June 2 – We invited the
other 2 host couples to come over and grill this evening. One was to bring a vegetable and one a starch
and I said I’d make dessert. We would
each grill what we wanted so I wanted to make strawberry shortcakes. I looked up information on baking in high
altitudes. Bill had gone out to clean
our 3 sites so I was washing up the dishes and baking when Terry, our
supervisor, stopped by to see if I would
train on driving one of the shuttles and drive it from 3 – 6 this
afternoon. I told him I would but we had
plans at 5:30 with the other hosts but I would change it to 6 if he needed me
to. He said he’d get back to me.
I wanted to get a load of
wash done and Bill wanted all the rags washed, so once my shortcakes were done
I went over and put the wash in, went to the post office, and stopped by the
office to meet with Susan who was going to talk to me about me spending some of my volunteer hours in the office. Well
Susan wasn’t there AGAIN, as this was the 3rd time I’ve tried to
meet with her. The wash was close to
done by the time I got back and while I waited I visited with a nice Indian
lady who wants to come to Florida
When I got back Terry came
by before I had my lunch and said “Bear” would be by shortly to train me on the
Shuttle and then I’d take his place from 3 to 6. Before I knew it, Bear was there. He’s very nice, from SC, retired military who
volunteers 3 hours each weekend in the summer to drive a shuttle. They use a Mule with a back seat and a Kubota
with a back seat to transport people from the parking lots to the marina and
back. Some of the boat trailer parking
at Navajo State Park is a mile from the marina so they shuttle from 9 to 6 on Saturdays and
Sundays. I was trained on the Mule,
which was the same as we have as Camp
Hosts
I pretty much got
everything out and ready for Bill to finish up in case I didn’t get back til
6. If it was slow Bear said I could stop
at 5 – 5:30. Wouldn’t you know the wind
came up and from 4 to 6 the two shuttles just kept passing back and forth. It was interesting watching the various
backing up into the water techniques. I
was surprised by the number of men who trusted their women to drive their trucks
and trailers but not stay with the boat and drive it onto the trailer. One lady just could not get her trailer
backed in and the line behind her was getting so long. Finally one of the men walked down and talked
her through the backing up experience.
She and her husband had a bad day as their boat died out in the lake and
the Rangers had to drive their boat out and tow them in. Another guy’s starter on his truck died and
another guy had a wheel fall off his trailer.
I pulled into our site just
as our guests arrived. We had some
trouble getting our grill to stay lit due to the angle of the wind, but in the
end everyone enjoyed getting to know each other and the dinner. One of the ladies made a nice salad with
hearts of palm and the other couple brought Cuban style black beans that were
very good. Everyone brought what meat
they wanted grilled. I gave everyone a
choice of my peach weight watchers pie or strawberry shortcake and was
surprised that they all went with the pie.
I knew Bill want shortcake as did I, so we had one piece of pie left and
a lot of shortcakes. I put some in the
freezer for a later date. By dessert
time the mosquitoes were out in full force.
We sprayed and swatted til everyone finally gave up. We tried lighting our bug candles but the
wind kept blowing them out. Guess we
will have to build a fire next time.
Oh, I almost forgot the
best part of the evening and perhaps, the highlight of my summer, we had our
first hummingbirds at the feeder while everyone was here. I was so excited. I tried at home to get some and had no luck,
but we had seen one come around our water outside and knew they were around. Bill thought it would take a couple of days
but they came in a matter of hours. Now
to try to get a picture!
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