11/9/2011 We Are Workamping in the Valley

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted now that LaVon knows we are here. Now I can tell you all we’ve been doing.

As I mentioned in the last post, Bob found us a workamping job in Mission, Texas last spring. He has been wanting to come to the valley for quite some time now because we’ve never been here before. I, on the other hand, have been reluctant. You see, all I ever heard about was the WIND. I couldn’t imagine being somewhere where the winds blows all the time. After South Dakota this summer I sure didn’t want to be anywhere windy for the winter. However, we’re here and I have to say, yes, its breezy here and some days I can say its downright windy BUT it is also very warm here so the breeze is welcome. The strong wind, eh, not so much but it doesn’t last long and on those days I just don’t spend too much time outside.

So why didn’t we go back to Quail Run? Well, we had found someone who wanted our park model for the winter months and quite frankly we needed a change. Whether we had gotten a workamping job or not we wouldn’t have gone back this winter.

The city of Mission is one with about 70,000 in population give or take a couple of hundred. It’s a growing town and between Mission and McAllen the next town over you can’t possibly want for anything! There is shopping galore, every restaurant chain you can think of and many privately owned that we can’t wait to try.

We are just five miles from the USA/Mexico border and seeing license plates from Mexico is now normal to us. One thing that really surprised us was the lack of Border Patrol Vehicles we see. In Arizona, nearly every other vehicle you see is Border Patrol and here we’re lucky if we see one at all when we go to town or McAllen.

So what kind of workamping job do we have? A really good one! Twelve hours a week we ride in a golf cart and stop to pick up oranges or limes that have fallen from the trees. There are only about a dozen trees that are fruit bearing and we’ll only be doing this for a short while longer because soon the trees will be picked clean and the fruit used on a float in a festival parade. I’ll be glad when that happens. We also use a leaf blower to clear the shuffleboard and bocce ball courts of leaves. This is something else that we’ll be doing only until mid-December because by then the trees will be bare. YES! Looking forward to THAT day! We ride around the perimeter of the park and pick up any trash that was blown up against the fences and pick up any trash that we see in the park. If needed, we cut the grass in the dog walk and we turn on the sprinkler on Monday mornings. If a site pad needs to be power washed we may do that. We water the potted plants and keep the fountains filled with water. Bob and I also look for projects to do as the duties listed above just don’t fill 12 hours a week. If we see something that needs to be done we do it. It could be anything from weeding a garden to sweeping the gutters by a building that has a buildup of leaves and stones. Anything to pass the time. In return we get our site, fifty dollars towards our electric bill, water and sewer hookups. We also get to attend park functions and shows at no cost to us. We share the job with Joy and DeWayne who worked with us in South Dakota this past summer. (and visited us in DE last summer) We work four days from 8 - 11 and then they do.

More later!