beyond cinderella

Yesterday, while I was working my shift at the gate booth here at Quail Creek State Park, I met the sweetest couple from Switzerland. They were a few years older than Bill and I and are traveling the United States in a rented RV. They spoke with the most beautiful accent. I just love listening to folks from other countries talk.

When I’m working the booth, and I notice anyone has a pronounced accent from another country, I ask them where they are from and when they tell me, I always smile and welcome them to the United States.

When anyone is driving up to the gate booth during my shift I always go out and greet them and ask them what I can do to help them. This lovely couple from Switzerland pulled up to the gate booth, and in very broken English, said they wanted a campsite for the night. I gave them the campsite map and told them they could go down to the campground and pick out any site they wanted that didn’t have a yellow reserved sign on the campsite post. I told them when they made their decision on which site they wanted they could come back and I would put them into the system and collect payment. Off they went…

A short time later they came back to the gate booth and the woman asked, again in very broken English, if there was a public phone booth anywhere around. I told her there wasn’t but that she could use the phone in the booth if it was a local or 800 number call. She said they had a problem and waved her husband over to the booth. Then they proceeded to try to tell me that something was wrong with the RV they rented and they needed to call the 800 number. I gave the woman the cordless phone from the booth but she let me know she didn’t know how to use it and said their phone numbers are different. She showed me the 800 number they needed to call so I dialed the number and gave her the phone which she passed to her husband. At this point they were standing outside the booth and it was very hot yesterday so I invited them into the booth which is refrigerated. The man asked the person on the phone if he could speak to another man that he mentioned by name. Within a few minutes the man he asked to speak with was on the phone and they were speaking in his native language. I was surprised that he was able to get someone on the other end of the phone that spoke the same language but he did and he explained what the problem was with the RV. In the middle of the conversation the man from Switzerland handed the phone to his wife and went outside to the RV. Within a few minutes he came back into the booth, took the phone from his wife and finished his conversation with the man from the RV rental company. Then he turned to his wife and me and said in broken English “the problem was with me.” At that, the lovely couple thanked me for using the phone and left. Then I went about the business of running the gate booth…

About a half-hour later, the same couple came back to the gate booth and brought me this box of candy and said “we bring this from Switzerland with us to give to very nice people and you are a very nice lady to help us like you did.”

I was so touched by that I hugged him and told him he just made my day.

This morning on their way out of the campground, they stopped at the booth again and thanked me again for all my help. We chatted a bit about how I ended up here and what a nice job I have… When I told them that Bill and I are full-time RVers and are work camping our way around the United States and Canada, he shook my hand and said “you are doing the right thing and will make many people happy.” Then he said make sure you see Yellow Stone National Park. I smiled and told them I will think of them often in my travels. Then I wished them safe travels and they were on their way…

When I got home and gave the candy to Bill he did his happy dance and said “it pays to be nice…”

Stay Tuned!