Jeanette and I volunteer for a variety of reasons. We meet lots of people, explore new places, take advantage of seasonal weather, do interesting work, and make LOADS of money. Well, not really LOADS of money – in fact, we don’t make any money at all – but we really have a great time and enjoy the experiences and weather. And, we always get a free campsite for our efforts!
We like what we’re doing enough that we’re currently (Winter ’23/’24) working our third volunteer jobs, at the Northeast Texas Community College in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. Our NTCC jobs followed our 2023 summer of volunteering at the Iron River National Fish Hatchery in Iron River, Wisconsin. More about those in future posts.
But, our first volunteer gig, at Deer Springs RV Park, near Franklin, North Carolina, will always be a special memory for us. It’s a small park with 12 sites (only eight when we were hosting) and is restricted to adults only (thanks to a few feral children) with self-contained RVs.
In September, 2021, we were sitting around our campfire at Deer Springs. The four of us (Jim, Trish, Jeanette and I) were sampling bourbon and discussing the most serious world issues, when the subject of campground hosting came up. One of the bourbon bottles casually blurted out to Jim that if he ever considered having campground hosts at Deer Springs, we may be interested. A few months later, Jim asked if we were serious, we said ‘yes’ and the following October we were the new DSRVP campground hosts. It turned out to be a special month and an awesome experience.
Our jobs amounted to taking care of the park guests: Greeting new arrivals, helping them get situated in their sites, dropping off some firewood, helping some start their campfires, waving ‘bye’ as they started their journeys home and tidying the site for the next guests. With very few exceptions, it was all about the people.
The People
When we attended our first rally (Hoots, 2018), I asked a couple of guys at my table about their favorite RV parks. One quickly wrote down the name of a park in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. The other explained how parks will vary in size, price, amenities and location, but that the real things that matter are the people you meet and the lasting friendships you make while camping. And, while Deer Springs is one of the nicest parks we have experienced, it’s the owners, Jim and Trish Eliason, that keep us coming back year after year. While we were there, they had to go through a very trying emotional hardship, yet were able to manage their park ownership roles remarkably. There are simply no nicer people in the campground business that I know of.
We were fortunate to have a number of guests we already knew. Like John and Carolyn Howard from Austin, TX. We have been good friends since 1998. The Howards have an Airstream trailer, and get partial credit for us having a motorhome. After a series of complaints from John about hooking and unhooking their trailer, we got onto the idea of just pressing a button for leveling, and the idea caught on enough to spring for the motorhome. It was great to spend a week with them at our favorite park.
Steve and Lisa Morrison followed us the 100 miles from Sevierville, Tennessee to Deer Springs. The Morrisons are original members of the Newmar Hoots group, and we had just finished celebrating the tenth year of annual Hoots rallies at our largest Hoots gathering to date – 75 Newmar coaches. We first met Steve and Lisa in 2021, during our previous visit to Deer Springs and quickly took a liking to them.
I heard a good deal about Bill and Lisa May from a mutual friend Renee, but October 2022 was our first meeting. Of course, they were everything I had heard about them. And, lovely Lisa completely impressed us with her beer-drinking story about getting kicked out of a restaurant for dancing on the table.
And then came Elli with her coach driver/co-pilot Neal Culiner. Elli is a yellow Lab who is a sweetheart and wonderful at entertaining campground guests. She’s very good with Neal, too, allowing him to run RVForums.com (currently with some 30,000 members), in addition to driving her around the country in her RV and piloting her small plane to far-away places. Truth is, Neal is the better conversationalist, as well as an accomplished drone pilot and brisket chef. During their stay, Neal joined drone forces with Jim (remember Jim – he owns the campground with Trish) to put on a drone flying demonstration that was fairly incredible. You can see the video here.
Other characters blessed us with their company during our month at the park, including the big-telescope couple who shared their stargazing skills and the two RVs with plentiful Halloween decorations who set the tone for the end of the month. Also memorable were the two drivers who had no ability to back their trailers into their sites, but still put up arguments about how to do it (well, then, why didn’t it work?).
Day Trips and Fall Foliage
As campground hosts, we didn’t have many days available for day tripping, which was fine, because the park is a pleasant place to be. But, there were a few days when we got out to explore the area. The really great thing about October destinations in this part of North Carolina is the fall foliage…leaf peeping, as some like to call it. So, all of our outings were colorful adventures.
One day, we made the drive to the town of Highlands. We had been warned, and it proved to be true, that Highlands is a shopping mecca. If you happen to love shopping, this is the place for you. But, if you also love waterfalls and picturesque fall foliage, then you’re in for a special treat!
On another day, we found the Lazy Hiker taproom in downtown Franklin, which pretty much ended any further explorations for the day, except for the beer menu. It’s a quaint place with a strong following and a huge selection of t-shirts. Best of all, their beers rank high on my list of tasty brews. There’s no food on their menu, but a food truck in the parking lot serves up some interesting concoctions.
Still, our favorite place in the area was the campground. In addition to the great cast of characters and simple job duties, just spending time in the beautiful surroundings was enough. The leaf peeping at the park was better than anywhere else we have seen, and we have the pictures to prove it. I took some very nice photos with my drone, but one picture stands out above all the others, taken with my iPhone from just outside the door at our campsite. I had it enlarged and framed, and it hangs on the wall in the coach. It adds just the right amount of color to our bedroom and is a constant reminder of our first volunteer experience.
Contact information
Web: Deer Springs RV Park
Phone: (828) 349-5440
Love your blog, Buddy! You guys are the adventurists, that’s for sure. Looking forward to following your adventures as you travel this wonderful country.