Go to Church in San Felipe, or Play in Vegas?

We are having breakfast in the church parking lot, which also serves as a basketball court.  I forgot to pack my dress, but of course no one minded.  What a treat!....both the breakfast and the Sacrament Meeting...which turned out to also be a testimony meeting....as it was New Year's Day.  We toasted 2012 with glasses of premium fresh-squeezed from a street vendor and gobbled up giant cookie-breads from the local paneria.  San Felipe had a new LDS chapel, sitting like a light up on a hill.  In fact, one of the members (a Catholic from the Bronx) told how it had drawn her inside where she found truth after truth and asked the missionaries to explain how that can be.  It turned out to be modern revelation through modern prophets.  This woman gave up everything, including her family (who rejected her and her baptism) to follow Jesus Christ. 

Luke 18:29-30 reads:  "There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting."

With a prayer for safety, and a carload of Chinese-Mexi food, we crossed the border at Mexicali (the only city in Mexico with a real "China Town").  Beggars worked the lines of waiting cars, so we shared our stir-fried and the rest of our pesos with them.

 Newel, the machine, drove straight to The Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, where we were dazzled by rows of chandeliers and tanks of brilliant tropical fish.  Our new rooms were so posh we didn't want to touch anything.  So we just stared at the opulence and curled up in the most comfy beds we'd ever met.  It was the formula for perfect, instant sleep.

Monday morning was a bit chilly for a swim, so we started off with the hot tub.  That's Maya in the Tinkerbell suit.  She flew everywhere, even down the twisting, see-through water slide that zipped through the shark tank.  Here Daddy tried to keep up.

Amazing! Once we were warmed from the hot tub, it was into the pool to swim with the sharks. With your nose pressed to the tank it really was just like you were swimming with these giants...with no scuba gear required. Perfect for a claustrophobic. It was enthralling...really! Arden is at the firepit, getting some BTUs...then back to shooting the shark tank on the slide.

 

Engineer Newel had to get back to his project and Arden needed to get himself back in school... so what do we do without them? Why relax on the giant stuffed lounges and take pictures of shiny buildings and then climb them to get "aerial" views of downtown Las Vegas and the "original strip".

I struck gold!  "The Hand of Faith" was right in the lobby, all along.  This is the biggest nugget known at 61 lustrous pounds.  How did the Golden Nugget ever afford to buy it?  RU kidding?  Bob talked one gambler into quitting while she was ahead, but most seem to think their faith in their bets will make them winners.  Read more about this nugget here.  So did I gamble?  No.  But I did put money in a slot once on a field trip with some of my Earth Science students.  I was trying to give a lesson on what a waste of money it is, and the pull of the handle resulted in the sound of coins dropping and students laughing.

Swimming with Sharks ...in Las Vegas?

My New Year's Resolution:  Go down the 3-story water slide.  I've never been down even a 2-foot water slide in my life.  Bob nixed the idea:  "Act your age; you'll break your back and be an invalid for the rest of your life!"  Actually I was only worried about my feet.  If I don't keep them perfectly warmed, I get frost bite...that's how inferior my circulation is.  But it's a new year, and it's time to stop living in fear (my miserable enemy).  When Bob wasn't looking, I did it!!  When I came up from the water I realized all kinds of fears had been washed away.  The sharks had liberated me!!

I took off exploring (on my own).  Upstairs was another pool with in-water lounges, surrounded by double beds, complete with pillows.  Need I say this was an "adults only" area? 

It could be busy during the day, but I found out "The Retreat" was open late.  When the sun was setting, I had the pool and cabanas to try out all on my own.

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I hastened through the casino next, trying to hold my breath to limit the damage from second-lung smoke.  Outside the half-dome cover over Fremont Street was lit up with ads.   Zip-line enthusiastics went by squealing overhead.  I was invited to be a street magician's assistant.  Fun.  He was from Switzerland and was loaded with charm and talent.  Then I watched spray paint artists create fascinating art with unimaginably quick strokes and clever shielding of areas they wanted free from an added color.  But I was undeterred in my quest.  Focus, Eileen... focus.   I wanted to find... chocolate...the darker the better.  Walgreen's had just the fix I needed.

I couldn't resist taking the above picture of this Fremont Street classic. You really can eat free if your are 350 pounds (minimum). "Nurses" are your waitresses, because you will clog every available artery with the food they serve. At the "Heart Attack Grill" you have to walk in on your own, but they have an ambulance to assist in your departure.  As glitzy as Vegas gets, I kept being drawn back to the shark tank and the giant aquarium at our Rush Tower registration desk.  It had a wondrously well-designed, high-end restaurant wrapped around behind the aquarium.   It beckoned to me each time I walked by.  The fish and I became fast friends, as we had to stay for 3 days before we could get a plane.  They raised the price of our room $20 each day we stayed.  Intertesting.

With plenty of time, I made a movie of Las Vegas chandeliers.  Really!  Ask me, and I'll share it.

I took one last swim, but this time all of the way around the shark tank.  I thought the water would be cooler on the back side (the shaded part of the pool) but it wasn't.  The coldest part was standing under one of the water falls.  I hadn't been swimming in so long...it was a truly FREEing experience.

Below is the poster the hotel has hung outside to lure visitors in.  Come shoot the tube!

We finally flew out...to Minneapolis and then to Orlando.  We flew right over our kids' home on Lake Fredrica.  What a beautiful sight.  Let's play tigers and go fish on the dock!

Getting a job at a KOA or RV Resort

Playa Del Rio RV Resort & Yacht Club

 There are many places on the internet that list jobs...but avoid the "farms" where old listings are posted just so you'll fall into "fields" of ads and offers.  I like this list of jobs because it has the date it was posted.  We are currently testing some of the ads to see if there's still a job attached to them...i.e., Playa Del Rio on the Gulf Coast. 

Another add we're responding to:  "Wow" will be the first thing you'll say after one look at this amazing, amenities-packed KOA in the heart of Central Florida. Splash in one of the region's largest pools after a game of sand volleyball. Pull your rig into an RV site complete with digital cable TV and a brick fireplace on the patio.  Work out in the exercise room.... then relax in the gentle breezes and shade of oaks and palms.  Jump on KOA's Shuttle to Disney, Universal, SeaWorld or Wet 'N' Wild and enjoy it all.   [OK!  We were sold...and they were advertising online for help.  We were gung-ho to apply because Craig & Tanya live close by and the LDS Church is "just across the street".] 

The first thing to do is call to see if the job is still available.  It turned out the ad we read online was not fresh.  But we sent our application in anyway, in case someone had to bail and an opening came up.  The owners sent us an email encouraging us to keep them in mind for next season.  That's just it.  The jobs fill up fast, before the season starts.  So the second thing to do is your research.  Make sure you are applying for a job that you will enjoy...for the entire commitment.  Go online and search the name of the resort or KOA with the key words "worked", "job", or something like that because people love to blog about their camp hosting jobs....and you'll usually get very frank opinions about how it was.

The reason you need to narrow down your options to the area you'd most like to live in and the work you'd most like to do, is there's an overwhelming number of camping locations. 

The third thing to do is to put together an informal resume that pinpoints the skills and experience you have that match the job.  You'll need a current picture of yourself and your rig.  It's best to email your application, and then follow up with a hard copy in the mail (if you are really interested in the position.) Then the final thing to do is an evaluation:  Focus on what you want and do your homework so you don't get stuck in a bad situation.

For instance... I found a compelling RV Adventure site, called Traveling on the Outskirts with the true stories of a young couple dedicated to living on the road.   Last year they were desperate (bad condition) for a workamping position and watched the postings religiously on workamping.com .  One came up at Sun N Fun RV Resort in Sarasota, Florida. This is a huge place with 1,515 sites and activities galore.  Our young adventurers called, sent a flaming resume with superior references, and then aced the phone interview to land the job.  The only problem was they didn't get the details on how they were to be paid and how much their spot would cost them...or even what the spot was like.  It turned out to be $450 a month for a little strip with no privacy whatsoever and a wage $3 less than anyone else was getting and no possibility of making a living...as they were working for tips outside in Florida's coldest winter anyone could remember.  You can read their almost tragic story at: The Real Deal   (A Reality check for campworkers.)