Update: April 15, 2019 – We are at our next Workamping gig at the Army Corp of Engineers Park – Downstream Campground at Ft. Peck, Montana. We’ll be here the rest of April / May / June and then we’ll head on over to our next Workamping job at D.C. Booth Historic Fish Hatchery at Spearfish, SD. C’mon along ….
Welcome to our blog. I started writing posts and publishing to this blog as we departed on our maiden voyage in our (new to us) Airstream motor home.
As we traveled west and subsequently back east during the month of April 2016, I tried to take lots of pictures and post almost daily. The only time it may have been a few days between posts was due to the inability to get free and reliable internet WiFi connection.
All the posts in this blog are in chronological order with the most recent being at the top of the list. With the exception of THIS post. This post is called a “sticky” post because it stays at the top of the list all the time as a welcome and to explain some things.
So, whenever you come here, you’ll always see THIS Welcome post first, but then the next post will be the most recent that was written.
When you see BLUE text, that is a LINK. If you click on that link, you’ll be taken to another page (in a new window) to tell you a little more about what I was referencing in the post.
You can always click on any of the pictures to open them up in a larger viewer to see them more clearly
You can scroll down (and look at the right side) to see an area where you can “follow” our blog. Then you won’t have to keep coming back to see if there’s anything new, instead you’ll get an email when there’s something new posted.
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That’s it for now, we hope you enjoy visiting the blog and catching up on our travels. We look forward to when we might be able to connect “down the road”.
We’d really appreciate it if you would do us the favor of helping us continue to publish this RV / Travel / Workamping blog. Do you purchase any products from Amazon? If you do, it would be great if you’d use the link in the sidebar or one of the links below to get to Amazon … after that you can change your search. By making your Amazon purchases from our site, we will receive from Amazon a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn’t cost you any more. We’d really appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Herb & Kathy
Kathy and I spent early spring 2019 as Camp Hosts at the Fort Peck Downstream Campground – Fort Peck Montana. This is a U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) Project and our campground is just one of the recreation areas at the project which includes Fort Peck Reservoir, Fort Peck Dam and spillway, the Interpretive & Visitor Center and about a dozen other outlying recreation centers that are along the shores of the 135 mile long reservoir where visitors can use the boat ramps, picnic shelters, and camping areas.
Fort Peck Lake Montana
Campground hosts volunteer 24 hours per week to the park in exchange for their camp site and utilities. There are paid Gate Attendants to handle camper fee collection and the park has contractors who; cut the grass, clean out fire pits, and keep the restrooms and bath houses clean.
Our job as hosts are to be another set of eyes on the park when the ranger can’t be here. There are four rangers here at Fort Peck Project who are responsible for about a dozen outlying recreation areas and the Interpretive Center, so they’ve got plenty to keep them busy.
I’ve gathered some pictures to help illustrate what sorts of things we get involved in. Some of these are things we’ve been asked to do while many of these are things we’ve volunteered to do just to help out and to keep us busy.
We cleaned the inside of the Gate House
Kathy helps with a school group at the Interpretive Center
We raked leaves near the Gate House
We removed all the old flyers and posters and washed down the information kiosk
We emptied, swept, and organized the recreation shed filled with fishing poles, life vests, balls, bats, horseshoes, and lots more
We assembled 400 “Goodie Bags” for the elementary school field trips
We repaired Invertebrate “Viewing Cups” that had been damaged during previous field trips
We used the Mule to collect downed tree limbs after the winter storms
We removed old broken site number posts
And replaced them with new posts
Have chainsaw, will cut firewood
Helping Ranger Sue install a dock in the Donut Pond
After installing the dock at the donut pond
We pulled all the utility flags after the comfort station construction was completed
Kathy and I prepared the electric boats to take over to the pond for the field day kids to use
There’s lots to do here, and lots of “pieces parts” and equipment to do it with. The challenge is having enough staff to get it all done before the onslaught of visitors each spring. That’s where volunteers can help out. We can do the “little jobs” that might otherwise require time from the (4) rangers and (2) maintenance personnel on staff here at the project. That way these folks can utilize their time more wisely doing the types of jobs that their specialized training allows them to do.
One example of the specialized training I mentioned is shown in the photos below. Last year the campground received a new comfort station. The staff here at the project performed the complete operation. They poured the concrete pad for the comfort station to sit on, they did all the trenching and back fill for the supply lines, they did all the rough in plumbing and electrical, they’ll be doing all the final connections, and they will set forms and pour all the concrete curtain and approach walks.
Trenching for the power lines to the new bath house
Trenching for both power and water lines
New Comfort Station w/ private showers
Setting the form for concrete to support the electrical transformer
Setting the form for an electrical sectionalizer
Just some of the equipment these guys use to get the job done
Scott on the back hoe
Hooking up the power
Just one of the typical mundane maintenance jobs
We enjoyed our time at Fort Peck. The folks we worked with and for were very kind, professional, and courteous and they appreciated everything we did to help out.
We also made some great new friends. Dan and Bev came in early May and were contracted as the paid Gate Attendants. They’ve been full time RV’ers for 21 years!
Our new friends Dan and Bev Foster
If you have any interest in working as a volunteer in exchange for your RV site and utilities, go to www.volunteer.gov where you can search by; state, agency, and position type.
Thanks for following along and remember to visit our You Tube channel herbnkathyrv to see some of the videos we’ve published lately.
We’d really appreciate it if you would do us the favor of helping us continue to publish this RV / Travel / Workamping blog. Do you purchase any products from Amazon? If you do, it would be great if you’d use the link in the sidebar or one of the links below to get to Amazon … after that you can change your search. By making your Amazon purchases from our site, we will receive from Amazon a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn’t cost you any more. We’d really appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Herb & Kathy
Fort Peck – It’s a small town (about 250 residents) and it’s an Army Corp of Engineers “Project” that includes a dam, a campground, an Interpretive Center, and multiple fishing/boating/hunting recreation areas.
Oh, and I almost forgot … the reason all of the above is here … the Fort Peck Reservoir. The reservoir (man made lake) was formed from the Missouri River, is 135 miles long and has over 1500 miles of shoreline. It was formed in the 30’s when 10,000+ men built the world’s largest earthen dam to provide flood control for lands downstream.
For now, we want to share with you a little about why we are here, how we came to find this job in particular, and take you on a tour of the park and show you some of our duties here.
Kathy and I are volunteers … well, kind of. We travel the country volunteering our time at campgrounds and RV parks in exchange for the rent and utilities on our site. We generally provide the park 12-15 hours a week and they give us a full hook-up (elec, water, sewer) site along with utilities. Sometimes we also receive; laundry money, free WiFi and cable TV hook-up, and discounts on purchases from the camp store or nearby attractions.
This arrangement offers us an opportunity to travel and see the country, meet all kinds of wonderful new people and experience new situations in all kinds of environments that we otherwise would not be able to see and do on our limited budget.
It offers the campground owner/operator free part-time employees for no cash outlay, only the loss of rental income for a couple RV sites that might often be vacant anyway. Another benefit: typically there is no employment contract or agreement to sign – only a handshake agreement. It’s called bartering. And it works well for us and the campground owner.
How we came to show up here ..
We knew that part of our “Bucket List” included a lot of the national parks and monuments out west, so we decided we’d search for jobs in that area.
Although we subscribe, either for a small annual fee or sometimes for free, to many of the Workamping web sites and have our resume’ published on a lot of them, there is also another great source for finding government related jobs and volunteer positions. I logged on to Volunteer.gov and followed the easy instructions to search for Campground Host (volunteer) positions available in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. I filled out the online application and with just a few mouse clicks submitted our app to probably 40 or so parks in that five state area.
Within a week or two we started getting emails and phone calls from campground managers and rangers throughout the 5 state area. We chose to come to Fort Peck because we were already committed to South Dakota for July, August, and September and Ranger Scott here at Fort Peck was willing to work with our schedule. We left our leased RV lot in Casa Grande Arizona on April 1st and showed up at Fort Peck on April 15 just after the snow melted.
It’s been fascinating to learn about the local history. The town of Fort Peck was built by the corp to support the nearly 50,000 people that would come here to work on the building of the dam over the 10+ year period of 1930 to 1941. There were as many as 11,000 men working on the dam at any one time during that period and eight men lost their lives during “the Big Slide” of 1938 and are permanently entombed in the dam to this day.
To learn more about the dam building and how the town and local area and people from far and wide prospered during the depression, I encourage you to follow this link to visit the PBS web site with some great pictures from the era and a video about the building of the dam.
Our Camp Host Site on day one – April 15th The theatre operated 24/7 during construction of the dam with newsreels, movies and live plays to entertain the workers and their families and still offers summer plays to locals and visitors to the area.The Northeast Montana Veterans Memorial Park in the center of townThe world’s largest earthen dam, 4 miles long, 3/4 mile wide at the base, and 250′ tall. The Spillway located 3 miles east of the dam. Yes, that’s ice on the downstream sideThe Interpretive Center contains displays information on the dam, local paleontology, and local fish and wildlife along with an educational movie theatre
There was a T-Rex discovered here (now on display at the Smithsonian) with a full-size replica here in the Interpretive Center.
The Fort Peck T-Rex in the Interpretive Center
Here’s a video that gives a tour of the campground and some of the surrounding area along with a little bit of what we’ve been doing at the park these first couple of weeks.
10 minute video on the Downstream Campground – Fort Peck Montana
Thanks for riding along and visiting. We’re having fun and intend to keep posting to share a little of our time here. Please leave any comments below and be sure to subscribe to our You Tube channel so you always get the latest videos as soon as they are published. I usually try to make the videos available here via the blog as well.
Until next time, best wishes to you and yours from HerbnKathy
We’d really appreciate it if you would do us the favor of helping us continue to publish this RV / Travel / Workamping blog. Do you purchase any products from Amazon? If you do, it would be great if you’d use the link in the sidebar or one of the links below to get to Amazon … after that you can change your search. By making your Amazon purchases from our site, we will receive from Amazon a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn’t cost you any more. We’d really appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Herb & Kathy
After our three days and nights at the Sweetwater Events Center (fair grounds @ Rock Springs Wyoming) we made our way further east on I-80 and then up U.S. 287 through Muddy Gap and around Casper, then up I-25 to Powder River Campgrounds at Kaycee, Wyoming.
Honestly, the only reason we went to Kaycee was because the camping was cheap, it would be a full hook-up site, and they had a laundry. We are members of Passport America and the PA web site showed Kaycee as the closest member park and as a result we are able to stay for $20/night which is 1/2 the normal non-member rate of $40 nightly.
There was one other camper there, but we never saw any occupants
We were cheerily welcomed by the on-site park manager Deneene and she welcomed us to the area, gave us a full hook-up pull-through site and proceeded to tell us a little about the town and especially the Bronc Riding School that would be happening the next two days across the street at the local fair grounds.
Turns out that Kaycee is famous for producing professional rodeo stars – over a dozen have come from this sleepy little town to go on to earn their living as professional national rodeo stars.
Here’s an excerpt from a local paper explaining the phenomenon;
The following is an excerpt from PATRICK SCHMIEDT Star-Tribune staff writer Jul 13, 2006
Blend a supportive community, a heavy dose of history and a simple case of boredom, and it shouldn’t have been too surprising to see five Kaycee competitors in Wednesday’s performance at the Central Wyoming Rodeo.
The small town of about 250 people an hour north of Casper has produced more successful cowboys than most towns 100 times its size. But none of the five competitors in Wednesday’s performance has completely figured out why.
Morgan Forbes, a 23-year-old saddle bronc rider looking for a return trip to the National Finals Rodeo, attributes the success of Kaycee cowboys, in part, to boredom.
“There’s not much else to do out in Kaycee,” he said.
As for Jeremy Ivie, who, at 29, moved to Kaycee five years ago from Duchesne, Utah, it’s all the “old guys” in town who help foster rodeo success. After all, the names of rodeo families in and around the town are familiar in rodeo circles: Forbes. Graves. LeDoux. Sandvick. Scolari. Shepperson. Orchard. Jarrard. Latham.
Dusty Orchard, a 25-year-old bull rider, said the town is a “coffee shop,” where the residents applaud when a hometown cowboy does well and offer a twinkle-eyed razzing when there is more disappointment than success.
Or, as Orchard suggested, it may be because Kaycee doesn’t have a football team to rally behind. Instead, the community rallies around rodeo.
Actually, it’s a combination of those ingredients that blend the perfect atmosphere for the sport, an atmosphere that has helped to produce about a dozen competitors – around five percent of the town’s residents – solid enough to maintain current careers on the professional rodeo circuit.
“If you want to rodeo, it’s the greatest place in the world to grow up,” said saddle bronc rider Sandy Forbes, Morgan’s older brother. ” … It’s just what we do.”
“If you’re wanting to be somewhere that supports rodeo, that’s the town,” she said.
We decided to stay another night and that afternoon after the Bronc School an Airstream trailer pulled in next to us and we met Angie and Bunny who were traveling to Yellowstone (to work) from Indiana. We enjoyed a nice chicken dinner with them that night at a local restaurant.
Kathy in the laundry
The “Invasion” bar and cafe
Our breakfast menu next morning
My bacon ‘n cheese omelette
Statue of Chris LeDoux
Statue memorializing Chris LeDoux
The Village Park honoring local hero Chris LeDoux
Our new friends Angie & Bunny (and dog)
It was a real treat for these two city-slickers lemme tell ‘ya. We got to see a “stampede” of a hundred horses go by us on the bridge that we could’ve reached out and touched. Add to that watching these young kids get bucked off the broncs as their seniors trained them to ride ’em.
Check out the video below for the full story.
Thanks for riding along. We appreciate that you stop to take the time to read and come along with us on our adventure. Please leave a comment or two down the page in the comments section – What do you think of these kids being bucked off the horse?
We’d really appreciate it if you would do us the favor of helping us continue to publish this RV / Travel / Workamping blog. Do you purchase any products from Amazon? If you do, it would be great if you’d use the link in the sidebar or one of the links below to get to Amazon … after that you can change your search. By making your Amazon purchases from our site, we will receive from Amazon a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn’t cost you any more. We’d really appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Herb & Kathy
We’d really appreciate it if you would do us the favor of helping us continue to publish this RV / Travel / Workamping blog. Do you purchase any products from Amazon? If you do, it would be great if you’d use the link in the sidebar or one of the links below to get to Amazon … after that you can change your search. By making your Amazon purchases from our site, we will receive from Amazon a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn’t cost you any more. We’d really appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Herb & Kathy
There was a nasty winter storm coming in, so as we traveled we decided we had better find a place to park that had reliable electric, water, and sewer.
We really appreciated the hospitality of our new friend Kevin allowing us to park at his 110 year old schoolhouse at Hinkley, Utah but with the storm heading our way, we would be a lot more comfortable with a full hook-up site.
We decided to skip the Elks Lodge in Salt Lake City and keep heading up I-15, take I-80 east and on into Rock Springs, Wyoming.
Rock Springs offered us the Sweetwater Events Complex (which is also the Sweetwater County Fairgrounds) and they have 1200 full hook-up sites and offer Escapee RV Club members a 25% discount on camping fees. We were glad to have outrun the storm and ready to hunker down for 2 or 3 days.
Heavy wet snow on the mirror
We are nearly the only ones here
More snow on the car
We made it just in time. 1200 spots, only about 4 or 5 others occupied … and the slushy snow started coming down. We were glad to be off the road safe and dry.
Our Escapees RV Club is having their annual “Escapade” at Rock Springs in June of 2020, so we decided to give our club members (via Facebook) a little early invite!
As the afternoon and evening went on, we saw more and more other “campers” coming in. At first I thought everyone was just trying to get off the road, but I quickly realized these were nearly all horse trailers. By the next morning, we were surrounded by lots of families in their “horse RV’s”. These rigs were BIG and had plenty of room for maybe a half dozen horses, a tack room, and living quarters for the family.
The next morning we found ourselves surrounded by horse trailers
As it turned out, this Friday Saturday and Sunday was a youth rodeo. In this part of the country, the kids go to school four days a week and Friday and the weekends are reserved for rodeo and work on the family farm/ranch.
We went on in to the arena to see the kids compete. They’re all timed and judged on technique.
One of the contestants gives it a try
The other interesting event going on there was a 3 day pool tournament. I’ve never given this sport a thought I guess … and when I finally did think about it, I figured pool players were probably bar patrons that just play pool for something social to do at the local bar. But evidently, it’s a big thing in Wyoming! I asked if this was a regional or state-wide tournament and the response was “no – it’s just a local thing”
Yes, that’s 48 pool tables!
We were fascinated by the fact that they bring in FORTY-EIGHT pool tables for this 3 day event – and I’m guessing pool tables are certainly not easy to transport, assemble, and level!
But the really wonderful part of this stay was the new friends we made. When we were at Ruby’s Campground at Bryce Canyon we met (online via RVillage.com) other campers Mike and Judy. We had just checked in at Bryce and they were just heading out. We talked about our travel plans and it seemed we were pretty much on the same path.
When we pulled in to Sweetwater / Rock Springs Mike and Judy were already there! We walked on over to their rig and had a nice visit at their place that afternoon, staying inside in the warmth and out of the rain and slush
The next day the four of us climbed in our car and made a “road trip” to Flaming Gorge Reservoir and Dam. We saw a lot of beautiful country, learned a little about each other and our families and had a lot of laughs during the drive and over lunch at a local cafe. Mike and Judy are also full-time RV’ers, originally from Florida and have been on the road just about the same amount of time as we have.
Clicking on any of the smaller thumbnail images will always bring up a larger view.
Our new friends Mike & Judy
Flaming Gorge Dam
These guys were at the table next to us at the restaurant
Our lunch stop restaurant
A roadside overlook
Flaming Gorge Dam
Judy just had to taste the snow (they’re from Florida)
Is this an awesome view or what?
After the 3rd night at Rock Springs, we decided the roads were clear and dry so we continued our trek north and east toward Fort Peck, Montana.
AND THEN TRAGEDY STRUCK!
Our next stop for the night was to be Kaycee, Wyoming. We were running low on fuel, so we stopped in to Flying J Travel Center at Rawlins, Wyoming.
Our stop for diesel fuel at Rawlins Wyoming (south of Casper)
After we filled with diesel (and propane), time to turn the key and move on north … and crap! Crank crank crank …. but no ignition. A sinking feeling came over me – what could it be? It’s a diesel so I know there’s no spark to be concerned about .. no ignition coil … no spark plugs or wires, but it could be a fuel pump .. or something a whole lot worse.
We have emergency roadside assistance through FMCA, Escapees, and CoachNet but we were stuck here blocking the pumps and I really wanted to get help soon so we could get a diagnosis and hopefully continue moving on down the road.
Right next door to Flying J was a truck/auto repair shop called “Boss Shop“. I walked on over and even though their mechanic was in the middle of another job, he was kind enough to take the time and walk on over to our place to check it out.
He determined it was indeed not getting any fuel and went back to the shop to get a new replacement fuel filter / water separator. He (Jamesen) was back in record time, and replaced the filter.
I had to crank the engine quite a bit to get the fuel line primed as our 2002 engine has a mechanical fuel pump whereas the newer diesel engines utilize an electrical fuel pump – which would only necessitate turning the key “on” to energize the pump.
My new Best Friend Diesel Mechanic Jamesen (also known as JT)
So although we had another “bump in the road”, we were saved by the good work and kindness of others and were quickly heading further north.
Stay tuned for our next post “A Sleepy Little Town”. Thanks for riding along and we invite your comments down the page. See you next time!
We’d really appreciate it if you would do us the favor of helping us continue to publish this RV / Travel / Workamping blog. Do you purchase any products from Amazon? If you do, it would be great if you’d use the link in the sidebar or one of the links below to get to Amazon … after that you can change your search. By making your Amazon purchases from our site, we will receive from Amazon a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn’t cost you any more. We’d really appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Herb & Kathy
As we travel north to Montana, we are constantly blessed by the natural beauty that surrounds us.
Kathy and I were born and raised in the midwest and the beauty we saw there was in the Great Lakes, especially Lake Michigan shoreline along northwestern Michigan. If you haven’t spent any time in Michigan, you must do yourself a favor and take a driving tour along Michigan’s northwest coast.
But the scenery we’ve been exposed to these last few months has been so colorful, so impressive and awe-inspiring that I just had to share a few pictures here.
This is a short video showing the landscape up RT 89 north of Congress AZ where we spent our first night at the Escapees North Ranch RV Park.
An overlook of Congress, AZ just across from the Yarnell Memorial to the Granite Mountain HotShots – Nineteen men who lost their lives on June 30, 2013
Our second stop wasn’t really “natural” but man-made. When you take in how massive this project is and what man created here … that alone is beauty in it’s own right.
Looking from pedestrian bridge on Rt 93 to the downstream side
Looking from the Lake Mead side
Inside one of the powerhouses
Hoover Dam is an arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Hoover Dam is 726 feet high. It is 650 feet thick at the bottom and 45 feet thick at the top. The purpose of the Hoover Dam is for power, silt and flood control, irrigation, and water for both industrial and domestic use. When Hoover Dam was finished in 1936 it was the world’s largest hydroelectric power station. The four intake towers (penstocks) on the north side of the dam take in water from Lake Mead and feed up to 91,000 gallons (each) of water per SECOND to feed the two banks of seventeen hydroelectric generators that produce over 2,000 megawatts of capacity and produce a yearly average generation of 4.5 billion kilowatt hours to serve the annual electrical needs of nearly 8 million people in Arizona, southern California, and southern Nevada.
One of the most interesting facts I learned about Hoover Dam (originally called Boulder Dam) is that the design included a HUGE refrigeration plant to cool the concrete as it cured. We were told during our tour that had they not provided artificial cooling to the concrete it could have taken a hundred years or more to cool and cure correctly so as to avoid premature cracking and failure.
Here’s a few pictures of Lake Mead and Hoover Dam showing how much lower the water level is than it was in the past. (It’s gone down 75′ in the last twenty years)
Remember, clicking on any of the individual images below will open a larger view.
Lake Mead from a distance
Shows a water intake port
Man walking his dog on the beach
Downstream side of Hoover Dam with Lake Mead in the background
The upstream side of the dam as water from Lake Mead is held back
Here’s a view from one of the overlooks at Lake Mead showing the marina. You can see how much lower the lake has become in recent years.
As we headed north from Boulder City Nevada and Hoover Dam, our next stop was Zion National Park.
We actually parked the coach at Ruby’s Campground at Bryce Canyon and then took the car to visit Zion National Park and Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab Utah.
Our site at Ruby’s in Bryce
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
The main building at Best Friends
Unfortunately, we were unaware that you had to call ahead and make reservations for a tour at Best Friends, so all we were able to do is visit the Visitor Center and take a drive through part of the grounds and see a few horses. They have tens of thousands of acres and lead tours in small vans – something we’d still like to do but just ran out of time (and daylight) the day we were there. Click on the video below of a waterfall in Zion — it’ll zoom right in on the source.
A waterfall at Zion National Park
We came back to the coach, spent a second night at Ruby’s and then went on to visit Bryce Canyon National Park the next day. We could take the main road about 12 miles into the park after which the path was closed due to roads blocked by the snow. It would take a few more days/weeks of nice weather to get to the point that the park would be totally open to visitors.
But what we were able to see was Oh So Impressive! (click on any pix for a larger view)
After visiting Bryce, we took a drive over to Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.
The next morning we hooked up the car to the back of the coach and left Bryce continuing our trek north. We decided not to stop at Salt Lake City, but instead continue on to Rock Springs, Wyoming where we new there was a county fair grounds and event center with 1200 full hook-up sites (water, sewer, electric) and we knew there was a pretty hefty winter storm coming our way. We knew we could hook up and “hunker down” at Rock Springs if we needed to for a few days.
The “Toad” and the bikes on the back of the coach
We’ll tell you more about that in our next post. ’til then …. thanks so much for riding along. I just wanted to share with you some of the amazing beauty we’re seeing out west.
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We’d really appreciate it if you would do us the favor of helping us continue to publish this RV / Travel / Workamping blog. Do you purchase any products from Amazon? If you do, it would be great if you’d use the link in the sidebar or one of the links below to get to Amazon … after that you can change your search. By making your Amazon purchases from our site, we will receive from Amazon a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn’t cost you any more. We’d really appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Herb & Kathy
We’ve really enjoyed using our Boondockers Welcome membership to stay in new and unique places and meet all kinds of interesting folks.
This week, on our way from Arizona to Montana where we will be camp hosting for a couple months at an Army Corp of Engineer campground, we utilized our “BW” membership to once again camp in a driveway of “Friends We Haven’t Met Yet”.
This time was a little different than all the others we’ve stayed at. This time we stayed in a schoolyard!
The old Millard LDS Academy (1910-1923)
Our host was Kevin Caldwell. Kevin and his wife have owned the school property for 8 years now and have been continually restoring it in hopes of one day opening it as a Bed & Breakfast / Event Center and meeting place for the benefit of the community.
The school was completed in 1910 and was originally used as the Millard Latter Day Saints Academy until 1923 when it then became the Hinkley (Utah) High School until 1953.
Over the years the school has been purchased and sold several times and various business ventures have come and gone. In the mid-1970s the Hinckley Elementary School made use of the academy building. It even served as a disco around 1978. The disco, called The Total Eclipse, operated for only about 18 months. In the 1980s, a swimming pool and water slide were built and soon closed again.
Kevin and his wife (whom we didn’t have the opportunity to meet – she was out of town working) along with his teenage children and occasional local labor have done a TON (or five) of work including; removing all the old wood shake roof and installing all new plywood sheeting, felt paper and shingles, stripping all the interior walls of plaster and lathe and building out the inside of the exterior walls with 2X6 studs so that they can be packed with insulation, and installing, taping, and mudding all new drywall.
But before the new drywall could be installed first they gutted all the old “knob & tube” electrical wiring and rewired the entire building to present code, installed all new plumbing throughout including all fresh and waste water lines, installed new gas lines to supply the (3) new gas forced air furnaces (with 4 more to come), and installed extensive solar panels on the gymnasium building adjacent to the main school building.
During the first five years of the project Kevin and his family lived in their Montana 5th Wheel trailer on the property. They were able to move in to the building 3 years ago.
Both Kevin and his wife have full time jobs and they still have 4 children at home to raise and nurture. Part of that nurturing is teaching them a good solid work ethic and helping on the schoolhouse gives them plenty of opportunity to help out, learn new skills, and learn to appreciate their personal accomplishments.
The gymnasium (at this point) only hosts the solar system. Work on the rest of the building will only commence once the main schoolhouse is completed
It was a real treat having the opportunity to meet Kevin and part of their family and see all the work they’re doing to restore this grand old property.
We want to thank them for hosting us and giving us a tour of their project and we wish them all the luck in the future as their dream comes to fruition.
Our rig parked next to the gymnasium. Kell and Karen also pulled in this afternoon and have their rig parked right behind us.
Thanks for riding along with us. If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to our blog by entering your email address in the block on the right above – that way you’ll be sent an email each time we publish a new post.
We’d really appreciate it if you would do us the favor of helping us continue to publish this RV / Travel / Workamping blog. Do you purchase any products from Amazon? If you do, it would be great if you’d use the link in the sidebar or one of the links below to get to Amazon … after that you can change your search. By making your Amazon purchases from our site, we will receive from Amazon a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn’t cost you any more. We’d really appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Herb & Kathy
We see so many references to “cooking with my Instant Pot”, it seems to be the new craze. (Or maybe not NEW anymore, I’m sure there’s some other new kitchen gadget out by now – We’re just behind the times.)
In any event, we really do love our Instant Pot. Thanks to our son and daughter-in-law (David and Lisa) who gave us our Instant Pot (IP) for Christmas a couple years ago, we are now fans as well.
We have to admit .. it was kind of intimidating at first. But as we experimented we came to really appreciate the; convenience, the speed, how easy it cleans up, and how thoroughly it cooks our meat and veggies through and through. It’s a very precise cooker, being controlled by a microprocessor so the cooking is highly repeatable. Just set HI, MED, or LOW and set the time, then push START. It’ll tell you when it’s up to pressure, when it starts timing, and when it’s done! Easy-Peazy..
We enjoy cooking (and eating); cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, corn on the cob, Acorn Squash, zuchinni, Spaghetti Squash, chicken (tenderloins, breasts, thighs) beef or pork ribs. And if we’re going to a pot luck, we even take homemade potato salad where you cook the potatoes AND the eggs together in less than 5 minutes!
But here’s a video on my favorite dish. Simple as can be and there are links at the bottom of the video to purchase any of the products featured in the video.
Full Disclaimer – By making your Amazon purchases from our site, we will receive from Amazon a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn’t cost you any more. We’d really appreciate your help. Thank you, Herb & Kathy
If you don’t already have an IP, and if you’re like us and don’t have a lot of counter room, the IP cooker is ideal in that you can load it up, lock the top and then with one hand, you can easily set it on the floor to cook.
We live in our motor home full-time. We had precious little table and/or counter space and having the ability to set this device on the floor just below the front of the fridge frees up table and counter space so we can prepare our salad while the main course is cooking.
So take a look and I suggest buying the original Instant Pot rather than a less expensive imitation. You’ll be glad you did … if you use it. Like anything else, if it sits on your counter or in a cupboard and doesn’t get used – then it’s worthless.
We’d really appreciate it if you would do us the favor of helping us continue to publish this RV / Travel / Workamping blog. Do you purchase any products from Amazon? If you do, it would be great if you’d use the link in the sidebar or one of the links below to get to Amazon … after that you can change your search. By making your Amazon purchases from our site, we will receive from Amazon a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn’t cost you any more. We’d really appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Herb & Kathy
As members of the Escapees RV Club, Kathy and I attended our 2nd “Escapade” this past week. The first one we attended was in Essex Junction (Burlington area), Vermont back in summer of 2016. This year’s Escapade was in Tucson at the Pima County Fairgrounds.
Aerial View of The RV Park at Pima County Fairgrounds
The annual Escapade is held in different locations around the country. 2018 was in Sedalia, Missouri while next year’s event will be held in Rock Springs, Wyoming. Holding the rally in different locations allows club members in different areas of the country to attend without having to travel extreme distances.
The rally is an opportunity to; renew friendships with other travelers you haven’t seen in a long while, enjoy some great regional food, attend as many as 10 or 15 informational seminars scheduled over a 4 day period, visit the Marketplace where vendors of RV equipment and supplies display and sell their products, take a tour of nearly 100 new and used RV’s on the lot, and attendees can even volunteer as shuttle cart drivers, hospitality hosts, parking attendants, morning coffee crew members, and lots of other opportunities.
Here are some pictures of various parts of the event. We took over the Pima County Fairgrounds with 830 recreational vehicles (RV’s) and just about 2500 attendees.
As usual, if you click on any of the individual pictures below, it will open into a larger image so you can see more detail.
Our home for the week
One of the vendors on the Midway selling loading equipment
RV’s come in all years and sizes
The main hall with coffee area, registration, member services, and marketplace down at the end
Part of the Opening Ceremony
I especially like this Prevost bus along with the vintage VW bus
Enjoying each evening’s entertainment
The “American Rogues” Celtic Band
Listening to a seminar on Lithium batteries by Sue Valentine
More vintage bus RV’s
Taking in a few of the free Margaritas at the new RV display (by RV Country)
Kathy’s Zumba Workout
Taking in a seminar on RV Safety
Connie & Dennis sharing good times with Kathy
Creativity at the Chili Cookoff
Morning coffee & Donuts
Guess Who?
Dillon with ShadePro fixing our patio awning
Ham Radio operator and avid RV’er
Sunset on the grounds
Quick look over the polo field parking area
Here’s a couple videos of the evening entertainment. This evening’s video features “The American Rogues” (Sorry the audio is not nearly as impressive as it was at the live presentation). You could feel the drums beating and the rafters shaking.
The American Rogues
Here’s a video of the “Redhead Express” – and 5 of these 6 band members are siblings!
The Redhead Express
Thanks for coming along. We are blessed to be able to live the full-time RV lifestyle and we hope you enjoy riding along with us on our adventures.
We’d really appreciate it if you would do us the favor of helping us continue to publish this RV / Travel / Workamping blog. Do you purchase any products from Amazon? If you do, it would be great if you’d use the link in the sidebar or one of the links below to get to Amazon … after that you can change your search. By making your Amazon purchases from our site, we will receive from Amazon a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn’t cost you any more. We’d really appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Herb & Kathy
It’s March 18, 2019 and we are currently parked at the Pima County (Tucson, AZ) Fairgrounds with about 2000 other Escapee RV Club members enjoying the annual Escapade national gathering.
One of the evening entertainment sessions at 59th Escapade – Tucson, AZ
Since we “hit the road” and started our full-time RV lifestyle in late 2016, we had been Workamping our way around the country. We work at campgrounds or RV parks offering about 15-20 hours per week in exchange for rent-free living at the park and it typically includes all our utilities, cable TV, wifi, laundry and sometimes discounts at the park store or nearby attractions.
But being members of the Escapees RV Club, we were able to take advantage of getting on a “Wait List” for any of their parks. We put our names on the Wait List for the parks in; Wauchula FL, Hondo TX, Casa Grande AZ, Benson AZ, and Pahrump NV. We figured whichever park had our name at the top of the list first (waiting lists are often many years long), that’s the park we’d call “home” for the winter.
In addition to having a place to winter regularly, the “home base” would provide us a place to go at very little additional cost (only electric and propane) to be should we need a lengthy stay for say, recovery from a medical procedure – planned or otherwise.
As it turned out, we rose to the top of the list at Rover’s Roost in late 2017, accepted the lifetime lease agreement, continued our Workamping commitments for spring, summer, and fall of 2018, and then arrived here November 1st to be “on vacation” for the winter months.
We’ve spent a very relaxing and enjoyable winter at our leased lot at the Escapees Rover’s Roost RV Park in Casa Grande, AZ. I’ll share more with you in later posts about our time here at “The Roost” both having fun with our new friends along with some of the projects we’ve completed to our “home on the road”.
Our winter home at Rover’s Roost RV Park at Casa Grande, AZ
But now it’s early spring and it’s time to leave “The Roost” for the summer season (it gets WAY too hot here) and head north to cooler climates.
This year, we are heading to Montana to work at an Army Corp of Engineers campground as Park Hosts. We’ll be at Ft. Peck Dam Downstream Campground for 3 months (April, May, and June) and then we will move a little east to our next Workamping commitment at DC Booth Historic Fish Hatchery in Spearfish South Dakota working as visitor center and museum employees. We’ll be there July, August, and September.
Here’s a map of our trip north next month. This is subject to change as we have over 120 places on our Bucket List and we’ll try to hit many of them along the way, even if it takes us off track a hundred miles or so. We’re not in any big hurry to get north, we’ll hopefully just follow the spring thaw!
If you’d like to check up on us as we travel and see where we are at any given moment in time, you can just go to www.aprs.fi and type my ham radio license number WB8BHK-9 into the Search box and it’ll return a Google map with our exact location at that moment. We’d love for you to follow along!
I admit I’ve been a bit lax the last few months and haven’t posted blog entries as often as I would have liked to. I’ll work to improve my postings as we travel north and we appreciate you following along.
Oh, by the way …. we’ve designed a new logo to market our brand. Whatta ‘ya think?
We’d really appreciate it if you would do us the favor of helping us continue to publish this RV / Travel / Workamping blog. Do you purchase any products from Amazon? If you do, it would be great if you’d use the link in the sidebar or one of the links below to get to Amazon … after that you can change your search. By making your Amazon purchases from our site, we will receive from Amazon a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn’t cost you any more. We’d really appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Herb & Kathy
NOTE: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
