Necro wrote:

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Well folks, Some of  you know, we came back from our "road-life" because of the cold winter affecting even normally warm areas of the South.  It was a tough break and we really hated doing it.  The camper hadn't been ready when we left, so we thought we could make it until the summer, camping out and staying in the van when it got cold.  Well... even in the van, with a great heater, it just got too cold.  Too cold to do anything but just vegetate, and the van wasn't big enough for two people to just hang out all day inside it.  Not that the experience wasn't awesome, cuz believe me... it was FANTASTIC, but it got a bit too cramped and cold at the end.  

We came home and stayed with my wife's mom through the Winter.  While it's been great, after having lived on the road, sleeping under stars, napping on warm beaches, hiking beautiful forests, and just staying so far away from the everyday grind of "normal living", it DID get to grind on the nerves again.  I can honestly say that urban living is something we only want to do in very small doses for the rest of our lives.  :)  

With THAT being said, we are happy to announce that the JONES' JOURNIES will begin again.  :)  As of May 12th, we will once again, be "living the dream".  This time, we'll have our camper ready, and we'll also have a secured site, that we'll be staying at from May through September, in a work-camping mode.  :)  

After a lot of inquiry and searches, we landed our FIRST work-camping gig.  We will have a completely loaded, beautiful site for working 20 hours a week, at a beautiful campground located in the northern tier of Pennsylvania, less than one mile from the New York State border.   We'll be very close to The Finger Lake region of New York.  The area is just filled with great photography opportunities for us.  With all the beautiful waterfalls in the region, I'm sure I'll be in heaven, and with all the wineries in the area, i'm sure that my wife will be in heaven too.  :lol:  

We have to report to the campground on the 12th of May, for orientation.  Our duties will be basic, general cleaning and maintenance of the areas grounds and showers/bathrooms.  We only have to work four hours a day, leaving us the rest of the time for wine, waterfalls, and anything else the area has open for us.  The lake itself will be getting a lot of our time, as we both want to resume our love of fishing, which neither of us have done in quite some time.  :)  

Since our hope is to live this lifestyle for the rest of our lives, it is with great happiness that we have acquired our first work-camping job.  As the full-time RV lifestyle is growing, these jobs won't be as easy to find as they once were.  I'm very happy to be able to get such a great place to be our first experience with the work-camping lifestyle.  Not only will the area be beautiful, but the time spent there will be quite beneficial in padding our resumes for future work-camping opportunities.  

The small hours, also leaves us with the ability to pursue other forms of work within the area, to also help in being able to live the lifestyle without having to be frugal to a point where we're not having any fun.  I'm hoping that my photography can start bringing in a little bit of extra cash, and will be trying to enter as many art shows and craft fairs as I can.  From what we've learned in our investigations, the area is loaded with these types of platforms to share my work, and hopefully make a buck or two.  As my wife's  photography has  grown, she will also be looking to share in these ventures.  

So, at this point, it looks as though we've nailed exactly what we've been looking for.  I am so excited.  Preparations began a few days ago, to get the camper in tip-top, travelling shape.  We have exactly a month to get it, and the van ready.  Most of the work, we can accomplish ourselves, and some of it, we can leave go until we get there.  I'm not worried about any of that.  As long as both are road-worthy, and livable, we'll be fine. Tons of time to add things to both of them, after we arrive.

I want you to know that we couldn't have done it without you guys.  This forum is a great place, loaded with great people.  We're so lucky to have found such a great community, that is willing to share their hard earned knowledge of this lifestyle we so want to pursue for the rest of our lives.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!  

Right now, we only have a facebook page, but we will soon have a dedicated blog.  I've heard rumblings that some people don't love facebook as much as I do, so we're going to work on that blog as soon as possible.  For those of you that don't mind FaceBook though, you can see what we explored on our last leg of our journy, and what we're up to now.  Check us out at:   https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jones-Journies/105882906147113

 

-- Edited by Necro on Sunday 17th of April 2011 03:42:15 PM

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 Congrats on getting back into the lifestyle.

 You might reconsider your choice of fonts. Hard to focus on the subject when trying to get eyes to focus.

Okay. I'll change it. I was having so many problems copy/pasting this from my facebook blog. It kept coming out spaced a mile apart, and really small font, so I changed it to that, and it still bites, eh? LOL Changing now. :)

Necro wrote:

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Better?

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  A lot easier on these old eyes.

Your summer gig looks like fun. Our 1st workamping experience will be in Custer SD this summer.