June 1 - First Day On The Job

First day of work in our volunteer
shirts

You would think it was our first day at school.  We put on our uniform shirts and had a good breakfast to get those brain cells working well.  I even took our picture all dressed and ready for work.  We got to the Visitor Center plenty early.  I told Bill it was only a 2 minute drive but he thought we should hurry and we were there before any of the rangers. We actually report to Ron Calhoun who is the VIP (Volunteers in Parks) coordinator for Ft. Pulaski.  He’s a born Georgia boy with a really interesting background.  He and I went out to the Entrance Station where I trained with him until my lunch break at 12:45, at which time I went back to the VC (visitor center as we park personnel refer to it) to pick up Bill.  He trained there all morning with our camp neighbor Chuck.  He trained on running the 18 minute video about the fort and the other looped screens in the center, greeted visitors and about the activities that go on in the fort each day to inform visitors of.  After lunch we were both at the VC but I trained on the 2 registers.  One is for all bookstore purchases and one is for annual park passes. You end up trying to answer whatever questions the visitors ask, such as “Where is the restroom?” and "do you have a drink machine?" The traffic can get hectic and it can slow down to no one, especially when there are musket shootings and tours going on it the fort. Then they all head out there and come back to see the movie and displays after. I took a book along and started it once I got a few transactions under my belt. Neither job is difficult. The most taxing was when it would not take the credit card and it’s because the verification is dial up and I had to learn to sign the computer back on, then it was fine.

Visitor Center

We worked 8:30 to 5:30, as we do our 4 days this week. Our normal schedule will be Wednesday thru Saturday so we’ll have 3 days off at a time and can do some side trips to Charleston and around. It will be nice too if we get company to come and we can spent 3 days with them.

After we took Xena out and changed clothes Bill wanted to go to Sears and get the RV battery taken care of. We made our first journey to the mall, which wasn’t any further than going to Fashion Square from our house. They had the correct size battery so we got that and had dinner at Chili’s across the street. Bill had fajitas and I had the margarita chicken, which I cut in half as soon as it was served, as it was 2 chicken breasts with lots of rice and beans. It was good though. We both had leftovers for tomorrow night’s dinner.

We had seen an Office Depot along the way so stopped to see if they had a small printer to keep in the RV and I was happy to find an HP. Most were really too large for the area I have so went ahead and got this one. Then we stopped at Home Depot to get “parts” to build a roof over the area of the RV outside where the refrigerator is. These fridges do not cool well in this summer heat so any food in the bottom of it ends up spoiling and that gets expensive and ruins meal when you think you have a veggie and then it’s rotted. So I scavenged through the store and found 2 good boards in their trash to use for legs, then out of their culls bin got a .51 2 x 4 for cross pieces to hold the legs together and a $4.01 piece of 3/8” plywood for a roof. The in the insulation area I got a 4’ x 8’ piece of foiled stryrofoam that had some tears in it for half price of I think $3.60 or so. This is our Sunday project. I spotted a bucket of nails over in the VIP room and we have a drill and hammer so think we can rig something up. I’m sure there will be a photo or two of it along the way.

We took Xena out for a short walk before it got really dark. Didn’t get to ride the bikes tonight though. I tested my printer after my shower and made sure it was all working so I could pitch the boxes. Printed well enough for what I intend to use it for. Read a few pages of Harry Potter before bed.