Although I’m a paid subscriber to Workamper News, I’m going to review my latest workamping job here so I don’t have to worry about somebody else editing my review.
I agreed to a 60 day commitment at this campground with the option to extend for the rest of the season after we got to know each other. At that time (before I arrived at the campground), one of the owners told me that it would be better to make a decision sooner rather than later. No exact date was specified. So, 2 weeks into my 8 week commitment I went into the store and asked to talk about the rest of the season. I was informed at that point that they had already hired someone to finish out the season. Holy crap!! I can understand them wanting to cover themselves but they never talked to me at all about it. This lack of communication was a trend during the entire stay.
Anyway, the campground is in fairly good shape and in a beautiful part of NC. All the workampers were able to take advantage of a local familiarization tour for free. This included a ride on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad and a raft trip down the Nantahala River.
When I first arrived, I had to rely on other workampers to let me know what to do. The owners are a married couple who have owned the campground about 4 yrs. The husband spent a lot of time on a riding mower and weed eating. The wife mainly stayed in the store. The husband did take some time one day to give me the official tour of the campground. While showing me all the electrical spare parts, he neglected to tell me that I would not be allowed to actually use any of them. Apparently there was a problem with previous electrical repairs so only a select few people were allowed to make repairs now. I noticed that the US flag which they left displayed 24/7 was not illuminated at night. After advising him of the requirements of the US flag code, I offered to move the flag pole underneath a street light. He declined that offer. He had problems with a clogged sewer line which he snaked out. According to his wife, this was a problem every year. I offered to dig up the line and make repairs. He declined my offer but that was one of the first tasks undertaken by the only returning workamper. At that point, I quit offering help and just did what was required.
There were 2 other workamper couples there who routinely worked extra hours without extra compensation. They said they were either bored or needed the exercise. I would expect that the owners have come to expect the extra hours from most people.
There was only 1 returning workamper couple who have been working here every season for the last 4 years.
During my last week, the wife owner noted that I looked overheated when I was returning a key to the store. She then asked if I was aware that I was authorized 1 bottle of water from the store per shift. Duh! How could I be aware of it if she never told me? I found out several other benefits like laundry money and propane from the other workampers that the owners never told me about.
If you need reliable Internet access, bring your own air card or satellite. The campground WiFi is fairly unreliable. TV cable is good, electric and water are stable.
Also during my last week, I had planned to leave on Wed morning after working Fri – Tues. One of the owners advised me on Sun that I could take off on Mon and Tues and use the time to see any sights that I’d missed. That was very nice of them and made it much easier to prepare the rig. I wish them all the best with their campground in the future.
I also spotted quite a few mating horseshoe crabs while floating through the shallows. The finale for this paddle was spotting a huge white swan, not my normal bird sighting in Florida. I was able to get quite close to it to be sure of the identification. Unfortunately, I did not take my camera on this paddle. However, I’m including some representative pics of everything except the dolphin. On the paddle back to the famcamp, the wind picked up, naturally. Wave heights looked like 8-12 inches, maybe some a little higher. It’s a very good thing I had my spray skirt on or it could have been a wet and cold return paddle.
