As a workcamper, you know holiday weekends can be busy or not so much. Generally, Columbus Day is a busy weekend. Families wanting to get that one last camping time in or couples just wanting to sneak away for a quiet weekend. Perhaps grandparents wanting to take the grandkids out for a weekend of camping enjoying the benefits a smore or hot dogs on the open fire. I worked Friday day shift and it was busy. My boss was mowing the trails watching the parade of trailers, motor homes coming into the campground. Sometimes groups of 3, other times 2. I was getting slammed with people. Some were regular campers which we are always happy to see. Some idle talk and then on to the next one to get that person registered for camping. Wood sales were going crazy. People buying wood for the long weekend at a record pace, one bundle, two, three ,four and a few six bundle sales. I was so busy I didn’t even get a lunch.
Shift change is at 3 pm but I stayed on until 5 pm. This time of the year we all have to watch our hours because the county only lets us work 600 hrs in a season. Come October most of us are getting close to maxing out on hours so the boss has us watch how close we are. Hence the reason I only worked till 5pm.
Columbus day weekend holds some special memories for me. We have a family vacation cabin in northern Wisconsin and we would close the cabin up for the winter. This would entail pulling the pier out of the lake and putting everything away in the garage including the boat. I won’t bore you with the little details we would do all weekend. We would have a great cookout dinner on Saturday night with some steaks to finish out another season in the Northwoods. It was a great family time but now it’s just another weekend since mom and dad are gone.
To finish up here at Big Rock we ended up breaking some records for the number of campers for the weekend. We had 73 units in the park for Columbus day weekend! WOW, people are finding out about this little gem in Big Rock, IL. So there you have it another Columbus day weekend in the books and another day closer to my travels south for the winter.
Be safe out there!