It's Not All Fun and Games

It's been an interesting and not so fun past few days here in Green River Lake State Park. I knowt full-timers know this, but I am here to testify that even in of the relaxed world of  rv'ing there certainly are "those" kind of days.

About the first of the month I was detecting a whiff of unpleasant odors. Not a lot, and not all the time. I attributed it to the decaying leaves on the ground, especially as wet as it has been around here. Early last week, it became quite strong at times, and pervasive. We cleaned out the pantry, looking for spoiled food. We cleaned out the basement, looking for critters. Cleaned out all the closets and cabinets, looking for anything! I cleaned and disinfected the bathroom to an inch of its life, but still smelling that smell. Now, we have no sewer hookups here, but we do have the honey wagon once a week come and pump us out. I was thinking maybe he wasn't flushing it out good like Al does when he dumps the tanks, and there was a clog or build-up of nasty stuff. We asked around for suggestions, and decided that on Monday when the wagon came, he would completely fill the tanks with water in order to give it a good flushing out. So, on Monday, he was busy filling the holding tanks to the brim while the pump-out was getting ready to start. He went outside, and as the gentleman was getting ready to start, he says to Al. " there's water draining out of the bottom of the rig". Uh-oh.

Now, our rig has the enclosed underbelly, so you can't see  anything underneath. I wasn't sure if this was good or bad but I'm definitely leaning towards "bad" at this time. Al drills a small hole in the board underneath the black water holding tank, and the liquid just comes streaming out. This is NOT good.

The owner's manual is basically useless, as most RV'ers can testify, so I quickly looked up online the nearest CampingWorld, which is in Bowling Green. Why CampingWorld, inquiring minds? Well, we bought the rig from CampingWorld, in Syracuse, NY. We also purchased an extended warranty through CampingWorld, assuring us that work would be done and covered at "any CampingWorld or licensed repair facility" wherever we were. So we called Bowling Green, discussed the issue, and was told that if we could bring the rig in that day, Monday, they could take a look at it and see what they could do...otherwise, it would be after the weekend...holiday and all, you know.

Now, bear in mind, I worked Sunday night and had just gone to bed at 4:30AM; it's now 11:30AM. I work again on Monday night, and start at 5PM. Bowling Green is 1 1/2 hours drive from here, and we still have to prepare the trailer for travel and get hitched up. No way could we do this and get back for work on time. Sooo, I call the sick hotline and report us both as unable to come in Monday...like we were instructed to do. We got the trailer ready and hitched up, and headed for Bowling Green...oh, and also, its raining just to add to the fun.

I will give the Bowling Green CampingWorld credit where it is due. They did have a bay empty for us, and as soon as we backed in, they went to work on it. As I was in the office filling out the warranty information with the manager, the tech came in with the bad news: we need to replace the black water holding tank. Apparently, where the pipe and flange come together at the tank, the glue was either not done properly and has come undone, and the liquids have been leaking out of the tank and into the belly of the trailer. Man, I'm telling you, all I was envisioning was this massive mess of paper, liquids and you know what under there! Thank goodness, it wasn't that bad, but the crack is big enough for liquid to come through, and can't be fixed because of the way it is built, it doesn't come apart. The whole thing needs replacing. Ok, so how long is this going to take? Now, we get to the really fun part.

Bowling Green CampingWorld is only a store; it's not a dealership, it doesn't sell rv's, sooo, Keystone will not ship them parts. I need to take the trailer to a Keystone dealer. Oh, joy. And where is a Keystone dealer? The manager calls Keystone and they give him the names of the two nearest dealers...both an hour and a half in the OTHER direction from the campground. Ok. So we go back out to the trailer, and the tech tapes the cut-out back in place while I call the first dealer, RightStop RV in Lebanon Junction. They weren't very helpful. He told us to take pictures of the damage, email it to him, and he'll see what he could do, but it would be a month before he could "work us into the schedule". NOT acceptable. We then called Keystone directly, and talked to Jamie, a customer service representative. Explained the situation, that we are on extended travel, can't return to the selling dealership, and not receiving much help on this end from their closest dealer. Jamie was very nice, and actually got in touch with the next closest dealer, Sunrise RV in Shepardsville

Tuesday morning, still raining, with some thunderstorms thrown in for good measure, and we re-hitched and set off for Shepardsville. Debbie at Sunrise RV was great, getting all the paperwork ready for the extended warranty. She's even putting it through on the manufacturer's warranty, being that its only two weeks after the warranty expired...can you believe it?? It's fairly evident, though, that its been leaking for awhile, so she's hopeful, which is good, as I'll explain in a bit.

It had stopped raining, thank goodness, as the tech had to work on it outside. He almost thought he would be able to fix it, but as he investigated it further, reached the same conclusion as the tech at CampingWorld; the way it is built, it can't be fixed, it has to be replaced. So he and Al went into the office to work up an estimate  which came to almost a thousand dollars between the tank, parts, shipping and labor. Debbie submitted the estimate to the extended warranty company. Soon, Al came back to the truck with steam pouring out his ears. The extended warranty company will only cover the tank, not the parts or shipping, and only half of the labor costs. About $300 out of the $1K. He was ready to call them himself and cancel the whole policy, we kind of feel that its useless at this point. But Debbie told him not to call, YET, while she works on it more, and works on Keystone as well. So that is where we're at, waiting for parts now. We can still use the shower and galley sink, we we purchased a port-a-pot for the "middle of night and its cold out" nature calls.

As for work, they are still bouncing me around. Last Wednesday I did training in Crisplant, which is the order packaging facility. We do orders with multiple items there; orders with only one item go someplace else. Its very interesting, and I enjoyed it. I have a rolling cart, with a scanner, a computer monitor, a tape dispensing machine, and about 10 different sizes of boxes. The cart goes up and down the order aisle, where items are deposited down chutes into separate orders. When an order is complete, a light flashes on the chute, and I go to that chute with my cart. I scan the code on the chute, it tells me on the computer monitor what should be in the order, and what size box to make. I make my box, the tape dispenser shoots out the exact size piece of tape I need, and then I scan each item as I place it in the box. I fill in empty space with the air bags, then seal the box, slap a barcode on the package, and put it on the conveyer, where it goes down to shipping. Its pretty easy, and kind of interesting to see what items are actually being bought, and what is ordered together.

So Friday I did my regular shift in Crisplant. Saturday, they rotated me back to Receiving for the rest of the weekend...they are training a ton of new temps ( from temp agencies, not camperforce folks) and needed the space in Crisplant for training, whereas they needed help in receiving and I'm already trained on that. Sunday
I went in and looked for my name on the receiving roster, couldn't find it. Then I saw I was doing Prep for the night. Prep is anything breakable that needs bubblewrap, anything that could get soiled that needs to be bagged, new barcodes on anything...stuff like that. So, I worked on Prep for awhile, then they came and put me back into Receiving, then after the second break I finished the night in Prep again. I can't even guess what I'll be doing when I start again Friday :-).

Most of the camperforce workers here in the state park are having Thanksgiving dinner together tomorrow. There's a restaurant in town that sets aside a room for us and serves a buffet style dinner. It sounds nice, and whereas its not family, at least someone is thinking about it being a holiday! I will let you know how it is.

That's it for this time. Hopefully, everything will work out in due time. I hope everyone has a great holiday. Happy Thanksgiving!

More Rain and More Changes

The weather here has been abysmal lately. We've had at least 3 inches of rain since Monday, and some pretty good thunderstorms early this morning. I have a hurricane candle holder on our picnic table and it looks about 5 inches full of water from here! At least its not too cold, but over the weekend we had some howling winds. White caps in the lake anyone?

Amazon sure does like to keep me on my toes :-). Friday was all receiving, Saturday was receiving until the meal break, then VTO...they shut the lines down at 9:30PM. Sunday was all ACQI work. Up and down, kneeling and stretching for 10 hours...I got my workout that night! Monday was all receiving again. I'm getting pretty good at both jobs now. So guess what? Yes, I'm switching departments again. I stay on my same H night shift, but I'm moving to outbound Crisplant. I will now be packing orders to be shipped out. I go in tonight for training, and believe I start regular shift on Friday, so I will have a night of overtime this week. Now I will have a new process to describe for you :-).

A few people have commented and are watching to see how it is, as they are interested in doing it themselves next year. Will we do it again? Yes, probably. It isn't hard work, per se, but it is physically demanding on your body. The processes are fairly easy to pick up, and after a few nights nights become habit. The work is repetitive, and can definitely cause aches and pains in spots you didn't know you had :-). As our liaison Phil told us, pick your analgesic of choice, and use it! The hardening process did help, I think, in that you had a few nights of half shift work to become accustomed to it before starting the 10 hour shifts. I am finding the hardest thing to get used to is the night shift hours and eating. We pretty much go to bed between 4 and 4:30AM, rising at noon. We have some breakfast, then a hot meal at 4 before going in, and our meal break is at 9:30PM, when I usually have a sandwich. I am also hungry when I get home, so I'll have a small snack before going to bed. But I still have a hard time deciding what I want to eat and when...nothing feels quite "right" yet.

The folks here at Amazon in Campbellsville are also very nice and helpful. The girls in HR are very nice, and are actually giving those of us who ask last year's seasonal camper t-shirts :-). This past Monday Amazon had a catered Thanksgiving dinner for us at our meal break. Monday night was also "DJ" night, where we could hand in requests for songs to be played, and all during our shift we heard quite a variety of music :-). Supposedly there will be a pizza night coming up, and BINGO games at various times. They do seem to be trying to make it as much fun as possible. The managers have all been great in both departments I've worked in, and whereas we do have our production numbers posted after each break, there has been no pressure from anyone to get those numbers up, at least not from what I've heard. I have had some of the PAs that I've talked with tell me that they really appreciate the seasonal campers, and that we do a great job. Nice to hear!

That's about it for now. We haven't done anything interesting the past few days, but there isn't much free time for it anyway. I'll start Christmas shopping soon, from, where else, Amazon :-). We'll be busy in Florida after this, and will try to see and photograph some of the great areas on the "Nature Coast". So, until next time, have a great day!

Amazon Life Goes On

I really apologize; there just isn't much to write about! With our schedules seemingly set, we have one day/night off together: Tuesday. And most of Tuesday morning will be spent sleeping :-). I have returned to receiving work as I started my week on Friday. Last night, however, most of the shift was sent home at the meal break as they closed down receiving and stowing. We could stay and be re-assigned to ICQA, but I was car-pooling with two ladies that didn't wish to stay, so we all went home early last night. Its 5 miles from this campground to Amazon, too far for me to walk, at 3:30AM, after working 10 hours! I may take our truck in tonight, as it may happen again tonight. The managers say that starting the end of next week, peak season should be kicking in, and then there's no down time or VTO (voluntary time off) offered. In fact, an email was sent around asking for volunteers from inbound (which is where I am) to move to outbound, but I decided to stick to what I'm doing. With Al making the extra $$$s as an EMT, I don't really have to kill myself with overtime if I don't have to. Plus, I feel settled in with receiving. My manager came by Friday night with my first week's audit, and I had worked at 95%, which is great, and earned my first Amazon vending coin reward...worth $1.00 in the vending machines. Woohoo :-). Hey, a buck is a buck, and my competitive nature was pleased that I am doing a good job. Last night I felt a bit stuffy, almost like I was catching a cold, and didn't feel like I was moving as fast, but my meal break stats showed I was doing 103%. So I must be "getting it".

Al has settled into the clinic, although he finds it a bit boring...there is so much emphasis on safety and safe procedures here, that he hadn't seen any patients at all on his first 3 night shifts. I'm sure as peak arrives and the warehouse fills, there will be incidents to fill his time :-) .He did find out some interesting facts I can pass on:

How big is the Campbellsville Fulfillment Center?

Nearly 740,000 square feet

Roughly the size of Fenway Park or almost 4 Statue of Liberties

More than 16 acres or 13 football fields

Over twelve miles of conveyors

Capacity to ship 100’s of thousands of units/day

Kind of neat to know.

Anyway, we met some fellow blog writers today, Darrell and Judy Patterson who write Wandering America. They have arrived and are starting Monday with their training. We had a chance to chat for a short while yesterday before we had to get dinner ready and then I went in to work, or w*rk as Darrell writes it :-)! Once they get their schedules we'll be able to find time to have a longer visit. One of the things making the whole experience more pleasant is the great people we've been meeting here. Al works mostly with full-time Amazon employees, who have been really great and interesting...he met the overall building manager Friday night, who used to work for the CIA before retiring...bet he's got some cool stories! The folks on my shift that I work with are all great rv'ers...but I am really finding out that it is true...full-time rv'ers are wonderful folks! Its just something about the mindset. Even with the hard w*ork we are doing here for a few weeks, I am so happy, and have not got a single regret in making the leap to do this. Somewhere I saw a questionnaire and one of the questions was, what is your favorite, place/thing. I answered, I haven't found it yet, and I plan on searching my entire life until I can no longer move before I decide what it is :-)!!

If the weather isn't too rainy on Tuesday, we may try and find something of interest to do for the afternoon. Overall the weather is decent, but it is windy a lot of the time. I have no new wildlife sightings, except I don't know if I wrote about the huge flock of bluebirds that hang out in the fields. They are so pretty! And no run-ins with the polecats yet, thank goodness. Aiden is doing well walking the dogs at night, so that is good. Casey has a bit of a limp again, probably from running so much! He goes out and plays with Helo, a young golden retriever, most afternoons, in the big field next to the campground. They have a grand time playing ball. Chelsea spends her time investigating all the holes in the field...I don't know what lives in them, but she is quite obsessed with them. 

Well, thats all the news that is fit to print so far. We shall continue to trudge along, crossing off the days until its time to join the tail-light parade out of here at Christmas! Flip-flops, wait for me!!