Well, here it is 2012. This month I thought I would start back to when we decided to become gypsies and do a little review about what we have been up to so far. We've been asked "what the heck made you decide to do this"? Well, 10-12 years ago we started to talk about how great it would be to take off in the motor home and travel. Over the years we have spent our vacations traveling this wonderful country of ours. We have seen so many great things and have been able to meet many different and interesting people. We've talked to scores of people already full timing on the road. We talked, asked questions, bought books and even read some of them (Holly reads the ones with the big words and explains them to me).
After all of this we started to talk about work camping. We both knew that we wouldn't be happy just sitting home and doing nothing. Work camping is where you work a set number of hours or days per week for a full hookup site. The amount of time that you work can vary from 20-40 hours per week. We knew we didn't want to work more than 20-24 hours per week, which would give us time to explore and enjoy the area we were working in. I will say that when we volunteered at the two lighthouses, we worked 5 days per week but we enjoyed it so much that it didn't seem like work. Over the years we started with a 13-foot trailer with no toilet and an ice box. Then we went up to a 17-foot trailer with a toilet and a refrigerator and 3 kids. In 1986 we bought our first Honey, That was a 26-foot Honey, Class C motor home. That little motor home made trips to Seattle, Washington; Bar Harbor, Maine; Miami, Florida and several areas in the western states with the 3 kids.
In 2000 we bought our first Class A motor home. It had a fridge, stove, oven, shower, toilet, a lot of storage, two slide outs and no kids. After a few years we realized that it didn't have the storage that we wanted along with a few other things we felt we would like. We decided if we were going to live the life style we planned, we were going to have to go shopping again. In 2006 we found THE ONE. It had everything that we were looking for plus a fireplace and no kids. As soon as we walked into it we knew that this would be the one we could live in. Krista called it our rolling condo when we brought it home. We traveled some more and talked some more and then the big day came. At the end of June 2011 we both retired.
Our first volunteer position was at North Pier Head Lighthouse in Ludington, MI. We have visited many different lighthouses in our travels and thought this would be a great way to start our adventures. We spent a week as volunteer lighthouse keepers. We shared our duties with three bright and wonderful women. We didn't use our motor home for this due to fact that housing was provided by the lighthouse keepers association. We had a great time, made new friends and met people from all over the world.
Our next position was as lighthouse keepers at 40-Mile-Point Lighthouse on Lake Huron by Rogers City, MI. At this lighthouse, the association provided a full hookup RV site for the keepers to park their camping units. There were three other couples that we worked with. We had a campfire most nights and had a chance to sit around and get to know everyone and enjoy the evening on the shore of Lake Huron. We volunteered here for two weeks. The lighthouse was closed on Mondays and we had one other day off per week.
This gave us time to explore the area and visit other lighthouses that we had not been to before. We also had a chance to go up to Mackinac City, take a tour of the retired Coast Guard Icebreaker Mackinaw. It was a lot nicer then the icebreaker that I was on in Alaska but it was also newer. It did bring back some memories, especially when we got down to the engine room. Oh, we also made it to the casino a couple times to make our contributions to the Native American College Fund!
After we left 40-Mile-Point we went to Traverse City State Park to relax and meet our friends Jack and Lynn. They both recently retired, too. They drove their motor home up from Florida to visit family and friends. We spent 5 days doing the wine tour thing and just sitting around and catching up.
After a short stop back home it was off we go again. This time it was to Young State Park in Boyne City, MI as campground hosts. Every state has different requirements for their hosts. In Michigan they want the hosts to be on site on weekends and to be available 30 hours per week. This includes having a weekly craft hour for the kids in the park and a coffee hour once a week for the campers. The coffee thing didn't worry us too much. The park supplies the pot, coffee, cups, cream and sugar. All we had to do was make it and sit around and talk...easy breezy. Now the craft hour was a whole different thing.
Holly did a great job of getting ideas for crafts and picking up supplies. She also went and bought a bunch of little trinkets we could give away to the kids. We fretted about the craft hour for months. When the big craft day came, two girls showed up. We did our craft that we had planned. They had a good time and went on their way and it was done. All that to do over nothing. But we did make some great skeletons and spider web.
The grand kids enjoyed making the crafts too.
While there we had many opportunities to visit with our friends Jim and Terri. They live right next to the park so it is a short drive. Terri made us many wonderful meals and it was nice that we were able to do laundry at their place when we visited them (we are on a fixed income you know). We went out on their boat several times and when the kids came up, they had a chance to go as well. Seems funny we have been here in New Mexico for 3 months and they have yet to visit...maybe I should get a boat! We spent one month at Young State Park and again, met many nice people over coffee. The park staff were great to work with as well.
We left Young State Park and made a swing home to change out some clothes and a few things we found we didn't need and loaded up stuff we felt we did need. After a couple of days and a chance to visit with the kids we left for New Mexico. After a few days on the road, some rain storms and only one problem with a tire, we made it to Albuquerque N.M. We had a chance to be there for the last day of the balloon fiesta and were able to see some beautiful balloons. This is one of those events that I had always wished that I could see but it was never at a time when we were on vacation.....so nice to be retired.
After we left Albuquerque we headed down to Elephant Butte Lake State Park. Upon our arrival we were greeted by Don. Don and Enid were the hosts in our loop. They were at the park until the end of October and then headed back to their home in Arizona. They ran out before it started to get cold. We are happy to welcome them into our circle of friends. Shortly after arriving we also became friends with Richard and Betty. They were volunteers at Lions Beach, which is another campground in the park. We enjoyed an outing to Chloride, an old silver mining town, had several dinners and numerous visits. They ran off to Quartsite, AZ the first of January. They were ready for warmer weather than what we are experiencing here in New Mexico. We will miss them.
Everyone here has been so nice from the other volunteers and staff to the campers that we have come to know. There are many campers here who come to get out of the big snows up north. With the annual camping pass it's a pretty inexpensive way to live.
January 6 was the New Mexico Centennial celebration. Elephant Butte Dam has been closed to traffic since 2001 but it was opened to foot traffic for a few hours on the 7th to celebrate the centennial. We volunteered to help and they had around 1,200 people show up. They were only expecting 200-300. It was a fun day.
We have been in New Mexico since Oct. 9, 2011 and have loved our travels
so far. We feel we've made a good choice for us even though we do miss
the kids and grand kids (did I really say that?).
We've met so many wonderful people and made some good friends along the way. We
are here until April 1st, then will head home for a couple of weeks. Our next adventure will be in Sequim, Washington. We'll be there May 1st - October 15th. Both Holly and I are excited because we both have family In Washington. It will be great to see everyone again.
Our first volunteer position was at North Pier Head Lighthouse in Ludington, MI. We have visited many different lighthouses in our travels and thought this would be a great way to start our adventures. We spent a week as volunteer lighthouse keepers. We shared our duties with three bright and wonderful women. We didn't use our motor home for this due to fact that housing was provided by the lighthouse keepers association. We had a great time, made new friends and met people from all over the world.
This gave us time to explore the area and visit other lighthouses that we had not been to before. We also had a chance to go up to Mackinac City, take a tour of the retired Coast Guard Icebreaker Mackinaw. It was a lot nicer then the icebreaker that I was on in Alaska but it was also newer. It did bring back some memories, especially when we got down to the engine room. Oh, we also made it to the casino a couple times to make our contributions to the Native American College Fund!
After we left 40-Mile-Point we went to Traverse City State Park to relax and meet our friends Jack and Lynn. They both recently retired, too. They drove their motor home up from Florida to visit family and friends. We spent 5 days doing the wine tour thing and just sitting around and catching up. 
After a short stop back home it was off we go again. This time it was to Young State Park in Boyne City, MI as campground hosts. Every state has different requirements for their hosts. In Michigan they want the hosts to be on site on weekends and to be available 30 hours per week. This includes having a weekly craft hour for the kids in the park and a coffee hour once a week for the campers. The coffee thing didn't worry us too much. The park supplies the pot, coffee, cups, cream and sugar. All we had to do was make it and sit around and talk...easy breezy. Now the craft hour was a whole different thing. 
Holly did a great job of getting ideas for crafts and picking up supplies. She also went and bought a bunch of little trinkets we could give away to the kids. We fretted about the craft hour for months. When the big craft day came, two girls showed up. We did our craft that we had planned. They had a good time and went on their way and it was done. All that to do over nothing. But we did make some great skeletons and spider web. 
While there we had many opportunities to visit with our friends Jim and Terri. They live right next to the park so it is a short drive. Terri made us many wonderful meals and it was nice that we were able to do laundry at their place when we visited them (we are on a fixed income you know). We went out on their boat several times and when the kids came up, they had a chance to go as well. Seems funny we have been here in New Mexico for 3 months and they have yet to visit...maybe I should get a boat! We spent one month at Young State Park and again, met many nice people over coffee. The park staff were great to work with as well.
We left Young State Park and made a swing home to change out some clothes and a few things we found we didn't need and loaded up stuff we felt we did need. After a couple of days and a chance to visit with the kids we left for New Mexico. After a few days on the road, some rain storms and only one problem with a tire, we made it to Albuquerque N.M. We had a chance to be there for the last day of the balloon fiesta and were able to see some beautiful balloons. This is one of those events that I had always wished that I could see but it was never at a time when we were on vacation.....so nice to be retired.
