New Chapter in our Life

This year, we tried something completely new to us: being full time volunteers.  For the months of July and August we are camp hosting at Boyd Lake State Park, located in Loveland, Colorado.

Here we are in our olive green volunteer shirts.  Trust me, if I had picked out a color for volunteers to wear, it certainly would not be olive green!  I feel like I'm in camouflage when I combine the shirt with my khaki shorts. The combination might be good for hiding in the tall grass behind our 5th wheel, but I haven't tried that yet: the possibility of a snake being there keeps me away.

I wondered if I was considered a "host" or a "hostess", and thought about maybe reading up on what it takes to becoming "A Hostess with the Mostest" under Epicurious.com.  That didn't happen. There was a book titled "The Perfect Hostess" but I knew that was never going to happen either. Another book listed on the internet was "Entertaining is Fun: How to be the Perfect Hostess".   Don knows I am "entertaining" at times, but that relates more to me doing goofy things.  I think I'll just settle on being a good ole camp host and leave it at that.

This year, they changed out all the signs in front of the camp hosts sites.  At the end of July, they even added our first names.  I guess the campers here can figure out that I'm Laurel and the guy sitting outside reading is Don...

Boyd Lake has 148 pull through sites in the campground area.  We have a site in Loop A, which backs up to this prairie, allowing us great views of the incoming storms and evening sunsets.  This is a view from one of the many bike paths around the lake.

Don can even choose his lunch off the "A la cart" menu here.  Although he has a lot of choices, he usually chooses a bologna or peanut butter sandwich.  No need for an extensive lunch menu for him.

Boyd Lake is big enough to have a marina and different sections for fishing, water skiing, sailing and jet skiing.  On nice days, especially weekends, it is crowded with boats of all sizes.  There is something for everyone here.  There is boating, skiing, swimming, fishing, walking and bike trails, wildlife viewing (including a resident eagle), waterfowl hunting, camping and picnicking, all within the park.

Here is a view of the swim beach, popular with the locals.

Bret, Tatum, Nate and Ella came over one Saturday while Kim was out of town.  It was one of the hot weekends, so they had fun fooling around in the water.  I think Bret's arms finally got tired of throwing Ella into the water numerous times.

Every weekend, the campground is full, packed with people in tents, pop up campers, huge Class A motorhomes and trailers.  We've seen everything from a  16 ft. tiny trailer that housed 2 adults and 2 large dogs and the gigantic behemoth seen below.  That big fella was shipped over here from Germany and was the most unusual RV we've seen here so far.

It has been a wonderful experience for us.  The other 5 couples who are camp hosting here have become friends and we've had the chance to share our knowledge of RVing with other people who camp here.  It has kept us active (and off the streets), plus we get our site and utilities for free!  Also, our 3 children know exactly where we are at for these two months.  Usually, when we travel during the summer, they don't know where we are at until that evening when we stop (or maybe even a day or two later). 

It's always great to be able to wake up to see the sun rising in the distance, casting a golden light across the calm blue lake in addition to having a wonderful view at sunset from our site.  What more could we ask for?