Well, here we are, it's the beginning of November. For those of you who are reading this in states that are north of us here in Alabama, I spent some time yesterday on the sailboat. It was about 80 degrees and sunny. There wasn't a whole lot of wind for the boat, but with the temperatures in the 80's on November 1st, who cares? What a beautiful day! You don't need to feel too bad though, we have a bit more reality setting in today, the temp is 55 and there is a cool breeze coming off the bay. Luckily we can thaw out tomorrow, it's supposed to be 70 and sunny.
One of the big reasons I started this blog is to let readers like you know what is going on day-to-day out here at camp. Last time I teased all of you about some other changes that are coming to Camp Dixie, and some of them have already arrived! The vertical wall has been cut down to a more managable size, the "porthole" tire has been put up at a reasonable height, and the "triangular tension traverse" ropes and carabiners have arrived from the company we ordered them from. So, we have three more elements that are usable on the Challenge Course!
Now, for those other changes that I was teasing you with before. We also had a group out to Camp Dixie in the middle of October from Divine Savior Lutheran Church in Shepherdsville, KY. The first two days of their time at Camp Dixie was a bit more wet and windy than we had originally anticipated, so our outdoor activities were put on hold, and we concentrated on painting the inside of the building! The Dining Hall has a new coat of white paint on the inside, and the hallways to the dorm rooms were also painted! The kitchen painting was finished and the ceiling was done in there as well. Finally, we also painted the front bathrooms on both sides. The group also helped with a lot of cleaning. The vents in the Dining Hall were cleaned and repainted as needed, and we removed as many cobwebs as we could find. Everything that we were able to work on looks great!
The group also cleaned and primed the girl's dorm shower area, but we didn't get a chance to paint it when they were here. I was able to get it painted last week, and it really makes the girl's shower area look nice. My next goal is to move on to the girl's bathroom area and paint that. Sometime after that the Boy's shower and bathroom areas will need to be cleaned and painted. But who knows, that might not happen for months (or years?)
Another change that you will notice when you arrive at Camp, is that we have added a new soft drink machine, removed one of the old machines we had, and raised the prices on cans of Coke in our machines. After the summer camp season I started evaluating the costs that were associated with selling Coke cans in the machines and from the Trading Post. Because of the high cost of the cans as well as delivery, we had to make the unfortunate decision to change the prices of cans to 75 cents from 50 cents. We've also removed one of the Coke machines so that we can better evaluate demand and keep one machine full all the time. The machine that we have added is a Pepsi machine that serves 20oz bottles. Now both Pepsi and Coke drinkers can get something they like out of one of our machines or the Trading Post. Bottles of Pepsi will be $1.00, which is actually less than what you would pay for them at your local gas station.
Finally, there is one other change that I can tell you about right now. Actually it's more of an addition that creates some changes. Camp Dixie has a highspeed internet connection! We now have DSL in the office, which will actually create two new changes from our modem days. First of all if someone in the office is on the internet (like I am when I write one of these, or when we check the email) we won't be tying up the phone line anymore! You've been bitten by this problem if you have called the office and it immediately went to voicemail without even ringing. The second change that will happen because of our new DSL line is that we are going to be adding a wireless connection that our guests can use while they stay at Camp Dixie. We have been getting more and more requests for this ability, and now that DSL exists, we can make it happen!
Well, I think that's about it for now. There are more changes in the works, but it's a bit too early to talk about them. If you have any questions about Camp Dixie, want to have a retreat here, or are interested in picking up a brush for a couple of days to help continue painting, please email at director@campdixieministries.org, or call us at (251)987-1201.
See you at camp!
Mac
