rest of it.  The websites were pretty spartan as well. One of them had a - half-assed - description of their park and the rest had much of nothing. Probably because they have much of nothing to offer. I can only surmise they are either content with just people traveling through the area staying a night or - probably a lot of it - people living in those parks.  

Monthly rental rates that I saw are highly unappealing to me.  Not much money in that.  That's the old model - cram them in as small an area as possible, give them the basic amenities and call it good. 

I may not know as much about how to go about getting everything done as I would like to - but I do know what I want in terms of the end product.  That's the key. Old school, old model business platform.  People stay at them because there aren't a lot of other options in some or even many places.  Large corporations are getting into the RV business, building giant parks with water parks and all kinds of amenities that I can't compete with.

But not everyone wants to stay at mega parks.  Fortunately.

My first attempt at drawing a plan was a resounding failure.  I made everything too big on the paper and I couldn't show the entire park on it, just the spaces I need to put in at first.  That simply won't work.  The drawing has to show both driveways going clear to the back with a turn around back there - even if it's just cleared to begin with.  These people are pushing to clear the entire 7 acres, which is okay if it doesn't cost a fortune.  But to do that, I have to give them my proposed setup.  

I decided where to put everything - whether it at the beginning or future project - so I have to start all over and try again.  And again and again until I get it right.  

Well enough of this.  I have work tomorrow in a truck that I have no knowledge of it's condition.  I will show up early and see what I'm getting myself into.  Still irked about that driver telling lies so he could get his own way. I don't care about that truck, I do care that a person is attempting to taint another person's image for no particularly good reason.  

At least I corrected that nonsense with the people he was telling it to.  Rigidity and unwillingness to adapt doesn't work well with this particular company.  Being branded such a person - doesn't get that person very far.  

With that, g'nite.  

So the new dispatcher calls me today and we get into a conversation that leads to her saying, Oh, well Joe tole Ryan that you wouldn't ever drive that truck, at all.

What.  Joe - he called me yesterday and he discussed he wanted the truck the were going to give to me while my truck is being fixed - Peterbilt hasn't even given my company a quote yet on the repair cost . 

He had been told what I had said to another driver beyond him about not wanting to drive that truck - caveat: until it's cleaned out and detailed. 

Joe heard what I said yesterday. The same thing was said several times over, I WILL drive that truck after they clean it out, for we went into the specifics of a cleaning lady that is used to clean trucks out.  I said in no uncertain terms, several times over, the fact that I would drive the truck AFTER it's cleaned.

JOE flat out LIED to the company about MY desires and that s*** pissed me off.  I said to Amanda - my new dispatcher - that I never said any such thing and considering how much the conversation was hashed out, I had to conclude that that driver was lying about what I said.

It makes me look bad if I absolutely refuse to drive a truck without ANY concessions about what it would take to change my mind.  I don't feel like I should have to drive someone else's trashed out truck.  The company has the onus to make sure it's cleaned out and yes, throw out the mattress and start fresh.  

Note that this other driver said the exact same thing, the truck needs to be cleaned out before I will drive it.

The reason he  lied about what I said became quite clear yesterday: He wanted that truck now and I shouldn't have it, he should get it right away.  I was polite to him about it but I am quite firm when it comes down to what dispatch is telling me.  He also lied about what he said dispatch told him.  

I'm not going to call Joe up about it, we don't talk on the phone often, but if he ever calls me again? I'm going to call him out on it and I'm going to tell him I do not wish discuss anything further with him - about ANYTHING. This is pretty much my status quo with drivers because this is what they do.  They twist and contort other people's words to not only make them look bad but also to help that driver in their cause, whatever that may be.

I don't talk to other drivers much on the phone, I can tell ya that.  I have ample experience with how this works.  

What my dispatcher told me was that Joe had told the lead mechanic that I had said that I would never drive that truck and of course word got out to everyone after that about it.  I texted the mechanic and informed him that that is not what I said and informed him of what I did say.  Didn't push it too far, just enough to come to the understanding that what he said and what is truth are two separate things.

This stuff irritates me to say the least.  It's not just that he got his way, I don't care about that at all. Let these people be petty, it comes back to bite them in the @$$ down the road.  

Onto other things. 

The 4 year old came down with something. Whatever it is, he has a 102 fever.  Hacking/coughing away, he's a miserable little boy right now.  He decided he wanted to sleep in my bed lol, with Cartoon Network on, I couldn't just tell the little soul no so I let him.  It's early, Mama just gave him a cocktail of stuff to bring the fever down.  

Am I afraid of getting sick? Well, when these boys get sick, it's pretty much a granted the whole house is going to get sick right along with them.  Hence, we've all had Covid.  There is other stuff floating around there besides Covid, people, there are other illnesses that cause incessant coughing and fever, just saying.

Anyway, I do have work tomorrow. Another truck opened up - same deal tho I didn't say anything, they are having it detailed. Should be done by now, actually.  It's an Oklahoma run, if the thing is nasty I will only have to tolerate it for a day or overnight at best.  And, if it IS nasty in the sleeper, I will get a hotel and send the bill to the company. I'm not attempting to sleep in some nasty, gross, smelly sleeper. Been there, done that, won't do it again.  

Property.  The dude that said they can do everything? Finally responded. "Can you send a drawing of how you want it done"?  Oh? You've been waiting this long for that?  Never asked for it, apparently their electrician wants it.  Fine, I will do my version of drawing it out I just have to wonder why they would wait until I had to call them to give me that information. Tells me they aren't in need of the work and tho I will send them whatever I come up with, I will also wait until the other contractors can come out and give me their quotes as well. 

There is no point in getting into a hurry to do something that might have a better price or even a better price and better results.

I called the power company and the guy called me back later. He said he would give me a date of their intended installation when he gets back to his office. It's almost 5:00 pm, I'm assuming I won't be getting that call today.  It's just being persistent I guess, I'm a real customer with cash, please get back to me.  

So, will I spend the rest of today drawing up the plan? Yes, I think I will.  I have this thing mapped out in my mind, included distances in linear feet, I can put something together that will show them exactly what I want to do.  It is pretty simple stuff - but it's in my mind and I understand they aren't mind readers, they want to see exactly what I intend on doing, I will do my best to make something that they can easily understand without having a lot of questions.  

Whatever I need to do to get this thing rolling, I will do it.  

Well whatever.  I need to finish making dinner, get my stuff ready for the morning and some other stuff that needs doing around here.

G'day.