This has been a really long day.  When we got to the soccer field, one of the tenants texted me with a pic of a riding lawn mower. It was listed at $200. Say what? Double take on that one. Does it work?  I hated to leave the boy's game but this was the magical moment I've been looking for.  I went over there - about 15 minute drive away - drove right past the thing, texted her and said no, it's not here. I see the John Deere - listed at $1,500 and out of my price range, but no older mower.

It's right by the entrance! Well maybe they sold it already.  No! Okay, I drove back and there it was, sitting under a tree. How I missed it is unknown. What I can say is that once I got the owner out there - real nice, laid back guy, you could tell everything (or think I could tell anyway) he was saying was true.  Sometimes it won't go into reverse.  Ok, no problem. And it needs a new battery.  I said no problem as well, for $200 I'm not gonna start yipping about  a few problems.  

I had $150 on me, I didn't have time to go to the bank, I wanted to get out there asap, someone would surely snap it up if they needed one - or even if they didn't need one, they could turn around and sell it for $500 easily.  I was actually pretty surprised that it was still there.  As I was standing there, 3? vehicles pulled up, looked and obviously wanted that deal as well. I pulled out my cash, this sucker ain't going home with no one but me!

I gave him $150, said I'd come back with a trailer later and the other $50, he was fine with that. We got to discussing things - chit-chatting in other words.  He said he might not be home when I got back, he was just going to put the mower behind the fence and I could come get it whether he was home or not.  Well where do you want me to leave the other $50? I"m looking around - the mailbox? He said yes, the mailbox will be fine. 

But then he got a look on his face and said don't worry about it, the $150 will cover it.

Back to the soccer game, over to Lowe's, over to the "touch a truck" festival downtown - it's where all kinds of trucks, 1st responder vehicles and even heavy equipment are put on display and kids can get on/in them. Home, IHOP, to the property, get the trailer, to the man's house - had to push that sucker up on the trailer by myself, gag.  Back to the property, drop the mower, drop the trailer, remove the old battery, over to Auto Zone, new battery, back to the property, install said battery, turn the mower on and start cutting grass. Works perfectly well : )  I did that for a while, tried to get the oldest boy to learn how to do it but he got a bit flustered.  Yes, he was hanging out with me a good portion of the day.  

Parked the thing, got the hand mower, finished the grumpy people's yard - they had started it but couldn't get the thing to restart - that' s happened to me as well but I was able to get it started - home. Store. Clean the kitchen, put away clean dishes, a phone call from the people staying for a week - ran their card - yayy for money!  and now? I am finally getting a chance to kick back and take a break.  

Oh, well Lowe's was to buy the setup for the 30 amp RV outlet. I got all the materials but I just didn't have time and right now?? I'm burnt out.  I will have to get up early tomorrow morning, go over there and install it.  I'm hoping no more than an hour.  It's really pretty simple stuff. But, simple stuff can go south.  Regardless, I'm just going to run 12 feet of line, enough to get over by the sewer dump station.  That's where these people can hook up to both and if they have a long enough hose, can also hook into fresh tap water.

I do have an underground line right there where that sewer outlet is coming out of the ground, but it is highly likely that I'm not going to be digging that up tomorrow morning. I could, of course, but I would also have to make another trip to Lowe's for another water spigot.  I'll see, but yes, that would add probably a couple of hours to this ordeal.  I will eventually do it, just not tomorrow. 

There isn't really any good reason these people shouldn't like the setup, but, people can get pissy about minor things.  It's whatever to me, it's full hook ups, that's what's advertised, it is in a freshly mowed, nicely grassed area.  I will have an option for them, that's all I can say.  If they don't like it, I will refund their money right there on the spot and they can go find somewhere else to stay.  

I actually think it's nicer than my gravel lots.  I'm not saying that because I'm in a bind. Once I got the grass nicely cut down, it really looks very nice, at least to me. And there's no problem driving on it.  

The only thing that might set me back installing that 30 amp outlet?  It might rain. I'm not doing electricity in the rain.  Tho, it would be pretty easy to get the entire thing hooked up before connecting the circuit breaker to the panel.  

OH, and I did contact the electrician. I wanted to make sure I had this right. 30 amp rv outlet is going to be a single pole, 30 amp breaker with 110 volt.  ;They actually make a 30 amp RV outlet and yes, thankfully, Lowe's had it.  I haven't looked it up yet, but I'm thinking 50 amp must take a double pole. There has to be some reason that there is 2 hot lines running to the pedestals.  The electrician agreed with my assessment but he suggested heavier gauge wire.  I was going 10-2 - he said that would work but 8-2 is better.  Okay? So that's what I got.  12 feet of 8 gauge wire. The 2 simply refers to the idea that it's one hot and one neutral wire - it also has a ground wire but for whatever reason it isn't part of the descriptor.  

And another call for a spot for tonight. I'm full. I would have offered the grassy area but of course the electric isn't available and I'm not rushing over there to deal with it right now.  As I said, it's been a long day and I'm relaxing, waiting on dinner.  

And of course it is. 50 amp plugs have 2 hot inserts, so that's it.  Having 50 amp service at every lot was why they needed 2 hot wires.  They get used quite often. If an RV has 2 AC units on the roof, it's almost guaranteed it's a 50 amp service to hook it up.  Now, I could put in a 50 amp service out there, I had to run 220 volt for the water heater and the dryer.  But I don't know if I want to do that or not.  It's nothing I need to decide right now, but Lowe's also has a pre-made, small pedestal type thing that has a 50 amp outlet in an out door box. They didn't have one for 30 amp, I had to piece together a box and rain cover for it.  

BTW, the consequences of running double pole, 220 service through 30 amp for an RV? Well, it turns out, everything in the RV that uses electricity? Will burn up.  It will fry all of it.  If you can imagine the thousands of dollars it would cost to fix all of that, I would have to hit up my insurance and hope they would cover it.  I won't need to do that, of course, I know what I'm doing now, but it's why I verify everything I'm doing with an electrician and the dude that built the park is happy to help me, thankfully.  

It just hit me. I'm so tired.  Going to take a nap,lol.  

 Still trying to figure out how the system allowed another reservation in on a blocked date.....and everything went up in the air real quick like.  Yes, I know I don't speak proper English while typing out these posts, just the mood of the moment.  

See, these people decided they wanted to come in yesterday.  I wasn't going to be able to accommodate them, but that dude at lot 4 left so that opened up availability.  Another reservation came in and I had blocked that out. Then, another reservation came in for a lot that is already blocked out. 

I'm sitting here thinking, how did this do this? I still have no answer.  Then I thought, I wonder if this person has a 50 or 30 amp connection?  If it's 50, I'm not sure I can have that added onto the shed system, but if it's 30, that's only 1 AC unit. I have a sewer connection I installed over there, a water outlet is approximately 20 feet away and I can install a 30 am RV outlet easily.  That's a double pole circuit breaker, about an 8 foot length of line, an outlet and something to mount it to.

I wonder why I hadn't thought of this before.  I won't do 50 amp because I don't want to overload the underground line.  It's rated at 600 volts but it can still heat up and....melt. It's aluminum wiring.    1 AC unit won't do anything to it.  The point is that there is already a water heater, a dryer and a small ac unit working off of that. I don't really count the ceiling lights because they don't take hardly any power.  

I'll spend the money I make off of that reservation and then some - not too much more tho - and I'll have an extra spot in the grass.  I just mowed it yesterday.  It's sort of part of the hipcamp area, but it would be right next to the shed.  Hipcamp is further out in the grass.  Which reminds me, I need  to up load pics of it to Hipcamp now that it's freshly mowed. It didn't take 20 minutes to mow it and it looks pretty good, actually. 

Ok, so I have a plan at least to accommodate these other people and have an extra spot available from now on.  I won't do long term there, I don't want people staying there permanently.  But I have to tell ya, my open lots are filling up quickly.  I was amazed to look at lot 12 and see it booked up 20 out of the next 30 days.  That is already over what a long term would rent out for.  I've got lot 7 blacked out ... change that, I opened that up for over the next month.  See, I have lot 4 open now - well sort of, these people are staying a week and then leaving.  If a long term shows up, I'll have availability for them after Monday. The only thing I can say is those people that said they "need a lot this weekend!" but refused to commit to my place? Best not be showing up out of the blue and taking a space. I'll kick them right out of there. Sorry, you didn't confirm and the nature of the business: people come and people go. I'm not holding a lot for a person that wasn't committing to it, you're going to have to leave. 

Anyway, after I get that new lot set up, I'll have a lot 15.  Hipcamp will be called lots 16 and 17.  

Oh, and then there's the people showing up for lot 7 today, but the dude that showed up thinking he was in "lot 9" for whatever reason, it certainly didn't show it on the confirmation letter or the site they actually chose themselves took lot 7.  The incoming will get lot 12. I have this all worked out now.  It really gave me kind of a headache to try and figure out what to do with people that are showing up, that paid in advance and were somehow overridden by some glitch in the system?  I know whoever ends up next to the shed probably isn't going to like it very much, but it's solid ground, I can drive my SUV through there even when it's raining. 

Well, I will have to also trim a tree.  It's got some branches sticking out at the exit to Hipcamp, just need to fire up the chain saw and cut those down. But I have it all fixed up, so really, I just need the 30 amp setup which might take me an hour or less to do.  I'll either get it done today - well I"ll have to get it done today, I have church tomorrow. People can't show up to my park before 1 pm I think it says on the site. Whoever is there before them gets to stay until noon. I just try to keep it within the industry standards of check and check out times.  You'd be surprised how many people want to stay as late as they can. And then there's those that are up at the crack of dawn and they are out of there.  

Well it's a damn good thing I read some instructions about wiring a 30 amp outlet for RV's. Turns out, you only use a single pole breaker, only one hot, not 2.  Don't ask me why I thought it was 240 volts versus 110.  Anyway, it's time to go to a soccer game, then Lowe's then to the property, deal with this and get it over with.

G'day