Well, here we are…….just finishing up our 1st full week at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Coffeyville, Kansas. We left Denver Oct 8 and made the trip in one day which was a really long trip as the wind in western Kansas was terrible ( as in Wizard of Oz terrible) It was blowing right across the interstate and when you passed a semi the break in velocity almost blew you off the road. Ditto for when you came out from under an overpass. It was a white knuckle ride at times and I swear we were passed by an old witch on a bicycle. Before leaving we checked Google maps and it showed the driving time as about nine hours but apparently it doesn't factor in the wind. Memo to navigator always plan on the wind blowing in this part of the world generally at you rather than from behind you.
Amazon pays for our RV space so we researched the available parks and called one for reservations. We got into town way after dark ( the trip took almost 14 hours ) and just barely managed to find the place. No, Coffeyville isn't that big; we were just really tired and it was really dark. Decided to just pull in and park in an open area and went to sleep. In the morning we found out where to park and got set up. It is beautiful little park with 2 ponds and lots of trees around the edges. Then we took a drive around to get our bearings. Coffeyville is a pretty small town in southeast Kansas just 10 minutes north of the Oklahoma border. It has a lot of industry for its size… a big oil refinery, Amazon, John Deere and Sherwin Williams all have facilities here.
There is an amazing amount of history here , too. The Dalton gang meet their demise here, Dalton gang info and the world’s heaviest hailstone landed here in 1970 , Hailstone history
The Amazon facility is located on the other side of town about a 10 min drive from where we are parked ( I know that sounds funny to those of you who have long commutes ) but it is worth the drive as it is so quiet where we are parked. Both of the other big RV parks are closer (one within walking distance to work) but are located right next to the highway. Since we are working the night shift, quiet is really important! We were concerned about leaving Lucy unattended for ten hours and considered leaving her in Denver with the kids which would have broken our hearts and hers but Amazon told us we'd be working different shifts so no problem, right..... wrong. We both ended up on nights but as luck would have it we found a dogwalker to come and let Lucy out at late in the evening. What a blessing and she digs it cause she gets out more than normal and we've the added benefit of having someone checking on the coach while we're gone.
We had 2 days of orientation. FYI, believe it or not, this building is 1.2 MILLION square feet and has 27 miles of conveyor belts. The job description told us to be prepared to walk 10 miles a day. We started our 1st night on a Monday at 5:30 pm. We just worked ½ days our 1st week, to get used to the physical requirements of the job. They call it "hardening". Thankfully we figured out that only a "picker" would walk that much (they go to the bins and "pick" items to fill orders.) We were assigned to be "stowers". We take a cart filled with an amazing variety of items and "stow" them in bins. Even so, we walk a lot, especially between sections and it's all on concrete. So yes, we are on our feet the whole time except for breaks and lunch. Then this past week we worked our first full shift, from 5:30 pm until 4 am. Four days on and three off. We get home hit the sack sleep until 1 or 2 pm and get up and do it again.
All in all it is a good gig so far and interesting to see how things work in an enterprise like this. But no questions please cause we had to sign a non-disclosure agreement and would have to kill or be killed if in violation (just kidding). So far it's shaping up to be an okay way to make some good bucks for a couple months work and who knows; we may end up with enough funds to put the boat back in the water. Then y'all will have a place to stay when visiting us in Mexico and you gotta love that. Kansas pictures
That's the jist of it for this time.... so Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work we go.
Vaya con Dios until the next time.....Becky and Jim
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Colorado Summer
Sorry this is so delayed and spans so much time... it was just one of those summers!
We spent our summer in beautiful Cotopaxi, CO. We have really enjoyed our time at this KOA campground along the Arkansas River. I loved working in the office and Jim had a blast fishing.
We got here right before Memorial Day after spending some time in Denver with the kids. Kalyn graduated from 6th grade and had a beautiful continuation ceremony. Most of the kids had gone to school together since 6th grade so the teachers put together a slideshow; showing them growing up together through the years. One of their classmates passed away from leukemia a few weeks before graduation. They included a special tribute to him. Then they had baby pictures (before) and graduation pictures (after). They were hilarious! It was a very moving and memorable ceremony.
We celebrated Mother’s Day together. We also went to Allie’s ballet and tap recital. She was fantastic but unfortunately, she only had 1 dance routine. Denver visit
The drive down here was really beautiful. It takes about 3 hours from Denver, south through Colorado Springs and then west to Canon City, past the Royal Gorge and through Big Horn Sheep Canyon (yes there are lots of bighorn sheep) to Cotopaxi (named after a mountain in Ecuador). US Hwy.50 one of Americas grand old roads which was kinda the way to go back in the day before interstate hywys. ( remember that ) follows the Arkansas River the whole way. The view of the mountains and thru the canyons is pretty spectacular and there is a lot of history for old west buffs like us. Cotopaxi
We’re sure you heard about the wildfires that threatened this area in June. Almost all the buildings and the tramway were destroyed at the Royal Gorge, 20 miles to the east of us. Quite a historical and financial loss but there's already plans to rebuild ( gotta love capitalism ). Wouldn't you know the fire occured before we were able to visit the Gorge and it's remained closed ever since...go figure. Then the Black Forest fire happened in Colorado Springs followed by 2 major fires to the south of us ( one within 7 miles )and a huge one to the west around Wolf Creek pass. Holy cow Andy W. it was getting a little spooky. Needless to say we were praying that they would stay away from our us and they did except for the smoke which was at times pretty irrritating. But we had lots of cancellations from people who thought all of Colorado was on fire! Considering that the media made a huge drama out of it pre-empting all other programming on all major channels for a week it's no surprise. Thank goodness for Direct TV.
When we first arrived in Cotopaxi seasonal run-off had the river running deep, fast and dirty which equals unfishable. Since Jim was really jonesing to do some fishing he bought a tent, air mattress, took the jeep and went to Antero Lake (remember last summer?) to fish. Alisha and Billy met him there and they had a great time. Then a couple of weeks later he went with Billy to Delany Buttes (outside of Walden in northern Colorado) for a week long fishing trip to celebrtate Billy's 40th birthday. It should come as no surprise that we're calling this the Dr. Seuss summer....remember 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Delaney Buttes trip
All in all the campground was pretty busy, in spite of the fires. Alisha & Jeremy and the kids came down for a weekend in August and Allie got to spend the rest of the week with us. We had a blast! She and Papa Jim swam everyday for hours and watched the Disney channels. They wanted to go fishing but the gnats were horrible. They were constantly getting into your ears, nose, mouth.... yuck! So they played a lot of Crazy 8's and Go Fish, instead. The kids at Cotopaxi
One of the best attractions at the campground was the Art Shed. Amy (who owns the campground along with her husband Jim & their son Thunder) ) is a potter. So she remodeled an old garage to be her pottery studio and created a wonderful area for people to do arts & crafts on the weekends. They always had ceramics and depending on the weekend there was tie-dye or Domino art. Check out some of the pictures on their website, coloradocampingkoa.com
We did some exploring and 4 wheeling in the area. Up and over Hayden Pass and part of the way up on Hermit Pass, both in the Sangre de Cristos. Lots of history and great scenery. The roads were very rocky but passable. Found a beautiful waterfall on Hermit Pass thanks to our 4 wheeling guide book...most people don't even know it is there. There are so many more places we want to explore we've decided to come back next summer. So plan your vacations now and come and see us.
4 wheel trips
We left Cotopaxi September 9th. Jim headed to Antero to fish....go figure and I went over to the western slope to visit my friends Paris (in Hotchkiss) and Jill (in Montrose).
Trip to the Western slope)
I had a great visit with them both and joined up with Jim at the lake . We went down to Denver in a few days to visit everybody and put in a new floor in the motorhome, We got to spend a lot of time with Allie and Kalyn and Ethan, having sleepovers, going to soccer and basketball games, the pool, 1st grade and the Zoo. Kind of a last summer hoo-rah before returning to our semi- occupied, sorta retired life style.
School & Soccer:
Zoo
Pool
We left Denver Oct 8th, heading out to our next job in Kansas. Yep, we are going to work in Coffeyville for Amazon.com. We'll be working in the warehouse for 2 months. Check out the next blog to see how Toto or rather we..... like Kansas.
We spent our summer in beautiful Cotopaxi, CO. We have really enjoyed our time at this KOA campground along the Arkansas River. I loved working in the office and Jim had a blast fishing.
We got here right before Memorial Day after spending some time in Denver with the kids. Kalyn graduated from 6th grade and had a beautiful continuation ceremony. Most of the kids had gone to school together since 6th grade so the teachers put together a slideshow; showing them growing up together through the years. One of their classmates passed away from leukemia a few weeks before graduation. They included a special tribute to him. Then they had baby pictures (before) and graduation pictures (after). They were hilarious! It was a very moving and memorable ceremony.
We celebrated Mother’s Day together. We also went to Allie’s ballet and tap recital. She was fantastic but unfortunately, she only had 1 dance routine. Denver visit
The drive down here was really beautiful. It takes about 3 hours from Denver, south through Colorado Springs and then west to Canon City, past the Royal Gorge and through Big Horn Sheep Canyon (yes there are lots of bighorn sheep) to Cotopaxi (named after a mountain in Ecuador). US Hwy.50 one of Americas grand old roads which was kinda the way to go back in the day before interstate hywys. ( remember that ) follows the Arkansas River the whole way. The view of the mountains and thru the canyons is pretty spectacular and there is a lot of history for old west buffs like us. Cotopaxi
We’re sure you heard about the wildfires that threatened this area in June. Almost all the buildings and the tramway were destroyed at the Royal Gorge, 20 miles to the east of us. Quite a historical and financial loss but there's already plans to rebuild ( gotta love capitalism ). Wouldn't you know the fire occured before we were able to visit the Gorge and it's remained closed ever since...go figure. Then the Black Forest fire happened in Colorado Springs followed by 2 major fires to the south of us ( one within 7 miles )and a huge one to the west around Wolf Creek pass. Holy cow Andy W. it was getting a little spooky. Needless to say we were praying that they would stay away from our us and they did except for the smoke which was at times pretty irrritating. But we had lots of cancellations from people who thought all of Colorado was on fire! Considering that the media made a huge drama out of it pre-empting all other programming on all major channels for a week it's no surprise. Thank goodness for Direct TV.
When we first arrived in Cotopaxi seasonal run-off had the river running deep, fast and dirty which equals unfishable. Since Jim was really jonesing to do some fishing he bought a tent, air mattress, took the jeep and went to Antero Lake (remember last summer?) to fish. Alisha and Billy met him there and they had a great time. Then a couple of weeks later he went with Billy to Delany Buttes (outside of Walden in northern Colorado) for a week long fishing trip to celebrtate Billy's 40th birthday. It should come as no surprise that we're calling this the Dr. Seuss summer....remember 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Delaney Buttes trip
All in all the campground was pretty busy, in spite of the fires. Alisha & Jeremy and the kids came down for a weekend in August and Allie got to spend the rest of the week with us. We had a blast! She and Papa Jim swam everyday for hours and watched the Disney channels. They wanted to go fishing but the gnats were horrible. They were constantly getting into your ears, nose, mouth.... yuck! So they played a lot of Crazy 8's and Go Fish, instead. The kids at Cotopaxi
One of the best attractions at the campground was the Art Shed. Amy (who owns the campground along with her husband Jim & their son Thunder) ) is a potter. So she remodeled an old garage to be her pottery studio and created a wonderful area for people to do arts & crafts on the weekends. They always had ceramics and depending on the weekend there was tie-dye or Domino art. Check out some of the pictures on their website, coloradocampingkoa.com
We did some exploring and 4 wheeling in the area. Up and over Hayden Pass and part of the way up on Hermit Pass, both in the Sangre de Cristos. Lots of history and great scenery. The roads were very rocky but passable. Found a beautiful waterfall on Hermit Pass thanks to our 4 wheeling guide book...most people don't even know it is there. There are so many more places we want to explore we've decided to come back next summer. So plan your vacations now and come and see us.
4 wheel trips
We left Cotopaxi September 9th. Jim headed to Antero to fish....go figure and I went over to the western slope to visit my friends Paris (in Hotchkiss) and Jill (in Montrose).
Trip to the Western slope)
I had a great visit with them both and joined up with Jim at the lake . We went down to Denver in a few days to visit everybody and put in a new floor in the motorhome, We got to spend a lot of time with Allie and Kalyn and Ethan, having sleepovers, going to soccer and basketball games, the pool, 1st grade and the Zoo. Kind of a last summer hoo-rah before returning to our semi- occupied, sorta retired life style.
School & Soccer:
Zoo
Pool
We left Denver Oct 8th, heading out to our next job in Kansas. Yep, we are going to work in Coffeyville for Amazon.com. We'll be working in the warehouse for 2 months. Check out the next blog to see how Toto or rather we..... like Kansas.
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