January 7, 2022

The first week here in Huntington Beach State Park is almost in the books. We arrived Sunday 1/2 around 3:30 PM. We got set up and no sooner entered the RV when it started to pour. We dodged a bulletin. This is our second year here so not too many items were new in Orientation. We received our name tags and vests.

Our first day to actually work was Tuesday 1/4. Work for us is to go to the office by 9:00 AM to get our list of camp sites that will be vacated that day. We drive around in our HBSP golf cart and ensure the site is clean and safe. We clean out the fire pit if needed. Then move on to the next site. The volunteer work force was revamped this past year. Last year there were to couples that worked Atalaya Castle and only one couple who cleaned the camp sites. They have since added a second couple for camp sites but have done away with the volunteers for Atalaya. Another responsibility for us is to inspect each camp site and log what we find. Fortunately this year, they are phasing out the Primitive camp sites. They are truly primitive and if you have to clean them you have to walk the ashes (sometimes water logged due to being hot) out without the advantage of having a golf cart close by. A long walk.

We met the other Hosts and discovered that Jim and Chris Mays are from Michigan. They know how to play Euchre (a Midwest card game). Wednesday night we met to have dinner and play Euchre. Great evening of fun.

The weather has been great. Today was close to 60 and sunny. Our work week is Friday thru Tuesday. We start at 9:00 AM and can end at 1:00 PM. Unless you finish earlier, like we did today. After only 2 hours of work, we were done. I know rough life, huh?

Pictures

January 1, 2022

For over a week we have been preparing to start this new year with lots of travels. It is 10:00 PM and we are finally loaded and the RV is hitched. We will have to do a few things in the morning before we leave but for the most part we are ready. We are exhausted but anxious to get underway. If you want to get in touch with us or you have questions or comments, please email us at halpinrvtravels@gmail.com. Tomorrow we will leave for Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet, SC. We will work camp for a month. We did this last year and loved it. More to come tomorrow.

In the Year 2021

The first part of 2021 was getting our medical issues taken care of. Nancy had a neck surgery and a hip surgery. I had my shoulder replaced. She recovered much quicker than I. We started to put feelers out for work camping opportunities. In addition we did a lot of research on weather and seasons. We have a large US map on our wall and we started to list and circle our “bucket list” places.

Usually in the fall, campgrounds start to work on their work camping schedules. We had already gotten a call from Huntington Beach and were initially scheduled for January and February. We received a call in the summer that they were redoing their schedule and using only 1 work camper at Atalaya and not 2, so we lost February but still had January.

Sometime in September we got a message from Fortwelikit in Custer, SD that they were interested in using us for Summer 2022. We had a phone interview and then signed our contracts. We are now committed to SD from May 1, 2022 through September 30, 2022. We will be working 4 hours a day, 3 days one week and 4 the next. This will allow us plenty of time to explore the area. So looking forward to it. So we started to plan our route trying to hit as many items on our “bucket list” as possible.

Right now we are leaving on April 12, 2022 (our 47th wedding anniversary) and going to Lexington, KY, Indianapolis, IN (to see family), Springfield, IL, Dyersville, IA, Sioux Falls, SD, and then on to Custer. After that our plans are fluid but we want to get to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. Then because of weather, we will head south. Hopefully southwest but we’ll see.

We have good friends that will meet us in Huntington Beach and camp with us for a couple of weeks. Then we had friends that were going to meet us in February but our job was cancelled. So we made reservations and are going to camp with them anyway. We then were planning on going on to Savannah, GA for a few days. Then we got a call from Skidaway Island State Park. They were interested in our possibly working for them. So we have arrangements with them to visit in February and spend 3 weeks giving it a try. If favorable, we can choose some time to work camp there, either late 2022 or 2023.

We also started to calculate weights. We’ve been told that when you travel westward it is best to have extra fuel as some fuel stations are not that close together. When adding equipment and fuel, etc. to the Ram 2500 it was going to be overweight. So we were lucky enough to find a 2021 Ram 3500, single rear wheel with a 50 gallon fuel tank.

You never know when opportunities will arise. Excited to start the retired life.!!!

Next Step

By November 2020 we wanted to go camping. We had put our travel trailer on RV Trader in March. Our goal was to sell and get a fifth wheel. During Nancy’s chemo, we had shopped for a Ram 2500 diesel and purchased one August 2017. We had good friends that raved about Huntington Beach State Park, Murrell’s Inlet, SC. November 2020 we went down for a few days. Absolutely loved the place. While there Nancy talked to a campground host and found out about work camping. Sounded like a great way to travel. We gave the Rangers our application on our way home. About 2 weeks later they called us and wanted to make sure we were serious about working for the month of January. We said yes. It was done. We were going to do our first work camping assignment at Huntington Beach State Park January 2021.

In the meantime, I had received an email from someone who wanted to look at our Cougar. We hadn’t had a lot of interest so we decided that if this couple did not purchase it we were just going to keep it. Jack and Cherry Utley showed up to look at it. They loved it and bought it. This was the first week in December. We needed to find an RV and fast.

We found a fifth wheel we really liked. A 2021 Forest River Sandpiper 38FKOK. Lots of room. January 2021 we made it to Huntington Beach. To accommodate this we had to rearrange our doctor appointments to February. When we got to Huntington Beach they asked us if we could stay for February also. Unfortunately we could not. We got a call from Muskgrove Mill State Historic Site about a work camping opportunity. We finished at Huntington Beach and went to Musgrove Mill to check it out. It didn’t feel like the right fit for us but was great to see the grounds and meet the people. From there we went on home.

Our Sandpiper

No Camper

For several years we did not go camping. We loved our new log home in a wooded addition. Still do but in 2014 I started to get the bug again. I was nearing retirement and I wanted to travel the US and see our great nation. I started watching RV shows on TV and started doing our research. I retired 1/1/2016. I was ready and counting down to Nancy’s retirement date, which I had calculated. I had a couple of years to convince her that it was the right thing to do and we could find the right RV, etc. Then life happened.

We had been looking but we currently only had a Ram 1500 truck. The first plan was to get a bigger truck and then choose the RV. In early April, Nancy went in for her yearly mammogram. She was then told that in 2 weeks she had to come back for an ultrasound. She expected the worst. Unbeknownst to her I had been researching RVs that could be pulled by my half ton truck. Her comment was that she wouldn’t get to the Grand Canyon. Monday April 17th she had the ultrasound. Tuesday morning April 18th she got the call. She had breast cancer but it was unknown at this time as to the level or severity. She said, “What are we going to do?” My reply was “do you want to go look at campers?” Off we went. That day we purchased a 2017 Keystone Cougar X-Lite 30RLI travel trailer. Cougar Pictures

Through her treatment, we were not able to get to the Grand Canyon but we did use the RV as a getaway on her good days. After 9 months of chemo, surgery, and radiation we were free to travel. We started making plans. Then November of 2019 life struck again. Nancy fell off of a ladder and fractured C-1, C-2 vertebrae. Trip was on hold again. Then Covid hit.

In The Beginning

Our RV travels start back in 1998. We explored camping when we borrowed a friend’s tent. We found it enjoyable so we purchased our own tent. Shortly after a couple more camping tents we decided we loved the tent atmosphere but not sleeping on the ground. Our backs did not like it. So we started looking at “pop-ups” or hybrid. It still would give us the feeling of a tent but the comfort of a RV.

In the winter of 97/98 we were living in Indiana. There were two annual shows at the State Fair Grounds. One was Boat, Sport, and Travel and the other was RV. We had already been to a local dealer and chose a model. A Coleman Sun Ridge. It was ideal for us except we wanted to add air conditioning and a battery for electric brake. We attended one of the shows and visited the dealer’s booth. They had a Sun Ridge set up with a big Sale price on a tent card. Keep in mind we were just “looking”. Nancy was talking to the salesman and said, “If you throw in A/C and the battery for this price, we’ll buy it.” He went off to talk to his manager. We bought our first RV.

We used it for several years. Absolutely loved it. We traded it for some labor when we built our log home in 2004. Our camping was done. We lived in a log home in the woods. In an addition but…..