New Beginnings in 2014

Can you believe it is 2014? Wow, this past year just flew by. I had commented to Wayne in 2012 that the years haven't seemed to go so fast now that we are traveling and workamping. I kind of figured that might be because we have typically moved to a new location a couple of times per year, working at one campground for the summer season and another for the winter. Just those changes seemed to s.l.o.w. things down. That changed this year, probably because we have stayed in one location for most of the year.

We have been at the Carlsbad KOA in New Mexico going on nine months—since April 26, 2013. Our time here has been interesting, frustrating, hot, cold, slow, fast, fun, not fun, etc. In other words, it has been a typical year! That's life, right? Some things that happen suit us and other things make us want to run and hide. 

This campground is a great place and we would highly recommend it to any travelers or workampers who want to spend time in this area. It is certainly the nicest campground around and although we constantly hear comments about the price, if you look at what you get, the price is not unreasonable at all. The facilities are top notch and the staff is friendly and helpful. Sure there aren't big trees to shade an RV from the scorching sun in the summer, but this is the desert! There are much smaller trees that provide enough shade for a couple of chairs but that's about it. However, we have found that although it is quite hot in the summer, if you aren't directly in the sun it's not bad. The humidity is very low and that makes a huge difference in how the heat affects you.

The major things that have been difficult here include the extremely hard water and the low humidity. Our skin is dry, our fingers crack around the nails, our hair is dry and flyaway … okay, MY hair is dry and flyaway … oh yeah, and then there is the wind — and the needle grass! I posted pictures of the needle grass a couple of posts ago. It was kinda fun and novel the first time but let me tell you, the novelty has worn off. About the wind — it is CRAZY here and Wayne hates it. I don't like it either but it really bugs him.

Well, all that is quickly coming to an end. When we accepted our positions here as assistant managers, it was an open-ended agreement. We made a commitment to a year but it was always with the idea that we might very well stay longer than that. We fully intended on doing that too through the summer. However, some of the things that frustrated us ended up helping us make the decision to move on when our year was up or at least mostly up. That doesn't take away from the fact that the campground is great and the owners are very nice people. Really what it comes down to is that we have wanted to be closer to our family for quite some time and we simply decided to pursue those desires.

Thus, it is with great excitement that we have accepted jobs at a large RV park just a few miles east of downtown Portland, Oregon. The park is called Portland Fairview RV Park (http://portlandfairviewrv.com) and has over 400 sites. We have conferred with the owners here in Carlsbad and with their blessing, have made the decision to leave here within the first few days of March, arriving in Oregon around the middle of the month. This is obviously a little bit before our year commitment is up but new assistant managers will need to be trained in March and we will simply not be needed. We wish them all the best!

These jobs in Oregon are not seasonal workamping jobs … they are long-term positions. We expect, Lord willing, to be there for a minimum of five years. Wayne will be working in maintenance and Sue will be working mainly in the office, but with some additional landscaping and maintenance duties as well when time allows. Our schedule will be Monday-Friday (wow!) and we will get sick time and vacation. We have already scoped out a couple of Calvary Chapels to visit and can't wait to explore the area. Yes, we know it rains a lot. Honestly, we are looking forward to the rain. We are sort of done with the dry, windy desert. We have been in the desert since October 2012 (Arizona prior to New Mexico) and seeing lots of grass, trees and flowers will be a nice change. Wayne wants to plant roses! Yay!

On the way, we will be stopping in California to see our kids and grandkids on the way from New Mexico to Oregon. We can't wait to see them as well as the rest of the family in Oregon and Washington. We will be sad to be leaving family and friends in Colorado and New Mexico, but hopefully we can find a way to get together sometime in the future. Come see us!

Eight days left (only six workdays)!

    We are on the final countdown to leaving Casa Grande, Arizona. Overall, it has been a good winter here at Sundance 1 RV Resort. I can't say we enjoyed the housekeeping we have done, but I can say we did the best job we could and got lots of compliments. For the most part, the people here have been very nice and we have made some friends. We have especially enjoyed our church family at Calvary Chapel CG and that is the one place we will miss when we leave.
    Physically this job has taken a toll on both of us. Perhaps we aren't in the best shape but we certainly get plenty of exercise while we work. Actually, I think it is the repetitive nature of what we do that has caused the problems. Wayne's hips and thighs hurt from all the mopping and my hands and fingers hurt from the same thing. We are very ready to be done.
    The highlight for me during our stay was the opportunity to participate in the annual play held at Sundance during the last week of February. The play was called "A Mad Breakfast" and was truly hilarious. Written and set in the 1920s, the play takes place in an old-fashioned boarding house. One of the male residents decides to play a practical joke on the landlady and the other residents. He has invited a gentleman to breakfast that morning, who placed an ad in a newspaper where he requested to be allowed to observe the residents of a lunatic asylum.

Miss Smith trying to demonstrate her acting skills

He lets one of the women in on the joke and together they take each of the others aside individually and tell them all different stories about what to expect from the visitor that morning. They tell the landlady he is an inspector of boarding houses, they tell the resident "artist" he is a millionaire who thinks he looks like Napoleon, etc. My character was a wannabe actress (Miss Smith) and they tell her the gentleman is an agent looking for talent. Of course the hapless visitor is caught in the middle of the chaos as each one tries to get his attention and impress him. He has no trouble believing he is in the presence of crazy people, poor fellow. All in all it was a ton of fun and we were all sorry to see it end.
     Anyway, we will be leaving on Saturday the 13th—sans trailer and our dog Lucy—and making a beeline to California to see our family. We will arrive at our son Jon's house early evening and will enjoy visiting with Jon, Cristen, Anne and Maddee through Monday night.

We will leave on Tuesday morning and head up to the north Bay Area (Sausalito) to see our son Joe, daughter-in-law Daunielle and their new little baby boy Oliver. We can't wait to meet this new little guy.

On Friday evening, our daughter Julie and her family are coming over from the Central Valley to Sausalito so that we can spend time with both families. We will celebrate four April birthdays together: Wayne (12th), Julie (16th), Joe (10th) and Kaitlyn (1st).

    Although we will enjoy our time with all of them, the time will be too short and we will have to say goodbye way too soon. We will head back to Casa Grande on Monday the 22nd, arriving on the 23rd, to pick up our trailer and Lucy. On Wednesday morning we will head east and arrive at the Carlsbad KOA on Friday the 26th to begin our new jobs there as Assistant Managers. We would appreciate your prayers as we travel.

O: Oops!

Well, I missed the "o" yesterday. If you have read any of my blog posts prior to this month, you are aware that my husband and I travel the U.S. We have finally been able to get back to California to visit our children and grandchildren for the first time in over two years this month. I feel absolutely no remorse for missing a day, as family is just too important. I had prewritten most of the posts for this month prior to April, but the letter "o" was one that just didn't get done. I hoped to have time to read an appropriate title. Oh well ... as fun as this challenge is, it just doesn't stack up to my kids.

I know nothing ...

You know, I was reading another gate guard blog the other day where they mentioned that those of us in this business are like mushrooms ... kept in the dark and fed manure. Of course this can be said in a much less pleasant way, but I want to keep it clean. Anyway, they are sure correct. We hear so many conflicting things about what is, was, is going to be, or is not going to be happening on this ranch ... it just makes your head spin! One minute we hear that there are plans to drill several more wells, and the next minute practically everyone is leaving because they have shut the wells that ARE here down. I know I wrote recently about the landowner being upset with the smell of the dangerous H2S gas being vented from the wells. So far as we understand, this is still the reason everything has been shut down. However, they can't really leave it like that! One of the guys told me the tanks are just full of oil and they will have to empty them sooner or later. Another problem though is there is too much water mixed in with the oil, so the tankers can't load it. Sheesh ... someone had better figure out how to solve these problems.
Needless to say, this leaves us wondering what our status is. They are apparently building tanks or some sort of facilities back there, so we should be here for at least the next few weeks while they finish that. We are really hoping they come up with a solution that will allow them to move ahead with the plans to drill more ... we want to stay here until we need to leave at the end of March. We are quite comfortable at this gate, and we might not get one as nice if/when we have to move.
One thing we are both looking forward to is getting our 5th wheel washed as soon as possible when we get done gate guarding for the winter. It will be positively embarrassing to drive even one mile down the road with it looking the way it does. Of course, most everyone in these parts will understand why it is filthy. This isn't really the vacation capital of Texas! You have to go south and east for that, way down to the Brownsville area. Nonetheless, we want to get it cleaned right away. Wayne knows of a place fairly close by that we will use to get the job done. Then, while we are sitting at a campground for a day or two, I will either rent a carpet cleaner, or have someone come in and thoroughly clean the carpets. I can only do just so much here. The dust comes in through the screens and front door, and we track it in on our shoes. The central vacuuming system in the trailer is okay, but not as good as a more robust vacuum cleaner, but we just don't have the room for one so we just make do with what we have.

Our son Jon and his wife Cristen had some professional pictures done recently and I just have to share. Jon, Cristen, Anne and baby Madeline live in southern California, and Lord willing, we will get to see them in early April. I can't wait!!

2011 in review~

This has been quite a year. Just like last year, rather than feeling like the year has just whizzed by, it feels like it has been much longer than one year since we said "hello" to 2011.
We started the year off near Hattiesburg, Mississippi working at the Okatoma Resort & RV Park. It was such a beautiful area and we very much enjoyed our time there. Finances got a bit tight at the end, as this was a "site only" job.
We left on Thursday, April 7th, and over the course of the next week made our way north to Saco, Maine. We spent six months working at the Saco/Old Orchard Beach KOA. We loved it there and miss the people, the lobster and the lighthouses.
We left Saco on October 21st and drove south to Livingston, Texas -- our official home. We spent a few days relaxing and then it was back to work, gate guarding near Shreveport, Louisiana. After three weeks there, we were off for about 10 days before we headed to relieve another couple at a gate near Cotulla, Texas for a week. From there we drove directly to our present assignment near Big Wells, Texas. All told, the odometer on our truck clocked over 4,000 miles this year just traveling from one job to another. That's a lot of driving. One cool thing -- Sue drove a few hundred of those miles...WITH the 5th wheel hitched up! She is proud of that!
Overall, this has been a better year than 2010. We enjoyed our summer job in Maine immensely, unlike last year in Chicago. We worked and got paid for about 70% of the year as opposed to only about 45% last  year. Also, even though we had a great experience at Amazon, we are really enjoying the gate guarding instead this year. We are making relatively good money for a whole lot less work and very little physical difficulty.
We have high hopes that 2012 will prove to be even better. We plan on continuing to gate guard through March, and then take the month of April to vacation a bit while we drive to Idaho for our summer campground job at Montpelier Creek KOA. After Labor Day when that job is done, our intention is to come back to Texas and continue gate guarding for the winter season. Things can change, but that's the plan right now.
One more thing ... we can't wait to see our kids and grandkids in April.

Back row: Josh, Kaitlyn, Emily, Beth
Front row: Daunielle, Joe, Ray, Julie, Anne, Cristen, Jon and Madeline

Signing off for 2011!  HAPPY NEW YEAR from our little house to yours!

Goodbyes are hard!

It is January 3rd and today we said goodbye to our friends at church and more importantly to our daughter Julie and her four children here in Modesto. We said goodbye to our youngest son Joe and his wife Daunielle on Friday. I thought my heart would break and I must admit ... I wasn't looking forward to today at all. I knew this would be tough, but Friday showed me just how tough it was going to be. I know I will get used to it, and I am positive Wayne and I will enjoy ourselves in our new, simplified lifestyle, but at the moment it is all about painful emotions ... even for me (Wayne calls me Mrs. Spock sometimes.). I have done more crying in the last 48 hours than I have done in years.

Oh well, enough about that. We had our first mini-crisis today with our 5th wheel. When we came back from Modesto and turned on the heater, Wayne found that the pilot light would not stay lit. He investigated and found a small leak (outside ... no danger in the trailer) that he will have to repair tomorrow when we get to Bakersfield. Hmmmm, sounds like home ownership again! I am sure there will be many more episodes like this, but fortunately Wayne is handy and should be able to fix most of the potential problems that could occur.

As I mentioned, we are headed to Bakersfield tomorrow ... Orange Grove RV Park to be exact. We have stayed there before and just loved it. The park is really an orange grove, and when the oranges are ripe, one can pick them for free - or course only as much as one would use in a day or two. I am not sure they will be ripe yet, but we will sure find out tomorrow.

No additional pictures yet. We have had our hands full just getting moved in and ready to go. Check back with us again. In the meantime, God bless you all and please keep in touch.

Sue (& Wayne)