Campground Hosting 101

We have been campground hosts now since the first of June and we are really liking it.  Our main "job" is to clean the rustic cabins when they become vacant.  There's not much to it.  The cabins are 13x13 with covered porches and they have bunk beds and futons with heavy vinyl covered mattresses; a table and chairs and a waste basket. They also have small refrigerators and an RV stove enclosed in a stainless steel cabinet.

Emigrant Springs rustic cabin

We clean the stoves and ovens if they've been used (not very often), wipe down the beds and furniture with a disinfectant spray, clean the windows and mirror with Windex and then spray air freshener inside.  We also check the fire pits and take out any trash that's been left behind.  We have a golf cart that we drive around and it's pretty fun.

There is another host in the park who is in charge of stocking and selling firewood as well as stocking the restrooms and showers.  We both rent out cabins to people who don't have reservations and just generally be helpful and answer questions.

We were told that our host assignment is the busiest of all the assignments and they are worried we will burn out so they are having us move to another campground, Hilgard Junction,  for July which doesn't have cabins.  It is right on the Grande Rondo river.  It's about 18 miles south east of here.  We were scheduled to go there in August but they are sending us for July and we may have a choice of going somewhere else for August or staying there.
Our job there will be sell firewood, stock the restrooms (no cleaning) and tidy up the campsites of any litter left behind.  We'll have a golf cart there too.

The weather has been just about perfect; high 70's during the day and low 50's at night.  We've only had the AC on once since we've been here.

I ended up making three trips to the dentist over the past two weeks.  I did get my broken filling replaced and it isn't causing me any problems.  The dentist said I will probably need a crown on it but as long as it isn't bothering me there's no rush.  I think he did a great job because I've had no pain at all and it isn't even sensitive to cold.  I also had my teeth cleaned and it was the most gentle cleaning I've ever had.  I may have to come back here every year for my dental check ups since I really like this office much better than my previous one at home.

On one of my trips to the dentist I picked up a new vent cover for the RV from the local RV dealer who happened to be across the street from the dental office.  They had a large display of LaFuma recliners so of course I had to try them out.  I had read on the RV Dreams blog that Howard and Linda had replaced their old La Fumas with new ones last year and about how comfortable they are.  I told John about them so we went into Pendelton on our day off last week to look at them and decided to get two.  Our old outdoor recliners were 8 years old and getting pretty worn out.  These new ones are wonderfully comfortable and should last us a long time.    We've been spending a lot of time outside in our new recliners, reading and napping most afternoons.

That's about all that's new here; I am loving retirement and RV living and have no regrets about deciding to become full-time RVers.

Little Girl Lost

Yesterday morning one of the campground visitors found this sweet girl in a park restroom.  We have no idea how long she was in there.  She had no collar and looked like she had recently nursed a litter of pups. She was very friendly.  No one in the campground recognized her.  She stayed up in the shade under a picnic shelter obviously waiting for her owners to come back.

I called the park rangers and told them I was going to try and locate a bulldog rescue and fortunately I found Pacific Northwest Bulldog Rescue based near Portland.   A wonderful lady named Christie and her two daughters stopped to use the restrooms and the dog jumped right in their car.   They wanted to help and after a couple of phone calls Christie agreed to take the dog to her home where Kidue from the rescue would meet her and pick up the dog.

This morning I got a text from Kodie saying she has her and she is safe. She will have her checked by their Vet and see if she is microchipped and to check her health.  If no one claims her in 30 days Christie and her daughters want to adopt her.  I hope it all works out and I will never understand how someone can just dump their pet like that.  At least they left her where she was safe and I'm glad we were here to help her.

Emigrant Springs SP

We arrived at Emigrant Springs SP on June 1st after driving in a huge storm complete with pebble sized hail and almost zero visability.   By the time we arrived it was just raining intermittently and got settled into our assigned campground host site without getting too wet.  The hail did put some dents in the roof of the Mini which I'll have to see about getting removed at a later date.

Following in the Mini in a hail storm 

It is a very nice space, on a corner facing NE.  We get shade all afternoon on our patio side.  We are surrounded by tall pines and the park is well maintained and the rangers and other campground hosts have been very friendly and helpful.

They gave us a couple of days to get settled in and then on Wed. we started being "on duty".  We have a golf cart to drive around and our assignment is to clean the six rental cabins in our area when they become vacant as well as restocking the restrooms as needed and keeping the fire pits cleaned out after campers leave...it takes maybe a hour or two a day for each of us.

Our Host camp site 

The dogs have been a huge hit with the campers.  It seems like everyone stops by to greet them and they are loving all the attention.  We have our X-Pen enclosure around our patio site so they can be outside with us and not be tied up.  We have 4 X-Pens that we strung together to make a very large enclosure and we've got a 9x12 mat inside as well as our camping chairs and recliners.

Lola and Ava enjoying the RV life 

The first day we were here I had a crown pop off when I was eating a frozen Snickers bar (a very bad idea I have come to find out) so I had to make a visit to a dentist in Pendelton.  The good news was he was able to glue the crown back on...yeah!!   They offered to clean my teeth and since I haven't done that in a year, I decided to go ahead and do it.  Lucky I did because the hygienist noticed I had a broken filling and so they x-rayed it and I have a huge cavity above the filling.  I have to go back on Wed and he will try and drill out the decay and re-fill it but it is so close to the nerve and bone that I may end up with a crown, root canal or worst yet an extraction.  Luckily the tooth isn't sensitive at all so the nerve may survive the drill and fill...fingers crossed on that one.

I talked to my Mom on the phone today and she is doing quite well all things considered.  She will be 96 on June 18th and is living in a residential care home in Sacramento.  She's lived there for 6 years and gets excellent care.  She was recently hospitalized with acute renal failure but has bounced back pretty well.  My brother lives a few miles from her and is able to visit her frequently and take care of what needs taking care of (and thank God for that).  It was a hard decision whether to leave for the summer or not but she told me to go and enjoy my life and I knew she was sincere.

We have been walking a lot and trying to get our our of shape legs back in form so we can start riding our bicycles.  The park has a lot of nature trails as well as excellent paved roadways where we can ride.  We are at about 4000ft altitude and I had a bit of an adjustment the first week but am doing much better now.  I've had several bouts of acute asthma over the past couple of years and I am more sensitive to altitude than I used to be (I lived at 6500ft. for 3 years but that was 20 years ago).

I'm so glad we are able to spend the summer here and I'm looking forward to what the other parks will offer.  We will be moving to Hilgard Junction SP the end of July and then will finish up at Cove Palisades SP near Bend, OR. in September.