Plains, Georgia 62 Degrees Sunny
What's It Like? Well, today we are at a place where many work campers find themselves at some point and we hoped we would never experience. We have entered some tenuous situations in the past and were able to 'ride it out' or work to find a solution that resulted in a very good experience. This time it is not in the cards.
The work at the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site has been a pleasure so far. The rangers and other volunteers are nice and engaging. The problem is with our accomodations. We knew upon arrival that we were in a tough situation and it has deteriorated every day. We read many forums about people arriving at places to work and finding their living situation intollerable. That is what we have found in Plains. This National Park does not provide RV pads on their property for their volunteers, but rather pay for sites in the locally owned park in town.
Our first red flag shot up on arrival at the RV Park on the 1st of November. An old yellow dog was laying in the road as we pulled in. Bob, the elderly gentleman who owns the park and lives across the road introduced us to the neighborhood dog. (great) he also infomed us that the man who lives in the home directly in front of our site feeds several 'neighborood kitties' aka feral cats. He is an OTR truck driver and 'don't worry, the folks who work at the convenience store feed them when he's not home" Great, again.
We took a deep breath and set up in our site. I gritted my teeth as I picked up the waste that the dog left in our site the next morning. The 'kitties' number over 15 and are made up of 3 nursing females, several males and 2 distinct litters of kittens appearing to be about 4 weeks and around 3 months old. The males caught the scent of our cats the first time I let them out on their tethers. They stalked me when I took Buster for a walk ending in Buster hissing and growling ( not at all like him if you've met him you know his temperment) and so upset I had to pick him up and carry him back indoors. That night one particularly aggressive male climbed the tree next to our RV, jumped down on the slide awning and proceed to 'mark' the roof of our motor home. That has become a nightly event. Other males started coming around daily when ours were inside marking the lawn chairs, lawn, yard ornaments and even our wooden deck stairs. Not good.
Enter the culture difference. We brought this situation to the Volunteer Cooridnator, who hired us. She appreciated our situation, shared she had never had a volunteer 'complain' about the park and committed to finding a solution. Over the past few days we have learned that there is no real animal control unit in town or the county for that matter. The local attitude about stray animals is quite cavalier. They don't see the nuisance, or the issue of disease being spread or the property damage that can occur from feral animals. Especially cats. Their solution was a park near Andersonville National Park 25 miles away, with even less curb appeal, and the same feral animal problem obvious when we drove through the park. Now they expected us to move to another crappy park with potentially the same issues and drive an hour round trip to work our hours three days a week. Not gonna happen
It was a difficult decision for us but we called and visited several RV Parks in Central Georgia to inquire about a site that we would stay in till / if we find another work camp gig this winter. We found one that is pretty nice ( not like we experienced in Texas, again another distinct culture difference about how one defines nice) the price was decent for the area. We expected to pay with elbow grease this winter, but we will likely experience property damage if we stay where we are.
Serendipity (my favorite word) will rule our destiny for the near future.
The silver lining in the cloud is the man in the office where we will be moving on Sunday, deduced from our conversation, that we are experienced RV Volunteers and asked if we had a resume'. He may have some work for us in the park if we are happy there. So a work camp situation may develop over time. We don't know how things will evolve, but for now we know we are moving from here on Sunday and putting our jacks down in Perry, Georgia for the foreseeable future.
Our meeting with Beth went better than expected. We handed in our uniform shirts and name tags this afternoon, along with a letter of resignation formally explaining our decision. She appreciated our choice and we shared that we appreciated their budget constraints and inability to find a quick solution to a problem that exsists in the Park they purchase space from for their volunteers. We parted on good terms. By far this is the toughest thing we've face so far. We will incur debt we didn't expect. Our two weeks in Plains has been good and difficult at the same time. We have had some great experiences. How many people get to walk through a car show with a former President in arms reach? The decision was hard but in the end we have to do what is best for us and our pets who travel with us.
The next chapter will unfold in it's own time.
Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment