Another new adventure!

The new year (2011) started out with a bang and never slowed down. We got back from KY on January 8 (the day that congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head in Tucson). We actually had to wait for the stop light right at the intersection where the shooting had taken place just minutes before. What a commotion!! We felt really bad for her and hoped she would be alright. After having been gone for a little more than 9 months we had a lot of work ahead of us (sorting through mail, mostly junk mail, catching up with friends, unloading and washing and cleaning out the trailer etc.). We then decided that we wanted a new trailer -- one that was just a bit bigger but with a couch and a bed you could walk around. After an extensive search of all the RV dealers in the area we found one that was just about right. It even had a slide out which gave us more room to walk around and play our Wii games. Right after we took possession of the new trailer we got a job offer at the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert. We had volunteered there for 3 summers and now Francoise got a paying job working 5 days a week for the PFMA (Petrified Forest Museum Association) while Gary volunteers for the Petrified Forest 4 days a week to pay for the campsite. We only got 1 week notice to get the new trailer packed, to say goodbye to our friends, get the house cleaned and all the wash caught up. We hadn't even taken the trailer on a maiden voyage so we were  hoping all would work out fine. The trip up went very smoothly and we arrived on Saturday (March 5) at around 3 o'clock in the afternoon to a much colder climate than we had left in Phoenix. It was back to warm clothes and having the heater on day and night. Forgot to say that we now have a water heater that heats not only on propane but also electrically. What a luxury -- no more waiting for warm water. Everybody at the park was so happy to see us and everybody seemed to know we were coming. We were very lucky in that we got the prime spot in the campground with nobody in front of us; we have been waiting for that for all those other times we were here. 

After we got to our destination we found out that Gary will be able to work 1 day a week with pay for the PFMA as well and they will give us our 2 days off at the same time.  It has been very cold the last couple of days so we had to leave the water running all night to prevent the hoses from freezing. We still only have 30 amp so we have to be careful what is running (like Green Acres -- if the coffee pot is on we can't have anything else on, if we cook on our electric stove we have to use the small burner and can have the heater on low etc.) 

More next time. Miss all of you!!

Back in civilization -- more or less.

Wow, it has been a long time since we wrote in this blog. We have been extremely busy with our work at Amazon and didn't have much time to spend on the computer nor did we have much time for socializing.
After Thanksgiving Amazon started their Peak which meant we all worked 60 hours a week which was divided into 5 eleven hour days and 1 five hour day. This meant that we had to get up at 3:15 A.M and be at our workstation at 5:00 A.M. and got off at 4:30 P.M. We worked so hard and were pretty tired so that by the time Gary made supper, we ate supper, washed up the dishes and made our lunches for the next day it was time to go to bed (at least for Francoise). We were able to visit the Jim Dean distillery which was similar to the Jack Daniel's distillery except that here we were offered real samples since we were not in a dry county. The picture below is a model of a distillery that actually works.

Sometime in November the Lexington newspaper interviewed some of the workampers and put a rather negative article in their newspaper. USAToday picked up on it and did a more positive article about Amazon workampers. We were on the front page of that paper and finally ABC did a nice program on workampers. Later the Korean broadcasting system did a filming of the workampers at Amazon in Campbellsville. We are at the front of the line coming back from work trotting up the hill to our campsite

We worked until about 11 A.M. on Thanksgiving Day and we each received a pie (apple, pecan, or pumpkin) on our way out. We were invited to our P.A.'s brother's house for a potluck after work. This was very nice. Everybody in Kentucky is so friendly!!! 

Everybody had told us that it wouldn't get very cold until January but they had an abnormally cold and early winter. It started getting very cold in November already and we had to learn to deal with it so we wouldn't have frozen pipes. We left the cold water running day and night on the cold days but had to buy another little heater and a work light to put into the compartment where the water heater was as we couldn't get any warm water one morning. It was hard to deal with all the humidity that built up as well.

One evening after we went to the store we came back and found out that Gary had lost the keys to get into the trailer. So, we had to figure out how to break in to our trailer. We had to take out the emergency window which was a big deal as it had many screws to undo. Then Gary had to climb through the window which wasn't easy and I had to give him a final push. Then a couple of days later somebody in the campground found the keys and returned them to the office. We were very lucky. 

From Thanksgiving until Christmas we did nothing but eat, sleep and work. After Christmas we could work less hours but we chose to continue our 60 hour work week. We were asked to stay through the middle of January but we chose to end our working there on December 31. We worked a full day (10 hours) that day. 

We woke up Christmas day with snow so we had a white Christmas which I wanted if it was going cold anyway we might as well have snow. 

There is one place in Campbellsville that sells hamburgers and guns. So while you are eating a hamburger you can decide which gun you want to buy. We never went inside but took a picture of the outside.

Francoise also got interviewed by the local newspaper because of her book. So, for a little while she was quite a celebrity and sold quite a few of her books. 

On January 1 we finally left Campbellsville. Gary had to unhook the electricity, and the sewer and water hoses. This was quite an ordeal as we woke up hearing rain on the roof. It really was coming down and it looked like it wasn't going to clear up. But there were little time slots where it didn't rain quite so hard so he was able to do most of it without getting too wet or too cold. He did have to hook up the truck while it was raining pretty hard. We stayed the first night in West Memphis, Arkansas in Tom Sawyer R.V. park which was nice. We did have electricity to keep us warm. The next day we stayed in a KOA camp in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. We did get a reduced rate because we told them we only needed electricity and they had a site where the sewer was not functional. The third night it was still cold so we needed electricity again and we stayed in a new campground in Sweetwater, Texas. We, again, got a reduced rate for not wanting full hook-ups. We were the only campers there. The fourth night we stayed in the parking lot of Sunland Park Casino near El Paso, Texas. We thought we didn't need electricity so we would boondock. Well, we were wrong. It was freezing when we woke up. While we had the furnace and the water heater and the stove to cook our water for coffee the flames on the stove were getting smaller and smaller until they finally died. So, Gary had to go out in the bitter cold and change propane tanks, which wasn't much fun as he had to fiddle with the valve. He finally got it to work. The fifth night we stayed with our friend Penny and her friend Leonard in Tucson. We finally were in somewhat warmer climate and we had a real shower to enjoy. Saturday we will be home and then the big task of unpacking, cleaning the trailer, and going through the mail will begin. It will be nice to be home again and we already have appointments to see some of our friends who are anxious to hear our stories.