"Git Along, Little Doggies...."

Roger here.... Due to our work schedules, there has been very little time for Jasper and Chaplin to take the long walks that they love. Since Dianne works days (now eleven-hour shifts), and I work(ed) nights (also eleven hours), there was little time to take the dogs on more than their twice-a-day pottie/poop walks.

We decided to devote one of our days off (last Wednesday) to the dogs. We started the day from our campsite at Walter Johnson Park by walking past the livestock pens

(good sniffing for the dogs)

and stopping by the rodeo arena. (The day before three cowboys on horses were herding cattle inside the fence as I was walking the boys. They ran right by us, and Chaplin was as excited as I have ever seen him. Evidently, he thinks he is a border collie because he wanted to run with the cows in the worst way.)

We were hoping that the cattle were still there. They were, but this time they were penned and certainly not being chased by the cowboys - much calmer. Nonetheless, Chaplin was still engaged. He seldom focuses on anything for more than a few seconds, but he stared longingly

at the cattle for several minutes before it was time to move along.

After watching the cattle, the four of us hopped in the Matrix for a fifteen mile drive to Elk City State Park. On the way through Coffeyville we were greeted by a two mile display of American flags in celebration of Veterans' Day.

They were spaced about eight feet apart on both sides of the street - an impressive display. These Kansas towns love to decorate.

Elk City State Park is located on the banks of the huge Elk City Reservoir, just north of Independence.

It was a Corps of Engineers property that is now leased by the State of Kansas.

For us, the hiking trails were the attraction. Because it was a Wednesday in November, we had the trails to ourselves. Jasper immediately went into his Oh boy, Oh boy, Oh boy mode.

He truly loves being the alpha male and literally pulls us along the trails.

At one point we lost the trail due to a blanket of fallen leaves. We (Jasper) were able to find our way out as we stumbled upon one of the park roads. We followed the road back to our car.

Hiking in sixty degree weather was a great diversion for both Dianne and me, as well as the dogs.

On the way back

to the campground we stopped in Independence to check out Braum's, the local ice-cream shop. Ice cream is my favorite food, but we don't keep it in the motor home because if it were constantly available, I would not stop eating it. Ice cream shops are a different matter. Dianne had two scoops of chocolate-almond. I had a hot fudge sundae. We may have to go back next week!

MR. MOM - HOUSE HUSBAND! Those of you with a good eye may have noticed the word work(ed) in the first paragraph of this blog. Now for the sad story..... I injured my back at work. I cannot pinpoint specifically when it happened, but the pain that ran from my lower back and down my right leg to my knee was excruciating. I put heat on it every night and took more Aleve than I should have, but about half way through every shift I could hardly walk. The pain lessened when I stooped or when I walked, but was unbearable when I stood without moving for any length of time. By the end of each shift I walked like Chester from the old Gunsmoke series. One of my fellow workers joked that he was getting me a walker for Christmas. I always felt a little better in the morning and went back to work the next day, but the scenario always repeated.

After three days of misery, I called in and went to a local chiropractor - my first ever chiropractic visit, and one of the very few times I have ever called in sick. The good doctor said that I was a half inch out of alignment. After a half hour pounding on me (He was very good, by the way), I felt a lot better. He remeasured and said that everything was back in place. He asked me to come back in two days before I went back to work. The follow-up visit went well and I was, for the most part, pain-free. When I returned to work the next evening, I was pain-free until about 2:00 a.m. (three hours before the end of the 11-hour shift). At that point all the pain returned at the same levels as before. This time, when I got up the next morning, the pain was still there - I could hardly walk. I spent the day hobbling around the motor home. The dog walk was a chore. At 4:00 p.m., an hour before my shift, I was still in pain (though not as intense as earlier). Dianne and I discussed it, and we decided that I could not continue to work. I could probably have continued with shorter shifts (and trips to the chiropractor), but the shifts have already been lengthened from ten to eleven hours (four days a week), and there are rumors that the shifts will go to twelve hours for five days a week - this happened last year. The earned money was not worth any kind of permanent injury or the continuing pain. So I am again retired. Disappointing, but the best decision.

Now for the fun part :)..... Dianne wanted to continue working. So, I am now taking over all the domestic responsibilities, the ones I already did + all of hers. I am now doing: all the dog walking (time for longer walks than before), cooking, grocery shopping, vacuuming, dusting, other cleaning, dishes, laundry, etc. After Dianne's shift ended last night, I greeted her at the door with a glass of wine, a hot-water foot soak with epsom salts, and dinner. (Dianne here: I just finished my overtime, fifth 11-hour day in a row, and I can tell you that I'm LOVING the special treatment from "Mr. Mom;" I'm already spoiled!!)

I (Roger) am doing my best to replicate Mrs. Cleaver, from the old Leave it to Beaver show - except of course for the dress, make-up and high heels. Jeans, shaving every other day, and t-shirts are more to my liking. Dianne tells me she can get used to this.

By the way, after several days of rest and daily stretching (orders from the chiropractor) I am pain-free again. Gotta go. I have a grocery list to work on. (I hope Dianne likes steak and baked potatoes every night.) (Dianne again: I'd be happy with cereal and milk, so long as I don't have to cook it!!)

What it's like to work at Amazon.com - Dianne's View

Hi all -- Dianne here.   I'm trying to think of something quiet to do not to wake Roger up, so I thought I'd write a blog on just what in the heck it is that we're doing here in Kansas.   We found this job through Workamper magazine.   For our non-camping buddies, this is a magazine devoted to finding part-time or seasonal work for people like us who live and travel in their RVs.  Most of the jobs are at campgrounds or state and national parks, jobs like checking people in, trail maintenance, campground hosts, bird counting, etc.   Many of the jobs are volunteer positions, and you are compensated by a free camp site for the duration of the job.   A lot of that work is easy, part-time work, only about 20 hours a week.   Many RV'ers who do this only work a month here or there. 

I was intrigued by the ad for seasonal work at Amazon.com, because I have shopped there for YEARS.   My friends know that I am not a girlie-girl shopper.  The only browsing I like to do is in hardware stores  or at Costco!   Everything else is either purchased at the grocery store or on line from Amazon, if they carry it.   I have always been impressed that my orders are  always correct and always fast delivery.   I often wondered what it would be like to work at a place like that.   

This blog will be a little different, because, of course, we are not allowed to take pictures in the facility.   We are not even allowed to take our cell phones into the building.   They take great care in security, because it's a giant place chock full of brand-new goodies, especially hot items and best sellers.    If they sell it there, you're not allowed to bring it onto the floor.   Unless I take a water bottle to work, everything I take fits into my jeans pockets.  That's a weird feeling and I always feel like I MUST be forgetting something.   I  just take a little chap stick in my pocket and put my car keys on my belt loop.

We've already discussed how we asked for separate shifts on purpose, because the hours at Amazon are long, and closer to Christmas there is mandatory overtime.  We didn't think it would be fair to the dogs to cage them up that long, even if someone walked them in the middle of the shift.   Right now we're working four 10-hour days (Fri-Mon) with three days off.  Lots of people work either Sun-Wed or Wed-Sat.  

 The Coffeyville, Kansas location is a HUGE fulfillment center, with everything from books/DVDs/CDs to apparel to electronics and lots of "other stuff."   It is highly automated.   Roger and I are what are called each-to-bin "stowers" on "inbound."   (The peak season for receiving merchandise is right now; later the peak will go to "outbound" where they process the orders and ship them out.)

Trucks arrive at the facility with shipments of merchandise.   The "receivers" then unload the shipment and put up to 23 pounds of whatever-it-is into tote boxes on pallets, which are stacked, wrapped, and delivered by fork lifts to the various work areas.   What Roger and I (and hundreds of others) do is take four totes at a time, put them on a cart, and wheel them to find empty spots in little "bins" for each item.  Each item is meticulously tracked on hand-held scanners, from the time it is unloaded until it leaves the building.   

From there, "pickers" roam around these bins, and load up items that have been ordered to take to shipping.   Their scanners tell them what bin to go to to find the items.   The outbound process takes place in another building, so I can't speak much to that, other than this place is FULL of miles of conveyor belts.   A lot of the shipping process is computerized.   It even checks to make sure the box weighs what it is supposed to weigh.   If it doesn't, it gets kicked out and re-checked to make sure all the ordered items are present in the box.

Some jobs require standing in one spot all day.   Some require walking 10-15 miles per day (pickers).   I can tell you that "stowing" is a total-body workout.  It's like being paid to go to the gym!   Roger and I will probably be in better physical shape than we've ever been by the end of our jobs (December 23).   I may even acquire some arm muscles; something I've never had before!   I worried about carrying the scanner around all day and scanning items with my bad arm (residual pain is something I've dealt with since two surgeries 20 years ago on my right arm from a repetitive-strain injury that occurred while I worked as a court reporter).   I have been pleasantly surprised that the job is varied enough that it is not making my arm flare up and I am able to do the work.

Roger says he's not too sore (we leave notes for each other since we don't see each other on our work days).   You stow different merchandise each day or even different parts of each day, depending upon what is being received off the trucks that morning.  On night shift he has mainly been doing apparel and miscellaneous electronics, toys, and other stuff.  

I, on the other hand, am VERY sore, especially my quadriceps muscles.   I have spent most of my week stowing books, including huge medical and reference volumes.   The book area bins are various sizes.   You have to find a space that each item will fit into.   Some bins on shelves are high (we have little step stools that we cart around with us).  Some are right on the ground, so that we have to actually kneel or sit to see what we're doing.   Using the stool for the upper shelves is like a step aerobics workout!   I made the mistake my first day of squatting to do the lower shelves.   I am still paying for it with extremely sore quadriceps muscles from getting up and down from that position.

The temp agency who we actually work through has an excellent video on the web that   shows a visual representation of the different jobs, if you want to learn more.   It can be seen at http://www.sekjobs.com/Amazon-Video-37425.asp

This will be good, quick money for us to then take to South Texas and play for two months.   If our house hadn't taken 16 months to sell we might not have needed to do this, but I am glad we are.   We might do it again next year and use that good money for a cruise or overseas trip or something, even if we don't need the money for expenses!   

Dalton Defenders Museum

Hi all --

 Dianne here.  Roger and I learned at our Workamper meeting that we would be on the new weekend shift, working Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays.  We are on different shifts, so that we don't have to leave the "boys" caged up for 11 or 12 hours a day. (Roger here...  it makes no difference to Big Chuck since he is always loose in the motorhome and free to make cat noises at the great-tailed grackles that taunt him while he sits in the window). 

  I am on days, working 6:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Roger is on nights, working from 5:00 p.m. to 3:30 a.m.  Roger has arranged to carpool on the night shift, which solves the one car problem.   This is the shift assignment we expected, because we had volunteered for the new weekend team, and had requested different shifts. Basically this means we won't see each other at all from Friday morning until Tuesday morning, but then we have the next three days off together.  

Drawing the weekend shift also meant we had another week to kill in  Coffeyville before starting work.   We were really ready to get out of the motorhome for a while.   The weather here has been so crummy (rainy and cold and gray) that we've been stuck inside.   We decided to be tourists this week and see some of the local sights.

On Tuesday, we drove back into Missouri to visit Colaw's RV Salvage.   We learned about this place from veteran RV'ers at the rally in Ohio last month.  Colaw's has the largest selection of salvage parts in the US.   There is a motorhome "graveyard" out back where parts can be stripped from different makes and models.  There is also a large indoor showroom of new and salvage parts.  We didn't venture out back (Roger here... because it was gray and cold, the weather norm so far here), but spent a lot of time nosing around the showroom. We were able to finally find lug nut covers to replace the ones that we lost the first week we owned our motorhome, after having new tires put on at Camping World.   (They didn't tighten them properly, so we lost 14 of them as we drove it home).   We'd been unable to find the correct size and shape in any store, truck stop, or even on line.   When we inquired about buying new ones to replace those that were lost, the dealer explained they would cost about $14 EACH!   We dug through boxes of them at Colaw's and were able to find several exact matches and some replacements that would work, for a better price of $2 each.    We stopped for lunch at the Golden Corral in Joplin, MO.  My old lunch buddies from my job at Hamilton Southeastern Schools referred to it as the "Olden Corral" when we ate there for lunch before I retired.  I consider this quite an insult.  I must also report that there were younger people in the restaurant - two toddlers with their grandmother.  There was also a six-year old who single-handedly emptied the bread center of all nine of the warm rolls.  The toddlers and the bread thief were all definitely younger than Dianne and me.

Thursday we visited the Dalton Defenders Museum

 in downtown Coffeyville.   I'll let Roger elaborate on that for you.  Following that, we had a delicious lunch of chicken-fried steak and sides at Lanning's, a mom and pop restaurant/bar in the historic section of town.   Since I knew we'd soon be getting lots of good exercise in our new workamper jobs, I even splurged and had some homemade pecan pie.   I reasoned that they probably made good pecan pie here, since this is a big pecan growing area.   I was right; it was delicious!   We even have a grove of pecan trees right here at Walter Johnson Park.  We watched the CNN version of the escaped mylar flying saucer while we ate, and were very relieved to find out, when we returned to the motorhome, that the little boy was not in the balloon.  

Roger here...  The Dalton Defenders Museum was very interesting. 

 I had heard of the infamous Dalton Gang, but did not really know that much about them.  Four of the five of them met their end in Coffeyville in 1892 when they attempted to rob two banks at the same time - an attempt to upstage Jesse James.  One of the townsmen recognized the gang as they entered the town and tied up their horses in an alley.  Several courageous citizens of Coffeyville, armed themselves at the local hardware store 

(still in business), and  ambushed the gang members as they exited the two banks - four of the defenders, including the sheriff, died along with four of the gang members.  A lot of the shooting took place in the pictured alley 

across the street from the banks where the horses were tethered.  One of the banks has been restored - really neat looking. 

 The one surviving gang member, Emmet Dalton, survived even though he was shot 23 times and served 14 years of a life sentence before being paroled and moving to California.  I had always thought of the wild west being in the far western states of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and California.  Our stay here in Kansas has helped remind us that a goodly portion of the western legends took place in Kansas, Oklahoma and, of course, Texas.  

The museum also had exhibits confirming other prominent citizens of the town including, Walter "the train" Johnson who was an outstanding pitcher for the Washington Senators in the 1920's AND presidential candidate Wendell Wilkie, who (though growing up in Elwood, IN near my hometown of Pendleton) taught high school in Coffeyville prior to his political career.  There were also exhibits of the Osage Indians who at one time flourished in the Coffeyville area, before it was overtaken by the white man.

I could not resist taking a picture of Dianne next to the Indian figure. 

 When the museum manager saw me taking the picture, he left his post and insisted on placing a cowboy hat on me and taking a picture of the two of us.

Today was our first day of work at Amazon - five hours of orientation and safety training, and no actual work.  As a former HR director, it was interesting to see how a large corporation does the same thing that I used to do for my former school corporation - the same, but different!  Tomorrow the real work begins.  We will let you know about our new blisters, as we are told that we will be walking up to 15 miles a day.

Anxious Weather in Coffeyville Kansas!

 Hi all - Dianne here.  No, this is NOT a real-time photo, but it IS a photo from the July 1, 2007 catastrophic flood Coffeyville, Kansas experienced, and it is a photo of exactly where we are currently parked!  I don't want to break any rules, so the link to this photo and others like it can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/kstatealec/CoffeyvilleFlood2007#

Also note that any of the photos here in our blog can be made larger for viewing by double-clicking on them, if you want a closer look.  (Except for the small photo below that I can't figure out how to fix)

 The flood was made truly horrendous because the local oil refinery also flooded, and there was an oil slick that ruined over 300 homes in the town, and many businesses.  (If you go to the above link, there are several photos showing just how disastrous this oil slick was).  

 These homes  have since been razed, and the east side of Coffeyville has many empty places where neighborhoods and homes once existed.   Walter Johnson Park, where we are parked for three months, is right in the middle of the area that experienced some of the worst flooding.   If you double click and look closely at the top photo above, in the top left quadrant, you will see a small red roof and a travel trailer.   That trailer would have been parked right across from us.  

Roger wrote about the rain in our last blog.  Let me say that at that time the rain was just beginning!  Like much of the Midwest and Southern Plains, we had steady and/or heavy rain for 26 hours straight!  

 You can imagine that being parked in this flood-prone area, we were just a bit nervous.   We did experience a flood warning for Coffeyville, but it never reached the stage that would have topped the levee.   The Verdigris River in this area is twisty-curvy, and surrounds us on three sides.   

Yesterday

 morning Roger and I walked the dogs on top of the levee and took some photos of the river, which had spilled over its banks at that point, but had not yet reached its crest.  Just the day before, the river looked to us to be about the same size as Fall Creek in Pendleton (for those of you familiar with it) or Sugar Creek at Turkey Run.  

 What prompted me to Google the 2007 Coffeyville flood in the first place, were signs we had seen while walking the dogs around Walter Johnson Park that showed the flood level reached in 2007. 

 If you look closely at the photo I took, you might be able to still make out a faint black band at the top of the water mark on the building.   That's where the oil was floating on the top of the flood water!   

This time, Coffeyville was  on the northern edge of the storm.   Even though we did get about 5 inches of rain, the worst of the flooding was east of us in Missouri and south into Oklahoma.   Coffeyville, Kansas is located 4 miles from the Oklahoma state line, and about 80 miles west of Joplin, Missouri.

This evening we will get our name badges and learn our work shifts at the Amazon Distribution Center.  We are ready to get started in our first Workamping experience! 

   I am glad we are here, and I'm happy to be helping the local economy a little bit (laundry, groceries, etc.), because this town has not fully recovered, even two years later.