Opening Weekend!

We are officially open at Jellystone Campground of Estes Park!  The weather is cooperating (in that it's not currently snowing)!  A little on the cool side still, but that is to be expected.  We look forward to a fun summer with all our workamping buddies!

Happy May Day

May 1st in the Rocky Mountains (this year) is very snowy! About 10 inches overnight and we're supposed to have snow all day and all night! Who knows what it will look like tomorrow! The campground opens in nine days! (No outside work will be accomplished today!)

Spring 2013

So much for keeping everyone up to date on our travels! It's April and we are already at Jellystone Campground in Estes Park, Colorado for our summer job. I will post some pictures of the snowfall that started yesterday and is continuing today! We had another gate guard job in South Texas until March 8th, when we left and headed to San Angelo to visit with my sisters and their families and celebrate my birthday. I had a great time and was really happy to see everyone! We then headed to Las Cruces to meet my parents and join the RV club for a couple of days. Then it was off to Alamogordo to visit more family and friends. We went to White Sands, Inn of the Mountain Gods outside Ruidoso, Cloudcroft, and got to see everyone I wanted to see. Even had a Sunday afternoon get-together with high school friends that I hadn't seen in decades! We spent almost a month in Albuquerque waiting for the weather to clear long enough in Colorado for us to head up and start work. We finally just left and headed north. We arrived at Jellystone on Friday the 18th and had two beautiful days of weather before the snowfall started yesterday. We're off today because there's too much snow to do much of anything and we are supposed to have great weather the rest of the week! It's great to be back up here and to see friends and start back to work. Hope everyone is doing well!

Happy 2013!

2013 has found us in Texas working as gatekeepers at oil rig sites. Our first stint was five weeks long and we learned a lot about the oil business (not nearly enough). We had to leave the site to make a quick trip to Albuquerque for a doctor's appointment and to visit my parents (and pick up all our mail)! We left our motorhome in Texas at a Corps of Engineers campground at Canyon Lake. I'm attaching a couple of photos of the lake. This afternoon it is 72 degrees, slight wind, and the lake is beautiful. There were more campers over the weekend, but they've left and we're one of only four campers on our entire loop.

We will contact the office we work out of tomorrow morning to let them know we're back in the area and are ready to work. We enjoyed a brief respite from the gate keeping duties and all the noise of the oil business (and the freeway noise and trains). Now we're ready to go back and earn some more money. Hope this finds everyone healthy and happy in the New Year!

Next Adventure

Wayne and I are currently in southwest Texas (current nighttime temperature is 60 degrees). We are working as gateguards for an oil company. We have our motorhome parked inside the gate and we log in/out every vehicle 24-hours a day, seven days a week. We sleep, eat, and work in shifts. We have only been here six days, so our schedule is still a work in progress. The company we work for provides a generator, a tank of water, and a crew that comes around once a week to dump our tanks. The oil company is drilling two wells on our site using fracking to get to the oil quicker. I'm learning a lot about the whole process because I ask different workers questions about what they're doing. Everyone is polite and answers lots of questions. The hardest part is getting used to all the noise! It doesn't stop either. I took a couple of pictures the first day that I will try to post in here. Ziva isn't sure about all this. She likes that we sleep in shiffz, because she can stay in bed longer. The dust was bad the first few days, but then it rained a little Friday morni.g and packed it down. We have been lucky with the weather so far, but I am sure we will get cold weather soon. We are located off I-35 half-way between San Antonio and Laredo. We have to drive 25 miles for a grocery store and the nearest Wal-Mart is one of the originals and very small. We are enjoying it so far because it is something new and different (did I mention we make good money doing it?). Apparently I can't post pictures from my tablet.

Hurry Up and Wait

Still in Albuquerque -- our initial round of appointments, fixing things, etc., has now resulted in us waiting around for pieces and parts to arrive. Wayne is in the process of trying to install running boards on the Ford Explorer. Never as easy a job as the directions would like you to believe! He has one done and will install the other one tomorrow. Today is a day of kicking back and watching football (and maybe some World Series baseball). Hope everyone is doing well and getting geared up for Halloween!

(Campsite across from us at Jellystone Park)

Update

It's been awhile since I posted, so here we go (lots of pictures). We are now in Albuquerque for a couple of weeks (we've been here one week so far). It's catch up with all the "chores" we have to do while in the city: doctors appointments, flu shots, voting, trading Jeep in for a 2009 Ford Explorer (love it), replacing old, dead washer with a new, more efficient one, renew driver's licenses, get mail and various other items. It's been a busy start to our visit, but now we are just waiting for all the various things that have been ordered to arrive before we decide what to do next!

We left Jellystone a few days early because the weather was turning cold and we were dangerously low on propane for heating -- and we got out before the serious snow started!

We hope to be back next summer along with all the other Workampers from this past summer!

Wayne had a great checkup with the doctor last week and everyone was happy with the weight loss and blood sugar levels, and all those other levels they track. He will be doing a sleep study this next week to see why he has so much trouble sleeping at night. We had a nice visit with my parents before they left for Branson, Missouri. My Mom turned 80 yesterday and is still going strong!

I've been enjoying the sunsets (and one great sunrise) since being back in New Mexico; that is one thing I miss about NM when we're gone. So for now we're just hanging out and waiting. Hope everyone is doing well and we will let you know where we are headed next (once we decide, of course)!

Fall in the Rocky Mountains?

Yesterday was cool, overcast, rainy, and today we awoke to snow on the Mummy Range Mountains the other side of Estes Park! It was 36 degrees when we got up, so fall is definitely here! Last night was our going-away dinner for all the workers and it was great fun! This is the last weekend for the campground to be open and the last Halloween weekend! Last weekend was a lot of fun and I have two favorite costumes that parents made for their kids that I'll add to this post. Creativity is still around! Starting Tuesday the other workers will start leaving for the winter, but we're all coming back next summer! Yeah! Wayne and I will hang around Jellystone until October 14th, then head to Albuquerque for a few weeks. What's next? Who knows!

Halloween in September

At Jellystone, we celebrate Halloween every weekend in September, because we close September 30th! It's very popular with the locals and people make their next-year's reservations when they arrive for this year's festivities! Campers decorate their site, their rig, wear costumes, give out candy, and of course there's the Haunted Hike on Saturday night through the dark woods. It's been fun! We'll be winding down here soon!

Hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park

Our season has started slowing down and we're working fewer hours each day and now have three days off a week! Yeah! We survived July and August! This whole summer I kept asking Stan and Kay if I could go hiking with them (they are avid hikers). This week it turned out we could and did. We hiked to Ouzell Falls in the Wild Basin Trail area of Rocky Mountain National Park. The day was overcast and it did rain on us (yes, I had my raincoat with me). It was a six-mile round-trip hike and I had a great time! Thank you Stan and Kay!

Rain

We have started getting our monsoon rains in Colorado! Everything is turning green and the fires are out! Hopefully the fire ban on campfires will be lifted soon. It's amazing how many people cancel their camping reservations because they can't have a campfire. July is as busy as they warned us it would be. We have a lot of campers coming and going on a daily basis now instead of just Friday through Sunday. By the time Wayne and I get home we're ready to sit back and relax! We're doing fine and the summer is moving along. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Colorado Fires

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are okay! There are a lot of fires burning in Colorado, some close to us, but we aren't even having smoke from the fires. The owner, Rick, is a volunteer firefighter in the local district, so we are up on the latest news. They do have an evacuation plan in place jn case it's needed. We are safe and hope we continue to remain out of the path of the fires.

TGIF!

After working seven days in a row, today is our Friday.  Yeah!  We worked to cover people that were off for family weddings, graduations, etc.  Now we are really looking forward to a couple of days to relax and refresh. 

This weekend's theme at our park is "Mardi Gras!"  There will be a "create your own mask"  at a crafts class early on Saturday and there will be a Mardi Gras "parade" Saturday evening followed by a dance party.  Since it's our day off, I'm not sure if we'll attend, but if we do I will take pictures!  They bought beads, etc., to have Yogi throw from the parade float!  (I am pretty sure there will only be one float.)

Mardi Gras in June -- who knew?!

Having a different day off this week allowed me to go along with two other couples on a horseback ride into Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was a great two-hour ride and fun company.  (I'm on the left.)


The fires in the area are still blazing and winds are still blowing.  The local fire district instituted a no campfire or charcoal fires yesterday, which has been very upsetting to our guests checking in for the weekend.  Fortunately we don't have the smoke from the fire -- the winds have been blowing it away from our area!


Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their summer!

June in the Rockies

Just wanted to drop in with a quick hello.  We finally had a "warm" weekend at the campground!  The first three weekends we were open we had cold, snowy, and windy weather.  This weekend it was warmer.  We had a nice rain shower Saturday afternoon, and we need all the water we can get!

 
This is part of the elk herd that we have been watching grow and their antlers grow along with them.  The antlers are still covered with velvet.  It was Yogi's birthday last Saturday and Boo Boo came to celebrate with him!  The kids really enjoyed seeing both of them!

 Hope everyone is enjoying the start of summer.  We start working longer hours now that we have almost as many campers during the week as on the weekends. 

Visitors

My parents came to visit us at Jellystone!  They arrived on Monday and have been sightseeing around the area.  The next day they went to Rocky Mountain National Park and drove through the whole park and took lots of pictures.  As it turns out, they picked the best day to go -- it snowed up there the next day!  Wednesday around here was cool and rainy most of the day.  The mountaintops in RMNP were covered in new snow. Today we had thunder snow, which if you have never experienced is pretty amazing.  This was while the sun was shining, too!  In the picture above the snow flakes are falling around us, but you can't really see them.  


We drove in to Estes Park and toured the Stanley Hotel, which is where the movie The Shining was filmed.  The owner was the brother of the Stanley who invented the Stanley Steamer.  There was a Stanley Steamer in the lobby of the hotel.  It's a beautiful, big old hotel, that was built in 1909.  The snow came and went all day.


Mom & Darrell leave tomorrow to head to Bennett, Colorado, to see Gary & Barb.  It's been fun to have them here and I hope they have enjoyed the little cabin they have stayed in at our park.  


The campground gets very busy starting tomorrow -- after all, Memorial Day is the beginning of the camping season!  We are "sold out" for the three-day weekend!  


I'm very proud to say that my son, Brett, is going through commencement this afternoon for a Bachelors Degree in Liberal Arts. Way to go Brett! 

Happy Mother's Day!

Can you guess who is portraying Yogi Bear?

Jellystone Camp Resort officially opened last Friday, May 11th, to snow, cold, and a foggy, cool Saturday.  Today was somewhat better, the sun actually arrived for a couple of hours.  It was a whirlwind two days and things will calm down now for a couple of days until we start all over again next Friday!  We are enjoying ourselves and our new "job."  Hope everyone is well and enjoying their weekend!

Mother Nature

Mother Nature decided to surprise us with a snowstorm.  The snow started yesterday evening and continued through the night.  This photo was taken a couple of minutes ago when I took Ziva outside (she was not impressed with the snow).  It's still snowing and the prediction is for snow the rest of today!  


Hard to believe that last Friday we were working outside getting the campground ready for opening day this coming Friday in our shirt sleeves.  Even the snow plows are already out and about!

Roaming Neighbors

There is a herd of about 30 elk that wander through the campground on a daily basis.  They get pretty close to the campers, too!  These two were nibbling on the grass in an empty campsite.  Right across the road is a nice meadow that we see them roaming around.  The second picture is where our camper is parked for the summer.  We face West looking out over the meadow and highway.


This coming week starts our full schedule and we officially open on Friday for Mother's Day Weekend!  Stay tuned!  You might see Yogi Bear make an appearance here on the blog!

My First Hike Up the Mountain

Yesterday I decided to take my first hike on one of the hiking trails at Jellystone Park.  This trail feeds into a Forest Service road and climbs up the mountainside.  I didn't go up that far, still adjusting to the altitude.  The views were awesome!  I will keep attempting to climb all the way to the top of the mountain.  Here's a picture of the view where I turned around.

I found a local yarn store in Estes Park and went there yesterday afternoon to check it out.  They have lots of interesting things and will be having classes, but I imagine our summer will be busy enough up here that I won't have time to go play.

There is a lake in downtown Estes Park (called Lake Estes) that I will have to get pictures of to send.  There's a four-mile walking/bike path around the lake and fishermen everywhere.  We're about 5-1/2 miles outside of Estes Park on Highway 36.  Lots of elk, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and soon campers!