Well, I got several calls from the facebook ad, a few of them - sound - promising.  So far, none of it has converted into long term tenants.  One dude is around 2:00 pm tomorrow afternoon, he says he will be heading over here. Another something similar. And the couple that says they are moving in on the 1st.  I've been through all of this before - people saying they are going to come and they don't.  It's something I'm already accustomed to from trying to rent out rooms.  

I got an unusual call, tho.  I'm not boosting tent camping right now.  Just not something I want to mess with while I'm expending my energies trying to get the RV portion done.  It isn't going to make a significant amount of money - tho I am of the "any added extra income is a good thing" mindset.  Still, there is some work and money to be spent back there and I'm just not in the position to spend - about 2 grand - right now.  

But, these people asked about a tent camping site?  I think I have it listed somewhere, yes it's on my own website.  Again, not promoting it. I thought about it for a few seconds, well I do have one site that will work that doesn't have access issues.  It was a few hours later - I was getting the boys, doing homework with them - and I met up with them out there, boys in tow. Mom and dad at work, homework done, we waited for their arrival with them playing on their favorite dirt pile.  

They asked how much? I just threw out $10. Ok!  A bit later and before we met there, I changed it to "I'll give it to you for free if you will give me a Google review".  Google reviews are worth their weight in gold when you have none at all.  Sure! they replied.  Ok!

Well.  It turns out they are homeless. They have a pickup truck - an older one probably early 2,000's, in good running condition and had a lot of camping equipment in the back. It was all neat and tidy, a good sign. The lady then said something about VA doctor visits and that hubby is a vet.  Well now you have my attention. Vets really aren't being treated that well in this nation and a lot of them end up in poverty and even more end up committing suicide.  There are some great organizations that are helping them, but overall, the stats of how they end up living when coming back off a war zone or just out of service shows a lot of them just don't do that well.

I didn't say they could stay as long as they want.  I don't want to start a homeless encampment. They aren't completely broke, thankfully.  She asked if they could stay a couple of days?   Sure! I just laid out to please keep the site clean and tidy and keep the fire in the middle of - such and such - area so as not to start a forest fire.  I was going to get them a fire ring from the front, but they had their own with them. I invited them to help themselves to fresh water, a bit of firewood and certainly could pump up their air mattress using one of the electrical outlets in the park.  

They even had their own, portable toilet. It became obvious they are just going from place to place, camping out wherever they can find to do so.  Camping sites are at the rear of the park.  This camping site is not along the trails. They are out of site, next to the gas well operation but in the woods.  I did ask them to stay off the well pad. I forgot one of my chainsaws near their site where I have a few items stored.  I don't necessarily believe they are thieves, but I don't necessarily trust people, either.  It's a brand new saw that hasn't been used, it's one of the $50 20 inch saws I got from Walmart.  Well I have their names, phone number and license plate number.  

There isn't much of anything else.  I wish I could get some more of those "just traveling through town, it's the end of the day, we need a place to stay" type of things but nothing.  The website designer wanted some money for the work he's done.  I'm kind of at the end of that. He's doing background work but said we are pretty much where we need to be for now.  Meaning after I pay him the current amount, I shouldn't have to pay him much of anything.  He's gotten my website showing fairly high up the rankings, he's done his job but his prices aren't cheap per hour and for now, I'd like to take a break from that.  Mostly because I am barely taking anything in and the word is out - all over the place. It's people are going to come, or they aren't.  But more work on the website at this point isn't going to help anything.  

 The FB ad has gotten a few calls.  The first one was someone calling for someone else. They were asking about the price and if they could move in today? Sure, just a few questions for you - they couldn't really answer them since they aren't the person wanting to move in.

The second was a man that asked about the price as well and wondering if I had 2 spots. I sure do!  But it became obvious they are broke and can't afford to stay - anywhere.  After asking the monthly rent, he asked about the nightly rate "because we have some...things...we have to take care of".  That sort of set off some alarm bells and flags in my mind.

I didn't turn him down, but I'm not going down on my nightly rate, it's as low as it goes pretty much anywhere.  I offered a weekly rate as well, but he didn't seem interested in that.  He did want 50 amp outlets. He didn't directly ask if I would go lower, he was certainly hinting at it.

As I said, I am not going down any lower in my rates. They are the lowest rates in the region, competing only with some trailer trash parks - I think one of them is a bit lower.  I do not have a trailer trash park and I have no intentions on operating one.  People are let known right off the bat that I do not allow outdoor storage of any kind. You can outdoor table, a grill, a smoker perhaps, some chairs, but storage of items in boxes or just junk laying everywhere will not be tolerated.  

I'm not pretty firm about that, I'm quite firm.  Anyway, I'm not sure I want people that can't afford a basic rate in the park.  I didn't turn them down, but they don't really sound like good prospects. I doubt I will be hearing from them again, people that broke are probably desperate and I feel for them, I've been there and done that. They would be good to just find some place to boondock until they can afford to stay somewhere with electricity, water and sewer hookups. 

 I doubt I will be hearing from the other person either.  My ads sell the park, I'm just on the phone to sort of reaffirm a nice place at a cheaper price.  

Oh, btw, Meta/Facebook reversed their decision after I requested a review. I dunno what made them reverse it excepting the fact that their stated discriminatory practices did not exist anywhere in the ad.  Even if I were a racist puke, I wouldn't have that in an such trying to promote my business since I not only know Facebook wouldn't accept it, I would also likely be "canceled".  Fortunately, I am not racist and don't care what anyone's skin color is, God created all of us and He is no respecter of persons.  

Whatever the case, I've been busy uploading pics of the park and the trail and all of that good stuff all over the place. I had lots of ads up that have no pics at all.  I think there's more, just have to find them and update them.  With no reviews besides that Facebook review, at the very minimum I need lots of pics of the place to let people understand by being able to view it how the park looks and what to expect.  

After all of this stuff I've been doing, I still haven't had any overnighters calling in the last several days and maybe 4 people calling about long term, only one of which I think might actually show up on the 1st.  They have "loved" some of my posts on my Facebook business account.  It would be really nice to have 2 payments coming in at the beginning of the month. It would pay for almost everything I have dumped on the business checking account thus far.  The mortgage payment, the shed payment and now the Verizon payment for wifi.  I want to put the water bill on there and will be setting up power company payments soon.  I want all of that stuff separated from personal finances. It's all business stuff and I want it showing to any taxing entities that may do an audit or request what I'm paying for on there. I'll need about 4 long term lots being used to pay for everything and taxes. 

I also need to pay the property taxes soon - around $1,700 worth, most of it for the business property.  25 acres was taxed at over $1,500. An almost $500 increase from the previous year, and yes, it was valued long before the RV park improvements were made. So who knows what they will want finding out it is a business?  I'll likely have to have an appraisal done on my own, this county and school district are rather greedy and quite generous in their handouts and building brand new schools and such.  I'm still aghast at the covered football stadium they built. What on earth does a high school need with that and to top it off, it's hardly ever used.  

I don't recall any covered stadiums in AZ and it's much hotter there than here.  

Anyway, at least I didn't waste the day even tho my leg is saying no thanks to anything. Well, me knee, to be specific.  It's especially painful getting up off a chair - as what I'm about to do to go get the kids.  Taylor is busy with work and usually asks me to go get them on Thursdays. 

With that, I bid you ado.  

 One thing if for certain, at least to me: if I want more people to seriously consider the overnight stuff - which equals more money - I'll have to get more amenities in there.  If I want long term, I just have to wait for as long as it takes to get 14 spots filled up with them. I just want people in there at this point. I really have no idea what else I can do now with limited finances.  

Laundry - can't get it off my mind, yet there is nothing I can do about it at this point beyond just putting up some sort of cheap looking arrangement.  That would probably work with long term, short term people would likely not appreciate it that much. 

I'm talking about a pad, just big enough to put a washer and dryer on it, some sort of covering that isn't enclosed and the utilities necessary to make it function.  It would still cost a couple thousand dollars including the cost of the machines.  

Hilarious.  My ad was taken down by "Meta" because it was discriminatory! They say it should be placed in a "special ads" section. Okkkk, but how was it discriminatory? No mention of race, religion, sexual orientation - nothing. I don't care who you are as long as you aren't Charles Manson and you do have enough money to be able to pay the lot rent up front.  You can never talk to anyone from Facebook about it, either.  I take that back. There is a facebook forum where reps from Facebook will answer questions, but a chat session? Or even calling them? Good luck!

As it stands, a trans couple may be moving in at the end of the month! That's about as "un" discriminatory as you can get! LOL!

I'm just sitting here musing how I can get this park to start working for me.  The word is out and people are informing me they are telling others about it.  I have invested a lot of time into ads and setting up on various websites all over the place.  It is allegedly the time of year people begin booking parks for their travels.  Short of money and building a bath house, laundry room, pool and pond, there isn't much else I can do. And I certainly wouldn't want to get a 200k or more loan right now not knowing if it would actually pay off.  It would be another mortgage payment, basically and if it didn't work, I'd have to be working full time just to be able to afford the payments.

Well, I will have to go back to work anyway, I certainly can't live off of one couple staying at the park - tho they at least said they are going no where and also indicated they are getting the word out.  They also said another family member may be interested in moving into the park.  Cool.  

Well, off to Walmart. Just a thing I have to do, I need keto stuff and as much as I abhor going into walmart, they have the biggest selection of Keto goods in town.

 Come to learn that TripAdvisor won't show my phone number or any contact details without paying  a whopping $45 per month.  I know RV park owners that swear by it - but others also swear by the free ones I have listed it with . My park shows on TripAdvisor, there is just no way to contact me from their site.  I could see a minimal charge to find out if it does anything - at the very least an intro freebie for a week or a month?  

But no thanks. I am loaded up with enough payments right now, I just can't afford more of this stuff.  If someone really wanted to find out about my park through TripAdvisor, they can just google the name, it will come right up! I decided to try and slip in the URL in the description - I suspect they won't approve it.  

I'm also waiting on CampSpot to contact me with whatever they are wanting to know - or charge.  Well that didn't take long, they charge 10% per booking and a 2.5% credit card processing fee.  I'll do it, I already did do it, it's just awaiting them to finalize it.  

_______________

Thursday - morning

I'm awakened all night long with the pain shooting up my leg when I subconsciously/sleep turn.  I'm abandoning my efforts to get up early until this passes. The pain is beginning to subside a bit, but when tweaked in the wrong contortions?  Yeah, no fun. Not going to get much of anything done over there, either. That's all physical labor type of work and I am not going to do any of that and potentially drag out even longer the time it takes for this thing to heal. 

I've been spending the days going through endless websites listing the park wherever I can, fixing or adding things (especially pics) to sites I have already signed up with and wondering how I can get more traffic to my business.  

I'm day 3 back on Keto - down 8 pounds.  This is usually what happens, lose 10 pounds or so and then plateau there for a while.  It can't be that much fat loss in just a few days, but it's nice to see the needle going down on the scale instead of up. I'm determined to get down below 200 before any cheat days. That's going to take a while- probably a few months anyway. Mostly just eating salads and chicken to start with a few fats thrown in.  The urine stick showed "trace" ketosis last night, it's just something to show you where you're at. 

Lots of people on the Keto sites say those sticks are useless and you "must" use a blood analyzer to determine exact ketosis. I'm like, what?  This isn't a life threatening illness, or diabetes or something, I don't need to go that far with it. It's more of a motivational tool - you see the stick getting darker and darker purple, you know you're on the right track.  

I have a Keto cookbook - an actual paperback book lol - that has some amazing looking dishes in it that I want to make. I doubt anyone here will eat the stuff, but if I make a lot, I can have leftovers for days for lunches and even separate dinner than everyone else.  It's just the way it has to be with everyone else eating whatever they want whenever they want to, I have to get off of that train.  If I don't, I won't lose this fat and this will all be a waste of time.

Well, anyway, just deleted the old Facebook ad and put up a new one with a lot more pics.  As many pics as is allowed per ad, in fact.  It will reach across a 100 mile radius or even more with all the different groups I put it in going from Shreveport to almost Tyler, north and south as well.  I will keep posting these facebook ads indefinitely. Only one out of 20 groups denies the ad, the rest don't care.  Most of the facebook selling sites around here really don't care what you are putting up as long as it isn't spam/scams.  

Enough.  Just going to keep looking around for ways to reach more people.  

G'day

 Yet another online campground reservation system that wasn't working because it wanted more information.  It didn't ask for that information when I set it up and it never sent me an email notification saying it's not live.  I guess I'll have to go back through all of the directories as well and make sure they are showing my park on there.  Yes, my campground software that I have on my website is working, the owner verified it and a customer has finally used it once.  

But sites like Roverpass that may be able to generate some income weren't going until I input specific information it was demanding.  I have no problem with giving that information, it just never asked for it initially. 

It's a rain day and my leg is still hurting when I try to get up or walk on it.  It feels like it's getting better, ever-so-slowly at least.  I can see it taking a while before the ligament/tendon whatever it is, probably a ligament tho, is fully healed.  These are no cuts and scrape injuries that you can just continue on with your normal daily routine.  I'm just taking it easy for the most part until I can walk without pain again.  

But yes, the weather forecasters actually delivered this time with an almost-accurate forecast. The rain initially was supposed to start at 4am. Then it was 6am. Then it was 8:45, then 9:15. It started around 9:15 lol.  

The oldest boy was begging me last night to come to school and have lunch with him.  I told him no, my leg is hurting, I don't want to have to walk that far. It's a pretty good walk from where you park to where you actually end up in a room they have set aside especially for that purpose.  He asked his mom last night anyway, lol. I'm pretty sure it's not me he wants to see but the McDonald's I would bring if I were going to do that.  Just throwing random things in here as I normally do, lol.

Well anyway, I have the park set up on 2 other campground software sites - but these sites do all the work, unlike the campground software I have.  And, the 2 other sites do all of the advertising and already have a huge following of RV'ers that use it to find parks.  So, in the last 24 hours, I've had them both up and running (when I thought both of them were already up and running), we'll see how that turns out. 

I'm going to see if I can find more of those types of systems. There are no start up costs, they have RV'ers that go into their system, look either for a specific park or a specific area/region and then start looking at the campgrounds that are available.  The costs are incurred in their fees per reservation. Rather high, but if it gets me business, paying them more is better than empty sites.  And I can stop at any time. I also have complete control over the reservations. If, by some chance, the park is full on the days they want to come, I can reject the reservation before it's even set. It goes to the campground owner/management to verify there is a space available for the dates wanted and then the campground owner verifies it, not the software system. 

I actually like it better than what I paid $200 to set up - but I really have to have ability to take payments on my website and the money has been spent already, the software is installed. It also has a per-reservation fee, but it's much lower than these other 2 sites.  Basically, at this point, I don't care how I get the reservations or how much I have to see go bye-bye to the website that is taking those reservations, I need people in there and I also need reviews.  

Well anyway, I just logged out of Roverpass and tried to set up a reservation.  It worked fine so I'm good with that. Same with HipCamp and showing all my freshly loaded pictures.  So, I have 3 sites available to book lots now, if there are more, I am going to find them.  

Ok, well apparently Campspot also has no start up fees, that application has been filled out as far as I can go with it until they contact me to finish up. Now, if they ask for a startup fee? Yeah, cancel and delete the account please.  However, I have seen other campground owners saying they don't charge a startup fee, I'll wait and see.  With Roverpass, HipCamp and Campspot, I have expanded the amount of places where people go to find RV parks greatly. I have it listed on dozens of campsite directories - they don't do reservations, they simply direct people ot my website.

The most important of which, at least if you give other RV park owners and experts, is TripAdvisor.  I personally would never have thought of that site for RV parks, that's hotels in my mind.  But some of these people swear by it.  Yup, doesn't cost anything but time to set it up and yes, it's live on their site as well.  

 I knew I was forgetting something, I just couldn't remember what it was.

The lone tenants there let me know this morning.  Really nice people btw, not hostile, argumentative - they said they really like it there and put the word out whenever they can to whoever might be in need of such facilities.  

Anyway, she said: Just a suggestion, but it might be helpful if you put in solar lights.

Yes! How could I have forgotten that?  There is literally no lighting in there at all at night.  I only want the low rise solar lights that you just push into the ground, regular street lighting is shunned by most RV'ers not wanting bright lights coming into their units at night.  She said a pickup truck came through late last night drove slowly through the park and then left.  I asked her if they are armed? Yes, she nodded. Oh that's fine, I have no problem with that.  

Anyway, my leg is hurting too bad to get much of anything done. I finished installing the doggy park trash bags, the kind you put your hand into, pick up the poop, pull your hand out and that's that.  And I cut the pipes down that are holding the gate and latch. And for now, I put in a much sturdier sign hold for the little sign at the highway. 

The other holder/stand would just bend over in the wind.  This one will not - it might lean a little bit but it won't bend over so far that you can't even see the sign.  I have been saying I'm going to install the big one a few times - and it just never happens.  Well I'm definitely not going to pound a post hole shovel in with this knee. Nor am I getting on my hands and knees to dig out the trench. I wanted to, that was my plan for today until the accident last night.

Fortunately,  just sitting here I feel no pain at all. That's an excellent sign that this isn't too serious and given enough time, it will heal on its own.  

Well good. A pack of 6 solar lights is only $30 range.  Get 12 of them, be done with it.  Fancier ones can be purchased in the future. 

Well, I guess it makes sense, changing the subject yet again. Roverpass hasn't been sending me any customers because they hadn't made my site go live yet.  I fixed this today after going there wondering about this and if I could upload more pics.  Turns out there wasn't any place for payments to be sent to - in other words, after a customer pays Roverpass, Roverpass pays me.  That's all taken care of and instantly I got an "you are now online with Roverpass!"  email.  

I did find it a bit odd that they didn't tell me this before I had to go digging in their site to find this out.  One would assume they want as much business as possible - they are taking a chunk of every reservation. I'm trying to get business in there and get the word out - I'll take the loss for the gain. I would like to hope someday I won't need Roverpass - or that I can simply raise the prices to make up for the loss of their 15% take.  My rates are so low right now as it stands.  Nope, there won't be any other discounts given, even if asked.  There's just no reason to give more discount on already highly discounted rates.

Well, maybe in the coming days I will get some business from them.  I'd like to get a call right about now from whoever: we're coming through, need a place to stay! Ok, come on over! 

____________

No new business. No reservations, no emails and no phone calls.  I dunno what to say - nothing I guess.  It will happen when it happens.  

 So I finally got a good review via Facebook. I wish they had put it on Google - but I think eventually it will be put on Google anyway, it seems to work out that way.  

"This is a gem! We stopped overnight and loved it! It is close to I-20 but far enough away to be very peaceful and quiet. Great for dogs."

That is, in my book, a very good review. Short, sweet and to the point. I may post it via manage my Google business account anyway. I need that up there, I don't just want it up there. There, that took 30 seconds to do, it is part of the description of the park now, the name left out of it. Not that I should have to worry about it, her name was visible on her Facebook review.

Ok. Well, a couple of people were playing soccer in the front yard yesterday and I was standing there - in the wrong place at the wrong time. An adult, male, human body came crashing into my leg and definitely did some damage to the ligament on my knee. I assume an ACL injury - wouldn't know that for sure without going to a doctor-

It hurt overnight but I managed to find a few positions in bed to sleep that allowed for sleep. I've had a complete ACL tear in the past, they are no fun. I doubt this is torn off, I can still put some pressure on it and sitting down I don't really feel anything. When I tore it some 30 years ago, it was in pain regardless and I definitely couldn't walk - for a long time actually.

So I'm hopeful that doing ice compressions and getting a knee brace after a couple of days have passed this thing will heal on its own. I have work to do, sitting around here isn't part of the equation. I am going over to the property today regardless - tho obviously I am not going to be doing any digging. If I could get down on my hands and knees, I could use the pick axe to dig out that little trench I need for that pipe. Somehow, I doubt that is going to happen. Exactly what I didn't need to have happen.

I'm also heavier than I have ever been in my entire life. I think the last time I got up here it was 230. I'm at 232. I'm done. This isn't going to go on any longer. I will just start eating salads and chicken. that's it. Anything else I might be able to find that is at least healthy, low calorie and preferably low carb. I can't just keep going up, I need to lose a lot of weight and I'm all in for that.

Keto diet was the only thing that ever worked, I'm going to try doing it again, just without too much beef or pork. Keep it mostly chicken and a lot of salads with various things added in - change it up here and there to keep it interesting. I may just fast a day or two and warp speed getting into ketosis. Oh well I can have turkey too. Not much of a change from chicken, but a bit different taste. And fish, yess, that's good as well and I have a bag of frozen Talapia already.

A few extra pounds is one thing, this is ridiculous. And can add health problems - especially diabetes junk. I just got serious this morning after seeing my weight increase fully 7 pounds from yesterday. I didn't even eat that much yesterday, I'm not sure how that happened.

Well, I guess I'll take a pain killer. It's fine sitting here but I'm going to be moving - as little as possible of course - but I really need to get over there and at least check everything out. Especially considering I didn't go yesterday. I do have a bit of security in knowing those people are living over there right now - they have my phone number, if something happens I would like to hope they will call me. I always tell people if there are any problems, please call!

Well enough. Not a lot to report, I'm just going to go over there and see if I can get anything done. The bag dispenser for the dog bags needed a screw that I bought the other day. I forgot to install it when I was over there last, I was messing around with the boys playing hide and seek. Well, the boys are in school and I can get something - even if just light stuff - done.

G'day

I'm in business to make money.  It may take a while to get there, but still, if a couple pulls in with a 100k trailer and an 80k truck and asks for a discount on already highly discounted rates - to the point that they are the lowest in the industry - why do certain people think it's necessary to give them a further discount rate?  Did you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars building a park/buying the land? And all the blood, sweat and tears put into it?

I have pictures of bloodied arms trying to get through the thorn vines, the trees with thorns and several other plant species loaded with spikes and thorns that made my arms look like I was bleeding out. 

No, you didn't. You didn't navigate a venture completely foreign to you.  I was judged and that was expected. People always try to defeat anyone trying to go into business - it's too risky! You don't know what you're doing! ..and a myriad of other things people that may have good intentions are saying to you and really, just tearing you down.  

I don't understand it but I'm not going to let it get me down. I will somehow make this park successful. It may not happen overnight - obviously that is not happening - but somehow, it's going to make a profit over all the expenses and pay back the debt.  

Anyway, yesterday, I was out there with the boys and the dog.  We went on the trails first and I took a video of the entire walk - but after that we went back up front - they wanted to play in the dirt and the weeds, I was quite happy to accommodate them in that, they needed to get some energy out after being in the house all day long.  

Well, while they were doing that, a pickup truck pulled into the very long driveway and going very slowly.  They pulled into lot 14 - 350 feet away from us. I just watched for a while, they got out, got their dog out on a leash, walked around, etc etc etc.  

But, after a while, I decided to put Addler in the SUV and walk up to them and see what's going on.  I have decidedly tried to get rid of judmentalism in recent years, a thing Christians are quite guilty of and a thing that is - at least when it comes to the unsaved - forbidden in scripture.  It actually says to the effect that we are not to judge them.  I don't know where I picked that up from - probably church, the old style that condemns sin to the point that all you hear coming from those types of people's mouth is brimstone and hell fire messages.  

Anyway,  I came to the understanding within the first minute of talking to them that these people were - unusual and that one of the was a trans man.  That meaning a woman that does the testosterone therapy and in this case, apparently the surgery as well and is turned into a man, replete with  a man's voice.  

These were completely normal people.  They didn't blurt out their sexual orientation, they just talked like normal human beings. They have a 2021 36 foot RV trailer and they were asking if I would allow them to put a shed on their lot.  Maybe.  I ask lots of questions and make lots of statements. They showed me a pic of it - they haven't even bought it yet, brand new. I said that would be fine, I just don't want out door storage.  You can have flat top, smokers, grills tables chairs - normal outdoor stuff, it's the junk that tends to go along with having these sheds that I can't have going. 

Well, they didn't come off as slobs and trailer trash.  So, it may be that they are moving in at the beginning of next month. I don't know for sure yet what they want to do.  It was a nice conversation is what I can say. Meanwhile, while that was going on, a couple of people on mountain bikes came riding up the driveway, rode into the park entrance, through the rv park driveway and back out again.  

I have no idea what that was about.  It seems that people feel the freedom to just drive in whenever they want. I guess I have no problem with that - but my insurance policy forbids bicycles.  Literally, forbids them being ridden on the property.  

Uhh, anyway. It's MLK day and it's almost over.  Tomorrow I'll be out there plugging away at stuff. I need to get that mini-trench dug and that pipe in. I think I will have to get more stuff for that setup, but nothing expensive.

There are lots of other things needing to be done, that one however has the materials laying out there and I want it in the ground and done with.  

That's it. I did not spend the day today stressing about the park.  In fact, I didn't even go over there. There were no calls or reservations for people coming in and if the lone tenants have a problem, they have my phone number.  I'll be out there a good portion of the day tomorrow.

 So my pro photographer took the photos and said they will be available shortly. She enhances them - or in this case at the very least blotting out a few license plate numbers (I wanted to show a long 5th wheel with the pickup detached from it, parked in front of it and still room to spare on the pad - that was there yesterday, I suspect they are gone by now).  

She took photos of everything, including fresh deer tracks. They must be coming over there every day - or probably night actually - because there are fresh tracks daily.  It's a good sell point, I think, that they are coming that far out into the open to eat grass. I assume that's why they are there and tho I don't particularly want the grass eaten up, I doubt they eat it all the way to the ground.  I have my deer-goats coming and mowing the lawns lol.

She also suggested going to the walking trails and getting some pics.  Yes, great idea!  I told them where to go and that they shouldn't have to go very far into the trail system to get some great pics.  

While they were there, the family delivering the cord of wood showed up.  Nicely seasoned oak, a little more than a full cord, I was happy.  Once the photographer came back, I suggested that if the cord people need some pro photos, there is the person to do it for you! The lady of the family said why yes, yes we do need some good shots of our horses!  They began talking back and forth. The wood is just a side hustle for the teenaged boy who is going to the local state college to learn to become a lineman (aerial electricity). He decided he wanted to just sell wood instead of going and finding a job locally while he does his studies.

Anyway, the family sells show horses, amazingly, and want some quality photos to post.  

I am going to flood my pages with photos.  Deer tracks, lots, trailers, whatever she took that looks good.  She has a high dollar camera that is a plus in and of itself.  

The only thing bad about yesterday was learning that lot 5 isn't level.  It is level going the long way, but side to side, it's pretty far off.  There is so much gravel on those pads, I am just going to shovel gravel from one side to the other - which will be a lot of work but will save me renting a $350 machine to do it for me.  I hadn't had that lot used before and it was disconcerting.  I can definitely fix it, I just didn't know it was a problem.  Lower one side a few inches and raise the other side, that should fix that problem or at the very least, come close to it enough that no one will care. All of these newer trailers have automatic leveling jacks or stabilizers.  

Anyway, one more thing on the list.  I will be checking all of the lots - tho I know at least some of them are nothing as far off as that one was.  If too many are off, I'm going to have to have them come back in with the dozer and try and manipulate the gravel enough to bring it closer. I don't need it perfect, just close.

Lot 5 isn't close.  The wheels were off the ground on the north side.  That's bad and will earn negative reviews sooner or later.  The man liked the park, the appearance, he didn't say much about the leveling problem but did point it out.  I'm sorry, I'll be working to fix that. Not that that helps him any, but I wanted to show concern that it isn't acceptable and I will be working to fix it.  Level lots are important. 

 I said I wasn't going to do it, but I did it anyway. It's just because there are now a lot of local Facebook ads popping up - this is a 50 mile circle type of ad around the location of the park.  Even junky parks are now advertising - I mean one of them was a real gem.  No grass, half gravel, half dirt - cheap rates yes but the park was as empty as mine. Well, I at least have one full timer in there.  I don't know if they're going to stay or not.  We'll find out at the beginning of next month....

So I did a 7 day facebook ad, this time instead of the entire region, I limited to the 50 mile circle ad.  It's cheaper and focuses more on the local people you are trying to get in there.  I'm going to do another round of going through all the local parks I can find in the vicinity - my town and all the nearby towns - and see what amenties they are offering.  I might even go to these parks and see how they are laid out. The biggest competitor I really want to take a look at - I've seen it on satellite and I've seen a lot of photos of the place and have read a lot of reviews, but I want to drive in there. There are no signs saying RV park guests only, just drive through it and leave.  Maybe all of them.  The biggest compeitor simply has the advantage of being around for decades.

Maybe I'm just plain overthinking this situation.  Maybe my original analysis is correct - it just takes time to get people in there, get some of them to give reviews and build up a following.  

Or, maybe my assessment that minimal amount of amenities is also correct.  If that's true, then I need the washer and dryer and a bathhouse.  

There is transient traffic coming and going, I'm sure of that, the Interstate is 3 miles away.  59 is about 4 miles away. Both high traffic throughways.  I wonder what a billboard costs. Or how much those blue signs on the side of the interstates cost that show you available stores/etc for each exit?  Would it be worth the money?  

Well, I guess one thing needed fixed. I was looking at my Facebook page and noticed I didn't have any finished product pictures on there. Gag - that's quite the gaffe on my part.  Just posted several posts with pics showing the completed product.  I have been focusing on my Google campaign.  Yes, well if I'm running Facebook ands and people see dirt, that isn't too enticing.  Well, it's fixed anyway.  

I'm going to take some new pics today, I need to find a way to get an angle that shows the entire park while not making it appear that the sites are too close together. They are not too close together, but I found that when I posted a pic on an RV site, everyone said those lots are too close! Oh? How close are they? Well I don't want my slideouts to touch my neighbor's slideouts!  When I explained that it was just the angle the pic was taken at, people backed down.

But it just proves that if you don't get the right pics at the right angles, you might be giving the appearance of something that it isn't to people who just glance at stuff. I will take around 50 pics from all over the park and hope that a few turn out good.  

Yes and a better pic of the large sign out front.  The kids want to go over there today - if that happens I will have them pull all the blocks out of the fire pit and build a new one next to it. Their reward will be lunch at whatever restaurant they want to go to.  I'd like to get that fixed up and looking decent and maybe get some firewood out there. An expense I'm not particularly interested in putting out right now - but a cord of wood would go well to sell to anyone that wants a fire at their campsite as well, I can promote it in the ads.  

Okay, if there is an average of 700 pieces of wood in a cord, I can sell the stuff cheap to start with.  Just trying to get people in there, get something going.  10 pieces of wood in a bundle for $5 is at least half the going rate and I actually make money off of it.  

Well whatever. I'm going to see if I can find a cord of wood today as well. 

 Yesterday I got up at 5:45 am.  Today - I did the same.  Took the boys to the bus stop - only because they asked me to otherwise Taylor always does that - and then came back and got busy with stuff.   However, at around 9:00 am? I was done and toast. I fell back asleep and didn't get back up for 2 hours. 

I'll try again tomorrow. I'm trying to get back into work mode and that almost always means getting up early, something I'm not really used to right now. It's been nice getting up whenever I wanted to - within reason of course - but it's time to get back into the trucking thinking.  I don't want a rude awakening, it will be bad enough just starting out driving all over the place again.

Meanwhile, I have listed my site on Roverpass.  It costs nothing to list it there, they do all the work, collect the fees and deposit it into your bank account.  It costs more than the one I'm using, but Roverpass is not just a campground software program. It is one of the premiere RV park location apps that many Rv'ers use.  It puts up all of your information the same as your website and lists everything you want it to list.  People looking for a site in my area can look at my site, see pics of it and the amenities and decide whether they want to.

I balked at their prices at first, but right now? I'm taking whatever I can get.  Whatever I am doing, I'm not doing it right apparently and I'm trying to figure out what the deal is. I can see not having laundry being a detriment to some people, but not everyone.  I'm having a pro photographer come out and take lots of pics.  Like, professional pics, people that have the knack to get the right angles and show things the way they should be shown.  This is only going to cost $75. The lady comes out, takes as many photos as she can take in an hour's time, enhances them and uploads them onto a portal. You have access to all of them, you pay nothing more. It's all digital I won't need to print any of it.  

If I find other platforms like Roverpass that don't have start up fees, I will post my site on those as well.  Somehow, I never thought it would be this difficult to fill up a small park that has all the basic amenities.  Especially with the prices I am charging.  I know - some of the info I have learned says it can take 6 months to a year to get fully operational but this is a bit ridiculous.  So far, it's just been people looking for a place to park at the last minute.  It's all large rigs that the other places in town can't handle.  I'm glad for that, but I need more, a lot more.  I need 4 full timers and I need a lot more transients coming and going.

I don't have the answers beyond spending money I don't have for amenities I do need.  I mean, if I could set up a washer and dryer outside on pavers and put a cover over it, I would lol.  Actually, I guess I could do that over by the septic system. My contractor told me I could install a couple of washers and it would be able to handle the extra load -the septic that is. 

Wait, why did this escape me?  I could put up a small shed, put in 1 washer and 1 dryer over there, right where the water, electric and septic are and call it a day.  Why do I have to have it running into that shed? It's too far away so it's going to cost a fortune to run the wiring, water line and sewer pipe.  I can run the wiring myself, I don't need an electrician to wire 220 volt to a shed.  The water would be easy too, the septic, well I dunno. I'm like, how do you cut into a sewer line that is being used without getting s*** all over you? lol. 

Maybe there's a youtube video for that.  It's still going to cost money, but it would cost around a 1/3rd of what I was contemplating.  I'll probably go for it eventually, I have too much other stuff to do right now that takes priority.  

Oh. Well I forgot to raise my prices for the Roverpass site. I want any potential guests to cover the extra fees. It's only going to raise it by $3 and it will still be either the lowest or near the lowest rates in the area - and - I can handle big rigs. 

Anyway, I need to learn to think outside of the box. I was stuck on having that washer/dryer setup in that shed. If I put it near the utility outlets, we're talking maybe 20 feet of electric line that can run underground, a breaker for the main box, a small box with a couple of 220 volt breakers, line running to outlets for the washer and dryer. I don't see a problem with this and saving thousands of dollars.  

I'm unabashedly sending a review request to everyone that comes in.  I don't care who it is, they are going to get a text with a link to the review site. If they don't review, oh well. I don't have any reviews yet and it's definitely a sticking point.  

If I'm using any service online, the first thing I do? Go look at reviews.  Especially buying stuff, but also if it's service industry. I understand it takes time to get reviews, but I need at least a couple to get me started.  It's probably what most people do. What kind of place is this from the customer's standpoint? I know I always want to know.  The 2 biggest competitors here - owned by the same people - have been there a long time.  They have a mix of good, moderate and very ugly reviews. But they obviously stay busy.  

It's rough.  Especially since I can't get this people to give anything.  

Oh well.  I'm offa here. 

 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.  

 $6,000 and change.

What for? 

To have Fidelity run 1,700 feet of aerial line to my property. 

I have no idea where they came up with that number for the lines run on the poles. It's about 500 feet from the pole near the road to the pole at the park.  It's 250 feet to the nearest pole with their line on it.  We're talking 800 feet at most.  

Maybe someday, when the park is "rich" and I am flowing in money, woo hoo!  Not today!  That's just to run the lines, that doesn't even include setting the park up.  

So now, I'm left with waiting on Starlink and hoping it works well - sometime this year is what they say with no date or even month when they expect to have it here - or try one of the sub-companies that's selling internet off the cell towers. Verizon won't give it to me because they are "sold out".  But a sub company will sell it to me through Verizon, lmao. 

Without Fidelity, my options are limited.  I just can't afford 6 grand for hard wired internet right now. I wouldn't even consider it under "normal" circumstances, but if I had "spare money" floating around, I'd do it anyway.  I could take out a loan, but I have 2 going now as it stands and I just don't want to go that route.  I'm kind of screwed.  

I guess I should have asked them if there is a payment plan I could get on.  She just flat out pasted me with over 6 grand that was that.  I suspect they'd want the money first before doing anything.  I wish I could talk to the engineer and come to an understanding of why they think I would need 1,700 feet of line. 

Oh well. I'm just going to try and find whatever alternative I can get.  Try to get something going.  I don't really know what to do right at this particular moment, that was really quite the let down hearing her saying that.  They're the only hard-wired internet around, I don't have any options if I want to use lines to deliver the internet. I suspect using a cell setup will require more than one router-account to get sufficient service to all the sites.

Ok, so calling Fidelity one last time, they want the money upfront. I then called ATT again - they have pedestals throughout the neighborhood but there is no service.  Lol, I know, sounds strange but I've been down this road with them before. And, I finally got a little more detailed info.  "It looks like maybe some people on the road have telephone service, old customers from long ago, but there is no internet service available. It just says coming soon".  Yeah, that's what they told me a year ago, coming soon. 

So what am I doing today? I guess I could go burn the burn pile while attempting to find service from cell towers on my laptop. I'm pretty much tempted to just sit here and look every cell service provider in the area up and see what, if anything, they have available.  I need internet, that's all I can tell ya.  

Well here we go.Verizon is now saying I qualify for Verizon LTE business internet.  Great! Would you like to see the options? yes please! This is why I just call companies back and talk to more people.  You get different information and that is likely due to the people at the first intake that really are just looking at computer screens but not really knowing much.

Regardless, I just got a call. Is this such and such RV park? I called you  yesterday?  No, this is Nature's Design RV Park.  Oh, ok, ok, I'm sorry called the wrong number.  So what makes them so special? Well, they have a lot of reviews and if you are looking at one specific set of reviews, most of them are happy customers. All the rest of the review sites? Hundreds of extremely negative reviews.  I mean, very dissatisfied customers for a variety of reasons.

Back to internet. Starklink is available for business in my area now.  Yay? Not so fast. They want $500 per month.  Unbelievable, this stuff is getting out of hand.  Even if I had the park filled up, $500 per month? I don't even know how well it works.....gag.  They want $2,798.38 due today. Lmao.  

Back to Verizon. They're claiming "300-600" feet. That's a big disparity! Still, I can get most of it covered and right now, I don't have anything but one customer in there. It's $99 for mid-level service. I'll upgrade it when I get more people staying long term in there.  Until then, I have no reason to spend a fortune on it. I can say I have it and that's that.  I will not spend almost 3 grand on Starlink and a ridiculous price of $500 per month for the service. It would be far more cost effective in the long run to pay the 6 grand to Fidelity and have a monthly bill less than half that. Wired service doesn't get interrupted by frequent storms, either. 

Ok lol.  I had to give Swepco - power company - very limited amount of information and I figure they installed thousands of dollars worth of lines, poles and 3 crews of people working on it. I bet that's 10 grand easily.  Verizon? You wouldn't believe the amount of information they want to set up a business account. It's unbelievable.  Plus they wanted me to send it over the internet. I started getting suspicious and wondered if it was a scam?

So, they gave me a business number that did not coincide with the business number listed on their website, right there where I was having the online chat with them.  I called the Verizon and they still wanted all kind of info, some of which I don't even have. Such as a business license. I don't need a business license, I am outside of city limits and Texas doesn't require it.  I'm out in county land and that's just the way they operate. Gag. Okay, I'm getting off of here. I need to go to the Verizon store, I was informed, if I wanted to start a business account and bypass all of this. 

G'day

 Yesterday wasn't a bust, but it certainly too a lot longer to finish up that gate, tighten the fencing and build that bench than I expected it to.  It took so long that by the time I got the trailer hooked up and got out of there, it was too late to do anything else beyond going to the store for dinner items.  

Anyway, I am going to get out there earlier today, tho I need to go get that sign and go to lowe's and get the materials to install the sign.  I'm sort of getting tired of spending money on this venture, but these signs are completely necessary. With people saying the main highway sign is too small and they can't see it and then seeing an RV stop in the middle of the driveway because they were unsure of where to go - well, we're going to fix that. 

The small highway sign was never intended to be permanent.  I am hoping to find a place along the other major highway through there that will allow the sign and not chuck it when highway workers find it.  The sign for the driveway wasn't foreseen.  But I could instantly see how a person driving up the main driveway could get confused. The exit only sign on works for the exit, but all of those pull through lots you could easily just pull into from the wrong direction.

Without signage, they have no idea where to go - well, I do have a "rv park entrance" sign at the entrance, but they can't see it from the point where the confusion begins.  It's a small investment for automation purposes, since I'm going back to work sooner or later here, people need to be able to navigate the thing on their own. 

Anyway, the software system for reservations has yet to be used by a single person.  It's not hard to use, I'm just not getting the customer interest.  I'm not sure what else I can do within budget to get people in. I'm trying to get wifi in there, that's a must, but Fidelity engineers are taking their sweet old time about it.  My Google ad is getting some views and some clicks, but so far it hasn't generated a single person coming into the park either short or long term.  It may be a bust, I don't know, there is still quite a bit of time left in that ad campaign. But, as I said before, after this? It's just going to be on-going ads for free in Facebook marketplace.  I'll be looking for any local venues that aren't internet based to see if I can post ads as well.  

I don't know if such things even exist anymore, the internet has taken over everything.

Well, I'm fixing to get out of here. Get the signs, get to Lowe's and then get back to the property.  If the fire pit is dried up yet, I'm taking the block out of it and starting a new one next to it and just fill that back in. It just fills up with water and takes many days for it to dry out.  It'll take half an hour to build the pit above ground. Let's change that to an hour and a half. Seems like everything ends up taking far longer than predicted lol.  That's it.  I want a cord of wood and build those benches that I already have the wood for.  

Go up and dig out the holes for the sign.  I don't even know if I'm supposed to be asking permission, but since my temporary sign was never taken down, I am just going to try. It's on state highway easement.  The small sign is sandwiched in between 2 permanent signs. One for the private rv park and the other for a Baptist church.  The new sign will go right there, in between those permanent signs. There's just enough room to put it in there.  

As for anything else today? yea that's probably a good amount of goal to get done or finish some and start on another.  I have fires to burn as well, but that takes constant attention to fueling it with wood from the area where the wood is stacked up.  So I dunno if I"m even going to try that today.  

G'day

 Well I certainly don't want to come off sounding like I'm giving up or dejected or anything.  It's not that at all. I'm just looking at everything going on around me and attempting to assess what the correct move/s will be next.  The only thing I will not allow regardless of what the property turns into - is a place full of trailer trash.  Trailer doesn't mean any particular skin color or income level. It's more of a mindset.  It's not a particularly good mindset and it becomes obvious around that type of person's dwelling place.   I will throw people out before I allow that kind of nonsense.

At the same time, there are a lot of mobile home parks that are kept immaculately clean both by management and by tenants. Tenants have no choice in these types of places, but for good reason.  You start seeing a lot of junk laying around a person's place and it is an eyesore and becomes irritating, to say the least.  

Anyway, I have 2 people that say they want to move in now. That is, of course, nothing to me until they actually show up, hand me the money and park.  My Google ad is getting some clicks and it shows where they are coming from. Most of it is from Tyler (Texas) which is about 60 miles away.  Look, if someone is looking to make a move, I'm going to make sure that if they are moving my way, they know about my place.  It makes sense to advertise in surrounding communities and in 3 counties.  For long term anyway. 

It makes sense to have it listed all over the country for travelers or tourists. There IS stuff to see and do in our area.  I don't know if that equates into people making it a destination. We do have some small town appeal in the downtown area where lots of small town stuff goes on.  Parades, farmer's markets, all kinds of stuff. 

I don't know what reputation our town has in the region.  It's about 22,000 population, it's got lots of restaurants and some major chains.  Lots of service industry as well. A majority of the jobs here are pretty much low paying stuff mixed with rich ranchers and people that have acquired a large amount of wealth through royalties from natural gas leases.  There are gas wells all over the place, there must be a dozen of them on my property street alone.  I assume they are connected into the same gas reservoir so I don't know how it works out that you need that many wells accessing one reservoir.

The biggest problem with our town is housing.  Build a house - it will sell quickly.  It was a secondary thing I was thinking about doing instead of an RV park.  Not necessarily building them, but buying up whatever is available and renting it them out.  Lots of poverty - 25% worth, that is more than double the national poverty rate.  And the neighborhoods where they live show it.  

My property street has a few places that are in disrepair. One house is so bad  that no one can or does live in it.  Another house is used for horses. No one lives in the houses, the horses get up on the porch, the property is not well kept. And another one, a person has a bunch of cars out front.  The rest of the street, however, is nice.

Anyway, the day isn't getting any shorter, it was freezing cold when I woke up this morning. 36 degrees outside, didn't feel much warmer in my room, the new heating/cooling unit with new ductwork? Yeah, that didn't do much for this room, my bathroom or the pantry - which is a very large room for everything from a freezer, washer/dryer, food storage, tools, etc.  It helped nothing and even going from 3 ton to 5 ton it's not doing anything different. Now, the system was old and was completely broken, it needed replaced, but all of this extra stuff they did that was going to heat/cool the parts of the house that weren't getting it?

I'm going out this morning and working on finishing the gate on the dog park - the concrete should be set by now, probably putting the park bench together and installing the dog dung bags. After that I can start on the fire. Well wait, I need to go get the new signs and the lumber to install the sign on the main highway. The fire may very well have to wait. I'd rather get this other stuff done first.

G'day

 Okay this is getting rather extreme and things that would have altered the trajectory of my course with decisions if I had known.

Yet another RV park has just opened - about 50 miles away.  Now, for people wanting to live in the park, that probably doesn't matter. If you want to live near my town for whatever reason - work/friends presumably - you aren't going to want to live 50 miles away.  

But, if you are just traveling through?  Hmmm.  You might be looking for the cheapest place just to spend the night - or - you might be looking for something very nice even if only spending the night.  

This place they built is quite nice, I'll freely admit that and they have put down some dough on it.  Half a million at least with the buildings and the concrete picnic areas and everything they've done.  I can't compete with it, at all.  I can compete with that other new one, they have almost nothing just like mine. A space, all the hookups and a few amenities.  

On top of this, sooner or later a 38 space park will be opening up about 15 miles south. I don't see how they can compete with much of anyone being out in the middle of nowhere without developing it into some sort of resort style park - which I also cannot compete with.  I don't have half a million dollars laying around for this stuff and if I did, I would be hesitant to dump it all into what appears to be an ever-increasing risky proposition.  

I'm very glad I am very close to town, that's what I will say for now.  My proximity will attracts locals looking for cheaper living arrangements. As for the transients? I have no idea.  I can guess that I'll have to leave my rates low in order to be able to compete.  They're charging $40 plus per night, I've got my rates stuck at $25.  It was a quick change in my mind from being stuck on at least $35 to the $25 simply because of the sudden, increased competition that started popping up all over the place.  

And seeing what some of them are offering.  I suspect they would jack their prices up even higher, but there's simply too much competition in this area.  Although I'm not caving yet, I suspect I'll have to change the format of my park to tiny homes or even modular/mobile homes.  TBH, it doesn't bother me that much because in reality, my dream was of opening a mobile home park for decades, not an RV park.  I can have a mix of both if it comes down to it.  

The only other places offering rates as low as mine are the dumps.  And they are absolute dumps.  Mine is not a dump. It's not perfect but it's far from trailer trash.  The weeds are irritating me and I'm just trying to get the wood piles burned up so I can get that dozer in there, level all that stuff, clear it and put down some winter grass seed. Not too much - it would cost a lot of money to put down a dense covering of seed to try and get that area turned green - but enough to get something going beyond weeds.  When the weed growing season comes, I hope I have the finances to put down summer grass seed.  

I'm not necessarily alarmed about all of these parks popping up - but I can say that my thoughts are definitely turning towards other methods of income for the park.  I don't really want "old" mobiles in there, I would like newer stuff that doesn't look trashy.  At least out of the metal roof era, I've lived in those and they are a constant battle it seems to keep them from leaking.  With the rain in this area, it's not a good fit.  

But for now, I've got what I've got and I am just trying to get people in there.  I've spent the time advertising it and I've spend the money on signs - 2 of which I still need to go get and install.  The signs are more for automation purposes tho - if I'm on the road driving I can't be running over there greeting people in person and telling them where to park.  The signs are just direction to get people to the right place. 

Still, I was in awe of the facility I just saw that is brand new and just opened. If only I had that kind of money to spend that would be of the "loan" nature, not my own personal cash.  This is going to be a much longer process than I originally expected it to be.  I can't stop people from dumping tons of money into land and building out RV parks.  I don't know if it's going to work out for them, tho, because of all the competition.  I've got the room for a pool, a clubhouse, all the things that some of these places are paying exorbitant amounts of money to have installed into their parks.  

I have ideas tho.  It all costs money, but I have ideas for a unique experience.  I have the room for it as well. That front area is a little over 7 acres and I've consumed maybe 2 at most of them for the present set up.  I won't go into those ideas now, it's just musings that would turn the place into more of a destination than just a place to stay or live.  

Anyway, it's the 7 turning 8 today's birthday.  He wants to go out front and clean up leaves, lol. This wasn't my idea but it definitely needs to get done.  The front porch is ridiculous and I started cleaning that up yesterday.  I'd like to finish and get it more presentable before people show up this afternoon for the birthday party.  We just tend to use things and then dump them on the front porch. It starts looking pretty - junky - after a while. We then clean everything off and start all over again, lmao.  

I've got far too much on my mind, I need a break from all of this thinking stuff.  It just turns on and I can't stop it.  Monday, I'll be out there finishing up the doggy park and then I'll get to installing those signs.  One of them is a large sign for the highway a mile away.  It needs 4X4's cemented into the ground, so that's going to be a process in itself.  That'll probably take up the whole day. 

 I didn't get the new signs today. Mostly because I completely forgot about it. I spent hours just dealing with one burn pile. It's much more work than one would realize considering the amount of wood and the fact that you have to keep cutting up trees and branches to feed the fire.  The fire won't spread as much as I would like it to, you have to bring the wood in the pile to the fire.  So yea, I only got one pile done today.  2 more to go.  I want that stuff burned before bringing in a dozer.  

I can see dozing under ash and small pieces, but this big stuff isn't going to wash.  I don't want any piles after the dozer work if at all possible. 

If I would have remembered, I would have brought the trailer home at least.  Oh, no I couldn't. Forgot this is Friday, the sign place closes for the weekend.  I guess I could go now.....

Apparently my ad campaign just started.  Thanks for sending me the email you promised when you said it was up and running!  I just clicked on Google manage your business and found the thing.

______________

That was yesterday. I received a call from a man last night looking for a place to stay overnight.  He saw my ad - yes it's showing probably 75 miles in every direction at least. It was a dead end. He was at another RV park that he said was closed and no one there.  I told him I was 54 miles away and that was too far for him, he only wanted to drive a little more to find the nearest place as he had been driving all day.

Meanwhile, I have had 2 inquiries about long-term residence at the park since putting up the Google ad.  And now, Facebook asked if I wanted to renew the marketplace ad to which I said yes, of course! lol. I'm getting some leads but so far it isn't transitioning into guests/money.  Patience I guess. Just keep on plugging it in the local market and hope eventually I get more people in there and eventually enough to half fill the place up.  I am still wanting to see if I can get the short termers in there.  It's not reasonable to assume I will be able to get a loan to finish the place off if I can't even get 14 spots filled up.  

One person just contacted me a while ago and asked what age do you allow? The RV, that is. Many parks only allow up to 10 years old. Some 15. Others don't care as long as they are in good condition. I'm with the third option - if they look decent and aren't falling apart and don't have to have tarps on the roof. Can you send me a pic? I haven't bought one yet.  Oh, okay, well as long as it's in decent condition I'm good with it.  I intend on buying one in the next few days, I'll get back to you.

Ok.  This situation could turn quickly in my favor.  Or who knows. I won't say "or not" because I have faith that this thing is eventually going to take off.  I don't when or how long it's going to take to get there, but affordable housing my area is fairly non-existent and the only stuff available for "decent" prices are trash.  You buy an RV outright for cash and live in it - one monthly payment for the lot, you're good to go. 

I've lived in travel trailers.  You get used to it.  

 The final money I'm spending on advertising. Posted a Google ad yesterday - still waiting for them to edit it and put it up. After that, it's just going to be local Facebook groups and of course anyone seriously looking for a place to stay will find my park on a myriad of searches including google. 

I just wanted to have that ad pop up to anyone referencing rv on a search.  The ad covers a few hundred mile radius according to the map Google shows of advertising reach.  So, will it be worth a couple hundred dollars?  I have no idea. I had to try something beyond what I've already got going here.  I have no other short term or long term interested parties going right now.  

I still think it's the time of year that is doing it.  

I also haven't heard back from the internet company. I don't know how long that is going to take.  I did get a revised offer from the trash pickup company - but with only one RV in there presently? I'm not doing any commercial trash pickup until I get more people in there. 

Anyway, I woke up yesterday morning with a very painful wrist.  I must have slept on it funny. It's still hurting and limiting my ability to do much of anything with that hand/arm.  I also am having a resurgence of coughing.  And feeling icky.  Unfortunately, I have stuff to do and I will just keep it to a minimum of energy output, but I am going over there today to see if I can get those burn piles going.  I have the starter logs and they will burn regardless. Set a match to them, they light on fire and burn for several hours.  It's been 3 days since the last rain and it is allegedly supposed to rain tomorrow. 

I can't imagine going to a trucking job right now feeling like this, I need to get past all of this nonsense.

As for jobs, much of what I'm seeing is "average ...50-60k" range.  I'm not interested in working for free. If it comes down to brass tacks, I'll take whatever, but I am not there yet or even close.  If I can't make at least 70k, at least for right now, I'm not interested.  You spend that much time driving someone else's truck and they are making that kind of money, they need to be handing some of that profit over to their bread and butter: the drivers.  It's amazing how cheap many of these companies are.  Profiting over the ignorance or inexperience of the people that bring the money in for them.

So, you have to wonder if there is actually a shortage of truck drivers or if there are just a lot of drivers that aren't going to work for these companies that are paying peanuts?  I don't know.  

Well, laying my wrist on my leg and typing that way works without pain, at least, lol. 

I'm ready to watch day 4 of the House circus act.  Democrats mocking republicans because they didn't elect someone right away.  Oh?  You mean, under Pelosi, the rules were skewed and the power rested in a few people's hands?  And the lack of debate over anything, including the 1.7 trillion dollar budget "deal" that just got rammed through Congress?  People apparently aren't used to seeing debate anymore, like a novel concept.  It IS a debate going on in the House of who is going to handle the Speaker's gavel.  And so, I don't really care how long it takes, but I am amused at both liberal and conservative outlets making it out to be some kind of disaster for Republicans.

These people understand that drama works for the uniformed.  For people like me? Yeah, this isn't anything to worry about.  They keep saying that "they could and should be working" on the things that matter to Americans. Yup, that may be true, but if these important things are being worked on with the wrong people, we get bad outcomes.  They have plenty of time to address all that needs to be addressed.  McCarthy supporting Reps go on and on about how these holdouts are just doing it for their 15 minutes of fame, etc etc etc.  But if you listen to some of the holdouts, they actually have reasonable demands that really shouldn't be an issue.   

I don't really think these holdouts are doing it for fame.  I think they are doing it because they are truly concerned about the state of our Republic and the continued direction it will head if you get a Speaker in there that kowtows the same as McConnell does in the Senate.  I unabashedly call McConnell a traitor to the Republican party and assert that he is no republican at all.  He is a wolf in sheep's clothing and not even disguised that well.  His rubber stamping this 1.7 trillion budget and many things he has done previously prove that.  

Well anyway, it IS entertaining to watch all of this, at least to me.  They will likely end up voting for McCarthy after he caves and gives into their demands, which apparently he is doing now.  He doesn't have any choice. Some of these holdouts, however, say they will never vote for McCarthy regardless of how much he gives them.  They don't trust him. I don't trust any politician, so I get that, lol.  They say a lot of stuff they very much do not mean and do not intend on following through with.  They get sucked up in the DC machine and become a part of it.  It remains to be seen whether enough of the holdouts will vote for McCarthy after concessions.  There is such a slim Republican majority, it only takes a handful of them holding out to continue to force vote after vote.  

Well enough. I'm heading over to the property and see about burning the wood. 

G'day.