Camp Hosting at Bolding Mill COE

Over the years, Barbara and I have spoken to many fellow RVers who have taken on camp hosting duties. Their reasons vary from wanting to earn some extra money while on the road, to wanting to save on campground fees by staying in one place for an extended period of time, wanting to visit a particular area or enjoy a particular campground, or like us, to be able to spend time in an area for family reasons.

Camp hosting, or work camping, usually entails doing simple chores around the campground, like cleaning bathrooms, policing campsites when people check out, performing simple maintenance functions, or working in the campground office. It all depends on the campground and the contract being agreed to. All get you a free camp site for the duration of your contract; some pay a minimal stipend for hours worked. All with have a number of days and hours per day expected of you to work.

In our particular case working for Hall County, GA, who has a contract to manage a few Corps of Engineers campgrounds on Lake Lanier, we get a free camp site that has full hookups including sewer, which is not usually available in COE campgrounds, but no addition stipend. We have four days on duty and four days off, with a maximum of four hours per day we're expected to work. So it works out to be a maximum of 16 hours of work every 8 days on average. Frankly, that's a really nice deal, especially on a lake park with sewer hookups.

Our duties thus far are:

• Deep clean the two bath houses once every weekend day, with a cursory clean on a weekend early evening

• Cursory clean the bath houses on Tuesday-Thursday (deep clean if needed). The maintenance guy (Antonio) deep cleans the bath houses on Friday and Monday before and after each weekend as part of his regular duties.

• Once the busy summer season is in full swing, we'll be expected to deep clean them every day and a cursory clean each early evening.

• After Sunday checkout time, we check each camp site for trash left, or things left in the fire rings that don't belong there.

• I've taken to adopting the dump station as my own, as I have always hated a dirty dump station (especially after a rain) when you can't help but track in mud after dumping your tanks. So I sweep or blow the dirt and pine straw off to the side.

We're also expected to serve as camp ambassadors, walking or driving the park in the provided Kubota work vehicle, stopping by camp sites to say “Hi” and ask how their stay is going, and offer help if needed. Sometimes we gently counsel the occasional violator of a camp rule. If we don't enforce the COE rules, the county might lose their contract if the park ranger sees we're not doing our job.

I personally love the camp ambassador part of the job, and do it even on days I'm supposed to be off. The walk is good for my physical health and the socialization is good for my mental health.

Do we miss the road sometimes? Sure. We had a very nice summer vacation planned for Jace this year, hitting some western states we hadn't visited yet, but there's always next year. We've already been able to attend Jace's school's field day, and watched him expend a ton of energy on some pretty frenetic indoor games. Barbara gets some additional William Oliver time when Alicia needs some help with him, and we're available to take her to and from doctor's appointments until she's able to drive on her own again.

Cleaning the campground bathrooms (there are two of them at Bolding Mill) isn't so bad – yet. We fully expect them to be in worse shape as the park becomes full during the summer months, but for the most part, they've been pretty clean during our daily visits.

As for the campsites being vacated, we get a list from the office and check out each one after checkout time to make sure they're ready for the next occupant. I have yet to figure out why some people think the fire rings on each site are trash receptacles. Or that you're supposed to make sure the coals in them are completely out before leaving.

 

47 camp sites vacated on a Sunday afternoon. This is the trash take from all 47 of them. Some people are pigs. Just sayin'.

And why do people think they can just toss used teeth flossing instruments on the ground instead of in a trash bag? What's up with that?

Anyway, with just a couple of exceptions, sites have been left in pretty good condition for the next camper.

I'm sure we'll be chomping at the bit come January to get back on the road to a warmer destination, but we've committed to the first week of January to get Jace back into school after his winter break is over. They'll be some blog posts regarding day trips on which we'll be taking Jace, and of course updates concerning William Oliver. This will also be the first year we will not be taking the motorhome up to New England to see friends and family, breaking a four year tradition; thus proving that the only constant in life is change.

More to come.

Catching Up With May Travel

Lot's of travel, just not in the motorhome.

Usually, I'm writing about some destination in a state we've never visited before, or an interesting spot we think you should try out for yourselves, but this May brings a mixture of joy and sadness in the Richard family. In the span of three weeks time, Barbara and I will drive from our home base of Gainesville, Georgia down to Ocala, Florida for a weekend wedding of our last nephew, head back to Gainesville for a couple of days of rest, then drive 1,100 miles to Massachusetts to say a final goodbye to my father who passed away in late April, then rush back to Georgia for the birth of our second grandson!

Every mile done in our Jeep Cherokee.

Yeah, no RV. Strange beds. No comfortable captain's chairs to ride in.

Now, could we have done this travel in our Class A? Sure. And we had earlier intended to do the Florida portion of this travel doing just that. But our nice cozy and comfortable camp hosting spot at Bolding Mill COE, where we are nestled between and under tall pine trees with a lake view and including full hookups, was just too good a spot to be leaving and backing into for just a couple of days stay in Ocala, Florida.

The wedding was very nice, the room accommodations at the Howard Johnson – not so much. We ended up leaving a day early.

 

Me, Barbara and Kristen at the wedding

Our next travel was slated for a couple of days later; a scheduled two-day drive to Massachusetts for the memorial service for my father, and again, it was determined to be better handled in the Jeep than in the motorhome for a number of reasons. One, we could do the 1,100 miles in two days in the car, where it would have taken three days in the RV due to the slower speed I drive in the RV. Two, there are no campgrounds near the location of the church service and the friends and family we would need and want to see. And three, the cost of gas in the northeast made it cheaper to drive the Jeep and get a deal on a hotel than to pay for the campgrounds we'd need to use and the much lower miles per gallon cost of fuel for the RV. So time, money and convenience worked against us in taking the motorhome up north this trip.

We'd also have an additional passenger in the Jeep; our oldest daughter Kristen, who would be able to help out with driving duties (yay!) but would also be staying in our hotel room (boo!).

Oh, and for those Grover fans out there, he would be staying with our younger daughter, Alicia, and our grandson, Jace, back in Georgia, getting spoiled rotten as usual while she waited to deliver our next grandson. So Grover was just fine, thank you, while we were gone.

The memorial service for my Dad was quiet and reserved, as befitted his nature and his wishes, and his ashes were interred next to my Mom's in the church's memorial garden. He had almost 95 years on this earth, 94 of them pretty good years, so he owed no one anything. It was great seeing friends and family who took the time to come out in support and love.

The Hampton Inn Billerica /Bedford where we stayed was top-notch, with a very spacious room and a great breakfast every morning. While staying up there we were able to check off our Massachusetts meal destinations for Chinese food, seafood and roast beef sandwiches before having to head back South.

 

At the Wu Loon Ming. Cousin Gary and wife Lisa up front, Kristen and sister-in-law Tracey next, Barbara and I after that, and brother Doug all the way in back.

Due to an emergency in Kristen's boyfriend's family in the middle of our drive day back, we decided to forego the overnight stop in a hotel and push through for a single-day drive, doing the 1,100 miles in 18 hours and 45 minutes. Fortunately, I tend to wake up around midnight after 3-5 hours of sleep, so we had gotten on the road early enough to finish the day's drive to Georgia while it was still light outside.

Two days later, William Oliver Ashley made his grand entrance into the world. Now, the delicate balance of helping Jace bond with his new baby brother while giving him the one-on-one attention he needs begins. As always, he'll be spending a lot of time with us in the RV for his summer break, but no big trip to far away destinations this year so that he can be at home with his brother. We'll see how THAT goes . . .

 

Barbara's grandmaternal instincts have already kicked into high gear concerning William Oliver!

Coming up next month – The Joys of Camp Hosting!