Campground Tales

 Best quotable ever. 

Greg: I know my wood. 

I'm sure he does....

Tonight a mother and her son came into the office to check in.
While the mom was being helped by Sloane*, the young boy was browsing through the store. 
Neither Sloane nor myself realized that the boy and the lady were together. 

When Sloane asked the woman for her license plate number, she went outside to look for it. As soon as the door closed we heard/saw the boy start running from the store, past us, and out the door. We both looked at him, thinking he may have stolen something but as soon as he made it out the door we both heard him yell "Mom, what the heck!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Sloane and I burst out laughing... 


*Name has been changed for confidentiality purposes... 

I was checking a person in today and the person reserved an electric, water and sewer site. Those sites are usually  used for trailers who can hook up to the sewer pipes for their washrooms. 

Anyway, this person rented it as a tent site. As I was checking her in and she asked me some questions about it. 

Her: So I reserved the electric, water and sewer site, right?
Me: Yes, that's right. 
Her: Okay, so that means that we'll have a washroom and faucets there? Like, a sink? 
Me: No, it's usually reserved for trailers. So by electric, water and sewer we mean that there will be hookups there for you to use in trailer units. There will be a water tap there for you, but no washroom. We have public washrooms you can use. 
Her: Oh, okay. Is there an extra fee to use the washrooms. Do we have to pay a service fee or something or have we paid for that already? Is that what you meant by electric and sewer?
Me: *head on desk*

I was on the phone with a customer the other day, and he was making reservations.

So I asked, "How many people in your party?"
"My wife, myself, and two young ones!"

Then I hear in the background,
"I'M NOT YOUNG".

Hahahaha.
Kids are cute.

I had a fun phone call from a lady in Chicago today.

Her: Do you drive on the same side of the road in Canada as we do in the US?
Me: Yes, yes we do.
Her: Oh, that would have been fun crossing the border and having to drive on a different side of the road. Is everything in a different language there?
Me: No.. it's mostly in English. There will be some French in some places, but always accompanied by English.
Her: I think it'll just be such a treat for the kids to be in the car, driving in Canada.

Yes, big treat! They'll soon discover that it looks and feels the same as driving in America.

Working at the front desk entails more than just helping customers in person and on the phone, there are also the dreaded emails.

Last year, I received an email from someone which read a little like this:

Hello,
I am a tent trailer.

I would like to stay in your campground (... add details about dates/people, etc... here).

Tank you,
Customer name here.

This email and the laughter that followed led to the following graffiti drawing being left on my facebook wall by pinkspiderhsb







I responded in kind with this image:




Because I was new, one of the other employees saw this drawing and thought that perhaps it was a new form of training. Drawings of the trailers that I would be seeing all summer. Which explains the second graffiti that was left for me.

In the system we use at the campground, if someone does something that's just not cool we can flag their account with a violation. That way, if they ever try to come back again we know what they've done before and can decide the appropriate action.

This is my all-time favourite violation.


Violation Description
Up all night until 3am totally smashed. Started playing disco music at 2:30am and dancing around the site. 3 other people on the site.
left his fire burning all night.

Action Taken
Told them to get to bed

Follow up
Must speak with the Bossman before he returns to the park

Melinda and I started drawing our very own campground comic strip.

Here is the one that if I remember correctly, started them all! (Click to enlarge)

I hope that we can keep this community active, so here's an older story that still makes me O_e'.

This is a conversation that took over the phone. Her is obviously the customer.

Me: Hello, campground!
Her: Hi. What's the weather report?
Me: I'm... sorry?
Her: The weather, what's it going to be like next week?
Me: ... I don't know?
Her: SERIOUSLY?
Me: ... yes?
Her: ...
Me: You... could check online at weather.ca, just enter the city name, or the newspaper.
Her: YOU DON'T KNOW?
Me: O_O NO.
Her: *hangs up*

I just thought I'd kick-start the comm with a little post about some classics scenarios that occur at the campground. Now, if you know anything about working in a tourist area, you'll know that you can get some annoying people all the time every now and then and there can be some really stupid questions asked. Here are just a few examples of what I like to call The Classics.

**Note: This campground is located in Canada and is very close to the US/Canadian border, so many of our campers are American tourists.**

Scenario 1: The Currency Issue
Me: *rings up items* Your total comes to ___ dollars.
Tourist: Is that in American dollars?
Me: *pause* No, Canadian dollars. (We are in Canada)
Tourist: But what's it in American?
Me: Okay, well with the 10% exchange rate it will come to ___ US dollars.
Tourist: What??
Me: ..... O_o'

Scenario 2: The Exchange Rate Issue
Me: Okay, your total comes to ___ dollars.
Tourist: What's that in American?
Me: *calculates it with a 10% exchange rate* It'll be ___ US dollars.
Tourist: WHAT! ARE YOU TRYING TO RIP ME OFF??!!!
Me: Uh... no. 10% is pretty good right now, a lot of places do it at par or they only give back Canadian change. We give back American change and give a fairly decent exchange rate.
Tourist: You know what. Nevermind! I don't want it anymore if you're going to rip me off so badly!
Me: Okay..... *in my head: seriously???*

Scenario 3: The 'How Do We Get There' Issue
Me: *on the phone* Hello. [insert campground name here]
Tourist: Hi this is Mr. Smith here. We're checking in later today, but we need some directions. We're just at home now, how do we get to you?
Me: ....Ummm...Where are you?
Tourist: In Buffalo.
Me: Umm. I can't really give you directions in the States because I'm not familiar with the roads. But if you go on Google Maps, I can give you our address and you can go from there.
Tourist: You can't give me directions to your own place??
Me: Well, I can give you directions once you reach one of the border crossings, but I live in Canada, so I'm not familiar with all the US roads.
Tourist: *muttering* Okay, fine. What's the address of your place then?

Thanks to cheeves who reminded me of these:

Scenario 4: The Lost Tourist (Part 1)
Tourist: *on the phone* Hi, I just crossed into Canada and I don't know where to go.
Me: Okay, which border did you cross?
Tourist: The one into Canada.
Me: Alright, do you know which border you went through? There are three in our area.
Tourist: The one that goes from the US into Canada.
Me: Alright, did you enter Canada through the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge, the Rainbow Bridge or the Peace Bridge?
This usually ends in one of three ways:
1. Tourist: I'm in Detroit now. (which, btw is NO WHERE near us.)
2. Tourist: *says one of the three listed, then I give directions*
3. Tourist: I don't know. (Possibly the most annoying answer ever)

Scenario 5: The Lost Tourist (Part 2)
Tourist: *over the phone* I just got off the highway and I'm lost.
Me: Alright, let me see if I can help you. What exit did you get off?
Tourist: One that said Niagara Falls. I'm driving down a street, there are some stores on the left and a Tim Hortons
Me: ..... O_o' (note: there are Tim Hortons on almost every street corner)


That's all we have for now. Until next time... Happy camping!