Although the ‘official’ camping
season (Memorial Day through Labor Day) has not begun yet, the great weather
has brought the weekend campers out in droves, the season long campers and the
snow birds are also finding their way to Cutty’s Des Moines Camping Resort.
Ella has been workcamping for
several years now even through the winter months. I did workcamping a couple of years ago in
exchange for our seasonal site. I wasn’t
happy with the arrangement which required me to work through the summer season
of 2010 to pay for our seasonal site during the summer of 2011. At the same time, people on non-seasonal
sites had their sites paid for at the time they worked. Plus they had their electricity paid for
while we had to pay for ours. It was my
own fault for agreeing to it without paying attention to the ‘fine print’.
They have amended the agreement
since then and it now includes a partial payment of the yearly dues. However, it still requires a “work now” for
“benefit later”. Because I just
celebrated the third year anniversary of my heart attack (a complete blockage
of the Rear Corinary Artery, which would have been fatal had I not already been
in the hospital), I am not inclined to delay payment for work done any longer
than every two weeks. Last year I boycotted the workcamping.
This year I am working for wages
instead of camping privileges. I am
working security at the gate. In reality
it is more ‘fee attendant’ than ‘security’.
Most of the time I am inside the gate house and working with people checking
in or out or paying their electric or storage bills. Some afternoons I also ride around the park
on the golf cart and do a physical count and site check.
Because I am working for wages
rather than site recompense, I will most likely work fewer hours than those who
are not working for wages. They are
required to work a proscribed number of hours to ‘pay’ for their sites.
I’m hoping to save enough money
during the summer to pay for our winter stay in Texas .
If not, I’ll have to find some gainful employment for the winter.
Oh, if you are looking for us ... we are right here ... the X marks the spot
