May 18th - May 24th

We have had an awful time with the rain this week. It feels like it has been raining for weeks without end. Tuesday was especially bad. It was raining so hard that you could barely see in front of your face. At one point, the gutters were overflowing so much that water started seeping up through the carpets next to the cane exhibit. I had never seen such a thing, but it sure happened. The maintenance crew had to get there quick. One of them was outside digging trenches for the water to flow into and others were inside with the ShopVac trying to keep the water down. Before we knew it, the sun was starting to peak through and the rain let up for a while giving them all the opportunity to dry things up. Meanwhile, three of our scooters were left out in the rain by visitors and had to get them back under the shelter...in the rain. They were soaking wet with about 3 inches of water in the seat. I took a few rags and an umbrella with me. I tried to wipe the seat as best as I could and then put one towel down to sit on. Then I hopped on and drove it back. I was still holding the umbrella over me. When I got back, my bum was so wet, I had to let it dry out before moving on. It was pretty funny. There was a couple inside one of the exhibits sitting on a bench waiting for the rain to quit who were watching the whole thing. There were laughing pretty hard at me. Oh well, roll with the punches, right?
Thursday was all about being proper. We had a big fancy group of people coming in from the Southern Governor's Association in Washington DC. They are scouting out the place for a big conference they have coming here in November. We had to be on our best behavior. The Site manager took them out to lunch and then gave them a tour of the place. I watched as they discussed where they would hold certain activities and where they would strategically place certain displays. I guess that is what being a historical site manager is all about: making your site available to all and accomodating visitors and VIPs.
On Friday, I felt like I was on the go all day long. I was at the site for only a short time in the morning. Mary, my supervisor, wanted me to get to know all of the grounds. So I was set up to got at 11am and take a tour of the Roosevelt Warm Springs Rehabilitation institute next door. I went down to meet with Linda Creekbaum who is the designated tour lady. She gives tours every day at 11 am and 2 pm and that's pretty much it, but she sure knows her stuff. We spent about an hour and a half on the tour of the institute. I really enjoyed it and felt like I got even more of an insight into who FDR was and what his priorities were. The institute is where all of the polio patients who would come to Warm Springs would come for treatment. FDR wanted it to look nothing like a hospital so he modeled the whole thing after the University of Virgina campus. It is a really beautiful place. It is living history. They still treat patients there today, although not polio patients. After the hour and a half tour, Linda took me up to see what is called the McCarthy cottage. It is FDR's original house when he first started coming here in the 20s. There was also a movie filmed here by HBO called, you guessed it, "Warm Springs." I got to see all of the changes HBO made to the house to make it easier to film. I really enjoyed my day at the institute. It gave me a behind the scenes look at some of the reasons why people travel to Warm Springs. I could see the details emerging within the tourism aspects of this place. Why do People travel here? What are they interested in seeing?
When I left the institute, I travelled to a place called Dowdell's Knob. It is the highest point on Pine Mountain and FDR used to go there to find tranquility. Recently, a large statue of him was erected there and tourists can sit next to him and take a picture. It sort of reminds me of those benches at McDonald's that you can sit on and take a picture with Ronald. You can look out over the bluff and see the whole Pine Mountain Valley.
I did get to spend some time discussing upcoming programs with the Terps. They are throwing around some ideas for things that might bring more people in and increase revenue. They are starting to plan for some programs for next year. It was fun to sit aroud with them and talk and discuss ideas. It was even more fun when they liked one of my ideas and decided to add it to the program.
I also got to work in the house, the museum, and the gift shop this week. The more I work in these places, the more comfortable I get with them and the better acquainted with the job I get.