Sunday mid-morning

I was put on a bit of a scare 2 days ago.  No, not my health, who knows where that's at, still waiting for the results of the cat scan.  

There is this guy that is also in a couple of the RV park owner's/managers forum that I have seen posting for quite a while and we've even discussed things with each other in those forums. 

So, the first thing that happened is him posting in my Facebook selling page.  It's up to 2.5k people now. Still kind of small but over time, it's slowly but consistently been growing.  So I saw this post, never heard of the place, looked at the video of the lots, thought, hmm, those are super-close together and moved on.

Then? He contacts me via Facebook messenger. I'm opening up a new RV park in (my town)!  He names the name of the park. Where is it located? "In your town!"  He names the name of it and no, I've never heard of it.  I instantly thought, another RV park in this town?  We got into a conversation, this is a tight market here, I said, a lot  of competition.  I"m only concerned about me, he replied. That was when things went from, dang another RV park to, what the heck is up with this dude?  

He owns 4 or 5 small parks all over the region.  He was pretty suck up and selfish and I eventually got tired of it and got out of the conversation. All me, me, me and "I'm not concerned about anyone else or what they're doing", I'm "taking care of myself" and much worse than that.  

Well, I have to see this place to see what kind of amenities he may have and what level of competition he's going to pose.  So, load up the kids (parents were still out of town) and drive over there.  The first thing we see is a huge graveyard.  Very well kept, yes, lots of fresh flowers all over the place, yes, but still - a cemetery.  Right next to it is this guy's "new" RV park.  I pretty much put out a sigh of relief when I realized this was Leigh RV park originally, then it apparently was sold and had a new name on it and apparently sold again and now this guy is slapping the new name on it.

In other words, it is not a new RV park.  I didn't want to drive onto the property for I didn't have permission to and I'm just not going there, so I pulled up Google maps and put it in the satellite mode.  All I could see out front was maybe 10 spots, most of them filled.  Google showed a bunch of new spots well in the back, out of site.  I noticed on the map that these sites are all very close together the same as what it appeared on the video on the ad.  

Strike one is the junky appearance of the place and considering he's opening tomorrow, it doesn't appear he's doing anything about that. Strike 2 is the new entrance he created, which takes you right next to the graveyard.  Strike 3 are all these new lots that appear like they are so close together, 2 rigs with slideouts wouldn't fit next to each other.  

One of the kids started shaking his head.  Now, I haven't really said anything about this graveyard besides, oh wow, there's a cemetery right there!  Nope.  Not me, I wouldn't live next to that, that's totally creepy! A 9 year old likely voicing the sentiments of lots of people.  

Oh, strike 4, actually, it's right next to the highway.  Sorry, I don't get the appeal of being right next to busy highways with lots of noise.  I know there are a lot of RV parks that position themselves in such places, convenience I guess. If you are driving and just need a place to stop, that may be appealing.  This highway basically leads to "nowhere".  Literally, one of the names up the road is named uncertain, lol.  There's a lake, there's fun stuff, but as far as a main thoroughfare? No.  

So, even tho he may take some business from the rest of us, the alarm bells are gone.  I'll monitor it and see what happens.  If he doesn't post his prices, I'll have someone call that actually owns and RV and ask them for their rates.  He is positioned for for taking a share of any highway workers that will come in when that Interstate construction begins.  It may be what he's looking for.  That's another ... year off? 

So, we get into another conversation yesterday and he offers to sell me the place.  Umm, ok?  How much?  2 million. Good thing he wasn't in the same room for I busted out laughing. That park isn't worth half that amount of money.  He will do owner financing with 12% down, which comes up to 260k. Lol, if I had 260k, I wouldn't dump it into that place.  I would use some or a lot of it to increase my park lots and add amenities.  I don't know where he's going to find a person to dump that much money down on a place like that. I never asked  his terms - length of time to pay it off and interest rate, he's clearly out just a shark in the RV park waters attempting to take advantage of some poor soul that wants in the business and doesn't know what they are doing. 

Ok, I just spent some time writing that out, but it was .... interesting to say the least.  I'm glad I decided to drive over there and see for myself what's going on there.  Now that I have permission to drive onto his property, I'm going to see this addition to the  place for myself.  It's just weird that the entrance to the park is also the entrance to a large cemetery.....

Sunday, going to get ready for church in a bit.  Kids are consumed with TV in the living room and bedroom, I don't go begging them to go to church. They know it's Sunday, if they don't show any interest, I just go by myself and oh well.  I do want to go, that's all I know.  I know how it is having parents forcing me to go to church every Sunday and that just doesn't work. You just create the environment for rebellion. It has to be their choice if they want to go or not, IMO.  

I dunno what else. Oh, yes, the new guy.  He disappeared for 3 days and I got a call last night that we need to do a wellness check. Ok?  I was going to go over there, but they decided to do it again...no one told me there was even an issue going on.  LIke, no one had seen him for 3 days.  He's probably hiding, I thought, because he can't find anyone to haul that junk trailer off the lot. I won't pull it, it looks extremely unsafe. It's missing 2 of it's wheels and I was surprised after seeing it that anyone would take the risk pulling that thing from 30 miles away.  Or that they hadn't been pulled over, they must have gotten lucky and no troopers or sheriff deputies saw them pulling it.   

Whatever.  He also didn't get the windows done, he was supposed to have someone come over there yesterday to do that.  No show, don't know, I'm going to be paying him a visit today.  I am at the end of my limits with this dude and his junk.  This trailer he has now isn't bad, it just needed a broken window fixed and a new panel put over the water heater access.  And washed, it needs a bath.  So who knows.  I'm afraid I'm going to get stuck with the cost of having that thing removed from my property.  He's broke, doesn't get his monthly check until the 26th. 

What else? The people in the coach. The sister that was already living in the park virtually begged me on the phone to let them stay another week. "We've been all over the place looking for a place for them..".  Ok? I want them off my property. There are adults in there that are perfectly capable of getting a job somewhere.  I know, work, sounds horrible to some people.  Like, can't we just live for free? They aren't paying anything for anything.  After a while of this, I agreed to another week. As long as they haven't been there a month, it's easy to get them off the property if it comes to forcing them out. I told her don't ask me for any more time after this, they are leaving.  I won't listen to another request.  I feel like I've done as much as I can do to help them out, they are using my resources and not paying anything for it.  At least I'm not paying for the electricity to cool that thing, the sister is paying for the daily gasoline bill which isn't cheap.  

I get myself into these situations and then I kick myself for falling for it. Then I think about Christ and if He would have had me help them? Well I doubt I'm getting sent to hell for helping poor people, that's a  lot of who Christ helped.  But you get into these people's minds and they are nowhere near any level of self-preservation. They are of the "someone else needs to help me do and pay for everything" mindset.  I can't stand that. People lie, a lot, about their situations.  I don't know how many more questions I can ask to get the truth out. It's up to me to either just help them or tell them to move on.  There's a 20-something in the coach along with the other 2 people.  He's not disabled. There is no motivation to do anything.  I don't get it. 

Oh, and another thing about the "new" park.  I went there in my mind, thinking about the nearest place a person could work and be able to walk there. It's a mile and a half away, a convenience store, dunno if they're hiring.  That new park? It's 5 miles to the nearest store.  I just add up all the things that are not in that dude's favor and say to myself, welp, he's not really in a good position over there.  

So, today is just go to church, go over to the park and deal with this dude, then to the pharmacy.  They want me to start taking stuff for high cholesterol.  I'll take, with hesitancy.  I don't know how high it is, the new doc just ordered it without calling me about it.