Well, we are winding up our contract with the Corps of Engineers here in Georgia. Our campground closes the day after Labor Day which is tomorrow. Wednesday we have "debriefing" and a picnic put on by our ranger. We have worked for Linda for the last 2 years, either in a volunteer capacity or as a contractor. We have certainly enjoyed being here, spending a lot of time with our families, but it is time to move on.
Our next gig is in Texas, between San Antonio and New Braunfels. We were awarded the contract for Crane's Mill Campground on Canyon Lake, another Corps of Engineers project. We were delighted to get this position as we have discovered finding workamper jobs in warm weather places in the winter is a bit harder than summer jobs. There are a lot of workampers wanting the same thing and a lot fewer jobs to be had! Next time I will start looking in April for the following winter.
Our contract in Texas is for six months, October through March, 2011. We are sooooooo looking forward to being able to ride our Harleys this winter. Georgia's last 2 winters have been way too cold for riding and this summer was very hot. We did get some riding in but not as much as we would like!
We have long term friends in the Austin and Dallas areas. We look forward to spending time with each of them! We will be in a new area of the country with lots of stuff to explore. While we have spent a few vacations in San Antonio, we have just scratched the surface of things to see and do there. And we have never seen the Riverwalk at Christmas which I've heard is very beautiful. Then there is the "hill country" part of Texas with great riding roads. So we are very excited about our next adventure!
We will be heading to Bella Vista to do the doctor/dentist appointments and we hope to be set up in Texas by the 25th of September and be running the park by the 1st of October! Stay tuned for updates as they become available.......
Showing posts with label Retirement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Retirement. Show all posts
Monday, September 6, 2010
Monday, December 28, 2009
What's Next in 2010!!!
We have decided to take our first "paying" job since being on the road. Until now, we have been "volunteers" for the Corps of Engineers at Lake Allatoona in Georgia. Volunteers get their site for free in exchange for various duties such as surveillance for closed campgrounds or opening and closing gates for boat ramps and Day Use Areas. Campground "hosts" are required to bid on these jobs and if your bid is accepted you become contractors for the government. This entails a lot of rigmarole since it is the government you are dealing with!
We have started the process of getting our Dun and Bradstreet number as we are considered a business now. After you receive your D&B number, you are ready to register with CCR.gov. All of the information you provide D&B must be exactly how you register with CCR, down to the last dot or dash. I was very careful when talking to the D&B rep, going so far as to spell out our street address. I said "Oak Hills Dr." and he asked me to spell it. I did! "O-A-K- new word H-I-L-L-S Dr." Imagine my surprise when I pulled up our account and our address read "Oak New Word Hills Dr." I was laughing so hard I couldn't tell Bob what was so funny. Talk about doing your job on automatic pilot! Duh!
Well, if we can get all the "stuff" done, pass our background checks and get bonded, we have the positions of campground hosts for Clark Creek North Campground. We chose this park as it is small, only 24 sites. (Some parks have 200 sites) We are just getting our feet wet so we wanted to make it easy on ourselves. We have another couple who will share the duties, 4 days on and 4 days off. The gatehouse must be manned (or woman'ed) from 7 AM to 10;30 PM. The reservation system as well as the check-in process is all computerized which should make it easier. And how hard can it be to register 24 sites? We have camped at some of the other big campgrounds here on the lake and those "hosts" work their tails off! They are so busy they have 4 huge lanes for RVs to line up while waiting to register. We don't want the pressure! Hey, I'm looking forward to the days we are full and I can put my feet up and relax. (If our ranger, Linda, is reading this, I'm only kidding)
We are required to make rounds to ensure all the rules and regulations are being followed and actually have some clout if things are not as they should be. Stay tuned for updates on how it goes.
It may be that we will decide this is not for us but we have to give it a try! The contract is only 4 months, May thru Labor Day, and I figure we can do anything for 4 months. We will be back in Arkansas in March to see the doctors, dentists, etc. and then head back here for training. So we know where and what we will be doing through September 8th, 2010 but after that who knows where our travels will take us?? That is the beauty of this life.
We have started the process of getting our Dun and Bradstreet number as we are considered a business now. After you receive your D&B number, you are ready to register with CCR.gov. All of the information you provide D&B must be exactly how you register with CCR, down to the last dot or dash. I was very careful when talking to the D&B rep, going so far as to spell out our street address. I said "Oak Hills Dr." and he asked me to spell it. I did! "O-A-K- new word H-I-L-L-S Dr." Imagine my surprise when I pulled up our account and our address read "Oak New Word Hills Dr." I was laughing so hard I couldn't tell Bob what was so funny. Talk about doing your job on automatic pilot! Duh!
Well, if we can get all the "stuff" done, pass our background checks and get bonded, we have the positions of campground hosts for Clark Creek North Campground. We chose this park as it is small, only 24 sites. (Some parks have 200 sites) We are just getting our feet wet so we wanted to make it easy on ourselves. We have another couple who will share the duties, 4 days on and 4 days off. The gatehouse must be manned (or woman'ed) from 7 AM to 10;30 PM. The reservation system as well as the check-in process is all computerized which should make it easier. And how hard can it be to register 24 sites? We have camped at some of the other big campgrounds here on the lake and those "hosts" work their tails off! They are so busy they have 4 huge lanes for RVs to line up while waiting to register. We don't want the pressure! Hey, I'm looking forward to the days we are full and I can put my feet up and relax. (If our ranger, Linda, is reading this, I'm only kidding)
We are required to make rounds to ensure all the rules and regulations are being followed and actually have some clout if things are not as they should be. Stay tuned for updates on how it goes.
It may be that we will decide this is not for us but we have to give it a try! The contract is only 4 months, May thru Labor Day, and I figure we can do anything for 4 months. We will be back in Arkansas in March to see the doctors, dentists, etc. and then head back here for training. So we know where and what we will be doing through September 8th, 2010 but after that who knows where our travels will take us?? That is the beauty of this life.
Monday, October 5, 2009
New Lease on Life!
Hello to all. It has been 8 months since my last post and it is difficult to know where to start. Rather than go through all the details, I will summarize very briefly the reason for my absence from here.
I was diagnosed with colon cancer in March and had the surgery. If you have to have cancer, this is the best outcome possible. It was only stage 2, no lymph nodes were involved and so I did not need chemo or radiation. How blessed am I!!!!! And I only tell you all this so I can say the following: if you have not had a colonoscopy and you are over 50, run to your doctor now. If I had had my colonoscopy when I should have, we would not be having this discussion. If colon cancer runs in your family, it is even more important. My Grandfather had it in the 1950's but no one remembered it until my diagnosis!
Anyway, we had gone back to Arkansas to see all our doctors, etc so I had the surgery there and we spent the rest of the spring and summer recovering. I am back to normal (or as normal as I've ever been) and ready to get on with our lives.
Bob has been incredible during this very trying time. He was my sole caregiver for quite a few months and my love. Our biggest decision was what to do next with our lives! After much discussion and soul searching, we decided to carry on as originally planned with one exception. We decided to enroll in Cobra for insurance when ours ran out in August. We had planned to take our chances and self insure due to the cost of Cobra but after the surgery bills started coming in we realized it is a bargain compared to the actual cost of health care. So we are good for 18 months and by then there will be options that President Obama is working on right now! I can hear you all laughing but it could happen.........
So we have commenced with the rest of our adventure. We came back to Georgia for the winter and are "volunteering" at Lake Allatoona, Sweetwater Campground in Canton. The campground closed on Labor Day so we are here just for surveillance purposes. We are on duty 4 days and off 4 days. The work days consist of making the rounds of the 151 camp sites. Round trip from our site around the park and back is 5 miles under normal circumstances. Unfortunately most of the park is inaccessible due to the lake spilling over much of the roads and sites. You may have heard of the flooding in Atlanta about 10 days ago. It has been quite an experience and photos will follow. They are predicting a very cold winter here and last year they broke all kinds of records with the temperature so we are bracing ourselves. Our family is petitioning us not to come back for a third winter!
I was diagnosed with colon cancer in March and had the surgery. If you have to have cancer, this is the best outcome possible. It was only stage 2, no lymph nodes were involved and so I did not need chemo or radiation. How blessed am I!!!!! And I only tell you all this so I can say the following: if you have not had a colonoscopy and you are over 50, run to your doctor now. If I had had my colonoscopy when I should have, we would not be having this discussion. If colon cancer runs in your family, it is even more important. My Grandfather had it in the 1950's but no one remembered it until my diagnosis!
Anyway, we had gone back to Arkansas to see all our doctors, etc so I had the surgery there and we spent the rest of the spring and summer recovering. I am back to normal (or as normal as I've ever been) and ready to get on with our lives.
Bob has been incredible during this very trying time. He was my sole caregiver for quite a few months and my love. Our biggest decision was what to do next with our lives! After much discussion and soul searching, we decided to carry on as originally planned with one exception. We decided to enroll in Cobra for insurance when ours ran out in August. We had planned to take our chances and self insure due to the cost of Cobra but after the surgery bills started coming in we realized it is a bargain compared to the actual cost of health care. So we are good for 18 months and by then there will be options that President Obama is working on right now! I can hear you all laughing but it could happen.........
So we have commenced with the rest of our adventure. We came back to Georgia for the winter and are "volunteering" at Lake Allatoona, Sweetwater Campground in Canton. The campground closed on Labor Day so we are here just for surveillance purposes. We are on duty 4 days and off 4 days. The work days consist of making the rounds of the 151 camp sites. Round trip from our site around the park and back is 5 miles under normal circumstances. Unfortunately most of the park is inaccessible due to the lake spilling over much of the roads and sites. You may have heard of the flooding in Atlanta about 10 days ago. It has been quite an experience and photos will follow. They are predicting a very cold winter here and last year they broke all kinds of records with the temperature so we are bracing ourselves. Our family is petitioning us not to come back for a third winter!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Well, here we are nearly two weeks into Bob's retirement! It is zooming by. There is alot of adjusting to do and we are working on that. Moving in to the RV and retirement so close together has made for some interesting days and nights, to say the least. Our biggest hurdle is remembering where we stowed certain items. We spend considerable time just looking for things especially now that we are getting ready to ride to Milwaukee.
Campground life is like any other little community. Most people are very friendly and happy to share their experiences full-timing in an RV. And everyone has their own take on how to decide where your state of residence should be! Ultimately, everyone has to decide what is best for their situation as there are alot of factors to consider. When we have made our decision I will report back.
One fun thing here at Blowing Springs is Happy Hour! At 4:30 every afternoon, we meet at the pavilion for fellowship and libations. So far, Bob has attended on a regular basis! I know you all are surprised at that.......
Our next big hurdle to clear will be weighing the rig before we get on the road to Georgia. Every RV has a maximum gross vehicle weight rating. To be safe you should pay attention to this! Since we have loaded our "stuff" in here, we have no idea what we weigh fully loaded with the Harleys, water, etc. We will be taking the rig to be weighed at a truck stop in a few weeks. In my mind, I have this picture of things being flung out the doors and windows when we discover we are too heavy! Hopefully, we won't need to do that. If we filled up all the storage that we have in here, we certainly would be over and that is hard not to do. Maybe we'll be way under and I can get some "stuff" out of storage but I doubt it.
I'll report on our trip to Milwaukee when we get back after Labor Day.
Campground life is like any other little community. Most people are very friendly and happy to share their experiences full-timing in an RV. And everyone has their own take on how to decide where your state of residence should be! Ultimately, everyone has to decide what is best for their situation as there are alot of factors to consider. When we have made our decision I will report back.
One fun thing here at Blowing Springs is Happy Hour! At 4:30 every afternoon, we meet at the pavilion for fellowship and libations. So far, Bob has attended on a regular basis! I know you all are surprised at that.......
Our next big hurdle to clear will be weighing the rig before we get on the road to Georgia. Every RV has a maximum gross vehicle weight rating. To be safe you should pay attention to this! Since we have loaded our "stuff" in here, we have no idea what we weigh fully loaded with the Harleys, water, etc. We will be taking the rig to be weighed at a truck stop in a few weeks. In my mind, I have this picture of things being flung out the doors and windows when we discover we are too heavy! Hopefully, we won't need to do that. If we filled up all the storage that we have in here, we certainly would be over and that is hard not to do. Maybe we'll be way under and I can get some "stuff" out of storage but I doubt it.
I'll report on our trip to Milwaukee when we get back after Labor Day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)