The Work Never Stops

Even though many of the COE campgrounds around Thurmond Lake are closed for the season, it’s a chance to take the time to do an in depth inspection of those facilities and get any discrepancies repaired for next season.

Marti and I put a temporary halt to our pin hunting to spend several days driving long distances around the lake to put a serious eyeball on the  25 campgrounds, day use areas and boats ramps owned and managed by the Corps Of Engineers.  It is kind of spooky driving around the closed areas, keeping a sharp lookout to not drive off the leaf covered roads.

                  

Things you take for granted have to be checked out, like signs, roads, fallen trees, rest rooms, lighting, even the boat ramp conditions.

                 

The ramps need to be examined to ensure their surfaces are in good condition and that gravel alongside the ramps is enough to keep boat trailers from dropping off the ramp.  As I walk over and inspect the ramp surface, Marti takes notes of the condition in a large notebook back in the truck.

                  

Once we’ve finished the inspections, we’ll compile a work list of necessary repairs to get into the maintenance log.  Some of the work will be done by contractors, other work will be done by the volunteers, saving the COE lots of scarce dollars.

One thing I can never understand is why some people have to use signs for target practice.  Mindless vandalism that wastes some of the scarce dollars that could be spent on other projects.  Not only was this sign shot up, it was then broken off and tossed on the ground.  Grrr!

                         

But it’s not all work and no play.  We had a great Thanksgiving dinner last week with all the COE rangers, employees and volunteers.  One of our favorite rangers, Pepper, was retiring after 26 years with the COE and she was honored at the dinner.  She and her husband restore John Deere tractors as a hobby so Marti and some of the other volunteers made little tractor favors out of candy to decorate the tables.

                  

Some crushed gingerbread cookies for dirt, gum, mints and Hersey kisses made cute little tractor decorations.

                 

They were a hit!

To all our friends, family and faithful blog followers, Happy Thanksgiving!

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