Saturday mid-morning

Completely forgot about a new bible study they are doing on Saturday mornings - I probably wouldn't have gone anyway.  I'll hit church up tomorrow but I doubt I'll go to any adult meetings either.  Just not there yet. How long before you do go to one of those meetings?  I don't know, couldn't possibly tell you that. 

I'm in the middle of a lot of thought processes going on and kind of distracted from everything else as it stands.  Do I try to get the SBA loan? Do I go for 25 more lots or is that pushing it too far? Do I have the covered sites installed with them?  I"m done with that question, if I'm building new sites they are going to be covered.  I don't care how much money it costs, this is a no-brainer at this point to me. If people don't want covered lots, I have plenty already that aren't. I also told them I want meters on every new site - electrical meters that is.

It would necessarily need the money for an above ground pool setup and a hot tub.  Add 30k to that bid.  I'll need another laundry room, another 10k for the facility and probably another 10k on top of that to build out the interior.  I can get a 16X40 structure for 9k, actually.  Built on-site.  I'm thinking of going down on the number of new lots to 15 or 20 to reduce that cost and add this other stuff onto it. And I want a glamping site.  

I've been reading the forecast for glamping it's steadily rising and will continue to do so for several projected forecasts going to 2030.  I've got the Interstate that will start being built next year, that will take some of the pressure off of all the competition around here and hopefully fill up my existing spots.  Workers come in from all over the place and I've seen it repeatedly that they bring their trailers and stay in them during the week and go home during the weekends.  

I'm definitely going to fill out the paperwork and at least give this a try.  With my current credit stuff going on, they may very well deny the loan request even with a ton of collateral. I'm prepared for rejection, if it doesn't work out, there must be some other direction I need to think about going with it.  That's what I get into my mind anyway.  

I'm still stuck on this glamping thing tho.  I need to either clear that thing out of my mind or actively work on getting one set up. I've seen some pics of the nearest glamping setups and they are not pretty.  Just a plain Jane setup inside with a couple of beds,  a couple of stands and nothing else.  I don't see how that is appealing.  Didn't appear to have electricity, heating or cooling either.  You're not going to get people in the younger generations in without WiFi, cooling/heating, cool decor, set it up on a platform, microwave, snacks, ability to order doordash or Uber eats (both available here now) and other things that make it a pleasant stay for the market that wants all of that stuff and more.

I already knew this, reading the reports only further strengthened that belief. Roughing - it camping is not near as popular as it once was.  People want a resort like experience which can be provided in the confines of a glamping tent for no major amount of money.  

Regardless, I saw the boy over there showing a person around yesterday.  It was an older lady asking about all kinds of stuff, I don't know what possessed that boy to do that, but I'm not going to tell him not to do it.  It was on a recording on the inside camera, he was very respectful to the lady and that was that. I've still heard nothing, tho.  I also met an older couple at Applebee's yesterday - yes I "cheated" by eating out but it was the $11.99 lunch menu and it was only me. We had gotten into a long conversation and they asked about the price at my Park. 

Their son is moving to the area to go to school and they are going to put him up in their trailer.  happenstance works sometimes. I've had other inquiries as well, tho nothing solid yet. 

Still have those 3 back-in lots that I have been having trouble getting filled.  Interestingly, someone reserved a space for 4-1/2 weeks starting at the beginning of next month. Unfortunately, the system only took a $2 deposit? I've got paperwork to do and I might get more of that done today.  It's snapping pics of receipts and then they automatically get entered into the expense column on quick books.  

I have nothing major planned today. The boy isn't done fixing that tractor to my dismay, I'd like to get more done with it. I'm going to push him to get that thing fixed this weekend so I can at least spend Monday on it.  Although I don't really want to, I may have to build another shower stall in the amenities shed. The existing stall is getting major use and apparent conflicts with people showing up at the same time.  

The problem is that it won't result in any new customers, it's probably a grand to build such a room - a small setup, perhaps I could do it cheaper and it will be tied into existing plumbing and hot water, so no bid deal there.  Still, it's money that could be used for some new venture.  I'm going to price out glamping setup and see what the overall cost will be.

And I just saw that I have quickbooks set up wrong and am going to have to spend significant time attempting to get that ship righted.  I never said I knew what I was doing, apparently my inputs when I set it up were completely wrong.  It's showing expenses out of my personal checking account - no, lol, that's not correct. It should be showing gross receipts out of the business checking.  Well, I caught it with enough time to correct it before tax time anyway.  

I may have to go through the bank account and search out all transactions to correlate them with the quick books set up. Good thing my current setup is small, this will take some time to accomplish but think if I had 100 spots, lol.  Oh, well I would have an accountant anyway, I guess that wouldn't be an issue. 

Oh, and Dish Network. Contacted them yesterday for the account here in Texas.  Yup, I want to cancel it.  The amount of pleading they were doing  was crazy, lol. At least it was an American citizen or if not, they certainly fooled me with having no accent whatsoever and ability to speak fluent English.   I said I might consider it if you give me the channels I want and ditch the rest, I am no longer going to be paying for this setup at the rate you are charging me.  So, in the end, $100 per month was taken off, the channels I want were given and I'm much happier.  By doing it the way I did, I won't have to add Paramount to my smart tv and can probably ditch Hulu as well. That only leaves Netflix, which is cheap and I have been thoroughly enjoying the vast selection of movies they have on there.  

I can't do that with the house in AZ, they just need to reduce it back down. It's that or I switch to Directv.  It's that simple.  They don't give what you want, you just switch to the other satellite company. Its a major appeal for people living in the house, I can't disconnect it but I can demand they bring the price back down to acceptable levels.  I'm ever so happy to have dumped Cox communications over there for internet. My internet bill is is over $160 less per month now.  Besides getting the satellite bill back down, there isn't anything else I can think of to get costs down over there, it is what it is.  

Apparently the name of my park leads people to believe that I am some sort of park designer. I get these calls from people wanting to build rv parks and they tell these fantastic stories of the hell they are going through trying to find information about the permits they will need and how to get started.  I do give them a general overview, it's not like I don't have an idea of how to go about doing this regardless of the size of park a person is wanting to build.  Big, small, in-between, your first step is going to the county (or if you're building in city limits, the city) and asking for specific information about building the park, the sites, the water, septic and electric, what permits if any will be needed.  You have to identify where your source of water and power are coming from and if you will need a septic system, then call a local installer, have them come out and they will usually have a wealth of information that you can pick out of their brains of how to go about doing it.  

Before you even design the park, you have to identify if it's even feasible  with all of aforementioned things and costs. 

The man was clueless and just wanted to pay someone to do it for him.  I'm nowhere near him otherwise I would have offered my services for the first thing I'm doing is going to the county building and asking questions and staying there until those questions are sufficiently answered.  Then I'm calling the power company, looking up all the septic installers in the area and not only asking them for bids but also asking for info on other contractors in the area who can handle the rest of the project. That's how I did it and ended up with one contractor who did everything.  

You ask enough questions and sooner or later you are going to run into someone that is knowledgeable and is willing to share some of that knowledge.

Today.  Have no clue.  It's after 11:00 am already, lol. I started cleaning the bathroom, that's what I'm doing atm.  But, I'm going to have to fix this banking stuff to be able to get gross receipts for last year.  My tax return is wrong, apparently, tho I know I won't owe them anything it isn't correct either. I may have to fix everything and offer an amended tax return.  I had far too many expenses last year that outweigh the income. This year, much different. Lots of expenses but nothing like the first year in operation.  

Anyway, they are likely going to want to see this stuff and I want it correct before I go there with them on that.  So, that's my current mission alongside going through paperwork and also cleaning up the room to less cluttered levels.  I'm really bad about throwing things away, I won't do it because I think I'll need that info later on down the road or I'll need that "thing" for future use.  Lol, yeah it lends to a collections of things.  I only have one room, I have been getting better about throwing things out tho.  Taylor is my role model in that department. If it has no immediate use and she is in the "let's get rid of stuff" mood, it's going into the trash can.  

I think that's enough contemplation for now.  

This was yesterday - Friday forgot to post it. 

 

It's clean-out-the-bedroom-so-it-doesn't-smell-like-a-Great-Dane-Day. 

Yes, indeed, it is. In fact, I'm going to town with this.  His old bed is ridiculous and need to be replaced.  I will be heading to Ollie's later on plus getting a throw rug for underneath where he feeds and replacing his bed. I guess I could feed him outside, unlike Addler who would eat, step away, eat, etc.  Then the raccoons would come and eat his food. 

Obie? Not at all. He inhales his food.  So much so - now that I think of it - not a good idea outside feeding. He needs to lay down after he eats to let his food digest.  I don't need stomach bloat otherwise known as a twisted stomach. 

Anyway, I just went over all the main travel areas of the carpet. The water coming back out was dark brown for quite a while.  It's actually something I should probably get a pro out here to do with a van, but I think I got it clean enough.  I had to refill the water container many times over just to do what amounts to a small area of carpeting.  

I am not going to do anything about the loan today. I need to sit on that a while and think about it, pray about it, ponder, meditate, whatever, all of it.  The question is: is an additional 30 years worth of debt going to be worth it?  The answer? I don't know yet. I don't have all the variables and won't until I see if I can get the project financed and what the terms will be.  Only then will I be able to say yes, I can make this work or no, I not only can't, it doesn't make sense.  If the profitability doesn't end up with me being able to either quit my trucking job completely - or - work my trucking job until debt is paid off - it simply makes no sense and back to the drawing board. 

Well lookit there. It isn't even noon yet.  I've gotten a lot done this morning, thankfully. Not outside of the house, I have only wandered out on the back porch today, haven't gone anywhere and wasn't thinking about it until now. Ollie's has a 15% off coupon that I will be taking advantage of today.  Their dog beds are low priced as it stands and I might get some area rugs for where the kids walk back and forth.  

Oh, I said I wasn't doing anything about the loan, that doesn't mean my mind will be going down all the rabbit trails, the paths of what if's, the analytics, the hmm, if I do this, what will be the end result? Hmm, if I tweak that, what will be the end result?

You know what I can't determine? If 76k worth of covered parking sites will be worth the money. I think it will based on observations of other rv parks that have full parks.  But those are other areas. What if that doesn't pan out here? How does one conduct a feasibility study? I will be researching that today.  Well, I don't really need to do research, I need to do a survey.  Who do I survey? That's easy, RV'ers. But when venue do I use to survey them? And how do I go about doing that on a local level? I can easily access giant RV forums, but those are people from all over the world. 

I need a survey pinpointed to my town/region. I also don't want any competitors to see this survey, if they do, they may start thinking about upping their ante to match me with an amenity that is, as far as I have seen it, highly desirable.  Trees are good too, but they don't actually protect your roof. They give shade, but they don't actually elminate sun damage and they don't stop water from coming down on it during rainy season. And we have a pretty vibrant rainy season here.  

So, do I gamble not do a survey or do I do the survey and hope they don't see it? Or, if they do see it, hope they don't want to put that kind of money out?  And/or do I just do a survey in a group of hundreds of thousands of rv'ers to get a pulse of what I might expect? The last one is a good place to start, I think.  You can pay a marketing agency to do such analysis, but that costs a lot of money. I don't want to spend my cash on this. 

Meanwhile, this lady got me sold on the idea of getting a Go-Pro, mounting it on the dash and post the stupid things people do in traffic. Oh trust me, I could post at least a couple things every day I drive.  I could post more than that, but I would probably only post the outrageous nonsense.  Put up a video, put some stupid statement on it in letters over top of it, get the subscribers and make money? I have no idea but it's worth a shot. I see a lot of other truckers doing it and many of them have no clue what they are talking about or what they are doing.  

Oh, yes, I would boost it.  Pay the money initially to get it out there.