Tag Archives: campground

Association Island KOA in New York!

June 12, 2019 suzy 9 Comments

While working our first job in Bar Harbor, we were told often about an amazing campground on an island in Lake Ontario called Association Island. We were intrigued. Last summer, I contacted the manager there and lined up positions for this summer. After several years in the arid west, we are going to work on a beautiful island surrounded by lots of water!

The island is reached by a narrow causeway that is approximately one mile long. This was our first view of Association Island. Beautiful blue waters and crisp cold air. It was May 1, and as you can see, still winter to early spring on the island.

We were a little nervous as we are with any new adventure. Association Island has been owned by the same family for the last 20+ years. They had hired a new island manager about two years ago who has worked hard on enforcing rules and improving the island amenities. There was a lot of push back from campers who had previously done whatever they wanted to do on the island, resulting in mixed reviews on the web.

But life is about the adventure, right?

Continue reading Association Island KOA in New York! →

Camping Life

Our RV Adventures in 2018!

February 13, 2019 suzy 11 Comments

The year 2018 was all in all, a good one for us. Every year, I like to take stock of the year before, looking at both the good and the bad. As full time travelers, we get lots of questions about our life on the road. This post might answer a few of those questions as we look back on the happenings of 2018.

We get asked a lot if we will ever settle down again in a regular home. At this point in time, we have no plans for that. We have absolutely no regrets. We love our new roaming lifestyle and the fact that as we work-camp across the country, we get to actually experience each area as the locals do.

Continue reading Our RV Adventures in 2018! →

Camping Life

12 Great ways to make a living on the road!

March 24, 2017 suzy 3 Comments

We often get asked how we support ourselves on the road. Our answer up until now has been work camping and my website income. I wanted to show you 12 more ways to make a living on the road.

Of course, we have cut our living expenses down simply by not owning a home any more. Traveling as we do, our expenses include lot rent, insurance, our rv payment, food and spending.

You can lower your expenses even more by not having a rv payment, staying longer in one place, cooking at home and even boondocking (camping for free without water, electric or sewer connections) when you can. You really have a surprising control over your overhead.

But there will be overhead.

We chose this life to get away from the stress of a 40+ hour a week workweek. We wanted to get away from the traffic, the crowds, the chaos and the strict time schedules and wanted to be healthy and stress-free.

Having the freedom to decide how much you want to work and how much free time you want is one of the biggest advantages of living the RV lifestyle. And there are so many opportunities out there to take advantage of! I have talked a bit about work camping (working in campgrounds in exchange for a site and/or pay), but let’s talk about some of the other things out there!

Our main sources of seasonal employment opportunities are websites such as:

Work at KOA
Workamper News
Coolworks
Workers on Wheels

There are jobs to be found everywhere. You won’t get rich, but you should be able to support yourself and your lifestyle on the road. Seasonal and work from home positions are readily available if you look for them.

Here are some of the positions that we are considering for future:

Make a living as Guest services and maintenance at a resort ranch

Most resort ranches offer accommodations, hiking, water activities, horse back riding, fly fishing and often a full service restaurant. Positions available are usually seasonal, but offer a full range of interesting opportunities depending upon where your interests may lie. Often resorts will offer you pay along with room and board. In some instances, they have their own mini rv parks to house some of their employees.

Make a living Working at a lighthouse

Often this is a volunteer position, but there are instances where you can get paid as a park ranger. As a lighthouse worker, you would be responsible for overseeing the lighthouse and keeping it secure during off season. This job usually offers a place to stay on site (sometimes even a place for your coach).

Click here for more!

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Camping Life

A Review of 2016 on the Road

December 31, 2016 suzy 5 Comments

We left Atlanta in April of 2015 for a life on the road. Over the past nearly 2 years, we have enjoyed lots of great sights, met lots of fun people and experienced living in a 400 square foot “tiny home” with 2 dogs and one bathroom.

And this is just the beginning!

traveling in amarillo texas — Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, TX

With the year 2017 on the horizon, I wanted to do a review of the past year on the road along with some of the trials and tribulations that went along with it.

Many ask about our financials, so I will go into that a bit, along with a few things we have learned and experienced as we traveled this year.

Total Mileage this year

We began our year working in St. Petersburg, FL at the St. Petersburg KOA. Our job ended there near the end of March. Our next job would begin around May 1 in Williams, AZ, but we needed to make an extended stop in Atlanta due to health issues with our dog, Ralph.

Our route took us to Orlando, a short pit stop in our favorite campground on Tybee Island, then onto Atlanta for a total of 633 miles.

We then traveled westward through Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and finally Williams, AZ, right near the Grand Canyon. This was a total of 1,798 miles.

Our job in Williams ended on October 31 and our job in Tucson began on November 15. We took the long way with a detour through Laughlin, NV and Lake Havasu City, AZ, adding another 520 miles.

Grand total miles on the coach for 2016 was 2,951 miles.

Click here for more!

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Camping Life

Life in Tucson

December 8, 2016 suzy 9 Comments

As full time RVers and work campers, we find ourselves moving with the seasons. Most campgrounds hire for a six month long season. You can work longer if you’d like as long as the campground is open all year. Unfortunately, in the wintertime, most of the campgrounds in the northern section of the United States close due to inclement weather.

And not to mention, our coach has issues with below freezing temperatures. In the future, we have learned that when buying a coach, you need to get what they call a “Polar Package”. This includes not only heated floors, but extra insulation and a heated undercarriage. These were things we didn’t think about at the time, and as usual, we learn the hard way.

With that said, we move to warmer weather just as the snowbirds do. In fact, I guess that makes us snowbirds too! LOL!

We find the majority of our work camping jobs on the internet and in May, we ran across an opening at the Lazy Days Tucson KOA for kitchen staff. After several seasons of working the front desk, reservations and check ins, we decided we would love to have a small break. So we applied. I figured we would either love it or hate it, but either way- we only will be there through the winter.

Why stay in Arizona? Northern Arizona was absolutely beautiful with its pine forests and high mountains. We wanted to also experience the desert of Arizona. Tucson is located in southern Arizona very near the Mexico border. Here we can experience the local desert, beautiful Saguaro forests, local Indian and Mexican influences, and much more.

We arrived here in the middle of November and enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving celebration with everyone on the campground.

Tucson KOA is a huge campground with around 500 sites. Every site is gravel, with a poured concrete patio and and a small asphalt driveway for your vehicle. And every single site has at least one fruit tree.

Click here for more!

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Places to Go

A little break from the real world at Lake Havasu

November 30, 2016 suzy 7 Comments

Our contract at the Williams Circle Pines KOA ended on Oct 31, and our new job at the KOA in Tucson began on Nov 15. That gave us about 2 weeks to take a break as we make our way down to Tucson.

Bet you wondered what happened to us. I’m a bit behind on my posting!

Over the summer, many of our guests had come from southern Nevada, Laughlin and Lake Havasu. They had come to Williams to get a break from the heat as that area of the country sees triple digits all summer. We decided that we would check out that area of the country in a round about way to Tucson.

Our first stop was the in Laughlin, Nevada. Laughlin is located on the southernmost tip of Nevada along the Colorado river where Nevada, California and Arizona meet. The town is known as a fun casino town.

It is about a half day drive from Williams. And all down hill. We went from over 7000 feet above sea level in Williams to about 500 feet above sea level in Laughlin.

While we missed the heat of the summer, it was still nice and warm there. I enjoyed sitting under the palm trees and working on my laptop in my beautiful new back yard.

On our second day there, we took the London Bridge Jet Boat tour down the Colorado River from Laughlin to the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City.

This is a great way to see the area from the water. The trip takes about 2 hours to get to Lake Havasu City, you get a 2 hour break there to check out the bridge and grab a lunch, and then take the 2 hour ride back up the river.

And best of all, it was very affordable at about $70 a person.

We really enjoyed the boat tour and our tour guide was incredibly informative. Check out the green tint of the water behind Dave. It was really that green! Apparently from minerals in the water.

Click here for more!

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Places to Go

Leaving Circle Pines and heading to new Adventures!

November 8, 2016 suzy 1 Comment

We have been on the road now about a year and a half. And the adventure has just begun. Selling the house and nearly everything that we owned was difficult. Leaving our friends and family behind was too. But I have to tell you that we have absolutely no regrets.

Life on the road is everything we thought it would be.

We often are asked how we can support ourselves on the road and I have to say that fortunately for us, we are able to handle most of our bills with income from my websites.

However, we do need a buffer. And that is where KOA has come in. We are doing seasonal work at various campgrounds in order to supplement our income while we see the country.

Last week we left Circle Pines KOA in Williams, AZ and I have to say that it was a sad farewell. We not only loved this surprisingly beautiful area of the country, but made a bunch of new friends in the process that we definitely will miss.

And we absolutely loved working for Bruce and Lori. They made campground work an adventure.

Our cool shady spot underneath the tall pines is now just a memory. I would have loved to stay through the winter, but our coach does not love cold weather. So it is onto to warmer regions.

We are currently at Lake Havasu for a brief vacation and then moving onto our winter job in Tucson, AZ.

But as I like to do, I’ve created a video of our memories from this beautiful campground on the high plains of Arizona.

Next week as a final chapter, I will be posting the top 10 Things to do in Williams, AZ.

Want more videos?

If you would like to see a bit about the parts of the country that we have visited so far, you can see our other videos here:

Our Season working at the St. Petersburg KOA

A Compilation Video of our Summer at Bar Harbor!

Places to Go

Two Guns; A Ghost Town with a haunted past…

August 25, 2016 suzy 13 Comments

We decided to drive out to see the Petrified Forest and the town of Winslow. Because we felt the need to get a photo on the corner, right?

But just west of Winslow, we took a detour when we noticed some amazing looking ruins along side of the interstate. And I’m so glad we did. We stumbled upon the ghost town of Two Guns; a town with a sad and terrible past.

We were not aware of the history behind this place as we were exploring, but I managed to do some research and found out some very interesting things!

The Death Cave

The area that became Two Guns was originally Navajo and Apache territory. In the late 1800’s, a total of forty-two Apaches lost their lives in a show down with the Navajos. The Apaches were burned to death in a cave in the canyon located on this property.

After this terrible incident, the Apaches and the Navajos never returned to this area. To this day, the Navajo believe the Two Guns area is possessed by Chindiis, their term for “ghosts of the dead”.

And the history of the area after the massacre is curiously dark. Enough so that I was glad we did not stumble upon the Death cave or go anywhere near it.

Two Guns and Route 66

In the early 1900’s, taking advantage of the traffic along the newly named Route 66, a local resident named Henry Miller created the town of Two Guns.

He added a gas station, over night accommodations, a cafe, souvenir shop and even a zoo.

The zoo housed mountain lions, panthers, bobcats, gila monsters and more.

Click here for more!

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Places to Go

Northern Arizona and the Grand Canyon!

June 14, 2016 suzy 8 Comments

We are currently living and working at the Circle Pines KOA in Williams, AZ. We arrived here about a month ago and were assigned a spot in the center of the campground.

I have to say that in our work camping career so far, this site is the best that we have had! It includes trees, a nice size yard (even when campers are around us), a huge fire pit and lots of flat space to store the motorcycle!

We love this laid back campground! It is a lot smaller than Bar Harbor, and St. Petersburg. With just 20 cabins, and about 150 pull through sites, it is not only pleasant to live here, but working behind the counter is that much easier.

We will be here until October 31, which gives us plenty of time to explore the area and take in all that we can.

And Circle Pines also owns a Go Cart track, putting a little variety into our work routines!

So why did we choose northern Arizona for the summer? Well, there were several reasons. At about 7000 feet above sea level, this area of the country does not get extreme heat in the summer. In fact, evenings are jacket weather!

But the biggest draw of the area has to be The Grand Canyon. Since neither one of us had ever seen it before, this area of the country was on our “bucket list”.

The Grand Canyon National Park

It is about a 60 mile drive from Williams to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The drive is actually very interesting as you move from pine forests to dry desert land. Keep an eye out for deer. They are everywhere!

Along the way, you will find the occasional camper parked off the roadway. You see in this area of the state, you can dry camp off road for as long as two weeks.

Entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park is $30 per vehicle. Parking spaces are plentiful and even include areas for RVs and buses.

Once parked, you can either hike along the rim trail, or take free shuttles to restaurants, stores and view points along the South Rim.

The canyon itself is absolutely breathtaking. No photos or words actually do it justice. You have to see it for yourself to understand the magnitude of this amazing Natural Wonder.

The Grand Canyon is about 277 miles long. At its widest point it is 18 miles wide. The average width is a distance about 10 miles. The average depth is about 1 mile.

Click here for more photos and info on the Grand Canyon!

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Camping Life

An insiders look at Campground Etiquette

June 5, 2016 suzy 6 Comments

As full time campers and work campers, we have come to the conclusion that for the most part, other campers are awesome! We all have so much in common. We love the outdoors, we enjoy cooking on the grill, we enjoy the stars at night.

But there is always one bad apple in the barrel. Isn’t there?

rv life camping etiquette — Circle Pines KOA, Williams, AZ

The problem is that most campgrounds this time of year become very full. A larger campground such as the one we worked in St. Petersburg, Florida has nearly 500 campsites.

Filled to capacity, you are looking at the very least, 1000 people crammed into one campground! St. Petersburg KOA was full to capacity the entire winter season that we were there.

The closer people camp together, the grouchier they become. It’s just a fact.

That is why campgrounds have the need to post rules. Usually you will receive a pamphlet of rules along with a map of the campground upon arrival. Some of those rules may seem a tad restrictive, but I have to tell you that there is a reason for every one of them.

As campground workers, we are more than aware of some of the biggest pet peeves of those that camp around us. Here is our list of the top 10 complaints that we receive at the campground and how to avoid being the bad apple.

Top Ten Rules of Campground Etiquette

life at the campground — Bar Harbor Oceanside KOA, Maine

10. Quiet time is not just a suggestion

Many of the campgrounds that we have worked at post quiet time as 10:00 PM at night until 7:00 AM. Why? Well, some folks want to sleep at night. Common courtesy is at play here.

Yes, we are all on vacation, but do respect your neighbors and keep the noise down after 10:00 PM. Most campgrounds try to enforce quiet time as best as possible, but we cannot be at all places at all times.

Click here for the rest of the list!

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