RV Travels with Dakota Duo: Workamping at Good Life

Because I am months behind on the blog, this will be a summary of our park job in Mesa. Our work schedule days were Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Thursdays - Gary and I cleaned the shuffleboard courts each week at 7:30 AM, then went to help the others set up the meeting rooms for IPad and watercolor painting classes. We would take down tables & chairs in the card room for an exercise class and then set up the social hall for a quilting class. Then we were off for an hour, coming back at noon to change the setups in the rooms for bunco, ping pong and setups for the afternoon Happy Hour. After 5:00, one couple would change the card room setups for the evening Pinochle and Texas Holdem games and clean up after Happy Hour.

Breezeway to pool

Breezeway area for patio parties

Fridays – We would start at 8:00. The card room was reset for the morning Blue Grass Jam session, chairs for the musicians and chairs for the audience members. We would reset the Saguaro Room for the EMS ladies, who gave blood pressure checks each week. We would set the social hall for workshops or for special lunches the groups or park would be having that day. At 12:30 we were back to reset for social bridge, Euchre, and the Patio party for Happy Hour. Then we would do the big Bingo setup in the ballroom. All three couples worked on that. (By the end of January, the other workampers that started on our shift were reassigned to other needs, so it was just the six of us.) After the Patio party, one couple would come back in for ½ hour to clean up and setup for the duplicate bridge group for Saturday morning.

Bingo setup in the ballroom

Saturdays – Our shift was usually 8:00 – 10:30 or 11:00. We would work together with the other couples to clear the card room for another exercise class, set up the Saguaro Room for a Weight Watchers meeting, and then at 9:30 we could begin taking down the Bingo/Pancake Breakfast setup in the ballroom and set up for the Saturday night dance.

Each of our three days, one or two couples would go and make the Party Wagon deliveries. The Party Wagon was a nice amenity the park provided. A resident could fill out a request form to have 6’ tables, folding chairs, garbage cans, coffee makers and lawn games delivered to their site when they wanted to entertain. We would deliver the order on the morning requested and then pick up the items on the day requested. The Party Wagon was a trailer pulled by a Good Life pickup truck and was filled with folding 6’ tables, composite folding chairs and the other items. On really busy weekends (or days), we would get more chairs and tables from the sports complex supply. There was a day or two that all the chairs were used and also we had to take 8’ tables from the ballroom. The Party Wagon deliveries usually took longer then our scheduled hours, but was part of our duties.

The Party Wagon

Every day, one of the couples checked the sports complex area every morning to clean up tables and empty the garbage cans. The sports complex was a very nice outside area for small groups and events and next to the pickle ball and bocce courts. All the tables had umbrellas and three gas firepits for the residents to use. The park hosted the happy hour patio parties there on Mondays and Thursdays. Many residents used the complex in the afternoons and evenings for gatherings.

Bocce ball court/Pickle ball courts at the end

Sports complex & stage

Relaxing at the fire pit

The big event we worked for each month was the Manager’s Happy Hour. The park hosted an evening each month and provided live bands, free appetizers, wine and beer as a thank you to the residents for staying at the park. It was a ticketed event and held in three different areas of the park, the ballroom, the breezeway and the sports complex. In January and March, this event was held on Thursdays, which was our work day. In February it was on a Tuesday and we were required to be there to help serve the event. Special setup, special decorating and we had to wear our white shirts and black pants to help serve that night. After the three hour event, we helped clean up and the next morning took it all down. The March party was called the “Going Away Party”, as most residents left at the end of March or the first week of April.

The Cal-Am parks have about six entertainment evenings throughout their parks and this year the concert held at our Good Life park was The Little River Band. We set up for it that day and the park gave us comp tickets to attend that evening. There were two shows, one at 4:00 and the other at 7:00. Great music and a great time – we were part of the very few during the concert that stood and even danced!

We were the last workamper couple on our shift to leave. Regina and Mike left mid-March and Marty and Mary left the end of March. The events really slowed down in April, we spent our last days doing cleanup projects for the park and had a few Party Wagon deliveries those two weeks.

We spent time with one workamper couple, Greg and Linda. This was their second year at the park. Greg worked on security and Linda worked at the Activities desk. We found we were members of the same club - they had lost their 16 year old son in an accident, as we had. We went out to eat one night with them to The Organ Stop, a pizza parlor in Mesa that has one of the largest pipe organs in the country. The organist could play anything, the lights and the instruments hanging throughout the building were amazing to watch. The pizza was very good as well, it is a great place for any age group. The young were requesting Disney songs, we heard the theme from Frozen, show tunes and patriotic arrangements. We heard him play Happy Birthday about 20 times while we were there.
On April 14, Mike's birthday, Greg and Linda celebrated Mike with us and introduced us to In N' Out Burger, a great burger place with fresh cut fries. We shared our stories and grew from sharing with each other.

The Organ Stop - Mesa, AZ

We enjoyed our months at the park. We met great couples, both residents and the other workampers. Many of them we will keep in contact with and will plan to see next year when we return to Arizona. Our boss was great to work with and the amenities at the park were awesome. We learned more about the Mesa/Phoenix area and will explore more next year.