1st Rest Stop Overnighter

Anyone who has traveled for any extended period of time knows that something will go wrong before long. Since leaving Cherokee, NC we have been plagued by transmission problems. While we were cruising down the road, an indicator message pops up saying that our transmission is too hot, pull over and idle. Well thank God we were passing a rest stop and were immediately able to pull over in a safe place. Chris checked the transmission fluid and all seemed good and so we waited for the transmission to cool off and start back on our journey. Slowly taking off, the transmission bumped very hard into first gear and then slightly less into second and so we were very concerned. We googled to find the closest dealership that could get us in quickly and were able to find one about 18 miles away. We cautiously watched the transmission temp the whole way there and everything seemed fine. Well long story short.....$237 dollars later we have new transmission fluid and we are off again. We traveled for a whole day without problems but then it started happening again the next day. My brother (a shade tree mechanic) told us that our Suburban doesn't really have a good enough transmission cooler to haul our camper for long distances and that we really need to add an extra cooler but that will have to wait until we get to our next destination. So getting to the night at the rest stop. We were driving along yesterday in the 103 degree heat with four windows down and I was in a very bad mood. I will be honest and say I had a slight breakdown of sorts but I was able to pull myself together after getting into the very back seat, by myself, and praying. Chris must have known what I needed because he instantly turned our satellite radio onto the Joel Osteen channel. After I pulled myself together, I was able to rationally look at the situation and realize that it wasn't as bad as it seemed. Along the way we had to pull over about 5 times in order for the transmission to cool down and after a while it was clear we were not going to make it to our intended KOA stop for the night. We were all so tired and grumpy that Chris and I decided it would be best to stop at the closest rest stop and spend the night. We covered the windows with towels and put a egg crate mattress across the window in the front, left the truck running, took some simply sleep, covered up and went to sleep. Chris said that I snored like a chain saw the whole night and that he was so worried that he couldn't sleep but a few hours. All in all we were able to reschedule our KOA stop for the next night and we made it safely through our first night sleeping in a rest stop and no one got murdered :)

On the move

Sometimes in life things happen that are beyond our control and we just roll with the punches and stay blessed.

Sadly our time at Yogi in the Smokies came to a end and we are now on the road to a new adventure.

Stay tuned for details!

Every Thursday

Every Thursday for about a month there is a Chiropractor that comes to the campground and gives adjustments for $20. Chris never misses a Thursday and he loves it. I am to scared he will break my neck....LOL....I'm not into the bone cracking!

The toliet-mobile

The toliet-mobile, our golf cart, carries us around all day from place to place. Thank goodness to because if we had to walk around all day carrying around our supplies, this would have been a short job.

Here is the breakdown of our day:

7am- sweep & mop the office
7:30- dust, sweep, mop & take out trash in the laundry room.
8:00- clean the ranger bathrooms (1 boys toliet & 1 urinal) (2 girl bathrooms)
8:30- dust & take out game room trash.
9- head to the mega bath houses of doom! On the girls side there 4 toliets, 4 sinks & mirrors & 4 showers. The boys side has 2 urinals, 2 toliets, 4 sinks & 4 showers.
10 (if we're lucky)- We are really breaking a sweat and head to the middles. We are greeted with 4 unisex toliets  on one side and 4 unisex showers on the other.
11- Every curse word imaginable has probably been uttered under our breath because we have most likely unstopped at least 4 toliets (usually on the men's side) and had to tell 99 people that the bathrooms are closed for cleaning. To which the will complain and moan about very loudly.  So now, we are going to the uppers where we are welcomed with 2 unisex full bathroom/shower combinations.
11:30- go back to the mega bath houses of doom & the middles to check one last time before lunch.
12-1- Lunch
1-4- Repeat all above steps and thrown in a few cabins for good measure!
4- Go home and collapse. ...but wait....there are children to feed and we forgot it's laundry day. ....sigh

Tubing down the river

20150728 113452 from Shelby Hudspeth on Vimeo.

Matthew and Benjamin tubing down the Raven Fork River that runs through Yogi in the Smokies campground. The water is very shallow and so the kids get stuck sometimes. Look out for Izzy running across the screen almost at the end of the video....LOL. We had to go rescue her from the bank because she go down but couldn't get back up.

Sugar Beet Harvest

The sugar beet harvest is now officially our next workamping job and will begin at the first of October. We are assigned to go to Fargo, ND and will be staying at the Lindenwood campground. During this job only Chris will be working because it requires that you work 7 days a week and 12 hours a day. I will be homeschooling the boys and attending college online while Chris does this short job. We have read accounts of other people's experience with this job and their opinions vary greatly. Some people absolutely love only working 3 weeks and making around $3-4 thousand dollars and some have said that it was the worst experience of their lives and they will never be back! We think that it is important to take each of their opinions into account but ultimately make our own decisions.

The only thing that I am worried about going into this job is the fact that the Lindenwood campground doesn't provide a sewer hook-up but we were promised that a honey wagon service comes around twice a week to empty the tanks for us.

I am excited for this new adventure and can't wait to get to North Dakota........another state I have never been to.

I know some of you out there would like more information so just follow the link :)

http://www.sugarbeetharvest.com/

Some People

While working at this campground there are some things I have learned about people. This, in no way applies to all people, just a select few. So this is what we have learned.

People are NASTY, they will poop in the showers, leave bloody women product laying in the showers, trash cabins, poop on the floor, poop in trash cans, leave dirty diapers everywhere and pee on every surface imaginable except the toilets. (Thank goodness Chris has a strong stomach because he gets all the nasty jobs...LOL)

People are WASTEFUL,  they throw away brand new items that they bought for one camping trip, leave food (unopened) in the cabinets and fridge of cabins. Leave bundles of wood not used and leave soap, towels, bottles of shampoo, conditioner, soap, shirts, shorts and underwear in the bathrooms.
 

People are RUDE, they think they should get special treatment above and beyond what you have already done. They think they whole world should bow down to them and kiss their toes. They will complain even if you give them EVERYTHING FREE!!

People are FRIENDLY, that old man or woman that you thought was grumpy end up being the salt of the earth people. People will go out of their way to help you fix an electrical problem, climb on top of your camper roof to fix your a/c, change a flat or loan you a BBQ lighter.

People are INTERESTING,  they have stories that will surprise,  frighten or amaze you. Each and every story is different and it is awesome to just sit and talk to people.

Out of all this, the MAIN thing I have learned is never to judge people. I now try and get to know everyone that is willing to talk. I will not like everyone but those that I do will be friends for life!