Goings on in America
Moon Song
Laura & Alan Grayson
Wed 1 Jul 2009 00:32
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Ok so to carry on from the last blog, we cleared
customs and headed off to the local library to check out the emails and Lo and
behold we get a call from the Broker. The deal in Indiana fell thru, in fact the
guy did a runner in the middle of the night without telling the owners he was
pulling out, what a tosser. So we told the broker we were going to put an offer
on the place just as soon as we got there and if he took an offer from anyone
else in the meantime there would be hell to pay. So there we were up at Niagara
Falls on the American side about 4 in the afternoon ready to head back to
Indiana and the GPS tells us the fastest way is thru Canada, Yes it's true so
being the suckers for punishment that we are we head thru the border no more
than 2 hrs since we last came thru. I love Canadians, they had no worries with
us and we sped right thru. What a pleasure. Canada is so much cleaner than the
USA and it just has a different feel to it, so about 10.00pm we pulled over into
a Walmart parking lot just before the US border. We wanted to spend the night in
Canada as we would be passing thru Detroit and didn't really want to stay
anywhere there. After a good night sleep we hit the border just after the lady
had her first cup of coffee and we were thru she even smiled at us, now that had
me wondering, maybe the gods were smiling on us finally.
So we pull into Oak Lake Family Campground and
settle ourselves in. Now here is where the fun really starts. 2 days later we
find out a park in Colorado has gone bankrupt thru bad management so Laura hops
on a plane and flys out to check it out. Now we still hadn't made the offer on
Oak Lake yet so it was very interesting times, anyway the deal falls thru in
Colorado as we felt it was just a bit riskier than what we wanted so we decide
that Oak Lake is the place we want, so lets move on. Laura informs the broker
and the offer is made, now she is still in Colorado at this time and since our
car is in Houston she decides that we should have the car so she flys into
Houston spends the night with her girlfriend then drives straight thru. She
leaves at 10.00am and makes it into Indiana at 6.30am only stopping for a 45 min
nap. She was a tired puppy when she got in so we had breakfast and tucked her
into bed for a quick snuggle and she was out like a light.
OK to make a long story short we closed on Fri 12th
June 2009 at 6.00pm. It was a fight tho. We had to make the deal happen and if
we didn't love the place and the owners so much it would never have happened.
The owners Lawyer and accountant made things so bloody hard and were both such
big tossers that we nearly pulled out. Paul the owner has been ripped off by
these guys so much that they didn't want him to sell it. We wanted to throw a
big party for Paul and Allegra to thank them for the effort that went into
building this but they turned it down so we just made an announcement before the
DJ started his music on Sat night. It was hard work waiting for the annoucement
as we really wanted to just rip into the place and clean it up. Anyway the
support we got on the first night really suprised us. So many people were really
excited that we were taking over. It seems all was not well in the campground
and many people were looking to move out this year. I'm happy to say that only
one is moving out now and if we had been 6 months earlier he would be staying as
well, He bought some land and moved his trailer on the mon after closing. The
response has been incredible. We are now up to 15 days from closing. One group
of seasonals has bought us a "Welcome To Oak Lake Camp Ground" sign carved out
of cedar by a local chainsaw Artist. It gets pride of place at the entrance.
Another guy has lent me his International tractor for the summer to fix up the
roads and beach, amazing. Everyone is coming up to us and saying that they are
amazed with the changes that we have already done. I must admit Laura has done a
wonderful job with the rec hall and all the paperwork that has been required and
i have a couple of really good workers that have been putting in a great effort
and we have been mowing lawns and trimming trees, putting up new signs, turned
the beach from a weed infested sand pit back into a beach, scrubbed the rec hall
to within an inch of its life and basically had a great time. We are so tired
tho that at night we just collapse. Man anything could happen to this place and
we wouldn't know.
So for all you people who are wondering what is going to happen to the
cruizing life, we still have the boat and it is in Curacao which is an Island
belonging to Holland just off the coast of Venezuela. We have to go back there
before Feb 2010 to move it to avoid paying import duties and hopefully we will
go back to Bonaire for some more diving. Hopefully we will get a couple of
months. Our good friends Gene and Kathy of "Dream Ketcher" are coming out
in Oct to help us with some renovationsand since there boat is in the same
marina will probably be there at the same time and hopefully we can convince
them to come back to the cold before the season starts to finish off the
renovations. We are planning big things for this place so to all of you out
there you are all welcome to come and stay anytime.
Since this has taken me 2 weeks to write i will just pop in a couple of
before and after shots and post it.
Well what do you know another 4 days have passed and this is the first time
i've been on the computer so no photo's this time, you'll get them next
time.
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