2019-2
Moss Park, Orange County Florida
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| loop road through Moss Park campground |
Camp Host
From my last post
you know that I’ve rented out all of my Rv Lots in St Cloud and I
am now about 20 miles north, staying at Moss Park as a camp host.
Financially it’s a good move as I’m able to rent out the Rv lot I
was staying on ($500 profit minus lot expenses of course) and by
being a camp host at Moss Park I’m essentially staying on a
campsite that would normally have cost me $500 plus the cost of
electric ($75), making for a total of $1,075 in savings and or
profit. Not bad for a months change in location.
It’s interesting
how a retiree can make money by doing something as simple as changing
camping locations, boondocking (free camping), renting out their own Rv
lot or doing a short stay as a camp host.
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| Shelter Coves pool is slowly getting rebuilt too late for me to enjoy a swim this season |
RV Tip:
I’ve discovered
over the years that when I do do a camp host job, I prefer only doing
it for a month or two at the most and usually in an area I would like
to explore more. Many full time Rv-ers only think you can apply to
be a camp host if you’re willing to stay for a couple of months, up
to 6 months at a time.
I’ve discovered
that it never hurts to ask if a place has a camp host vacancy and
being up front and saying I’m available for only a month or two at
most. And it has worked out for me on numerous occasions that a spot
is available for that shorter time frame. Hint: Having a pleasant
personality always helps. Saving me money, giving me more time to
explore an area and learning about the area from the park and people
I’ll be volunteering with.
Now my previous stay
here at Moss Park, I was hired specifically to be the evening
enforcer of all rules in the park. It became a daunting task and one
I didn’t particularly like. This time, I was hired after a quick
application, background check completed and given my camp host site.
My duties were not
spelled out as I was only given a camp host log to put in the hours
I’m on duty, and what ever tasks I accomplished during that time.
Examples being: picking up trash, check restrooms, night check,
etc. Basically I’m on my own and to be a presence so that if other
campers have any questions they can come to my campsite and I can
help them as best I can.
The only specific
duty I’ve been given is to pick up the site registration cards to
be placed on each campsite that’s been rented out as well as remove
the old cards as people leave. Even this task is taken over by the
park staff if there’s only a small number of cards to be put on
sites. Usually during the middle of the week.
Bottom line, I’m
staying at an awesome park for a month with light camp host duties
and saving money.
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| Moss Park, surrounded by nature |
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| three boat docks, this one is just for campers |
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| along the canal connecting Lake Mary Jane and Lake Hart |
Back at Shelter
Cove
You’d think I was
already to move on, but things are going on back at Shelter Cove that
I needed to take care of and participate in. First off one of my
renters lost a key to access our club house and entry gate. It’s a
master key and costs $50 to replace. Spent an entire day trying to
get a new key.
Later in the day, we
had a board meeting and what a meeting it was. Our president doesn’t
take any flack from any owners, telling them to sit down and shut up
after they’ve said their piece… the big news being that she is
pushing for making the community a 55 and older park. Carole’s a
real go getter and isn’t going to settle for anything less. Seems
that we are already considered a 55 and older community as more than
80% of the community is 55 and older. But it looks like we’ll
spend $5,000 to $10,000 to make it official so that the community can
keep children and anyone younger than 55 out of the park. What ever
happens, I will support the majority of owners, though to be honest,
it will reduce the number of people that will be able to rent one of
my RV lots. Time will tell what actually happens.
The community pool
is continuing to progress, as of this writing, they have poured a
rough concrete floor and the outline of the pool is well defined with
re-bar and framing material. It will be a much awaited completion
for the summer swimming season.
And our laundromat
is going through it’s second iteration for electric power upgrades.
1st it was to be two electric poles to the bldg, then the
new board realized the impact of above ground utilities and decided
to change course and put the lines back underground where they should
have in the first place. Bottom line the electric company is close
to “turning on” the electric to the building. it’s been a loss
of over $6 to $8,000 in laundry revenues for the park during the
outage. A costly timeline of errors. Oh, and while they were
digging for the new electric lines, the team cut our water line and
the park was without water for a couple days and remains on a boil
water notice. Eventually all will be fixed and good as new….
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| two of my Rv lots with renters |
Renter news: I of
course have all three rv lots rented. Had a message from a board
member requesting one of my renters move their Rv forward about 5
feet as it was parked too close to the road, obstructing the view of
vehicles trying to turn onto the main road through the park. All of
my rv lots are corner lots.
Received another
call from a friend who's a bit paranoid about seeing men’s butt
crack. Apparently again one of my renters had his shirt off and bent
over, exposing the world to a bit of booty crack. Opps. Forwarded a
message to the renter requesting he keep things covered up.
On another note, I
rent out my rv lots for $500 + electric. Our park owned lots are
currently going for $550 + electric. After the pool and laundry room
are back in good order, I’ll no doubt be raising the lot rents
after each yearly lease is up.
Canals:
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| one of the many canals used to drain southern Florida from Kissimmee and St Cloud area |
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| these canals link the many lakes and low lying areas in Florida creating thousands of acres of land for development |
Florida has a ton of
lakes often created by sinkholes. What many don’t realize is that
just south of Orlando, starting in the Kissimmee basin area, which is
where St Cloud and my Rv community is located was originally covered
in swamp land, lakes and the Kissimmee river heading south to Lake
Okeechobee. It was drained by the creation of miles and miles of
canals connecting all those lakes and water covered lands. Shelter
Cove is a part of those canals connecting the Alligator chain of
lakes which eventually connects to the Kissimmee River drainage river
and canals. Many boaters enjoy being able to travel from lake to
lake via all of these canals that literally crisscross Florida south
of the Orlando area. And the rest of us like being on dry land
created by the drainage of the land we now call home. Even if we can
dig down a foot or two and reach water.
One Project a Day.
My last week before
heading out it’s finally time to actually implement my one project
a day routine. When one is retired, that’s all we have to do you
know.
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Washed the camper roof and solar panels to squeaky clean.
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Greased the camper wheels
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Install new shroud over front A/C unit (damaged by trees)
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washed the truck, again, I actually did the work myself, not the carwash.
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Packed up the outside chairs, rugs, etc.
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went to eye Dr appt. disappointed in results, new eye drops didn’t reduce eye pressure, but will try a new eye drop and travel on.
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Drain fresh water tanks and refill with fresh water.
Distance Traveled Eustis Fl : 64 miles
Don’t judge me, I
just wanted to get out into the country and out of city traffic.
There are so many events occurring throughout Florida and I've discovered that if I sign up by the county I'm in through Facebook, I can find out about all these great activities. A recent one I attended was the Fort Christmas Bluegrass Festival (an Orange County Event)
Bonus report addition:
There are so many events occurring throughout Florida and I've discovered that if I sign up by the county I'm in through Facebook, I can find out about all these great activities. A recent one I attended was the Fort Christmas Bluegrass Festival (an Orange County Event)
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| a cool collections of the first gas and electric stoves |
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| the original Christmas Post office being added to their historical buildings |
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| home town Chicken and BBQ were on the menu |
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| ice cream treat |
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| a few vendors |
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| lots of shade trees to enjoy the music |
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| top bluegrass music all day thanks to Orange County Parks for putting it on |
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| excellent sound system as well |
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| A stunning Florida Cottage vintage 1952 era |
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| and yes, I do remember these |
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| Oh what a stunning Florida Cracker home interior had all cedar paneling. I would love to live in a cottage like this |
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