Wednesday through Sunday, June 5, 2011
Al finally called me Wednesday night to let me know that only 13 people would be coming to our ATV rally. We had reserved the entire resort, just like the previous years. So now after we had turned so many customers away, thinking we were full, we were not. John and I don't know what to do about that because we are out a lot of money now.
Thursday I went to my son's sentencing. He is now in jail for 8 months and 2 years probation with AODA assessment, counseling for PTSD for his stint in the Marines, and other counseling. He will be working during the week days through the Huber law, which is good. Hopefully he will learn that when he drinks, bad things happen, and he shouldn't ever drink again. When I got back home, I unloaded all the groceries and then told the cleaning girl to take a break. It turns out she had been cleaning a cabin for 8 hours. John said he didn't think to see if she was okay or anything. I couldn't believe it. She had been cleaning up all the mess in that cabin from the fire extinguisher and fire we had had earlier in the week. She felt bad because the kitchen had been her responsibility and the broiler pan was the source of the fire. Anyway, the cabin is spotless now and you could never tell there was a fire of any sore.
After I left the courthouse, I went shopping for everything we needed for the rally. I was mentally stressed by so many things that I barely made it through the day. I went to bed early.
Friday the people arrived and partying started. We didn't go ATVing on Friday, but did hang out a bit and have fun. John took a group kayaking from our resort and I picked them up down stream after their 3 hour kayak trip. Then Greg Olson of WATVA came by with two neat machines. They are called the Action Trackchair. They are in the picture. You can go into the woods on them even if you have a disability because they operate by just moving a joy stick. So now people can go in the woods to hunt, etc. even if they use a wheelchair regularly. They are pretty cool.
Earlier on Friday John took the group for a small ATV ride on trails that they normally wouldn't see. Everyone loved it and enjoyed the day.
Saturday the rally changed directions on the trails they usually took. The group was inspired by the previous day's new trails and seeing something new. So they decided to ride out in Price County. They took their ATVs on trailers and drove to Park Falls. There they started on trail 111 and we met them at the covered bridge. We had picked up Subway sandwiches so we met them there with them. Our puppy, Orla, hung around with the group and walked with me in the shallow side of the river.
I took one of the rider's service dog, Mandy, home with me and Orla. Mandy's owner had been dropped off during lunch and she was riding the ATV the way back only. Mandy sat by her owner's wheelchair and didn't move a muscle. I made the wheelchair roll into the lodge and Mandy followed. She had been bothered by small flies and I felt so sad for her. I gave her a bowl of water too and she finally napped in the lodge next to her owner's wheelchair until she got back.
For the ATV rally, they supply the food and I make it all for them (except one lunch). So I started on the dinner as usual and soon enough everybody was in the lodge eating and having a good time.
Before the rally I had removed all the bar stools, rugs, extra chairs and stuff to make room. When you have a bunch of wheelchairs in a room, you need to clear the path. So now that everybody has left, I swept, cleaned up all the mess and will put the stools back in, etc.
Sunday afternoon the cleaning girls arrived, expecting to clean all the cabins. They only needed to clean two as one person is staying longer in their cabin. So we had only needed 3 cabins total. What a shame that we had turned people away.
Around 5 p.m. on Sunday my friend, and our customer, Pam, arrived. She will be up here for 3 weeks. She owns a quilt store and doesn't get much time to quilt with all the work she has. So for 3 weeks she will be doing a lot of sewing machine time. She really liked the improvements we did to Alder, of course.
I had worked very hard all weekend and even earlier preparing for this ATV rally. Even though the amount of people was down, it is still tiring because of all the meals and clean up I have to do. So I went to bed at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday night. It was a good weekend overall.
No comments:
Post a Comment