I had to reconvince myself of the Sweetgum trees after hearing more ridicule of them. Look up pics of them, they aren't bad looking trees!  Yes they drop these things, the same as the oak trees in our back yard do. I'm not leaving up thousands of them, just some here and there.  Something to give the look of trees over nothing.

Yes, there are tall trees on either perimeter of the intended RV park but that wasn't good enough for me and frankly, The few trees I'm leaving up IN the park aren't either. It was just too hard to try to calculate where the trees would need to be left up.  I will plant pines in the future.  

Well actually there is a long list of evergreens that grow well out in these parts, there will be a mix of them.  

_________________

Started this one before I left for Brownsville.  I actually should still be down there, but the driver that left before me yesterday didn't make it down there until today, for unknown reasons.  I would have liked the detention pay, frankly, but it's whatever.  I will guess the other driver had some sort of mechanical or breakdown issue.  They don't want or like us taking more than the same day you get the trailer loaded to get down there.  There has to be a legitimate reason so I'll give the dude a pass on that one.  

I have tomorrow off - I didn't ask for it but I don't have enough hours to go on any trip anywhere.  

I'm guessing the property is done as far as trees go.  Tho I might have something to say about it, it was dark when I got back today. No way to see if everything is done that I want done involving the trees.  There are lots of sticks sticking up out of the ground, things that trackhoe couldn't get out.  I'm assuming they are going to bring a dozer to finish the job.  I haven't heard from the owner of the company about anything yet, so I will wait.  I'm paying a premium to have that land cleared, I want it cleared before the check is written.  I also want a dozer to smooth out the surface and give me some idea whether I need to have any leveling going on.  

But I want it level, or pretty close to it.  I don't need people complaining on the internet that the lots aren't level.  They think it's too much to push a button, apparently, for automatic levelers to do the job for them.  Okay, there are older rigs where you have to get out and use a lug wrench to extend the jacks.  Whatever, I've had RV's, I know the struggle, I never complained about it all over social media.  I just leveled the thing, got it over with and enjoyed my stay.  

I'm not going to worry about it if it's close, but if it's too far off then dirt is going to need to be hauled in and I know just where to get that dirt: the rear of the property and digging a pond.  How much is this going to cost? I have no idea.  Hauling dirt in isn't part of the land clearing.  It might be another 20 grand for all I know.  I'm prepared to take out another loan near the end of this, if need be, to finish everything.  Well when I say 20 grand, I mean digging out a pond and moving the dirt, not just bringing dirt in.  

That much money isn't part of my plan.  But doing the vital parts of the project half-@$$ed would be foolishness in my view.  Sure, I can put up a temporary laundry room and office type thing, but the lots? Those are permanent.  And if they are at some extreme angle, people simply won't want to come. They will write their rancid reviews and if you build it, they won't come.  

Tomorrow morning, I'll load the dogs in the SUV and head over there.  Dogs can run all over the place and I can inspect what's been done.  After that, I have a new desk that needs to be put together.  That was an 8 day fiasco trying to get the thing delivered here....I want to get the thing out of the boxes and make sure nothing is damaged.  

And tonight I booked the hotel for our San Antonio trip.  I spent a good deal of time looking for a hotel that has an indoor pool - we like pools but it's a bit cool to be swimming outdoors even if it's a heated pool.  We also like to hang out next to the pool and have a good time.  Indoor pools aren't that many in San Antonio on the riverwalk, at least not that I found. There are some, but the other criteria was to have a room with a bedroom and a sofa couch.  That way we don't have to get 2 rooms, save money.  

There might be more, but I found 3 places of interest. The Marriott Rivercenter, the Drury Inn and a Home2 Suites by Hilton.  The Home2 suites look - tacky to my anyway, don't like the whole ambience of the rooms or the rest of the hotel. It was a draw between Drury and Marriott. But, I'm a big fan of Marriott's, never been to a Drury and the Marriott has a half inside and half outside pool. Yes, believe it.  It's one big pool that goes underneath the window wall that separates it.  This was of great appeal to Taylor and I thought it nice as well.

So, this morning, I tried to reserve one of the rooms that has the separate bedroom and living room with sofa couch.  Yea, no.  Several sites including the Marriott site itself didn't have any available, whereas they did a few days ago.  I wasn't trying to procrastinate, it was just a tough decision to try and figure out where to stay and hopefully end up with something beyond decent, something nice. I don't get vacations often and spending a bit of money on it isn't of great concern to me, at least not in my current situation. 

So I got home tonight and sat down at the computer and started looking. It's a fact that different booking hotels buy up X amount of rooms. If one booking site doesn't have any, it doesn't mean another won't.  And so it was, Booking.com had one and I jumped on that immediately.  Paid for it with my Bank Of America credit card - I am going to use my accumulated points to pay for part of it.  Around $600 worth of it. We're 3 nights there, it's not exactly cheap and the taxes are unbelievable.  Over $200 just in room taxes?!!All of these major cities add on exorbitant hotel taxes. You're paying for their pet projects.

But whatever, that is nothing new, just that amount was a bit breathtaking.  The 24th-27th, something I'm looking forward to.  

Anyway....I put the desk purchase on a credit card I haven't really been using.  That charged the account a few days ago and then yesterday? My credit score on TransUnion took a 72 point hit. I was like, what?  Why?  I have no clue. I could have put it on another card and nothing like that would have happened.  I don't understand that, at all, I'll just pay the thing back down and see what happens. But what was perplexing is that it was only a few days between putting the charge on the card and the extreme hit.  We're not even close to the end of the month?  

And my new mortgage account hit s well, 10 points tho, not 72.  My old mortgage holder has yet to post that it's paid off.  Maybe that's it, I have far too much credit showing on my accounts because - Midland Mortgage - won't post it paid off for 2 months.  Yes, that has to be it.  I think? lol

What else is going on.  School reunion in May.  Flight, hotel, whatever.  Obviously if I'm going back for whatever reason, I'm going to see friends and family.  Just thoughts floating through my mind.  Wondering where I'll be at with this park project.  Many of us from that school graduation year are already deceased.  I've watched them through the years dying of cancer, murder, car accidents.  I feel rather blessed that I've actually made it this far considering they life I've lead. 

I'm motivated. That's what it is.  To get out of this trucking grind. I find it more and more distasteful as time goes on.  Long, long days and now these cameras that scrutinize your every driving move. Yes, the inward facing camera isn't a factor, but the one facing outward - is.  When someone cuts you off - which is 25/50/100/more times per day, it sends  notification to the company.  Or if you're approaching a green light and it turns yellow - at a point where you won't be stopped in time so you blow the red light or you slam on your brakes and still end up in the middle of the intersection. You get dinged either way.  

I figure the company is going to dump a lot of drivers - even tho they can't afford to get rid of any of them - that's the way this company works.  I'll probably be one of them because I don't give a damn about that thing telling me how to drive.  It doesn't take a LOT of things into consideration which I don't feel like going into here.  Maybe a future post, not this one, it's getting late and I feel blessed that I got the room we wanted done today and we are good to go. A family friend is going to come over and take of the dogs, the boys are also going to be taken care of, we are good to go.   

 I'm totally psyched tho. Not about the vacation, that is going to be good, I'm sure, but no, it's about the property.  It's in the beginning stages, yes, but it has begun.  It might take time, sure, but it's actually started.  And I have the LLC application into the state, the fees all paid.  I just wish I could translate all of this excitement to get this project over and done with into driving the truck and making the money I need to make to cover these smaller expenses without digging into savings.  

It's a thing that truckers understand because we live it.  It's not that we're special, it's just that we are sick of the endless bs thrown at us.  And now, they have made it even more difficult for people to get into the profession. The government must be begging for the new era of self-driving trucks.  Besides highway safety, there will be whole new chains of bureaucracy and politicians and states wanting their piece of the pie.  But they want to get rid of human drivers, that's a fact.  There are always unintended consequences to such broad sweeping reforms, I can predict a few of them but there will be stuff no one saw that will occur and leave these idiots running the show scratching their heads.  

Whatever the case, it's bedtime.