Postcard from Washington

We be a little tired, having worked harder than we’re used to for two full weeks, but we be happy with our first job here at Millersylvania State Park. Southeast Publications gives rookies a tough job to start with, and it didn’t take us long to figure out that no one’s made any money on this park in a very long time, if ever. It is remote and the printing costs are very high because of the Park’s need for recycled paper and a pocket fold. Our commission comes out of what’s left after the printing cost is taken out of our gross revenue. The Park Manager was not very encouraging when we started the job. He said “the last lady had a real hard time.” (I guess so, she was here a month and sold six ads.) We were tickled to tell Ranger Sherm that we have sold 14 ads and still have some “maybes” out there.

Dave has been the greatest support team. He didn’t feel like he was doing enough, just driving me around and doing the maps. Never mind the fact that I could never have found my way around Olympia the way I needed to. Davey is really into it now, though. We have discovered that if we call back on an undecided prospect with a nicely done sample ad for his company, they almost always buy. One guy was right in the middle of his turn-down when I handed him the ad Dave had made – he just looked at it and said “I’ll go get you a check.” We didn’t realize a lot of people just can’t create an ad, can’t put their ideas on paper, and they don’t want to admit it, so they resist buying until they see that it is done and it looks good. It also establishes our credibility and professionalism, hence builds trust. Dave’s ads sold four or five of our total sales and we will use his skills more now that we have it figured out. our managers tell us that they don’t include computer work in the training because few people in the generally older sales group have the skills, but the half dozen who can do it can double the average gross of a job. Yeeee-haw!

We’re having a little champagne tonight (8-31), our last night in this beautiful fir grove. As you can see from the picture, we’re maintaining our high level of dining experience. Ed has 35,000 pennies glued to his Sunset Grill signs and grills a mean burger.

9-2-05 We’ve settled into Midway RV Park in Centralia for 6 day’s work. The park can only give us until the 11th, but we can come back if we haven’t sold out the map by then. We have TV coverage here and are horrified by the results of Hurricane Katrina. We be upset about it, but feel we have to change our plans to go to Maine for our friend Carol Perry’s birthday party. We fear being stranded without fuel somewhere along the way, never mind the increasing cost. Cygnus gets about 8 miles per gallon and somehow we don’t notice the cost when we move around as slowly as we do, but to make a 10 day trip over so many miles at possibly $4 per gallon is daunting. We are really disappointed.

We are enjoying being close to family up here in Washington. Dave’s sister Carole is coming down for Labor Day and we’re taking Honey-Ma to dinner this Sunday. We had a great visit with Dave and Jacqueline Pratt last week and will see them again next week. Being married to Dave’s Dad was a hard time in my life, but I got Jason, and I’m so glad that Dave is still in my life. Dave was 16 and Kevin was 8 when Jason was born; they helped raise him. (Thinking about it, no wonder I had gray hair at 30!) Kevin and Shelly and Morgan have been gone but we will be able to see them before we leave.

Now that our plans have changed, we don’t know for sure what we will do. There are other parks to work in Washington and our managers know we would like to work in Idaho, Oregon and Utah. The Southwest beckons as the weather turns colder …. we’ll see.

Xander is 8 months old. We love this picture of him with both of us – so typical of us!

We love you all,

Sam