I’m a Winner!

Yesterday Amazon had their annual Peak Kick-off event. They’ve had this event each of the three years we’ve been here. They set aside about an hour for some fun to reward their employees for their hard work during the peak season before Christmas.

They have a local marching band lead a parade of employees through the facility. The plant manager dresses as Santa and the other managers dress as elves and Santa’s helpers. They hand out candy, play some games and give out door prizes.

Each year we’ve been here the event has been on Wednesday afternoon between the day and night shift. That has been our day off, but we walk over to get paid an hour of overtime for attending. Yesterday they drew names for prizes including two 40” TVs, two Toshiba touch screen laptops, a few IPods, a $500 Wal-Mart gift certificate, and about 25 Amazon gift cards. My name was called for a $25 Amazon gift card. Cool!!

The first year Kevin won a Kodak camera. We already had a nicer camera, so I sold it on eBay for about $60. Last year I also won a $50 Wal-Mart gift card during a power hour event.

They hold several power hours per department during peak. Everyone who achieves 100% or better of their work target during a power hour has their name put into a drawing for prizes. I squeaked by with 103% last year during one of these and got lucky to have my name drawn.

So, I think we’ve been very lucky hear at Amazon. And, not only have we been lucky, but we had our first two week paycheck put into our accounts. After all, that’s what we’re here for. The bank account is happy, happy!

Last Sunday we drove to Cherryvale, Kansas to check out the Big Hill Lake Corp of Engineers Recreation Area. It’s a very nice area with a large lake.

There was a nice campground with full hook-up sites for $20. Electric only sites were $17. We found a hiking trail that went along the lake. Although it was quite windy, the trees along the trail helped block the wind, and we enjoyed a great hike. I saw lots of beautiful trees in full fall color along the way to the park. However, most of the trees in the park were oak, so not much pretty color there.

Saturday we’re heading to Kansas City for an overnight visit with our son Korey and his wife Cathryn. We haven’t seen them since their wedding in August. They currently live in Omaha, so Kansas City is about half way between us. Since we won’t be seeing them for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year, we’ll be celebrating the holidays this weekend. I can’t wait to see them again!

Does anyone out there in blog land have any suggestions of things to do in Kansas City? We’re looking for ideas. I know there are supposed to be lots of fountains, so we’ll probably check that out. There’s also a microbrewery tour that I found so we might do that Sunday.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

A Trip to Tulsa and a Full Work Week

Last Saturday we drove the 70 miles to Tulsa to look at a fifth wheel and to check out the city. We had a good reason for wanting to look at this particular fifth wheel, because we had actually ordered a similar new one the week before from Freedom RV in Wisconsin.

Now that we’ve been fulltime RVing for almost four years, we had a very good idea what features we wanted in our home on wheels. Our current fifth wheel is very nice, but it is missing a few features we wanted. The three main features we really feel we need are a larger refrigerator, two air conditioners, and dual pane windows.

Our current home is a 2008 Jayco Designer. We have been Jayco owners since 1981 and have been very satisfied with the product. This will be our sixth Jayco trailer. We have ordered a 2014 Jayco Pinnacle 36REQS. The new unit will be about 41 feet, which is 4 feet longer than our current one. We bought the new truck last year with the intention of upgrading our fifth wheel in the future.

There is lots of debate about buying a used unit that is only a few years old. Many feel that all of the kinks are taken care of by that time, and you can get a better price. But, we wanted to buy a new one and order it with the exact options we wanted. We plan on keeping this one for a long time.

Camperland of Oklahoma in Tulsa had a similar unit on their lot. It’s not the same interior color plan, but we wanted to take a look and take some measurements. Here’s a picture of the outside. It comes with the automatic levelers, so that will be nice for Kevin in getting things set up outside.

Here’s a picture of the interior from the brochure. Again, these are not our colors, but you can get an idea of the floor plan.

The interior woodwork is a cherry finish. It’s a little darker than we would have liked, but that’s the way most fifth wheels are now.. I’m sure we’ll get used to it. Otherwise, we really like it. Because of the larger refrigerator, I’m not sure there is quite as much kitchen storage as we have now, but I’m sure we’ll figure it all out. I really like the fact that there are windows on all three sides of the living area for lots of natural light.

We have been researching this new purchase for about a year and negotiated with several RV dealers throughout the Midwest. It took some doing, but we think we got a decent price. We will pick it up in April when we go back to Wisconsin.

While in Tulsa we went to their fairly new River Walk Crossing area. There is a large outdoor area with a few restaurants, shops, an outdoor amphitheater, a large movie complex and apartments and condos along the Arkansas River. Many of the storefronts were still vacant. It looked like it was all quite new.

There is a walking path along the river. The river itself was quite low, and there were old tires and garbage visible down there. I think it would look much nicer if they cleaned up the river itself.

We were there early afternoon, and there weren’t many people around. There was a band warming up for an evening event.

This is a very nice sculpture garden at the entrance from the parking lot.

This River Walk area is near 96th Street and Riverside Drive. We drove all the way down Riverside Drive to 21st Street which is near the downtown area. There are several parks and a biking/jogging trail all the way along this drive. It looked like a very nice place for a bike ride. All along there are numerous bronze wild life statues. Very nice.

Here’s a statue right on the river near downtown.

We finished our first full 40 hour week at Amazon. Working as stowers is not too bad. My back and feet hurt by the end of the 10 hour shift, but that’s to be expected. My biggest problem is lack of sleep, but that’s also to be expected. Kevin prefers the night shift, so I deal with it. If it was just me, I’d work days. But, hey, only seven weeks to go! I’m working for a new fifth wheel. That’s a great incentive :)

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Hardening Week is Done

We’ve completed our first week at Amazon as stowers. The first week is a hardening week, which means you only work five hour shifts instead of ten. So, we worked 5:30 to 10:30 pm this week. I wish it would be like that the entire time we are here. However, then we’d only make half the money.

We are stowers this year, which means putting the products on the shelves. It’s not a hard job. You take a large cart full of stuff and put it on shelves in the area you are assigned to. It’s really amazing how much stuff you can fit onto those shelves. You can spend hours in one row just filling those bins with anything you can imagine.

Amazon uses random stowing, so there is all kinds of stuff in every area. Everything is scanned, so their amazing computer system always knows where everything is.

Stowing is an okay job. Since you can fit so much in an area, you aren’t really moving around that much. Just slowly working your way up an aisle. My back was hurting after five hours, so I’m sure the ibuprofen will be needed for ten hours.

There is a chance that as the Christmas season gets closer, we will be moved to pickers. I would prefer that, but time will tell.

Today we’re going to Tulsa to look at some RVs at Camperland RV of Oklahoma. You just never know what we might find. We’ve never been to Tulsa, and I hear they have some nice parks along the river in the midtown area. There is rain in the forecast, so we’ll see how it goes.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Training Finished

We arrived at Big Chief RV Park across the street from Amazon in Coffeyville, Kansas on Tuesday afternoon. I had made a reservation back in April, and called the week before we arrived to confirm. I was told there was no problem, they had a site for us.

When we arrived, we were told that there were over 70 sites occupied by pipeline workers and Amazon campers under 40 feet would have to double up on sites. We weren’t happy with that, but went with the managers on the golf cart to take a look. They wanted us to double up with another 5th wheel that was about the same size as ours. There was no way we could fit on that site. Plus, they were already plugged into the 50 amp plug. We were not going to accept a 30 amp plug in the same box as the 50 amp.

Eventually, they put us in our own site, but had us pull forward so they could fit a smaller camper behind us if needed. We have a full hookup site with 50 amp. If someone else gets parked behind us, they would have to plug into the same box as us, in the 30 amp plug, share the same sewer hole and water spigot.

A few Amazon workers have left this campground and gone to another park in town because they were not willing to share their site. Hopefully, this will leave enough open sites so we won’t have to share. The only reason we stay here is the proximity to Amazon. We ride our bikes to work most every day which saves on fuel and time. Amazon is not happy that the campground is doing this.

Training was on Thursday and Friday from 1 pm to 5:30 pm. It was the same stuff we’ve done each year so rather boring, but everyone has to do it. There have been some changes at Amazon this year.

They are stocking much more product than ever before. There will be over 1 million items coming in each week for seven weeks. That’s a lot of stuff. For that reason, all campers have been assigned to inbound up to this point. Inbound is getting the stuff into the plant and stocked on the shelves.

We have been assigned to be stowers on the night donut shift. That’s the shift we requested, but not the job. We had asked to be pickers like last year. Stowers put the items on the shelves, pickers take them off. I think stowing will be okay. You don’t move around as much, but its not standing in one spot all the time, and that’s what we definitely didn’t want to do. There is the possibility that once the Christmas rush begins, we may be able to move to the picker job, but no promises.

Another change is that there is no mandatory overtime for campers this year. The maximum you have to work is four ten hour days. Once overtime becomes available, you can volunteer. They think this will work out okay, because the only reason campers are here is to make money, so they will still work the overtime. For me, I’ll maybe work some overtime, but I’m thrilled that I don’t have to if I don’t feel up to it.

We start work on Monday. The first week is a “hardening” week where you only work a half shift each day. Then the next week we start the four ten hour days. We work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 5:30 pm to 4:00 am. Another adventure begins. It’s only eight weeks, so not so bad.

Our son Korey and his wife Cathryn were on their honeymoon this week. They went on a Disney cruise and return today. I can’t wait to hear all about it. It was Cathryn’s first cruise. I hope she enjoyed cruising as much as we do.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Visiting Iowa and Missouri

We spent four nights at George Wyth State Park in Waterloo, Iowa. We really like this park. The weather was beautiful the whole time.

We did a little bike riding and some hiking. Kevin’s brother Josef is a professor at Wartburg College in Waverly. It was homecoming weekend at the college, so on Saturday we wandered around the campus checking out the activities.

The college has a new science professor who has brought some creepy, crawly friends to his classroom. Josef took us to the room so we could see the snakes, lizards and giants bugs. Very interesting. The same science professor also has four African desert tortoises that he allows to roam in a courtyard. After the homecoming weekend, the tortoises were going home with the professor for the winter.

We did some hiking with Josef and his family and went out to dinner both Friday and Saturday night. It was great visiting with family.

On Sunday we left Iowa and headed to Wallace State Park in Cameron, Missouri. It’s about an hour north of Kansas City, conveniently located just two miles off of I-35. We stayed here last year, but didn’t get to explore the park because we were dealing with our tire blowout the whole time.

This year we didn’t have any tire problems (keeping my fingers crossed)!!! Today we hiked 3.5 miles. There is a small lake in the park and lots of hiking trails. The leaves have some color in them, but not too much yet.

I was hoping for some nice reflective photos, but it wasn’t meant to happen. This is the best I could get.

Tomorrow we leave and head to Big Chief RV Park in Coffeyville, Kansas until just before Christmas. We’ll be working at Amazon. We got a call from Amazon today confirming our job assignments. We will be working 8th shift which is nights on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and our job will be stowers. That’s the shift we asked for, but not the job.

We had asked to be pickers again like we were last year. Stowers put the products in the bins rather than taking them out. It means staying in one area of bins and filling them with products. There is some walking, but not as much as pickers. Hopefully, stowing won’t be too much standing in one spot. That’s what we definitely don’t want to be doing. We’ll see how it goes. Our orientation is Thursday and Friday, so we’ll know more after that.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Repairs Done – Iowa Here We Come

We left our camp hosting position in Beaver Dam Monday morning and headed to Burlington RV for some repairs. We had an appointment to have the cosmetic damage from last October’s tire blowout damage repaired. Also, we were having them replace the skylight which got a hole in it when the tree branch attacked our roof in Texas last March. Kevin had repaired the tear in the rubber roof using Dicor tape, and that has held up very well.

I had communicated with Burlington RV during the summer to make sure all parts were here and all painting of those parts was done before we arrived. We had an appointment for 1:00 pm on Monday. When we arrived, we were told they could not get to the repairs until Tuesday morning. They have a free hookup area in their parking lot so that’s where we spent Monday night with 50 amp electric service and water available.

They had two technicians come in at 7:30 am on Tuesday and start early to get the job done in one day. We were out by 7:30 am. That’s pretty early for Kevin’s liking. We went out for breakfast and then hung out in the RV dealer’s waiting room for a few hours watching TV and using their computer.

We had heard lots of good reviews for the movie Gravity in 3D, so we went to the noon matinee. It was good, but I wouldn’t say it was outstanding. But, it was something to do. After the movie we headed to the outlet mall. Most of the stores are name brand, and the prices are way more than we are willing to spend. I did buy some underwear at a good price and bought some lotion at Bath and Body Works.

Then it was back to the RV dealer for another hour of waiting. The good news is the repairs are all done, and everything looks great. We’re spending tonight in their parking lot again, and tomorrow we head to Waterloo, Iowa for a few days. We’re going back to George Wythe State Park where we stayed last year.

Kevin’s brother lives nearby, so we’ll be visiting with family for a few days before we head to Coffeyville, Kansas for our job at Amazon. The weather has been beautiful again and is predicted to be great the rest of the week.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

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