Gators Half Way Inn
Revised 10/05
Cabin Rules
Registration: At the end of this short novel is a registration form that needs to be
filled out in its entirety,
signed and dated. Whether you are a renter, a friend, a relative, a “freebie” or a paying customer this
has to be filled out along with a credit card number before you will get a
combination for the door. NO EXCEPTIONS!. I can’t count the
number of times people get to the cabin and it’s locked and they don’t have the
current combination. They call me up from their cell phone (which won’t work in
the canyon) whining they can’t get in? Duh. $10 Dumb Dollar Fine!
Directions
IDIOT Alert! - $5 Dumb Dollars
Fine For People Who Tell Us They Got Lost!
Leavenworth to
Cabin. Take the Chumstick
Highway (#209) straight north out of Leavenworth. This road is perpendicular to
HW 2 and Dan’s Food Mart is on the corner. There is also a stoplight at the
corner (one of only three in town).
Outside town (about
a ½ mile) the road looks like it could split. Stay to the left or on the main
arterial if you have any questions. The road going to the right is clearly
marked “North Road” but many have chosen not to use the reading
skills they learned in grade school and have driven this road needlessly!
(Heads Up!) At about 8.3 miles you will pass under the
third railroad trestle just before coming to Merry Canyon. At Merry Canyon take
a right & go .9 miles (9/10’s). *Not 9 miles - not 19 miles! You
know you’ve gone to far if you go pass a bunch of mailboxes on your left hand
side or you have driven off the pavement. If so……back up about 50 yards and
take a left on to Second Creek Road!
Another indicator that you are supposed to take a left is that there is a two
tone green double wide home on your RH side. PLEASE... Whatever you do….don’t
tell me you missed the turnoff! The Second Creek Road may or may not be marked
depending weather or not the wacko neighbors keep taking the sign down because
they don’t want the debt collectors or sheriffs to find them! Go another .9
(9/10’s) miles. The cabin is a small “A” frame cabin with two large
sidewall windows & green metal roof facing the road. The buildings are on
the right hand side of the road. There is a small out building close to the
road with an octagonal window and it also has a high pitch green metal roof. As
well, there is a 6’ high Gator cut out of metal and a sign that reads “Gators
Half Way Inn” Pull down into the driveway (about 100’) and park. WELCOME!
What's Provided
The cabin has plates, glasses, utensils, pots & pans, some spices (the
basics), dish soap, and bedding.
What You Need to Bring
Food, ice (block and cube-spring, summer and fall) drinks, bottled water,
coffee, your favorite beverage, flash lights, cold weather clothes, one roll of
paper towels, bath towels, suntan lotion, bug juice. You will also need to
bring a crisp clean $1 bill to sign and put on the ceiling!
Propane
The large propane tank located in the driveway supplies propane to the cabin. The gas to the appliances may shut off at the diagram located outside the house just past the top of the stairs. This is not required!
If you should smell propane don't get too worried. There's a pilot light that sometimes gets turned off underneath the oven portion of the stove. Just get a flashlight and match and open the little door at the bottom of the oven and look towards the back, upper part of this compartment. You won't blow anything up! I promise.
Lights
The lights are called Humphrey lights. CAUTION! When lighting, please don't touch a lighter or match against the silk mantle. They get quite brittle and you'll break them if you choose to ignore this. They cost about $10 each, so you can see why we ask this!
To light, simply push in the small lever (located on the left-hand side of the lamp) and turn upward. This valve starts the flow of gas. I'd advise having a match lit and ready to light! Don't let too much gas flow before you put a light to it, or you'll scare yourself to death when it ignites! BOOM!
To turn off, simply turn the lever down and the valve will shut off the gas.
Spare mantles should be sitting on the shelf to the left of the fireplace. If you have to replace one, please be sure not to touch the cloth portion of the mantle. Hold by the rim of the mantle. (See instruction in each box).
Phone
The phone does not have a block on the long distance, so we
ask that if you make long distance calls, (Seattle is a long distance call)
please use your personal calling card or credit card, or have the other party
call you at the cabin. The number to the cabin phone is (509) 548-6514. Long
distance calls made on this phone on the dates you have the cabin booked will
be charged back to your credit card at 5 x times the
charges on the phone bill!
Candles
Idiot Alert!
Candles are functional, romantic and warm, cozy, friendly and in the hands of the wrong person …deadly! Please do not place candles anywhere, in anything that does not already have a candle in it or is meant to put candles in. Burned counter tops, on the top of shelves, under shelves, arm chairs, window sills are all places young romantics have incorrectly assumed they could place candles without damage. WRONG! Do not cover wooden bowls with tinfoil and place candles in them.
We have had candles placed on wooden shelves, which are located below other wooden shelves, which BURN!
Another brilliant place people have put them is on top of the hot wood stove!
Bedding
There will be clean sheets on both beds. Additional bedding is located in the
cabinets next to the fireplace. Just leave the beds unmade when you leave so
that we know they've been slept in! If for some reason you need new bedding,
there should be clean sheets in the plastic storage boxes in the loft! Please…….don‘t make the beds up when
you leave! Just leave the beds unmade so we know they’ve been slept in.
Key’s To Get In To
The Inn
You have to fill out the registration form (see Registration step #1) and send it to me (complete with credit card information regardless whether you’re a paying customer or not) prior to staying at the cabin. At that time, I should give you the combination to the door lock. If I forget to give it to you, please ask me for it. I don’t want you to get all the way to the cabin and have to spend the night outside. People just assume they can call and get a hold of me anytime day and night and I’ll have my cell phone with me (206-276-4490) and most of the time I do, but not always.
Smoking
PLEASE DO NOT SMOKE IN THE CABIN! Coffee cans with sand in them have been placed on the deck for your convenience. Please do not throw your butts on the ground, or around the property, because sooner or later, someone will have to pick them up and that someone will probably be ME! Basic Life Skill! $10 Dumb Dollar Fine!
PLEASE NOTE! People throwing cigarette butts on the ground are an ongoing problem. Again, there are coffee cans filled with sand on the deck for those who smoke to place cigarette butts in.
Fireplace/Woodstove
Wood is cut, split and stacked on the north side of the cabin.
Of course, any individual who feels the primitive need for physical conditioning and the feel of blood cursing through his/her veins is welcome to grab an axe and start splitting!
As well, a new wood rack has been built and filled with wood in the open space across the creek by the "saw mill" building. Find the wheelbarrow and "wheel some wood"!
Nothing special to warn you about regarding the fireplace. There's a small access door to the left of the fireplace. Open it up and grab the split wood you need. You can also open the window above the access door and get your wood that way. Depending on the season, there's also wood stacked in the bathtub to the right of the stove. If you leave it full of wood, the next person would sure appreciate it! Leave the damper in the flue in the up/down position. Your life may be easier by bringing a couple of Duraflame logs to assist in starting the woodstove. Oh yea……if you have some extra newspaper or fire starter it’s always helpful. Many, many people have told me how great a fire starter they are, how they grew up in the woods, how they grew up on a ranch, how.…then they call me up and say they can’t get the woodstove lit. OK….here’s the trick.
#1) Use lots of dry newspaper! Ball up the newspaper and fill the firebox.
#2) Use tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny pieces of dry kindling. Take a lot of time splitting into tiny pieces”3/4” minus pieces. The smaller the pieces the easier it is to start.
#3) Split up a couple handfuls of 1” minus pieces of wood.
#4) Split up a couple handfuls of 2” < pieces of wood.
#5) Split up a couple handfuls of 3” < pieces of wood.
#6) Split up a couple handfuls of 4”< pieces of wood.
Get the idea???????????? Don’t throw big pieces of wood in the fireplace and expect them to burn with out getting some heat going!
The fire triangle consists of three components #1) Heat #2) Fuel #3) Oxygen. If you don’t have any one of the three components……. you will not have ignition!
Dampening
When you're ready to go to bed, load up the firebox with wood and screw down both dampers (located on the door). Open one of them (counter clockwise) one (1) turn. This should leave you with fire in the chamber when you wake up. In the morning, just open both dampers up and you'll be roaring. DON’T open the door right away, as you will fill up the room with smoke! After the fire starts to roar again, it’s OK to open the door!
Kindling
We try to keep nice dry kindling available for everyone to have when they start a fire, but many of you take advantage of this and think it's an unlimited resource. PLEASE… use common sense and only use what you need to get your fire started! Should you need more kindling there should be old cedar shakes or oak sticks under the deck. You might have to use a hatchet and split up prior to bringing inside.
Bathroom Heater
There's a new 30,000 BTU propane heater that's located in the bathroom. To fire up the pilot light just look for directions on the top of the heater. You have to depress the main gas valve and ignite the starter like you would on a gas BBQ. If the pilot light is already lit, just turn the gas valve knob up to get more heat! You'll only need this in the fall, winter and early spring. When you leave, please turn it on LOW!
IDIOT ALERT!
If are using the cabin in the winter time and leave the cabin, please leave the gas furnace in the bathroom on LO. The LO should be directly across from the arrow. If you turn it past LO it will allow the furnace to turn on, and the water will freeze in the cabin. If the gas heater is not on, don’t worry about it.
Outdoor Fire Pit
If your group plans on burning the outdoor fire pit day and night, we ask that
you go and forage the wild woods for dead logs. Or….. Grab a chainsaw and go up
the canyon to get wood. It's nice to use all the stacked and dried wood for the
indoor fireplace/woodstove, but …it's not in the contract! A supply of wood
will be stacked in the rack beside the pit and is there to use, but common
sense and moderation dictates. We've also had folks that think the fire pit is
a garbage dump for beer bottles and aluminum cans…duh!
Idiot Alert UPDATE June, 2002 !!!!!!!! This continues to be a problem! People seem to think glass bottles and aluminum beer cans melt in campfires. Duh……..Instead of throwing these items in the fireplace, simply get your dead ass off the log you're sitting on and carry them to the recycling containers!
Generator
As of 03/21/05 the generator is located under the roof of the shop across the creek and has lines that run into the cabin and tie into the electrical system that charges the batteries. (Along with the solar panel). When the digital readout charge controller (that is located on the wall going into the bathroom) is lower than 12 volts, you’ll have to fire up the generator to supplement voltage. The generator has an ON/OFF switch that needs to be turned on to the ON position and the choke needs to be slid to the side to start the motor. Hopefully….some day I’ll have the hydro generator up and running and have unlimited FREE power run by the water from the creek!
Garbage
Since we do not have garbage service, please burn all paper, recycle your
aluminum cans and haul out all garbage. If you do these things, all you will
have left is a little waste you can carry home in a shoebox. Since we do not
have Waste
Management or any other garbage service up Second Creek, we ask that
you take you garbage home. People have left bags of garbage on the deck and
since we don’t get up there to clean for several days, the crows, coyotes and
varmints rip up the bags and really create a mess! Birds, coyotes and squirrels
tear open the bags, so please don’t leave them out in the open or you’ll be
cleaning up trash!
IDIOT ALERT! $10 Dumb Dollar Fine for those who insist on putting garbage in the recycling containers, please do not complain about the $25 charge on your VISA/ MasterCard! We consistently have renters who throw glass in the plastic bins, plastic in the aluminum bin etc. PLEASE use some common sense! Thanks in advance for your help.
Recycling Containers
There are recycling containers located on the side of the cabin. There is one
for aluminum. We've just put up a new can smasher next to the front door. These
are not
for garbage! Please haul your garbage out! If you burn the paper products you
consume, recycle the plastic, glass and aluminum, you'll actually have very
little trash. But…it takes a little extra effort.
Guns & Shooting
Idiot Alert! If you
want to shoot your guns, please do so up the canyon! There are thousands of
acres of USFS & DNR property with no cabins on them just for this purpose.
For some strange reason, several guests have felt the urge to take guns and
pellet guns and blast the duck decoys out of the ponds. There are two reasons
this shouldn't be done…
#1) Common sense and respect for the property.
#2) Gary and Pam have a cabin below us and you'll be shooting at them.
For each duck you sink, you'll be charged $100 on your credit card! Duh……….
Dogs
Of course, everyone wants to bring their dog up camping. I do! The problem, is
that they poop all over the yard, and the caretaker usually gets dog _ _ _
_slung all over their boots when mowing. They also shed in the cabin and it
makes it very difficult to clean. If you want to bring your dog instead of
leaving it with friends or kenneling it, we only charge $10. That's better than
$20-40 to board it. If possible, keep them outside and clean up their messes!
Thanks in advance. We're trying to be flexible and as long as everyone works
together, we can continue to let you bring Fido up!
Composting Toilet
The directions for this eco-groovy composting toilet are located next to it and should provide great reading material while on the throne! Basically, just add a scoop of peat moss mixture when you do your thing & turn the crank at the front of the toilet and give it 7 turns in the clockwise direction! Add a small scoop every time you poop. The tomatoes in the garden will thank you! You'd think it would stink, but if you follow the directions, there are no odors! If there are a lot of people in your group, you may want use the outhouse as much as possible! Caution…. people with short legs should not be intimidated. Since the composting process doesn't happen when the temperature is below 60 degrees, it would be really helpful if the outdoor toilet could be used as much as possible in the winter time.
Pump
The 1000-gallon tank on the hill usually doesn't need filling during a regular
weekend of use. The generator that the pump is plugged into is located in the
covered building across the creek. To fire up the pump, simply start the
generator by turning the "off/on" switch on, slide the choke sideways
and give the pull rope a spin. Hear it choke, sputter, backfire through the
carburetor, and roar back to life once again. This pumps up to a 1000 gallon
tank, located 47.5 feet up the hill, and then gravity feeds down the hill, to
the cabin. You only have to let it run about 10 minutes to fill the tank. If
the water pressure is low, and the hot water heater won't ignite, try changing
the sediment filter. It is located underneath the bathroom. Extra filters are
next to the filter. Turn off the valve just before the filter. Unscrew the
cartridge and take out dirty filter. Replace it with a new one, making sure to
just snug it on the connector. If pressure is still low, the tank is probably
empty or low. Fire up the pump and you'll be up and bathing.
Wintertime
The water is turned of on approximately Oct 19th of every year and doesn’t get up and running again until around April 1st (depending on snow and temperature)
Hot Water
A really cool little "instantaneous" hot water heater is located in the closet on the left going into the bathroom. It's run by propane and supplies a continuous supply of hot H20 if the propane or water tank doesn't run out. If no water comes out or it comes out cold, it could be that the tank is low and isn't delivering enough pressure to open a valve in the hot water heater. If so, fire up the pump using the generator and fill the tank. It only takes about 20 minutes. Another reason it may not work is due to the fact the sediment filter may be plugged up and doesn't allow enough water to flow for the required pressure to open the valves in the water heater. Finally, if no hot water comes out, check to see if the pilot light on the heater is lit. If not, check to see if the propane tank (located under the bathroom) is empty. Replace as needed and re-light the pilot light.
Hot Tub
Be cognizant that it takes quite a bit of work to operate this. Roughly 5 hours before you actually get to use it, it requires filling the tub (to the top) with the hose coming out of the pump (approximately 1 hour), stocking the stove with firewood (you'll have to split).
If you are only going to be at the cabin for two days, the hot tub will not be available for your use! You can arrange to have it filled and heated prior to your arrival for a charge of $75! This service may or may not be available depending on the schedule of the caretaker, so check with us regarding this option. This service MAY not always be available so don’t count on it.
Temperature maintenance requires only a small amount of wood. Since the tub doesn't have a circulation system, you'll find that until the water gets stirred up it will be cold on the bottom and hot on top. This too, will come to pass. Find the boat paddle and stir up the water before entering. The tub retains quite a bit of heat. If you get it too hot, fire up the pump and add some cool creek water or you'll be making butt soup!
Since Nov. of 2004 we plumbed in the big tank on the hill to fill the
hot tub. As of 10/19/2005 you will have to start the generator and plug in the
pump and fill the reservoir on the hill to replenish the cabin supply of water.
There is a valve located next to the tub (by the stove) that you turn on to
fill with water. Make sure the drain valve is closed prior to filling or you
will be watering the lawn.
Please cut, split and replace any wood you use or for an additional $25 fee, you can skip this request! Find the wheelbarrow, go across the creek (up canyon) to the wood racks, grab a few rounds of wood, bring it back, split it and stack it next to the tub. What the heck, its good exercise and the next person will thank you! One other thing! Unless otherwise instructed, drain the tub! This is especially important in the winter. If you don’t and it freezes, the concrete will crack and break!
Idiot Alert - $500 Dumb Dollar Fine!
The top of the Snorkel wood stove has to be covered with water at all times!
Failure to do so will result in "you’ll be buying a new stove”! There is only one way the stove will
overheat and split and that is by failing to keep the water level over the top
of the stove. If you do not take responsibility for this, please do not use it!
Emergency Numbers
Gator Cell 206-276-4490 Home 206-283-8984
Gator Office 800-598-2453