Category: Workamping

One Month Down and One to Go

July 31, 2013September 15, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

We have been here at TH Stone Memorial St. Josephs Peninsula State Park as campground hosts for 1 month. It has been rainy, hot, stormy as well as nice breezes off of the Gulf of Mexico. The work is sometime hard but mostly due to the heat. We get up early in the morning before the sun rises to clean two bath houses. This can take us sometimes 2 to 3 hours to do depending on how bad they are and how many interruptions we get. We have been assigned to the Gulf Breezes campground area. Originally, we were assigned to the Shady Pines campground which is on the St. Joe Bay side of the peninsula underneath pine trees and in between the palmetto bushes. Due to the shortage of campground host volunteers during this time of year we were reassigned to the Gulf Breezes side and are responsible for the entire campground 5 days a week. The Volunteer Coordinator is Ron and he seems nice but the manager of the park, Mark, does have some unrealistic goals for the campground hosts.

Campground Host Experiences, Florida State Parks, Lessons in Camping, Volunteer At A Florida State Park, Workamping

Adams Tract WrapUp

June 22, 2013September 15, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

We are starting to wrap-up here at Adams Tract River Camp. It’s funny but we will miss this place. But we also miss being on the road. We have passed the 9 months full-time RVing mark and are looking forward to the next 18 months we have scheduled so far. The hardest part about being here is that we really don’t have the extra money to get out and explore. That was the reason we accepted all these campground hosting assignments in the first place was to be able to save a little money and go exploring more. Sadly, that hasn’t been the case. We will have to work on bringing in an income while we are traveling as well as the retirement payments we have been living on the past couple of months. It makes all the difference if you can bring in some extra income while you are traveling so that you can enjoy those trips to local parks, eat out in a local restaurant every now and then or just be able to have extra gas money to explore the areas when you are not doing your campground hosting duties.

Report From Adams Tract River Camp

June 12, 2013September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

We have Solar Lights Now! Our time here at Adams Tract River Camp is coming to a close. We have about 2 weeks left before we move onto St. Joseph’s Peninsula State Park. We can only hope that they people who work there will be as nice as the ones we have working here at the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail Office as well as the great guys at Troy Springs State Park who have been keeping us in supplies and helping us out with repairs and trash pick-ups. Thanks so much for all your help and we look forward to our return assignment here next summer.

Campground Host Experiences, Florida State Parks, Volunteer At A Florida State Park, Workamping

Happy Memorial Day

May 27, 2013September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

We hope everyone is having a fun but safe Memorial Day and remembering our Veterans. This holiday has long been considered the start of the summer season. A lot of campgrounds up north don’t really open until then. Our little river camp was no exception. Although we expected a large group on Saturday and another one on Sunday we only got the one on Sunday. And let me tell you they were enough. We never realized that we had gotten use to only having a few people camping over night every so often until this weekend. The entire area around us seemed to have let out a sigh when the last of the kayakers went down the boardwalk to the river. Don’t get me wrong the Lakeland Florida Kayak Group was very nice but a little rowdy and there were so many of them. The two other couples that we had got sort of lost in all the activity from the big group. But everyone had a good time and they mostly cleaned up after themselves. For some reason we cannot get many people to read the “Recycle – Aluminum Cans Only” sign. I guess it’s because it looks like all the other trashcans inside a wooden barrel except for the little sign we have on front.

More Camphost News

May 21, 2013September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

We just got confirmation on our last campground host position for next year. We are now completely booked for the next 19 months with April and September off next year! We have updated our Calendar Page with the everything we have so far. Mom, Katie and I are hoping to be able to visit some parks during those two months off on our way to the next one.

From Adams Tract to St. Joseph’s Peninsula State Park beginning July 1, 2013 until August 31, 2013
From St. Joseph’s to Dade Battlefield State Park beginning September 1, 2013 until December 31, 2013

Adams Tract River Camp

May 10, 2013September 14, 2025 Jolene MacFadden

Now that we are halfway through our first assignment we thought we would create a little movie to show everybody where we are a campground host till the end of June. Yes, we have posted some pictures already but a movie is always a nice thing to share with everyone. We have been having a good time. The work so far hasn’t been so hard. We haven’t really had too many campers till this weekend. With the bad weather, school still being in and the river being fairly high until this week means we haven’t had to do much yet. This weekend is the first time we have a full house. Three boy scout troops from our hometown is staying here this weekend. That is two dozen boys and a couple of scout masters will cause quite a bit of work for us. We have already mowed about 3 acres of grass, blown off all the sidewalks, camping platforms and down the boardwalk. We also refreshed the bathroom and set up a recycle station to collect aluminum cans. The all drove in about 8:00pm this evening dropping off their camping equipment and supplies for the weekend. Tomorrow should be interesting.

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Florida State Parks, Lessons in Camping, RV and Campers, Volunteer At A Florida State Park, Workamping