On the job

After several days of on the job training, we set out on our own to operate the rides. Here we are in uniform.

My ride is called River Battle.

We load eight guests on a boat, four on each side.  Each one has a water gun to squirt at other passengers and people on the sidelines.

There are eight boats, and it takes about five minutes to meander through the river.

This is one of five areas where people outside the ride can shoot at the passengers on the boats as they come around.

In addition to loading, unloading, and operating the ride from inside, another post is the tower where we count the passengers and look down to make sure all are safe.

During training we learned how to do an emergency evacuation which they said probably would not happen. So my first day on the job one of the kids pulled back on the gate when it opened and jammed it. The maintenance man could not get it fixed so we had to shut down the ride and do an emergency evacuation. I was at the tower so it was my job to get the passengers off safely. All went well, but I hope it is the last time this summer!

This is a very fun ride. Mostly everyone is soaked and laughing when they return. We rotate from one position to another frequently, and the time goes by quickly.

Dan's ride is Dare Devil Falls.

His boat does not stop so passengers are unloading and loading constantly.

The boat leaves the dock and floats around in a canal to a lift which raises it up to the top of the falls. It goes through a sawmill and then it plunges down 60 feet and returns to the dock.

On Dan's ride there are five rotations and one of them includes walking up 127 steps to the upper tower. One of the hosts has to do a ride around every two hours for a safety check, but Dan hasn't had to do it yet.

So far everyone we work with has been very friendly and helpful. During training we had several days where one of us worked while the other was off. But now they are scheduling us the same days with the same days off. On some days one of us starts earlier or ends later so we hang out and wait for an hour for the other.

We are learning our way around the park. When we have days off we explore different areas. One morning we took a tour through Dolly's first motorhome that is on display. It is a Prevost built in 1994 without slides and cost $775,000! It was interesting to see how she traveled back then.

Florida to Tennessee

Our drive from Florida to South Carolina was safe and uneventful. Our major problem was the attack of the love bugs.

We stopped at a campground in Georgia on the way. While Dan was cleaning off the front of the RV the mosquitoes feasted on him. So he was scratching for several days.

We had an enjoyable weekend with kids and grand kids at Myrtle Beach. In addition to walks on the beach and family time, we had a joint celebration of Daimen's 17th birthday, Doug's retirement from the Navy, and Mother's Day at Cracker Barrel.

Daughter Donna, Jessica, Christopher (her children), Daimen (Doug's son)
Son Doug, Nancy (his girlfriend), Diane, Dan

On Monday we drove to Pigeon Forge, TN to set up our RV for the summer. It was a nine hour trip but once again uneventful. We're all set up now with a view of the mountains of Tennessee.

We spent the week settling in and exploring the area. One day we played tourist at Dollywood. Along with seeing the rides that we will be working on and meeting some of our coworkers, we watched a show called Dreamland Drive-In. It included music from the 50's and 60's with very talented singers and dancers.

At the end of the day we took the Dollywood Express through the mountains around the park while learning lots of interesting facts about the train and history of the park.

We rode past lots of buildings from the Tennessee hills including this one.

On Saturday we spent the day at orientation. In addition to watching videos and learning about the history of the park, we walked through part of it and had a free lunch at the employee dining area. We got our costumes which are khaki pants and shirts. We'll share a picture after we take one.
So tomorrow is our first day of on the job training. We're psyched and ready to go!