Happy late Thanksgiving

We had a very nice thanksgiving here in Coffeyville, Kansas. We had signed up to work and did work until they shut everything down at lunch time. That was a nice bonus in itself plus we received holiday pay to boot!

Express Professionals, our employer, had a Thanksgiving dinner for all of us Workampers in a nearby Armory. Express furnished the meats, bread, and drinks and everyone else brought side dishes. It was a really nice dinner with lots of good food. There were probably 200 or so people there to eat. After we ate we went home to rest up for the upcoming 11 hour work days.

Amazon is going to trial the Shipping department on 11 hour work days (5:30 AM to 5: PM) for a couple of days and then let us know if it will continue after the 2 days. It all depends on the orders.

Friday we got up at 3:30 AM and did our 11 hour day and it wasn't too awful bad. I never thought I would say that standing for 11 hours would not be too bad but it wasn't. The Workampers have the option to only work 10 hours but we told them we would try the 11 hours and let them know how we felt after a few days.

I worked in Gift Wrap all day Friday. It is fun thinking about all the children and people getting the gifts I wrap and what they think of their gifts. Terry worked on the Toy line all day switching back and forth from scanning to making sure there were no glitches in the operation of the line. He has become the right hand man to the team leader who depends on him to help keep things running smoothly.

The weather is getting colder but we expected that to happen. We spent the day yesterday in Joplin, Missouri just shopping and exploring. It was 37 degrees and spitting SNOW !! It sure felt like Christmas! Last year at this time we were in Fort Myers, Florida and it did NOT feel like Christmas but that wasn't all bad! This isn't that bad either and it is short term so we will just roll with the flow and take what comes.

Coffeyville/Amazon.com Update

Our campground is not as full as it was. Several people have left for different reasons. Some just can't do the physical work required, some just don't want to, some left for warmer areas (hmm-not a bad idea!), and some had previously planned agendas. We're ok for now even though it did get COLD a couple of nights. We were toasty in the bus though. 18 degrees IS cold!! But now our nights are about 31 degrees and not bad.



Amazon started part of the plant on mandatory overtime a week ago and then came around to our area offering VTO-Volunteer Time Off. Doesn't really make much sense. Plus, we get to work Thanksgiving if we want to for time and a half plus 8 hours pay. I know their orders are down but having said that, then why is mandatory overtime in place!!?? AND we were told Friday that our area will start 11 hour days next week. Good grief!!



We haven't done much this week-end off. Just resting up for the week ahead. Our bodies are getting used to physical aspects of the job that they were unfamiliar to!! We can now get out of bed without groaning loudly! I did get a haircut yesterday and some of you know how I dread getting a haircut "on the road". It is usually a crapshoot but I lucked out. I just started calling numbers in the phone book until I found someone with an opening that day and I got a great haircut plus some local information. The beautician and I even know some of the same people!



I really do like learning new things and seeing how different work places operate. Every morning before we start work Area Managers conduct a meeting. We are told about safety issues, production numbers, and the back-log of orders. After the announcements someone leads us in stretching exercises before we head to our assigned stations. That is different! But interesting. And it helps. Since a lot of the jobs require squating to fill orders the exercise session includes ankle squats. When we first started, I could hardly do these but now it's easy!



So, life is good here in Coffeyville even though it's colder here than in Quartzsite, Arizona. It won't be long though until we head that way.

Still in Kansas

Coffeyville had a major flood in July 2007 which devastated much of the town especially the east side where our campground is located.The Walter Johnson Park, where we are parked is about 1/8 mile from the Verdigis river so we are hoping it doesn't rain much! The area is struggling to rebuild. I would guess that the number of us Workampers living here for a few months will help the local economy.

We have now completed our first week of 10 hour days, or should I say survived our first week of 10 hour days! I mentioned in an earlier post that this would be an adventure. Well....hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon was an adventure, kayaking down the white water of the Guadalupe River was an adventure, but this is WORK!!! It is just really physical and we are sore and tired by shift's end but we rest up on our days off and are ready to go by the time we return to work. The work is fast paced and the time goes fast as well. Yesterday after lunch we were told there were 3,000 pieces that had to be out by 4:30 and there were only 4-5 of us working on the line! So they moved more people over from another line and we got the order out with time left over.

Much of the plant is now working mandatory overtime which is 5 10 hour days a week but our department of Shipping hasn't started that yet. Workampers have the option of working the overtime and many of them are jumping at the chance. We will have to see how we feel about it when the time comes.

The weather here now is much like it is in our home town in Indiana except we do get the north winds that chill to the bone. But the sun shines and that is a plus. With us in a warehouse 10 hours a day, it doesn't really matter much. We get hot in there, in fact, many folks are still wearing shorts. But we only have 5 more weeks and then we will be in sunny Arizona. Woo Hoo!

The end of 'vacation'

We got our work assignment from Amazon.com yesterday and start to work tomorrow. We will work what is called the donut shift which is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday with Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday off. We will be on day shift and start out with 4 hour work days for a week and then will start the 10 hour days. We are ready! We have never done anything quite like this so it is somewhat of an adventure..... with pay! Everyone who has been here and working since September tells us it is not hard work but is physical and for us to expect to be tired for a few days. And sore since we will no doubt be using muscles we haven't used in awhile.

We have been staying pretty busy getting to know Coffeyville and the surrounding area. One day,we drove 27 miles on a road through wheat fields and prairie grass to a Bluegrass festival in the little town of Oswego, Kansas.

That was one exceptionally good festival! There were five bands and we stayed all day for the unbelievable price of $8.00 a ticket! The host band leader told us this was their third annual festival in Oswego and they were growing. She said that Bluegrass was kinda slow taking off in SE Kansas and that most of the music around here is either Country or Southern Gospel. Some of the groups there that day perform in Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. It was a great day where we enjoyed good food, good music, and good people.

A lot of our time is spent walking through our park and visiting with everyone and enjoying the warm sunny days. It is like we have our own little city here. Just in our park alone, (actually a city park and rodeo grounds) there are probably 80 or 90 rigs and we are all workampers here to work for Amazon.com. There are three other parks close by with more of us staying at those places as well.

Behind us,the city is finishing up a new section of this park with 60 new full hook-up sites that will be finished soon so we will have more room for more workampers. That is one reason we are glad we got put on the day shift because our friends and neighbors who work nights and sleep days are having trouble sleeping with all the heavy equipment roaring all day.

So, even though we will be starting to work we will have three days a week to play and explore. IF we can move! I'll let you all know!