What does a camphost do?

That's one of the questions I got this weekend from one of the campers. So I thought I'd let you readers know how a holiday weekend goes. Probably the two most important things that I do is meet and greet the campers, and keep the bathrooms supplied with enough toilet paper. ;)

There are five pit toilets scattered throughout the park, one semi-modern bathroom, and one bathroom with flush toilets and showers. I don't have to clean them, that's done by the staff, but I do need to make sure there are enough supplies available throughout the day and night. I generally tour all of them about three times a day on a busy weekend.

I also post the reservation signs at individual sites and answer all sorts of questions from the campers. This was a pretty quiet holiday weekend. On Saturday, I drove around the loops to remind campers of the astronomy program being offered.

Sunday night, about 7:00, a camper came to inform me that the lights had gone out in the main bathroom building. I appreciate it when they let me know about problems. After investigating the problem, I called the park manager, Joel, and between the two of us, we were unable to get the lights to work. He called an electrician, but being a holiday weekend, he was unable to come out. So, that meant I drove around to every site to tell them to bring a flashlight if they were going to use the bathroom last night. By visiting each site, I avoided having multiple campers knocking on my door all night, and I believe I prevented folks from becoming upset over the situation.

Today, the electrician showed up in the early morning, and the lights are now working. Then it was the mass exodus, and almost all campers had left by noon. Once everyone was gone, I hopped in the cart and visited each site to pick up garbage and toss any extra fire wood in the back of the vehicle. I must say that this only took me about an hour. What a difference from when I hosted in South Dakota. Minnesota folks are extremely neat. They not only put all of their trash in the dumpsters, but they also put all their plastic, glass, and aluminum in the recycle bins! When I hosted at Richmond Lake Recreation Area in South Dakota, it took me a half day to just pick up the trash left behind by campers, and the number of sites was half what it is here.

There were no real emergencies this weekend, and things went quite smoothly. Over the years, I've had some real hair raising situations, and some really comical happenings at this park, but thankfully, not this weekend. So....that's some of what I do as a campground host.

This evening, I took Emma to a boarding kennel for the night. I've got a couple of medical appointments tomorrow, at the Mayo Clinic, as well as other errands I have to run. She would have been stuck inside the rig for too many hours, so she's having a little holiday (and so am I).

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

The Sunday Blast from the Past

When I left Anahuac NWR, back in May of 2007, I stopped the first night at Caddo Lake State Park in Texas. My intentions were to just stay one night, but I changed my mind once I got there. There was too much to see and do for just one night.

This campground epitomized what I had in my mind of a swampy Southern bayou. The cypress trees around and in the water were draped with moss.

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The second day that I was there, I took a tour on a pontoon boat that was run by a woman.

I'm glad she knew where she was going, because I surely would have gotten lost back in this swamp!


What a great tour this was. I especially enjoyed seeing the prothonatory warblers flitting by at eye level.
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The third day I was there, I went on a nature hike that was led by Gwen Young, the campground host. Gwen and her husband, Jim, had hosted at Caddo Lake for several years. It was hard to believe they were 87 years old with the way she led us up and down the trails of the park!
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While I was busy enjoying myself for those three days, a pair of very persistent Carolina wrens had decided that my rig was the ideal place for them to build a nest. Not just one nest, mind you, but three! One was on a shelf under my slide-out, one was under the slide-out awning, and the last one I found in the basket of my mo-ped. The nest on top of the slide-out proved to be the most difficult to remove. That area is close to 12 feet from the ground, and I don't have a ladder that tall. I had to balance my footstool on top of my ladder and then try to sweep the nest out with a broom over my head. I was finally successful, and then quickly went inside and brought the slide in before the wrens had a chance to add any more sticks.
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Lots of good memories from a short three day stay.......
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Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

The evening "drive-bys"

Something that I have found unique about Rice Lake State Park, is the evening drive through's by many people. These are not people looking for a campsite for the night, but I think they are local citizens that enjoy driving through all the roads of the park in the evening. Joel, the park manager, has speculated that they are people scoping out the campground for future camping. I'm not sure I agree. Many of the folks are quite elderly, and don't appear to me to be interested in camping.



Earlier today, I calculated that since 1999, there have been only two summers when I have not hosted here. In that time, many of the evening drive-bys have been repeat visitations. I recall a quite elderly couple that has been here many summers. The wife drives the car and inevitably asks me if those big white birds are pelicans. I reassure her every year that they are.

Over the years here, I have owned three different rigs, and more than one evening visitor has noticed my change of abode and commented on it. One family that has driven through each year I have been here is led by a man that has the loudest speaking voice that I have ever run into. He buys firewood here to use in his fireplace at home. Back in 2005, I decided to camp for the weekend at another MN state park for my shake down trip for my present rig. Would you believe that this man with the loud voice, and his family, decided to camp that weekend at the same state park? Well, he did...and when he arrived, he spotted me, and asked what site he should set up his rig in, as if I were the camphost at this park! I gave him my opinion, and sure enough, that's where they camped for the weekend.

It's no wonder why I feel like I'm coming home each time I host at Rice Lake. I wonder if I'll see these same folks this year in the short time I'm here. Time will tell....

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

The Sunday Blast from the Past

On August 31, 2006, I arrived at Lewis and Clark State Park in Washington state to begin a seven week stint as a campground host.

I had been told this would be a more physical than social job, and that description was correct. Besides selling fire wood and answering camper's questions, I had plenty of physical chores to do which include scraping, priming, and painting the Environmental Learning Center building.




I also had to dig up all the boulders surrounding three flower and plant areas. Over the years, the boulders had sunk in the ground and it was my mission to unearth them all, put in new soil, and reposition them. Manual labor, to be sure...





This park is located in the old growth Douglas fir forest with huge fir trees that are around 600 years old. And underneath those fir trees are numerous kinds of mushrooms.


Most of the stuctures in Lewis and Clark State Park were constructed in the 1930's by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). They are beautiful stuctures and must be maintained as they were constructed because they are now on the historic building registry. That includes the cedar shake roofs. Those roofs require a great deal of upkeep. There are two picnic shelters like this one, and while I was there, the larger shelter was rented out twice; once for a wedding, and once for a native American Pow-wow.



I was provided with a full hookup site in amongst the Douglas fir trees. It was a beautiful site. I spent one memorable evening sitting at my campfire while listening to the eerie sounds of the drums floating through the forest from the pow-wow. I'll never forget that. It brought all kinds of images to my mind of what it must have been like a couple of hundred years ago. That was truly a blast from the distant past!
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Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy