A Day In the Life of a Day Use Gate Worker

(Lake Sheridan, South Dakota) 68 degrees, sun, sudden hail storm and rain

Day Use Booth (North Cove) 

Part of our responsibilities as camp hosts is staffing a Day Use booth five days a week.  Our campground is located at Sheridan Lake, a very popular area for fishing, boating, and swimming. If you are camping the admission is free.  Otherwise, all visitors are charged a $6 parking fee. 

There are two booths; one is near the campground and another at the marina.  Both are very busy on the weekends, not so much during the week. 

There is no electricity at the booth, so at times it  can be very hot.  I take a book to read on weekdays and the minutes go by very slowly.  Here is my view out the booth window. A book about John Muir is keeping me entertained right now.  He saw such beauty in trees and rocks.  I try to look for it too and listen to the pine trees sing.

Dealing with the public can be entertaining at times and it certainly requires a lot of patience.  Some folks are pretty creative in trying to avoid paying the parking fee.  Some excuses include:

• I just need to check to see if my friend is here
• I’m only going to stay for a few minutes to eat lunch
• I’m from the tribal nation and this land used to be ours…why do I have to pay a fee
• Can I just take a look… I promise to come right back out
• This is federal land…I pay taxes… why should I have to pay a parking fee

And my personal favorite...

• Car packed full ot teenagers all in bathing suits who just want to "look" at the beach

For the most part, I just grin and bear it.  The answer is always no, but I try to be pleasant about it.  There are some folks who can be quite memorable.  During busy times it can be very hectic with cars and boats going in all directions.  You have to handle a lot of money (cash or check only) and balance your ticket receipts at the end of the day. 

Today around 3 p.m. a sudden storm whipped up out of nowhere.  Suddenly big drops of rain fell which turned almost immediately into hail.  Good grief…in late July.  The beach folks quickly left or drove their cars under cover to avoid hail damage.  So with that good excuse I closed up the booth and went back to the campground. 

We did have some damage to our a/c cover on our motorhome.  Otherwise, everything was ok.  Lots of campers were not so lucky.  This area for some reason has frequent hail storms when it rains.

So that's all the scoop for today on being a day use gate attendant.  :)