Preparing The Park For A Long Holiday Weekend

                            

This is what I woke up to most everyday last week.  In some places the fog was so thick that I could only see about 50’ .  I still had to do my rounds.  By the time I finished  sanitizing the restrooms most of it had burned off and I started to remove layers.  The hooded sweatshirt came off and was dropped over Angel.  She was still shivering.

The frog I found in one of the breezeways (that’s what they call the area between the two restrooms and where all the supplies and stock is kept.)  The next picture is of a baby rattlesnake in a paper coffee cup.  It’s about a foot long.  I captured it to get it out of the area because there where so many little kids around.  I later found out that it was not the thing to do.  Extremely dangerous!!!!!!!!!  One thing about the babies, is that when they bite, they release ALL their venom. The older ones can regulate what they release.  Needless to say I won’t do that again.

A couple of days later I was on the deck reading, when I heard someone near the restroom say that there was a “rattlesnake”.  I of course had to go take care of the situation.  I grabbed my Park Radio and called Maintenance.  It was just sunning itself in the middle of the road.  I stayed there until Danny put it in a tall garbage can.  I got a couple of pictures before he put the cover on securely so that he could relocate it outside of the CG.

    

          In the road.                                    There’s the rattle and there’s the head.

All week long as I drive all over the park, it seems like the ground squirrels and the California Quail (I call them Kamikaze Quail) wait until I am close and then run across the road right in front of the cart.  That must be their way of having fun.  I haven’t hit one yet.  They are really fast.  I finally got a picture of this one quail. (sorry, not very good)  Many times it’s the whole family

 

There were campers throughout the park during the week, several family groups and as each group left I would have to check and clean the sites for the next one.  In the pictures below, all that wood was left in the middle of the tree to the right.  That tree would have made a great fort if it was in your backyard, but not in a County Park.

Below is the last site that I had to get ready for the weekend.  Each site has a picnic table, fire ring and a food locker.  There is water available nearby that is shared by several camp sites.  On Thursday the park started to fill up.  The picture on the right shows several tents on one site multiplied by three sites.  These sites are not usually filled all the time.  It’s across from the Camp Host site. (mine)  By Saturday the park was completely filled and they even opened up some sites in the group CG and the equestrian CG.  Most of the weekend was keeping the restrooms stocked with TP etc.  Then on Monday there was a max exodus and by 1pm there were only 3 sites occupied.  That’s when I got to WORK and check all the sites.  The worst thing was to clean up all of the water balloon pieces.  Yesterday I worked 7 hrs and was exhausted.  So today I VEG!!!!!  That’s why this posting is late, just too busy or too tired to do it.

Below, additional critters, ground squirrel under a food locker and one of the Ferrell pigs.  The black dot at the end of that path.  He was huge, probably three feet at the shoulder.

  

Don’t forget, you can click on the picture to make it larger.

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable Memorial Day and remembered why we celebrate it.  I thank each and everyone that has served and/or died defending our nation.

Thanks for visiting

That’s my Angel working with me the whole time, such good company.

Susan and Angel