Over the last four years of full timing, Dave and I have been workampers. Workamping is when a full timer volunteers for a designated number of hours per week in exchange for a free site, usually with all services (electric, water and sewer) included for free. Some workamping experiences offer a salary.

Workamper News is a great resource for posted workamping positions for businesses (for profit and non-profit), federal, state, county and municipal agencies. Workamper News also has many articles about the workamping life and opportunities.

Dave and I have volunteered for the Army Corp of Engineers (USACE), state parks and nonprofits in exchange for a free campground site. Nothing is perfect, but most of our experiences have been absolutely wonderful! We have met some wonderful people and made some really good friends along the way.

For more information about workamping volunteers for the US Army Corp of Engineers and other Federal agencies, go to Volunteer.gov

We have experienced many humorous and entertaining stories throughout our workamping. Along the way, we will be sharing many of them with you. One of our favorites is what we call “Pink Funnels”.

Friendship Park

Friendship Park is a smaller day-use park on a lake. The park has a boat launch, a beach and 40 covered picnic tables for picnics. The name of the park came from when the town of Friendship was flooded in the 1950s to become part of a dam / reservoir system. The purpose of the dam by the Army Corp of Engineers was for flood damage reduction, water conservation, fish and wildlife habitat and recreation.

The annual flooding had damaged many of the metal roofs on the picnic tables near the beach. Due to the constant flooding, the beach had become overgrown with weeds. During the day the park would have fishermen and a few folks in their teens and 20s. Overnight people would go to the park to “party” and “hang out”. There were few families that came to Friendship Park. The park had gained a rather nefarious reputation for being neglected.

During the beginning of COVID-19 we became the first and only park hosts for Friendship Park. In exchange for a free site to stay at, our job was to be a “presence” in the park and to “keep an eye out” for people not following the rules. We were told explicitly, in no uncertain terms, that we were NOT to enforce ANY rules, just to be a presence and to keep watch. If there was a problem, we were supposed to call the park rangers, who would come over to Friendship and enforce the rules.

Our Task

We had a great vantage point for being a presence and “keeping an eye out” for problems! Our solo site was about ¼ of a mile up the hill from the beach. We had an eagle eye’s view of what was happening in the park. Our job entailed driving around the park in a UTV 3 times on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This was us being a presence. We were “off” the rest of the week, but nothing shielded us from our vantage point!

Pink Funnels

One bright sunny Saturday afternoon Dave and I took our afternoon cruise around the park on our UTV. At one of the picnic tables near the beach there was a group of about 20 or 25 people who looked to be in their late teens / early 20s. None of them were older than their early 20s. They had several coolers and lots of snack foods strewn about the picnic table. We figured we would just drive by and say hi – remember we are there to be a presence. As we got closer, the drinks very quickly were put in the coolers. Some of them started playing frisbee and started “acting busy”. We are parents and grandparents. We knew exactly what they were doing, and probably you do, too!!! But we are not enforcement.

We chatted for a few minutes and asked them if they needed any trash bags. They were very pleasant and friendly. We left. When we were a distance away, we looked back. We could see the drinks were back out.

We called the rangers on duty and they said they were in the middle of dealing with a problem at another park. We said we would keep watch of the young people.

We went back up to our perch on the hill and took out our binoculars. Our suspicions were correct! They were using a pink funnel to chug beer! One person would lay face up on the seat of the picnic table. The person laying down would hold a pink funnel, with the narrow part in their mouth, while another person would pour beer into the larger part of the funnel. The whole beer would be poured into the funnel. After a few seconds, the person laying down on the picnic bench would jump up and “shake it off”. Then another person would lay down and it would happen again.

After talking with them, we knew they were young. Late teens, very early 20s. Very few looked like they were 21.

We knew we had no back-up from the rangers, and as volunteers we had absolutely no authority to enforce any rules, let alone being out-numbered 20 to 2!! But it could be dangerous to them and others if they continued to drink and any of these young people got in their cars and drove away.

What to do?

We got back in the UTV and did another “normal patrol”. The same thing happened as before. When we got close, the drinks went back in the coolers. And they acted “busy” or nonchalant, as if “nothing was going on”.

In a very quiet, nonthreatening tone of voice we asked who was “in charge” of the group. Dave and I are fairly nonthreatening grandparent types. With bravado (liquid courage?), many of the males had comments like, “I am in charge”, “No one is in charge”, “We are all in charge!”, “We aren’t doing anything wrong!”

We whispered in an almost conspiratorial tone, like we were on their side against the rangers, with, “Oh, we aren’t trying to ruin your fun! Heavens no! We just want you to know the park rangers know about your pink funnel and they are on their way over.”

They were shocked! Faces turned white. “Wow, thanks for telling us! We don’t want any trouble!” We whispered, “We know you are just having fun, but we don’t want anyone to get in trouble!

They asked, “How did the rangers find out? They must have cameras here!” We just shrugged our shoulders.

Within a few minutes the young people had cleaned up their site and headed for the parking lot with their coolers. When the rangers were freed up and came over, the party had dispersed.

If they weren’t underage drinking they would not have acted as guilty as they did nor would they have left so quickly. This was our way of enforcing the rules without forcing the rules. Could it have gone differently? Of course.

Take-away Point

My Dad always used to say you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. We found this to be so true when working with the public! We figured out how to use lightheartedness to encourage visitors to the park to comply with park rules without a confrontation.

Your partners in travel,
Kathryn, Dave and Lucky
RVing Nomads

It’s a lifestyle

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If you haven’t checked out our Great Service and Value, please do so. If you are in their area, you may find these places as enjoyable and rewarding as we did!