Goings on in America

Moon Song
Laura & Alan Grayson
Wed 1 Jul 2009 00:32
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.