An Exciting Opportunity

The last few weeks have been relatively quiet though busy…and we haven’t even been back to Disney since the end of December! We finally decided to eBay some of our Dept. 56 collection that has been in storage, and it’s more work than you would think…almost seems like a full-time job! Researching, cataloguing, making sure each piece is in mint condition, photographing, creating listings, and then once an item sells, packaging and preparing it for the post office. Our couch is literally filled with boxes! We’ve sold a few of the buildings so are making a dent in the 17 dish-pack sized moving boxes they’ve been stored in.

However, we do have some exciting news. A few weeks ago we submitted an online application for positions as campground hosts at some national parks out west. After a couple of phone calls, e-mail exchanges, and the ranger talking to 3 of our 4 professional references that were requested, we got a call offering us the position at Capitol Reef National Park in Utah! (Here's a link about the campground http://www.nps.gov/care/planyourvisit/fruitacampground.htm).

The position was supposed to start mid-March for 4 months, but when we originally talked to the ranger, we had mentioned that I had a doctor’s appointment April 1 (which I began thinking that I could probably postpone till we return at the end of the year). When she called to offer us the position, she told us we could wait to start Apr. 5 or 6 to accomodate my appointment. It's about 2,300 miles from here so will take us 4 or 5 days. She said that last year during the last few weeks of March there was still snow on the ground so the hosts really didn’t have anything to do, and she said if the weather was nice this year, the ranger staff could help out till we arrived.

There will be another couple doing the same job, and we will work 4 days on and 4 days off…and we don’t have to clean bathrooms!! Each morning we’ll report the number of vacant or soon-to-be vacant campsites to the ranger staff, check again after the checkout time, make sure that everyone has their generators turned off at the appropriate time, clean out the fire pits, answer any questions campers might have, and though it’s a self-service registration, we may assist campers in finding a spot. I’m sure there will be other duties, but those are the main ones.

In exchange for volunteering, we get our campsite, water, sewer, and electric (which the rest of the sites do not have), phone line for free local calls (we can get long distance and dial up internet through the local phone company if ours won’t work there), PLUS we'll be paid $15/day that we work (for both of us, not each)! Most campground hosts are not paid additional money, but we figure this is probably to compensate for gas mileage. They will also provide us uniforms shirts, jackets, and hats while we provide our own slacks/jeans.

We've driven through Capitol Reef a couple times, along the main road, stopping to see some of the sights, but never for an extended stay (though we did earn a Junior Ranger badge from there). It's probably a good place for our first campground hosting gig since there are only 71 sites and though busy, wouldn't be as busy as larger and more well-known places like Zion or Bryce Canyon. It is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and though only a few miles from Torrey, UT (not a very big town), it's like 100 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart! However, we're excited about this opportunity and really looking forward to trying our hand at being campground hosts.

As you can see, our blog postings have been sporadic since we arrived in FL and probably will continue to be so over the next couple of months since not much is going on though we are looking forward to Russ’ sister and her husband coming in town for a few days next week.