MinnieMom Campground

I am super stressed today. I don't even know entirely why I'm so stressed. We have verbal commitments for the first $200,000 from investors with several other potential leads for me to chase down this week. A planning meeting with GC went well yesterday and I am increasingly optimistic about a June 2024 opening. Thursday I'm taking DD to visit a local wildlife rescue center that could be a key partner for environmental education efforts and likely one of the organizations we will help fund over time. Yesterday we confirmed the schedule with the contractor doing the land clearing. That work should begin the first week of October and wrap up by the first week of November. That's all good.

Still, so far today I've snapped at DH, hurt DD's feelings and narrowly avoided getting into an argument with my mom in law when they all decided at various times to come visit while I'm trying to work. Mostly I love this version of working from home. The relatively rare days like today make me consider printing & posting a sign that says: "Stressed & Under Deadline. Enter At Own Risk."

DD and I worked the wedding expo on Sunday from 8am to 5pm. It was a good learning experience for DD and counts as part of her entrepreneurship elective for high school credit. I'm glad we did it but do not plan to do it again. It was a lot of time spent for minimum returns. Those few who were genuinely interested had already heard about the plans for Standing Pines from facebook, friends or other source.

Last week I booked three nights at Myrtle Beach for DH and I to celebrate our anniversary in November. I'm really ready for that break and hope I can force myself to leave campground work behind for a few days.

I'm working on the investor website today. I wanted to have it live yesterday, but thought it needed more work. I guess it is time to go back to that work. Thanks for the brief break & venting.

Take a break before you make a mistake. Some days are like that and its good to step back to catch your breath, clear your thoughts and start fresh later.

No !
YOU have been so interesting from day one of books about those trips, etc
And wonderful source of inspiration especially for your daughter .
I just stayed one (first time night Sunday ) at Fort Wilderness and thought of you at everything I explored…

You are awesome !

I also worried about anybody thinking about buying a log cabin from DVC / WDW … 
love everything about my stay but those are fake log cover and are not going to survive removal and basically are you buying an old mobile home ? Just Beware with fine print on sales contract for anybody thinking about this.

I've got a streak going & don't really want to stop. But it is getting late.

Check out how far the new website came today! standingpines.my.canva.site/home

I'll leave this design at the canva address as a beta while sharing it with advance groups like MO and the Facebook group for Standing Pines. Once I get feedback and make changes, I'll set the main url to redirect to canva. Or I'll embed the canva link on the current host site - or both, just to hedge bets. That's a challenge to figure out tomorrow. Or, more likely, around 3am while the unconscious goes to work on it.

Amy, I want to be like you when I grow up. Honestly, this is such an amazing project. I'm not a camper and I want to stay here. I read above about your rough day....just a reminder to take a short break to clear your head and keep your sanity. All the work will still be there when you step back in to it. This is said with a smile so you take care of yourself.

I looked at the website and you've done a wonderful job. I do have a few suggestions, if you're up for them.
1. The links at the top to take to various pages are "funky" (that's the technical term, right?). When you first click on the url all pages are underlined so you can click on them. Once you click on Build Updates, I wasn't able to click back to the homepage (no longer underlined). Some of the other pages were also no longer underlined and I couldn't click on them. Next time, I first clicked on 'Ways to Stay' which displayed, but then 'Ways to Play' at the top was no longer underlined and I couldn't click on it.
2. Is there any place on the website that lists the actual address? Possibly at the bottom of the page or in the left panel. Maybe it's too early in the process to include that?
3. On the homepage and the FAQ there is reference to a fishing pond. In SC, are there any fishing license requirements? Maybe not because it's private property, but may be worth a double-check (or you've already done that).
4. On FAQ in the 'Will you have a pool' question....Second sentence "The design calls for will offer a large resort style pool". I suspect you meant one or the other.
5. On FAQ in the 'When can I book reservations' questions. The last sentence. The word 'for' is used several times. Maybe change to something like '...the reservation go live date'.

Something else that I noticed while we were in TN this past week is that parents loved to take pictures of their kids with the big wood cutouts. Either sitting on a bench near them or the cut-outs had holes where their could put their head in there. Maybe some of those outdoor woodcuts with your book characters (or this may have been suggested earlier and I missed it). Possibly position several throughout the resort. Maybe have a challenge for a family to take pictures at all of them for a small prize. It gets people to move throughout the resort.

Have you considered a fresh popcorn popper in the snack bar area. The smell of fresh popcorn can draw people in for a box/bag and then maybe they decide to have lunch or another snack.

I promise, the only reason I mention some of these is because you asked for feedback. I'm not trying to be a PIA. I think this is also my way of procrastinating on some work that I need to do. I'm applying the concept that I needed a short break and it was wonderful to look at your project as a change of pace.

Please know how happy I am to read about all of your adventures getting this project up and running.

sherrih & suz333 - - thank you! Thank you so much for this actionable, specific feedback. That is exactly what I need. I decided to make the website available as a test beta version to get some help seeing things i just am not seeing anymore. I really appreciate you taking the time to look and share suggestions!

1. Yes, the links are funky. There is likely a better way to do those in canva, but I haven't found it yet. DH also noted that some of the links were not active, so I fixed that. He asked me to change the color of the button so it clearly showed what page the viewer was seeing, which I think is an improvement. All the main pages should be clickable now.
2. You are so good! Yes. The physical address will be on the footer. I've got the draft footer on the "ways to play" page for now. It will be much simpler to copy/paste it once it is complete, so holding off on that until I'm comfortable it is mostly done.
3. SC private property does not require a license for catch & release fishing. Hurray - one simple thing!
4. & 5. Yep, I looked at FAQ page too much and am not even seeing it anymore. I'll go back with that feedback in mind to correct it. Thanks!

The wood cut outs sound like fun! I'd love to see a photo if you happen to have one. I'm a visual thinker, so seeing something really helps me.

Yes to popcorn! In the snack bar, drifting that enticing scent as people come in and out.

These are great catches - thank you! I promise you are being helpful, not a PITA. If you are willing to keep looking and suggesting, I would love the help.


Suz - thanks! Glad you tried camping a little further from home! I agree on taking time when camping. The journey is part of the adventure! Thanks so much for catching those errors. I'll take some time tonight or tomorrow to fix them. Really appreciate you looking and sharing!!!


I'm off for a meeting. I'll be back soon for another update. Lots happening fast these days!

Keeping your prior statement of "I promise you are being helpful, not a PITA. If you are willing to keep looking and suggesting, I would love the help" in mind, things I noticed on the beta site beyond the ones already listed (some may be personal preference) in my efforts to procrastinate at work today:

1. Should the video in the top banner of the pines swaying in the breeze be an auto-repeating video clip or converted to an animated GIF? I noticed the "play" button in the middle of the image after it played though the one time and then controls to jump to a specific point in the clip and mute/unmute also show up when you hover over it.
2. The Homepage opening paragraph has the name shortened: "Opening in 2024, Standing Pines RV Resort" instead of "Opening in 2024, Standing Pines Campground & RV Resort"
3. The Homepage second paragraph doesn't mention tent camping in the accommodations list (maybe "stay in your RV or personal tent"). Unsure if that's intentional for now but might be good to call out on the landing page so people don't read and dismiss Standing Pines because.
4. On the Homepage page, the list of amenities mixes singular and plural so I'd suggest adding "a" to the singular items mixed in and also consistency with use or absence of a comma prior to the conjunction in multi-item lists (comma was used before the "and" in the first paragraph and the "or" the second but not the "and" in the second): "Planned amenities include a clubhouse, a large resort-style pool, recreation courts, dog parks, a fishing pond, and playgrounds.
5. On the info/links at the left of each page, "Download Brochure" doesn't follow the pattern for the other items. I'm guessing it's a space issue but "Download the Brochure" would follow suit with "Follow the Journey" and "Join the Community."
6. The Download Brochure item does not show on the Build Updates, Reservations, and FAQ pages. Not sure if that's intentional or an omission.
7. On the Build Updates page, should that 2nd sentence in the 2nd paragraph say "Engineering plans" vs. "Engineered plans"? Not sure if that's a typo or verbiage with which I'm not familiar.
8. On the Build Updates page, will "Discovering Memories Together" be trademarked before the page goes public? If not, then the designation should probably be removed until it's official.
9. On the Ways to Stay page, the slide show at the bottom has captions that use different naming and spelling conventions than the bulleted list at top or other videos/locations:
   • "primitive tent sites" in the bulleted list vs. "primitive tent camping" in the slide
   • "RV campsites" in the bulleted list vs. "RV sites" in the slide with the next slide using "RV camp sites" with a space
   • "quad RV sites" in the bulleted list vs. "RV quad sites" in the slide
   • the water view slide uses 2-word "camp sites" but the video on the Homepage uses "campsites" on the caption about 108 being planned
   • hyphenated "back-in" and "pull-through" in the bulleted list vs. unhyphenated "pull through" and "back in" in the slides, as well as use of "camp sites" in the slide vs. "sites" (bulleted list)
   • "cabin sites" slide is a repeat of the "studio cabin" slide
   • "glamping sites" slide is a repeat of the "glamping" slide
10. On the Ways to Stay bulleted list:
    • "air-conditioned" instead of "air conditioned" and a comma after "bed" for the cabin description
    • no period after the glamping description (consistent w/ other descriptions not containing full sentences)
    • Either a period after the sentence describing RV rentals or remove "Try" so it's not a full sentence
    • Back-in description - "RV gravel pad" instead of "gravel RV pad", comma after 10'x25', should that be "hook-up" vs. "hook up", and a period at the end since it's a sentence
    • Pull-through description - same comment/question about the use of hyphen in the adjective "hook up spots" and comma after "hook up" prior to "and"
    • Quad description - should "double buddy" be hyphenated?

And with that, I've really done a great job of avoiding some work this morning while revisiting my old tech writer days (and remembering why I never put my CS major to work as I fought through the BBCode to get the dang ordered and non-ordered list coding correct).  I didn't view the full video on the Homepage to fully compare captions and terms used in it w/ what's in the text on the different pages. Might be able to procrastinate at a later date to look at the other pages unless you've had enough of my input and would like me to disappear, lol.