As tiring as this last bit of camp hosting has been, the budget is looking very healthy.

One of the treats of camp hosting on the McPhee Reservoir at House Creek has been the nightly sunset display. Lots of “ooh-ing” and “ah-ing” by tired campers drinking a glass of wine, standing outside their motor homes, trying to photograph the impossible. This photo does not do it justice. And I have had a magnificent sunset almost every evening!

These boys were dying to catch a fish for me for dinner one night, and they did! They wanted to know how I cooked it …. I was out of oil, so steamed it over some Roma tomatoes in vinegar water with Old Bay. Delicious.

Labor Day weekend there were over 300 campers. All had a good time. Pickett was exhausted, but satisfied that all went well. Cleaned all toilets twice a day. The clean up afterwards was all day Tuesday.

This was the fourth load of ashes and trash that had to be cleaned up. 65 sites that needed to be raked, cleaned, ashes cleaned out of fire pits, and tables cleaned. It felt so good to be done. It wasn’t as tiring as greeting all of the campers that poured in Wednesday through Saturday. Giving directions, getting money, giving change, getting their names, how many people camping in their site, when are you leaving…. And then they would want to know stuff, like what kind of fish, have you seen a bear, are there snakes here, etc. Then there were the bad ones who let their dogs run free, or drove their motor homes onto the grass, or the children on ATVs driving around at 9:30 at night in endless circles, or the tipsy guys waking me up at midnight for more firewood.

All in all, a learning experience. Now I know the extremes of camp hosting. The campground will be closing on the 14th of September.  As of yet I have no idea where I am headed … one of the joys of retirement in a truck! Stay tuned.