Chapter 19

“It was not said before but Georgia owns 50% of this place, I own 10% and my Quartet each owns 10%. That is in case we have to vote on something. What happened here tonight should never have happened. We were not acting like a business man and women. Does everyone of you understand that? We have to think and act 24/7/365 as business owners and the business always comes first, nothing is more important than the Mayberry Inn. We’ll table the decision on Earl, if anything happens and we need to take some kind of action against Earl. Georgia and Susan can handle it, they represent 60% of the voting rights.”

“Violet Honey, please make up a blank eviction notice and termination of employment, and give them to Georgia and Sue. A word to the wise, I don’t think they need any severance pay, because they just made $400,000.00 on the sale of this place.”

Friday, November 11th, Veterans day. Earl found me at the construction site. “John, I’m sorry about last night, Gladys and I talked most of the night, We will be out of here before midnight, you won’t have to put up with us, or I should say me anymore, so you don’t have to fire us.”

“Earl, you aren’t going to be fired, but quitting does solve a lot. Do you have any plans or ideas about what you would do?”

“Glady and I have talked about what we would like to do in retirement, and that is what you folks are doing, traveling around the country with a camper, seeing our kids and grandchildren.”

“If that is what you want to do, I can steer you in the right direction, like what to buy to get started. I have talked to a lot of cruisers and have acquired quite a bit of knowledge on the subject.”

“I appreciate it John, but Glady and I have been looking for two years, and we know what we want.”

“Well good Earl, If you ever need a little help with your rig, just let me know.” Little did he know, that he had put a huge dent in our friendship, that will never heal.

True to their word, by evening they were gone. We decided to stay for Thanksgiving. It came and went. Business stayed about the same, it helped I’m sure that we were 50 to 75% lower in price than the major motels/hotels. The book came out December the 3rd. Our 100 copies came to us a week later. We set up an assembly line autographing the personal copies for our friends and fans. Good thing the post office has a special rate, fourth class for books. We had book signing appearances in Atlanta and New York City our usual guest appearances at four different Fox shows and the View, at the View I sent Georgia on by herself. She was charming, in a pants suit. We were in traveling clothes and no make-up standing in the wings, Joy had the camera crew swing the cameras on us, to show that she was not alone. Violet stayed back at the motel to help Susan out. Business started to pick up, when the book came out. After New York, we went to Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, St Louis, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas and back to Mt. Airy, we were worn out. Violet drove down to Atlanta to pick us up at the airport.

Next thing you know it was Christmas, then New Years, Sue’s birthday, can’t believe she is eighteen already. No special love making for her birthday, I think she would rather have Violet than me anyway. Two new drivers for the coach, if we ever get on the road again. Cold weather was here, we decided to stay put, till Spring.

Spring Equinox, March 20th; Rumors about being able to stand a dime up on it’s edge and a broom on end, I’m going to test them right now. Sure enough, it worked, I went to the broom closet and stood up everyone of our brooms. The RV park was almost completed, all the heavy work was done, the plumbers and electricians had everything buried that went under the drive, Mark’s crew was getting ready to pour concrete curbs and gravel the drive. Then do the trenching inside the island for the individual electric and plumbing. Things were looking really good, it’s a wonder, since Mark spent so much time in our office or the laundry. I asked him if he had a hard completion date for the RV park, he said April 10th. I checked with Sue on the web page for our own web site, she said she would have the draft tonight for me to look at. I told her the RV park would be ready for guests on April 10th. I told her to raise all the rates 20% starting June 1st. We were the least expensive Motel/RV park around, after the rate increase only one motel was cheaper and it was not as nice. As an after thought I told Mark to build a building in the island for an open air gathering place with an air conditioned laundry, with two washers and dryers, a place for vending machines and rest rooms. Also a WiFi extender. My investment was getting up there now, I hoped Georgia would get some money soon.

I and some times Violet, were helping out at the truck stop/restaurant. Joe said he was trying to hire more help, but to no avail. He was offering 6 days a week 5 hours a day. April 1st, Earl and Gladys stopped by for a couple of days and stayed a week, they had bought a new 35ft Itasca motor home gasoline model with two slides also a 20ft. trailer to haul their car and a few items. I put Earl to work landscaping the RV park and blending the motel and park together. I told him they could stay as long as they wanted for free except for the electric. All of us also got a payment of $75,000.00. It took all of it to bring Georgia almost up to equal my investment. And wouldn’t you know it, Joe’s friend brought the ‘58 Ford Cruiser back with a bill for $2,200. Wasn’t too much wrong with it, but it was beautiful with the body repaired and all new paint. Now we would have three Mayberry Police Cruisers for tours, as soon as the school was finished with the other one, plus Emmett’s truck for chores.

We hired a middle aged couple, Helen and Larry Smith, whose home had burnt down, as full time custodians and assistant managers on salary, they moved in where Earl and Gladys had lived, right behind the office and gift shop, a nice two bedroom apartment, that kept their salary down. They were referred to us by the fire dept. We moved our coach to the RV park.

It never ends, the Vocational School called and said that the engine was toast in the ‘64 Cruiser, I thought it was a ‘63, but what ever. It was a 427 cubic inch High Output and it would cost over $5,000. to rebuild it and the transmission. I about choked on that. I told them we may as well junk it, the reply was, that would be a shame as the body and paint was already done, and that was going to be about $2,000. After I was silent on the phone for about a minute, he said that there maybe an alternative solution to the problem. All the car manufacturers sold new crate engines and transmissions. We could probably get a smaller, more economic engine and transmission that would be self contained and bolt right up, except maybe the drive shaft may need changed and the best part would be the school would get a discount. I said go for it, but first tell me the engine size and cost, before he did any thing. As it turned out, both cars were former Highway Patrol cars with hopped up factory engines with dual four barrel carburetors. One was a 390 CI and the other a 427.

Right now we had ten reservations for overnight rooms for the rest of the month and two RV lots for a week at a time. Sam and Hannah were working on the book I was also working on, they wanted to take the car to Athens, so they could do some more research. Joe and Mary finally got an employee for the store. Violet and I were no longer needed. We made the announcement, that we were going to Athens soon.

It’s about 5 hours and we will find a place to camp or park when we get there. We also would provision there. Samantha was going to drive, for the first time.

So we left in the morning of April 15. After a nice big breakfast of eggs, anyway you wanted them, sausage links, hash browns, Libby’s canned sausage gravy and toast. I put the gravy on my hash browns, some put it on toast, some sampled mine and liked it, till we ran out of hash browns.

It’s been some time since we were on the road. Everyone got busy, breaking camp. I took Samantha along with me on my final inspection. Checking the engine fluids, tire pressures and all the lights, coach and trailer. Hannah had been in the driver’s seat helping with the lights. Hannah had checked Samantha out on all the controls and gauges before. Everyone wished us a safe trip, then returned to the Motel office. Sam took us around the island twice then headed out the rear exit, entrance. I realized that the signs I had ordered through Mark, weren’t there, nor was the trenching done yet. Called Larry Smith and told him, to call Mark and get on him about it. He said, he would have an answer, later today.

I started the trip riding shotgun with Samantha, to observe her driving. She was doing well, adjusting to all the gadgets, the side view cameras along the sides, the rear view on the back of the trailer and the side views on the rear sides. But she only needed them for changing lanes. I had put the address in the GPS for the trailer place, for our destination. After an hour, Hannah claimed the shotgun seat and I looked for Violet, she must be laying down. I went to the bedroom to see if she was asleep, I whispered to her and she didn’t answer me or move. I went to the lounge and got out my laptop to see how the story was coming. It looked pretty good without me and I could see that they needed more research.

I considered starting a new book. Wondering about, what? I looked through my notes and possible story lines, but nothing grabbed me, maybe I am just an editor, not a writer after all. I checked my mail and found one book to edit, so I emailed the author and accepted the contract.

My publisher, had been hounding me about a new book, he thought every six months was a good schedule. Our last three books had been non-fiction and that takes more time. All of them were in paperback now, with the price going down and so does our cut too. Sales were extremely high, even now. Georgia and all of us got a check for $50.00, it was a true commission check like the last one, no more advances. She was thrilled, cause she got to keep part of it.