Emergency Preparedness

September is National Preparedness Month.  Sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Preparedness Month aims to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to all types of emergencies, including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks.

The last time I seriously looked at our level of preparedness for an emergency was back in 1999.  I was working in the IT department of a major bank, managing a team tasked with testing the PC-based applications for 4-digit date compliance.  And while I knew that the bank I worked for was definitely still going to be fully functional at the stroke of midnight January 1, 2000, that nagging “what if” drove me to put together some of the basic items recommended by preparedness experts.

FEMA recommends the following in your emergency kit:

1.  Water, one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation

2.  Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food

3.  Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both

4.  Flashlight and extra batteries

5.  First aid kit

6.  Whistle to signal for help

7.  Dust mask, to help filter contaminated air and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place

8.  Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation

9.  Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities

10.  Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)

11.  Local maps

A .pdf file of the FEMA brochure on what to include in an emergency kit can be found at http://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1390846764394-dc08e309debe561d866b05ac84daf1ee/checklist_2014.pdf

Fast forward fourteen years.  All the water I had stashed has long since been used. The 72 hour emergency kits we put together in 2007 haven’t been opened at since then. What was inside? A 12-oz bag of raisins.  Three each of the following:  granola bars, cereal bars, instant oatmeal, hot chocolate mix, hot cider mix, and M&Ms.  The only package with a date was the raisins – and it said “Best before” 9/2009.  Keeping it.  Sadly, I found no Twinkies.  Rumor has it that they keep forever. 

I opened one of the cereal bars.  It looked OK.  It smelled OK.  I took a bite.  It tasted OK.  Keeping them, and assuming that the preservatives contained in the rest of the items were working just as well. I laugh because we have worked very hard the last couple of years to get preservatives out of our diet.  Still, I think even Dr. Oz would agree that, in an emergency, food with preservatives is better than no food at all.

Fortunately, we live in the food storage capital of the world.  Also fortunately, we own a generator and lots of camping equipment.  And most fortunate of all, our neighborhood has put together a preparedness plan that includes knowing who has what so we can pool our resources in case of an emergency.

I bought a case of bottled water and put it downstairs with the emergency kits.  Hey, it’s a start.  

Turn the Radio On

We did not have television service in our campground this summer – primarily because we didn't have electricity.  However, last summer, when we did have electricity, we made the conscious decision not to hook up the satellite dish (which still sits on the top of our trailer).  We didn't think we’d spend enough time watching it to make it worth the cost.

We did, however, have Sirius satellite radio installed in our trailer when we first bought it.  And the radio has been our source of outside news and entertainment all three summers we've spent in camp.

We found our favorite music stations from the variety of stations available.  Classic Vinyl and Classic Rewind reminded us of our high school and college days and kept us singing along.  Deep Tracks, which played obscure cuts from albums throughout the decades, challenged our music knowledge, as they always played a series of songs with a theme.  And occasionally we would have that ‘aha’ moment when we actually recognized a ‘deep track.’  We have (or at least – had) that album!!!

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed listening to both the World Cup and to baseball games on the radio.  I am totally impressed by the radio announcers’ ability to paint a picture with their words so that I could see clearly what was happening.  I realize that as a writer, I attempt to do that, but these radio announcers are doing it on the fly.  And in baseball, which has a lot of dead time, they manage to come up with trivia and statistics that would give Ken Jennings a run for his money.  Did you know they keep track of how many players have hit home runs on their birthdays?

I thought I would enjoy NPR more than I did.  I guess I missed the local flavor our KCPW is so well-known for.  The same went for any news station – while it was good to hear the national news I missed knowing what was happening in Utah.  Although one of our friends, when asked what was happening in the news, summed it up pretty well mid-summer:  “Same stuff – gay marriage, John Swallow, Susan Powell.”  Ouch.

Maybe not having 100% access to the news 100% of the time is not such a bad thing after all.

Emotional Intelligence in Camp Hosting

I was surprised to learn from our area managers that they hire about 1/3 more hosts each year than they actually need.  Why?  Apparently some would-be hosts quit before they are scheduled to report, and others quit after a couple of weeks when they find out it’s just not for them.  The part of the job that usually results in early departures is not cleaning toilets or shoveling ashes out of fire pits.  It’s dealing with the public.

In our experience, camp hosting is 75% customer service, and only 25% cleaning the campground.  The people who visit our campgrounds are our customers.  As such, we want to treat them with courtesy as we share our little corner of the mountains.  I've found that when approaching a customer, whether it’s to collect a fee or to enforce a rule, I keep the following two assumptions in mind.  I assume:

1.  They want to do what I’m asking, whether it is to pay the fee or to comply with a rule.

2.  They are honest.

For example:  we had several people over the summer come into camp late at night with no cash and no checks, asking the next morning if we take cards.  We don’t.  So they've basically already used our campground and have no means to pay.  It would be really easy to get angry with these people and chew them out for theft of services, but that just makes them angry and much less likely to make arrangements to get the fees paid.  I found that if I told them they could go into town, get the cash and bring it back, over half did.  I had a few others tell me they would mail their payment to the office.  I have no way of knowing whether or not they did, but the fact that I did not yell at them or embarrass them in front of their families likely increased the chances that they did.

In our experience, 95% of the people who come to a campground respect the forest and respect other people.  Yes, there will always be the 5% that will be less than respectful.  The emotional intelligence skills will always help in dealing with difficult customers.

1.  Self-Awareness:  (The ability to accurately perceive your own emotions in the moment and to understand your own tendencies in different situations.)  I don’t like being yelled at or talked down to.  That said, I am aware that as a camp host, I am only the messenger in most cases, and it is the message – not me – that they are reacting to. 

2.  Self-Management:  (The ability to act – or not to act – on your own emotions.)  Since I couldn’t change the message, I learned not to take a customer’s reaction as a personal attack. 

3. Social Awareness:  (The ability to accurately pick up on emotions of other people and to understand what is really going on with them.)  Every time a visitor pushed back on a fee collection it was because they perceived that they had already paid – either through the Mirror Lake Highway Rec fee, a National Parks Pass, or even their income taxes.  Being able to empathize with them usually lightened the mood and eased into the solution.  And when it didn’t, I was able to fall back on my self-awareness and realize that the amount of money involved just wasn’t worth a conflict.

4.  Relationship Management:  (The ability to use your awareness of your own emotions and those of others to manage interactions successfully.)  Most people will calm down once given the chance to express their anger or disappointment.  

Farewell to Shady Dell and Cobblerest

Fall in Samak

It is fall in the Uintas.  Labor Day weekend has come and gone, and effective September 2 at 1:00 PM, we were fired.  We cleaned the campgrounds early that morning, returned our supplies to our area managers, and hooked up the trailer for the trip home. 

As we drove west down the Mirror Lake Highway, trailer in tow, we passed some of the landmarks that have become so familiar this summer.   

The Beaver Creek Nudist Ranch, on Nudist Road in Samak, really doesn't exist.  The sign has been there for years, but no naturists actually inhabit the area.

Beaver Creek Nudist Ranch?!?

The Notch, a pub in Samak, has a beautiful patio, great food and good beer.  We celebrated our second-to-last day there with good friends.

Samak is Kamas spelled backward. 

The donuts at the Chevron station in Kamas really are fabulous. 

The Mirror Lake Café has great food – most of it named after campgrounds and attractions on the highway.

The Sinclair station sells espresso and vanilla crisp Powerbars.  I hadn’t found them anywhere in Salt Lake, in fact, my last vanilla crisp Powerbar was from Dave’s Jubilee in Ashton.  I bought them out.  Hopefully they’ll restock by next year.

At The Notch

The best part of hosting at Shady Dell and Cobblerest was the close proximity to home.  It was really easy to go home for our “weekend,” get laundry done, get groceries, and even keep the house up a bit.  Because it was so close, we had several friends and relatives come up to visit.  And we had the opportunity to really get to know Rick and Judy, who live in Kamas and visited several times.

The worst part of hosting at Shady Dell was the Fairy Forest.  Don’t get me wrong – the Fairy Forest is delightful.  But since it isn't really sanctioned by the Forest Service, we got no support from them regarding parking instructions.  I was exceedingly grateful to all the bloggers who directed people to park outside the campground and walk in.  I was exceedingly grateful to all the visitors who willingly paid the day use fee and had picnics and played fairy games in our campground.  I was exceedingly perturbed by those visitors who drove past at least four signs stating that the campground was a fee area, that a day use fee was required, and that the Mirror Lake Highway Recreation Pass didn't cover our fees, only to park in our best pull-through campsite, and not pay.  OK, rant over.

We’ll be back on the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway next summer.  We expect to get our assignment in January of 2015.

Patia's Race

Saturday, August 16, on a rare weekend away from camp, I participated in the Patia Lynn Christensen Memorial 5K and 10K Trail Run.  Patia passed away more than 5 years ago, at the age of 9, after a sudden accident.  Her mother, my Red Rock Relay teammate Dawn Christensen, organizes this race annually to honor her memory.  The proceeds from the run benefit The Compassionate Friends of Utah County (TCF). 

So once again I left my house at 5:15 AM to meet my Red Rock teammates Sue and Helen and make the trek to Eureka, Utah for a 7:00 AM start.  We barely made it – Sue and I were still attaching our timing chips to our shoes when the start was announced.  

We ran the 10K trail run – which turned out to be a very difficult run.  There were steep stretches – both uphill and downhill.  Being ever fearful of falling on my head, I slowed way down on the steep downhills.  I was feeling rather intimidated when so many other runners passed me, but once the worst was over I was able to pick up speed and make up time on the uphills.  When I crossed the finish line the clock read one hour, seven minutes and some change.  

No, I didn’t break any land speed records.  But I feel great about making this small contribution to such a worthy cause.  The mission of The Compassionate Friends is to assist families toward the positive resolution of grief following the death of a child of any age. The Compassionate Friends were there for Dawn and her family.  Now the Christensen family is actively involved in making sure other families are aware of this organization in case they ever face such tragedy.

I cannot imagine how horrible it would be to lose a child.  But Patia Lynn Christensen lives on.  She lives on through the organs her family saw fit to donate, saving the lives of other children.  She lives on through her memorial race and the funds it raises to help the Compassionate Friends.  And she lives on in the memories of those who knew and loved her.

(Another) Bicycle Race Runs Through It

The Tour of Utah is one of only five UCI-sanctioned, multi-stage, North American pro cycling events in 2014. Sponsored by the Larry H. Miller Dealerships, the race showcases some of the world’s most prestigious teams and cyclists for seven days in August.  This event attracts worldwide attention as the top international cycling event that follows the Tour de France. Nearly a decade since its opening circuit, the Tour of Utah, today, stands shoulder to shoulder with the most prestigious professional bicycle stage race events as our answer to the greatest cycling challenges the world has to offer. (www.tourofutah.com)

Actually, the Tour of Utah didn’t run through our campground, but it did run right past it.  Stage 5 of the 2014 Tour of Utah, on August 8, 2014, started at Evanston, Wyoming, and ran down the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway to finish at Kamas, Utah.  This put the racers on a 101.4 mile course with 5,706 feet of elevation gain.  The good news for the racers – once they get over Bald Mountain Pass, it’s literally downhill from there.

The racers left Evanston at 11:20 AM.  A course Marshall arrived at the entrance to Shady Dell at about 1:15 PM, so we knew it was getting close.  Justin, the Marshall, is from Las Vegas.  A cyclist himself, he thought it would be fun to volunteer for the race.  He got the thankless job of telling the drivers along the race course that they would have to pull over and wait for the racers to pass.  He said most people were nice, but a few, well let’s just say he was glad when they finally rolled up their windows and pulled off the road.  Hmmm – we’ve had a few like that in our camp hosting adventures.  We could relate.

So where, we asked him, was “off the road” on this stretch of the course?  “We’ll need to have them pull into your campground and wait,” was his reply.  We weren’t expecting that, but since we didn’t have another option to offer, we went with it. 

About half an hour after Justin arrived, we started seeing signs that the racers were close.  Support cars came down the mountain.  We heard the airplane flying overhead.  Then finally, several police motorcycles came down the road, and right behind them, the leaders of the pack.  The six racers in the lead were a good five minutes ahead of the rest of the pack.  Another set of support vehicles, another set of police motorcycles, and the bulk of the racers came flying down.  Two ambulances brought up the rear.  We saw a couple of the lagging cyclists, and regular traffic starting coming down the road. 

Then it was off to the top of the campground to tell the trapped cars that their forced stay in our campground was over.  All in all, no harm was done, except that a couple of horse trailers let their horses out while they were parked.  And since horses do what horses do, we had to shovel it off the roads.  All in a day’s work.

This was actually the first time in the history of the Tour of Utah extended beyond state borders.  Bald Mountain Pass is the highest point the Tour of Utah has ever reached – which makes sense since it’s the highest paved road in the state.

Eric Young of the United States won stage 5 of the Tour of Utah. 

Facebook and the High School Reunion

My 40^th high school reunion is August 15 and 16, 2014.  Wow – 40 years out of high school.  While I’d like to say, “It seems like only yesterday,” in reality, it seems like 40 years ago.  And until this year, I had kept in close contact with exactly one person I went to school with. 

Thankfully, the advent of social media has made finding each other and getting the word out much easier.  Even ten years ago, when we were reached by email rather than phone calls, we didn’t have the social presence we do today.  Today the class of ’74 has an email distribution list, a blog, and a closed Facebook group.  It’s been great looking through the group and reconnecting with my past.

I found Cheri, our classmate with whom I share both first and maiden names.  She was the glamorous, popular one.  I was the shy, nerdy one.  For the record, we both grew up to be smart and beautiful.

I found Karen, who I’ve known since first grade.  She was the first black person I ever met.  I know – I was pretty sheltered.   I didn’t meet my first Jewish person until I was 16.  Karen and I were good friends throughout our school years.

I found Crystal, Dayle, and Michele – my singing buddies and fellow junior high entrepreneurs.  We did everything from painting house numbers on curbs to washing windows at the drive in movie to holding a car wash (we pre-sold tickets) to earn our way to Summer Music Clinic at Utah State University.  We had a great time, and I firmly resolved to attend USU.

I found Jeff.  A small group of us spent a lot of time at his house, listening to classical music and the controversial Jesus Christ Superstar.  This was my first exposure to classical music, and I am ever so grateful to have discovered it early enough to ensure a lifelong appreciation.

Paula found me.  We hadn’t known each other well in school, but as adults we have much in common – not the least, we share a passion for improving the lives of women and girls.  Marianne also found me, but not before I had connected with her best friend in high school in our first camp hosting assignment in 2012.

So many memories…some too personal for cyberspace. If I haven’t mentioned you by name, please don’t feel slighted.  I didn’t want this post to be 30 pages long.  Know that you, as well as those I’ve mentioned, are among the people who supported me, challenged me, nurtured me, and yes, forgave me.  You are all a part of what I have become.