Another random call this evening from an older couple coming into town looking for a place to park for the night. Sure! I told him the price -which is currently the lowest in town and really, as low as it gets and then he started asking for Good Sam discounts AARP. No sir, this is a very low rate already. 

I'm not giving the lots away.  If they can buy a 75k truck and a 100k RV, they  probably can afford the money to stay at a park. It's part of the deal, you know you have to park somewhere every night.  I didn't give them a hard time about it, I just said I already have low rates.  Do you have fresh water? Yes, it's delightful city water - which IMO, it really is. I drink the tap water daily.  But it's fresh water, correct? Yes, it's fresh city water.  

I could only guess they have had bad experiences staying at places with smelly/foul well water or possibly even foul smelling or looking city water. We don't have that issue, thankfully and I have great water pressure.  Then it was a discussion how to get there. It's so much easier for them to just put it into their GPS and follow the directions than to try and sit there and describe to them how to get there from where they are.  I gave the description and then gave them the address - put that in there, it will tell you how to get there.  

They found it, they picked their spot, they paid and I left.  "If you have any problems, call me". I don't expect to hear much problems from anyone. It's all brand new, everything works, they just plug in, hook up their sewer line, hook up their water line and walaah.  I haven't heard anything several hours later.  

I am getting up early in the morning again - take the boys to the bus stop. They requested I do it and I want to try getting up early again. They have to get up at 5:40 am.  They have to be at the bus stop by 6:15 am.  After that I will probably drive over there and try to get some more stuff done.  

Anyway, I really need to get that sign up.  It is 4X4 and will be easily seen by anyone driving either direction.  I spent an hour and a half wandering around Lowe's today looking for sign mounts that showed they have but they - didn't have and trying to find something that will work.  I did find something.  I got the wifi going today, that was the biggest thing and having the website change from "free wifi coming soon" to simply having it listed in the amenities.  It works well enough, I have no clue if it would work with 14 rv's in there, most parks do not have adequate wifi when everyone starts streaming and bandwidth isn't sufficient. I have nothing I can do about that right now, it is what it is.  

Tomorrow, I need to promise myself to at least get started on the sign project.  I just needed to know what kind of mounts I"m using so I would know how far to apart to place the 4x4 boards.  Really, just need to get the holes dug, the posts in and cemented.  Sounds easy, but they are going to have to be precise in their distance apart from each other - it's harder than one might think to get it exact.  If there is wiggle room, no big deal but there is no wiggle room for this and if I screw up?  So, the first post will be easy, get it set into the ground and that's that. It's the second post that's going to be  a bit difficult. 

I'll get it done, tho.  If I can get the posts in, then I just have to wait a day for the cement to set - or actually 2 days but I don't want those posts sitting there too long like that considering it's a public easement and I don't want anyone fooling with it.  

Well that's enough. I also got the third pile burning today and was surprised to find the second pile still smoldering after two days.  The last/third pile is much larger than the first two and I started fires in 4 places to get it all going.  I'll pile everything up that isn't burned after it's done smoldering and light it again.  No, I haven't had any more online reservations but at least I know it's good to go and it's showing the free wifi.  Beyond what I am already working on, I can't really do anything else to get people in there, the coffers are running dry.  

 Thursday.

First day I started getting up much earlier.  It was 5:45 am, I heard the refrigerator door open and close, decided to get up and get moving. Dishes, laundry and other things done.  I'll be over at the property hours earlier than I have been over there any time recently.

I do have an excuse for this and it is, at least for me, a valid one.  I was sick twice in a short period of time. The first one was covid and it kicked my @$$.  The second was Type A flu that evolved into bronchitis that I still have going - to a much lessor degree now but the coughing is still there.  

The 2 of those things took it out of me.  Energy levels, way down, I was only able to work for a few hours before having to stop and take either a long break or quit for the day. I feel like I am pulling out of that now.  Admittedly a bit of a ways to go

Anyway, I can't say I was real happy to get up that early and I am feeling it, but I'm still resolved to get out of here soon and get over there, get stuff done.  The big sign or fire - not sure which I'm doing first.  Fire needs to get done just because I want that eyesore out of there.  I don't know what happened to the guy that was going to give me a quote on doing that front part, he called me a few days ago saying he was over there, going to get out of his truck to look at it.  Okay?  Give me a quote once you figure it out.

Yeah, that never came.  I mean, it's just dirt with weeds on it and some small piles of dirt that need leveled. Whatever.  

Anyway, I have a full plate of things to do - I seem to always have a full plate of things to do. It's really an endless list that just keeps getting more added to it after I get other stuff done.  I gave up on the grass for now. That last time I put down all that seed and much of it just washed away? No thanks, I have other things to do right now. At least the grass still left standing came back to life after that deep freeze.  It rained several times since then.

I also have a driveway project that I completely spaced out, it's dried up enough now to dig out a small trench - by hand- and install the 1-1/2 inch pipe to drain that area out when it rains. Once I get that pipe in, I can fix the driveway with fresh dirt and then - at some point - have a load of gravel brought in.  That's money and that situation is getting tight. A single truckload I guess I could deal with, but I don't want to spend the money on a machine rental to spread it.  

I just make decisions as I go here. Some things have to be done, other things - not so much.  I've thought about a substantial loan, really thinking about a draw loan, it's just if I do that, I have to put the land and the park I've built up as collateral.  If things go south - I lose all of that and I'm screwed out of 401k savings and the cashout-refi from my  house and money that was donated. Not an easy decision to make. I actually think I could get a large loan if I wanted. The property value and the rv park value is at least 350k with 64k owed on the land.  I could basically qualify for any size loan I wanted.

Anyway, some rv park owners were saying they just use starlink residential service for wifi for their parks.  It isn't available yet, but their business version is.  The difference? A lot of money. Almost $2,800 for the equipment and startup for business, much less for residential.  I'm going to set up this verizon thing for now and see how that works.  I will keep an eye out for starlink expansion into my area. Maybe I'll pleasantly surprised with verizon output? 

Well, it's time to go. Wish me luck, lol.

I was pretty much all over the place the last entry - my mind was swirling around in circles trying to take in all of this nonsense.  

To recap: Fidelity was almost 7 grand, Starlink was just short of 3 grand and most cell companies didn't have service to my property.  One that did, you had to jump through hoops to get a router and get it to actually work. I spent a lot of time today researching all of this stuff, before I eventually left the house, got in the car and drove to Verizon.  

Contrary to what the person on the online chat told me and what the person on the phone told me, I did not have to pay out $500 today nor did I have to give unlimited information to get a router that receives cell phone signal and converts it into internet and then sends out a wifi signal. 

I didn't have to pay for the router at all.  I also can order a booster - which I am doing right away  - for free. Whatever magic that lady had at the Verizon store? She did quite well.  Now, I am not saying this internet is going to work fabulously, I have really no idea.  I just know I will have something out there to use for wifi.  I was charged $33 today.  I still have to go online and fill out a bunch of stuff - I have been very busy today and none of that business included a single trip to the property. 

I am just relieved that I do have something to claim as wifi, I can only hope that it works decently.  It is not unlimited - that is a bit scary, I'll be keeping track of it.  I have the router, I need to finish all of this.

On to my online reservation system. A person in the Facebook group for RV investors/owners said they tried to book a site online and got back a "no sites available" message today. What? None of the lots on there are booked, not a single one.  I thought about it and got onto my site and tried to book a site. It came back with all 14 lots available.  

But I know what's happening.  There is a field you have to answer that indicates the type of rig you have. If you don't change the field, it is set at tent site. All of them show "tent" first. Well, obviously, tent sites aren't 78 foot long, graveled tent camping sites. I removed all tent sites from the site and then checked it. It still showed tent site first, even tho I had removed it out of the software.  I don't know if I needed to reset/refresh or whatever, but I wasn't waiting around.

I immediately contacted the developer and asked him to please fix it. He did, doing a test reservation which went through. Well of course it went through, he knows to change the thing from tent to something else.  Whatever, he left me to delete the reservation and that was that.  

Anyway, it's now fixed and I already received my first reservation through that system.  Like, how many reservations have I missed because of this situation?  Have I missed any reservations? A dozen? A hundred? I have no clue.  But it is telling I got the first one shortly after that thing was deleted out of there.  

Anyway, I'm moving forward and I'm hoping that now, I might get some reservations going now and throughout the summer?  See? I'm glad someone tried it and pointed it out to me.  The designer is the one who actually put that tent thing in there, he didn't catch that it was showing as default for type of rig and he also apparently hasn't considered that that field should probably either be eliminated or enhanced to stick out. Tents are gone, yes, but not permanently.  

Anyway, I am a bit relieved now that I understand that I have probably been losing business and now, perhaps, I will start getting some reservations.  

Tomorrow I will be working on trying to get the router going and pumping wifi out to the park. They said just plug it in, look for the name of it on your phone, enter the security key and walaah, you sould have wifi.  Yes, we will find out if the walaah actually happens. I just know that I have 3 bars of signal strength out of 4 for Verizon out there, that is sufficient to pump wifi into the park.  

There is still a lot to do and I am just doing one thing at a time and getting it done. I took campsite 1 out of the reservation system. These people are apparently staying for awhile and I don't need people booking it. I really think I want them to move to another lot tho, that is more of a "premiere" lot. At the moment, I am charging the same for everything but that will change.  If I start getting bookings all over the place, I may raise the rate up $5.  Still less than competitors but gives me a bit more profit.