June 1, 2008
A new summer season has begun.
The winter was cold and windy but the last week has been beautiful. The
docks are now built and are bigger than ever. The bumpers are around the gas
dock. A new water trampoline is in the lake along with the giant white
donut.
This year we will be featuring Schwans frozen ice cream treats in our new freezer and the
new fishing pontoon is almost ready to go. We also have a fancy new computer in
the game room that can read any kind of digital chip so you can pop the chip
out of your camera, go in the game room, pop it into the right slot and send
your LOST photos over your email. Now, how about that tech fans?
The old boards from the 50 foot mini-golf ship are almost all cleaned up. And
we’ve decided to get a new volleyball net this week. All the bikes are
cleaned up and tires fully inflated. Nothing ever stands still at LOST.
This weekend we had our first guest
reunion and it was amazing. It actually was a surprise 65th
birthday party for Bob (yes, that Bob) and folks were booking cabins from all
over the U.S. and also Germany and Sweden. Darwin and I needed to get Bob out
of the house for 3 hours on Saturday while everyone swooped
in and made preparations for the big surprise.
What were we going to do with
Bob? Well, just say the word “Menards” and he jumps in his pickup like a
dog that thinks you’re taking him for a walk past that cute poodle’s
house. We went to Menards and then to Bomgaards and then to HyVee. My
wife and Bob’s wife kept calling for us to buy stuff and it was taking a long
time and finally Bob said, “John, the next time your cell phone rings you just
throw the g**d** thing out the window!” I about choked to death trying to
keep from laughing. He was clueless, he had no idea we were stalling.
We finally returned and instead of
going to his house I drove to Lost Island Resort and Bob saw the driveway
jammed full of cars and said “wow, you guys are doing a great business for so
early in the season” – ha! still clueless. I
walked him out on the deck and you should have seen the shock. He
couldn’t believe it, and when he saw his friends from Germany and Sweden he
started crying.
Reunions. This is what we do best at LOST. We have something
for all ages here. The old folks sat on the shaded deck, the little kids
played on the water trampoline. The older kids were emailing their friends in
the game room. The paddle boat and kayaks were out on the water
constantly and groups were golfing all day. Two little girls, who had
never fished before, were hauling in bullheads like crazy. Even the party boat
was rented for an afternoon of cruising and tubing. Check out the photo
on the INFORMATION page of 4 little kids paddling a kayak built for two.
The family from Sweden is checking
out tomorrow and the mother came into the shop a few minutes ago and told us
they had been touring all around the country before they came to the reunion
but the next time they come to the U.S. they will spend their time at LOST
because the youngsters love it and don’t want to leave.
Monday everyone clears out and it
will seem so lonely. The first week in June is usually slow because most
kids are still in school. So, we’ll use the time to clean up and get
ready for our biggest season ever.
June 16, 2008
Early June was a series of
storms. They were spaced out 2-3 days and there was even a small funnel
cloud that passed over the lake but it was ill-formed and didn’t last
long. But our guests still had a good time. Lots
of golf, paddle boating and kayaking, and some biking. The kids
still did the water trampoline thing but it usually only lasted 15-30 minutes
because of the wind. Even when everyone was in the basement shelter when
the weather was threatening, everyone was in good spirits and it was just part
of the vacation experience.
But that’s only a memory now.
We have had great weather for several days and it’s going to last as far as they
are able to forecast. Today will be 77 with a 3 mph wind. And, the
fishing has been real good. Walleye are being caught every day which is great
for this time of year. On Saturday, four nice walleye were caught on our
dock using…….worms. The guests were fishing for bullheads but caught
walleye too! The hot tub is getting a lot of use and everyone seems to
love that new game – golf toss. It’s like a more challenging version of
horseshoes.
We had a really funny incident
yesterday. There were 3 little girls staying in the lodge – 5, 6, and 6
½. The 5 year old and 6 ½ year old were bouncing on the kiddie trampoline when the other little girl untied both
lines. There was just enough wind to gradually float the trampoline
away. The dad of the girls jumped into the paddleboat with his son and
tried to bring it back but they couldn’t control it. It floated near
shore and Casey (neighbor boy) grabbed an oar and jumped out to the
trampoline. He paddled while the girl’s dad paddled and they made it back
to my dock. I retied the lines and that’s the end of the story,
right? Wrong. I went up the stairs to the deck and there the two
six years stood waiting for me. They both said they were really sorry and they
held up their arms for a hug. We hugged and then one of the girls, named
Drew, said “hold out your arms” I did.
Then she said, “put them together”. I did.
The other girl whipped a rope out of her pocket and started wrapping it around
my wrists. Then to my shock, they actually knew how to tie the
knot! I said “what are you doing?”. Drew
said “You’ll see”. Then they each took me by the elbow and led me down
the stairs to the dock, walked me to the edge and ordered me to jump. I
laughed so hard I almost fell in. Then I begged them to untie me, which
they did. When I got back to the deck I told the father, “Stop letting
these girls watch reruns of Pirates of the Caribbean.” Maybe I’d better
stop calling myself Cap’n
Jack. Everyone was laughing. That made my day. Before they left for
home, all three little girls came up to me and asked if they could live at Lost
Island Resort. I told them they could visit whenever they wanted
to. I should have told them they should have thought of that before they
made me walk the plank. ;-)
A woodpecker decided to build a nest
inside the tree that overhangs the lake. Directly underneath the tree is
our paddleboat dock. I’ve never seen so much bird poop in my life.
Now we keep a mop and a squirter on the dock for the
hourly poop wash-down. I sure hope the little birdies grow up and fly
away real soon. For the first time ever, we also have a big robin’s nest
in our shed. I’ve tried to stay out as much as possible because the mama
robin dive bombs every time I get near. That shed now smells exactly like
the barns I remember from my childhood – a combination of straw and poop
smell. But this does help illustrate one of the things
this area is famous for and that is the birds. We have cardinals,
orioles, owls, eagles, hummingbirds, you name it. We are one of the best
bird watching spots in the United States with almost 300 native species and
dozens of migratory species passing through.
Today some of our best fishing
guests will be checking in and I look forward to the smell of breaded fish being
fried in their special peanut oil. Then on
Thursday its another big family reunion with lots of
kids. I sure hope they don’t tie me up and make me walk the plank.
June 17, 2008
I can’t believe I forgot this
item. We had a big family reunion about a week ago and the folks were
from Key West, Hawaii, Texas, Louisiana, and my hometown of Humboldt Iowa,
which was cool. They brought two Guitar Hero games to play in the game
room but I asked them if they wanted to use the 10 foot karaoke screen after it
got dark and they were real excited about that. So, for two evenings we
were blasting out 500 watts of rock while two kids (sometimes really OLD kids)
played guitar duets with the 10 foot screen displaying Guitar Hero III
graphics. They were fighting for their turns and it went on for
hours. I actually sat through most of it, it was so much fun. It
also got me thinking about that new wii game from
Nintendo. I’ll bet that would be a lot of fun too with this karaoke
system. If you are coming to our resort soon and have a wii or other video device you want to hook up, we can do it
(as long as other guests don’t object – we can always crank down the
volume).
Yesterday, a group of our regular
guests came back from Silver Lake with 80 huge bullheads. They had a big
fish fry using their patented peanut oil process and shared their feast with
Denise and I. The fish are biting. The
lake is calm. And it looks good for the rest of the week.
Last night we received some sad
news. A former lake-neighbor and great guy Mike Farrell passed away after
battling leukemia. Mike and Donna had been staying at Grandview but last
year bought their own really nice lake home here at LOST. We are really
sad that he didn’t get to enjoy it for long. Please join us in our
prayers for Mike and the family.
June 26, 2008
It’s been busy. Every year
gets a little better though and it gets a little easier. For example that
huge 50’ ship in the middle of the mini-golf course is gone and so are the four
rickety bridges over the creek. That’s less
things to mow around and less things to refurbish. I don’t think the
duffers mind too much but I do wish there were more shade trees around the golf
course.
Karaoke and our 10 foot projection
system just got easier too. We tried to do karaoke 3 times last week but
two times there was a light rain that ran us indoors. So, I sawed a hole
in the storage cabinet with a little flap. Now if there is a light rain
or sprinkle I can keep projecting the image without worrying about the bulb
exploding. I know I should have done this years
ago but there have been entire years where we didn’t get rained on. This
year, I was motivated and it works out fine.
We’ve had so much fun with our
guests this year and we were talking about it last night. We don’t have
to work as hard because of the many improvements we’ve made and frankly we are
working a little smarter and also most of the guests are like family now since
they come back year after year. Another thing that is really great about
the returning guests, is when we get a new family there are other families who
help them get to “know the ropes” around here. This week we have some
returning guests with a little 6 year old girl who became friends with a new
little boy and really showed him how to have fun at LOST. It was so
cute. Denise asked him if she was his new girl friend and he shot back
“No! She’s just a friend, ok?” Denise shouldn’t mess with 6 year old
romance.
You never stop learning about
yourself when you own a resort. Every year things happen that are
learning experiences. I didn’t think I would have a problem with a bloody
medical emergency but have never faced one until last week. A guest was
over at Silver Lake cleaning fish and deeply sliced the palm of his hand.
He and his son tried wrapping the wound in a towel and applied direct pressure
but the blood just poured out. They got into their truck and drove back
to LOST but by the time they got here the towel was
drenched, his shorts were covered in blood, and a pool was on the truck
floor. I ran into the shop and called 911 and then ran over to him to
help. Both men and the three boys were pretty upset by now and pressure seemed
to have no effect on the flow of blood. I whipped off my belt, wrapped it
around his lower arm and pulled. The bleeding stopped. Five minutes
later the ambulance arrived and everything worked out fine. 10 stitches was all it took and they still had a great vacation.
But, I learned that I don’t get queasy around a lot of blood and I guess I
should have known that since I’ve gutted probably a million fish. The
emergency techs are really good in Ruthven and we’re very fortunate to have a
resort so close to emergency medical services. A lot of resorts are so
remote that you either fix it yourself or hope you can wait the 30 minutes
before help arrives.
We have had some very important
transitions in the Gochenouer family. Sunday, June 22nd, Jim
retired as pastor at the Ruthven Methodist Church and on Monday I helped him
move to Belmond. The retirement dinner was great with dozens of his
friends wishing him well. We are going to sorely miss him at LOST.
Not only was he a great karaoke singer on the deck but he also helped out every
year in one way or another. Oh, and he was our poster boy model for
licking soft ice cream cones. Then early Tuesday morning my
daughter Wendy brought my 5th grandchild into the world at 7 pounds
6 ounces. If the Lord has us back at LOST next year we’re looking forward
to throwing a one year birthday party for Aaron and a three year party for his
sister Grace.
Next week is the 4th of
July fireworks. We still need donations so if you live around the lake
and want a great fireworks show give your donation to the Country Store, Redwood
Resort, or Lost Island Resort. It is really terrific to have volunteers
put on such a good show for the whole community and we expect this year’s show
to be as good as ever. Last year the lake was covered with boats and
especially for some kids, it created memories to last a lifetime. The
whole thing is a tribute to Bob (yes, that Bob) who started the tradition years
ago.
Fireworks -
Friday, July 4th starting around 9:30 pm, Rain date is
Saturday, July 5th.
July 4, 2008
It’s 5 a.m. and I can’t sleep.
Guess why. I can’t wait for the night. This is going to be the best ever
4th of July. We’ll have two pontoon boats and a water
trampoline (DNR approved) sitting in the middle of the lake while 2500 dollars
of fireworks are shot off in 45 minutes. We had really good last minute
donations. Thanks to all the patriots! Also, after my being at LOST
for six years, my friend Erich finally visited from the Florida Keys – a 2000
mile journey. Erich and I commercial fished the Keys for many years when
I wasn’t teaching. He brought Denise fresh, tree picked, coconuts.
Our cabins are full of guests of course and everyone is in such a great festive
mood. We’ll take the canopy off of the Jacuzzi so anyone who wants to,
can watch the display from the tub! I’ve got lots of patriotic songs for
karaoke so if we have some singers we’re going to be up kinda
late tonight. I love my new sound system – everything’s ready to go in
just a couple of minutes.
Funny story: Remember when I
bragged in my last journal entry that lots of blood doesn’t bother me?
The other day I was on the deck with my friend Steve and talking about all the
blood last week when I put a tourniquet on my guest’s arm. I had just
finished telling Steve that I didn’t get nauseous from the blood when suddenly
my razor knife slipped and sliced into my index finger. I howled like a
puppy who got his tail stepped on as MY blood poured
out onto my shorts. I immediately squeezed my finger as Steve’s wife Pam
and Denise ran for paper towels and bandaids. Then Pam got some peroxide
to bubble the stain out of my shorts. The whole time they were taking
care of me, I was saying “Ow, ow,
ow, this is going to take stitches. Ow, ow, ow” and things like that.
Well, the cut was deep and long but it didn’t need stitches. So, if you don’t
mind, I’d like to revise my previous statement from 6/27/08. I am not tooooo bothered by the sight of large quantities of blood,
unless it’s MINE. I apparently overlooked that part in my previous
journal entry.
We have another group of teen agers
with us this week and they brought Guitar Hero and a Wii.
They’ve played with both on the large 10 foot screen. I really liked the Wii. I watched their Wii
tennis game and the size of the screen seemed full sized,
making it seem almost real. Several kids got involved and then
they switched to baseball with one kid pitching and one being the batter.
It was so cool. Everyone, listen up - I
want a Wii for my birthday with lots of games and
lots of attachments and gizmos ok?
Today I guess I got a little too
playful for a little old man. I already knew that a paddleboat
wouldn’t fit inside the giant water doughnut because I had measured it.
But a guest suggested that maybe if I let a little air out that the paddleboat
might fit inside. So I let a lot of air out of one of the doughnuts
and jumped into a paddleboat. I lifted up one end of the doughnut,
paddled inside, and I’ll be darned – it almost fit. So I untied the line
from the dock and went paddling around the neighborhood inside the giant
doughnut. Denise grabbed my camera, ran outside, and took some
pictures. I’ll put one or two on the Information page this week.
Yesterday, Grant and I repainted
part of the US 18 highway sign. We removed the jetski
reference and painted the word PONTOON over it since we now only have pontoon
rentals. It has been a real relief not to be worrying about kids zooming
around on rental crotch rockets this year. I guess if I was a good mechanic
I could have made the jetski business work, but I’m
not, so that’s that.
Well, it’s almost 6 now but everyone
is still sound asleep. Guess I’ll go take some
sunrise photos. Only 18.5 hours away from the
fireworks…….
7/5/08
Yesterday was a perfect day.
Warm but not too hot. Slight breeze but the lake was calm. A little drinking but no sloppy drunks. All the kids
were excited but not rowdy. And then came
the fireworks. They were great. Not only that, but there were more
families around the lakes shooting off their fireworks this year, adding to the
pageantry and beauty of the evening. Earlier, we had fun applauding and
shooting water cannons at the boat parade. Our favorite local boys – Huck
Finn and Tom Sawyer - had painted over the flames on their boat and turned it
into a cool silvery shark – a picture is on the INFORMATION page for a few
weeks. We also had a kayaker in front of the dock practicing his moves
and that’s on the INFORMATION page too. Then there was Erich. He
came all the way from the Florida Keys and he brought 12 fresh coconuts with
him. When he started cutting them up on the deck he attracted a big crowd
of kids and adults. For almost an hour he patiently explained how the
coconuts give us coconut water, jelly and meat, all the while
giving free samples to sip, chew, and eat. He must have served 20
people. A photo is on the INFORMATION page. The food was great, the
company was great, the weather was great. It was
a magical day.
The economy was the only negative.
That’s right, the economy. We had fewer boats buying gas this year and
several families told us they were going to watch the show from the shore
instead of their boat. The national recession and high gas prices hits
everywhere and I do believe we had a bigger flotilla of boats last year.
At the same time, I know the total people watching the show was greater this
year. It was great fun.
7/12/08
Between the teaching and resort I
haven’t had time to think this past week. But a friend named Terry gave
me the remnants of his Launch Pod and I did some thinking. I patched up
his 12 foot “doughnut” and created a new configuration of 2 trampolines and 2
doughnuts that stretched from the dock to the trampoline anchor. Kids
love it and I put a picture on the INFORMATION page. I also bought a
really great girls bike at the Bully Bullhead weekend garage sale. We’ve
had a few bikes beat-up this past month and it’s time to add some new
ones. We also bought 4 dining room chairs for the lodge to replace ones that
were broken. What’s happening with the wood chairs is that people are
leaning back on two legs and eventually those two legs break off. I don’t
know why that happens, I doubt if people treat their chairs at home that
way. It’s kind of a good news/bad news thing. I want people to come
here and be a little freer and alive than they are back in their home
environment – part of the vacation atmosphere. I think we have succeeded
in doing that. You have to prepare for some extra wear and tear when you
create an exciting and energetic environment for people’s vacations. It’s
all about the memories we create, and it’s worth it.
Worth it? For example, twice this past week women cried when
families came in to say goodbye for a year. Denise got her usual hugs
from the gals but they teared up when they tried to
say goodbye til next year. Then of course, old softie Denise got some wet
eye too. Yeah, it’s worth it.
I think tonite
will be a really great karaoke party. We seem to have a lot of singers at
the resort and everyone is so happy today – great weather, great conversation,
funny things happening on the waterfront. We’ll see. Time for me to go and get ready.
7-24-08
It’s been two weeks of big
reunions. How big? When there’s no more room for cars, it’s big.
For a couple of days we had 24 cars and pickups which meant they were
parking on the grass by our house. Two of the reunions included families
scattered around the globe who had not seen each other
for a year or two or three. It’s really cool when the car drives into the
parking lot and people jump out screaming and hugging. I wish I could
bottle that stuff.
We’ve had a couple of storms
too. It hasn’t ruined anyone’s vacation because they moved through
quickly but the cleanup afterwards takes hours. That funny configuration
of 4 trampolines didn’t last long – the storms took care of that. But I
still have three on the water even though I have to use the leaf blower to add
air to two of them every couple of days.
We have something to do around here
in any kind of weather. One of the youngsters said that “they’ve got the
works!”, and I guess that means everything. Golf toss, or bolo, is a game
that is being played a lot this year. It’s a bit like horseshoes only not
quite as dangerous around kids. Also, it’s really cool when there is a
family reunion and someone brings their bikes. Then the rest of the family grab my bikes and about 10 or 15 people head out in a
bike caravan. I love that. I can just imagine two of my neighbors
sitting on a deck and one saying “Look at that, I didn’t know Ragbrie went past our lake” and the other guy says, “That’s
not Ragbrie, that’s them thar
LOST people”.
On Monday I gave my national debt
speech to a Rotary group on the campus of ISU. It was my first visit to
the campus of Iowa State U. I had this vision that it would be full of
old run-down brick buildings like so many older universities but that wasn’t
the case. The campus looks great with many newer buildings and even the old
brick buildings look new – they must pressure clean these things every
year. My lecture was in the Scheman Conference
Center ( She Man? Hmmm) with about
150 attendees. Afterwards, about 20 stayed for 90 minutes for an
interesting but intense discussion of possible solutions for the debt
crisis. People are getting very emotional about the number of families
thrown out of their homes and the number of businesses that are being hurt by
high energy prices. Soon I think that the high price of food is going to
be as emotional as the gas price. I hope not. But Denise is already
complaining every time she food shops.
I guess we have been very blessed at
LOST. Our rentals are well above last year despite the oil prices.
We’ve had six years of growth, every year better than the previous, and are
reaching the point where we need to be thinking about adding cabins. We
converted the lodge, built Eagles Perch, brought in our giant trailer home and
we still need more units. But I’ve reached retirement age so I’m being torn in
two directions about what to do. I’d really like to see a nice two
story unit where the game room is now. When people are in the game room
they never look at the lake and it is right on the waterfront. That seems
like a waste of space. The game room should be back by the playground and
golf course.
Today we should be finishing the
changes we made to the golf course when we took out the old ship. We got
a big load of gravel and need to start spreading it around. I’ll post a
picture when we’re done.
8-03-08
My tail is dragging today –
literally. I have a bruise on my, umm, behind and I don’t know how it
happened. We had a great karaoke party last night and there wasn’t one
bad song. Everyone could sing and dance up a storm. We finally ended it
in overtime – past 11 pm but I was told that the jacuzzi crowd stayed up until the sunrise. The
majority of our cabins had Algona people so some of our lakeside Algona
neighbors came over and we had quite an Algona reunion. I hated to quit
but my tail was really dragging, (and as it turned out, also bruised). There’s some cute pictures of the party on our INFORMATION
page.
The golf course is finally the way I
want it. The 4 rickety bridges have been replaced, the collapsing 50’
ship is gone, and holes 3 and 4 now have challenging sand traps. But this
might still be temporary. We have a chronic parking problem on weekends because
more and more people bring boats; we may need to convert to a 9 hole golf course to give us more parking space. It’s a
nice problem to have. We’ll see. Maybe the grass around my cabin
will be enough for the overflow that all these trailers create.
Well, my assistant Grant has gone
back to Arizona but we found another teen to help us out. I wouldn’t be
able to manage all this work myself and so I guess we miss our two teenage
daughters for more than one reason! ;-) But Melissa is still here
and is a real godsend for Denise. We have 7 cabins turning over today and
we had many fond farewells this morning. Two people told us how
well they slept because they played so hard during the day (kids too). We
don’t get busy again until tomorrow so I’ll sign off now and get to work
patching some of our inflatables.
8-08-08
Big turn over of cabins again today. The weekday special has gotten very popular which
means families checking out Friday morning. The special is for a Monday
check in and a Friday check out. These are our slow days so we started giving
a big discount. You can check it out on the reservations web page.
It has been a very quiet week.
All of the families have young kids and teens and were totally absorbed in all
of the water toys and golf. All I did was watch. Oh, and I fixed
one of the giant doughnuts – it’s going back into the lake today. We did
have a special ‘karaoke on the lake’ party on Tuesday. We started early,
8:30, since it is getting dark earlier in the evening now. What was
really funny is that everyone was begging for a party during the day. But
they all wore themselves out on the trampolines, tubes, kayaks, and paddlboats and I could see it that night. No one
danced to the music and several youngsters went to bed before it was
over. So we shut it down around 10:30.
Even though they were tired it was
still a lot of fun. My neighbor Bob (yes, that Bob) has been all over the
midwest doing flooring work
and so we dedicated a song to him. Can you guess? “I’ve been everywhere, Man!” by Johnny Cash. And, to
everyone’s surprise I had changed the lyrics. This is a singalong party with a 10 foot Karaoke screen that the
lyrics are displayed on. Guess what additional place showed up on the
Johnny Cash song? Lost Island Resort. That
was a good laugh for all the singers. Then a young man wanted to do “Lose
Yourself” by Eminem. Well, we had little kids singing and that song is
full of obscenity. What the singers didn’t know is that I had created all
new lyrics so the song Lose Yourself was about a trip to Lost Island
Resort. Get it? Lose Yourself, Lost Island….ok. Anyway
that was good for another laugh.
Going to
be real busy today so I’d better get going.
8-13-08
This morning I think we set yet another
record for LOST. We have at least 17 children under the age of 10 on our
dock, trampoline and paddleboats. A couple of them are neighbor kids but
the rest are with our cabin guests. The sound is absolutely terrific – a
chorus of giggling, laughing, shouting and general mayhem – and what’s really
nice is how well behaved they all are.
Last night we did Guitar Hero and Wii on the 10 ft outdoor screen from 8pm to 9:30pm.
The people who brought the guitar were just great – they let all of the kids
have a turn at it. But by 9:30 everyone was headed off to bed since they
had been playing on the water all day. That was great because I was
really tired too.
I really screwed up a couple of days
ago. A little 4 or 5 year old boy had been enjoying the scooter on the
sidewalk and came up to me with his grandpa trailing behind. He said
“Mister, I am having lots of fun with this scooter” and I smiled and replied
“Well that’s good, because I bought it just for you!” He did a little
jump and then spun around and yelled to his grandpa, “pop-pop he said he bought
it for me! I get to keep it!” His grandfather corrected him and his
face got real sad so I said I would take good care of it and he could use it
every time he came back. It’s hard to always say the right thing around
small children – their interpretation sometimes will surprise you.
Last Saturday, Eagles Perch was the
proud host of six sisters and sisters-in-law that have been having a girls-only
vacation for several years. They were crazy fun to be around. They
ran around with my dreadlock hats or sparkly sequined hats and were the life of
the party Saturday night. I had a picture taken of me singing with the
six of them joining in. Then they had an after-party party on the deck
and invited everyone to join them. Several people did, but I was too
pooped to pop and went back to my cabin and crashed. Now THAT’S gotta be a symptom of old
age.
Tomorrow my daughter Tanya comes
back from 9 months in Jamaica. She’s flying to Chicago and then Denise’s
brother is driving her to LOST on the 15th. She’ll go to SMSU
this fall but that’s a week away. In the meantime, she can help clean
cabins, right???? Har Har.
8-24-08
This is the week that everything was
supposed to grind to a halt. Kids going back to school,
preoccupied parents, etc. But our cabins are still almost full and
the weather is great and it can’t get much better than this. The previous
five years we had a lull right before the last great Labor Day party of
summer. Not this year. We still finished some cool projects.
We built a custom bike rack to help organize the two wheel traffic around
here. Several bikes have had brake problems because the bikes are dropped
on the ground or the kickstands weren’t working properly and it finally
occurred to me that if we had a bike rack that wouldn’t happen so
frequently. So Darwin and I built a bike rack. Alright, I’ll be
honest. I carried the wood, painted the rack, and cleaned up the wood scraps
but Darwin actually built it. He did a real neat design whereby
kids/folks can insert the bike from either side. Takes
up less space. A photo is on the information page. He also
built a cute housing for the well pump. DNR – long
story. Maybe some other time. Photo on the information page.
The fish are back. We’ve had
some cool evenings and they are biting again. One evening, a guest caught
perch, bullheads, catfish and a nice sized sheepshead.
The perch have been really small this year. Over at Silver Lake the
bullheads just keep getting bigger and bigger. They’re beginning to look
like mudcats and there’s
plenty of them. One guest caught 44 jumbo bullheads in an
afternoon.
Tanya could have gone back to
Marshall after she came back from Jamaica but she chose to stay with her mom
and dad and work at the resort. Awww, dontcha just love my girls? She loves to tell stories
and I guess I really missed that. She came back all chock full of Jamaica
stories. Life with only me and Denise is kind of quiet but that’s changed
again with Tanya back home.
I sponsored
a retreat for Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) this past week and we
all had a great time. Our SIFE team is nationally ranked and I am their
advisor this year which makes me a bit anxious because they have been doing so
great and I hope will continue to do so. These kids are so inspiring, you
know the next generation will do great and have some great leaders. They
seemed to enjoy everything the resort had to offer. They had paddleboat
races, a volleyball tournament, mini-golf outing, and two hours of karaoke and
dancing, topped off by hot tub lounging into the wee hours.
It’s tough to see it all winding
down in late August but this year there’s no winding down. We’ll go full
blast right through Labor Day. I’m looking forward to the Fall semester because all of my classes are big and I enjoy
all the interaction. The federal elections will also dribble into the
classroom discussions and that’s always fun too. But most weekends we’ll
have guests at LOST so we won’t be losing that part of our lives anytime soon. Now that Denise is a full time
Assistant Professor she’ll probably appreciate LOST more for the break that it
will give her from the classroom.
8/29/08, Friday
Holy cow,
what a great ending to summer.
Saturday is supposed to be around 90 degrees and no rain expected until Monday
evening after the holiday crowd is gone. Denise and I both had teaching
assignments this morning but were back at LOST by late
afternoon. Everything was in great shape but the paddleboats were full of
water so it must have rained a lot this past week. I just love the new
bike rack and it’s working like a charm, the kids are putting the bikes back
where they found them.
What’s next – the Clay County fair
from September 6 to 15, billed as the country’s largest county fair. Denise and I will return to the university on
the 2nd but will keep coming back on weekends to tend to the lawn,
cater to guests, and start preparing for the inevitable – winter.
9-1-08
Our summer is now officially
over. It was a great weekend. The weather was almost perfect, maybe
a bit too much wind on Sunday. But everyone was swimming and fishing and
tubing and hot tubbing. The bikes were all over
the lake roads and there were constant Frisbee and football throwing and
horseshoes, golf toss, and mini-golfing. It was so busy and so fun.
There were so many funny things that
happened. On windy Sunday, a woman took her three children on the lake on
a paddleboat but went the wrong way. Downwind.
Then they got too tired to get back upwind and her husband sprang to the rescue
and towed them back in with their ski boat. Then there was the guy
who went to get into a kayak with shorts on, not knowing that the seats have
drain holes that tend to squirt up water when a large body presses down into
the seat. He hollered “Whoa, something just wet my shorts!” after sliding
into the kayak. But it didn’t stop him from paddling off and having a
good time and a good laugh.
But the ice cream incident was the
funniest of all. Today (Labor Day), my recently-retired brother paid a
surprise visit, driving all the way from Belmond. Before he left I took
him into the shop to make an ice cream cone for him. While I made a giant
cone of vanilla, he went to say hi to my wife who was talking to a gas
customer. My brother stood next to the customer. I said “here you
go” and both men turned around and the gas guy gave me a big smile and I
instantly knew he thought I was talking to him, so (being in a very happy frame
of mind) I said “free cones for our great gas customers”. Whoosh, he
grabbed the cone and proceeded to devour it. Jim and Denise had a good
laugh and I went back to the ice cream machine to make another cone for Jim.
Seconds later, 4 kids and a man came running into the shop asking for free
cones, followed by that random guy I had just given a cone to. Denise
must have been in an even better mood than me, said “Sure, free cones for
everyone!” So I quick got a cone for myself and then watched 5 happy
people get cones. The random guy saunters over to me and said how
nice that was and I said we appreciate all our gas customers. He laughed
and said that they had never been to this lake before. Off the happy crew
went. But the story is not over yet. Somehow word got out that we
were giving away free ice cream and kids came running over from Grandview until
we ran out of ice cream. All of this because I spontaneously gave a cone
to a guy who smiled at me that I really was going to give to my brother.
Moral of the story – always smile when you see John, who knows what he’ll give
you.
I suppose I shouldn’t have told this
story because it might put ideas into people’s heads. But here’s the
thing: We can never do a planned cone giveaway because the machine is too
small. Even if we wanted to do it as a promotion, our capacity just
wouldn’t handle the screaming mobs of cone carnivores. If we ever really
did a food giveaway it would have to be grilled hotdogs or something like that.
Anyway, when we left the resort tonight and headed for Marshall, the season was
over and all the ice cream was gone. Almost like we had
planned it.
We did have one incident that wasn’t
so pleasant. We were repeatedly invaded by kids who were camping in the
campgrounds next door. You can’t blame them – there’s nothing to do over
there and we’ve got all the goodies over here. I would walk up to them
and explain that this is a different resort and that they would have to pay $15
to spend the day with us unless they were among my cabin guests. Well,
one of the campers mothers thought they had a right to
be over here and came to visit me, trailed by an entourage of beer
drinkers. She felt I had been disrespectful to her daughter and that the
girl had a right to be on my playground. So, once again I had to explain
that it was a private resort etc. They left without paying me and their
kids did not come back. What a shame.
Nothing pleases me more than seeing
a resort full of young people playing with all of our activities and
equipment. But we’re not a public park so Denise and I have a solution to
sorting out the people who are roaming all over our resort. It has become
a very common solution for other resorts, bars, and public events: a
wristband. We’ll give our guests colored wrist bands to wear so they will
know if the other kids playing with their children actually belong at the
resort. We considered erecting a fence and other solutions but this
seemed the least invasive. A fence seemed so negative and y’all know that
I don’t like anything that seems negative. Only God knows what 2009 will
bring but if we’re here, it’s going to be our best year ever.
Today, we tore out the big lakefront
window on the shop and had it replaced with one that actually opens up.
Next year we’ll hold off on the air conditioning and hopefully enjoy the nice
lake breezes. The shop keeps getting better and better. This year
we put in a couch and TV for those slow days, a new sink with large tub, new floor
tiles, new ice cream freezer, and now those great new windows.
Today we also pulled out the 4
trampolines, the kayaks and paddleboats, the pontoon boat and generally started
that slow process of preparing for another Iowa winter. I’ll be coming back
every weekend since we still have guests coming to the lake. To be
continued.
9-6-08
I’m back at LOST and today was work,
work, work, and more work. (NOTE from John’s body: “Quit
complaining you whiner. Haven’t you looked in the mirror lately? You
lost 15 pounds and firmed up everything this summer. Now get back to
work.”)
Ok. Understood.
Our guests this week hit a bonanza of large bullheads over on the docks at
Silver Lake. They caught hundreds of big, good eating fish. Some
perch was caught also but I haven’t had a report on the walleye. It has
been going down to the 40s at night and that nice chill on the water is making
the fish feisty. Our worm company accidently shipped a
contain with hundreds of worms that we did not order. They then told
me to take them over to Murphy’s Bait shop. Murphy very wisely took them
into the fish cleaning shack to open the container and when he did he slammed
the lid back down but he was too late. The putrid smell of hundreds of
dead nightcrawlers exploded out of the box and man it
was nasty. I bought a couple dozen live ones for my guests and then hightailed
it out of Murphys, still trying to breathe through my
mouth. That was Friday.
Today, we are finishing up the trim
on the new shop window. I also cleaned, refreshed and heated the hot
tub. Folded up and put away two
trampolines. Fixed a computer
problem in the game room. Swept the deck.
Did laundry and cleaned two cabins. Picked up lumber in
Spencer. Bought a cute little-people bike at the
Goodwill store in Spencer. Set up the mini-golf webcam. Fixed the golf toss game. Pumped gas
for two boats. Answered the phone 10 times from
telemarketers. (I wish our lake was deep enough to hold them
all). Went online to make some new reservations.
Cooked my own meals. Darnnnn
I miss my wife. Tanya and Denise took the weekend off to go buy their
school clothes in Minneapolis – some for me too. They’ll be here next
weekend, thank God. We’ve got a full house at LOST.
9-13-08
Not much going on this
weekend. Denise had to stay in Marshall to prepare some new lectures but
Tanya came down to LOST with me. Man, that girl can work. She did
all the work that Denise and her were supposed to
do. I’m not sure if I’m getting much done. I watched Bob and Terry
pull out Bob’s boat hoist and I tried to help a bit but man, was it
heavy.
Our guests tried to do some fishing
but nothing was biting. I ran over to Dale’s bait shop and bought some
stink bait for my guests and it worked! Within five minutes a young boy
hooked a big catfish and fought it up to the dock but it broke the line as he
tried to get it on the dock.
It’s starting to get chilly but only
light jacket weather so far and the leaves aren’t turning yet.
9-20-08
We’re back at LOST this weekend and
were awakened this morning by constant gunfire. The duck season has
begun. But I can’t think of anything but Terry’s family. Thursday,
my friend and neighbor at LOST, Terry Rierson passed
away. He was a wonderful man who was the peacemaker when anyone got
rowdy. He was the heavy lifter – a tall man who would pitch in whenever a
task involved heavy work. He was a fisherman who caught more fish than
anyone else but was always willing to give tips and share. Even though he
was retired, he adopted his grandkids and gracefully accepted the burden of
raising another family. It’s hard to believe he’s gone. When death
is sudden and unexpected, it is fortunate for the person who passes into the
next world. For the rest of us, it is a shock and is hard to adjust
to. We’ll miss you Terry. The viewing is tomorrow in Estherville
and it’s supposed to be a beautiful day with temps in the 80s. The leaves are
changing and we’re going to have a beautiful fall season. But it just won’t be
the same.
11/16/08
It has been almost two months I’ve
written but I’ve made several trips back to LOST to do chores. The leaves are all raked up and burned, the
little cabins (7 dwarfs) are all winterized, and we’re pretty much ready for
the cold and the snow. We’re starting to
look forward to Christmas and I’m dreaming of a souped-up
Wii system under my tree. In the Spring I’m already planning some
projects. It really helps me through the
cold months if I’m plotting some new changes for the resort and I’ve been thinking
about how to configure the trampolines and new uses for the 10 foot karaoke
screen and maybe a new location for the bike rack and things like that.
I’ve been swimming at the Y in order
to stay in shape and I can now swim a mile in less than an hour and it gave me
an idea. I think I want to try to swim
across the lake. I know I won’t be there
forever and I’d like to do something real challenging and memorable like a long
swim. Maybe someone will want to go with me too. We could always have a paddleboat team tag
along in case I get tired. We’ll see.
Maybe I’ll get too lazy this winter and stop going to the Y.
We still have folks booked in Eagles
Perch and the Lodge but there’s still plenty of days
available for booking over the Christmas/New Years
holiday. I hope this Christmas will be
your best.