Author: Lee and Tracy

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First Time in Washington State

Wednesday we decided to take the advice of fellow RV-Dreamer, Ruth, and explore the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge. I was particularly excited because Washington is one of the few states I have ever visited in any capacity.  Lee and I were trying to figure out how many states were left and at least for him we thought there was only Arkansas, but I still had Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Washington.

The day was a nice one, although the river area was a little hazy.  I tried to clean up the pictures the best I could, but unfortunately they don’t do justice to how absolutely beautiful the landscapes were.  Still it was a lovely day and a busy one (we started at 9am and didn’t get home until past 8pm), so I am going to jump right in and take you on the picture tour.

As soon as we crossed the river I was struck by how different the two sides of the gorge are.  The Washington side was much more developed and there were numerous houses along the banks for the river.  State Route 14 also runs closer to the river and along a busy train track so we saw several trains throughout the day.

The river and the landscape on the Washington side

One of the many houses we saw along the banks although I wouldn’t want to be that close to the railroad tracks

The views of the other side and the occasional peek of Historic Route 30 gave us a different perspective on the Oregon side

You can see the train tracks were here before the road from this view of the two tunnels

Our first stop was a little St. Cloud day use area.  Although the area was mowed it was very overgrown but since it allowed us an opportunity to walk down to the river bank we walked through the weeds.  The difference between this day use area and the ones we have been looking over was not lost on me, and I wondered about the folks that were watching over this little place, because it had lots of potential but obviously needed lots of work.

Beautiful views of the Oregon side

I loved the wild roses

There were lots of this giant butterflies

Unfortunately I needed to use the restroom and this is what I walked into. It pretty much reinforced for me that even though what we are doing isn’t glamorous, it does impact people’s nature experiences. It certainly impacted mine.

Next we stopped in the Bonneville Dam area. Initially we were just stopping by to snap a few pictures but on a whim Lee decided to go inside and check out the dam and I am so glad that we did.  Visiting the dam was totally free and not only are huge chunks of it accessible without taking a tour, but they also have the largest fish ladder system I have ever seen.  We really enjoyed our time there and even had lunch at their very clean picnic area.

Along the drive I was able to get a picture of some waterfalls on the Oregon side. I think this is the area near Multnomah Falls although I am not 100% sure. It was on the very edge of my long lens but looked amazing.

COE fishing area.

Beautiful views of the Oregon coast

You can see Hwy 30 right in the middle forefront of the picture

The dam

Huge fish ladders

All of those little dots along the waterline were people fishing at the end of the fish ladders. Huge crowd for a Wednesday at noon

Great view of the generators

They had to put  lights in this fish tunnel, because the fish won’t use it if it’s totally dark.

More fish tunnel

The coolest thing was we could walk down into part of the dam and through viewing windows see fish going through the tunnels

No fish but we did see these lamprey on the windows waiting to catch a ride

Great display and educational area

After the dam we crossed the Bridge of the Gods to the Portland side and viewed the historic locks.  We really should have done this when we were on the Oregon side, but somehow we missed this the first time around.  It cost $3 each way to cross the bridge ($2 if it’s a regular car or truck), but despite the cost I am glad we did it because by sheer coincidence we got to see a Native American dip net fishing from the locks which was a great moment.

Bridge of the Gods which has significant historical significance in the area

Native American folklore talked of a time when a landslide allowed for a natural bridge across the river. While it existed the people were able to catch many salmon

The local tribes believed that Coyote the creator changed the nature of the river to help the people

Since these are ancestral fishing grounds, local tribes people are allowed to dip net fish from the river and use these platforms

 

Lee waving me forward to see the dip net fishing

The nets had a string attached and by feeling the string move the fisherman could tell how many fish were in the net and how big they were. Amazing. Every net pull he made had at least 4 fish in it

He pulled the huge net onto the dock which took some strength

Then he put them in a bucket which was pulled to the top of the lock

The natives are allowed to sell their fish and this gentleman bough two coolers full, fresh from the river.

Even without the dip netting the park is still a cool place.  There is a small museum, which we skipped (cost is $3 per person), some walking paths, and wonderful rose garden.

The roses were huge and smelled wonderful

Paths along the river

After the locks we crossed the bridge back to the Washington side of the river and drove down to the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center.  I can’t say enough about this wonderful museum.  We have been to many small museums throughout the country in our travels and this is one of the absolute best small museums we have ever been to.  Usually these museums “pick a lane” and stay in it, but this museum covered a variety of subjects, yet managed to remain cohesive in the whole by following a timeline of the events in the area.  Through generous donation they also had a couple of very unusual collections including an amazing rosary collection, which is the largest private collection of rosaries in the United States. 

The museum. The glass was wonderful because it allowed for wonderful views of the river

Beautiful 3 story tall carvings are on one corner of the building

Lee and I both loved this quote. No offense to our friends in the east, but this has been our sentiment

Several collections of native artifacts including pieces of petroglyph

I loved that they had an historical library

This was one of my favorite pieces. A map of the area as drawn by Lewis and Clark and two of their many medallions they handed out during their travels

There was a giant two-story high commercial fish wheel you could walk up into

This life-sized statue of a native on a platform dip net fishing had even greater significance since we had seen the modern equivalent that same day

One of the local citizens of Stevenson was editor of Stars and Stripes during WWII

There was also an extensive Asian collection on loan from several county residents

I really loved these Japanese reed boots

Beautiful bicentennial quilt

An a beautiful centennial quilt for the area

The quilt version of a beautiful Mount Hood picture I have taken

One of my favorite parts was the rosary collection which started as a curiosity and turned into a life long project of deep devotion

So many cases of rosary beads, each bead set cataloged and displayed

This one was life-sized wall art

The “bead” was as big as my hand

He had numerous rosarys owned by famous people, but this JFK owned one was very special

They even had an outside area with numerous items including this train

And a pill box which armed guards stayed in during WWII

Next we stopped at a small parking lot called “Swell City” and watched the windsurfers on the river which I enjoyed taking pictures of.

 

And somewhere along the way we passed the line between the west side of Oregon/Washington and the east side. It was really interesting because the landscape changes and the temperature jumped from 85 to 92 degrees.  It was much hotter, but beautiful in it’s own way, but we kept on until we reached a site recommended by our friend Ruth.  It was pretty far from everything else, and I was tempted to turn around, but Lee really wanted to see it and I am glad we did.  Stonehenge is a life sized re-creation of the original and was the first WWI war memorial in the United States. Sam Hill was a local patron in the area and a pacifist and Quaker.  He visited England during WWI, saw Stonehenge, and was told that pagan sacrifices were made on the altar.  He built this memorial to honor the fallen from his county, but also used the Stonehenge image to make a statement about the war.  Knowing today that Stonehenge was probably not used for pagan sacrifice but was rather a sundial, I didn’t expect to like the memorial very much, but surprisingly I did.  It was very well done and absolutely honored the fallen.  The good news is you can easily visit this monument by exiting Highway 84 and it has a large parking lot that will support big rigs.  I highly recommend it if for no other reason than there are stunning views of the river and the valley from here.  I also found it extremely photogenic and I know this is a picture heavy post already, but I have to share some of these.

The changing landscape

 

There was a beautiful waterfall where this bridge now stands. We read that the tribes were paid a one-time payment of $26M when the dam system destroyed the falls

Stonehenge

View from behind the monument

They also added a smaller monument with the names of country residents who died in other wars

I loved that they had recently added Afghanistan to the monument. I think this is the first time I’ve seen this and hope other towns do the same

 

It was an absolutely lovely day and once again the Columbia Gorge did not disappoint. I am so glad that we went all the way to Stonehenge because it was a perfect capper to the day. And the weather (despite the haze) was very cooperative.  Good thing too, because the forecast calls for rain the next 6 days so will let you know more about working in the rain in the next post.

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is also available in paperback.

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First Time Working In A Utility Co. Park – Free Fishing Weekend

Disclaimer: The company we are working for this summer has a very specific media policy. I will not be mentioning them by name, or mentioning the specific names of anyone I am working with, except for Lee.  Also, because it’s not really that difficult to figure out which company it is, I want to be clear: I in no way speak for the company or my co-workers, and am only recounting my personal experiences.  Also, any details I get wrong in this or any other post are due to a misunderstanding on my part.  

Before I jump into the job stuff, I wanted to mention I got my blood test test results back from my physical.  I really like their My Chart online system, because I was able to see the actual test results and read the doctors comments.  My LDL cholesterol was a little high, but my 10 year risk of heart attack/stroke was only 3.3%. That was awesome.  Everything else looked great except my Vitamin D levels were low.  This is not uncommon for older women and I am finally going to start taking a supplement for it.  Lee got me a big bottle of One a Day Vitamin Supplement Gummies. I never was a fan of taking vitamins, mainly because I don’t like to take big pills, but these gummies are delicious.  Plus the doctors note said increased Vitamin D could help increase my mood, and I am all for that.  We spent months in the sun down in Texas and Arizona and the near constant sunshine did make me happier.  When we came to Oregon, with more clouds and rain, I did get a little crankier but really didn’t think much of it.  Now it makes sense because my Vitamin D levels were probably borderline, but the constant sun kept them elevated and they dipped once we hit the rain here.  From the research I have seen the best way to get Vitamin D is 15-20 minutes in the sun every day and I am totally ok with that! If that’s not possible then the supplements should help. 

Ok back to work. We spent this week trying to find a rhythm in the job, but there were a few complications thrown in.  The couples working in the campground are still learning their positions and the days we cover for them have been less than seamless.  In order to make sure everyone was on the same page, they were putting together a daily task list (which I appreciated) and our supervisor provided what was done last year.  Turns out there were several campground tasks on the list no one was aware of and everyone was scrambling a bit trying to figure out when those should be done. In general, There seems to be a basic spectrum of response people have when they are new to a job and learn after the fact that they are missing essential job responsibilities.   Some people shrug it off and figure out how to add the tasks (Lee largely falls into that category), but others (myself included) get defensive and vaguely feel as if they have done something wrong. The longer the time period between initial training and when you find out about a missed task the worse this reaction can be, especially because folks are getting settled in and finally feeling comfortable.

In this case the work was not insignificant.  The list we were sent called for two deep cleanings a week on the three sets of bathrooms and weeding of a largish area between the marina and the campground.  Mr. Kayaker suggested a meeting with the group to work it out and it turned out to be a really productive one.  The weeding is a big job but an occasional one and Mr. Newbie stepped in and said he would take care of it at least initially.  That was awesome because we just finished initial weeding all of our sites and since the weed killing spray we have been using hasn’t been that effective are looking at having to do another round soon.  The larger issue was deep cleaning the bathrooms. Last years schedule had the deep cleanings falling on Monday and Thursday when Lee and I cover the campground.  Initially I didn’t understand that last years schedule was just a recommendation and got pretty agitated about it.  As I am sure you know by now we spend a large portion of our time cleaning bathrooms.  The one day a week we spend working in the campground had bathroom duties as well, but also allowed time for us to do some other things, which I really enjoyed.  Faced with spending the bulk of our campground time deep cleaning more bathrooms did not make me happy.

Plus this is where my sense of fairness kicked in.  We are already doing trash on Thursday, an interesting process where the campground trash dumpsters  are ratchet strapped to the Gator and slowly driven out of the campground to where the main trash area is so the trash truck can access them.  This process takes roughly an hour each times (they are moved out of the campground and then moved back in when emptied) and happened on the day I covered.  Doing that work along with regular campsite turns and a deep clean was a stretch and didn’t make a ton of sense to me.  Luckily everyone else agreed and after talking it through they understood where we were coming from. I would love to say that I took a step back, approached the problem unemotionally, and was a leader in forming the resolution but that would simply not be true.  I was able to hold onto my emotions enough to not cause any rifts with my coworkers but I was obviously agitated about the situation.

Interesting enough, Lee was once again “a cooler head” in the situation and helped find a workable compromise. We would start the deep cleanings on Monday but the Thursday deep cleaning would be moved to the evening or another day.  Everyone was happy with the result and no one was too upset at the end of it.  What amazes me is how Lee has consistently handled these jobs while we are on the road.  He seems to have been able to find some kind of internal switch and keep these jobs in perspective.  He does a good job if largely left alone, is very productive, and avoids all the drama.  Part of his success is he has a great “jack of all trades” skill set which pretty easily allows him to provide value.  My skill set is being hard earned as we learn the various positions and I always have more trouble finding my footing.  But I realize it’s not just the skill set that gives me trouble.  My search for constant improvement really does not serve me well in these positions.  I would be better off just learning the job, and settling in and doing it. I really did think that once I left the high pressure corporate world that would naturally happen for me, but it simply has not.  I know other people that have.  Our friend Bill, for example, left a high pressure job as a plant manager and seems perfectly content in his work kamper positions.  Of course, he like Lee has a valuable handyman skill set, and once people discover that they seem to largely leave him alone to do his own thing. He also takes all that mental energy he used to have and puts it into personal things. I admire the tactic but have had a harder time doing it.

Maybe it’s because I tend to be more social and worry more about the relationships with the people around me.  That brings it’s own sort of pressure and Lee pretty consistently doesn’t get that involved unless its absolutely called for. I don’t think it’s as simple as a male/female issue by the way, despite the fact that it largely seems to fall down those lines.  I have met lots of women who settle right into these jobs and lots of men who struggle.  It really seems to be based on personality type and an inability to just let things go and exist in the moment.  I will say in my defense I am better at not sweating the small stuff.  I can take a moment to watch the ospreys dive or enjoy the beauty of the moment and not feel guilty about doing so.  That is a major improvement for me and one that did seem to happen naturally with changing my work environment. And I know I keep writing about this and you are probably all sick of hearing about it, but I do think it’s important.  Not everyone just settles in and just because you sell everything, by an RV, and start traveling doesn’t mean all your problems will be solved. On the plus side I think it is an excellent opportunity for me to work on personal improvement in an environment where the consequences of a mistake are minimal.

So with that in mind I am going to try and “turn down” that analytical part of my brain and just do the job.   Whatever creative mental energy I have,  I will put into other things,and we will see how it goes.   I honestly can’t remember doing that consistently in any job I’ve ever had, but who knows.   Maybe I’ll love it and the switch will flip and problem will be solved. If not well I will learn something about myself.  I will let you know how it goes.

As far as the job went this week, by the way, it was fine.  It was busy again because Saturday was a no license required fishing day across the state, but people were largely polite and helpful.  Lee and I split up which helped considerably and I spent most of my time at the lower launch and Faraday.  Lee wanted me to have the work truck since it implies authority and he used our personal vehicle to run the river.  We also staggered our shifts by a couple of hours, so there was less no coverage time in the middle of the day. Lee used our personal truck for most of the day and before you ask, my understanding is getting mileage reimbursement is a bit of a pain so yes we will be paying for the miles and the gas, but it was worth it to us because it made the day much less stressful.  We covered twice the ground and were able to keep up with the bathrooms with no issues.  We also both had time to have more one-on-one interactions with people throughout the day which we both enjoyed.  People seem to like what we are doing and are helping with the ground trash which is nice, and there were no major parking issues despite the crowds.

During the week, we also had some time to explore the local National campground s and were so inspired by what we saw we decided to try something new.  It all started with one of our river runs where I saw this across the river.

 

This is my absolute favorite spot along the river and here were a couple of people camping.  Despite having explored the area some I have no idea how they got there but I just had to stop, cross the road, and take a picture.  Something in me really yearned for that, so I started talking to Lee.  We have seen several friends “rustic camp” as part of their RV adventure.  Jo and Ben have a second truck which holds a truck camper they call the shuttle craft and they use it to explore on their time off from their nursing jobs.  Howard and Linda have taken several overnight trips using their boat or by hiking in and of course there was Jim and Barb in Alaska.  They bought a truck camper specifically for that trip, which they sold upon returning, and we were incredibly jealous of all the places they could camp at that we simply couldn’t with our 40 foot monster RV.  But it was a little intimidating, because unlike many other folks in the lifestyle we were not campers prior to starting this journey.

We have been tent camping a total of three times in our lives and we like sleeping in a real bed and all the other luxuries our home on wheels has to offer.  That being said it can be confining on long work assignments, because it’s a big hassle to pack everything up and take the rig places.  Plus in the summers it’s harder to find big camp spots and of course there is the associated costs.  Having a tent and some sleeping bags seemed like a nice solution and we are particularly interested in trying it out because there are some amazing National Forest campgrounds in the area that only large enough for tents and very small RV. Here are a couple of our favorite campsites we saw while exploring and since our days off are Tuesday and Wednesday there is a good chance we will be able to get them at least once this summer.

We also wanted to go and visit friends on the coast. Through sheer coincidence two of our RV-Dreams friends have the exact same lighthouse volunteer gig at the same location.  Despite being members of the class of 2014 Jim and Rick had never met each other (they attended separate rallies that year).  I was communicating with them separately because they knew we would be in the same area and finally realized they were in the exact same place.  They had just met each other briefly the night before, but neither put together that they had mutual friends.  I am sure they would have figured it out eventually but it was fun to virtually introduce them and of course we knew we had to plan a visit.  This seemed to call for more than an afternoon’s stay and since they are 3-1/2 hours away from us we initially thought we would take the rig.  Lee wasn’t super thrilled about that plan, but he was resigned to it until the tent camping idea came up.

In true Perkins form we started researching and this is actually harder than you might think.  I have the whole claustrophobia thing so I was sure I could use just any old tent.  I also wanted something that was relatively easy to put up and down so we spent some time watching You Tube videos where people reviews the tents and put them up.  This was extremely helpful and I was pretty grateful for the extra input, but with so much choice it took awhile.  Initially we wanted used so we drove to Next Adventure  where we had heard great things about their bargain basement.  Their prices might have been great for serious outdoor people, but even the used gear was way out of our price range.  So next we tried Dick’s Sporting Goods where the selection and prices were great but all they had were little models to show the tents.  These models are nice, but couldn’t really help me figure out what would make me feel claustrophobic so we tried Sportsmen’s Warehouse. Finally, we found a store that had several tents setup and a huge balcony area where we could walk inside and check them out.  

It’s a good thing we did, because it turned out the 4 and 5 person tents, while wide enough at the base, simply were not tall enough for me and it was an issue.  That meant we needed a 6 person or more tent and we had to pay careful attention to the height.  Unfortunately one of the three models we were leaning towards was in stock but not on display and as tempted as we were to ask a salesperson to allow us to take it out of the box and set it up, after a quick Amazon check we knew it was $50 cheaper online.  I am a big fan of buying directly from retailers in situations like these and don’t mind paying a little more, but $50 was too much for me.  Plus, I have been saving the money we have made from our blog advertising for just such an occasion and if we got it online we could use those points.  My take all along on that money was it had to be spent on something directly related to the lifestyle and since the tent and sleeping bags would hopefully lead to many new adventures and corresponding blog posts that made a lot of sense to me.

So we went back to the house and re-looked at our three choices.  I will share them here using the links we used to make our decision.  The first was the Coleman 6-Person Instant cabin, which is very easy to put up because the poles stay attached and is 6 foot tall.  The price when we looked was $199 (I see as of posting this it has actually gone down to $129 which is a bummer) and the packing was larger than Lee would have liked.  Whatever we buy we have to store and at this point when something comes in something else is going out.  In this case we are giving up 4 of our outside bigger chairs and replacing them with smaller ones.  This is still a major contender and the great thing about Amazon Prime is they have an awesome return policy, so if we don’t like the tent we bought we may return it and buy this one.

Our second contender was a Coleman Sundome 6-person tent.  The price was great and I love that the poles and rain guard were somewhat integrated, but I was concerned when I saw videos of the inside.  They have large screens in the front and back but the rain guard covers those and after being inside a similar model at the store, it definitely felt more closed in.  Plus the height was on the short side and the inside space was the smallest, so ultimately we dropped this one out of the running all together.  It’s a shame, because this is exactly what I mentally pictured when camping, but we have learned through experience claustrophobia is a real factor for me.

Finally, we settled on our third and final choice the Coleman Steel Creek 6 person tent with sun screen.  It’s fast pitch although not as fast as the instant ones (instant take less than 3 minutes fast pitch take about 7 minutes) and has the added bonus of a little sun porch.  Despite some reviews online that stated these porches do get wet on rainy days. I liked the idea of having slightly separated living space.  In a perfect world it would never rain when we are tent camping, but this is unlikely so having a little “outside area” really appealed to me.  Plus the packaging was actually smaller than the cabin and although the rain guard isn’t integrated it was included in the price which isn’t always the case.  Plus it was available on Prime so we ordered the tent (with the intention of returning it immediately if the setup didn’t go well) along with two sleeping bags (that can zip together and are flannel lined) and a small propane burner stove.  That’s really all we think we will need since we have almost everything else and the total cost came in at $241 which we had enough points to cover.  So thanks everyone who has ever bought something from one of the links in this blog.  We really are very grateful because it is allowing us to try out something new without taking a hit to our already stretched budget. Will let you know in the next post how the tent tryout turned out.

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is also available in paperback.

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May 2017 Budget (with Revenue Numbers)

We did better than I thought this month with $3556 in expenses. We also received our first paychecks which brought in $1640 in revenue leaving a monthly deficit of $1917.   I was very happy to see though that our net cash flow YTD is $967.22.  This does not include the week in Vegas which we treated as a vacation and used savings to pay for. The numbers tell a pretty good story.  We are breaking even so far this year, but to stay on pace this summer we will need to sock away enough for the month of down time in October.  We also have scheduled a $3500 Mor-Ryde upgrade in October, but we are working Amazon in November and December to help recover some of those costs.  I’m pretty excited though because I would have bet money we would be in a negative cash flow position once we received our first pay checks.  The detail of the month is listed below.

 

Campground Fees – Just a little bit at the beginning of the month as we traveled here. We kept those costs lower by boondocking and using Passport America.

Groceries – We went over by about $20 overall in this category.  We always have a bit of a spike when we move to a new area as we learn the grocery stores, but some great advice and Winco really helped us out here.  Love, love that grocery store. You’ll also notice our alcohol bill is back to $0 now that we are no longer camping with friends.  Just saying 🙂

Dining Out – We went over by $55 which was pretty good considering the desire to try new restaurants in the area.  We held each other accountable in this category and avoided the urge to get fast food. This was definitely helped by the fact that the local grocery store has a fantastic 10-piece chicken meal for $6.99 and I got that twice to give myself something fast to eat on long work days.  Lee also took advantage of the freezer we have access to for stocking up on frozen meals, something we rarely have the freezer space for in our rig.

Internet – Hooray the new pricing kicked in and we are $216 under the previous budgeted amount.  I will change the budget next month going forward but wanted to show what a game changer that has been.  And for the record we are thrilled with our unlimited data plan with AT&T.  Unlike many of our friends on Verizon plans we have had minimal throttling and only occasionally during peak period run into network management issues.  Super happy about that and yes Lee super happy is the right term in this case.

Memberships – Lee slipped in a $195 annual fee for the American Express Gold Card.  I really wanted to talk about that this year because I really think AmEx blue is a better choice for us, but he really likes having a Gold Card. 

Truck Fuel – Part of our $39 was travel, part was long car rides when we first got here, but gas is very expensive here.  That being said he discovered a 50 cent per gallon variance in the diesel price on the main road in Estacada versus the gas station up the hill.  $2.34 versus $2.89 is nothing to sneeze at and reinforces the need to bargain shop even when you are in rural areas. 

Clothing – We went over in this category by $106 mainly because we bought raincoats for work (a necessity here) and Lee had to buy a new pair of hiking shoes from REI for $89 because the soles separated.  Those shoes were totally worth it though and I don’t mind spending the money on those ever.

Miscellaneous – We broke down and bought a mount for a motor for our Sea Eagle Kayak.  We were able to get a used one which helped with the cost and the motor itself was purchased in June. This was a big topic of discussion, but at the end of the day we like rivers much more than lakes and since we don’t have two vehicles (and our attempt to find companies to transport have not worked) we decided to go ahead and bite the bullet.  Hopefully this will lead to using the Sea Eagle more  in the future, especially since we are living next to this beautiful river, but if not we might end up selling what we have.  It takes up space we could always use, but we are finding we can only use it when we are with other friends.  Will let you know how that goes.

Good month and good year to date numbers.  The cost of living here is pretty reasonable all things considered and my list of summer activities are almost all nature related.  I may end up spending a ton of money on farmer’s markets though.  I stopped at my first one today and the local produce is amazing!!  I’ll blow my budget any day of the week on fresh fruits and vegetables though!

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is also available in paperback.

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The Team Dynamics of Work Kamping Jobs

The following article was written as part of my continuing education requirements for my PMI certification and since it relates to work kamping I felt the information would be valuable to share here.  Since it is a professional article, it is not written in my normal first-person “blog voice.”

As a person who spent most of her adult career as a project manager,  I am very familiar with team dynamics.  And yet, despite having years of experience managing successful teams, I often find being a team member in a work kamping environment to be challenging.  There are some basic team dynamics that apply no matter what your work environment, but seasonal work kamping jobs do bring their own set of unique challenges, and this article is  that I wanted to explore. 

In 1965, Psychologist Bruce Tuckman first coined the phrase “forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning” to describe basic team development. Most people have at least heard that expression, and almost all us with a management/project background  have received some training in recognizing the stages.  Even if you have never heard the term,  you will probably recognize the pattern.  New teams start, everyone gets to know each other, there is conflict,and  then people either settle in, change teams, or leave the position. Although these phases are necessary they can be frustrating for all involved, but the good news is there are things we can do as team members or managers to help make the process smoother.  

The first phase of team building is Forming. Most team members are excited about the job and eager about the tasks ahead.  In this phase, team members are usually positive and polite, although some can be anxious and uncomfortable, especially with any ambiguity surrounding their new roles.  Returning employees may want to jump right in and start performing, but the new people are focused on learning the job and trying to figure out where they fit in.   Managers play an important role in this phase by hopefully providing a solid orientation, specific information on goals and expectations, and detailed training on how to complete tasks.

In a work Kamping environment this phase is also complicated by  new employees getting set up in their living space.  Not only are the employees learning a new job, they are often adjusting to a new area.  New Work Kampers are learning where the grocery store, laundromat, and/or post office is.  They want to know where they can get a haircut, where the closest hospital is, and what is fun to do in the area.  The need for that type of information is just as important as learning a new job and the first few days can be spent learning a new job during the day and learning a new area in the evening.  Even though most RVers have experience with moving to new places and enjoy the nomadic lifestyle, learning an area during “off-hours” can be tough.  One of the best things managers or other co-workers can do to help with this is provide a list to new people.  Names and addresses of basic services in town can be really helpful and save the new work kamper the time and energy it takes initially to find those places.  

Once people start to feel a little comfortable with what the area and what the job entails, the difficult phase of Storming begins. Everyone has a natural work style, and conflict often arises when these styles don’t mesh.  Human beings work differently which can be an asset for a team with good communication and high levels of trust but can cause dissension and even anger when team members do not know each other very well.  Insufficient training can complicate this issue, as people start to form work patterns based on assumptions of conflicting directions.  Many people start to feel overwhelmed by job responsibilities and workload and relatively simple problems often turn into emotionally charged issues.  Many managers in the work kamping environment provide initial training to the teams and then step back and “let them work it out.”  This may be a response to the fact that most work kampers are experienced workers or because the jobs are considered to be simple.  In either event, the lack of management involvement in this phase often leads to a leadership vacuum which one or more team members will try to step into.  Power struggles often occur, and conflicts are very common.  It is not surprising that this is phase is when many teams fail. 

This phase is especially complicated, because in the work kamping environment employees often come in pairs.  As each member of the partner team struggles to find their equilibrium, they are also worried about how their partner is being treated.  Because the roles and responsibilities are often different, partners  cannot always to help each other and if one member of the partnership is not happy the other person usually suffers as well.  When major conflict occurs many managers  have limited options on how to help resolve the issue. Changing teams, shifts or days off may be an option, but more often the work kamping jobs have very specific hours associated with them. Worse if a team member decides to leave their partner will generally leave with them and the manager has to replace two employees.  If the positions cannot be filled the remaining team members and managers have to take on additional tasks putting additional pressure on the remaining team members.  Despite the challenges of this phase there are things team members and managers can do to help work through it.  Team members can take a step back and realize that some conflict is normal and try to work through it in as constructive as way as possible.  Managers need to stay engaged with their teams and provide feedback to encourage conflict resolution.  When conflicts can’t be resolved by the team members, managers should act as arbitrators with the goal of finding a resolution that everyone can live with so the team can move forward.  If that is not possible, they should decide which team members to retain rather than running the risk of losing either the best team members or worst case all of the team members. 

The Norming phase starts when people want to resolve their issues, feel comfortable expressing their ideas and feelings, and start to appreciate their fellow team member’s strengths.  People develop a stronger commitment to team goals and start to develop a team identity.  Hopefully, team productivity will rise during this phase which will further reinforce the idea that the team is stronger when everyone is on the same page. Personal relationships may start to form as people learn more about each other’s backgrounds and team members may spend time outside of work together.  One thing for managers and team members to watch out for though are people who are still in the storming stage.  If only four people in a team of six start normalizing the team as a whole is still in the storming stage.  Extra time and attention should be given to the team members who are struggling to allow them to catch up to the other team members.

In a work kamping environment this stage is especially crucial as many team members are both working and living near each other.  Team pot lucks or happy hours can help people get to know each other on a personal level, but it is also important to allow people their personal space and boundaries. Camp hosting jobs in particular can require interactions during “off hours” and respecting people’s personal time is critical to building trust.   Managers should acknowledge the increased performance of the team during the norming phase and make sure any lingering issues are addressed.  This will help the team move into the next phase rather than regress back to the storming phase.

Performing is the most effective phase in a team’s development and for most people the most pleasant stage.  Team members feel satisfaction in the team’s progress and are largely working without friction.  Issues that occur are resolved with amicable solutions and the manager is generally pleased with the team’s results.  This phase is particularly important because if a team member needs to leave or an additional one is added, there will likely be little disruption in overall performance.  Manager’s can use this phase to work on developing employees and team members can be cross trained in other positions.  

Once work kampers reach this phase it most closely resembles working in a traditional environment.  Emotional bonds are often formed and team members feel comfortable with each other and the tasks they are performing.  Indeed, the desire to spend more time in this phase often results in work kampers returning to the same jobs year after year, with entire teams often choosing to return together to mostly avoid the turmoil of the earlier phases.  Managers should provide opportunities for special project work during this phase, but ensure employees are not overloaded with with too many extra tasks.  

Finally the team enters the Adjourning phase.  This stage can be difficult for some people especially if they have uncertainty about their next work position.  If the team has been highly successful members often feel sadness or loss.  Some members will become less focused on the tasks at hand and overall team productivity can drop.  Managers can help with this stage by being present more and providing feedback and encouragement around the importance of team contributions.  Clear communication about special end of season tasks is very important as well, so the team can start incorporating those activities into their standard routines. 

Work kampers are not immune to feelings of sadness and loss when a good seasonal job ends.  Personal relationships that have developed can be maintained via social media, but many people know it will be a long time before they see each other again. Those feeling can conflict with very strong feelings that it is time to move on. Most RVers are nomadic by nature and staying the same place for several months can often lead to “hitch-itch” or thedesire to pack up and move to a new place. An end of season celebration can help with these feelings.  It allows managers and team members to formally acknowledge what was accomplished during the season, and to say goodbye.  It also gives the manager a final opportunity to show the employees their appreciation, make a positive “last impression”,  and help reinforce the idea they would like for them to return next season.  

Working as part of a great team can be a very rewarding experience, but working on a bad team can be absolutely miserable. Understanding the stages can help make the transition easier and lead to less team failure hand happier seasonal assignments.  Although work kamper teams do have some unique challenges,  they also have the advantage of being staffed by team members who have a similar nomadic lifestyle.  Thus successful work kamper teams can often result in long lasting personal and professional relationships.   

Tracy Perkins, MBA is a PMP Certified Project Manager and a Certified Black Belt with over 15 years experience managing successful small teams.  She and her husband have been full time Rvers since 2014 and have had numerous work kamping experiences including camp hosting, beet harvest, selling Christmas trees, and gate guarding.  To read more about their work experiences and their lifestyle check out their blog at http://www.camperchronicles.com.  

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Keep Portland Weird

Memorial Day ended with a wonderful visit from two friends we met in Alaska, Sue and Jonathon.  They were 6 months into their tour of the U.S. when we met, and I was fascinated because they were full timing with a car and a tent.  We became Facebook friends and I loved watching their travels (her pictures are amazing) and enjoyed seeing their adventures, so when Sue reached out and said they were close I jumped at the chance to see them.  Now they are 1-1/2 years into their tour of the U.S. and almost finished.  They still are in their car, but also stay at Air BnB’s every third day or so to give themselves a break.  Jonathon is from Wyoming, but Sue is from South Korea, and her story is fascinating.  She grew up on a remote farm on a mountain top, and was either going to or in school from 5am – 11pm, six days a week.  Her parents went against the societal norms and sent all four of their daughters, as well as their son, to college.  Sue initially wanted to work for the UN so she focused on her English skills which eventually led her to teaching, and that is where she met Jonathon who was in Korea teaching English.  They still go back to Korea at least once a year for medical care because the cost is so much cheaper than in the U.S. We spent quite a bit of time talking about that subject!  And since my  youngest daughter will be stationed in Jorea for a year or so, I was very interested in getting their take on the recent North Korea news.  Talking to them made me feel quite a bit better and I was excited that Sue has a sister who lives close to where Kay will be stationed.

We had a campfire and a wonderful dinner at a local restaurant, the Cazedero Inn.  Despite having not seen each other in almost a year the conversation picked up right where we left off and reminded me why I love friendships in this lifestyle.  One of the most interesting topics was what was next on their agenda, and they think they will spend a year teaching English in Vietnam.  Asian countries have a high demand for English teachers and since the courses are mostly immersion, often no foreign language skills are required.  They also don’t require a teaching degree, just a bachelors, and since I have my MBA, Jonathon felt my skills would be in high demand.  The entire opportunity sounded very interesting to me, as I have always wanted to travel internationally and it was of particular interest since our daughter will be stationed there.   The only downside for me was the length of the contracts which often are for one year.  It’s possible with my background I could get a shorter assignment and it is definitely something I want to look into further next year.

That’s another wonderful thing I have found about this life.  You have a somewhat random encounter, which turns into a real friendship.  Social media allows us to stay in touch until the next time our paths cross each other.  It was really wonderful, and I was so happy to spend time with them. Lee was a little bummed because he enjoyed their company so much and since they are leaving the country soon won’t get to see them again, but I think you never how these things are going to work out and with certain people it just works out.  I think with Sue it will be like that.

Lee, Sue, and Jonathon at the campfire

Me and Sue

Tuesday we followed our plan to take the day off and we both needed it.  Also it rained all day, so it wasn’t a hardship, although I did get a little restless in the afternoon and we took a drive and explored the area a bit.  More clouds were forecast on Wednesday as well, so we planned a day in Portland. I had a list of places I wanted to see (many recommended by friends and blog readers) and a rainy Wednesday seemed a good day to do it.  We discussed taking public transportation, but it really isn’t that cheap, and besides Lee wanted the flexibility of driving our own vehicle. Turns out early morning mid-week was a good time to go, and we easily found parking spots.  It got tougher as the day went on, but early morning it was mostly no problem.  The good thing we discovered about the parking tickets was we could use them at multiple locations (as long as we stayed in the same district) and that was nice because it was $1.50 an hour to park and paying that every time we moved spots would have really added up.

Parking meter printed a ticket you left inside your window.  Credit card or coins, but no bills

These bike racks were pretty cool

The annual pass price was really interesting.  $12 per month and 90 minutes per day.

I loved that the bus had “Honored  Citizens” instead of senior citizens.  #2.50 for Adults, $1.25 for others

Our first stop didn’t open until 10:00 am so we headed down to VooDoo Donuts.  This is THE place everyone says you have to visit, but I think that is mainly because they have a bacon donut. As an added bonus the Keep Portland Weird sign is right across the street and we had our donut and took the sign picture.

 

 

 

$130 for a custom made coffin filled with donuts. This was actually pretty cool and pretty large

The first of the many similar signs we saw throughout the city, which was interesting given recent events.

We didn’t really understand how it worked, but the donuts were rotating in a glass case so you picked one and paid for it

I liked the ones topped with cereal

Lee pondered the bacon donut

But we both ended up with a $3 voodoo donut which was had a raspberry cream filling

It was a good donut and when you bit into it the filling made it look like blood. Was actually pretty fun.  What wasn’t as fun was seeing the first of many homeless people with signs (behind Lee).  There were homeless people pretty much everywhere there was open space.

I definitely think they have accomplished that. It is a weird town.

Next up was the Lan Su Chinese Garden. This garden takes up a city block in the Old Town Chinatown District.  I had read that it was free and it may have been at one time, but now it is staffed, and costs $10 per person.  It was really pretty inside and they had a nice flower display, but it was just too small to warrant the $10 fee, unless like me you really like Chinese gardens. If I lived nearby I could see being a member, because they have lots of activities and events scheduled throughout the year.  It is small though, and even though we took our time we saw everything in less than an hour. Fair warning.

There was a small crowd waiting at 10:00 am when it opened

The architecture was amazing

And despite the fact the city buildings were in the background you honestly didn’t notice it when you were in there. It was a nice little oasis

They had a beautiful flower display

I also liked the large stone sculptures, which turned out to be Lake Tai rocks which are formed underwater by the lake’s acidic and active waters.

Each building had a different theme. This one housed an an area to honor ancestors, which I thought was really neat since it was the grandparents of one of the staff members.

I also enjoyed the poems carved into wood and displayed on hangers throughout the gardens. If you go take the time to read the translations

This was my favorite

 

I also enjoyed this cabinet which held fortunes

You picked your favorite number and opened the drawer

Then saw your fortune. Really neat

Glad we did it, but we still had lots of time, so it was on to Powell’s Bookstore. This is the world’s largest independent bookstore and I have to admit it was huge.  It was multiple floors with multiple sections and had hands down the best fantasy/science fiction selection I have seen anywhere.

A standard shelf which was amazing, but the top two rows were always overstocks and only available for staff.

Seven different rooms which was nice because the layout was pretty confusing

The science fiction and fantasy room was so big I couldn’t take a picture of it all. It had 7 long rows of books. I liked how the new and used books were shelved together so you could decide which one you wanted if they had both.

Lee was really excited about this “book on demand” machine.

You all know we love books, and you know our budget often takes a hit from spending too much on them.  So I think it’s interesting that despite the amazing selection neither one of us bought a book. Yep, it’s true.  I am not sure if we were overwhelmed by choice or it was a price issue, but we didn’t buy anything.  Personally every book I saw that I wanted was more than I wanted to pay, and because there was so much choice it was hard for any one thing to grab my attention.  I did like the fact that they had staff picks signs throughout the store that said why the staff member liked the book, but I looked at almost every one of those and nothing struck my fancy.  With Lee it was also about price, but really knowing him it was more about there was nothing he REALLY wanted.  And I have to say it might have been a different story if it wasn’t for the Book Nook here in Estacada.  That store is the nonprofit here in town and no book is over $2.  Since their cookbook selection is amazing and their prices are incredibly low it’s tough to compete with that. No disrespect to Powell’s at all. It’s an amazing store and you absolutely should see it.

That section of town was also the only place where we didn’t see homeless people.  I know I keep mentioning that, but there were people living in almost every available green public space we saw.  Culverts, strips of land next to freeways, under overpasses, lots and lots of homeless people and this is despite the fact that we saw at least 5 shelters downtown and lots of assistance programs.

Shelters in what seemed like every stretch of grass between the roads and private property

This was one of the “nicer” spots

This young woman was sleeping right on the street around 11am, with open businesses on either side

I certainly don’t know what the solution is and I am not making any sort of political statement, but it is so prevalent, that I want you to be aware of it before going into town. Personally I was pretty surprised.  Like I said though, the area Powell’s books is in was an upscale neighborhood, and there weren’t people living near those stores.

The Whole Foods was interesting and took up a whole block

Whole foods from the street

Finally, we went back to our original stop and went to Smith Tea. We have seen their tea in our travels and I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to go see their warehouse.  Plus they have a tasting room and offer a “flight” of 4 kinds of tea for $10.  The warehouse is definitely in a rougher neighborhood, but they have parking right in front and the experience inside was great.  Smith’s is really serious about their tea, and go into great detail about where it comes from and the flavors that go into the different kinds.  It reminded me more of a fancy wine tasting than a beer flight tasting, but I loved the experience and am glad I did it.  Lee humored me 🙂

Another sign

The tea “bar”

Awesome selection

My flight

My four choices

And the winner is!!

So our trip to Portland was a mixed bag.  I am happy we saw most of the places we wanted to see there because I am not in any big hurry to go back into the city again.  There is so much wonderful nature to see outside of the city, that for me at least, it really can’t compare.  My take is if you only have a day to spend in Portland, skip the city and go see the waterfalls 🙂

 

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First Time Working In A Utility Co. Park – Memorial Day Weekend

Disclaimer: The company we are working for this summer has a very specific media policy. I will not be mentioning them by name, or mentioning the specific names of anyone I am working with, except for Lee.  Also, because it’s not really that difficult to figure out which company it is, I want to be clear: I in no way speak for the company or my co-workers, and am only recounting my personal experiences.  Also, any details I get wrong in this or any other post are due to a misunderstanding on my part.  

I actually like working holiday weekends.  Because you are competing with the casual camper, it is a pain in the butt to find a campsite and on top of that all the nature places we like to go are usually very crowded.  Good for those folks for getting out in nature, but for us who live this way it can cause some challenges.  That’s why I think having a campsite and things to do on these weekends is one of the very best benefits of working a summer camp host job because we are covered for Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day.  That being said those weekends are quite a bit of work, and because the six of us were brought in pretty late everyone was scrambling to get ready.

Our focus had been on the river sites because of the festival, but fishing season opened on Monday and we needed to squeeze in cleaning the lower launch area. This was complicated by the fact that on Monday Lee was helping in the campground, we were off Tuesday and Wednesday, and Thursday we were split up again as I worked in the campground. Monday actually went very well.  Lee opened the gate at 5:40am (posted time was 6am) and there were already 6 cars waiting in line.  They were very happy to see him and when I went back a little later in the day everyone was very friendly.  The lower launch and culvert are used mostly by locals and I wanted to start off on the right foot with them.  Later I went to do a river run and all in all it was a pleasant day.

We were off Tuesday and Wednesday  and when we came back Thursday things had held up very well.  I worked in the campground that day (I will talk about what that looks like in another post) and Lee made the river runs.  He emptied trash, restocked toilet paper and made made sure all of the sites were ready for the big weekend.  He also spent some time trying to get a hitch for the truck for the water trailer we need for filling pit toilets and watering plants, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.  So we left some loose ends, but nothing that we thought was major.

Friday I had the doctors appointments and we started our day at 3pm.  That’s tough for us as we are both early morning people, but it makes sense because that’s when the crowds are. The first thing we had scheduled was going and picking up a new refrigerator for the campground.  The old one didn’t work anymore and it’s a nice benefit that the six of us have a full size refrigerator to use.  I wasn’t looking forward to loading it though, and was thrilled when our supervisor came out and helped Lee load it.  Very nice!!  After dropping that off and Lee and Mr. Kayaker getting it into the office, we filled up the large weed spray tub and headed out.  By this time it was close to 5pm and we knew we had alot of work to do.

Unfortunately in the 24 hour period when Lee stocked everything and we came on, the bathrooms had really taken a hit.  There are two of us but we share one company vehicle and every bathroom needed attention.  We also wanted to tackle some weeding at the culvert and spray the rocks we had done last week on the river sites before the weeds grew back.  Long story short we only managed to stock and clean the restrooms and spray Moore Creek before we ran out of time.  Part of that was the Culvert was a mess with lots of trash to pick up.  That appears to be a party site for the locals and there were lots of beer cans and bottles laying around.  Since kids come in with their parents to fish in the weekend mornings that was a priority to me, but it takes awhile to clean up that much trash, especially broken glass.  There was the sweetest little girl who was fascinated by the trash picker and after seeing her in these weeds I really felt that was a priority.  Also I am hoping it will discourage folks from throwing trash on the ground.  My thought is keep it nice and neat and people will be inspired to help with that.  If it is overgrown they will be less likely to do so.

We did what we could and closed the culvert gate at 8pm (the gate is closed to cars but people still walk down at night) and went to the lower launch at 8:15 pm to start the closing process.  This is a huge area and you start by backing the truck in which makes a loud beep beep noise and then final cleaning the restroom.  The restroom was really rough by the end of the night and I can see this one will be a challenge.  Plus we have been unable to fill the pit toilet with water because we don’t have the water trailer hitch, and the deodorizers are back ordered, so the smell was a little intense.  Still people were very friendly and many started packing up as soon as they saw what we were doing.  We had two cars parked down near the walkway though so we knew we needed to find some folks.  You can fish all along the reservoir, but because the bank is very steep it’s hard to see people and let them know we are closing soon.  We found one couple and they headed back but the other car was a mystery.

This is the area that the walkers use to park so when we drive past the gate we look for groups that correspond to the amount of cars down in this section. It’s an inexact science but works fairly well.

Folks fishing along the bank.  Pretty steep climbing down there, but there are areas with paths and/or ropes to help.  Others take boats in.

Another hang out spot is these log barriers.  Since it takes some time to walk back from this spot we drive up there first and let people know we will be closing in 45 minutes. Sound carries over water so we don’t always need the bull horn to communicate.

This is a pretty big deal since we need to clear the lot to lock the gate, so when we only had one car left at a quarter til 9pm and no idea where that person was, we pulled out the bull horn.  It’s a heavy duty police style one, but needs to be used carefully because you don’t want to upset people.  We discussed whether or not to use it and what to say and finally Lee said, “Good Evening.  The gate will be closing in 15 minutes.  Thank you.”  Polite, but to the point.  We started back down the path when we saw a kid with fishing poles flying towards us on his skate board.  He was very nice about it and packed up quickly so we actually were able to close the gate 5 minutes early.  Perfect!!  I have no expectation every night will go like this but it was a great start to our summer.

We knew the next morning would be rough though.  We are scheduled Close/Open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday which means we have to get up and out the door in the morning no later than 5:30am.  I had a hard time going to sleep and didn’t sleep well at all, but we were up and ready to go at 5:30.  We opened the gate to the campground, then the culvert (two women getting ready to walk down were very happy) and then went to lower launch.  There were only two cars waiting but by the time we opened the gate and checked the restrooms the parking lot was 1/3 full.  Everyone was very friendly and we spent about 45 minutes making sure everyone was parked in the right places and there were no boat “traffic jams” as folks were putting them in the water.  Once again everything went flawlessly and we headed to the culvert.

Since we couldn’t weed eat the day before we wanted to get it done in the morning but we knew this might be a problem with the morning fisherman.  We were hoping to squeeze it in but the parking lot filled up fast and there were around 30 people fishing on the lake.  I started picking up trash and it was even worse than the day before.  Tons of beer cans and bottles, which honestly I can live with because the company sends the recyclables to a charity, but there were several broken bottles. In case you think I am exaggerating, I picked up half of a big black trash bag full of trash from the ground, including a pair of underwear.  So here we had young kids fishing on the bank next to the trash the night before and it made me crazy.  Lee started weed eating and the closer he got to the water the more folks grumbled about the noise.  Finally someone said something and I went to try some of my verbal judo.  I explained I was concerned because of the broken glass and the kids and the only way to see all the glass was to get the weeds down.  He was having none of it though, despite being there with his daughter who looked like she was 5-6, so we stopped weed eating and left.  It was upsetting for me, although I certainly can sympathize with his despite for a peaceful morning, and eventually Lee and I decided to cut our AM short by an hour and go back at 7pm and try to get it done.  I know Memorial Day Weekend is not a good time to do this, but we’ve seen folks down there at all hours all week.

The whole situation upset me, mainly because I felt bad we hadn’t gotten to it sooner, so we went out to Faraday and checked the restrooms there.  I mopped the floors and weeded a small section around the sign and doggy bag area that had been driving me crazy and then we went back to lower launch.  At this point lower launch was almost totally full, but thankfully we still had a few boat spaces empty.  Folks from the morning were leaving and new folks were coming in and the schedule seemed to be working fine.  A couple of people did park cars in boat launch spaces and we had to find them and ask them to move their cars and one couple asked me to talk to the family fishing from the dock.  Since putting the no fishing sign up was one of the things Lee had not got to, I apologized for the confusion and then Lee was able to get the sign up.  The whole day it seemed like everything we had missed was coming back to bite us and since the locals know exactly how things should be they were having none of it.  Rightly so, and I appreciated how nice most people were but I still spent the whole day feeling like I was “a day late and a dollar short.”  The lower launch restroom saw a ton of use and in the short time it took me to weeds around it, at least 20 people used it.  I replaced three rolls of toilet paper that were used between 6am and 9:30am both Saturday and Sunday so there definitely seems to be a pattern there.

Folks waiting in line at 5:40am when we open the gate

The parking lot at 6am. Already several cars there getting prime parking spots down near the beach.

The parking lot at 9:30am

 

The smell in the restroom was much worse as well, and despite bringing 4 pails of deodorized water throughout the day it didn’t seem to help.  The pit toilet requires around 150 gallons of water and I wasn’t really making a dent in it.  Lee sent a text to our trainer (who is off on Saturdays) and hopefully we can get some help resolving the issue on Sunday, but I apologized and at least kept it clean but it was tough when kids were complaining about it. By then it was 11am and we had to knock off for the morning and I still felt we had so much more to do.  We didn’t even touch the river sites, but hopefully they will hold up throughout the day and we can start working on the culvert at 7pm this way.   Our supervisor is open to discussing rearranging the schedule, based on our feedback but we both feel we need a couple of weekends under our belt before we make a recommendation. It is a holiday after all, so I can’t say it will be this busy every weekend, but based on what I saw in traffic on the weekdays I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.  Folks love to fish up here and everyone was catching some beautiful trout so I can see why it’s a favorite weekend past time.

Part of the problem with splits of course is what do you do with your down time.  Both of us sort of collapsed as soon as we got home, but around 12:30pm we started moving.  I put a pot roast in the Instant Pot and Lee ran to the hardware store to pick up one more thing he needed to hang the last sign.  Running into town takes time we really don’t have so he just took our personal truck and made the trip.  I wrote one and a half blog posts, watched the finale of Dancing with the Stars, and tried to chill.  I did appreciate the time to write, but not sure how this will work throughout the summer.  It’s too much time to not do something with it, but I don’t know how much energy we will have with the close/opens.  Will just have to see.

We started working again at 6:30pm and once we stocked up the truck with toilet paper and  cleaning supplies we headed to the culvert.  There were many people there swimming, but this crowd didn’t seem to mind the noise.  Lee weeded and I picked up trash and sprayed some weed killer behind him and the area looked sooo much better.  The folks we talked to were really happy and cooperative and we managed to get the weeding done and clear the parking lot so we could close the gate by 8pm.  Having this done made me super happy, even more so when the next morning we saw lots of families taking advantage of the newly cleared spots and there was relatively little ground trash to deal with.

Saturday night when we locked the gate

And Sunday morning!! So much better once it was weeded.

It was rough getting up early Sunday morning and we were both definitely getting tired.  We opened the lower launch and immediately headed up river.  Moore Creek was low on toilet paper, but thankfully we were able to clean and stock it before the rafting boats started showing up.  We also we able to spray the border rocks which we hope will cut down on the need for further weeding.  Next a trip to Hole in The Wall and then back down to check lower launch again.  After lower launch we met with our trainer to put gas in the truck which was almost empty.  Unfortunately the large tank we use to fill the vehicles was also empty so we scrounged some gas from the timber fuel cans.   We had 3/4 of a tank going into the holiday weekend, which we thought would be plenty, but those extra trips up and down the river took more gas than expected.  Thankfully the trainers hooked us up and we had enough to get through the rest of the weekend.  Mr. Trainer also put 55 gallons of water in the lower launch bathroom and my deodorizers I had been waiting had come in, so the smell was much, much better at lower launch.  So we cleaned Faraday (women’s toilet paper was empty) and then made one last check at lower launch before stopping for the morning.

I know this is all a ton of detail and probably pretty boring, but I can tell you it wasn’t in the moment.  It was hard to keep up with the crowds all day and when we didn’t it bothered me.  Yes it is a job cleaning restrooms, but I take that as seriously as any other job I have had especially because I have used these pit toilets and know first hand how awesome it is when they are clean and lousy it is when they aren’t.  What I didn’t know until now was how difficult it can be on a busy weekend to keep up.  In one 40 minute period at the lower launch for example I watched at least 20 people use the restroom.  That’s a lot of people.  So here’s some rough stats to get you a feel for how busy it was.  Assuming toilet paper was used and not stolen that’s a lot of folks using these areas.

  • We replaced at least 48 rolls over the weekend and had three instances where the 6 rolls in a toilet were completely gone during our off time.
  • We emptied at least 22 full bags of trash with every trash can emptied at least once.  We only had one instance where the trash was overflowing and that was at the beach trashcan on our busiest day.
  • We filled a minimum of five 5 gallon buckets with ground trash.  The culvert continues to be our trouble spot for ground trash, but seems to be getting better especially after we got the weeding done.
  • We mopped  the floors of every restroom at least once and Lower launch and Moore Creek we did daily.

Sunday was more of the same and even busier if possible.  Tons of boats and the beach area was completely full, but we were both thankful folks did a good job of getting most of their trash into the cans.

Beach area

Full house

My favorite part of the weekend was when we saw the osprey out during one of our runs up the gate.  We were taking pictures of the dam and fish ladders when he started to fly around.  Our picture of the nest was on the outer edge of our range and we are not sure if that was a baby or the mom but we could hear the chirping from in the nest.

Looking for fish

Could see a head poking up in the middle

Beautiful birds in flight

The North Fork Dam was built in 1958 and is a thin-wall construction

The North Fork fish ladder is 2 miles long and one of the longest type construction in the world. It also includes a recently added adult fish sorter which sorts native from hatchery fish.  Here’s a video on what they invented to solve the problem. Very cool.

The fish ladders are very cool

On Monday Lee worked the campground and I covered the sites alone.  It was busier than a normal Monday, but not too bad because of the heavy mist in the morning.  Up at Faraday I got to watch an Osprey circle and dive into the water several times for fish.  It was absolutely amazing, but unfortunately only had my phone with me so the pictures are not very good.  Loved, loved that though.

It made a big splash of water every time it went in

Finally after numerous tries it finally caught a fish (which you can see hanging down) and flew off. It was a great moment.

So yes I cleaned a bunch of toilets, mopped floors, and emptied trash this weekend. I also saw an osprey along with it’s nest and watched another one dive and catch a fish.  The drive has not lost it’s magic (more pictures in a later post of the amazing river), and almost all of the people we met with were friendly. I lost count of how many people thanked us for what we were doing and how many made it clear that they “carried out more than they brought in” which I always thanked them for.  It is absolutely true that in my corporate life I was nicer to the cleaning lady than I was to the President of the company.  Her job was harder than his in many ways, she often knew more about what was going on than he did (people talk about all kinds of stuff in the bathroom), and most importantly I like clean bathrooms and she did an excellent job.  Now that I am the cleaning lady,  I hope folks treat me the same way and do what they can to help out.  We will see how it plays out and as always thanks for reading, despite I am sure being tired of hearing about toilets!

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In Waterfall Heaven Part II

This post is a companion piece to In Waterfall Heaven, and between the two of them it covers the main waterfalls available for view along Historic Highway 30.  You can definitely see all of the roadside waterfalls on a weekday if you start early, but parking can be a problem on the weekends.  It’s also important to note that you can see just Multnomah Falls (the largest of the falls along the route) if you stop at the rest area along Interstate 84.  It’s a nice rest area that can accommodate bigger rigs and it is an easy walk over to a very nice gift shop and the falls.  We chose to start our day at Multnomah because that is where the largest crowds are and at 9am on a Tuesday were able to get some nice pictures with no people in them.

The gift shop also has a restaurant inside. We skipped it because it was a bit pricey, but might be a nice travel day lunch break

The falls in all their glory

For scale look for a tiny person on the left side of the bridge

We walked up to the bridge which was a somewhat steep trail but well paved and maintained. These metal nets were to control rock slides

The red cedars were huge and beautiful along the trail

The path continues on and you can walk to the top of the falls. Since we were pretty tired from working hard all week, we stopped at this point.

The spray was intense totally covering the bridge and making picture taking tough but I managed to get a few

Closeup with the long lens of the top

View from the bridge to the base which is a great viewpoint and easily accessible from the rest area

Next up was Horsetail Falls.  This was nice because you could walk right down to the water and the sun was shining in beautifully on the glade

 

Next we walked down to Oneonta Gorge, but it was closed because of trail damage.  It turned out to be a good thing it was closed because the Newbies we work with told us later that in order to reach the waterfall you had to swim through a narrow gorge.  We definitely weren’t prepared for that and it stressed to us again in this area you really need to research your trails.  The signage really isn’t that good and even the detailed map we got from the visitors center doesn’t give that level of detail.  I think they assume up here folks know what they are doing when they go on a hike, but that certainly isn’t the case for us.

We did see a couple people walking down there but since the trail was blocked with yellow tape and a sign was posted we followed the recommendation

The cars used to come through this tunnel but now you can walk through it

Next we went to Wahkeena Falls where we saw a photo shoot taking place.

We saw this “fairy” putting on her makeup in the parking lot

This is the view at the base of the trail which isn’t spectacular but you might want to stop there. The trail to the falls is only .2 miles and paved but it is very steep

The views are awesome though at the top of the trail

You can see the fairy in the right of my picture. They were shooting the same time we were there which made it tough to get all the shots I wanted

I was huffing and puffing just carrying my camera and a water bottle. The photographer did it carrying a laundry basket lol so it can’t be that bad!

I am sure they got some neat shots of her

There are several additional trails uphill from Multnomah and Wahkeena Falls and in particular I really wanted to see Fairy Falls, which a friend had told me about.  Unfortunately the trail to that fall was called Perdition Trail and was another .4 miles straight up.  Since we hadn’t researched it and were both pretty tired from the work week we decided to give it a pass until we could do more research.  Thankfully these falls are less than 1 hour from where we are staying so there will be more opportunities to do some hiking when we have a day we are more rested.  After Wahkeena though we were done walking and decided to take a drive up to Vista House.  That parking lot was totally full the last time we came here, but this time there were lots of available spots.

The house was designed as a rest area for travelers and is a hug oval room with restrooms downstairs. They have added a gift shop and bookstore, but mostly it is still the way it was originally

The ceiling in the main room

I loved the stain glass windows which were protected behind thick plastic

It was a bit hazy but the views were still pretty and you could walk out on the balcony which was nice

Loved the bathroom

They had a little photo gallery and one of the coolest things they talked about was how Historic 30 was designed for car trips. There are no grades over 5% and it had these little auto camps along the road for people to spend the night. This was in the 1930’s and if these aren’t the precursor to the RV parks we use today I don’t know what is 🙂

Near the Vista House there is a 14 mile dirt road that has a view of 5 different mountains but after talking to the women in the visitors center we decided to skip it.  They got 20 inches of snow just a couple weeks before and they weren’t 100% sure the road was open to the top.  That coupled with the fact that it was kind of hazy we decided to save that trip for another day. Since it was 12:30pm by this time we decided to head back and stopped at Shirley’s Tippy Canoe for lunch.  I saw this place the last time we drove by and the sign made me want to stop.

Really nice fireside area once we walked inside

Cool vibe and decor

We decided to eat outside because it was such a nice day

Loved, loved these tables but Lee needed more back support so we sat in pretty comfy lawn furniture

I ordered the special which was clam chowder with shrimp and sour dough bread baked in a casserole with cheese and green onions

Lee got a triple decker Ruben

Everything should have been perfect, but unfortunately it was not.  The lunch meals were VERY pricey with almost everything (including burgers) on the menu being $17.99.  Still I thought it must be good at those prices, so we went ahead and took a chance.  My meal was extremely mediocre and Lee’s Reuben had way more turkey and very little corned beef.  The service was also pretty mediocre and all in all I was very disappointed.  If the prices would have been reasonable I would have shrugged it off but for $35 for lunch before tip I expect better.  I actually went out on Yelp and gave it 2 stars, which is something I rarely do. Just to be clear for me there are three main parts to a restaurant review.  They are food quality, service, and ambiance/cleanliness.  The higher the price point the more I expect in each category.  This restaurant was great in ambiance but not good in service or food.  For me that’s a fail.  Part of that is Lee and I have a restaurant background.  We met working in a restaurant and both of us spent many of our younger years working in them so we know how things should be.  Even when we had plenty of money we would get upset when a restaurant experience failed to meet expectations and for several years rarely ate out for just that reason.  Now that we have $150 a month dining out budget it’s even more important to me at least.  Eating in restaurants is a real treat and when things are expensive and the experience is sub par I am never going to be ok with that.  Well that’s not 100% true, if we are hanging out with friends sometimes nothing else matters.  Sometimes though, as I am sure they would tell you, I do get pretty annoyed.  That’s one of the reasons we like to hang out at our rigs and cook together when we are with friends.  We know the food and service will be excellent and the ambiance can’t be beat!

Anyways, it was still a good day  with all those waterfalls, but we decided to take Wednesday completely off.  Hopefully the job will be less physically demanding once we finish the initial cleanup, but in the meantime we may need to only sight see on Wednesdays.  We are both just too physically tired from our work week. Will see how it goes.

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First Time Scheduling Physicals

We have been on the road 2-1/2 years now, and health and dental care continue to be an issue.  Challenges with high deductibles,  finding out of state providers, and the timing of being in an area long enough to get an appointment scheduled have resulted in minimal heath/dental care.  Since we have been on the road we have only visited one Urgent Care, got teeth cleanings in Mexico, and another cleaning and cavities filled in Alaska.  What we have not done is have physicals of any kind.  Since I turned 50 last August I knew I would need to find a way to schedule annual appointments, but was intimidated by the process of finding an out-of-state doctor.

The ironic thing is I am very well suited to finding health care on the road.  My parents and brother and sister are all in the medical profession and I have 7 doctors and 4 nurses in my extended family.  Yes, you read that right, the medical profession is the “family business”.  And even though I chose not to enter that profession, I have learned quite a bit listening to others at holiday dinners and of course I have a terrific set of resources right at my fingertips.  I mention this because you would think it would be easy for me to work the system and find healthcare on the road, but unfortunately that is not the case, and the fact it is so difficult even for someone like me should tell you something.

I loved my doctor in Keene.  I had a schedule, we had a relationship, and I rarely had to worry about whether my insurance would cover something.  I had one issue in the 15 years I lived there with an anesthesiologist not being in plan, and when I called the insurance company they advocated for me and made sure the doctor accepted what they would pay.  That is absolutely not the case now.  I have a Blue Cross/Blue Shield Florida plan and although I am lucky enough to have access to a national network of doctors I have to be VERY careful who I select to perform services.  That is assuming of course I can get an appointment.  I’ve made the mistake in Alaska of waiting too long to start making phone calls and setting up appointments and as a result ran out of time and was unable to schedule a physical there.  I thought about scheduling the physical in Texas and even made a few phone calls, but very few doctors in the San Antonio area were accepting new patients.  So I kicked the can down the road to Oregon and on one of my first days off I took a deep breath and sat down to tackle the problem.

In the interest of sharing information I am going to walk you through the experience, but fair warning, quite a bit of this is colored  with anger.  This really shouldn’t be so difficult. Hopefully though you will find something beneficial in the account.

I started on Wednesday morning about 10am and the first thing I did was pull up the in network list of caregivers online.  Since it was out of Florida, I needed to go to the expanded list of providers, but there was quite a good selection.  That selection narrowed significantly though once I checked the search criteria box for “Accepting New Patients.”  It’s surprising how many doctors were eliminated and mostly what was left were doctors who were part of large medical groups.  I personally don’t have an issue with large medical groups, my brother belongs to one, and they provide lots of benefits to the physicians by handling administrative and billing tasks for them.  It also allows the doctors to have more of a regular schedule because they can share on call responsibilities with the other doctors in the practice.  Many of these groups also have nurse practitioners and  as my mother was one for many years I have no issue with seeing one of these either.  As long as the nurse practitioner can “write all the orders” (i.e. order followup procedures and write prescriptions) I have found their care rivals that of physicians I have seen and most take new patients.

Another major benefit of nurse practitioners as an alternative is that they are generally much easier to get a timely appointment with.   The appointment I ultimately got was with one, and it was actually scheduled for Friday of the same week which was two days away and pretty amazing.  It’s extremely unlikely I would have gotten that quick of an appointment with a regular physician.  In order to get to that point though I had to get through the gatekeepers, and that was a difficult process.  Initially I called the phone number online and got a scheduling service for Providence Medical Group, which has over 600 providers in its network.  I was told that they needed to do an initial new patient appointment prior to scheduling the physical and when I asked how much that appointment would cost (because I would need to pay this out of pocket) was told between $200 – $700.  Obviously that was absolutely unacceptable and since the person on the phone was unwilling to work with me and my somewhat unique situation I asked to speak to a supervisor.  The most distressing part of this conversation was if I would have not asked the question and just followed their advice it would have cost me extra money.  In the old days I would have, but now things are different.  I have a $14,300 deductible on my insurance and do not have the luxury of spreading these appointments out over a 6 month period.  I need to consolidate appointments, keep my out of pocket expenses down, and work around my work schedule.  If I can’t get someone on the phone who is wiling to work through that with me (which is what happened when I tried to schedule an appointment in San Antonio) I simply have to move on.  I have learned that the hard way.

The supervisor, thankfully, was that kind of person.  I explained my situation and she found me a nurse practitioner who was willing to skip the first visit and go right into the physical.  The only reason they were willing to do this, by the way, was because I stated I was in excellent health.  In the case of seeing a new dentist or doctors they always want to have an extra appointment.  Those appointments are rarely covered by insurance (and delay getting the actual treatment you need)  so I get someone on the phone and explain I have a limited time period to get the work done and have no pre-existing conditions.   If we did have pre-existing conditions we would have to pay for those first visits out of pocket every year, assuming of course we had a different doctor every year.  And I should probably stop here and say our situation is somewhat unusual.  Most full timers we know go back to the same place every year and get physicals.  As a general rule they schedule those appointments to coincide with family visits and are able to establish relationships with doctors and dentists in the area.  This is a great solution, but since our family is all back east and we are exploring the west, it doesn’t make a ton of sense for us to drive across country for a doctors appointment and then drive back.  To solve this problem some people even fly back, but again they have family in the area they can stay with.  If one of us gets to the point where we are having a serious health issue we would definitely need to consider this and luckily Columbus, Ohio would be a good choice for us because we have family in the medical community there. For right now though we are trying this the hard way and hopefully we can find a solution on the west coast that allows us to travel.

So my physical is scheduled for Friday and from there I will need follow-up appointments for a mammogram and a colonoscopy.  It is EXTREMELY important that you make sure all of this work is coded as preventive.  You can slip in questions about health issues you are having, but if the appointments become all about solving those issues rather than general wellness, they will have to code the visit as diagnostic and you will be on the hook for the cost.  This is a fine line, and a tough concept for many people, Lee included.  He despises going to the doctor anyway, and the fact that he can’t just talk about what’s bothering him once he gets there makes him nuts.  I agree with him philosophically, but since that is the system we are stuck working with I don’t have a ton of patience for his aggravation.  The main point in all of this is we all have to be our own health advocates and the days of relying on our providers, and more importantly, their billing agents, to look out for our best financials interests are largely over.  It is just the way it is.

After scheduling the doctors appointment I also scheduled dental cleanings.  Thankfully I had a recommendation from the trainers we have been working with here and called McKinsey Dental.  They were willing to accept new patients but once again wanted two appointments.  When I assured her we had regular cleanings, no history of periodontal disease, and used ultrasonic tooth brushes she agreed to allow us to schedule one appointment that included a cleaning.  Since we will have dental insurance with the company we are working with as of August 1st, we scheduled the appointment for August 15th.  This is cutting is kind of close, especially because I might need more cavities filled, but it’s better to wait and have the exams and cleaning covered.

Lastly I scheduled an appointment with a dermatologist.  Once again I looked at the list of doctors in the area accepting new patients and this list was very small.  The closest one did have an appointment on June 6th and since I will be self paying, the initial 15 minute full body check would cost $200.  She couldn’t give me a price on what removing a mole would cost because there are various methods of removing them, but since she was friendly and seemed to understand cost was an issue I was OK with that.  It is VERY difficult to get prices on the phone when you call medical people.  Some of that is because the scheduling department and the billing department are so different, and in all fairness the procedures can vary as well, but how are we supposed to do a price compare if we can’t get basic pricing information over the phone? I hear quite a bit of political rhetoric about how being an educated consumer is going to change the face of medicine, but I can say from personal experience that is not an easy thing to be.  It actually reminds me a little bit of trying to get a quote from a car mechanic.  Unless you are educated about what actual costs are it’s hard to tell if you are being charged fairly.  In the old days I let my insurance company advocate for me (and themselves) but with these high deductibles it seems better to go with the discounted self-pay costs in which case you have to negotiate yourself.  In the case of the dermatologist I will go through insurance if they find anything complicated which I am hoping they wont.

I should probably mention here that I am going to a dermatologist because my mother was recently treated for basil-cell carcinoma.  I didn’t really understand what that was, but when we met in Vegas and she explained it I had her look at a spot on my cheek.  She was concerned and told me I needed to see a dermatologist right away and before I took care of any of my other medical needs, which she considered of lesser importance.  Since my mom is a very smart nurse practitioner and also my mom, I am doing what she told me to do. According to cancercenter.com “This type of skin cancer tends to occur in areas of the skin that receive the most exposure to the sun, like the head and neck. Basal cell cancers usually grow slowly, and it is rare for them to spread, or metastasize, to nearby lymph nodes or even more distant parts of the body. However, this can occur if the cancer is left untreated, so early detection and treatment is important.” Her main concern for me was it’s location, because the longer it is left unchecked the deeper they need to go to remove it.  Since it is on my cheek the eventual surgery could leave me with a pretty nasty scar and since she just went through this herself (thankfully in her case near the nose so it blends in) and if this is what I have she wants me to catch it as early as possible. If it is something, then we will also need to figure out how to handle it.  We have money in our HSA account but don’t want to wipe that out on one issue.  Hopefully if it is something it will be relatively minor to remove.

The long and short of all of this is we aren’t kids anymore, and these types of issues are going to be more common.  It would be more easily managed if we returned to the same area on an annual basis, but that is not how I want to travel at this time. That forces us to treat healthcare very differently though.  Back in April when we were in Vegas Lee went on a horseback adventure (a sunset walk kind of thing) and his horse went a little nuts and threw him.  He’s an experienced rider and has never been thrown from a horse before in his entire life.  Thankfully he was able to control his landing a little bit and avoided the rocks and hit the sand. But he landed on his side and we are pretty sure he cracked at least one rib.  Instead of rushing to the doctor, we did some research on Web MD and determined it likely wasn’t a punctured lung.  Then when we saw that the treatment for a cracked rib was leaving it alone to heal we decided to skip the doctor.  It probably would have cost $500- $700 for an appointment and an X-ray and since there was nothing they could do to help, what would the point have been?  Still, the whole thing just makes me angry.   All we need is reasonably priced healthcare with some wellness care, moderate deductibles, and a national network.  I had that type of coverage when I worked full time and everyone on Medicare has it as well, so I know it exists.  I don’t understand why as a self employed person I can’t have the same thing and it pisses me off. We are not the only ones dealing with this, of course.  Our fellow camphosts (the kayakers) are going through the same thing.  Mr. Kayaker has Medicare now, and according to them it is the best insurance they have had in years.  Mrs. Kayaker isn’t old enough though, and because she has a Florida based HMO can’t get medical care in-network out of the state.  She is thinking about signing up for the company provided healthcare for at least a couple of months so she can get some tests done.  The whole thing is crazy and I don’t see anything better coming along in the future.  That’s why I am pushing so hard to get all of these tests done, before we lose what little healthcare we have.

Friday morning Lee drove me to the doctor and the whole experience turned out to be terrific.  First and foremost I highly recommend making appointments on the Friday before major holiday weekends because the crowds were relatively light.  When I checked in to see my doctor, I discovered that the receptionist checking me in was from Keene,  New Hampshire.  She knew a good friend of ours Ernie and I Facebooked him while in the waiting room and let him know she said hi.  It always amazes me when I meet someone on the road from Keene, but it is indeed a small world.  Unfortunately, despite my lengthy conversation with the scheduler, Tiffany did not have anything in the system about me skipping the pre-exam.  I explained the situation and she asked her supervisor, who was noncommittal, and then I was called back.  The nurse took my vitals (I need to eat less donuts) and I explained that I needed to be set up for a Pap Smear.  At first I heard the party line, but when I said I had gotten approval from a supervisor she went ahead and set me up.

The nurse practitioner was great. Once again I explained the situation and then apologized if I was making her feel like an order taker at McDonald’s.  She immediately said nothing to apologize for, and said she was glad I was taking such an active interest in my own healthcare and wished more patients did the same thing.  I was careful though not to take up too much of my 40 minutes with talking though, and after running through my history pretty quickly we completed the exam.  If I was having any problems, or if I had a complicated medical history no way would I have gotten away with that. Since I kept it simple we had enough time.  She was pretty great about ordering the additional tests as well, putting orders in as we talked for a colonoscopy, mammogram, and routine blood work.  She also set me up on their online My Chart system so I could see the results (rather than waiting for them to be mailed) and best of all told me I could go right downstairs for the blood work.

So off I went for blood work, and after verifying during check-in all the blood tests were coded as “routine” I called to make my mammogram appointment while waiting my turn.  I tentatively asked if that had any appointments that day and she said as a matter of fact the entire afternoon was open.  I snagged the first available at 11:15pm and then went in to get my blood drawn.  My technician did an excellent job (minimal pain, only one stick required) which she said was a benefit of working in a busy center…lots of practice.  Afterwards I walked a couple of buildings over to the cancer center and checked in for my mammogram.

That was really nice.  Heated robes, tea and coffee while we waited, and a very nice technician.  We spent a little more time talking about my history prior to this test since I had a small piece of breast removed about 9 years ago, but once again I stressed this needed to be coded as a routine screening and not diagnostic.  The whole process started at 9am and I was waiting for Lee on the sidewalk at 12:00pm. Pretty awesome.  (I made much better use of my morning, going all around downtown Portland visiting camera stores in search of a pro sling strap since my daughter stole mine, and a few other things that I didn’t even know I needed. – Lee) The colonoscopy will of course be scheduled separately but I felt great about every interaction I had and would highly recommend the Providence Medical Group and their hospital if you are in the Portland area.  I’ll talk more about the remaining visits (and how Lee does in his visit) at a later date, but for right now I feel pretty darn good about the whole thing.  It required some upfront work, and vigilance throughout the process, but hopefully we won’t have any issues with the billing. (I do not expect my experience to be anywhere near as smooth, pleasant, or painless. – Lee)

Oh, and as an extra treat we stopped at Dean’s Homestyle Cafe for lunch and we got a bacon cheeseburger, hamburger, fries, and onion rings and left a $5 tip for a total of $20.  It’s not much to look at on the outside, but the inside had really comfy booths, the food was great and the portions were huge.  My kind of diner!!

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First Time at a Whitewater Festival

We were pretty excited when we learned the Upper Clackamas White Water Festival would be held in the area we were working.  I have had the opportunity to go white water rafting twice (read about one fun trip here), but I have never seen a festival.  From what we were hearing some really amazing athletes would be participating in the event, plus it would be tons of fun to watch.  Although we were working both days (Lee covered the river sites and I helped in the information booth on Saturday) we did have some time to take some pictures.  Not only is watching the festival a blast, taking pictures was really fun and challenging so I wanted to share some of of our favorites here.  Lee took most of the river and festival shots, but I got some good ones of the paddleboard events, which were my favorite.  I hope you enjoy them.

The main even area was pretty low key with a raffle for products

 

And several vendors who specialized in rafting equipment

 

The one food truck was reasonably priced and there were plenty of restrooms which I did not need to clean 🙂

 

Put in’s for events were all along the river and one of the favorite sites was Sandstone Bridge which was officially opened over the weekend and was a big hit with the boaters

 

Lee got to see how the new boat ramps worked

 



 

Many people were just running the river for fun that day and it was cool how the event schedulers worked personal recreation traffic in the more formal events. Not quite sure how they managed that but it obviously worked and showed what a tight knit community it is. In between heats they also allowed people to do practice runs or just takes runs with their families through the race area which was also really cool and not something I think I have ever seen in any other sporting event.  Most events happened at one set of rapids near Carter Bridge and people sat on rocks or down near the river and they closed off one half of the bridge so you could stand there and watch as well.  We liked the bridge spot for the best views and most of our pictures were taken from there.

There were 7 gates and the poles that hung down could be moved with a pulley system. Part of the challenge for the rafters was not missing any of the gates.

 

They had safety boats in the water at all times and occasionally someone wiped out, couldn’t recover, and needed a lift

 

 

Several women participated

This run in particular was really good and her upper body strength was impressive.


 

This was impressive.  Big boat one guy.

 

People went on runs with their kids and family. The kid in the green boat on the left looked like he was 12

My favorite event of the day by far was the SUPs or Stand Up Paddle Boards.  I learned this technique had started in Hawaii and was hitting the paddling world by storm.  The fact that they could run these boards through the rapids was absolutely amazing and I was lucky enough to spend some time with the owners of Clackamas River Outfitters who participated in many of the events.  Luke, one of the owners, used to be part of the Pabst Blue Ribbon team and now rents equipment right down the road from us.  His wife Tanley was kind enough to answer my numerous questions and let me know when the best events would be happening so I could get some pictures.  Super nice people and I was really glad I got to hang out with them, because their booth was right next to mine in the main festival area.

The start of the SUP final

 

Luke has the orange helmet. He volunteered to start at the back of the pack since they can’t all start at the same place

 

What was amazing was even if you fall off you can get back on and finish the race

 

Check out the guy to the far right he got back up

 

Here’s a close up of Luke’s feet. Check out how he is balancing

Even the wipeouts were spectacular. So much fun to watch

 

Serious paddling was required after the rapids to reach the finish line.

 

And then the guys had to carry their boards up and back to the top of the event area to be in the next heat.  Look how much fun they were having.

 

They had a shuttle service for the bigger boats but they still had to be carried up from the water and onto a trailer parked pretty far (at least by my standards) away. This was a physically fit bunch of people.

Luke also participated in the kayak race which was really neat as well. That guy had amazing energy




The festival itself was a mix of locals, experts from other areas in Washington and Oregon, and spectators of all age ranges.  Since it was a dog friendly event I also got to see lots of puppies and Lee took some great shots of the festival goers at one point, as he covered for me while I took some pictures of an event.

 





 

They took these blow up rafts over the rapids but I missed that unfortunately

 

This absolutely beautiful female malamute was huge at 110 pounds

 


It was a fun group 🙂

 

The kids loved it too and were climbing all over everything and no one cared. It was that kind of crowd

 



We gave away these whistles which were a hug hit with kids and adults alike. I learned you need a whistle on your life vest to be “legal”

 

At the end of night 1 they even had a free BBQ and a beer garden

At the end of the last day there was a “rodeo” which had folks doing tricks and trying fun things on the river.  Lee and I were able to watch all of that together because we worked long hours the day before.  I really really enjoyed this.  The people, the events, all of it.  My only regret was I didn’t have the equipment or skill set necessary to get in that water.  It looked like so much fun.

A group of 4 tried to come down on a paddleboat

 

With predictable results

 

Still having fun though

 

But finally gave up and one guy even lost his pants 🙂  The bridge crowd got pretty excited about this!!

 

The guys in this twosome almost fell out

 

She grabbed him

 

The bridge crowd was cheering “She saved your ass” …was funny

 

This guys lost his paddle right in the middle of the rapid

 

Tried to get it several times while his buddy was paddling his butt off

 

Success!!

 

Everyone cheered

 

My favorite was though rafting Santa. He was amazing doing “rodeo tricks” with this raft

 

He has turned the raft around and maneuvered it onto a huge rock. Amazing

So glad we got to participate and meet so many local people.  Everyone made us feel very welcome, which is definitely not always the case with small communities. I am sharing some of the pictures with Luke and Tanley and definitely am going to try paddleboarding while we are here.  I may need a wetsuit though because this water is COLD, hovering at around 40 degrees, which makes what these folks did all day even more impressive. If you ever get a chance to see one of these festivals I highly recommend it.

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is also available in paperback. 

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First Time Working In a Utility Co. Park – Adjusting to the Schedule and Communication

The company we are working for this summer has a very specific media policy which I am adhering to.  This includes not mentioning other employees by name, so I will do the best I can to recount our experience using people’s roles or titles.  Also, because it’s not really that difficult to figure out who we are working for,  I want to be clear that I in no way speak for the company, and am only recounting our unique personal experiences.  Also, any details I get wrong (and I am sure there will be many) are due to misunderstandings on my part. When researching any job or place to stay/visit I highly recommend going to the source and starting with the company website for information. 

One of the challenges, I am sure, of managing people in multiple locations with limited cell coverage is communication. Although almost everyone has a cell phone and can text, and we all have company email accounts, the lack of consistent cell coverage (both in the parks and on the drives to the off site locations) and only being able to access company email on a company computer makes using those common means of communicating tough.  That leaves the best way of communicating with people in person, but varying shifts and disparate locations make that challenging.  As a result our contact with our direct supervisor over the last week has been minimal.  Some messages are getting to us through our trainers, but when we have questions (which I invariably do) it takes a while to get those questions back up the food chain and then get a response.

One of the areas this has been challenging this first week was around our schedule.  We knew we would be working at least 32 hours a week, but didn’t talk much more about the specifics in our interview, so I was a little bummed to discover we would be working 5 days a week.  Once we learned more about the job responsibilities it made perfect sense, because gates are opened at 6am and closed at 9pm and there is quite a bit of downtime in the middle.  Our supervisor did a nice job of putting together a schedule that spread the gate opening and closings between multiple people who helps minimize people working split shifts, but we did end up with the splits on Saturdays and Sundays.  Basically our schedule is Mondays 6am-2pm, Tuesday and Wednesday OFF, Thursday 6am -2pm, Friday 3pm – 9:30pm, and Saturday and Sunday 6am – noon and then back again 8:00pm -9:30pm.  We also are responsible for opening the gates Monday, Saturday, and Sunday and closing the gates Friday – Sunday.

It’s a complicated schedule and initially was pretty confusing, plus to be honest I had to mentally work through the whole split shift thing.  It’s not that it’s on the weekends that bothers me (we actually prefer to have days off during the week), but that’s a long break in the middle of the day, and I was trying to figure out what that would look like.  I talked to Cori about it though and she brought up a great point that we would have enough time on the weekends to get out and explore if we wanted which made me feel better about it.  We definitely want to take advantage of the sunny days here and one benefit of the schedule is if we have the energy we could hike, explore, etc after 2pm almost every day. Really I just wanted to sit down and talk about the schedule with our supervisor, but because of some issues at another location and the complications I listed above that was just not possible.  We did offer to come in on one of our days off to chat about it, but it still couldn’t happen.

We also had some confusion about exactly what needed to be done prior to opening day.  All but one of the day use parks are in use, but the campground opens May 19th and the lower marina opens May 22nd.  Also there is a big Whitewater Festival scheduled May 20th and 21st and although none of our day use areas are being used specifically for the event, they are located close to the event and will probably see some use.  We thought they were in pretty good shape because of the work we had done the initial weekend, but Lee briefly saw our supervisor and he mentioned that the weeding really needed to get done before Saturday.  That sent us into a bit of a tailspin because initially we were trained not to worry about the weeding until things dried out a bit. On a side note, we found out a few days later that Sandstone Creek was being dedicated during the Whitewater Festival and since many executives would be there  they wanted it to look extra nice. All we knew on Tuesday though was it was a priority and so we set about to make it happen.

I think it’s worth mentioning here that this is where generational differences might kick in.  There have been plenty of scientific studies regarding the differences between how Boomers and Gen Xers and Millennials work, and since we keep running into this I think it’s more than fair to mention it here.  As work forces are getting younger, all companies seem to be struggling with changing how they manage a younger generation.  This problem is really obvious in the work kamping world.  90% of the people we are working with are Baby Boomers, so the work roles and managerial styles are largely tailored to them.  Makes perfect sense, because you want to keep your work force happy, but for us “younger folks” it can be frustrating.  And to be clear there is no right or wrong way to work here, but it’s tough when a work system is designed for folks with one work style when you fall into a different category.  For me, the biggest challenge is not being told “Why”. I don’t want to speak for our entire generation, but Lee and I are both “point us and we’ll go” kind of people.  What I mean by that is give us clear expectations, explain why it’s important so we have context, and then let us do our thing. If there are obstacles we will move heaven and earth to remove them and aren’t much bothered by who or what gets in the way.  Generally Boomers seem to want to analyze the situation and feathers can be ruffled by a more direct/urgent approach.  Worse, the behavior is often seen as “over exuberance” at best or “panicking” at worst, which drives me absolutely crazy.

As a project manager, I can certainly sit back and see the benefits to either approach, and usually don’t mind slowing things down a bit if the task is not time sensitive, but when something needs to be done and there is a limited amount of time to get it accomplished I generally go to what works for me.  If I know what I am doing and need minimal assistance it’s rarely an issue, but when I need other people’s help or more information it can be a problem.  In the case of the weed eating we needed functional weed eaters, gasoline (straight and oil mix) for both the truck and the two trimmers, and some idea of where the job started and stopped.  And we found out on our first day off and had to decide how we wanted to handle it.  Eventually, we got some help with getting the gas and the initial testing of the machines and one of the guys with the riding mower promised to drive up and do what he could with the riding mower.  That was a huge help, and cut down on the amount of time it took significantly.  Lee spent part of Wednesday driving to the hardware store to get the correct type of trimmer string and we did manage to be ready to go first thing Thursday morning.

Between trying to get a handle on understanding the schedule, and the getting ready for weeding though, it didn’t really feel like we had any time off.  In all fairness, the constant rain didn’t help, and we were pretty limited by what we could do on our days off.  On Tuesday we went to see a movie and went to the grocery store.  I have to say I am a huge fan of Winco and this may be my favorite grocery store in our entire three years on the road.  Their prices are really good (lower than Walmart in some cases) and their selection is solid.  Plus they have an awesome bulk foods section and we spent a ton of time getting items in that section which saved us quite a bit of money.  My plan on Wednesday was to take advantage of the rainy day and “pre-cook” so we would have food for work days.  This meant large batches of chili, spaghetti sauce, and cooked hamburger for the freezer and I also made potato salad and crunchy cole slaw for the upcoming group pot luck.  Basically I tied up the kitchen most of the day and wanted to listen to some TV shows, like The Voice, while I was cooking.  The bad part of that was it tied up both the kitchen and the living room and since it was pouring outside and our cell booster wasn’t working Lee couldn’t make phone calls or use the internet.  NOT a good combination.

Oh I wanted to mention that.  The WeBoost has been working fine except in heavy rain.  On heavy rain days the internet goes in and out frequently which makes it practically impossible to use.  Worse, we often lose signal during phone calls, which is not great.  It’s pretty clear this is a known issue so we will just need to be prepared for that going forward. Needless to say the combination of all of these factors made for a pretty lousy day.  Wednesday was actually the worst day we have had in a long time and in retrospect we should have punted at some point and just got out of the RV.  There are times when you are keenly aware of how small your living space is, and on those days at least one of you getting out is always a good deal.  The only good thing about it was we did get lots of stuff done and were prepared to hit the ground running on Thursday, which according to the forecast would be the start of 10 sunny days in a row…hooray!

One good thing about Lee and I is we may burn hot when arguing but after the storm is done we are generally pretty good about laying it aside.  We woke up to a beautiful day, were out the door by 6:30am and after grabbing the trimmers were working at Hole in the Wall by 7:00am.  Despite having the correct trimmer cord (the hardware store looked up the head model number for Lee to get it) he still had some trouble getting it to spool so I started with the push trimmer.  I have never used one of these before, but I really liked it.  It handles like a push lawn mower, but underneath are two set of trimmer cord instead of blades so you can get closer to things.  That was great because the boundaries in the day use are large boulders and the grass was really high around them.  I was clipping right along (no pun intended) when the riding mower showed up and about an hour later that was all done.  Definitely made the whole project seem more attainable and after he left we focused on the areas he couldn’t get to.  The first couple of hours were fine for me but then I started to slow down.  It required upper body strength, especially on the hilly areas, and I was definitely feeling it.  But the sun was out and Lee seemed to have found his rhythm with the trimmer.  It was a large one, but came with a harness and he was doing great with it.  After three hours though I was struggling so we switched for a while, but the trimmer was too heavy for me and he wasn’t crazy about the push trimmer, so we soon switched back.  Thankfully around the time it got really hot and I was sweaty and sore we were done.  It looked quite a bit better and definitely good enough for the event.

Lee using the push trimmer for a little bit.  He definitely liked the weed whacker better. 

The before weeds on the left and the after section to the right of the rocks

I took a short turn on the trimmer but it was pretty heavy for me, so stuck mainly to the push version

We decided to stop for lunch and then made a run up to Faraday and went to the hardware store to pickup up a couple of miscellaneous items. I definitely needed a better pair of gloves, since my hands were really hurting and we got a new trash can for the Sandstone Creek area.  I am really glad I had pre-cooked my potato salad because when we got back to the rig at 3pm I kind of collapsed.  Dinner was at 5:30pm and I had just enough time to take a shower, have a nice conversation with my sister, relax for a few minutes before we headed over to the Promontory park Day Use area.  There is a very nice day use area with a full kitchen, fire pit, large barbecue grill, and lots of picnic tables but because of the no alcohol rule it is rarely rented out. Our trainer, who was hosting the event, had scheduled it for the day and invited some of the people we would be working with this summer.  It was very sweet of her and her husband, especially because they provided all of the chicken, and we had a nice time eating, sitting around the fire, and getting to know each other better.

This is probably a good time for me to talk a little about the people I will be working with this summer.  Since I can’t use names it’s going to be tough to describe people so I am going to have to  find other ways to denote who is who.  I hate referring to people by one thing because obviously people are more complicated than that, but not sure how else to do it.  Hopefully I won’t confuse you in the process.  There are two other couples who are at Promontory Park with us and they are opposite ends of the spectrum.  One couple is younger than us and very new to the full timing lifestyle.  They live in a 14′ converted utility trailer, and it is incredibly cool.  I have seen conversions on Facebook, but seeing it in person was amazing.  The back wall has a full size bed that is elevated like a bunk bed, and their dogs have an area underneath.  Since it is a utility trailer the entire back wall is a door, which allows them to open the trailer up to the outside.  The opposite (front) wall has a 70 inch TV and surround sound.  Amazing!!  They have a tiny sink, tiny camp stove, and a cooler. There is also a surprising amount of storage because they used an IKEA crate system on the side walls and I although there is quite a bit in there it doesn’t feel cramped.  I loved it! The whole thing, including the renovation, was only $5K, and the entire setup impressed the hell out of me.  This is their first camp hosting job, and their only other work kamping job was volunteering at a fish hatchery so I will be referring to them as the Newbies, and for only that reason.

The other couple has been “semi-retired” since 2005.  This is their first season here but they have worked a ton of different seasonal jobs.  Although they are over 10 years older than us I would never have guessed that because they are avid kayakers, and nature people, and in great shape, so I am going to call them the Kayakers for the season.   I really like talking to Mrs. Kayaker and we have had some nice conversations about making the transition to a seasonal employee from a regular job.  In the last twelve years a desire for roots has put them back in a home and traditional job a couple of times but after a year or two they start to get itchy feet and go back on the road.  The way she summed it up was “in a house I feel like I work to vacation, but in this lifestyle I feel like I vacation and then go to work sometimes”.  I get what she means.  I just love talking to her to get the female perspective on this lifestyle long-term and can’t wait to chat more.  The coolest thing about the six of us is it turns out we all have birthdays this summer.  We have a cancer, three leos, and two virgos in the group, and our birthdays range from mid-July through the end of August.  We spent quite a bit of time at the potluck trying to decide if we should have 6 mini-parties or one big party because, hey, those are the important decisions!!The other two couples who came are our neighbors on the other side of the mountain and town, and stay in a Day Use area. One couple have been our trainers and I have talked about them quite a bit, but the other couple I didn’t know very well.  Turns out they have been on the road full-timing since 1999.   Wow!!  Because of that and the fact that he was in the military, they’re the Veterans. I think the Veterans have been living this lifestyle for longer than anyone else we have met.  He was a linguist in the Air Force (like our daughter Kay) and then retired from the post office.  To supplement their income they have done a variety of jobs, including Christmas Trees/Pumpkins, selling jewelry and clothing in booths, and camp hosting.  At this gig the husband works but the wife does no,t and she was pretty honest about preferring jobs where she could work for herself.  I get that too and really admire it, and they have a trailer they pull behind their Class A where over the years they have kept their inventory.  Really hope we get to talk to them more as the season progresses.

The other couple that lives at the day use area and have been doing the bulk of our training and supporting us are Mr. and Mrs. Trainer. This is their sixth year working for this company and they know the ins and outs of how this company works.  They have been very helpful with getting us settled in and teaching us the basics this week plus they organized the pot luck for everyone to get together and know each other which was very nice.

So that is the main group in this area (the 12 couples scattered at the other utility company properties we will rarely see, if ever) and we also got to hang out with one of the regular full-time employee maintenance guys, who is very sweet, and one of the corporate employees who brought her 6 month old baby.  Since her husband was out-of-town working, she came with him alone and we had a nice long cuddle session while she ate her meal.  I remember having kids that age, and what a blessing an uninterrupted meal is, plus he was absolutely adorable and I was happy to get a baby fix!  She’s running the booth during the White Water Festival and I was happy to learn I was going to get to help.  Lee and I will help her get set up on Saturday, and once I am comfortable I will run the booth the rest of the day, so that should be fun.  I always like when I get to do something different like that during a work kamping job and I was really glad they asked me to do it.

On Friday, we spent another four hours trimming the Moore Creek area and then we deep cleaned the changing rooms and pit toilets along the river.  Everything was ready to go for the festival and after another long day we headed back to the campground.  Our supervisor was their when we arrived and we got to have a nice long conversation with him.  We talked about his priorities, how to best communicate with him, and special projects he would like done during the summer.  I also received permission to have signs posted in the pit toilets with the campground phone number so if there was an issue people would have a place to call.  The nature of toilets is that you can clean them and someone could have an “incident” and that could go unresolved until the next visit.  Since we can only check some of these sites once or twice a day, I would feel much better if people had a way to reach out in this circumstance.  Our supervisor was fine with that and thought it was a good idea, so I will be working with their sign person to get something printed. Overall, the entire conversation made me feel better.  I had a better idea of what he wanted and he knows a little more about us. Clear expectations and communication seems to be the key to most of these jobs and we are trying to communicate better in the early days of these positions.  In the past we have let things go into later in the season and that has never served us well.

So that was our week, and it definitely had its share of ups and downs, but hopefully we will get settled in soon.  Today we need to finish the weed whacking at Moore Creek and give both of the pit toilets a solid cleaning.  My next post will be all about the white water festival, and hopefully will include some amazing pictures.  I hear the demonstrations are pretty amazing as these guys are all really good.  Can’t wait to see it, and in the meantime I will leave you with the promised pictures of Faraday Lake and some absolutely adorable goslings.

One of the picnic tables and some of the lake at Faraday

So many Goslings!

This mama goose was letting me know I was getting too close

 

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is also available in paperback.