Tag: bicycle

Fun For All Ages @ Spearfish

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Friends, Traveling, Volunteering, Working

We’ve had a wonderful time here in the Black Hills of South Dakota this summer and early fall. We continue to enjoy working at DC Booth Historic National Hatchery, along with taking in all the other attractions that the Black Hills area has to offer, and spending lots of leisure time with all our new friends we’ve made here at the hatchery.

We sit around the campfire nearly every night to share stories and learn about each other

Besides all that, you’ve probably seen my post about the Sturgis Bike Rally that took place here in early August and now this month (Labor Day weekend) the happening things here include the 18th annual “Dakota Five O” bicycle race/ride/tour AND the 8th annual Spearfish City Campground Boat Race (down the Spearfish Creek) for the little ones.

We had a great time taking in both this past weekend and I shot some video to share with you. Check it out below,

The daily visitor count at the hatchery has really slowed down now that the Labor Day weekend has passed and now we can actually stand out in front of our rig at the campground and see clear through the aisles to two or three streets over! There are maybe 15 or so other campers besides the 10 of us volunteer rigs parked in Volunteer Village along the north edge of the campground. The leaves on the trees are JUST started to turn and it’s evident that fall is quickly approaching.

The weather man this morning said it’ll be in the 60’s next week. Brrrr!

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Workamping at Pere Marquette RV Park – Baldwin Mich

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Camping, Traveling, Working

We’re coming to the end of our first year as full-time RV’ers and Kathy and I have taken stock of the decision we made to leave the stix-n-bricks world of home ownership and hit the road as Workampers.

We left our family and friends back in Ohio on Labor Day 2016 and headed west to Arizona for our first Workamping experience.  This position was for Sept 15th to March 15th, 2017.  I’ve written many posts about our experiences while working in Arizona, you can find them elsewhere on this blog.  Here’s a link to a post on our workamping experience there.

We had a great time and made some great new friendships there and we’d like to go back to Arizona again in the near future.  If you’re contemplating visiting Arizona, we highly recommend the central portion of the state near cities like Cottonwood, Camp Verde, Clarkdale, Sedona, & Jerome.

Central Arizona – Not too hot in the summer, not too cold in the winter

These spots are far enough north of Phoenix to be a little cooler and less looking like desert, but in the winter you’re far enough south of cities like Flagstaff so the chances of snow are pretty slim.

Our 2nd and most recent gig is where we’re presently working and about to depart from (Sept 15th).  We’ve had the pleasure of working at Pere Marquette Oaks RV Resort in (of all places) BALDWIN, Michigan.

Baldwin, MI

This video below takes you on a bicycle tour of the park.  It’s a beautiful lush green RV park full of towering oak trees, an in-ground heated pool, hot tub, picnic pavilion, laundry room, and club house.

We don’t have to park new arrivals, answer the phone, or take reservations.  There is a rental manager for that.  Kathy and I are responsible for maintaining the rest rooms, showers, pool, hot tub, club house and laundry areas.

Take the tour and find out a little more.

Although it’s only been a year, we’ve come to realize that we are really enjoying this lifestyle change.  We have sold our home in Ohio (to our daughter and son-in-law), and will be registering as Texas residents this winter when we are there for our next (winter) workamping position.  Texas is viewed by “those in the know” as one of the 3 best states to domicile in for full-time RV’ers.

We hope to continue this lifestyle as long as our health allows and recommend to anyone considering some sort of lifestyle change to think about hitting the road in an RV and workamping along the way, both to help keep active and contribute to the household budget.  We look for employers/positions that ask for about 10-20 hours per week in exchange for a full hook-up site along with water, sewer, electric, cable, wifi, and laundry allowance.  We don’t want to work 40 hours+, we’ve been there / done that.

Thanks for reading … don’t be afraid to ask questions …we’d love to hear from you.