The last couple of weeks have been really, really, really quiet here and we have had plenty of time to relax and recoup.  (Seriously, I have gotten in the habit of turning off my walkie talkie and turning it back on again because sometimes an entire day can go by with nothing happening. At all. Which is just creepy and weird. – Lee) Because Lee likes to stay busy he has spent most of his time finishing up the new workshop so I wanted to take a moment and talk a bit about that.  When we first arrived we saw the beginnings of a brand new workshop and over the early part of the season it took shape.  Designing the inside was a bit of a challenge, but something Lee was super excited about, and since no one else really wanted to do it he made it his season long project.  He talked to all the stakeholders, did 3D CAD drawings, got approval for the design, and ordered custom shelving.  Then he assembled the shelves, arranged everything, and really turned it into a beautiful place to work.  Everyone was super impressed, myself included, and he wouldn’t let me take pictures until yesterday when it was done.  So here is what he did, and I am super proud of him. (Aww shucks, ma’am. Tweren’t nothin. I just figure out where things want to be, and then put them there. Since we at this location last summer, I had no idea just how bad the old workshop/shed was. When we got here, I saw it for the first time. It’s an old building, about 10’x20′, and has been in use as the tool shed for a very long time. As a seasonal place, everything is closed down each winter, and although some people return year over year, there’s also a lot of turnover. So there’s a bizarre mixture of influences on how things were stored and placed inside. There’s also a LOT of stuff in there. The shop is used to store supplies for the lodge, and for the hosts of the individual campgrounds, and tools and parts and other supplies. And lots of stuff that only gets used once in a great while. Like most places like this, there was a lot in there that was leftover from many years ago, and some things that could easily be thrown away. When I first saw the inside my first thought was “This place needs to be cleaned and organized. But since I didn’t know what was useful and what was junk, I decided to wait. Plus, they were building a new shop right behind it, no point in doing the work twice. – Lee) 

(This is the view from the door. AS you can see, there’s a TON of stuff crammed into this tiny space. Over the years various people had tried to come up with new and interesting ways to fit more in. Some of these methods were clever, some just crazy. My favorite crazy one was the 10′ piece of bamboo from which someone had hung plastic hangers to hold up long things ding over the “workbench”. – Lee)

(As you can see, people had gone to some effort to keep things somewhat tidy and sorted, like the camp host supplies. No small feat in such a tight and crowded space. – Lee)

(One of the problems is that there were lots of shelves, but they were very deep, which invites just ramming more and more onto them, and invariably, stuff gets shoved to the back and forgotten. – Lee)

(There was also a lot old paint in spray cans, pint, quart, gallon and five gallon cans. Some were nearly empty, and some were so old they were unusable. Again, someone had kept them all together, but there was also other stuff mixed in. finding anything was a pain. – Lee)

(Lots of small boxes with stuff. Labelled, but mice love to live in and chew up cardboard. Since this building is closed up all winter, everything was covered in mouse droppings. – Lee)

(Another good example of fighting for space. The boxes on the left are different sizes of gloves, which were delivered to hosts each week. But they were shoved to the back of a shelf, and had to be rooted out weekly. Annoying. – Lee)

(Each fall a lot of signs are taken down, and shoved into the shed to be removed in the spring and re-hung. There were also replacement signs stored, and this was the worst, lots of signs mixed up and shoved onto a shelf in a corner, so the ones in the back were almost impossible to get to. – Lee)

(I actually liked this. Someone had put up a little shelf with holes cut into it for the power tools. However, the shelf was all the way in the back corner, and hard to get to. There were also piles of tools in soft bags and hard cases stacked on a table to the right of this photo. – Lee)

(And there was lots of this. Things hanging from the walls by nails, and bits of wire, and just sort of leaned against the wall and stacked up. Finding and getting things was quite the chore, and usually involved things falling and getting knocked down or over. – Lee)

(It reminded me a lot of someone’s garden shed or small garage that had been living there for 40 years. An attempt was made to keep it in control, but it was just too small a space with too much stuff, and nobody curating it. – Lee)

So imagine how happy I was to see this, just a few yards away! 

When we first got here, only the posts were up. I took a few pictures, but I can’t locate them. Then I was planning to take pictures of every stage of construction, but work and the fact that the builders would show up randomly and work for a day and then disappear for weeks on end made it all but impossible to do that. I did get some pictures along the way though. 

While I waited for the building to be finished enough to start doing things inside, I would stand inside and try to visualize the best place to put things, and just sort of daydream about having it stocked and try to figure out how to best use the space. Then I did some measuring and started building a 3D model. That was a lot of fun, I hadn’t done that since I designed a TV studio back in 2005.

One of the things I definitely wanted to do was utilize as much of the vertical space as possible. With a 20′ peak, there was a LOT of space to work with, and since much of the stuff only needed to be touched once or twice a season, it made sense to get that stuff up and out of the way. I ended up going with two types of shelving, both bolt-less for ease of putting it together. For long span shelves and workbenches I used pallet racking. I ended up buying a mixture of new and used stuff from an industrial salvage company, and all of it ended up costing only about $1500, which is CHEAP! Here’s a panorama showing the entire “shop” side of the building, as opposed to the bay side. The shelves and pallet racking on the left already have some supplies because I wanted to be able to start using it right away to make sure everything would fit and see if what I had imagined would work in practice. The nice thing about the shelves on the left is that they are accessible from either side, so you can grab supplies from the “shop” side and use the man door, or you can pull a truck up to the garage door and grab stuff from there and put it right in the truck. 

I had originally thought to set the shelf height for each shelf based on what ended up on them, working my way from the bottom up, but then I had a much better idea. 

These are the work benches, and the shelves I hung above them. The shelves I hung above the workbenches are 10″ deep, and from the left to the right they are 9′ and 7′, sop there’s a LOT of shelf space. The first shelf is easy to reach from the floor, but the top two require using a little folding three step. So frequently needed stuff goes on the lower shelves, less frequently used stuff goes higher.  The bench on the left I had them cut down in order to weld heavy duty locking swivel casters, so it can be pulled out into the middle of the room so you can work on something and have access all the way around it. I got to use it already and it’s a really nice feature to be able to walk around something large and bulky and heavy at workbench height. It’s also a great way to move a large number of things or really large heavy things from the door to somewhere else. It’s a workbench! It’s a cart! After a week or so of looking at it I decided to go back to the industrial supplier and add two beams across the bottom to make a shelf. It game me another 27 square feet of storage, and more stability to the bench. 

I also made the top 5″ deeper on the back side and notched it so it would slot in to the beam it sits against so there wouldn’t be a gap for things to fall through when it was pushed against the wall. 

Once the shelves were all done everything got moved from the old shed to the new. I used the floor of the bay side to pile everything up and then started sorting through it and placing it where it would end up living. That allowed me to take my time and throw away things that we didn’t need, and put things with like things. 

Here’s some shots of it mostly finished. Some of the shelves are empty because I hadn’t quite finished putting things on them. This is all of the supplies in place. You can also see the rolling steps I bought to easily access things from 14′.

Here’s the reverse angle of that shelf with some of the supplies taken away because it was the end of the season, but with the stuff on the shelves where it will live. 

Here’s my better idea for the shelves. All the shelves are the same height, and instead of loose stuff, I put everything in heavy duty totes, so they can be labelled and to keep things from just being scattered all over the shelves. the paint will live on the lower shelves, but it goes to a different building that’s heated in the winter.

Now the signs are much better organized and accessible. 

(By the way, take a look at that extension cord on the left. That’s what they look like after being coiled incorrectly a few times. They are ruined forever. There is a better way. You can coil 100′ or more of cable and set the coil on the ground, pick up one end and walk away with it, and it will uncoil in a nice straight line, with no kinks, loops, or knots. Every time. 100% guaranteed. – Lee)

I’m really glad I added that lower shelf to the rolling bench. That’s where the really heavy stuff will live. 

The long bench and the super short bench are bridged with the work surface to make a 12′ bench top. It’s kind of hard to see, but in the center I added a magnetic strip to hold commonly needed hand tools. All the other tools are in the tool chest below. The fans above pull fresh air in, and on the other side of the building another set push air out. Next Spring I will add a shelf at the bottom and middle of that small section on the right, and that’s where the various power tools that aren’t drill will go. The drills hang above the workbench, just inside the door, so they can be grabbed quickly and easily, along with a magnet that holds driver bits. 

My first project next Spring will be to label all the parts drawers. 

There’s some other stuff not pictured, and it’s still a work in progress, but I have all next summer to perfect it while it’s in use. Here’s the old shop empty and cleaned out. Right after we left they were supposed to start working on it to turn it into a bunkhouse for two or more college age summer interns, so we’ll see what it looks like when we return in April!

In addition to Lee finishing the workshop, Fred and Helen cleaned out the lodge and looked for missing items or duplicates.  People bring and leave things all the time, so we had a huge amount of extra cooking items.  This was kind of fun and we divided some of them up and donated the rest.

One night we went to Red Lobster dinner with our friends Sharon and Dan and had a terrific time.  Sometimes you meet people at these jobs and just click and that was definitely the case with us and them.  I really feel like we are going to be lifelong friends.

Sharon and me!

We also closed down the last two campgrounds, which went very smoothly, and then spent the last week tidying up loose ends.  I was thankful that I had lots of down time and feel much better rested.  Kari, one of our camp hosts, gave me some flowers on one of the last days which was incredibly sweet. They were absolutely beautiful and I was incredibly touched by the gesture.

Next up: on to Vegas to see my Mom, my brother and sister.   I am so excited about getting a BREAK and am definitely ready to go.

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 available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

We love getting reader questions, and one of us always take the time to answer them, but occasionally I find the questions interesting enough that I think they deserve a blog post.  That was the case when I received some questions from JoEllen a few days ago, and since I thought many of you might have similar questions I decided I would answer them in this format instead of directly to her. The questions themselves are in italics, and my answers are in blue. Lee’s comments are in red. (She’s not the boss of me. My comments are in bold orange italics. – Lee)

Tracy, I have emailed you before several times and learn a lot from you 2. Hopefully in 2-3 years we will hit the road and will need to work also. We have already sold our house and all our goods. 

Thanks!  Always nice to hear people are getting something out of this blog, and congratulations on completing two huge steps towards you new life.  (Yes, congrats from me as well, but in bold orange italics. – Lee)

1. My BIG question is, “why” did you and Lee (almost) throw in the towel and stay PUT for a full time job that could change the direction of your life only after 4 years of being on the road? 

I don’t know if we got to the point where we were willing to throw in the towel completely, but we were having conversations about what this all looks like going forward.  For those of you who have read the blog for a while, you know I have found work kamping to be very challenging.  I, at least, am constantly evaluating risk versus reward and it is tempting when the jobs are particularly challenging to think about taking a break and finding something stable for awhile.  A huge part of that is fear, some of that is a “grass is greener” mentality, and some of it is just frustration.  There are trade-offs in this lifestyle, just like any other, and I think those trade-offs should be constantly weighed.  I tend to be more introspective than some people and more open about my introspection but I think most people have these thoughts at some point. (Believe it or not, while I understand where Trace is coming from, I don’t feel the same way. We’re very different people. For example, she tends to write in blue, while I tend to write in bold orange italics. But seriously, I generally feel like the idea of taking a break and finding something stable is a trick/trap. I don’t believe there’s any such thing as stable. I would rather experiment and see “what’s next” than sit around thinking I’m safe and secure while someone (without my knowledge) is deciding I make too much money, or I’m too old, or too bold, or italicky. I feel more in control of my own destiny now than I ever have in my entire life. – Lee)

I would like to make one more comment.  You say “only after 4 years of being on the road” and I found that interesting.  In this lifestyle 4 years is a long time.  I say that because it is so packed with experiences and living in the moment that I personally would say 4 years equals 10 in a more traditional life.  That’s my rear view perspective, but I stand by it. (And for me four years seems to have screamed by so fast I actually have to do the math in my head to make sure that 2014 to 2018 was actually four years. It feels more like 2  1/2 years to me. Except for Amazon. That felt like eternity. – Lee)

2. Is 4 years the turning point to start thinking, “OK we have moved enough” let’s put more grass under our tires instead of asphalt? What I have noticed in keeping up with your age group (and I keep up with a lot of blogs) of starting on the road verses those 62 years old and beyond (who don’t work as much or at all) is that the 62 year old and beyond stay on the road LONGER. I know about Howard and Linda but their situation (not working all the time) is different than most people. I just read the other day about a couple I keep up with at times who are hanging up the keys, but he is 82 and been of the road a little over 10 years.

That’s a great question and opens the door for me to talk about a trend I have been noticing.  My short answer would be “Yes”, for many people four years seems to be a crossroads of sorts.  Many people I know are buying a piece of property and putting down roots at least part of the year. Others are coming off the road completely. Many of us who haven’t found a place we would like to settle are looking for a “route” where we can find a summer and winter “home.”  There are still lots of people I know who are traveling somewhat randomly, but almost everyone has slowed the pace from those first couple of years.  One point I would like to make though is using people who write blogs as the representatives of the lifestyle doesn’t tell the whole story.  I did the same thing by the way, but since we have been out here working we have met TONS of people that have been on the road for many, many years and the lifestyle of the working group is different than those who have lots of money in the bank.  (I also agree that there might seem to be a significant number of people that make some kind of major change to how they do this after four years. I think the reason for that might be that four years of heavy travelling or aimless wandering or racing from place to place can be exhausting for a lot of people. But I also think there’s no trustworthy data so I would have a hard time declaring anything. The scientist in me bristles at all that jumping to conclusions in the absence of verifiable facts. – Lee)

3. Should “One” consider it safer to “WAIT” till in their 60’s and feel as if “this is now my NEW life?” Verses those in late forties early fifties who may consider the road as a “cool down period” then charge back into a daily grind?

My struggle has been finding work that is satisfying and maintaining a roving lifestyle.  The longer I get away from my old professional life the more of a gap I have in my resume and the harder it is to find that type of work.  I also find that emotionally I am less suited to a traditional 9-5 gig as time goes on and the postings I do see are much less appealing.   If I was 60+ I think I might care less.  At 52 I am looking at 13 more solid earning years and I hate to give up the money and satisfaction I get from working in my field.  If I had a job with a pension or had socked more money away I would probably feel differently, so really it is less about age than financial circumstance.  Simply put since I have to work, I want that work to have some meaning.  From a financial standpoint, I get nervous as our nest egg dwindles over time.  These are prime earning years and because of my lifestyle choice it feels like I am giving that away.  

All that being said I know several people who kept their corporate jobs on the road and even one who lost that job, found another, and is still living a mobile life.  I hear stories about the 30 somethings who work while on the road and they made sure they kept their corporate type jobs from day one.  My journey was a little different.  I wanted to try pure work kamping for a variety of reasons, but wasn’t really aware when I made that decision on how difficult it would be for me to jump back into my profession.  And to be clear I am not even 100% sure that I want to.  That’s the main conflict I am having right now. (I don’t feel the way she feels about career work. The work I did I could go right back to doing, although the last few times I did it as a freelancer I felt “not as young as I once was” for the first time. Show business is hard work. But I say the same thing to everyone I talk to about this; Do it. Don’t wait. People die or become incapable of doing this every day with little or no warning. The money will take care of itself. Be happy. At the end, we all go in the same size hole. – Lee)

4. Again WHY did you 2 ponder such thoughts?

Lee rarely has these thoughts.  He had a career that required living in one place and he knew he might never work in it again.  For him the trade-off was more than worth it and he made the decision with that in mind.  I kept my job for the first year and knew that I had a skill set that was friendly to working remotely.  Because I have always done this lifestyle in baby steps, it has taken me longer to  come to terms with the sacrifices I might have to make professionally.  This summer and this job brought those things to the foreground and the subsequent job search has really brought those issues home.  I was stuck on the idea that I would have to spend the next 13 years working at jobs I didn’t enjoy because we wouldn’t stay in one place.  Those thoughts were in no way about not liking the lifestyle itself, but about not wanting to make that sacrifice.  I didn’t see why I couldn’t have both, and succinctly put, it was pissing me off. 

Then I had a conversation with my Mom. You know how sometimes your Mom can say the exact right thing at the exact right time? Well this was one of those times. Recently she lost her husband, sold her house and moved to her dream condo on the ocean in Myrtle Beach.  For the last several months she has been very happy, but misses what she gave up, living next door to my brother and one of her grandsons.  My Mom, who is a no-nonsense kind of chick, said “Best not to dwell on things you do not have when your life is so rich with experience.”  After I called her she went on to say that I have a pretty terrific life and better than many people my age.  Then she asked me why I would want to give that up for the possibility of something that I wasn’t even sure I wanted?  My answer, which came from the gut, was “fear”.  And really that’s what it comes down to.  Do I believe that it’s possible to find both meaningful work and continue to live the lifestyle? Yes. Do I think that is a certainty? No. Am I afraid the longer I do this the less likely it will be.? Yes.  

So I have three choices.

1. I can give up on that and just take what jobs I get and find my peace with that. 
2. I can continue to try to find jobs that allow me to stay on the road and give me satisfaction, allowing that it will be a ton of work and I will probably be disappointed quite a bit. 
3. I can find a job, leave the road, and possibly reenter at a later time. 

These are all valid choices, by the way, and I have very close friends who chose one of these three routes in the past year.  For right now, I have decided to go with the middle option.  The downside for both of us is things remain unsettled.  The upside is we don’t have to settle. 

And if I can say one more thing and this is more to the general audience than just you, because I don’t want to assume anything.  When I started this lifestyle I thought it was an “all or nothing” proposition.  I thought the amount of time on the road mattered, and for me at least full timing was something I wanted to conquer and win in some way.  I don’t feel that way anymore.  It is an amazing and wonderful way to live sometimes, but it is not the romantic dream that I thought it would be.  Every year in November, I take stock of the trade-offs the previous year and decide if it was worth it.  I look at what we had to do for work, the mechanical issues we had, and the pictures we took.  The pictures tell the story and every year to date, this year included, the pictures (and the corresponding experiences) have won.  Some year they might not, and that’s OK.  Personally I don’t ever want to be in a place again where I am not living my best possible life.  What that looks like depends on lots of different factors, some of which are outside of my control. So that’s why I ponder these things, and I hope I continue to challenge myself to do so 🙂 (I don’t ponder these things at all, really. For me it’s mostly about practicalities, which I see as broken things to fix, or systems or processes that need tweaking. I already feel like I’m beating the system most of the time in this lifestyle, instead of the system beating me. I sleep better than I have in 30 years, I’m more relaxed, and I just generally feel like a better person most days. I’ll take that over how I used to feel any day of the week and twice on Sunday. – Lee)

Thanks for your time and sharing your life, and family with us.

Your very welcome.  Thanks for the interest and allowing me to share my thoughts with others. 

(Write in whatever color you want. It’s good for the soul. – Lee)

Trace

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 available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

We came into this job this year full of excitement and high expectations.  For the first time we were returning to the same place (technically a different property, but the same company and manager) for a second summer, and were willing to do that because finally I had found a seasonal job that I thought might work for both of us.  The deal was that I would be the lead of 6 campgrounds, requiring a higher level skill set than previous years just cleaning toilets and picking up trash, and Lee would have a position where he wasn’t being micromanaged and had a lot of latitude and a wide variety of things to do.  We both really liked the people we were working for, and I loved the fact that the work would be done for a corporation that had rules and benefits and felt similar to the places I worked in my previous life. Plus the money is much better than almost all other work kamp gigs. It really seemed like the perfect fit.

About two weeks in we realized that it would be much harder than we originally thought.  We were faced with a mixture of about half brand new camp hosts and half an established team of veterans that were used to running the place with very little supervision, and not surprisingly they didn’t take too well to these new kids coming in from the outside with fresh ideas.  And I get it, because change is hard, but despite my best efforts to be as collaborative as possible the majority of the “veterans” fought me at every turn.  They didn’t pull any punches either.  Comments were made ( my personal favorite was “Just ignore her because once we get rid of her we will train a new lead in doing things our way”) and coalitions were formed.  About six weeks in a key couple who had been here for seven years went to our bosses and gave them the ultimatum either Lee and Tracy go or we go.  Our bosses didn’t accept their ultimatum and the couple ended up leaving within a few hours of that meeting.

Once they were gone a huge cloud lifted, it’s hard working every day in an environment where people are actively hostile towards you, and the work started in earnest.  We both focused on filling  the labor hole they left the best that we could, and worked ourselves nearly to death to make sure as little as possible slipped through the cracks.  I’m not kidding about that last part.  Lee and I have worked 6 to 7 days a week for nearly every week in the five months we have been here, and many of those were 10-12 hour days.  And it’s worth mentioning that we worked all of those hours without charging any overtime.  I did it mainly because I was beating myself up over whatever part I might have inadvertently played in their leaving, and Lee did it because he just does what needs to be done and doesn’t pay much attention to the clock.  The important part for both of us was that we kept things running well and did our best to take care of the people who remained.

Not that many of the people who were left were open to that.  The couple who left were well liked and after they were gone stayed in contact with some of the remaining folks and made sure they poisoned the well.  People who I had built a solid relationship with suddenly were cold and distant and in a couple of cases I had to face more open hostility.  Since all of this happened in the beginning of July, Lee and I had two choices.  We could leave, and we came really close at one point, or we could dig in and try to fix it.  We talked about it and decided to stay.  There were several reasons for that decision.  About half of the staff was new like us, and to a greater or lesser extent had received the same sort of treatment from the veterans.  I felt a responsibility to those people to make their season as good as I could, and didn’t like the idea of abandoning them.  I’ve also never walked away from a job in my life, and yes, after some soul searching I know that for me at least that is  not really a good thing, but I liked the people we worked for and since they had chosen us wanted to repay that by working as hard as we possibly could.

It wasn’t easy.  Along with the personnel challenges,  the campgrounds themselves were completely full almost every day during the summer and we had what everyone described as an unusually challenging season with customer incidents.  Lee and I both got to hone our crisis management skills this summer, and dealt with things we had never done in our previous lives.  Twice we had customers life-flighted out, and police and fire were called on numerous incidents.  The main operator at our company control center (who I notified whenever I called 911), knew who I was when he heard my voice, and we actually became very friendly.  He is a really nice guy.

Simultaneously, I was working to create a list of standards for the guests and our camp hosts, and spent lots of time talking through scenarios with our bosses to get their thoughts and direction.  They were generally surprised by the types of incidents I brought to their attention, which honestly surprised me because some of them seemed relatively common.  I started to understand that in the past the Leads who had run the place kept most of these incidents quiet, but since my communication style is more open we talked things through and came up with procedures instead of me just winging it.  The SOP book I started with (which was built in 2010), grew over the summer, and every day I felt my foundation getting firmer.  I knew I was taking a risk by being open about the challenges I was having (some bosses really just want you to take care of it and don’t want to be bothered), but I was looking long term and felt it was the right thing for the organization.

It was exhausting though, and really took everything that I had to give, and this is where Lee came in.  Objectively he was absolutely amazing.  He did two jobs for the rest of the summer, and importantly he allowed me to be in two places at once.  His focus was always on giving the camp hosts what they needed, and he didn’t care what that entailed, as long as he was helping. He was part security, part traffic cop, part bathroom cleaner, and part maintenance man.  And in the middle of all that he found time to design the inside of the new workshop, taking an empty shell and turning it into an organized and efficient work space. And he wasn’t the only person who stepped up.  Other team members saw that we needed help and stepped in wherever they could. Not everyone of course, we still had some holdouts, but most of the people recognized that we were trying and helped us in return.

Despite many people feeling that we had turned a corner, I still felt uneasy.  I knew I was doing the right thing, and I knew we would leave this place better than we found it, but I didn’t feel secure in my position.  I still felt as if I was on trial, and although part of me understood why, I never felt comfortable.  Nothing short of my bosses looking me in the eye and saying “You did a good job and we want you back” was going to make me feel secure even though lots of people were telling me things like, “They would be crazy not to have you back.”

Finally the rush of the season ended and we started to make preparations to close down the campgrounds.  I was pretty nervous about this because the only guy who knew exactly what to do had left earlier in the season, so I spent a ton of time interviewing people and putting that information into End of Season checklists.  One of the campgrounds closed early, on Labor Day, because it is being remodeled over the winter, and then two weeks later three more closed. Since three campgrounds closed on the same day, I had three distinct teams working in three locations, and thankfully it all went off without a hitch.  Camphosts started leaving, and I was pleased that most said they wanted to come back, which is the ultimate referendum on the job I did.  I also found some space to breathe, and started putting together some end of season documents and scheduled a meeting with our bosses to review the season.

Finally, I was in my wheelhouse, and had the time and energy to apply to the project.  The first thing I did was to put together a season timeline because I needed some context to talk about the season.  I went back through all of the incident reports and my weekly summaries and my HIGH level timeline was three pages long.  No kidding, this was super high level, but we had that many major incidents.  And what became clear, which I really didn’t realize at the time, is how many of these incidents happened in batches.  For example in one weekend I had the horse fall off the cliff, a camp host break her ankle, and a major customer incident.  By any objective measure that is a lot of stuff.

Once I finished the timeline I started to work on my recommendations and ended up with four pages of those.  Many of the items I had already been talking about through the season, but I organized the thoughts and put them together into categories.  Finally I put together a plan to ensure that going forward our bosses would never get stuck if any couple left mid-season.  Prior to my coming up here, folks mainly had their own lane and guarded their individual knowledge pretty zealously.  My plan was to document everything, cross train as many people as possible, and have backups for every position including my own.  I viewed it as a football team, where we would have depth at every position.  The idea being if one man goes down someone else steps into their place.  I know that is hardly an original concept, but it is not the way things worked up here, and I felt really good about making sure that no going forward there wouldn’t be a single point of failure. Once I was ready I scheduled my end of year review.

There was one interesting wrinkle to this meeting though, because Lee wanted to come.  It made sense because we had been acting as a team all season long, and as my boss said I was just going to tell him what happened anyway.  But this was uncharted territory for us and we had several conversations prior to the meeting to make sure we were on the same page.  Essentially he loved his job and I thought it could be a good job for me, but I needed assurance on a few things before I was willing to commit.  They weren’t really anything outrageous, by the way.  I wanted a commitment on cross-training and not having a single point of failure.  I needed assurance that we would all be trained on the companies code of ethics and violations would be dealt with quickly and decisively.  And finally I wanted to talk through all the returning personnel and have some input into what positions they would be placed in.  Lee and I felt very strongly that with the right mix of people we could build a very solid team and we wanted the placement decisions to be based on skill set rather than years of service.

That last one was admittedly a little tricky and I was prepared to get some push back there.  To be clear, I am a person who thinks years of service matters, all things being equal, but I don’t think it’s OK when folks rest on their laurels just because they have seniority.  That may be an unpopular opinion, but for me it’s about what is fair.  Anyway, we went into the meeting and it started out really great.  Not only had they read my recommendations, but they marked them up with comments and I saw a ton of “I agree”.  That made me feel really good, although an hour in I had to shift the conversation to talking about next year.  Again they mostly agreed with our thoughts, but towards the end one of the bosses stopped us and said, “I need to throw a bombshell in here.”  I went from pretty relaxed to alert in an instant, and he basically said that I had shown how challenging the job was, and because of that they had decided that the best thing to do was hire a permanent full time employee for next year.  They felt it would solve most of the problems if they had a permanent staff member running the lake and they had some additional tasks in the off season they could have that person do to round out the full year.

It was an interesting moment for me, because from a strictly business sense I thought it was a good solution.  But I also realized that I had basically talked myself out of a job.  By being so open about the challenges, I had impressed upon them the need for a strong manager, and his natural conclusion was to hire a full time person to do that work.  He stressed several times what a terrific job he thought I had done, even going so far as to say that given the circumstances I was the best lead they had ever had, and that he couldn’t think of anyone who could have done a better job.  My other boss even said that they wanted us back, and in whatever capacity we wanted.  My natural reaction was to say very little and try to absorb what had just happened.  It’s been a long time since I was caught off guard like that in a meeting and I was very quickly running through the different scenarios.

Lee, on the other hand, had a very different reaction.  He was mad.  Don’t get me wrong, he did a great job of locking it down, and it didn’t show as far as they were concerned, but when you have been married to someone for 30 years you know when they are upset.  He started to talk it through with them and I started to get uncomfortable.  My  lizard brain impulse was to flee, and I just wanted to get out of there and find a quiet space to think it through.  Lee’s impulse was to fight for the jobs we wanted, and he gave it a try.  He talked about whether I could do the winter activities remotely (this company has pretty strict policies on remote workers), what his job would look like with a new unknown boss (they seemed genuinely confused about the issue until I reminded them that Lee had been pretty clear about not being interested in being micromanaged), and why it was necessary at all.  One of our bosses seemed surprised by his reaction (the other one knows us better and was not), and eventually they turned to me.

I decided in that moment I should just be honest.  I was polite, I was respectful, but I also didn’t worry so much about my future with the company.  It wasn’t lost on me that they didn’t even ask if I would be interested in coming off the road and applying for the position, and it was equally clear to me that they wanted to have access to my skill set but in a seasonal appropriate role.  Again, the logical business side of my brain totally got that, but the other part of me felt very sad.  And it was difficult for me to really talk through it, because more than anything else I had just gotten the answer to a question I had been praying to receive.  Basically what I said was I took the job because I wanted to see if it was possible to have a seasonal job that had some of the elements of what I loved about my jobs in the past. I said I appreciated his honesty very much (I truly do), because he handed me the answer I was looking for, it was just unfortunate the answer was “No”.   I elaborated that I didn’t quit my job because I hated it, but rather took the buyout because I wanted to simplify my life.  It had been a rough season, but we had worked so hard and stuck it out because we both wanted to show them what we could do, and we were very interested in having a long term summer gig.  And my long term goal was to take my skill set and find ways to help them in a larger way.  I knew that would require us thinking outside of the “seasonal box”, but felt that over time I could really provide them with a ton of value.

At that point he seemed… well surprised.  And I think that, more than anything else, really bummed me out.  I think he really thought I would be fine with it.  And here’s the thing; it’s a really good offer.  They are paying $18 an hour next year, which is an incredibly high wage in the work camping world, especially for a job with full hookups.  A year ago we probably would have jumped at the chance and it might have even kept us happy for a few years.  He tried three more times in that conversation to sell me on the position, stressing that I could still work on all the types of special projects that I liked and the job would be what I made of it. He really didn’t seem to realize that he had given us both something very valuable to us, and was now taking it away.   Finally I said that Lee and I both needed to time to process and we could talk again when he got back from his vacation.

We talked a ton about it on the way home and well into the evening.  For a variety of reasons we just didn’t feel like it would be the right thing for us, but we decided to sleep on it and see how we felt in the morning. Here’s what I woke up with.  There is a scene in Pretty Woman where Richard Gere offers Julia Roberts an apartment, and and lots of money to live with him, and her response is “I know.  It’s a really good offer for a girl like me.”  If you watch the clip, look at her face. That’s how I felt in that meeting.

The character, Vivian, goes on to say. “You made me a really nice offer. And a few months ago, no problem. But now everything is different, and you’ve changed that. And you can’t change back. I want more.”  That’s what I woke up with.  That’s how that moment made me feel.

As I often say, we went to a lot of trouble to change our life.  It’s been scary and painful and amazing and beautiful.  We wanted to explore new places, experience new things, and have more freedom.  After four years both of us were willing to give up a fair amount of that freedom for some stability, to find a place where we were valued and frankly not treated as second class citizens because we were seasonal.   We had a taste of what that could look like here, and as Vivian says, I want the fairy tale.  And it’s really OK if it doesn’t exist.  The journey to find it is the important thing, and I’m just not ready to settle.

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 available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

We survived Labor Day weekend at Timothy Lake and thankfully it was a bit anticlimactic.  We were all just fine with that, because we have certainly had our share of tough weekends and were all a little relieved when the cool temperatures and fire bans contributed to keep things relatively quiet.  Right after the weekend my girls got together (for the first time since my youngest graduated from high school in 2014) with my Mom in Myrtle Beach.  Originally when I found out they were gathering I looked into flights to meet them all out there, but with the holiday weekend and everything else that has been going on I decided to give it a pass.  Mom took a picture for me in the airport and I thought I would share it here.  My girls all have really different personalities, but also a sameness that defines them as “Perkins Girls”.

From left: Kay (K3), Kat (K2), and Kyrston (K1).  My babies!

The nicest thing about that get together was when my Mom sent me a text and said they were all perfect houseguests and I did a good job with them.  Nothing is much better than your Mom telling you that you raised your kids right, and that text had me smiling for hours!

We didn’t have too much time to be sad though, because we had a couple of visitors.  Rick, who writes the blog On The Road with Maxine and Me, came from his volunteer job at Heceta Head Lighthouse to spend the night with us.  He, like our friend Brian, brought a tent, and we had a lovely time getting caught up and eating a big steak dinner.

Rick didn’t need any help with his tent

And he brought us a present of one of his favorite regional specialties. We all travel with something from home and he wanted Lee to try his favorite mustard.

Jim and Diana Belisle had turned him onto cherry salsa so he wanted to share some of that with us as well.

ummmm ribeye

And he made this beautiful pecan cheesecake. Rick is an amazing cook

As fun as it was when he was here unfortunately the visit was frequently interrupted by a power issue at the park. When you live and work in a place it’s hard to be completely “unplugged”, especially when someone cuts a power line close by and you lose power.  We’ve known from the beginning of the season that we were going to be losing power in early September due to the dam project that is going on close by, but there were some unexpected issues on Weds and Thursday which resulting in losing our power a day early (and with two hours notice) and we were scrambling to figure some things out.  Rick left pretty early to go see his daughter in Olympia on Thursday morning and I spent the rest of the day making sure everyone had what they needed and dealing with the items in the freezer that we suddenly had to find room for.

The big problem was we were supposed to have a large generator to run the office compound during the outage, but a delay in permitting made that a no-go and we worked with the head of maintenance to throw together a schedule.  Ultimately of course we worked everything out, but I was exhausted by the end of the day and my week was just starting and I was just praying that it was a slow weekend.

Turns out the cooler temps really kept people away, although Saturday was nice and sunny.  Which was a good thing because our friends Georgia and Jim made the drive up from Eugene, Oregon and had dinner with us.  Three and a half hours is a long way to drive to have dinner with friends, but when you’ve known people for almost 15 years it’s worth it.  Once again we had some steaks (had to get that freezer meat eaten) and Georgia told us in all the time she had known us she had never had one of our famous ribeye dinners.  That surprised the heck out of us, and we were happy to show them what all the fuss is about.

Georgia and Jim with Lee using a gator as a fourth chair

This cracked me up

Georgia was VERY happy with the meal

It was lovely seeing them, and equally great that for the first Saturday in forever the lake-wide radio was quiet.  We had a relaxing meal, and a wonderful chat until 9pm when they needed to head back.  Things are finally winding down here, and I couldn’t be happier.  We are all pretty tired and need a bit of a break before we gear up for the final closing push.  There is a fall chill in the air, which we are both enjoying, and we actually saw a little bit of rain this morning for the first time since the end of April.

Foggy morning at Timothy Lake

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 available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

When our youngest daughter told us that her return flight from her deployment to Korea back to DC had a layover in Seattle we knew we had to go.  The fact that it was in Seattle encouraged us to extend the trip an extra day because this is one of the few major US cities that I have never been to.  Lee went a couple of times when he was a kid, but I had never been and going to Pike Place was a long-time bucket list item of mine.  Originally we thought we would just have a few hours at the airport with her, but when she made arrangements to extend her layover overnight, we immediately added a third day.

Part of our stress over the issue we had with the truck was how we would make the trip, but that actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  Seattle is not really big truck friendly and the Pike Place area is really not so.  But we had a small rental car and were able to find parking right near the marketplace, which was pricey ($30), but worth it. Turns out the market is really numerous converted buildings and we both found it really confusing.  I had images in my head of guys throwing fish and shops along a wharf area, but the market place we went to was more of an old warehouse district and it took us a long time before we found what I would consider the heart of the marketplace.

No way would we get the F350 in here.  The black Ford was our rental.

This sign made it look easy, but it wasn’t 🙂

The shops were all along the road and inside numerous buildings

I recognized the ferris wheel from Grey’s Anatomy but it was across the freeway and in a different area

The terraced apartments were pretty neat.

We finally made it into one building which reminded me of the Colony Mill back in Keene. It was a repurposed old building with lots of stairs, weird partial floors, and narrow hallways.

I did get excited when we saw our first fish stands and the selection was pretty amazing

Turns out they have halibut in Oregon. I didn’t know that until recently

The flower stands were really beautiful and what I pictured

And through sheer dumb luck we stumbled upon the iconic golden pig

Finally we saw this sign and I knew we were getting close

And we saw this old fish market. The line was long and we were both starving so we decided to give it a try

We both got the halibut which was ok, but nothing nearly as good as what we had in Alaska

Plus by this time the place was packed

I know people love this, my mother-in-law DeDe went everyday when she was in Seattle, but personally I felt a little assaulted.  Part of that is we have been living in a really isolated place all summer, but it is loud, expensive, and for me at least, claustrophobic.  I am glad I got to experience it once in my life, but I wouldn’t be in a big rush to go again and since this was a Weds in the afternoon I shudder to think what the weekend would be like.

We did find some cool stores though. This chinese grocery store had trainer chopsticks

And Lee who struggles using them bought himself a starter pair

We saw a gorgeous fish are with beautiful crab legs

A neat used book store

A magic shop Lee spent some time in

And even a collectible coin shop. You rarely see these anymore

After a couple of hours though I just felt like I needed to leave and we headed back towards the airport and our hotel.  We took a wrong turn which turned out to be pretty awesome because I got a closeup view of the Seattle Seahawks football stadium.

Really though we were both excited about seeing our kid.  We looked everywhere for a hotel room near the airport that had two bedrooms and a separate sitting area in our price range and finally found one near an Amazon distribution center that we could afford.  At $350 for two days it still wasn’t cheap but it had what we needed and more importantly would give our daughter a room all to herself.  We knew she would be seriously jet lagged coming in and since she had changed her travel plans for us it was the least we could do.

It has a small kitchen, bedroom and bath upstairs

And a small living room, bed and bath downstairs

Oh and a bathtub which I used to take what I think was my first bath in over a year.

The next morning we waited anxiously to get the text she had landed and then headed to the cell phone lot.  She had to go through customs (which went really fast) and then we had to find her but there she was!

We whisked her right back to the hotel, where we learned she hadn’t slept in 24 hours, but she was determined to power through and ultimately made it 36 hours so she could spend time with us.

Kay and her Dad

He gave her a big hug and then pulled out her hair tie which made her laugh because he used to do it to all of our daughters when they were little.

She even let us take a few pictures of her 🙂

It was a wonderful night with our kid and made the trip so worth it and I even learned how to use Pokemon GO and Snap Chat.  I’m always behind in the latest apps and they catch me up when they see me, so now as we travel I can catch the Pokemon, which is a little like geocaching for the younger crowd.  Love my girl and loved my time with her, so happy that it all worked out so well.

My snapchat icon which is actually a pretty cool app

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 available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.