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.