Worrying again. :( - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Necro · RV-Dreams Family Member

Worrying again. :(

NorCal Dan · RV-Dreams Family Member

Some friends of ours are workamping in W. Memphis and they had to evacuate the campground due to the Mississippi River headed for flood stage. More nasty weather is expected today in the region. Plenty of flooding, tornado's, etc. in the Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee area's. NWS expects up to 4" of rain in the next 24 hours to add to already bad conditions. If your job is anywhere in this region then it's probably a place you don't want to be right now...hang tight and wait for the all clear before heading to the area.

2fortheroad · RV-Dreams Family Member

Just be thankful that its just wet and not in Tornado Alley.

Necro · RV-Dreams Family Member

2fortheroad wrote:
Just be thankful that its just wet and not in Tornado Alley.

Yeah, I understand that it's not detrimental to my health or life. I wasn't implying that. It's just that when you have made plans for your life and livelihood, setbacks like this can be annoying.

Wasn't trying to make light of anyone with REAL life or death issues. Didn't think I came off that way either, but if I did, accept my apology.

Necro · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks to the furious amount of work Carol put in after the setback, we are happy to announce that we have a NEW work-camping job. :)

How lucky are we? While just calling around the area of the former job, for a place to stay, we found a campsite that has NEVER used work-campers before. Luckily, they thought it was a good idea to start doing so. They talked it over and called us back, offering us the same set up as we had already had. We'll work 20 hours a week each, for our fully loaded campsite in return. YAY!!!

AND... the place is gorgeous. I'll post the link to it later, but it's very close to the Pa. Grand Canyon, which is one of the most beautiful places in the state. Wildlife EVERYWHERE. There's a near mile long trail that leads out of the camp right to the main overlook of the Pa. Grand Canyon. Can't beat that, right???

We went from dejected to elated within a three hour period. :)

Jim01 · RV-Dreams Family Member

We've been to the PA Grand Canyon and that is a beautiful area.

Good Luck,

Jim

2fortheroad · RV-Dreams Family Member

Necro wrote:
2fortheroad wrote:
Just be thankful that its just wet and not in Tornado Alley.

Yeah, I understand that it's not detrimental to my health or life. I wasn't implying that. It's just that when you have made plans for your life and livelihood, setbacks like this can be annoying.
Wasn't trying to make light of anyone with REAL life or death issues. Didn't think I came off that way either, but if I did, accept my apology.

Don't take things so personal. Just meant, better wet than leveled by a Tornado.

Glad to hear you got your issue solved, and will be going to the same area you wanted to be in. You mentioned that you both will be working 20 hrs a week. Would you mind sharing what the agreed compensation would be for 40 hrs a week?

Necro · RV-Dreams Family Member

Jim01 wrote:
We've been to the PA Grand Canyon and that is a beautiful area.
Good Luck,
Jim

Thanks. I live not even three hours away, and I've only seen it once, and that was when I was travelling through, during the winter, to get back to college. I went to Edinboro, which was another three hours. I stopped and took a quick look, but it was all snow. ugggh. smile

I can't wait to see it again, in depth. Thanks.

Necro · RV-Dreams Family Member

2fortheroad wrote:
Necro wrote:
2fortheroad wrote:
Just be thankful that its just wet and not in Tornado Alley.

Yeah, I understand that it's not detrimental to my health or life. I wasn't implying that. It's just that when you have made plans for your life and livelihood, setbacks like this can be annoying.
Wasn't trying to make light of anyone with REAL life or death issues. Didn't think I came off that way either, but if I did, accept my apology.
Don't take things so personal. Just meant, better wet than leveled by a Tornado.
Glad to hear you got your issue solved, and will be going to the same area you wanted to be in. You mentioned that you both will be working 20 hrs a week. Would you mind sharing what the agreed compensation would be for 40 hrs a week?

I understood your meaning. Sorry I went on about it, I was just seriously concerned that in times like this, when things are much worse, I do understand my problems are menial, and wanted you or anyone to know that. Sometimes I knee-jerk about my own concerns, rather than take a breath, and take a look at the big picture. smile

The original job was twenty hours each, five days a week for the site. Site was fully loaded, minus wifi. Anything over the twenty hours would be 13 an hour.

The new setup is pretty much the same, only they have wifi (supposedly real good wifi). There will be no monetary compensation though, for anything over. He said we could work out something in that unlikely event. They had no serious need to start work-camping, we just kinda fell in their lap, while they were debating the issue anyway.

Supposed to get a confirmation note by email tomorrow, with all the terms. I had a real nice, half hour long conversation with the guy, and i know people who've been to the campground and loved it. Can't wait to start. biggrin

-- Edited by Necro on Tuesday 26th of April 2011 06:21:06 PM

2fortheroad · RV-Dreams Family Member

Necro wrote:
2fortheroad wrote:
Necro wrote:
2fortheroad wrote:
Just be thankful that its just wet and not in Tornado Alley.

Yeah, I understand that it's not detrimental to my health or life. I wasn't implying that. It's just that when you have made plans for your life and livelihood, setbacks like this can be annoying.
Wasn't trying to make light of anyone with REAL life or death issues. Didn't think I came off that way either, but if I did, accept my apology.
Don't take things so personal. Just meant, better wet than leveled by a Tornado.
Glad to hear you got your issue solved, and will be going to the same area you wanted to be in. You mentioned that you both will be working 20 hrs a week. Would you mind sharing what the agreed compensation would be for 40 hrs a week?

I understood your meaning. Sorry I went on about it, I was just seriously concerned that in times like this, when things are much worse, I do understand my problems are menial, and wanted you or anyone to know that. Sometimes I knee-jerk about my own concerns, rather than take a breath, and take a look at the big picture.
The original job was twenty hours each, five days a week for the site. Site was fully loaded, minus wifi. Anything over the twenty hours would be 13 an hour.
The new setup is pretty much the same, only they have wifi (supposedly real good wifi). There will be no monetary compensation though, for anything over. He said we could work out something in that unlikely event. They had no serious need to start work-camping, we just kinda fell in their lap, while they were debating the issue anyway.
Supposed to get a confirmation note by email tomorrow, with all the terms. I had a real nice, half hour long conversation with the guy, and i know people who've been to the campground and loved it. Can't wait to start.

-- Edited by Necro on Tuesday 26th of April 2011 06:21:06 PM

I'm sure they would be happy to have you, 40 hrs x $8.00 hr = $320 or $1280 a month =s $42.60 a day for your site. I would try to negociate a better deal, or look elsewhere.

15 to 20 hrs seems to be the norm for a full-hookup site. Hours over that, I have seen as low as $7.50 hr and as high as $11.00 an hour. With $8.50 about the norm.

Ckerr · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm glad things appear to be working out. We're still transitioning to fulltime rving, but have already learned that being flexible and taking a breath to let things settle is generally a good idea with anything related to rving.

Necro · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm sure they would be happy to have you, 40 hrs x $8.00 hr = $320 or $1280 a month =s $42.60 a day for your site. I would try to negociate a better deal, or look elsewhere.
15 to 20 hrs seems to be the norm for a full-hookup site. Hours over that, I have seen as low as $7.50 hr and as high as $11.00 an hour. With $8.50 about the norm.

While I would love to get a better deal, right now I'm just glad to have this one. We have supplemental income, so I'm not overly worried about the pay scale. Just looking for a nice spot to stay. We're trying not to leave the area too far yet. We have seventeen year old twins (from my previous), that I have with us every weekend. Going too far is going to cut into that. Even two hours away will be tough now, with the gas situation.

Also, in this area of Pa. many campgrounds have raised their rates to a ridiculous amount, due to the influx of drillers of marcellus shale. We couldn't believe the weekly rates some of the grounds we called yesterday wanted. No break on them at all. Just the daily rate X 7, and the daily rates are now over forty anyway.

Another issue we may run into for now, is that our camper is kinda old. We've done a lot of work to the inside to make it quite nice, but while it's not an eyesore, it's still not as appealing as some of the campers I've seen on this board. In less than two years, we'll have the camper of our dreams, but right now, i'm just happy that the campground owners aren't making a fuss over our camper.

Getting experience now, to pad the resume for future work-camping gigs is the most important thing to us right now. The fact that we'll get to get this experience in a very beautiful campground, and in a GORGEOUS area, where I'll be able to increase my photography portfolio, makes this an ideal situation for now.

Thanks for the headsup though. smile

Necro · RV-Dreams Family Member

Ckerr wrote:
I'm glad things appear to be working out. We're still transitioning to fulltime rving, but have already learned that being flexible and taking a breath to let things settle is generally a good idea with anything related to rving.

Thanks. What a rollercoaster yesterday was. I posted this, only an hour before CeeJ found the new gig. From totally dejected, to massively elated. I felt like I was manic for a minute there. biggrin

phxmtngirl · RV-Dreams Community Member

Ken & Carol,
I tried to post on your blog but couldn't. Am so glad you got a good gig for now. :) Keep foam spraying lol I'm with you there.
Happy Summer to you all
phxmtngirl

Necro · RV-Dreams Family Member

phxmtngirl wrote:
Ken & Carol,
I tried to post on your blog but couldn't. Am so glad you got a good gig for now. :) Keep foam spraying lol I'm with you there.
Happy Summer to you all
phxmtngirl

Thanks. I wonder why you couldn't post to the blog? I'm totally new to that, so I have no clue. I'll look into it. I THINK I've found almost all possible holes and filled them. I'm worried about the actual screen door. It doesn't seem to close flush to the frame. Will have to look into that. If I can't fix it now, i'll have to use a lot of weatherstripping. :)

Wildrose Acres · RV-Dreams Family Member

The nice thing in all of this is that the campground will be starting their work-camper program with experienced work-campers. You will be able to help them understand how it works in other places.

Necro · RV-Dreams Family Member

We're experienced campers, and have seen what other work-campers do. We're also experienced in all kinds of jobs that will parlay well into being work-campers, but this is our first gig as work-campers ever. smile

We're actually leaving tomorrow at some point. Not sure yet, if we want to drive at night, and arrive Friday morning, or leave after the evening rush hour, and stay at the local wal-mart our first night. Hmmm.

Ckerr · RV-Dreams Family Member

Just started our (my) first workkamping gig -- also at a place that hasn't used workkampers before. Let's just say we're learning together. Have fun and error on communicating more than less with management.

Kathy Doin It · RV-Dreams Family Member

Necro wrote:
We're experienced campers, and have seen what other work-campers do. We're also experienced in all kinds of jobs that will parlay well into being work-campers, but this is our first gig as work-campers ever.
We're actually leaving tomorrow at some point. Not sure yet, if we want to drive at night, and arrive Friday morning, or leave after the evening rush hour, and stay at the local wal-mart our first night. Hmmm.
The very first day we left on our fulltiming adventure, we stayed at Wal*Mart. Doing that made us feel like "official" fulltimers.
Good luck on your new gig! Enjoy the summer!.

BruceandTrisha · RV-Dreams Family Member

We started workamping last year and it has been quite a learning experience for us and for the owners of the campground. We were not the first camp hosts, but we were the first who actually became involved with meeting and greeting guests and being available to help them have a great experience at the campground. We take as much pride in the campground as the owners - always working to improve anything and everything - and it's been a positive experience for everyone.

My skills in office management and marketing helped develop a better reservation system and promotional materials. Soon, we'll launch the new website I created for the campground - that's going to be a huge improvement from the one that is only updated once a year, if then. All of this extra we do for free - because we love seeing the difference it makes. What you give away returns to you ten fold - absolutely!

I don't know if we'll seek another workamper job when we start traveling - just depends on where we head . . . it's a fantastic way to supplement the lifestyle.

Necro · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm hoping our duties can be broadened as well. I understand we got the jobs we asked for, but I'm hoping that through this next few decades of living this way, I get to put some of my other applicable skills to use at any campground we get to stay at. :)