Ah yes! The end of a weekend! The end to smelly lady and waterfun! How sweet it is!



Here is a little background info for those of you just tuning in to the continuing saga of Jessy's life. I work at my family's campground in Northwestern New Jersey. We are the home of the Lakota Wolf Preserve, a separate entity that uses our land and facilities for free. In return we get a great draw for our campers. Unfortunately for me this just means that I have to deal with the public more often than I did before. Although the campground has not grown any in the five years since the preserve has been here, we now get at least twice as many people through the office because of the Wolf Watch. I love the preserve and everyone involved in it and wish them no ill will, but I do dislike (no dispise is the better word) the public. Weekends are of course the busiest time for the campers and the random wolf people (weekdays are filled with schools of late though). Thus my hatred of the whole calendar system.



Back to what I began with. This weekend was particularly unpleasant because this weekend was the first weekend this season that I was back full time. The end of the spring semester heralded the beginning of the summer for me. Back to forty hour weekends and thirty hour weeks! Bah! Well I don't know if it is because I am out of the habit or what, but this weekend seemed particularly foul. Foul is the correct word and I shall begin by describing one of our camping guests that our employees have dubbed Smelly Lady.



Smelly Lady



This title may seem somewhat mean but believe me, if you had come within twenty feet of this wretched excuse for a human, you would no doubt agree that 'smelly' is a kind term. She was camping in our primitive tent section this weekend with several other people who seemed otherwise normal. Her companions, when not in her presence, smelled normal for campers- a bit smoky but otherwise fine. Smelly Lady, however, must have avoided the campfire to preserve her stench (a mixture of soiled underwear, unwashed armpits, and various other things best left unidentified) because smoke would have been blissful compared to that. She decided to harass the wolf watchers by shrieking at the animals while the talk was going on. Worse, she found browsing in the gift shop to be an amusing passtime so we were all subject to her pungent presence. Even worse still, she had three dollars to her name so we could not even say that her foulness was worth it. I do not understand this! We have twelve clean hot showers in which she could have rinsed away some of her stench. Nor do I understand the other people who were camping with her; I cannot imagine sharing a tent made so putrid. Ah well, I am just thankful that her party decided not to stay the extra night that they had reserved for; although, according to my brother, their campsite was as foul as she.



Other fun this weekend included the discovery of a water main leak and a large group of early/ late wolf watchers on very expensive Goldwing motorcycles. The water main got a quick fix and the cyclists had a picnic while they waited so that did not suck too badly. I am always thankful for being the indoor worker on sundays and thursdays. Sundays "the boys" as I call my brother and his friend, get to pick up a ton of trash and recyclables before the bears do. (Yes we have black bears-- more than our share really-- the state drops the relocated ones not too far from here) Thursdays are worse though-- pit toilet day. They get to scrub down the four outhouses located at the extremes of the campground because there are only flush toilets in the main building (our ground sucks for septic systems). I simply have to sit in the store and sell people stuff and answer the continually ringing phone with the litany "Hello! Camp Taylor, we are completely full for Memorial Day Weekend youshouldhavecalledinJanuaryifyouwantedtocomecampingonaholidayweekendsorryCLICK!" It is surprisingly effective at reducing the amount of time spent on the phone.



fun fun fun all the time! Thank you for camping at camp taylor campground:)