Well it has been quite a while since my last post…lots going on and yet not much of anything.
Just to sort of catch you up…on our way back to the lower 48 states we spent a couple of days at Banff and Lake Louise. They are both beautiful places and I am so glad we had the opportunity to see them but “been there, done that”. We saw more tourists in these 2 locations than we dealt with in all of Alaska. Our last stop with Susan and Mark was at Wheat Montana in Three Forks, MT. We had separated in Calgary but caught up with each other again for one final picture.
Bob and I were going to head for Yellowstone National Park to meet our friends Janie and Vince Fleckinger. Janie and Vince had been working in Utah this past summer. Then our plans were to head to Kansas where we would be working for Amazon.com starting on Sept. 27. But, after talking to friends that were already at Amazon, we decided to forgo the Yellowstone trip and head straight to Coffeyville, Kansas. We found out that the only part of the RV park that had full hookups was starting to fill and we did not want to be stuck with only 30 amps of electricity for the next several months. We left Calgary, Alberta on Monday, August 31st and arrived in Coffeyville on Thursday, Sept. 2. We visited the Express Personnel office on Friday and were able to move our start date up to September 13. We secured our space at River Crest RV Park and got settled in for a few days. On Monday we took the rig to Joplin, MO…about an hours drive…for an appointment with Freightliner to have some routine maintenance done. We spent 4 nights in the Joplin area…actually we were in Quapah, OK…at Downstream Casino. Downstream is a casino that was built last year. They have an RV parking area for about 20 rigs with water and electricity…at no charge. And, they don’t care how long you stay! They even encourage you to use the pool and work out area at their lovely hotel. We returned to Coffeyville on Friday and started working on Monday the 13th. We had lunch at Cheddars one day and were seated next to this little darling who was really enjoying her food. How cute is she!
We are working nights on the donut shift…we work Monday, Tuesday…off Wednesday…then work Thursday and Friday. We work from 5:00 PM until 3:30 AM. Bob has chosen to work overtime on Wednesday nights…yours truly has chosen not to.
It is good to see folks that we have not seen since last year. Last year they hired 300 workampers and are hiring 500 this year. Amazon has had such good results from the workampers that they have started the same type of program at their Campbellsville, KY center. I believe their goal is to hire 50 workampers at that location for this peak season.
Moving on.
