RV'ing with Herb & Kathy

May 28, 2021

Dale Hollow Lake State Resort Park is located at the southernmost point of central Kentucky. A large majority of the lake is actually in Tennessee although the park is in Kentucky.

Dale Hollow Lake is about 26,000 acres while the more famous Lake Cumberland (just to the north and east on the map below) is about 65,000 acres in size.

We started as Camp Hosts in mid-April and we’ll be here until just after the July 4th holiday. They wanted us for the whole season but Kathy and I like to keep moving a little more often so we try to get working/volunteering gigs of 3 months or less so we’re not sitting in one place for too long.

Our site is in Loop Q. There are a total of 144 sites, 8 sites in each of the 18 loops. The loops are all circle shaped unlike some parks where the “loop” is actually a convoluted tour of left and right turns with sometimes very limited distance between sites and parked cars making parking a larger RV difficult. It’s very easy to pull into any of our loops and back right in to your site. Everyone has a pie-shaped lot that is much wider at the rear than at the front “hub” of the loop.

All the sites have water and 20/30/50 amp electric. Some of the loops also have sewer connections, but not all so if you’re planning on coming be aware of this when you make your reservation on www.reserveamerica.com

I gotta tell you, the management and staff here are terrific folks. All the way from the General Manager, Jenny, all the way down the list through the maintenance crew, the kitchen and dining room staff, restroom cleaning guys, all the way down to the fellas that come around the park three times daily emptying the trash barrels. They all do their jobs very well, they take pride in their park and it shows in the overall condition.

We try to find the jobs that DO NOT require us to work 40 hours weekly. We’ve both done that (and more) over the years and we’re not looking for full-time jobs at this point in our lives. What we enjoy and try to find are gigs that will give us our site and utilities in exchange for 12-15 hours work (per person) per week. We make sure those gigs allow us to both work the same schedule and we often (not always) work together on the same task.

At Dale Hollow we tour the park regularly (3-4 times/day) and visit with campers and we consistently hear complements about the park. It makes us feel good even though we’re sure to explain that the credit goes to the terrific paid staff and not us.

Our responsibilities are pretty limited and easy. We are the only Hosts here where in other parks that we’ve worked at there’s at least one other couple so that all seven days of the week are covered. Management really only needs us here on the weekends since the park is nearly empty (and nicely quiet) during the week.

We start our day about 10am when we go to the Country Store (campground office) and pick up the list of those that are incoming and outgoing that day. Then we put those incoming Reserved tags on those sites and we clean out the fire pits of those sites where campers have left. We’re usually done with that task in 30-45 minutes. If it’s a Friday this will take longer because there are more families coming in for the weekend. This weekend (Memorial Day) we had 36 incoming on Thursday and we have 93 coming in today (Friday). Its gonna be a fun and busy weekend! And yes, I forgot to mention they supply us with a golf cart and all the other tools we need to do our job safely.

As campers leave we always check their site and their fire pit to pick up any litter and have the site ready and attractive for the next campers. Again, Sundays are always a longer day for us because everybody’s leaving and heading back to work for the week. But sometimes, just like everywhere else, some people have so little respect for others and they just have to ruin a good thing.

Although the bathhouses (including showers and laundry machines) are cleaned at least 3 times daily by the paid staff (Robert and Jeff), on weekends since the park is so busy Kathy and I follow up in the late afternoon and again just before it gets dark. Usually we just have to give them a quick wipe down and damp mop. The rest rooms are air conditioned and have great exhaust fans to take out all the extra humidity.

Kathy and I like to stay busy and so we volunteered when we got here to do some painting to the loop posts and the mini-golf score card posts as well to spruce them up for the season

We head down to the Lodge about once a week where we can always get a great meal at a deep 50% employee discount. Not only is the dining room clean and spacious allowing for a quiet and relaxing meal, but the staff is attentive and the view from the dining room veranda is beautiful.

We’ve found a couple other restaurants that we like as well. Annie Ruby’s Cafe in Burkesville (18 miles north) is a great little place for breakfast or lunch along with The Bait Store in Burkesville. Just south of us at Sulpher Creek Marina is Mike’s Landing Restaurant on the pier. Now this place is altogether different in that they serve liquor but they also have a great dinner menu.

We will be here through the July 4th weekend. If you think you’d like free camping for a few months into the fall, call the park and ask for Jenny, the General Manager. I’m sure she’d be glad to talk with you.

We’ve got two other posts about our time here so far. You can read Settling in at Dale Hollow and Just a little hike to learn more about what life is like here.

When we leave July 6th we’ll be heading up to Ohio where we’ve got some medical appointments and I’ll be getting a hip replacement. By the way, my rotator cuff surgery that I had March 16th is doing great – I’ve been getting PT down here twice weekly and my range of motion and strength are coming back real good. I’m having the same surgeon doing the hip.

Our hope is to be back on the road by the 2nd or 3rd week of August and head to Oregon to meet up with 30 other rigs from our Escapees RV Club to attend the Oregon Coast Hangout.

From there we’ll slowly make our way back to our winter home at Rover’s Roost (SKP Co-Op Park) in Casa Grande, AZ by November 1st. While the Roost will be our home base in the winter, during that time we’ll spend a couple weeks in January dry camping in the desert at Quartzsite, AZ so we can join our friends at the Big Tent RV Show and then a couple more weeks during February in Mexico with our friends of Escapees Chapter 8 Mexican Connection on their annual rally.

Thanks for riding along. Stay safe, take care of yourselves and we look forward to reading any comments you might have. You can leave them in the block down below, or if you’re reading this from a Facebook link you can leave them there too.

Herb & Kathy

This is a two-part greeting. The first (and most important) part is our Christmas greeting to you, while the second part is a re-cap of our 2020 year. We sure hope you’ll take the time to read the first few paragraphs at least, and then if you’re interested in how this year has gone for us .. you can read on.

You’ll see throughout this letter that there are hyperlinks under some text. These links (if you click on them) will take you to earlier blog posts or external pages that give greater detail and photos about the subject.

Boy, what a year it’s been! Different for all of us, eh?

Kathy and I want to wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season filled with low stress, time to relax, and even in this Covid time, an opportunity to share some time with your friends and family (safely of course!)

Although we’ve all been blasted with a lot of negative statements and images this year, let’s work toward filling our own lives and of those we love with positive thoughts in the year to come.

Let’s work to not dwell on things that we have no control over and instead working to appreciate what we do have, loving those close to us, and taking steps every day to make someone else’s day just a little bit brighter.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!

NOW FOR PART TWO …

We started the year at our RV site at Rovers Roost RV Park just west of Casa Grande, Arizona. This was our second winter there and it was great to have some “down time” while enjoying meeting up with old friends again that we got to know the previous year. We also made new friends with the new leaseholders that came on board this season.

We got involved again this year by chairing the Veterans Day Recognition Lunch, the Christmas Party, the monthly Birthday Party and the New Member Orientation Committee as well as serving on the Marketing Committee. There’s always an opportunity to get involved when you’re a member of a co-op. You don’t get to just sit back and pay the rent! The more we all do, the lower our costs are and that’s one of the great advantages that make the SKP Co-Op Parks such a great value.

In mid-January, we pulled out of the park and headed about 3 hours west to Quartzite Arizona where we spent the next two weeks living in the desert.

Although there are over 100,000 others “boondocking” in the “Q” vicinity during a typical winter, the open areas are so vast that you can always find a good flat spot away from any close neighbors if you like. For the first ten days or so we chose to camp with about two hundred fellow Escapee RV Club members. We enjoyed hot breakfasts and fresh campfire coffee in the mornings, seminars and lessons during the days, and movies, music, or slide shows around the camp fire at night.

We left camp after the Big Tent RV Show was over and joined friends Brian and Jeanette along with Duane and Jean a little further east for a few days truly on our own in the middle of nowhere .. it was wonderful spot to relax, do a little hiking in the nearby hills, and enjoy evenings around the campfire.

After our January stay in the desert of western Arizona, we made our way to Potrero, California where we hooked up with about 50 other members of our RV club. From Potrero we worked our way down into the Baja California peninsula of Mexico. We spent two weeks immersing ourselves in the Mexican culture. It was a great eye-opening experience and we look forward to our next visit to Mexico.

Our time in Mexico ended in late February so we headed back to Rover’s Roost RV Park in Casa Grande for just a few days before leaving Arizona for the season and starting east on March 1st. We had reservations in an Escapee RV Club park in Bushnell, Florida for the 2nd and 3rd week of March. And when we got there, the news of Covid was everywhere.

Nobody really knew what was happening or how bad it would get. At that point, we went ahead with our plans to visit friends and family in Florida and although there were no hand shakes or hugs, I don’t remember that any of us were wearing masks at that point.

We spent our two weeks in Florida and then started making our way north toward Waynesville, North Carolina where we had a job lined up as Workampers in a small, privately owned campground nestled in the Smoky Mountains. We were to work there April, May, and June.

But as we made our way north there were lots of mixed messages coming our way via radio and TV. There were questions about whether or not it was safe to travel, whether or not any campgrounds, restaurants, or even truck stops or highway rest areas would be open. Would we be able to cross the state lines as we traveled north?

Concerned about how we might be able to proceed (or maybe be forced to stay somewhere we didn’t want to be), we decided at the last minute to cancel out our Workamping gig in North Carolina and just head on up to Ohio. We called the kids to tell them we’d be coming earlier than originally planned.

We are so thankful that Sara and Stu (who now own our old home in Ohio) are providing us with a safe and comfortable place to live. Although we had originally planned on only being here from July until late August, it’s turned into all summer, the fall, and now well into winter. The bunkhouse is working out great for us in that we have our own private little space to stay while the coach is in heated storage for the winter.

After being here for a month or so … and in order to keep from going nuts … I picked up a part-time job driving a bus for the county transportation agency. We transport clients to medical appointments and shopping. I work about 30 hours a week while Kathy “holds down the fort” taking care of the bunkhouse (and the kids house) domestic duties as well as keeping the grand-dogs company while Sara and Stu are at work.

We had, up until recently, also been preparing the evening meals over here at the bunkhouse and then the kids would join us when they got home from work. But lately, since Stu’s place of employment (a nursing home) has had an outbreak of Covid, he’s been staying away from us. So, Sara comes over and gets their meal “to go”. It’s just not the same …

Although David, Lisa, and grandson Garret live just about a mile up the road, we’ve seen them less often. David is fortunate to be able to work from home and Lisa has taken on a new job of driving one of the local Amish fellas to job sites around central Ohio. Garret is attending middle school two days a week with 3 days/week in a “virtual” classroom. He enjoys riding and working on dirt bikes, getting ready to start up a small repair shop in the barn.

Now that the election (and all subsequent lawsuits) are over, the first (and now the second) vaccine is approved for distribution, (with more on the way) and the new administration is to take office in January … we’re looking forward to a better and brighter future. Now if only we can somehow bring this nation together – I don’t know if that’s possible but it’s our hope for the future.

As I’ve written in a previous post our plan for 2021 is to leave Ohio in March and head down to Dale Hollow Lake State Resort Park in Kentucky (near Lake Cumberland) where we will serve as Camp Hosts for April, May, and June. We’ll then come back up to be with family for a week or so before heading north into Michigan. We’ll be there for a few days while we visit friends and family as well as seeing old friends we made when we worked at an RV park in Baldwin, Michigan during the summers of ’17 and ’18. I’m sure during all this we’ll still be social distancing and wearing masks.

After that, and if (and it’s a BIG IF) the Canadian border is open, we head further north into the Upper Peninsula and into Canada at Sault Saint Marie. From there we’ll start slowly making our way westward all the way over to Vancouver, British Columbia and eventually down through Washington, Oregon, northern California, Nevada and ultimatey back to Rover’s Roost by November 1st where we’ll spend our 3rd winter back again in the warm Arizona sun with our “winter brothers and sisters” at the Roost.

If Canada’s not open, we’ll instead go across the Michigan U.P. into northern Wisconsin, down into Iowa and then Missouri to visit fellow RV friends we missed this past year. Then back up to North Dakota, westward through Montana and Idaho to continue our trip down along the Pacific Coast and eventually back down to Arizona for the winter.

Where will summer of ’22 find us? Too soon to tell – a lot can happen ‘tween now and then right?

Until next time .. take care of yourself and your loved ones.

And again … here’s Herb and Kathy wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.