We arrived in northern WI to volunteer for the second year at a Scout Camp near Rhinelander. We love the area with its towering pines, crystal clear lakes, fresh air and lots of space! With the year as it is, this is a great place for us to spend the summer! Camp this year will look alot different with all of the precautions and social distancing that will be in place. We have been busy readying the camp for its delayed opening. The scouts will be arriving on the 5th and we are down to the final days of preparation. We have been busy mowing, readying the campsites and cleaning and stocking the latrines among other varied tasks. Oh yes, and ridding the latrines of their current inhabitants...MICE!! I will admit that there is a certain amount of heart stopping surprise when you open the door and spy little beady eyes staring at you or scurrying overhead or under your feet! Oh, and to add to that excitement, we have waged an all out war on the hitchhikers that came along with us from the canyon! No longer content to hide out, they have made themselves known and decided to share in our food and surroundings. It has made for some stressful days, and nights! BUT, fingers crossed, I think we have seen and heard the last of them. Knock on wood, salt over the shoulder, we have not had any activity for 9 days now. However, we will not let down our guard and continue to monitor the situation and have glue traps at the ready! We are blessed to be volunteering with friends this year and have had a great time showing them around. We have introduced them to a WI fish fry, brandy old-fashioneds, hand and foot card night, a water ski show and the beauty of the northwoods. We have alot more to explore, but we are trying to pace ourselves. We are looking forward to a 4th of July picnic in our secluded camping area with friends and our boys are going to hopefully come join us as well! SHOP AMAZON HERE
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After spending some time in the Piney Woods area, we made our way to our next campground where we would be spending over 2 months. We arrived at McKinney Falls State Park in Austin a couple days before the end of the month to acquaint ourselves with the area and pick up a special package at the airport. Our boys were coming to visit us, well that and they were coming to attend the Formula One race. This was the other Christmas "experience" gift for the boys. Last month we took them to see Hamilton in Chicago and now to experience the only Formula One race in the U.S. in Austin. We reserved a site for the three nights prior to the start of our workamping position. It was a lovely pull thru site on a small loop that only had about 7 sites, so it was nice and quiet. We got acquainted with the campground, the park and the local area. Of course we found the local Walmart and actually decided against going back to that one. The area was soo congested and right on the I-35 access road, so it really was not a fun time trying to navigate through all of that with a big dually truck. That is just the reality of our life with a big truck that we manage through as we go places. There are several other Walmarts in the area so we will explore a couple others. This park is considered an urban state park as it is in the Austin City limits, but when you are in the park it feels just like any other state park, but with a bit of road noise. Still a really nice park. Obviously by the name there are some waterfalls, not huge ones like Niagra Falls but unique limestone falls. Onion Creek meanders through the park and has smoothed out the limestone rock where water flows over. The water level is low right now so the falls are a little more than a stream but we have heard that it is not uncommon for them to be flooded with a good rain. In the summer, this is a hot spot for locals to cool off. Almost every weekend the park is at capacity and has to turn day use visitors and campers away. While the boys were here, we went exploring the Upper Falls. You can see the small falls in the first picture. We also spent a day downtown Austin, checking out the TX State Capitol and seeking out some TX BBQ. The capitol was pretty busy and even had a visiting Korean exchange group performing in the rotunda. We were lucky to score one of the free tours and learned alot about the building and the history of Texas. It certainly holds true to the saying that everything is bigger in TX, being that it is taller than the national Capitol in DC. Attention to detail is everywhere from "Texas" being on the rotunda ceiling, the light fixtures and even the hinges! Since the capitol is downtown Austin, when it came time to expand, they had to get creative and decided to build down, rather than up as not to take away from the grand view of the capitol building. There are now two levels underneath the capitol and the last few pictures are from that area. Oh, and believe me, it is not just long, dank hallways underground there are skylights and columns and alot of grandeur just as there is in other parts of the building. We worked up an appetite after visiting the capitol and were in search of some good ol TX BBQ to continue our BBQ tour of TX. Looking on Tripadvisor and Yelp, there were a couple suggestions in the downtown area, one getting really good reviews. We decided to check it out but came to the quick reality that 1, we were never going to find a place to park and 2, the line was around the building and out in to the parking lot. We were too hungry to wait so we opted for another BBQ joint further out of city center towards our park. We found Pokey-e-Joe's bbq and enjoyed some good bbq and delicious banana pudding. The real focus of our boys visit was the Formula 1 race, held at Circuits of America which is just 15 minutes away. Well without traffic, but more about that later. We decided to check it out prior to the race and glad we did so that Rick knew where he was going and what to expect. We scored some awesome tickets through Vettix and then paid for a parking pass. There is not alot of parking options in the area, so the pass was a must. We also took some teaser pictures that we sent to the boys while they were still in snowy WI. Their day at the race on Sunday was a balmy 75 degrees and sunny. They had a great time and came back with sun tans/burns. I opted to stay home and let them enjoy their manly bonding time. Good thing I did because I would not have been pleased with the over 3 hour drive back , or shall we say crawl, from the racetrack! Just getting out of the parking area took over 2 hours! Well, at least they enjoyed their day and Nicholas got to see his driver win the championship. While the boys were here, we also moved to our Park Host site. It was great to have a couple pair of extra hands to make light work of the move. The site is a pull thru, full hook-up that allows us to have privacy and lots of room. Also, on this side of the loop, you hear less road noise. We said goodbye to the boys on Tuesday as they flew back to cold, snowy WI with sunburns. They should stand out in a crowd there! We then readied ourselves to start our workamping jobs the next day. We were originally going to be night hosts at the front gate for 5 days a week from 5-10pm, but found out when we arrived that we would be part of the maintenance team instead and be working during the day, 8am-12pm, M-F. We were a bit shocked at first that no one reached out to let us know about the change, but are ok with it now. We aren't night owls much anymore and a daytime shift works better for us. We are doing your standard campground upkeep such as cleaning sites and firepits and yes this one involves cleaning bathrooms. We are assigned one campground loop that has a bathroom and a shower house. We also have the cabin area shower house. Honestly, I think I would rather clean the campground bathrooms rather than the day use bathrooms. Being an urban park, there is a high volume of day use visitors and those bathrooms are heavily used, day and night. We have been very lucky so far in that the bathrooms have been pretty clean. We work as a team and have our pick of Gator or Mule UTV's, or on cold days, we also have use of the Park trucks. We have come to quickly prefer the Mules over the any other. Besides cleaning the campground area, we also ride the trails on the UTV and pick up trash, trim branches and keep the picnic areas clean. Rick will also be doing some mowing and weed whipping as well. In TX they require 100 hours a month per site and between the two of us that is really easy to do and more. We like to volunteer and do not mind putting in a couple extra hours. We are appreciated here and considered part of the team. There are 4 other workamping couple here that do a variety of tasks including maintenance, front desk, night host and plumbing. We've met most of them and all seem to be very nice. While out and about on the job we have come across all sorts of wildlife. Every day we see several deer in the park, including some nice bucks. We have seen a couple foxes, guinea hens and lots of hawks. One early, rather cool morning, while cleaning the cabin restrooms, I rounded the corner and found a nice size snake trying to wiggle its way into the women's shower house to get warm. Yep, that was a no go for me and I sent in the big guns! Rick grabbed the trash picker and relocated him to the woods. We have not seen any armadillo or turkeys yet, but have been told there are some in the park as well. We will be here at McKinney Falls for November and December and are looking forward to exploring the area and getting the local feel. SHOP AMAZON HERE Would you like to help support our blog and keep these updates coming? It is easy to help, just do your Amazon shopping through the link above. You still get all your Amazon Prime benefits and the prices are the same. Since we are in the Amazon affiliate program, any shopping you do through our link, provides a little kickback to support this blog. Thank you for stopping by!!!!
Sometimes you go into something with high hopes and a positive attitude but you soon realize it just wasn't going to work. No, we are not talking about our RV life! We are talking about our latest workamping gig. We signed up and interviewed for our latest workamping gig way back in March when we were in Mesa, AZ. We had a virtual face to face interview with the local Lifetouch leadership team that we would be working with in WI and came away from that interview with a really good feeling that this would be a good fit for us, and it was...except for the fact that because of past surgeries and medical issues, my body did not agree! We started with training and shadowing on a Monday and by Wednesday it was very apparent that I was not going to make it. We felt really bad not being able to finish out our assignment but we finished out the week and left our company paid campground spot on Labor Day.
For anyone considering workamping with Lifetouch, your benefits are great! You get your FHU campsite, every hour paid, pay for travel time, mileage and a gas card as well as company shirts to wear. The job itself is taking school and ID pictures for Pre-K thru 12 but we mostly had Pre-K through 8. We were split between two markets so our travel times were going to be longer, but we were paid for that time. We had lots of training and shadowing to set up the lights/camera and backdrops and props. This would be a great workamping position for someone who can stand for a good amount of time, set up the kits and work with children. We met a couple other workampers and they really enjoyed it! From there we headed back up to our favorite family moochdocking spot at my Dad's and are spending the month of September there. The peaceful setting gives us time to relax and visit with family, getting lots of hand and foot card games in!
We also had a going away party for my sister and her boyfriend who are moving to CA for a couple years while he finishes his studies at Stanford. Always good to see extended family!
We also got to see the nearly finished resto-mod 1938 Lincoln Zephyr my dad has been restoring. It is a far cry from the state he bought it in. Really a beauty!
We took a day to go explore a beautiful park in Fond du Lac nearby. Lakeside Park is located on the shores of Lake Winnebago. This 400 acre park is a real gem! There is a marina, lighthouse, ball diamonds, petting zoo, fountains, playgrounds, picnic areas, kayak rentals and a meandering river through the park with several bridges. The landscaping is beautiful and well cared for. We were there on a Sunday and volunteers were busy deadheading plants and picking up trash.
While we are in the area, we also started giving the boys their Christmas presents. This year is all about "experience" presents. Our youngest, Brady, has always loved Hamilton, knows every single song and has always wanted to go see the Broadway production in NY. Well we did the next best thing and took the boys to see the Broadway production in Chicago. It was an amazing show, with seats in the first row center of the first balcony, we had a great view of the stage! The CIBC theatre is a beautiful, historic theatre dating back to the gilded age. The show was amazing and had you laughing and crying. Yes grown men were wiping their eyes! After the show, we went to The Italian Village, one block over for a wonderful italian meal. This restaurant dates back to 1927 and is still family owned. What a great way to spend a Sunday in Chicago! Nicholas' "experience" Christmas gift will be later this year in TX. Again, something he has always wanted to do.
We also were fortunate enough to get 4 free tickets to the Milwaukee Brewers game through VetTix. If you are a military service member and have not looked into this program, it is awesome and you need to! Companies and individuals donate tickets to things like sporting events, shows, concerts, etc. for these military members to use. We have mentioned this in prior posts and cannot say enough good things about it! We took Brady and my Dad, since Nicholas had to work.
Rick has also had time to put together a little invention he has been thinking about that will help him dump tanks with the macerator with relative ease. For the macerator to work, it needs 12 volt power and having the truck right near the macerator to power off the truck battery isn't always going to be possible, so Rick made a hook up cord to solve for that. Some folks do mount a power receptacle in the RV bay or power off the RV battery, but Rick liked this solution for greater flexibility. He used a 25 ft, softer rubber coated, 14 gauge ext cord, cut off the end and wired in battery clamps attached to a battery tender cord, that wired into the extension cord. He did cut the battery tender cord as well to wire in a 12 volt switch where he can easily turn power on/off to the macerator. On the other end of the extension cord he wired in 12 volt, male/female connectors that attached to the connectors on the macerator. On tip on this wiring configuration is to keep black battery clamp to black wire all the way through the line. This set up works really slick and we are now able to dump tanks just about anywhere, giving us greater flexibility in the locations we camp.
He also replaced thecabin filter in our F350 truck and a missing clip on the outside refrigerator vent. We are wrapping up our time here in WI and will soon be making our way south. As luck would have it, now that we are no longer committed to a workamping gig for October, we have been able to sign up for TWO Grand Design rallies in Arkansas and Texas. We are super excited to see some Grand Design owners we met at a previous rally and meet some new ones! We are also meeting up with friends in MO on our way to the rallies.
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Would you like to help support our blog and keep these updates coming? It is easy to help, just do your Amazon shopping through the link above. You still get all your Amazon Prime benefits and the prices are the same. Since we are in the Amazon affiliate program, any shopping you do through our link, provides a little kickback to support this blog. Thank you for stopping by!!!! I must say we have had fun putting this post together and reminiscing on all the places we have been! Truly an amazing adventure and we got to see family and friends along the way and even made some new friends for which we are ever grateful! We have traveled to 16 different states and put 9860 miles on the Solitude. Many people qualify a state they stayed in differently and for us that is staying at least one night in the state, not just driving through. We stayed at 50 different locations. That is almost 1 new location a week, however some were just a day while we were traveling to a new location and others were for over a month. Of those, we stayed at: -2 free workamping spots -2 family & friends moochdocking spots -1 Boondockers Welcome spot -2 Harvest Host spots -2 Fairgrounds -7 Passport America locations -2 County Parks -3 City Parks -3 Corp of Engineers Parks -11 State Parks -15 Private Parks Favorite Places We Have Stayed Of course our friends and family are tops on the list!!! Fort Wilderness at Disney is a no brainer, but at an avg night rate of $115, this was a special visit and not a normal occurrence! We stayed in the 1200 loop and really liked the location. It was half way between the lake and the bus stop to the parks. We rented a golf cart from an off-site vendor and had a great time zipping around the campground because it is sooo big! THe amenities were amazing, including the laundry rooms that had a site online you could see if there were machines free to use or how long your laundry had to go! Amazing idea! We stayed 11 nights, which was perfect to visit Disney and the greater Orlando area. We flew our boys down and enjoyed a memorable family vacation! Read about our Disney trip here. Another great, but expensive place was Anchor Down in Dandridge, TN, just north of Pigeon Forge and the Great Smoky Mountains. Beautiful views, great amenities and the sites with fireplaces...oh my!! Read about our time at Anchors Down here. In the reasonably priced private campground category, Belle Ridge Retreat in small town Monterey, TN was a winner. This is a relatively new campground that has some great amenities! Nestled in the woods on the Cumberland Plateau, this beautiful park has tons of trails for hiking and ATV's. You can rent an UTV and go exploring, including caves! The bath house and laundry room is also top notch! Read about our peaceful time here. Best up and coming park is Rest Up Camping & RV Corral in southern IL. When we visited in July 2018, they had just opened and we were one of the first campers. This will definitely be a contender for top park with FHU and lots of activities and a yummy saloon and grill! You can read about our time here. Best Corp of Engineer park had to be hands down Mill Creek COE park on Table Rock Lake in Branson. Our site out on the end of the Peninsula had water views on three sides with amazing sunsets. Great site to relax and enjoy time with friends. Read about our time at Mill Creek here. Best State Park is a tough category because we had a bunch of great parks that we love but Topsail Preserve State Park in Santa Rosa Beach, FL topped the list. How can you beat being that close to the gulf and have full hook ups! A true gem and we met up with friends and had a great time! Read about our time here. We really do need to mention Don Carter State Park in Gainesville, GA as a runner up! Most sites have lake views and with almost FHU (except for black tank), it really was a wonderful park. This is also close to where we used to live in GA so we had a great home base for visiting the old haunts and friends. Read about our time at this great park here. Our best public free spot has to be Mortimer Farms in AZ, part of the Harvest Host network. Rick made a lifelong friend with Pedro the donkey and we enjoyed the hospitality and delicious food they have to offer! We could mention soo many other parks that were close runners up. We really got lucky with some great places to stay this first year but had a couple of duds. Oh well, that is why the house has wheels, right?! For those interested in all the locations we stayed, you can check out our campground tab here. We will try to keep that up with every place we stayed and the details in hopes that it helps others find great sites too. Workamping Gigs We have been fortunate to find some pretty cool workamping gigs in our first year on the road. We have heard horror stories from other workampers and we are happy to say that we did not have any crazy stories to add! We really did enjoy all three of our gigs and, they were all different. -Peninsula State Park- We were camp hosts in one of the 5 campgrounds within the park for a month in July and August. We took care of Welker's campground and Welker's Point day use area. We had about 55 sites that we picked up in after campers left, checked trash and spot checked the restrooms. There was full time staff who cleaned the restrooms. You can read about our time here. -Lee Bottom Flying Field- Here we helped the really cool owners, Rich & Ginger, on some projects around the airfield such as powerwashing and painting picnic tables and a fuel wagon, replace a door and cleaned up a bath house, some landscaping and much more. We spent September and October down on the river bottom and had a great time exploring the area and hanging out watching the planes land right in front of our RV! You can read about our time here. -Val Vista Village- At Val Vista we worked for Cal-Am Food Services in the bar & grill. This was quite the experience, especially when Happy Hour rolled around every day. Rick rocked it in the kitchen and I ran food and drinks out to the tables and pool. You can read more about our experience here We have some really neat workamping gigs lined up for our second year. These workamping opportunities allow us to not only continue this lifestyle, but explore places for longer periods of time that we may not have gone to without the job. We really love all the different experiences and will continue to search out the next cool opportunity. Who knows...we might just be photographers in the near future...hint, hint. Top Places We Visited We also want to identify the top places we have visited and again, really hard to keep this to just a couple so we will post pictures from some of them. Again, we could go on and on because we have seen an unbelievable amount of amazing things! This year has allowed us to see more than we ever would have in our old sticks & bricks life. We are truly blessed and are excited to see what year 2 brings! Speaking of year 2, we are back in the Midwest for a couple more months and then we will be making our way down to TX for some camp hosting and some R&R on the beach for the winter. After that remains to be seen. Now that we have a year under our belts, I am trying to lay back a bit on the planning and see where the road takes us. SHOP AMAZON HERE
Would you like to help support our blog and keep these updates coming? It is easy to help, just do your Amazon shopping through the link above. You still get all your Amazon Prime benefits and the prices are the same. Since we are in the Amazon affiliate program, any shopping you do through our link, provides a little kickback to support this blog. Thank you for stopping by!!!! |
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