The Bank President Gives Allie Advice

 Allie still felt sick to her stomach. Her bank credit card had been declined at the Feed Store in town. "I know I have had a lot of expenses, but I had no idea I was getting close to my limit. I had a lot of money when I cashed in those bearer bonds and money we had found under the floor upstairs. I should have kept better track. I really do need a partner to help me manage not only the ranch, but the money end of it too. I have a foreman that oversees the cowhands and the animals, but I have no one to handle reservations when they start coming in. Josh did a good job with the ad in that magazine, but I only have a couple of cabins cleaned and painted and they are full. Grace is staying in one of them for a couple of weeks and I have had Jean and Addie stay in the other one so they could have room for Addie to run around and not disturb the others. Ha! Disturb who? Me. That's who. Everyone else is gone."

"Miss Allie? The president will see you now."

Allie stood up and felt a bit light headed. Then she straightened her shoulders and thought, "You've been through worse than this. You were almost homeless and had no job or money." She looked through the doorway she was led to and almost grinned. There sat a woman, not a man. She was wearing jeans, not a suit and had a messy desk. She looked kind of serious though. Maybe this was not a good sign. "Hi, my name is Allie. I'm here to see the bank president." 

"You have found her, Allie. Don't look scared. Bank presidents and/or loan officers are kind of like police officers. We are here to help you not lock you up. At least not today." She laughed and said, "Sit down. I have been looking over your account and see that you are in a bit of a financial jam. You have money in your checking account, but you have maxed out your credit card. We can get that fixed today when we are finished visiting. I have an idea. Let's see what you think. It's a little far out there, but it could only be temporary if you want until you get some regular guests out at the Double D."

Allie felt herself relax. It sounded not quite as bad as she thought. "What is your idea? I am open to anything at this point."

"What do you think of putting in a campground out there? I did some research when I first moved to town. An older fellow that actually built this bank and most of the town had a place out there for people to picnic and set up tents if they wanted to. It doesn't have electricity from what I understand, but maybe the bank could help you out there. If it hasn't been used for years it probably needs a lot of work. I do know that it has water and shade from the sun. It would at least give you some time to update the cabins and get some money coming in."

"I haven't even had time since I moved to the ranch to see everything that's on it. It's a lot of acres to cover. Are you talking about Rex? I know him. He just married Pat and have been out to the ranch to help me. Yes, I'm in. I'll call him right after I leave here. Now how can I fix my finances, because as a matter of fact I have a couple coming in this afternoon that saw the ad. I don't have a cabin open for them. I think it's a mother and daughter. I guess I will have them stay in the house with me, but I sure will get started on your idea. Thank you so much!"

"Don't thank me yet. You still have some work to do. By the way I heard that you are having problems with people dumping animals on your ranch. There's a meeting in a couple of days and I'm going to be there. I have some ideas about how we can stop that too. If we can't stop it, we can at least find some loving foster homes or licensed rescue people to transport them to other areas of the state or country. See you there? Good. Okay let's go over to the teller and we will get this straightened out. I also would recommend a good accountant for you. They will only do as good a job as the information you give them, so your expenses and income is important for them to know. Here's a business card of a good one that I know. They will get you started on the right track."

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Jean had taken Addie out for a walk hoping that Shadow was outside so her granddaughter could see him and maybe give him a carrot or an apple slice. "That's strange. I don't see him outside anywhere. Let's take a walk and see if he's out in the pasture. Horses like to run and play sometimes just like you do, little one, but Shadow has been sick, so he's just looking for some fresh air and sunshine I'm sure. Here are some carrots for him if we see him."

"Only another hour and we will be there, Belle. This is fun, don't you think? I think camping is the way to travel. We have everything we need including toilet paper, salt and pepper and even marshmallows for S'mores, she laughed. I think the last place we stopped we stocked up on everything."

"No we forgot one thing, Mom. We forgot to get ice cream." She grinned at her mom and said, "Can we stop and get a cone? I saw a sign back there. They sound like a fun place and I could go for a double dip ice cream cone." Her mom nodded her head and said, "Sure. Why not? I think there's a gas station close by. For your information I saw the sign too and was planning to stop." They both laughed and found a parking spot that was easy to park in. When they walked in they found the place to be really crowded. "This is a good sign that the ice cream is good. There are a lot of people here!"

Neither Belle nor her mom noticed the two men that Belle had seen from the campground the night before. They were in line ahead of them and had left before they did. However, the men saw them pull in and recognized the new camper. "What do ya think? Think they got money in that there SUV they are pulling that camper with? Let's get outta here and see for ourselves." Before Belle and her mom had gotten their ice cream they had already gotten into the SUV.  They had taken Belle's little stuffed Henny, Belle's purse, and her new sunglasses. They had searched the glove box and found some cash and quickly ran to their old camper and were on their way to their hideout with more animals to dump on the Double D Ranch.