Retirees Trade Work for Rent at Cash-Poor Parks.

[elleng]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/us/18campers.html?hp

[liberal N proud]

1. Sounds like a cheap way to travel when you retire

It is my wifes and my dream to retire traveling.
We always thought it would be great to work the National Parks in the north during the sumer months and travel south in the winter.

Don't know if we can make it happen but a deal on the rent would help. That is 15 years or more before we see that, who knows what will happen between now and then.

[Kolesar]

4. Sell the house and furniture and go "full time"?

I am imagining buying a pickup truck and a fifth wheel camper. Most of the campers I find are way too big because they are designed for a clan, not a couple. I think the slide-out living areas would be a liability when it got cold and snowy.

[newfie11]

6. As someone who uses a 5th wheel in cold snowy weather

I can tell you we have never had a problem getting them in or out due to weather. We did have a problem due to a fuse going out and it was a bugger to find where it was as that fuses was not with all the others. Finally cranked the slide out in by hand.

That was on an 80 degree day in Casper Wy while we were at a dog show.

[Kolesar]

7. You could tell me all kinds of cool stuff

I would like to camp out in the snowy mountains near a cross country ski center for a few weeks. Then retreat to a warmer climate! doable?

[newfie11]

9. sure it is doable

The only thing is if the roads are passable. I would not want to be hauling a 5th wheel in deep snow.

If you are getting one be very sure you get one with a basement. That way the water in the tank will not freeze as long as you have the heat on in the RV.

When we use it in the winter we fill the water tank and forget about hooking up to the water lines. That avoids a frozen hose. We did try a heat tape along the hose but found it much easier and quicker to just fill the water tank on board.

Good luck!!

[2Design]

11. by then the repubs will have gotten rid of parks n/t

[fasttense]

2. 71 and 73 years old and they are working like itinerant farmers because they can't afford rent.

"“We did a state park in Arizona this year that had laid off so many people, we basically ran it,” said Carolyn Miller, 71, a former small-business owner from Colorado who has work-camped from Alaska to Maine with her husband, Warren, 73."

That's just sad. This is how we treat our elderly? Is this what is waiting for us when we get older or will it be worse?

[elleng]

3. I don't read it that way; nothing about farming, but managing state park.

Doesn't sound sad. 'We' treat 'our' elderly in various ways, and we have to plan for our own later years.

ps, My brother and I look after our parents as they've looked after us. We're a family.

[Saturday]

5. You're right.

It's far from sad. We tried putting our name on a list one year. Camping for free while working is highly sought after by seniors. Our names never made it up to the top of the list.

[2Design]

10. Will be worse - they are closing state parks now - if the no-tax

people have their way - there will be no state parks - only retirement and benefits for government employees and everything else will be shut down

[Peregrine Took]

8. Its a nice thing for them to do but a damn shame this country spends so

much money on defense contracts/military and the things that really matter, like our beautiful parks, are not being properly tended. State and National.