Working the dream life for 16+ years.
This week started our first real Workamping gig at Safe Harbor Animal Rescue in Maysville, North Carolina. We’ll get to talking about that soon. But today, we went out exploring on our day off, to secure provisions and check out the nearest big city, New Bern.
Our route included a stop at the Piggly Wiggly.
Carol would call this one a Back Track … one of the hardest things about trying to blog about our travels is trying to keep everything current when there is so much to see and do. Hell, there is still stuff I could write about from way back in Colorado. At least this one only goes back a few weeks to my birthday dinner.
Rene got off easy this year. I was a cheap date. All I wanted was a to take the day off from driving and do nothing, other than barbecue myself a steak. So the day before – on Halloween – we went to the Blacksburg Farmers Market for some fresh produce, in search of some local meat. Having never seen cattle ranchers at a farmers market until we got to the East Coast, I was feeling lucky. And I struck gold, or black rather, as in Angus.
Are you a trip planner? Before you go on vacation, do you put together an itinerary (“On Wednesday, we’re going to play mini golf and have fun, dammit!â€), and chart your exact course on your GPS (“At Exit 25 we’ll stop and have lunchâ€)?
I used to be a planner. I thought that the more organized I was for a vacation, the better it would be. I would waste hours on the web, researching every detail about where we were going. Then I’d chart out a Plan B, just in case.
This would guarantee that our precious vacation time was the best it could be, right?
One of the best parts about this trip has been getting to know people, and hearing their unique stories. Sometimes, we meet people who have overcome so much adversity in life, it makes us ashamed to have ever felt an ounce of self-pity over our own trivial challenges.
Last weekend, we met such a person. Well, a family really. While staying at the McDowell Nature Reserve outside of Charlotte, we met Annette Protani and five of her six kids who were camped out next to us. Annette and her kids started calling their RV home when they left Houston back in August, in search of a new town in which to lay down some roots.
By the time I was about to write about dropping off my Powerbook at the Charlotte Apple Store for repairs, they had already called to say it was ready to be picked up. This came as a pleasant surprise considering they said it would take five to seven days to be fixed at the service center in Texas.
So our stay in Asheville – a few hours away, in the Smoky Mountain foothills – was cut a bit short, but the couple days we did have there was plenty to get a feel for the area.
This little wrench in the works also gave us time to realize we never care to live our lives along an interstate corridor. As we criss-crossed North Carolina, the incredible population density and mass consumption of this country became remarkably clear.
When we first decided to live in an RV, one of my first thoughts was: how the heck will I maintain my hair color? Not that I’m a high maintenance brunette, but I’m too vain to let those pesky gray roots show through yet, so I zap ’em with hair dye once a month.
I’ve always done my color. But, since going on the road, I’ve gone to hair salons. But each time, the stylist left me with hair that was too light, or too dark.
I kept getting irritated that the hair colorists couldn’t get it right. So recently, I surrendered and decided to do it myself.
Jim reviews Famous Anthony’s restaurant in Christiansburg, VA and reflects on his stay in Virginia
If you’re a real foodie like Jim and I are, be aware that gourmet cooking in an RV can be a challenge. Not impossible (especially if your rig is large), but as we have discovered, making our favorite recipes while living with an RV kitchen requires some patience and creativity.
It’s simple; in a rig our size, there isn’t enough room to carry all of the spices, appliances and utilities that one needs to prepare certain foods. Since hitting the road, we have had some interesting times in the kitchen;
When we started fulltiming, we knew that we wanted to look for a “Workamper” arrangement. Workamping is generally a situation where a person or couple gets to assist in campground or RV park duties, hosting, etc., in exchange for a great campsite where they can park their rig. The work can be as challenging as one wants; from 12 hours a week greeting visitors, to being full time and working on a construction or maintenance team. Along with perks like free propane, hookups or laundry room access, sometimes an hourly wage or stipend is also included.
Since our schedule is wide open for the next year, we have begun our Workamper campaign. Here is our resume that we are sending to prospective employers:
Jim discovers there is no Wawa store in Mawah, NJ.
Seems that many folks aren’t aware that there are quite a few places where an RVer can park the rig overnight for free. No hookups of course, but when you’re pooped out after a long day of driving, anything can look like the Hilton. And you can’t beat the price.
WalMart is known for being nice to RVers and allowing them to park overnight. Good capitalists that they are, they figure that most overnighters will shop there too, so why not let ’em. A word of caution, more and more locations are banning this practice due to long term campers checking in. Check for listings of WalMarts that don’t allow camping.
We had not tried boondocking in a parking lot until just recently, when we were halfway to Appalachia. The reason is because until now it had been too hot, and since we don’t have an internal generator, we aren’t able to run the air conditioner. Now it’s getting cold (really cold) here in the East, so we were willing to give it a shot. Here’s what we discovered:
Jim describes the sign he saw in a campground which describes how trailers should back in
Jim visits his childhood home and the community of Chatham Township does not live up to his expectations.
I’ve always wanted to visit Appalachia, and when I found out that we were within spittin’ distance to the Floyd Country Store music venue in Virginia, it was a given we’d make it to their legendary Friday Night Jamboree.
And what a lucky night for us; we were graced with the presence of the governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, and the past governor Mark Warner. They were there campaigning for local Dems, but they weren’t there just to give stump speeches; they actually play banjo, harmonica and guitar, and joined in with Blacksburg’s own Jugbusters!
It was nineteen seventy something or other when I remember driving right onto the West Point campus and climbing on the rocks while my father enjoyed mother’s famous Swiss Miss and bourbon “Cappucino” from a Thermos while waiting for the Black Knights to sink Navy, or beat Colgate. (Real men fight wars not cavities!) We would walk the parade grounds, run freely around all the statues, or check out the huge links of the Great Chain used to keep the British Navy from sailing up the Hudson.
Dad’s alumni ring probably helped us gain backstage campus access back then, but he’d probably need a lot more than that now to go anywhere other than on the guided bus tour. If he were alive, that is. But he’s not, so I had just had to return to West Point and check on another memory from my Right Coast childhood. But thanks to security initiatives put in place since 9/11, the public is no longer given free range among the cadets and pleebs.
