July 7 - Huey but no Dewey or Louie

Huey

There was a little confusion this morning as there were two volunteers scheduled for the Entrance Station this morning.  Since I got there first, Patty sent me on up.  The other lady never did show up so we’re not sure what the story is there. I made my first “big” mistake on the register first thing as I was trying to hurry to take care of the first visitor and printed out the wrong totals for the start of the day and realized if after I rang up the couple and went to list my starting numbers on the balance sheet for the day.  Crap!  I hate making careless mistakes.  So I had to fess up to Patty and I don’t think this has ever happened and she told me to write down the number on the second tape, so when I traded off at lunchtime I was off the $10.  Poop!

They guys back on the ground

Nancy, the school teacher ranger, came out with me for about 1 ½ hours this morning to get better trained in the booth.  We ran out of tape on one side of the register and I put in a new roll and it wouldn’t print.  I tried every button, looked for the manual, put the tape in 3 –4 time but it still wouldn’t print.  I was dreading calling in to Patty to tell her.  But I did and she came out and couldn’t get it to work either.  She ended up calling Ron, our supervisor, who figured out we were using regular paper and it needed to be thermal paper.  For a while we had to write receipts by hand and they gave us the last roll of paper from the register inside so we could at least finish out the day til someone could go to Staples and get the right kind. 

Huey on the ground when the soldier let me photo him

I spent the afternoon in the VC and Nancy was there too, so we kinda took turns on the register there and she did other ranger stuff.  I had taken in the loaves of banana nut bread and zucchini bread that everyone enjoyed and she wants the recipes.  Will have to look up the one I used from on line for the zucchini and write it down for her tomorrow.  Patty let Bill and I leave 10 minutes early and as we pulled out of the parking lot I saw a big Huey helicopter.  It’s the kind that transports people and cargo and it looked like it was going to cross the island.  When we got to the maintenance shed near where we live, it started coming down to land behind the administration building, right across from our area.  Bill stopped and I took a couple of photos on my phone, then when it’s blades slowed down we drove on around it.  I ran in and got the video and still cameras and started taking photos.  It was doing rescue training in the Savannah river right where we were, so we went out to the river to watch.  It would drop guys in the river and they had to swim to rafts and get the rafts together in one spot, then the helicopter would hover over and drop a line and 7 guys would be picked up and then it flew back by us and would lower and let them down on the ground.  It was spectacular to watch.  Such precision.  It was super windy too.  Man, I was glad I had sunglasses on as it blasted us.  It blew limbs off the trees too.  They did the same routine 5 –6 times.  We had gone in to eat and thought they were done when we took Xena out to walk but they landed again.  Bill took Xena inside and I was standing in front of the RV taking photos and they saw me and one of the pilots got out and posed along the outside of the helicopter for me.  Then I waved to let him know I got it. So cool!

Then Bill and I went to town to get some pictures printed at Walgreens, and to Ace for bird seed and Publix for a few things.  When we got back there was a truck of white guys parked on the entry side of the bridge so we stopped a few feet out so they could get out but they didn’t move.  Then one of the guys came over and asked it we had access to the gate.  Well, they were the guys from the Army who were in the water and they thought the gate was stuck in the open position.  Bill told them to drive further out and let us in and we’d see if us going in would trip it to come down.  If not, I had a phone number for Ron, our supervisor, that I’d call and see what should be done.  We think they just didn’t pull forward enough because once we pulled in past the pass box, it was only a few second and it closed.  So, we got home in time for Bill to watch his show and me to download the helicopter photos and fold the laundry.

This was a super ending for my day!