We had a pretty low key first week here in National City, near San Diego. We are camping for the next five more weeks in the back corner of a parking lot at a very large mall: the Westfield Plaza Bonita. We are parked between the WanderingKolbs – Ted and Jan, our managers – and the carnival/pumpkin patch which will be opening Friday the 27th.
Our first week consisted of orientation, tours, and testing out the giant slide.
Jan and I were in charge of hiring – and will continue for a few more days. Which is mostly keeping ourselves busy on our phones from 9 to 5 waiting for applicants to drop in.
Ted and Tom were in charge of making sure all the rides and electricity was hooked up properly and getting everything spruced up and ready.
The Pumpkin Station company has crews that set up their five locations with straw and pumpkins and fencing – and in the case at our location, rides and bouncy stuff.
So we have it pretty easy these first two weeks, just getting everything ready for opening.
The goats and rabbits were delivered. Today the crew came to spread the straw and clean the rides and here I sit typing this while watching it all!
The place looked pretty bare before they brought in all the pumpkins. Once it’s open, it sounds like it will get pretty crazy with long days and no time off until after Halloween. Monday through Friday we will have mornings available to get groceries or do laundry, but there will be no full days off so yesterday (Sunday) we took advantage of our last play day and went – where else – to the beach!
More specifically, we went to Mission Bay. We piled in with Ted and Jan and the kayaks (we both have two-seater inflatables) and met up with their daughter who had come to visit, and spent a lovely morning paddling around in the bay.
Then we had a picnic lunch and set off to find some seals – which we did up the road in LaJolla.
So we had a nice fun day and now it’s back to work – for me learning cash register operations and for Tom learning ride safety instruction.
I have to say, after seeing a video of how busy this place gets, and then hearing from Jan how crazy-busy it can get, I’ve been a little apprehensive about the whole gig. But now that we’re settling in, I feel like it will be fine. Tom, who has has a wider range of work experiences than I, has never had any doubts!
The best part is that we’ll be working with friends and that the owners seem like great people as well.
So there will probably be a big gap in the blog dates, as we will be focused on our J.O.B
Peace & Love, Joy
Rightlaners 