Tag: kerrville-schreiner park

Answering the call of doodie

Military duty ended with Tim’s retirement in 2013. Service to others did not. And that is how we ended up scrubbing a lot of public toilets this season, even though it definitely wasn’t on our list. Semper Gumby!

As mentioned, we’ve served as park hosts here before, early in 2018, and although some of the maintenance team at Kerrville-Schreiner Park has changed since then, our reputation as reliable workers has endured. There was a need, we were here, they asked, we said yes.

Last year, we worked mainly on what can best be described as special projects, and only cleaned restrooms occasionally. This year? The opposite of that.

And that’s OK — not a favorite, but also not unreasonable. And like last year, we are compensated by getting to live rent-free in a site with full hook-ups for the duration.

Mere steps from our site, we enjoy this view of the Guadalupe River, and the Kerrville VA Medical Center.
I get unlimited use of this riverside “yoga studio” as part of the bargain.
It once served as an ampitheater.
Now it helps me forget that we clean public bathrooms.
Another perk? We’re at one end of the Kerrville River Trail, so we’ve got a traffic-free place to go running and biking.
And speaking of free, we’ve got a key to the park host laundry facility.
This is it.
It’s a single washer and dryer shoved into a closet on the backside of one of the bath houses, but it gets the job done.
No quarters required.

It hasn’t all been swabbing decks, though. We also empty trash.

Oh, and Tim has done a fair amount of assisting with grass cutting and tree trimming — between hail and thunder storms, that is. It’s been a rather violent springtime.

Last time he did this was 2015. when we still had a yard.
Hail storm 1
Hail storm 2. We had to wait it out before unloading our groceries!

Some things at the park haven’t changed: we’re still visited by the resident deer and feral cats, and since we got our start a little later this year, we were here for Texas wildflower season, and the bluebonnets were stunning.

Our workamping gigs have become not just a source of income/savings for us, but a valuable and rewarding part of our RVing adventure. Heck, even though we won’t repeat working for Amazon, we consider it an experience worth the time and effort we put into it.

I wrote a (paid!) post for Escapees about how and why we take on jobs like this from time to time, and we’ve in fact signed up for another while doing our thing here in Kerrville.

This fall, we’re taking on seasonal positions that are entirely new and different for us, and we’ll be compensated with both a wage and an RV site.

In San Diego.

Stay tuned, my friends. All will be revealed. We’ve got a few thousand miles to go before then!

Work camping, Take II: This time, everybody wins

We’re doing more work camping!

No, no. Not for Amazon again. That was… memorable… but not worthy of a repeat. Here’s why.

This time, some friends who live and work in Kerrville, TX, made us an offer we couldn’t refuse, and to make a long story short, we’re spending 2 months helping with spring maintenance at one of our favorite parks in Texas.

It’s a city park now, but until 2004 it was a state park, with the acreage, trails, riverfront and wildlife to show for it.
We think it’s a perfect camping destination for those who want the feel of a state park while exploring the Texas Hill Country. Yes, longer RVs can fit here (I’ve seen several with 3 AC units on top, which is a big clue), but spots that big are limited, as are spots with full hook-ups. Call the park to check availability.

Our camping fees are waived, in exchange for volunteering our time for various maintenance and upkeep tasks. The park did do background checks on each one of us, but there’s been no strict accounting of our hours. Rather, we’ve proven by example that we are willing to do what needs to be done, and to complete jobs as assigned.

Those jobs have been very reasonable in the level of effort and skill required, and we find it exceptionally rewarding that our work has offered immediately visible results. Plus, it’s a great feeling to know that everything we do improves visitors’ experiences at the park.

We usually work together, but there have been a few blocks of time that Tim has gone out on his own. Both of us have battled upper respiratory crud over the past month, and the weather has often been wet and uncooperative, so unfortunately, there have been stretches of several days when we were unable to work at all.

We hope that the tasks we have completed make up in quality and value for those missed days, if not in actual accrued hours. Here’s a quick photo essay of some of the jobs we’ve done.

We spent our first couple of weeks replacing picnic table tops and benches.
See what I mean about immediately visible results?
What a difference!

And hey, look at the view we had from our “office.”
Hello, Guadalupe River.

We have access to the park’s maintenance compound for tools, supplies, and equipment, including golf carts, so that we don’t have to use our truck.
No cats were harmed in the use of this golf cart. That’s one of the park’s many feral kitties under there.

We’ve swept out cabins, to make sure they’re free of bugs, grit, and cobwebs for incoming guests.

We’ve helped clean out fire rings, which are used depressingly often as trash receptacles, and in the process of doing that one day, we encountered a mysterious ring of raw broccoli.
I have no explanation.

The scourge of Texas: fire ants.
For those unfamiliar, this is a fire ant hill, and if you’ve ever experienced fire ant bites, you know to steer clear.
Which is why…

… one of Tim’s jobs was to sprinkle killer crystals on as many fire ant hills as he could find. And there were lots.
See all those little pests running for their lives?
We are not sad.

We’ve also swept and mopped the rec hall between rentals.

Swept off the porch too…

… and wiped down the kitchen and serving areas.

And yes, we’ve done this too.
Cleaning public bath houses is not my top choice of tasks, but it needed to be done, and we were available, so we pulled on rubber gloves, and we did it.
Done.

Oh, and did I mention that our work is often closely monitored?
Our supervisors tend to show up for a drink at happy hour, and they never tell us we’re doing a poor job, so I guess it ain’t so bad.

And now that spring has arrived in the Hill Country, we are starting to make plans for our next move. We’ve been in Texas for nearly 3 months, which was about 2 months longer than planned. No regrets, but we’re feeling a little twitchy…

So where to next?

Nothing’s firm yet, but after spending so much time here in Texas, near our younger son and my side of the family, we’re thinking it’s time to make our way toward Washington, to hang out with our older son and Tim’s side of the family. So convenient of all of them to confine themselves to only two states, yes?

We expect to be rolling again by the end of this month.