by Madyson Grey
They found the RV park outside of the city where they had previously made reservations. They had also made reservations for the bus tour into the city that took them to all the major points of interest. It was probably the best decision they made on the trip, as it would have been a nightmare to try to navigate the motorhome around through the New York City traffic. They had thought LA had traffic until they got into New York City.
They left New York behind to travel through Pennsylvania and Amish Country. Next was Washington, DC. Again, they found an RV park outside of the metro area and took guided tours into DC. The Smithsonian, the White House, the Capitol building, and all the monuments and other places of interest took them nearly a week to cover.
They veered west a little ways into West Virginia after leaving the DC area. One afternoon as they were driving through the beautiful countryside, Victoria’s cell phone signaled an incoming text. It was from Sarah, telling her that she had just emailed a list of gift shop stock that they were low on. Victoria texted her back, assuring her that she would place the order that day.
While Rafael drove, Victoria picked up her laptop and logged onto the Internet, using her phone as a hotspot. She opened the email first to see what she needed to order, and then went to each vendor’s website to place an order of the things needed from each one. Within an hour she was finished with business. As long as she was online, she scouted an RV park ahead where they might spend the night.
They dropped down through the Virginias, through the Appalachians, to North Carolina. In western North Carolina they took in the Biltmore Estate, Cherokee, and several other attractions. The RV park they pulled into near Asheville just happened to be for sale, and after just a couple of hours there, they were smitten with it.
“I know that we thought it would be best to buy on the west coast first, but this one is so beautiful, and the price is fair. What do you think?” Rafael asked Victoria as they were walking hand in hand by the small lake that was on the property.
“I think I love it here,” she said. “If I wasn’t such a Californian, I’d want to move here. If we were to buy this RV park, we’d have an excuse to come back real often, just to check up on it, wouldn’t we?”
Her eyes sparkled with delight as she looked up into his face. Rafael thought he would never get enough of looking into Victoria’s face when she was alight with the joy of living, just as she was now. When he thought of all that she had been through in the past year and a half, he always marveled at how optimistic and full of the sheer joy of living that she continued to be, no matter what.
How blessed I am to have the love of this woman, he thought to himself.
“So are you game?” he asked her.
“I’m game if you are,” she replied confidently.
“Let’s go call the owner on it and make an appointment to talk with him about it,” Rafael suggested. “I want to see a profit and loss statement on the place, and find out about any potential issues or problems that exist.”
“That’s a smart idea,” Victoria told him. “That’s why you’re the businessman and I’m the flunky.”
They both chuckled at her remark.
“You’re the most beautiful flunky I’ve ever known, and you’re my flunky, so that’s all the matters,” he said, leaning down to give her a quick kiss on the lips.
“Besides, you’re not a flunky. You’ve just never been taught all the ins and outs of business. Your dad taught them to me, but not to you. Not sure why. It’s just the way it was.”
“I know why,” Victoria stated. “It’s because Marian wouldn’t allow it. She was grooming me to be a society wife, not a businesswoman. I couldn’t stand that thought, so I ran away to Seattle.”
“Well, you’re not too old to learn,” he told her. “And you’ve already begun to learn a few things. I think you’ve got a good feel for business. You have great ideas. The rest will come with time and experience. I certainly don’t know all there is to know about business. I learn new things all the time. A lot of things you just have to experiment with and learn by trial and error. A lot of error sometimes.
“If your dad hadn’t had Thornton Enterprise already set up so well, we’d still be floundering around trying to figure out how to make a living. He did all the hard work when he came up through the ranks.”
“That’s very true,” she replied. “And his dad before him. I imagine that it was Grandfather Thornton who did much of the work to get the company on solid ground.”
“Likely so.”
Rafael called the owner and got an appointment for the following morning to talk about the park. After the call, they walked around the park, making mental notes on everything they wanted to inquire about, and noting everything that was good and/or bad about it. Back in the motorhome, they wrote down everything they had observed and all the questions they wanted to ask the owner the next morning. Then they went out to find something to eat.
The next morning, a Monday, the owner of the RV park, Bill Vest, came to their motorhome to discuss the park. He brought with him the latest profit and loss statement, as well as some other financial reports that showed the park to be on stable footing. The three of them walked around the park while Mr. Vest told them everything about it.
Rafael asked the questions that they had written down the night before and got answers to all of them. They spent the better part of the morning in serious discussion. They talked about permits, cost of utilities and insurance, the workamper program, various RV club membership programs and which ones the park was currently participating in, when the busy season was and how things were during the slow season, upkeep costs, and everything else any of them could possibly think of.
When they had just about exhausted all possible issues to discuss, Rafael made an offer that was a couple hundred thousand dollars below the asking price. Mr. Vest countered by dropping his asking price by a hundred thousand. After some deliberate hesitation on Rafael’s part, he agreed, and the men shook hands. After that, it was a matter of paperwork. Gobs of paperwork. Rafael wrote a check to Mr. Vest for the total amount, which he then verified by calling Rafael’s bank. Of course it was good.
“If you two are hungry, how about if I take you out for lunch, since it’s past time,” Mr. Vest offered when the deal was done.
“That’s very kind of you,” Victoria replied.
“Yes, it is,” Rafael agreed.
“Okay, then. If you’ll follow me in your car, I’ll take you to the best place in North Ca’lina for down home Southern cooking. You’ll want to know where to go every time you come to check on the park.”
“Sounds good to me,” Victoria said with a smile.
The café wasn’t very big or fancy. It was just a plain little place, but the waitress greeted them warmly and showed them to a booth by a window that overlooked a pretty little yard where rose bushes bloomed and a weeping willow tree shaded the green grass and an old wooden bench.
The food, when their orders came, was served family style in serving bowls from which they dipped up their own plates. There were mashed potatoes and gravy, fried okra, fried chicken, sliced tomatoes, and biscuits with plenty of butter and honey.
“If this is what Southern eating is all about, I’m sold,” Victoria said around a mouthful of fried okra. “This stuff is delicious! I’ve never had it before, but this won’t be the last time, either.”
“I’m with you,” Rafael agreed. “This is fabulous. I didn’t think anything could top Mexican food, but I could eat like this the rest of my life and never miss another taco.”
“Glad you like it,” Mr. Vest said, smiling. “Not everyone likes okra, but it’s one of my favorite vegetables. I like Mexican food, too, though. We have a few pretty good Mexican places in the area.”
It took the rest of the afternoon to complete their business. Mr. Vest took Rafael and Victoria in the RV park office and introduced them to the park manager and the workamper who was on duty as the new owners. Of course, they had
all met previously, but this was a different kind of introduction.
“George is a highly reliable manager,” Mr. Vest had told them before they went in to meet him. “I strongly recommend that you keep him on. He’s the guy who really knows all about this park. He knows where everything is, what can go wrong, and how to fix it. He gets great reviews on the website, and he is well liked by guests and staff alike.”
“That’s good to know,” Rafael told him. “I know we will be glad to have him, especially since we live in California. As long as he is trustworthy and honest, I’m sure we’ll get along fine.”
“He’s as honest as the day is long,” Mr. Vest assured them. “I’ve never missed a penny since he’s been the manager.”
“That’s great,” Rafael said.
So when Rafael and Victoria were introduced as the new owners, Rafael assured George that as long as he kept doing as good a job as Mr. Vest had told them he did, the job was his.
“Thank you, sir,” George said. “I appreciate that. I’ll keep on doing the best I know how to do. If there are any changes you wish to make, just let me know, and I’ll work with you just as I’ve always tried to work with Bill.”
“Sounds good,” Rafael said. “So to start with, I’m Rafael and my wife is Victoria.”
“Thank you, sir, Rafael,” George said with a nod of his head. “Victoria, ma’am.”
“Since as far as I know, our business is finished, I’ll let you talk with George, and he can fill you in on all the day-to-day details, and I’ll go home,” Mr. Vest told Rafael.
The three shook hands all around, each thanking the other for the ease of the sale, and Mr. Vest took his leave. Rafael, Victoria, and George spent another hour or more talking about the park.
“Are there any improvements that you know of that need to be made?” Rafael asked George.
“Well, let’s see,” George said slowly, scratching his head. “The office building here could use a new paint job. It’s been about ten years since it was done, and it’s beginning to need it again. Say, are you going to change the name of the park?”
“I don’t believe so, at least not at the outset,” Rafael said, looking at Victoria for her input.
“It seems to me that if the park has a good reputation under its current name, that it would be the sensible thing to do to leave it alone,” she said. “That’s my opinion, anyway. I like the name it has. I think Smoky Trails RV Park is a nice name. We could put up a banner that says “Under New Ownership” maybe, if you want to, though.”
“Yeah, we might,” Rafael said. “We’ll see.
“You do know that the name is a reference to the Smoky Mountains that we’re in here, don’t you?” George asked.
“I kinda figured so,” Rafael said. “I see a lot of places that use the word ‘smoky’ as part of their name.”
“One thing I definitely think we should do is revamp the website and make it a lot more detailed and user-friendly,” Victoria said. “I think I can handle that. I did the website for the art gallery while I was there.”
“Yeah, good idea,” George said. “That’s the biggest complaint of the customers that I hear, is the poor website. But I don’t know how to do it, and the guy who put it up is no longer here.”
“If you can give me a list of all the best local attractions, and all the places that guests can go using the park as a base, and all the best places to eat, I want to incorporate those things into the website.”
“I’ll do that,” George said.
They talked on until it was time for George to be off for the day, and time for Rafael and Victoria to get some supper.
Chapter Three
“Well, we didn’t get any sightseeing in today, but I think the day was well spent,” Rafael said as they walked back to their motorhome.”
“Yeah, I’d say,” Victoria agreed wholeheartedly. “Now we’ve got another property to add to Thornton-Rivera Enterprises. Cool, huh?”
“Yeah, very cool.”
That evening, Rafael made a new entry in the Thornton-Rivera system, adding in Smoky Trails RV Park to the database of properties owned. Tuesday morning, he and Victoria went in to Arden to open a new account in a branch of their bank located there. This account would be solely for the RV park deposits.
He had gone over with George the procedure for depositing all of the funds received into their bank. Nothing much would change on the RV park’s side of things. The daily deposits would go into the bank each evening, and every two weeks, the employees’ wages would be direct deposited into each one’s personal account.
The couple spent a week there in the park, both sightseeing around the area and familiarizing themselves with it, and getting to know the park itself, so that when they were 2,800 miles or so away from it, they would still have a clue as to how to address any issue that may come up.
The day after Labor Day, Rafael and Victoria headed east through North Carolina. They passed through Raleigh, collecting that capitol building, and proceeded on to Kitty Hawk where the Wright Brothers made their historical first flight. Then they visited Roanoke Island, home of the Lost Colony of the late 1500s.
Turning south, they made their way into South Carolina to Charleston, where they spent about three days sightseeing there. Traveling south along the Atlantic coastline took them through Savannah, Georgia, where they took time to enjoy the grand old historic homes in the area.
Florida was next, with Disney World, the Everglades, Miami Beach, the Keys, and other places of interest. Then they doubled back up into Tennessee, where they visited some Civil War battlefields, Nashville, and of course, Graceland in Memphis.
By this time, the motorhome was pointed in a westerly direction, so they meandered through Arkansas and then turned north into Missouri, just before entering Oklahoma.
“I almost hate to be going west,” Victoria said as they crossed the Missouri state line. “I know right now we’re going north, but we are working our way west.”
“Why is that?” Rafael asked.
“Because it means that our vacation is getting close to being over. It has been so nice to have all of this time with just the two of us together, no work to be bothered with, and mostly no catastrophes or traumatic events to have to deal with. No one has died on this trip; no one has been hurt, kidnapped, or otherwise molested. I almost dread going home for fear it will all start up again.”
“It has been a wonderful time, hasn’t it?” Rafael said, reaching across the console for Victoria’s hand. “I hate for it to end, too. But this won’t be our only trip, honey. We haven’t been everywhere yet. And there are some places I’d like to go a second time. Some of the states we just barely were over the state line, and didn’t get to see much. So we’ll do this again. I promise.”
Victoria squeezed his hand and looked at him with so much love in her eyes that he had to quickly focus back on the roadway so that he didn’t wreck. When she looked at him like that it was all he could to do concentrate on whatever else was at hand or he would be lost in her eyes. Just thinking about her made him look for the nearest rest area where they could pull off the road.
After he had parked the rig, he took Victoria by the hand and said, “Come here to me. I can’t wait for tonight.”
He led her through the coach to the bedroom, slid the door closed, and laid her down to make love.
“I love you so much,” he murmured in her ear, as they lay entwined together in their afterglow. “You make my life worth living.”
“I love you, too, babe,” she murmured back. “Without you, I don’t know how I would have survived this past year and a half. You’re my rock and my hero.”
He possessed her lips again in an intensely intimate kiss that fanned the smoldering fire into burning flames again. Once again the two became one flesh as their bodies joined, seeking to assuage the fire that roared within.
An hour later, they were dressed again and back on the road. Their immediate destination was St. Joseph, Misso
uri, and the last known home of Jesse James. This site was on Rafael’s list of must-see places. He had grown up on tales of outlaws, and Jesse James was his favorite.
The road west took them through Kansas, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. They took two more weeks covering these four states, driving leisurely and stopping often wherever their whims were so inclined. They spent time in Rocky Mountain National Park and around Salt Lake City and the Great Salt Lake. They also took their time going through Nevada, checking out the small towns the highway went through or close to.
On the northern outskirts of Las Vegas, there was another RV park for sale. Victoria had found it online, so when they neared the area, she directed Rafael to it. They rented a space for the night, and then walked around to see what it was like. It was a decent park, but they could both see the potential to turn it into a really great park.
The price was relatively low, as the owner knew it needed work, and he was getting up in years and was just tired of fooling with it. They stayed for several days, talking with the owner and the resident manager, discussing similar issues as they had prior to buying the park in North Carolina.
After some negotiation, Rafael and the owner agreed on a selling price. Then it took Rafael a little while to transfer some funds from a money market account to the business checking account on which he wrote a check for the full price.
They spent another week there, listing all of the things that needed fixing, upgrading, or completely replacing. Rafael worked closely with the resident manager, partly to see what kind of worker he was, and partly because he had to, to prioritize the projects, estimate costs, and outline how to go about getting each project done.
He could see that he would be making frequent trips over to this park for a while until all the upgrades were complete. But that was all right. The park would remain open during the process, which would keep the income coming in. There would come a point in time when one row at a time would have to be closed down to pave the RV sites. But until that time, there were more pressing projects to complete, such as renovating the restrooms and showers.
