This past Friday marked our first month living full-time on the road. During this period we worked out most of the kinks operating our trailer interior and the tow process from campground to campground. The St. George area has proven to be a great spot for beginners like us: a few state parks (Snow Canyon and Quail Creek) and BLM campground (Virgin River Canyon) in relatively close proximity to a decently sized city with all the comforts of the home area we left (library, variety of grocery stores, health facilities, gym, decent eateries). We always had in the back of our minds that we would take about a month to get settled into our new lives and then get serious about looking for work. St. George is booming and there shouldn't be a shortage of work opportunities - we hope!
We have been able to explore both Snow Canyon State Park and Zion National Park and found the smaller state park more to our liking - less touristy, less people, and a more intimate size to explore. The campground isn't too big with about 30 sites or so - a mixture of tent sites, dry camping and electrical/water hook ups, nice bathrooms and solar heated showers. A variety of easy-going hikes are within walking distance or a short drive and easily offer a sense of solitude and stillness without having to work too hard to get it.
During our 14 days of stay at Snow Canyon (which were broken up by visits to Quail Creek, Zion, and Virgin River Canyon), we made friends with the campground hosts - two full-timing couples. One of the couples mentioned to us that they were heading south for the winter on December 1st. It turned out the campground management had only two weeks to fill that couple's camp hosting duties after another couple bailed out on the opportunity. The wife and I were planning on wintering in the area anyway, and so the departing couple put in a good word for us today. Management interviewed us and within an hour hired us as part-time campground hosts. We'll start December 1st and work five days a week from 0800 to noon, and in turn get free rent and full hook-ups (water, sewer, and electrical) throughout the winter. As a bonus, our co-campground hosts have been full timing for 18 years, so we can get a lot of advice from them as we go through our first winter outside of comfy southern California.
We'll keep looking for additional part-time work in the city but we feel a lot better having our rent taken care of for the upcoming winter months, and not having to spend a significant amount of our monthly budget on propane to keep warm. We've already met many good people, mostly couples traveling about, and the good vibes just seem to lend towards our good fortune so far. If any of you have any advice or stories about camp hosting, I'd love to hear from you.
Right now I'm writing from the comfort of our AS at 3:10 AM in Quail Creek State Park. I can't sleep because of a chilly, howling wind outside with gusts up to 60+ mph (according to weather underground). My wife and I are among about 5 other groups in the campground, two of which are tenting, or at least were doing so before the high winds picked up late evening. The wind gusts have been rocking our AS for the last six hours while the wife and I poked our heads between the rear bedroom curtains like two little kids spending their first night in a tent in the backyard - I even had the high beam flashlight streaming out to watch the sagebrush get whipped around! We know it's not toughing it out in the midwest or Rockies but it's all new to us and it's for this that we left the confines of our boring, repetitive apartment life... we live for this.
We have been able to explore both Snow Canyon State Park and Zion National Park and found the smaller state park more to our liking - less touristy, less people, and a more intimate size to explore. The campground isn't too big with about 30 sites or so - a mixture of tent sites, dry camping and electrical/water hook ups, nice bathrooms and solar heated showers. A variety of easy-going hikes are within walking distance or a short drive and easily offer a sense of solitude and stillness without having to work too hard to get it.
During our 14 days of stay at Snow Canyon (which were broken up by visits to Quail Creek, Zion, and Virgin River Canyon), we made friends with the campground hosts - two full-timing couples. One of the couples mentioned to us that they were heading south for the winter on December 1st. It turned out the campground management had only two weeks to fill that couple's camp hosting duties after another couple bailed out on the opportunity. The wife and I were planning on wintering in the area anyway, and so the departing couple put in a good word for us today. Management interviewed us and within an hour hired us as part-time campground hosts. We'll start December 1st and work five days a week from 0800 to noon, and in turn get free rent and full hook-ups (water, sewer, and electrical) throughout the winter. As a bonus, our co-campground hosts have been full timing for 18 years, so we can get a lot of advice from them as we go through our first winter outside of comfy southern California.
We'll keep looking for additional part-time work in the city but we feel a lot better having our rent taken care of for the upcoming winter months, and not having to spend a significant amount of our monthly budget on propane to keep warm. We've already met many good people, mostly couples traveling about, and the good vibes just seem to lend towards our good fortune so far. If any of you have any advice or stories about camp hosting, I'd love to hear from you.
Right now I'm writing from the comfort of our AS at 3:10 AM in Quail Creek State Park. I can't sleep because of a chilly, howling wind outside with gusts up to 60+ mph (according to weather underground). My wife and I are among about 5 other groups in the campground, two of which are tenting, or at least were doing so before the high winds picked up late evening. The wind gusts have been rocking our AS for the last six hours while the wife and I poked our heads between the rear bedroom curtains like two little kids spending their first night in a tent in the backyard - I even had the high beam flashlight streaming out to watch the sagebrush get whipped around! We know it's not toughing it out in the midwest or Rockies but it's all new to us and it's for this that we left the confines of our boring, repetitive apartment life... we live for this.
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