Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Growing into the job

Although we stayed warm by going down to Florida; we struggled trying to find employment. So we are hard at it trying to find and secure winter employment. An odd aspect to workamping is that you look way ahead for employment. Most campgrounds are seasonal, so you tend to go north in the summer and south for the winter. Some workampers have repeat gigs and migrate to the same places yearly. Occasionally workampers secure permanent employment as managers of parks or some aspect of the operation. We are now at a large campground on Table Rock Lake and this is our first time arriving at the beginning of the season. So, there are a ton of things to do to get the campground ready for visitors. There is no substitute for experience and that has made the adjustment to a new environment much easier. The missus is comfortable in the office environment and I'm no longer surprised at what I may have to do. Other than getting the "winter" muscles to stretch, we are settling in. More soon!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

1st shot at this

I thought I could pass some time and help others by informing them of what we do as workampers. I've been doing this for about three years now, so I guess it's become a career path. My fiance and I, plus a cat and a dog, moved into an RV about three years ago. Our first adventure was in central Florida at an RV park. I toiled under the hot Florida sun doing outdoor chores while the missus worked the store/office. When a call offered us a chance to work with horses in Missouri, we jumped at the opportunity. That led to our second adventure near Lebanon, MO. We went to work for a Mom and Pop float operation, campground and; soon to be added, horseback riding outfit. We spent almost two years there doing almost every and any chore imaginable. We cut down trees, broke horses, repaired canoes and rafts, cleaned rest rooms and almost froze to death during a Missouri winter. We ended our second year in Missouri working for a large campground in Branson. At the end of that year, we went to Florida to be with my Father, who died from cancer that Christmas. We have now started on our third adventure, back in Missouri, near Branson. More on that in my next update.