Welcome!
We arrived here at South Whidbey Island State Park on April 30, 2014. We was going to arrive on May 1, but the ferry Summer rates started on that day so leaving the day prior saved us $25 just on the RV alone.
This is a quite park for the most part. Mostly campers, some day use visitors, as well as a few schools with students here and there. It’s interesting to see the differences between here and Fort Flagler, both in the environment and in the visitors.
I would say at least 95% of the visitors here have their dogs properly leashed and the majority of the campers leave the sites clean, we have only had 1 or 2 sites that we had to spend time to “clean up” after the campers. One was bad enough the Ranger was going to make contact with them.
We are having a sewer line installed to our host site. I have been told this has been on the “wish list” for years, but for whatever reason, be it financial or man power, it has yet to be done.
I was asked if I would be interested in digging the trench which I was more then happy to do. It would have to be done by hand, but whatever, I would really like not having to drive 200 yards to dump our black tank every 6 days and hard work has never bothered me.
I spoke to the Ranger as well as the maintenance worker of the park and was given some generic information from the maintenance worker of how deep and where to dig that would turn out to be not as clear as I thought it was at the time.
The next day I spent 4+ hours digging my way the 82′ to the sewer line on the far side of the bathroom via a thick wooded area as well as layers of gravel to get to the point I was told to get to. I averaged about 10″ deep and 10″ wide, I was told the hose was “garden hose” sized so at the worst, I thought I was digging deeper then I needed to.
I was wrong.
A few days later, Pauline and I hear noise coming from the bathroom area, so I walked over there and I see the same maintenance guy who told me where to dig with another person digging my trench deeper/wider.
I was taken by surprise and asked “is it not deep enough” when the helper joked it wasn’t, I joked back “blame him” and pointed to the maintenance worker… who did not seem to get my joke.
Some words where exchanged between us, which is when I realized he was not at all happy with me, or with the trench not being done properly, either way, it was not what was said, but HOW he said it.
Fine. Enjoy your trench, I’m out.
Looking back, I guess it wasn’t as simple as he made it out to be, but had he given better instruction and actual dimensions I promise, it would have been done right. And of course, had someone not been so snippy, I would have for sure either taken over and dug out what needed to be done myself, or at least helped. But I am not one to be snapped at like I am wasting someones time.
At least not while being a volunteer. If you want to snap at me, you better be paying me.
As a disclaimer, this is the first time anyone I have worked with as a Volunteer has ever snapped at me like this. I am not losing sleep over it, but I for sure did not appreciate the tone or words.
Everyone else I have worked with in the Washington State Parks have been nothing more then friendly and professional and I do enjoy working with others.
But I will not be snapped at. It’s that simple.
I will be professional with this person in the future should our paths cross again, but I doubt I will be willing to volunteer my time on any project he is involved in unless there is a really good reason.
We are also getting some rock for our site. The pad is pretty soft in areas and could use some work to flatten and widen and just over all clean up. I did this to two pads at Fort Flagler, so I feel like I have a good idea of what needs to be done.
The Ranger arranged for the rock to be delivered next Wednesday at the camp site across from us so the fallowing Monday or Tuesday we will move the RV to dump the black tank (Unless the sewer line is completed) and park it in the parking lot while we work the RV pad with the hope that it will be the last time we will have to move the RV until we leave in September.
The weather has been pretty good. We are hitting the mid/high 60s and low 70s more and more, but we are still not quit to the point of “Summer”. Today was the first rain in a week I believe.
We are in a wooded area as well, so at night it gets VERY dark here. I would rather walk at night without a light, but at times, a light has to be used, it is just too dark to walk on cloudy nights without a light. And driving a golf cart that has no lights is even scarier lol…
Tuesday night I was outside around 9:30pm just enjoying the dusk and peacefulness of the mostly empty park when I saw 2 small dogs just down the road from me, but it was too dark to get a good ID on what kinds of dogs they were and something about them just wasn’t right so I got a flash light and discovered they was not dogs, but twin fawns.
They was the smallest deer I have ever seen. They could not have been more then a day or two old. I walked down to where I saw them leave the road and I assumed into the bush, I walked into the empty camp site and saw a rabbit and as I was focused on that I almost missed the mother deer and the twin fawns not 8′ from me.
One fawn started to scamper off, but it stopped when I stopped and momma deer never even looked alarmed, so I just stood there and watched the 3 deer slowly walk off into the bush. It was way too dark to even try a picture, but I would love to get one of those twins.
Pauline and I went on a 3 mile hike yesterday. We finally took the time to walk some of the trails here and it was quite enjoyable. We saw a few birds, most exciting was our first Pacific Wren, both a male and female, they shake their tails in a very fast “rattle” as they sing. It was comical, reminded us of a rattlesnake.
We are responsible for cleaning of the camp sites in the “upper loop” and we have been getting partially burned firewood from the fire pits that is left behind, after 3 days of this we had a large pile and decide to have our own camp fire last Monday as we sat outside and just enjoyed the peacefulness.
This weekend we are of course booked full which is pretty cool really, since we know by Monday night we will be pretty much empty again.
Pauline and I will be working the booth from 5-9pm (maybe 10pm) to check in the campers with reservations as well as selling firewood and ice. It’s easy. So far we have not had that much attitude from visitors, everyone is here pretty much for the same reason, to have fun and enjoy nature.
The Pacers are 1-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals. I thought we had game 2 won, but they just ran out of gas at the end. Game 3 is in Miami Saturday, and since I know that when a series is tied 1-1 the winner of game 3 has won the series 76% of the time, I am stressing.
Sometimes I wish I did not know all the facts I know.
We have tried to find a satellite signal here, but even knowing where there are multiple satellites for DirectTV, it seems only one with work, which of course we can’t get from our site while we have open sky to the other satellites.
Odds are, once the NBA season is over, or when/if the Pacers season is over, I will try to find a signal once again, once the sewer gets installed, the satellite signal is the last thing we “need” to make this a perfect stay. While we are happy to be able to have a place to sit and watch our TV, a cold garage is not where I want to be.
But at least we have that.
Here are some more pictures and I am once again, caught up with the pictures!
Enjoy the Memorial Day weekend, be safe and remember WHY we have this weekend.
Thank a Vet.