Workcamping Experience #4 Starts!

May 24, 2016

Quick review- Our first workcamping experience last summer was paid employment at Geneva Point Center on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. The second was paid employment also, at Amazon Camperforce in Jeffersonville, Indiana from November 10th thru December 23^rd. Then we migrated south for the winter and volunteered at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park north of Lake Okeechobee for January through March.


This summer, being new grandparents, we were looking for paid employment close to Maryland so we would have the opportunity to visit family during the summer. That meant staying in the mid-Atlantic states and we thought that Bethpage Camp Resort in Urbanna, Virginia might be our best option. We interviewed at the RV show in Tampa in January and secured positions starting the middle of May through September 9^th. We are attending a family wedding after that, and will start at Amazon in the beginning of October, but this time in Campbellsville, Kentucky.


I was hired to work the front desk checking in campers, while Greg is a Host driving a golf cart while escorting big RV's to their campsites, and doing other odd jobs as they arise. We checked out Bethpage's website which is very professional, and discovered that this is one of the largest RV parks in the country and that they have won best RV park in the nation in 2006 and 2012. We kept our fingers crossed about our choice since we had never camped there and never camped in this type of park before.

High security front gate

We arrived a week early to get set up in our provided campsite. Our water, sewer, and, cable hook-ups are free, but we pay electric and laundry, which is unusual for workcamping. We'll be running the air conditioning with the hot, humid Virginia summers, so our small RV will be an advantage. We have had almost constant rain, so we have been sitting in a bit of a swamp. “Workcamper Row” is brand new this year. Instead of being on regular campsites in the park as in previous years, we are at the far end of this huge park and back up to the maintenance yard with its high chain link fence, lots of engine noise early in the morning and all day, and the landscaping workers house trailers inside the fence as well.

Our campsite is level and sunny.

Workamper Village

Greg making hay around the rig after many days of rain.

We back up to the maintenance yard. No need for an alarm clock!

Dense woodland across the road - full of noisy woodpeckers and owls.

After parking and hooking up the RV, we stayed two nights and then went back to Maryland to babysit our 14 month old grand-daughter so her parents could have a much deserved break. Three days and nights of chasing her just about did us in, but we loved it! Then we returned to Bethpage with a day to rest up before we started work on May 16^th. The night before, we joined some workcampers for the weekly half price margarita night at the local Mexican restaurant. It wasn't worth it for the food, but we'll probably go again sometime to socialize. We're looking forward to trying some other restaurants in the area. This is blue crab and oyster country, but we saw a restaurant in our small town that smokes its own meats and specializes in Neanderthal (?) food!


Now that we have been here a week and are preparing for the first big holiday weekend coming up soon, we have discovered that this is a huge RV resort. There are over 1,000 sites. Many are permanent or seasonal which means that the trailers have been installed permanently on sites the owners have purchased, or they are paying a fee to rent a site for the whole season the resort is open, April through the middle of November. The rest of the sites, over 400 are rented out. Most people stay at least the three night minimum that is required for holiday weekends, or a week or longer and spend their vacation here.

The entry road. The nearest hill is about 20 miles away.

The lakefront area and snackbar.

The pools area

More pools and the water park

The store and rally center

The marina - empty before the season starts

Overnight campsites - 450 RVs arriving in the next 2 days

There are also 35 large cottages rented out, as well as golf carts, (though many people bring their own), canoes, kayaks, paddleboats, and bikes. There are pools and a small waterpark, a marina, and a lake with a beach and a water trampoline. Every weekend has a theme with lots of activities. The group and rally center hosted a prom last weekend, and there is a well supplied camp store. A large recreation center is being built. There is also dry storage for boats and RV's. Open to the public is an ice cream shop and mini golf course. Adjacent to the property is the 17^th-century Hewick Plantation which has been restored and hosts weddings and festivals.


A 120 seat restaurant just opened by the pool, and there is a snack bar at the lake. The rally center has a full kitchen for catering. The whole resort is gated and any guests you have come to visit you must be registered and paid for. The idea is to have you never leave until it is time to check out! Lots of money to be made!


The other workcampers as usual are very nice and friendly, although Greg and I haven't really “clicked” with anyone the way we have in other places. The front desk job is almost all computer and phone work. Everything that gets sold or rented, as well as the reservations have to go through the very complicated Campground Manager reservation computer system while you have someone on the phone or standing in front of you and three lines and computer stations are going at once. (Reserveamerica.com, that I used in Florida was a piece of cake compared to this!) All you're really doing is taking their money. No chatting, no giving them interesting ideas for what to do here or in the area. Frankly, it's not what I expected. I've been determined to learn it all, but last night my boss asked if I wanted to move over to the off site reservation call center, and I think I will. I normally thrive on the customer contact, but, to be honest, this is “NASCAR America” and I am struggling to relate to the clientele. The call center will give me regular hours, which neither of us have now. I have to remind myself that I am here to make money to reach our budget and to have the chance to travel occasionally to visit family.


Greg has been spending lots of time being drilled in leading the big rigs into their campsites. Every RV that stays in the park gets an escort to their site. This coming Memorial Day weekend he will be working non-stop on a golf cart doing escort duty. In the past there have been long lines stretching a half mile back to the state road as rigs wait to check in at the front gate. Today he is washing golf carts to get the rentals ready for the weekend.


The biggest surprise we had when we arrived was seeing Mike and his dog Winston strolling down our road. We worked with him at Amazon and thought he was on his way to a gig cooking in Yellowstone. Instead, he is here cooking for the new restaurant. There are several other couples that have worked for Amazon in the past and are friends of friends from our time there. It didn't take long to tune into the drama. Couples have already quit and more people left since we arrived or are leaving soon. Workcampers who are dissatisfied, for whatever reason, have little incentive to stay at a minimum wage job when your home has wheels.



Well, today the sun is shining which makes everything better! I am looking forward to getting out of the impending chaos of the weekend, so hopefully my move to the call center will work out. Greg at least gets to be outside all day, which makes him happy. This is a beautiful rural area with historic old tidewater towns, so we look forward to doing some exploring. I'll report back later family and friends!

A Bit of This, A Bit of That...

April 27, 2016

The in between times are always a bit odd. We plan our trips and jobs to be interspersed with time back in Maryland with family and friends. The normal visits, chores, and appointments of family life become condensed into time periods that are fluid and flexible and sometimes hard to plan. The rest of the year our life revolves around either highly organized periods when working, or spontaneity when traveling.


This week we are having a five-day “vacation” at Assateague National Seashore on the Atlantic Ocean in Maryland. After leaving Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park on April 1^st, we traveled to Ocala, Florida to spend two nights with Lyle and Lynda. While planning our Amazon time next Fall we enjoyed Mexican Train Dominoes, laughter, wine, and doggy cuddles from their Black Lab, Lola. Then we hit I-95 for the long haul back to Maryland. After two nights in Flying J truck stops with many residents from Ontario and Quebec, who were racing back to Canada to meet their residency requirements after wintering in Florida, we arrived at our daughter's house to much squealing as we reunited with our grand-daughter.

Farewell to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve

Five_Lined Skink on our car that wanted to come north with us

Camped with the Canadians at Flying J, Eh.

Granddad with granddaughter and grandcat

Hanging out at the neighborhood park

Our weeks since have been involved with babysitting, visiting parents, family, and friends, and catching up with doctor appointments. The biggest challenge when we come back is where to stay. Convenient driveways for our RV and car are few, so we rotate among friends, and family, and in and out of Greenbelt National Park, since we can dry camp there for $8 a night with the senior pass. The other area campgrounds are very expensive since the DC metropolitan area campgrounds cater to tourists.


If we visit for longer than a couple weeks, this time it is six weeks, we run off for a little vacation to relax. I know, everyone but other fulltimers think we are always on vacation, but the reality is that we have been working, and family obligations during our off time can be stressful since they get condensed. The weather looked like it would be good at the beach, so we arrived Sunday, and surprise, surprise, the forecast changed! Yesterday was hot, sunny, and windy. Last night it thunder-stormed, rained hard while the wind howled, and today the rain quit, but not the wind. It has been 50 degrees all afternoon. Most of the tenters pulled up stakes and left. The RVer's are all hunkered down inside, including us. At least I am cooking a warming lamb shank stew for dinner. Yesterday was salad weather!

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Local Assateague Island residents

Surf fishing on the Atlantic beach

Yesterday the high winds made the beach feel like we were being sandblasted, so we hiked in the interior of the barrier island and along the bays. Hiking to the old ferry landing and out to the boat ramp, we watched the kite surfers.

Kite Surfer returning to shore

Kayakers heading out on Sinepuxent Bay

Then we walked the “Life of the Forest” and “Life of the Marsh” Trails followed by a stroll through the Bayside Campground before returning to out campsite in the Oceanside Campground, completed our afternoon. Returning to our campsite we were unable to get in the RV since the local tribe of wild horses were grazing in front of our door! This group of three females and one male have claimed our campsite loop. There are lots more wild horses in the park who, according to the ranger, will be invading each others territory later in the Spring. Right now, our stallion is only interested in “pursuing” his mares and we had some baby-making going on just outside our window during dinner our first night! Anyone who brings children here this time of year may have some explaining to do! The ranger said he has had grandparents come in to the office and tell him to make the horses stop.

Sika deer originally imported from Asia

"Life of the Forest" Trail

Forest pond left by the 1962 storm

The campsites with the best grass get the most ponies

Tourist photographing ponies next to our RV

This glamorous blond was very popular with the stallion

Letting us back in our RV

Sinepuxent Bay wetland

Windblown sand often covers both boardwalks and campsites

Trees and wildflowers budding everywhere

Ponies on the bay shoreline

"Life of the Marsh" boardwalk

Amazingly clear water in the tidal guts

Friday we rotate out to a cousin's house and a visit with my brother, and then dry camping in my parent's retirement community parking lot for a few nights. We've parked there enough now that no one seems to think it odd. After that, back to our daughter's for more babysitting, and finally by May 15^th we settle into our new work-camping job at Bethpage Camp Resort in Urbanna, Virginia. Phew! Time to get to work and make some money!

Sad to Say Goodbye to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve

March 28, 2016

Friday we will hitch up the car and head down the long crushed shell road and out of the park. The weather is turning and this week the leaves popped on the live oak trees in the campground. Wildflowers are starting to bloom, and the wildlife is getting frisky! We had a spell of dry weather, but now the juicy, humid storms are starting up and the next week promises rain. We have been running the air conditioner due to the heat and humidity and BUGS! The no-see'ums are able to get through the screens at night and the mosquitoes are hatching, so with windows closed we view the prairie.

Our view with storm clouds

Last week we made the five-hour-long trek to our “home” in Green Cove Springs south of Jacksonville to vote in the primary. We took hats, water, and sunscreen since we knew we might be waiting outside in the high 80's heat. After finding our precinct we walked into the beautiful old Victorian-style Presbyterian church. A man sat outside whose job it was to graciously open the door to the fellowship hall for us. Inside we found no line. Two tables with two poll workers apiece took care of us. We immediately walked to one of the dozen or so voting booths, grabbed the attached felt tip pen, filled in the oval for one candidate, put our ballot into the box and walked out the door!

Our voting precinct

Our legal residence

Well, voting was done, so we visited our mail forwarder to pick up the mail and found a local cafe for lunch. Our return trip was broken up by a resupply stop at Trader Joe's outside of Orlando and then we finished our 13-hour round trip to vote! Neither of us regretted the long day. It was good to just set those wheels spinning for a while. North of Orlando while driving through the Ocala National Forest we spotted the Florida Trail through-hiker and his pitbull that I wrote about a few posts ago. Apparently he survived his neck deep water and lost-glasses ordeal on the prairie and was making progress towards his home in Ohio.


This week we made a quick overnight trip back to Naples to see Greg's Dad and say goodbye until the next time we are in Florida. We had a nice lunch out and the opportunity to hear him reminisce about meeting Greg's mother, and his time as captain of a troop carrier in World War II. This time instead of outrunning a storm home, we had great weather both days. We made the short drive over to the Gulf of Mexico beach before we left, just to make sure the water was still there! Our trips to Florida are always in the interior since it is too crowded and expensive to camp at the beaches.

The Naples beach scene

Our cameo appearance on the beach for the winter!

Night before last we had a violent thunderstorm. Even Ranger Chris said it was one of the worst he's seen here. He observed a lightening strike that touched off a fire, but the heavy rains put it out. All part of the natural processes that keep the prairie healthy. Being on the prairie we get the long range view of the lightening as the storms move across the state. The campground was full for Spring Break with more tenters than usual. Not a good night to be in a tent. I would have spent the night in a car!

Swallow-tail Kite returning home before the storm

Rapidly departing thunderstorm

Storm clouds over the only road out.

The animals seem to be getting more active as the weather heats up. We watched a doe and fawn passing by the ranger station. The baby must have been a newborn and was only maybe 18” tall. The six point buck from earlier in the season hasn't been spotted lately. I guess he did his job! The opossums have been visiting our site most days. They amble along looking for insects on the ground. This totally outrages the crows who have nests in the area and they make a ferocious racket. I suppose that opossums climb trees and eat their eggs. Greg heard all the racket one day and went out looking for a possum. Instead he found a diamondback rattlesnake curled under a tree behind the next campsite. The crows seemed to be concerned about it stealing their eggs, too.

Diamondback bedded down for a nice nap

 A short while later an old, slow opossum waddled behind our site and we watched it work its way down to where the rattlesnake was lying. It stopped two feet in front of it and took a nap! Rattlesnake venom doesn't affect possums, but we can't figure out why it chose to sleep so close by. Needless to say, the crows were quite agitated!

Long-suffering possum - suspected egg thief

Very vocal crow who bosses our neighborhood

The little green tree frogs have discovered our rig. We found one inside the driver's side door. Somehow he managed to squeeze through the crack and find a quiet spot inside. Greg tried to shoo him out, but we never saw for sure that he jumped in that direction. He hasn't appeared again, so hopefully he found a more suitable outside location!

One bedtime before the weather had gotten too hot, Greg went to close our skylight. He pushed the screen back and lowered the plastic cover. Just as he latched it we saw that there was a small green tree frog suctioned to the underside, so, now actually inside the rig. Greg opened the roof again and tried to coax it out. It “unsuctioned”, but we didn't see where it went. I didn't notice it fall inside and neither of us saw it go out. After much searching around inside the cab, Greg decided that it must have gone out and got ready to climb into the cabover bed. I asked him to wait and let me check the bedding since, oddly enough, we have tree frog green sheets! I fluffed up the sheets and shone a light around. Hmmm... no frog. Then I glanced up on the wall above Greg's pillow and there he was, suctioned to the wall! This time we managed to coax him out a side window. So glad we got him out! The idea of waking in the night to a frog glued to either of our foreheads was creepy. Greg said it would have caught any stray mosquitoes before they bit us.


We now have one lone male turkey who must be young. He hasn't been too successful at attracting the females. Every time he displays his beautiful feathers for them, they just stroll away. Then he deflates them and if one briefly glances back, he gets all fluffed up again for a few seconds, until she turns away again. He gives it a few tries and then wanders off dejected. Poor guy...

Female Turkeys

Young Tom Turkey being ignored

Tom turkey suddenly noticed Kathleen was too close for comfort.

I was working in the office this week when word came over the preserve radio from the field. The three staffers who are tasked with trying to locate endangered Florida Grasshopper Sparrows heard one call and it responded to their recorded call. Then one was spotted. They won't know for sure until July when they are able to find fledglings and band them whether or not it was the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, who spends its whole life here on the Preserve, or the migratory Grasshopper Sparrow. Everyone is hopeful that it will prove to be the former. It's numbers are so small that it has been put into a captive breeding program in hopes of saving it. Outside the ranger station is a statue of the extinct Carolina Parakeet, whose last known nest was on this property. It is a constant reminder of the need to do everything possible to keep the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow from suffering the same fate.

Our only view of the endangered Florida Grasshopper Sparrow

Parade of newly hatched grasshoppers - food for sparrows?

Greg is trying to pull as much of the invasive sida bushes as he can before we leave, and doing a survey of what's left to leave with the rangers. Ranger Chris is interested in him returning to drive and narrate swamp buggy tours next winter. If we come back I have asked Chris about doing interpretive work, giving talks about the preserve and whatever else would be appropriate, instead of office work. I have definitely enjoyed the educational aspect of my job the most.

We also enjoy our quiet neighbors...

This past weekend was noisy and busy in both campgrounds which is unusual since most campers are here to chill in the quiet and enjoy the prairie. We had a bunch of horses and owners camped in our campground for the weekend. Today (Monday) is very quiet and is a foretaste of the coming slow summer season. The campers will be sparse and the rangers can go about the work of this huge preserve.

Our quiet campsite on the edge of the prairie

Gopher tortoise encountered on a bike ride

Turkey vulture drying his wings after a storm

We will miss our new friends. The rangers and staff are a unique bunch of men and women who love this prairie and their life here, and are committed to restore and preserve this last public stand of 54,000 acres of Florida dry prairie. It can never be built up the way so much of the rest of the state is. When we took the swamp buggy tour we were able to gaze many miles across the longest undeveloped vista in Florida.

Looking from one hammock to the next across the dry prairie

Bromeliads and moss in an isolated hammock

 
We have enjoyed the other volunteers who have committed themselves to making this park run, and giving our visitors the opportunity to visit and overnight here. So many campers are thrilled to see the amazing stars in the sky of our International Dark Sky park. I am surprised by the number of people planning to visit the park, who call up and ask where they have to go at night on the preserve to see the stars. I tell them to just look up! For those who never see stars in the suburban and urban areas due to all the light pollution, they can't imagine that they don't have to go to a special spot. They just can't imagine how dark it is out here!


Unfortunately, now that we are leaving, we are just getting to know some of the newer volunteers. Doreen shares the Equestrian campground with us as camphost. She and her two little dogs have been fun to get to know. Bob and Lorene are camphosts for the Family Campground and had us over last night for a rollicking game of Mexican Train Dominoes and adult beverages! This week we received in the mail, wonderful poems from a former camphost Michelle. I had no idea she was a fellow creative! I'm sorry that we didn't get to discuss that while she was here. This workcamper life is netting us interesting new friends that we would never have met any other way!

Mexican Train Dominoes

Well, Friday we'll head to Ocala to have a short visit with Amazon Camperforce friends Lynda and Lyle, and then the wheels roll north to family. Mid-May finds us in Virginia at our next paid workcamping job at a huge camping resort in what they call Rivah Country on the Rappahannock River at the Chesapeake Bay. I'll try to post a couple times before then, so check back. Then, I'm sure I'll have lots of interesting tales to tell this summer. Oh, and this week we signed our contracts for the Amazon Camperforce starting in October. Back to the regimented life of warehouses and timeclocks! For now I will savor our last few days of peace and quiet on the prairie...