We Are Alive & Well

(Watkins Glen, NY) 54 degrees, rain


Letchworth State Park (Middle Falls)

It’s been a quite awhile since my last post.  We’ve been workamping in Watkins Glen NY since May 1st and let’s just say its been very hectic.  Most of the time after getting off work we’ve just collapsed into our chairs, cooked a quick dinner, and relaxed by watching TV. Not exactly a blog worthy moment. 

 

 

 

We only have about a week left and then we’ll  be back on the road.  This winter we’ll be hanging out in sunny Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve enjoyed our time in the Finger Lakes. It is a beautiful area and we have our treasured our days off by seeing so much of it.  The waterfalls and state parks are spectacular. Right now the leaves are turning and in a few days the hills should be in their full glory. We especially enjoyed visits with our friends J.C. & Bev, Jerry, Marcia, & Crystal, John & Eileen, and John’s sister Martha. 

 

 

 

 

 

Working full time for five months in a campground is a long time.   It has met our goal, however, of paying off the recent renovations and new roof to our motorcoach. We want our retirement money to last. We’d prefer not to work for such a long period of time, but sometimes you just have to do what is right for the bigger picture. We hope to stay on the road for a long time and spinning through all our savings would not be very prudent.

 

Robert Treman State Park

 

Update about our winter plans:

 

For the month of November and December we’ll be working in a kiosk in Port Charlotte Florida for a company called Slippermania.  Our workamping friends (Danny & Gay) from the Indy KOA recommended this “gig” to us and it will help pay for the new motorcoach tires.

 

 

Our friends J.C. and Bev will then be joining us in for three months  and we’ve planned a great route traveling all around Florida.   Be sure to check back.  Some of the highlights include: kayak paddle adventures, swimming with the manatees, swamp tour, Segway tour along Cocoa Beach, visit to  the Disney Parks, and an extended stay at one of our favorite places -  Key West.  We are so looking forward to this trip together.

 

 

I promise to post more often and catch up with all my blogger friends.  Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you on the road someday soon. 

 

 

 

What A Difference A Visit From Friends Makes

Watkins Glen, NY (75 degrees, blue skies, low humidity)

We have a 5 1/2 month commitment to workamp at the Watkins Glen KOA.  It’s that time of the season when time just seems to stand still.  You might say we have a bad case of “hitch itch” and really miss traveling down the road. 

 

It’s been incredibly busy the past month and a half and we usually just collapse on our sofa when our shift is finished.  The campground is usually sold out especially on weekends and it takes a lot of patience to deal with the public and chaos each day.  That’s the life of a workamper and its just part of the deal.   We decided to work this season to pay off the cost of our roof repair to our motorcoach this spring and we are committed to finishing our contract. 

 

The Summershine college students have now left and returned to college.  They were delightful young adults and we’ll miss them.  They helped with the activities for the families in the evening and with the front desk and maintenance of the campground. 

 

Summershine Staff

 

A visit from friends can make all the difference and we’ve had two recent visits which have certainly cheered us up. 

 

JC and Bev are visiting right now for a week.  You might remember that we met them last summer at Sheridan Lake National Forest (near Mt. Rushmore). They had been following our blog and stopped by to see us.  We became close friends this winter and  met up a few times at rally’s (Gypsy Journal in Yuma, FMCA in Indio California) and attended Quartsite together with the Escapee Boomers.

 

They made a detour from their travels this summer to stop and see us.  It’s been such a delight.  It’s been a whirlwind of travel as we’ve shown them some of our favorite places in the Finger Lake area. A highlight for us was a two hour sail boat ride on Seneca Lake on the True Love. 

 

Aboard the True Love Sailboat

Seneca Lake

 

 

We also planned a nice river kayak trip on the Chemung River (near Elmira).  We both have SeaEagle kayaks and we each drove a car so that we’d have one at the put in and take out.  It was so nice to kayak down a river again.  We’ve only been able to paddle the lakes here and river trips are so much more fun. 

 

Inflating the SeaEagles

 

The river was low and slow most of the time.  Good thing we didn’t plan too long of a trip.  The picnic at the end was really nice and we sure laughed and hooted when we road down the occasional rapids.  JC thought the rapids must have been at least a class four (LOL!)

 

I’ll tell you tomorrow about another great time together that was a special moments we will always remember. 

 

Last week our long time friends Jerry and Marcia visited for a few days.  They are from Indiana and were a part of a Good Sam camping club that we belonged to for many years.  They were in the area for a reunion and stopped by to see us with their grand daughter Crystal.  Our time together was all about waterfalls.  There are so many in this area and it was so fun to hear their delight when visiting each one. 

 

Swimming hole Robert Treman State Park

Robert Treman State Park

Lucifer Falls

Buttermilk Falls

Taughannock Falls

 

Our friends are precious to us and we are so happy that they stopped by to see us.  We feel renewed and ready to face the rest of the season. Thanks so much!

 

 

Chemung River Paddle