So the Experience Begins...Apr. 2009

So….We took our first job;at a resort in Custer, South Dakota. Huge campground, swimming pool, game room, a cabin for our housing, and a manager position for us. Sounds like the perfect job, right? NOT. As we were taken on a tour of the place before accepting this position, we were shown some of the better cabins; they needed some work, but not too bad. We also met a few of the employees already working at the resort; they seemed like nice people- a little shady, but hey; they were able bodies and friendly to the public. What they did on their time was their business.

 As Jim and I were shown to the cabin that we were going to be living in, we were told at  the door that there had been a skunk that had gotten under the cabin and sprayed and that the house hadn’t been cleaned a whole lot, so there may still be some smell. HA! What an understatement; as the door was opened we were almost laid out flat by the smell of skunk as we stood in the house thinking “Okay….This is our house now, this is the decision we made, so try to make the best of it.”

Little did we know that this was only the start of things. We worked for days on the cabin, ripping out the carpet, painting the walls, painting the floor with "Kilz" to try to get rid of the skunk smell, taking bucket after bucket of dirt out from the crawl space, boiling White Distilled Vinegar on the stove to try to get rid of the smell of the skunk, only to walk in every day to a cabin that still smelled like skunk. Our stuff was still in storage and we were still living in a camper in April with snow on the ground.

We were starting to get concerned about the choice we had made. The next day we were suppose to start our new job, learn the reservation system, and the running of things, and the opening of the property since it had been closed all winter. Once again, it was a nightmare.


The desk help, that I once thought was normal, ended up being a complete whack job, treating me like I was the desk help, telling me how things would be done, what she would be doing, and so on-forgetting somewhere through this that Jim and I were going to be her bosses. We were then asked to go out and help with the opening of the cabins that had been closed all winter, washing laundry, and turning on the main water lines. This, too, was a nightmare. The cabins we opened were the ones  we had not seen, and they were old, ran-down, and very overpriced for what you were getting-they were downright nasty to be honest.

We would finish washing the laundry and it would be all spotted and rusty from the water; we were told that that was how they were going to be put back on the beds because the owner refused to use iron out,( would have made them white and presentable). When water mains were being turned on, toilet tanks were busting from the pressure, sinks weren’t working, and water pipes underground were breaking. Plus, it was snowing to beat crazy through all of this, as we were still being forced to live in our camper, since the skunk had claimed the cabin before us.

That night, as Jim and I sat in the camper with our pop-out bed now in and put away because of the snow, the table now down into a bed for us to sleep on , two heaters plus our furnace running, and two kids sleeping, we thought, “What did we do?” Almost positive that things weren’t going to get any better, we decided that the next morning we would go into town, where we had a strong phone signal, and make a call to another job we had turned down to see if they could still use us. ,So the next day we got up and all went into town,  we stopped for some much needed coffee (caffeine and warmth) and made the call.

There was some work that needed to be done at the new job, and were more than happy to take whatever it was. That night, we did something we never would have thought of doing: we packed up in the cold and snow at three in the morning, hooked up and left, promising to move forward and to never look back. We stopped at a truck stop to sleep for the next few hours in the cold and in our camper until it was light enough to see, and then continued driving to our next new job. I think most people would have called it all a learning experience and tried to go back to their comfy life from before….We may have been down, but we were not defeated.
~Gourmet Gypsy, A.K.A. Tanya

About Us: How it all Started...Apr. 2009

We are a fulltime family on the road to the unknown! Everyday is an adventure. We left our home in South Dakota in April of 2009. We had what most consider "The Normal” lifestyle. Jim working at Fed-Ex Ground and myself having my own daycare, both Cassie and Collin going to Public School, the house, the truck...even the dog.

 We tried to go camping every possible second we could, as soon as Friday would come around, Jim was home from work, kids home from school and the Daycare would close for the weekend, we were out the door for some much needed (Every weekend) relaxation. We have always had a passion for the outdoors, and at the time the Black Hills were our backyard, so we loved every minute of it. But as all good things must come to an end, Every Sunday afternoon was the low point of the weekend, knowing we had to pack up to go back to the same mundane Monday of work and life.

Living in South Dakota, the weather is crazy. We were camping for the weekend, packed up to go home Sunday afternoon in 80 degree weather, and were snowed in for 3 days from that evening. Jim could not go to work, the kids were out of school and the daycare was closed, due to the large amounts of snow.

 We sat with nothing to do and income dwindling away day by day. Jim decided to check out a few things he had heard about online (workcamping). We thought there has got to be more to life than "THIS". He sat on the computer and typed in "Jobs for couples" and our whole world changed. It was then time to start some serious planning and decision making.

Sooo...notices were given, things were sold, and a storage shed was filled. We were off to the unknown, and more than welcome to accept the changes to come!!!

~Gourmet Gypsy, A.K.A. Tanya