Post #48548 by CaseyJPS on Wed, Aug 20, 2003 1:12 AM

And the saga continues...

If I remember correctly we showed-up on September 30 and took over on October 1, 2001. We lasted through Bikers' Weekend, with a loyal group of about two dozen firemen and police officers primarily from Las Vegas, who came-in on their Harleys (evidently, they were regulars).

Out of 142 rooms and condo units, we had some 23 that we could actually sell. There were wires hanging in the pool, coming out of the defunct pool light assemblies and the pool had to continually be "shocked" to make it useable. On the Friday the bikers showed-up, the Riverside County Health Department shut the pool down, with yellow-tape, like a crime scene. There was a horrific acrylic (illegal) spa sitting in the middle of the Tahitian Lanai as well, and the original whirlpool (the one we use now) was filled-in with dirt, covered with cement, and had the "large" current poolside tiki planted int he middle of it.

We closed the resort the following Monday and soft opened in mid-March, 2001. Our Grand Opening was May 16, 2001 (it was sellable and presentable but far from done). The tropics Hotel became our personal tiki money pit. No matter how much we money and time we spent, the surprises kept popping-up, over and over.

104 was our office during contruction and Charlie and I lived in 103 for a while. He and Derek moved into the Tahitian Lanai at one point and Ana lived in another room, which I can't recall. For two-to-three months (Dec/Jan/Feb) we had to walk through the construction every morning, in our t-shirts and shorts and sometimes robes, past the construction people, to shower in the Tahitian Lanai (I believe it was 222), the only wing with hot water. Ana, Charlie and I were joined at the hip for months and took turns unlocking, opening and locking, closing the cyclone fence to go out to eat almost every night. Charlie told his mother "I always wanted to live in a gated community."

There was a period of about 30 days where we had anywhere from 20 to 40 trucks in the parking lot every morning at 7:00am. The pool was jack-hammered-out and there was no fence. The pool, the Tahitian Lanai, and the parking lots were nothing more than a huge mound of dirt and some old asphalt with little definition.

I'm certain this is rather long, so I'll continue at another point. I guess I should scan and post some pictures--they are rather interesting.

Look for part 3....