Why We Do What We Do

Amazon nights and cold days....pretty much the sum of our experiences right now. It doesn't sound very exciting, and truly, its not. We have many friends now that we meet up with here in Campbellsville, but unless they are on the same shift as you, there is not too many chances to actually meet up and chat for awhile. We pass in the hallways, campground roads and maybe Krogers or a restaurant, but its sort of a quick "how you doing?" and off you go. Like the rest of the country, its also very cold and dreary for this time of year here. Nights are already going down into the teens and twenties, and it is currently raining to beat the band and turning to snow later. Yes, the life of a workamping full-timer is always sunshine and roses, isn't it?

I was thinking about this the other night, as I was packing away (its not rocket science, you do find your mind wandering!) and thinking I really need to update the blog, but what should I write about? There are plenty of others blogging about the daily experience of working for Amazon as a seasonal temp, I don't really feel the need....although if anyone ever wants to reach out and ask for our experiences and help we are always willing to lend that helping hand...we have several new friends that have reached out to us about Amazon and are now in their second or third seasons of working. So, I was thinking ok, I'm pretty tired tonight, and why did I give up my secure life, business, home, social network, to come out and live in a 320 square foot RV, working various jobs that include this pretty tough warehouse job? Well, I kind of thought I would let some of my pictures from the last four years explain why :-)

Bears in the Smoky Mountains National Park

Hiking and boating on the Au Sable River in Michigan

Dune buggy riding on the sand dunes of Silver Lake Michigan

Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada

Watkins Glen New York

Three Sisters Springs, kayaking with the manatees, Crystal River Florida

Geocaching with friends in Nathrop Colorado

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

Jeeping over Imogene Pass, Ouray Colorado

Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado

The Badlands National Park South Dakota

Cumberland Falls State Park Kentucky

Kayaking the Silver River, Ocala Florida

Sponge fishing boats Tarpon Springs, Florida

Fishing villages in Maine

Hiking the carriage roads of Acadia National Park

Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada

Camaraderie at Amazon 2013

Family fun at Walt Disney World

French Quarter, New Orleans

San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio Missions National Historic Park

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls, Utah

Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

Arches National Park, Utah

Island in the Sky section Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming

Geysers at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Kayaking on Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming

Driving the Beartooth Pass, Montana

Hiking and kayaking Grand Tetons National Park

Fly fishing the Snake River, Wyoming

Ok, I guess I found enough reasons to keep on looking around the next bend in the road!

Sad Times

It has been a while since I've posted anything, since we arrived in Kentucky actually. I've alluded to some family issues going on, but don't really like to post such personal issues. My mom has been in poor health for quite some time now, many years in fact, but things became worse this past summer. Since the end of June she had been in and out of the hospital, bouncing between different hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers in the quest to get her myriad of medical issues under control. The most pressing of these was the need to go on dialysis, which we had been fighting against for several years, but her kidney function lowered to such a degree that it finally became a necessity. She was never able to adjust well to the dialysis, and it also caused several of her other medical conditions to go haywire on her. After battling these past several months, my mom has lost her fight and passed away peacefully yesterday morning.

Luckily, I, along with Al and my brother and sister, were able to get down to Florida in time to see her while she was still conscious and knew we were there. I cannot say enough good things about HPH Hospice in Lecanto Florida. The people who work and volunteer there deserve a special place in heaven for their caring and compassion. They certainly made my mom's last days peaceful and comfortable, as well as being there to help the family through the process, especially my sister who stayed with her until the end.

I will always appreciate everything everyone has done to help this past summer. Al's sister Ginny and our best friend Patti went above and beyond duty in assisting her, visiting her and running endless errands. Their assistance and ability to be my "eyes" were priceless.  My employers Brad and Joann for allowing me unrestricted access to the landline phone at the ranch to call hospitals and doctors as my ATT cell service was basically useless. Mom's friends from her community for visiting her and helping her get to a few appointments, and collecting her mail. And finally my sister Amy, who was willing and able to put her life on hold to give mom comfort and company her last days. Mom was blessed to have all of you in her life, as am I.

Arrival in Kentucky

12 Days, 2012 miles, and we have finally arrived at Green River Lake State Park, Campbellsville, Kentucky...ready to start our fourth season working at Amazon!

We had a pretty quiet, uneventful drive after leaving from Chalk Creek Campground in Nathrop Colorado. We dropped a little further south and picked up Highway 50 heading east out of Colorado. The drive was beautiful through Bighorn Sheep Canyon, and as we drove the twisty roads, after all summer, we finally saw a herd of female bighorn sheep, right alongside the road. I thought it would be a much nicer, quieter drive than heading out through Colorado Springs, and I was right :-). We stopped for the night in Lamar CO, on the Kansas/Colorado border. I had decided to break up the roughly 900 mile drive from Nathrop to Osage Beach Missouri into three days. I find that 300 miles a day is a pretty good limit to my driving endurance; if I don't need to go further than that, I'd rather not.

We continued across Kansas on Highway 50/400, a decent two lane highway. The only difficult thing about avoiding the interstates is the lack of large fuel stops or rest areas. I had to carefully plan where we would stop for refueling and lunch along the way. I found truckstopsonline, where I could gather information on big rig fuel stations on any highway in any state, not just the interstates. It really helped as we traveled. We stopped in Goddard KS on the second night, just outside Wichita. We then followed Highway 54 straight into Osage Beach MO, right by Lake of the Ozarks State Park. We stayed at Osage Beach RV Park, which was a very nice private RV park. One of the nicest we've stayed at. We decided to spend three nights here (they had a three night mid-week special price) and it looked like a nice area to rest for a couple of days. Unfortunately, the weather was not looking very good, so our first day there we went to the state park in the morning and took a long walk with the dogs to stretch the old leg muscles.

Lake of the Ozarks is really nice. It's very large, with fingers reaching out in all directions.

It seems like a highly desirable area, both for year round residents and summer homes. Some of the homes along the lake shore were beautiful.

It felt odd being back in heavily wooded trails again...also had to be careful of ticks again!

That first night it started raining, and kept on raining all the next day. It was a good day to stay in, catch up on paperwork, watch a movie and make some soup....so we did :-). Unfortunately, it was still raining the next day, and we had to move on as the campground was fully booked for the Columbus Day weekend. I don't care for driving in the rain, but on we went. Our destination was South Marcum Campground, a COE campground on Rend Lake, Benton Illinois. It rained the entire way, including our journey through the city of St. Louis, which I will really try to avoid in the future....maybe it would be better on a dry day, I don't know! South Marcum was an awesome campground, with full hook-up sites, level and paved, and lots of space between sites. We really liked this campground and would like to return one day when the weather is better. We stayed here two nights, as we couldn't come into Green River Lake until Sunday. The rain did hold off in the morning of our full day there, and we got in a five mile geocaching walk before the rain came down again. 

This morning we left South Marcum, and finally arrived back in eastern standard time...back in synch with the family :-). We will be getting set up tomorrow, getting the pantry refilled and ready for quick meals. We start at Amazon on Tuesday, with out orientation and safety school during the day, then my regular nightly shift starts on Wednesday. Al will find out his schedule on Tuesday, because, after all, he's special :-). 

So for the next ten weeks I probably won't have too much interesting to write about. Between work and some family issues we are dealing with, I'll be pretty busy. I'll try to make some quick updates about how work is going this year, and anything interesting we may find going on. Don't forget about us, we have lots planned for this winter in Florida :-)!