Returnables and Recyclables......the dirty little secret

7:38 am - Tuesday - July 31st - Southwest Harbor, ME - 67º F, 88% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast.......sunny with a forecast high of 77º F for this fine day.

We continue to see the daily humidity levels decrease and are really enjoying having all our windows open again.  Time goes by quickly and suddenly one day I realize we have not had to use any of our electric heaters in quite some time.  We have reached that time during the summer when, barring high humidity levels, our windows are open all the time, jackets are not being worn unless it rains, and shorts are always the order of the day.  My work jeans are now being stored under the bed, all my gloves are back in their cubbyhole, and I haven't worn my SDC logo jacket in over a week.  We are looking at two weeks of temps continuing to be in the 70's.....that will probably continue for another month and then we will begin to see the temps begin to dip back into the 60's once again, and then back into the 50's as we hit October.

Our Monday was a typical Monday.....only 16 departures, but we had to retrieve 44 bundles of wood to replenish our woodbox......the most so far this summer!  Tony and I helped Alex clean a few sites, but we quickly ran out of them as people, as they were on Sunday, were slow to pack up and leave.  You would think they want to milk every single second out of their vacation.....hmmmm?

We left Alex and turned to processing "returnables" and "recyclables"....what is the difference you might wonder?  In Maine, as in many states, when you buy bottled water, soda, or beer you pay a deposit on each bottle/can.  In Maine it is 5 cents per bottle/can.  Most people don't save all their returnable bottles and cans and then return them to reclaim their deposit.  For those who don't we provide several "returnables" locations throughout the campground.....4 to be exact.  We collect these "returnables" in bulk and at some point in the near future we will load them in a large trailer, then deliver them to the local redemption center and collect the 5 cents per bottle/can.  On the other hand many things are "recyclable" (certain plastics, glass, cardboard, aluminum, etc.), but not "returnable" so we provide one main station near our office for those items.  

There are two problems with "recyclables" (emphasis on the quotation marks).......the majority of people have no idea what is and what is not "recyclable", and often what we find in this bin in about 70% trash.  We don't have the time to sort through each 70 gallon bag to separate one from the other, so it becomes 'trash' 98% of the time.  The dirty little secret about "recycling" is there really is NO recycling market for most glass and plastic.  Canada buys a lot of cardboard from the U.S., but when it comes to glass and plastic very little, and I mean a shockingly small percentage, of glass and plastic is actually "recycled" in this country.  I think we have become accustomed to seeing the recycling bins everywhere, and it makes us feel good to put our plastic water bottle, or aluminum can in one thinking we are doing something positive for our environment......in actuality "recycling" is probably causing more harm than good in this country.  

And then you have the "returnables"......we collect them and then get money back for having done that, but all of those bottles and cans still end up going into a landfill somewhere, or chopped up and dumped in the ocean......I am not exaggerating.

Once we had processed the "returnables" and "recyclables" we turned to the daily trash collection and then transport to the local transfer station.  We deliver our load of effluent and are on our way back to SDC by 10:45 am......time for lunch!  

I enjoy how each work day is neatly compartmentalized......if you are on pool duty you clean the pool from 7-8 am.  We take a coffee break after that.....I mostly come in at 8 am.....just in time for coffee.  Then we clean sites for a while transitioning to effluent collection around 9:45 am, which takes about an hour....sometimes more.  Then we take lunch for an hour.  We clean restrooms from 12 pm to 2 pm, and then for most employees it is only one hour until quitting time.  We'll spend that hour picking up random trash here and there, picking up and returning all the 'toys' to the toy box in the playground.  It makes the time go by much more quickly.  Then at 3 pm I am on my own for my final two hours to wash and detail our golf carts, wash the company truck, or trim grass and weeds to my heart's content.  Before I know it 4:30 has arrived and it is time to put everything away for another day.....I hang my golf cart key in the appropriate place in the 'garage' and head down to the office to chat with TLE for a few minutes before I put an exclamation point on the day with another time stamp on my time card.

TLE had prepared anchovy pizza for my dining pleasure both at lunch and for dinner (she works 2 pm to 10 pm on Mondays) so I got out the cold pizza and an even colder Allagash  Belgium White Ale to chase it......Allagash Brewing is out of Portland, ME.....this is probably the finest Belgium White Ale I have ever had....I wish I could get this beer on the west coast!

TLE was home by 10:15 pm and we proceeded to watch another couple of episodes of 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee' before heading off to slumberland......life is good!

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Sunday respite.........

6:06 am - Monday - July 30th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 60º F, 94% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the northeast......sunny today with a forecast high of 76º F once again.  Slept with the windows open for the first time in a week as humidity has finally fallen significantly!  I didn't get to sleep until midnight last night.....read on to find out why.

After a really hard work day Saturday, Sunday was a blessing.  The complete opposite.  We had 36 sites to clean on Saturday, but only 23 on Sunday. First up, though, was pool duty.  I was at the pool just before 7 am to find Tammy and Alex just walking over from the office.  We did our normal stuff, but on this morning we were also tasked with cleaning all the lounge chairs.  After half a summer of suntan lotions and oils they were getting a little grimy so we attacked them with 'Scrubbing Bubbles' cleaner and Magic Erasers.  I attempted to take a picture to show the contrast between the clean area and the grimy area, but I can't really see the contrast in this picture.....can you?

It was much more obvious in person.  From there we gathered up 24 bundles of wood to restock the woodbox, and then it was off to begin cleaning sites......unlike Saturday when people began leaving the night before, Sunday those departing took their time and we were not able to get as many cleaned by lunch as Saturday.  Since we couldn't clean many sites we turned to the daily trash collection ritual and then it was time for lunch.

After lunch Alex and I cleaned restrooms while Tammy finished the last 7 sites.  She joined us in cleaning the men's restroom at 1 pm, and we finished about 15 minutes to 2 pm.  By 3 pm Tammy and Alex were on their way home, and I had one more hour.  I spent about 40 minutes with my Stihl string trimmer cleaning up a couple of RV sites, and then around the office parking lot.  By that time it was 3:40 and time to put away my trimmer, clean my cart and then insert my time card in the 'time machine' to get my final time stamp of another day.

The sun is now setting at 8 pm so we are closing the pool then, instead of at 8:30 pm as we have the whole summer.  As a result I am now arriving at the pool to begin my night manager duties at 7:30 pm to give the bathers 30 minutes notice.  Everything went smoothly, and by 8 pm I was making my rounds of the park and home in my recliner by 8:30.  About 9:30 pm I received a call from TLE at the office (she has the 2 pm to 10 pm shift on Sundays) advising that an arriving customer was not getting power in site # 21 so I retrieved my golf cart key and drove down there with my circuit tester.  It revealed that there was an 'open neutral' in the 20 amp plug.  There was also a 30 amp plug which was working properly so I drove back to the Newell to retrieve my 30 amp to 20 amp adapter for them to use overnight until we can fix the 20 amp receptacle.  They were very grateful, to say the least.  This is the first time this summer we have had any electrical issues......quite a contrast to TVC where we had multiple daily issues with the electrical wiring, outlets, and breakers.

By the time I got home it was almost 10 pm so I waited up for TLE to come home, and then still wasn't sleepy so I stayed up to 11 pm before I finally went to bed.....just as I was about to drop off I began to become aware of music and loud talking coming in my open window, so I get dressed again and walk down to site # 103, which is right behind us, to remind the folks there that 'quiet hour' began at 10 pm.....they apologized, turned off their music, and I was once again on my way home.  I think I finally fell asleep by midnight.....am I ever going to pay for that Monday!

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12 down.....12 to go

5:08 am - Sunday - July 29th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 63º F, 100% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the southwest.....cloudy with a forecast high of 76º F.  

We have now, officially, reached the half way point of our summer.....12 weeks down, 12 weeks to go.  Within days it will be August and we'll begin to wonder where the summer went.  It's time to assess our decision to come to Maine to work the summer.  

We began to think about coming to Maine last July shortly after arriving in Yellowstone.  Since we were not going back to TVC to work anymore we decided Maine would be a good summer 2018 destination.  We had never been to New England, let alone Maine and the only time to go there is in the summer.....unless you like winter sports.  I joined Workamper.com and began to search their 'Hotline Jobs', as well as back issues of their online magazine.  There is also a Facebook group called 'Workamping for Full Time RVers'.  

Near the end of August, 2017 I came across a 'Hotline' ad for Smuggler's Den.  I checked their website and found they were near Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.  I showed TLE the ad and she told me to send our resumes and see what happened.  I did so, and within a week we heard from Rain Holbrook via e-mail that she and her aunt would like to do a phone interview the next day when we were available.  I replied with a time and received a call from her at that exact time the next day.

We talked for almost an hour with TLE and I doing as much interviewing as they were.  By the end of the interview we decided to accept their offer, and within an hour or so Rain had emailed an employment contract for us to review and then complete if we wished to proceed.  By the next day we had completed and signed the contract, and emailed it back to them.  They wanted us to be on site by May 12th, and we agreed.

Over the course of the Fall and Winter Rain stayed in contact, and we continued to ask questions and get prompt replies.  We were impressed and pleased with the communication, and looked forward to our one month trip to the northeast, and then 5.5 months in Maine.  

Between Yellowstone and Maine there was the job at the Grand Canyon where I had my stroke and recovery.  There was a time when we thought it might be wise not to go all the way to Maine, but my recovery was quick and by the first of April it was a distant memory.  As you will recall I had the bicycle crash about 10 days before our departure, and was lucky there were no broken bones as that most likely would have derailed us from going to Maine, but I just had some bad bruises so our trip was still on.  We departed Fontana on April 17th....a few days later than we had planned to give me more time to recover from my bicycle accident.  I was still quite sore, but was able to drive the Newell with no issues.

After a wonderful 4 week journey we arrived safe and sound in Southwest Harbor, ME.....our home for the next 5.5 months.  As with all jobs it took me about a week to acclimate to my new job and responsibilities.  I hadn't done physical work outside for almost a year when we arrived at SDC, and it took me a good month to build up my endurance to where I wasn't exhausted at the end of every day.  As I write today's missive I am still quite tired at the end of each work day, but it is a pleasant 'tired'.    There were times during that first month when I wondered how I would ever work a full 8 hour workday, but here I am doing just that and doing just fine.

Would we do anything different?  Yes, we would not agree to work 5 days per week.  If we had it to do over we would only work 4 days per week, but we agreed to work 5 days and we keep our word.  If we were ever to return we would only work 4 days per week, and 7 hour work days like pretty much everyone else here (except for the owners).

The weather has been wonderful, and better than we expected.  The bugs were a small issue early in the summer, but now are mostly an afterthought.  I get the odd mosquito bite from time to time, and as long as I keep my distance from yellow jacket nests I don't have to worry about them.  The black flies were an issue the first two weeks, but I only got bitten a few times, and have had none since early June.  We really like our RV site, and wouldn't change a thing about it.

We are looking forward to our time after Labor Day (as we did in Yellowstone) when the crowds will once again dissipate, and the weather will cool making it more enjoyable to hike and go site seeing.  We have talked about returning to Smuggler's Den in the next few years, but we'll see.  Right now I am looking forward to no job in the summer of 2019 and seeing Alaska!

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Of course......

6:16 am - Saturday - July 28th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 64º F, 97% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the south......overcast with a forecast high of 72º F.

Friday began with a heavy mist invading SDC.  The humidity was high, as one might imagine.  It wasn't raining as I was walking to the 'garage' to pick up a golf cart, but I was getting wet.....you could feel the moisture in the air.  It remained cloudy, and misty most of the morning, but as we returned from lunch the sun began to make its first appearance in days.  When the sun comes out again after a long absence all the moisture in the ground resulting form the heavy mists, dew and rain begins to return to the air whence it came and that increases the humidity exponentially.  I spent the rest of the day feeling sightly damp, but I know this is a necessary process.  If we can get a couple of days of sun the water in the ground will evaporate, the humidity will gradually decrease, and things will get back to normal.

We haven't had our windows open in at least 5 days.....I would like to have them open, but then my last refuge from the humidity would disappear.  Our little dehumidifier is doing a wonderful job keeping the humidity inside our Newell at a comfortable level.....when it gets warm, as it did yesterday afternoon, we just turn on the A/C for a while to cool it down and further lower the humidity.

Friday at work was no different from any other Friday, or another other work day for that matter.......we restocked the woodbox, cleaned sites, deadheaded flowers, gathered trash, cleaned restrooms, and I finished my day as I always do (except on rainy days and Hawaiian Night) trimming weeds and grass with my Stihl string trimmer.  About 4:30 pm I called it  a day and pointed my golf cart toward the 'garage'......I unloaded my equipment, and washed the grime from another work day off the company golf cart.  

TLE had made a casserole for our dinner Friday night and left instructions for me to put it in the oven at 5:45 pm so it would be done by the time she arrived home.  I took a long cool shower and was relaxing in my recliner when The Lovely Elaine arrived home from her workday.  There, of course, was more watching of 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee'.....of course. Life is good.....thanks for stopping by!

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Old Guys in Golf Carts Working......

6:11 am - Friday - July 27th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 64º F, 100% humidity (once again), wind 1 mph out of the north by northwest......cloudy, foggy, muggy with a forecast high of 74º F.

For the first time since I was issued my 'foul weather gear' I wore both the jacket and the pants, as well as my rubber boots to work.  I walked over to the garage to pick up a golf cart and drove to work in a driving rain storm......not exactly how one might wish to begin their day.  But, as Todd often says, we work rain, or shine.....and that we did.   The wood must be restocked, the sites must be cleaned, the trash must be collected and the restrooms must be cleaned.

Friday was not the first work day which has begun with rain, but it is the first time it rained this hard for this long, nonetheless, I am getting used to it, and it really doesn't bother me that much anymore. Fortunately the 'foul weather gear' is very effective and keeps us all quite dry except for our hands and faces.  It was never really cold.....just wet.

After collecting 14 bundles of wood for our wood box we (Steven and I) helped Tammy clean sites until about 9:50 am when we turned our attention to the ubiquitous trash.....time to collect it all!  We had it all collected by 10:30 an were off to the transfer station to make our daily donation.  By the time we returned it was about 10:50 am and almost time for lunch.  We parked the truck, picked up our golf cart and proceeded down to the office to clock out.  TLE had left a pulled pork sandwich in the fridge for me made out of the leftovers from her lunch at Mainely Meat the other day.....delicious!

By the time we returned from lunch Tammy had finished the last of the 15 sites on the departure list, so she joined us in our daily cleaning of the restrooms.  With all the rain they were a mess, and it was helpful to have a 3rd person.  We finished them on time, and now it was 2 pm.  Steven went home at 2 pm, and Tammy at 3 pm.  Steven and I had not processed the returnables, and recyclables during our trash run, so I turned my attention to that.  I collected five 70 gallon trash bags full of these items, and delivered them to our recycling station up by the 'garage'.  There is quite a pile of bags there now, so I'm sure they will be loaded into the company trailer and hauled to the sorting center soon.

The rain had quit while we cleaned the bathrooms, but it was still too wet to do any string trimming, so I spent time sweeping out the 'garage', washing the golf carts, and picking up the 'toys' (basketballs, baseballs, bats, badminton rackets, birdies, volleyballs, etc.) around the playground, basketball, volleyball and badminton courts returning them to the large Rubbermaid toy box we keep in the playground area for just this purpose.

By this time it was almost 5 pm and time to end another work day at SDC......the office had been quite dead most of the afternoon, so TLE left Sam to man the office for the rest of the night and came home with me an hour early.  We had bought some chicken kabobs the day prior at Hannaford's in Ellsworth so I turned on the Sea-B-Que and grilled them.  TLE prepared a side salad, and some rice to accompany them.....outstanding!

We watched more episodes of 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee' laughing until we cried.  We loved the episode featuring Larry David (he and Jerry produced the sitcom 'Seinfeld' for 9 years).....he and Jerry Seinfeld were hilarious together.  I love laughing before I go to bed.  It kind of clears my head and makes it easy for me to fall asleep.

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The Asticou.........

6:07 am - Thursday - July 19th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 57º F, 80% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the south.......sunny, blue skies with a forecast high for today of 74º F.

Wednesday, while cool initially, was quite humid with a forecast high of 77º F.  We decided to take a week off from hiking and just do a little site seeing later in the day.  I began my day watching stage 11 of the Tour de France.  There is something pleasant about watching bicycle riders suffer for hours climbing 12% grades in the Alps from the comfort of your leather recliner.  I've done enough of that in my life spending hours climbing in hot weather over mountain passes day after day on a 500 mile bike rides not that many years ago.....I know what it feels like.  Certainly, I do not ride as fast as these guys do, or as many miles in a single day as they do, and I was never riding for the 'yellow jersey', but I do understand the suffering.  It is suffering to which you willingly submit yourself.......it is for the sense of accomplishment, and for the reward.......the equally long downhill.  You stand on the pedals for mile after mile with the wind in your face........all the pain of a few moments prior is forgotten.  

Stage 11 was completed around noontime, and we were in the VW shortly thereafter driving over to Northeast Harbor to have lunch at the Asticou Inn and Restaurant.........Yelp gives them a solid 4 stars on 34 reviews.  We arrived just after 12:30 pm, and were shown immediately to a table on the outside deck......perfect!

The restaurant was quite busy and we both felt we were lucky to get a table so quickly.  The view of Northeast Harbor was perfect and exceeded our expectations........

......we quickly ordered some adult beverages......white wine for TLE, and a local stout for moi......

.....like Jordon Pond, the Asticou Restaurant offers popovers and tea.......TLE ordered the popovers (no tea), and I their Lobster Quiche.  The service was excellent, and within minutes of receiving our drinks we had our food......

......according to my sister-in-law, Kay Houghtaling, we have become excellent 'Rusticators' (The term “rusticators” is used to describe families who came to spend long summers on the coast of Maine. Rusticators started arriving in the late 1800’s. The word rusticator is derived from the word rustic, which relates to country living).....I guess I would have to agree with her.

 

We lingered over our food and drinks until almost 2 pm when we finally asked for our check.  Right across the street from the Inn are the Asticou Azalea Gardens, so we decided to walk over and check them out.......

......unfortunately, the azaleas went through their blooming cycle a number of weeks ago.  I can only imagine how beautiful the garden would have looked with them in full bloom.  As it was the gardens were quite lovely........

......and it was a very nice way to walk off our lunch!  We were home about 2:45 pm.....time for a nap for moi.

We watched some more 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee', and some recorded shows.  I was in bed a little after 9 pm as it is back to work on Thursday!

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Binging......

7:39 am - Wednesday - July 18th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 66º F, 96% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the north......sunny today with a forecast high of 79º F.  Rained most of the night and is quite humid this morning.

We awoke to threatening skies and high humidity, as well as forecasts of thunderstorms and copious amounts of rain......the forecasts came true, but well into the afternoon.  We are definitely not fans of hiking in the rain, or in high humidity (I guess that's kind of redundant, eh?) so we stayed home.  We had slept in until almost 8:30 am, and didn't have breakfast until after 10 am.  TLE whipped up a batch of sourdough toast, fried eggs and a lot of well done bacon.....I was in heaven......I hadn't had bacon for a couple of fortnights.

I wasn't in the mood for reading so I suggested to TLE that we finish watching season two of 'The Crown' on Netflix.  I decided I would try to connect to Netflix via the campground WiFi.  I was not very optimistic, whatsoever, but was totally surprised that I could, and not only that, we never had any buffering whatsoever......the streaming was flawless......AMAZING!  I have to say that over the almost 7 years we have been on the road we have never encountered campground WiFi as good as we have here at SDC.....seriously.  About 90% of the time campground WiFi is worthless, and if you are able to connect it drops out continuously.  Not so here at SDC.  

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee - Jerry Lewis

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee - Brian Regan

After watching episode 10 of season 2 we decided to binge watch a series by Jerry Seinfeld called 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee'.  It was launched in 2012, but I have only just become aware of it.  Each episode is about 9-22 minutes long and features Jerry Seinfeld driving cool, unique cars to pick up fellow comedians, and go out for coffee.  It is actually quite funny, and at times you will find yourself laughing uncontrollably. One of the funniest, for us, was when he picked up Jerry Lewis.....it was hilarious, and his episode featuring Brian Regan had me in tears.  They are all funny and I would recommend this as a 'binge project' for sure.

Finally, about 3:30 pm it began to thunder (didn't see any lightning), and then rain, and it rained on and off all evening and into the night.  We went to bed shortly after 10 pm with smiles on our faces.....that is really the best kind of way to end any day!

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