RNO1 - Day 5 - First and 10

Monday was the first of our 4 ten hour work 'days' this week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday).  Remembering back to our first 10 hour 'day' at Campbellsville brought up unpleasant memories for me......I didn't drink enough water that first shift, my shoes were too small, I was still getting the hang of 'picking', and it was my first experience working all night.  All in all it was a very disorienting experience for me.  TLE and I thought we had done the work getting ready for that experience by walking 4-5 miles a day pretty much almost every day for 2 months trying to get used to a lot of walking.  Unfortunately we learned there is really no way to get used to standing, and walking on cold concrete for 10 hours a night except actually doing it.  I also learned that spending that much time on your feet every day tends to make your shoe size increase about one size.  For me the adjustment to all of the above took about 3 weeks.....I had to buy a pare of Keen hiking shoes that were one size bigger than I would normally wear, and once my feet got used to me punishing them for 10 hours each night all was good....physically.

The other thing that took a while that first time around was getting over the 'boredom' factor.  When you are 'picking' you are repeating the same task over and over for 10 hours, and once you get the hang of 'picking' then you must learn how to keep your brain entertained, otherwise the time crawls by at a painfully slow rate....10 hours seems more like 15, or 20.  

This time around we still did the walking thing...maybe not 5-6 miles at a time, but we walked on a regular basis the last 2 months while we were at Cape Blanco.  One  benefit of working at both Tahoe Valley Campground (May to September) and Cape Blanco (September and October) is we spent 4-8 hours a day on our feet in those respective jobs, and that for me at least, is one of the big differences this time around, besides having shoes that are the right size, and a job ('stowing') that I love about 10 ten times more than I did 'picking'.

However, I once again get ahead of myself....before all the fun of our first 10 hour shift began I took a 19 mile bike ride on the Truckee River bike trail, and then a long nap from about 2:30 to 4 pm.  It was quite windy on the ride, but now that I have ridden my bike 4 of the last 5 days I feel a level of conditioning returning I haven't had since August.  Having access to safe bike riding is a big thing for me if I am going to be able to maintain some level of consistency, and here in Sparks we have it.

We hit the road promptly at 4:50 pm as we needed to put gas in the tank of the VW, and were on I-80 eastbound by 5 pm (We figure we will go through about 3/4's of a tank each week we work only 4 days.  We drive 60 miles round trip (240 miles per week), and probably another 40 running around town during the week.).  We arrived in the Amazon parking lot at precisely 5:30 pm.

We were met by Bruce, our Amazon Camperforce trainer, at 'stand up' who got us off to a smooth start on our first 10 hour shift.  I thought that was a nice touch, because even though we were both pretty confident in our newly learned job skills we had been off for almost 3 days, so a little refresher course helped a lot.

TLE and I both agree that one of the side benefits to 'stowing' is that 1) we only walk about 5-6 miles a night, even though we are on our feet for 10 hours, and 2) the time passed by much more quickly.  So, all in all, our first 10 hour shift at Amazon this time around was a much better experience, and I did remember to drink more water!

We were in the car on our way back west to Sparks at just about 4:35 am and home by 5:05 am.  I was in bed by 5:30, and I think TLE followed about 6.  Now the getting adjusted to sleeping during the daytime part of this job.....that will take a while!

Thanks for stopping by!

P. S. - Since we are not getting up until around noon on days we work the blog will, of necessity, not be appearing here until early afternoon each day!