Hot Dang...We Got A Workamping Job!

Sometimes the path you’re looking for is right in front of you…

There are days where everything just seems to come together. I LOVE those days and welcome them with open arms, especially after the somewhat personally difficult winter we went through. Maybe we’re due for some good Karma?

Well Sunday was one of those days and it’s created a rather big change of plans for us. You see we’ve been thinking about workamping for about a year. It’s something that’s been on our “list” for a while, but we are rather particular about what we want to do and plans never quite worked out. Our ultimate goal was some volunteer work, preferably outdoors and dealing with people, hopefully something historical, ideally along the coast, optimistically in a really nice location with a cute, nearby town (with restaurants, organic food, etc.), most definitely next to a dog-friendly beach, and finally somewhere not too far out of our driving plans. I know, I know it’s A LOT to ask, but we are an exacting lot and I’ve always believed in aiming high and letting the universe come back to you with an answer.

The beginning of summer in Oregon

This summer we decided to try again. Now for some reason, even though we’ve been working on it for a while. we haven’t been able to make any summer plans past July. I can’t explain why. We must have looked at travel plans at least 20 times, but couldn’t bring ourselves to book anything past mid-July even though I know those are prime (and really full) months for camping. At the same time we’d put in our volunteer forms for the Oregon Coast just a few weeks ago, but really didn’t expect anything back. After all, most of the positions we wanted were filled and we were asking high stakes to work very particular jobs in the most popular summer months.

But sometimes the inexplicable happens and is simply a way of pointing you in the right direction…..

Small surprises are sometimes the most interesting

We waited a week on our applications with no answer, figuring we were most likely too late. Then late Sunday evening as we were nursing a glass of wine and still wondering what we were going to do in August, we got the unexpected call. “I’ve just had a cancellation for a lighthouse interpretive host position in Cape Blanco for July and August. Your application was the first one that came up. Would you guys be interested?”.

I’m heeere, says the universe!

Sunshine always, eventually follows the rain..

As it so happens our travel plans had us scheduled to be in Cape Blanco for the beginning of July and we were going to max out 2 weeks there specifically because we’d heard so much about it. The State Park campground rates really well, nearby Port Orford is the oldest town on the coast (as well as being a cute artistic and vibrant town), and the lighthouse was going to be one of our trip highlights. We didn’t need to change anything to make this happen. Could this be ANY more ideal? ”You bet, we’re interested!”

Sometimes everything just falls in place

So folks, stars have aligned and Karma come full circle and it looks like we’re going to be interpretive hosts! It’ll be our very first workamping job and we’re going straight into the deep end at the very busiest time of the year, but it is exactly the position we were looking for and we are totally stoked!

I’m sure I’ll be writing a ton more about workamping as we go through this experience, but for now we’re just happy to be booked. Oh, and if you’re on the coast in July/Aug and coming by Cape Blanco do remember to stop and say “hi”. We’ll be the folks with “the beast” and the big smiles.

P.S. It’s interesting how things always seem to come in three’s. Just for fun I’ll relate two other incicents that happened to us over the week-end:
-> First is that we left our surge protector at our last campsite. This is a $400 piece of equipment and we were mortified when we discovered the loss. As luck would have it I’d befriended some RVers at the last campground and given them our card. Wouldn’t you believe they found the protector and sent us an e-mail offering to post it to us? RVers really ARE the nicest lot!
-> Second thing that happend is I’ve been looking for a new bike ever since my last one was stolen in San Diego in March. N0-one seemed to have the bike or size I was looking for, even here in Eugene. Well on a whim on Sunday I called a small shop on the OR coast to see what they could do. Not only can they get the bike, but they’re offering it on sale too. What a deal!

P.P.S. All above shots were taken at Armitage County Park in Eugene, OR

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