A Switch-A-Roo Thanks To BirdingRVers & Our New July Jobs!
I’m always amazed at the power of community in RVing and how that expands through blogging. When we first spoke about our Cape Blanco job on the blog a few weeks ago, several commenters turned me onto Grant and Kathy from BirdingRVers, two experienced lighthouse hosts (and yes, bird lovers too! Oh, and Kathy is also a jewelry artist) who were volunteering in the area and scheduled to be at Cape Blanco in Aug. We’d never met them, but exchanged a few comments on their blog and said we looked forward to seeing them later in the summer.
And that was how we left it…until a few days ago..
The couple started reading our blog and last week when I wrote about Paul’s back injury Grant took pity on the poor boy and came back with a proposal…how about switching jobs for July? Grant and Kathy were scheduled to start as hosts here at Coquille River Lighthouse next week and suggested the smaller lighthouse would be an easier job for hubby’s back. Meanwhile they would be willing to stay another month at Cape Blanco while Paul heals. This would also allow Paul to continue his treatments locally.
What a fabulous and oh-so-generous idea!
Grant immediately jumped on the plan, calling up both park coordinators to start the process, and we followed-up by meeting the ranger & hosts here and taking the lighthouse tour to make sure Paul could make the climb to the tower. Four easy days later and everything is in place and OK’d by both parties.
So, thanks to the kindness of strangers and the awesome community of RVing we now have new jobs for July. Tomorrow we’ll move a grand total of 4 spots down the loop to our new campsite at Bullards Beach and then we’ll be lighthouse hosts at the cutest little lighthouse on the coast for a month before heading down to our next job at Cape Blanco in Aug.
A huge thanks to Kathy and Grant, and if any of you folks are going to be in the area, do look us up on your way through.
P.S. The old hobbler is still progressively improving. He actually did a limping 2/3 mile hike today and hauled a one ounce salad container to the bin. Yes, my lovely hubby is now the muscular version of Mr.Magoo.
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People can be amazing! Most of the time it gets pretty depressing reading the news and it means so much more when you read about people with kind hearts! Good luck to you and Paul and we hope he recovers quickly. Enjoy your stay there. Give the critters a great big hug.
I’m a big believer in the positive power of people, and have to admit I don’t read the regular news much anymore….like you, I feel there are too many negative stories in the press. The critters say thanks for the hugs!
Nina
Several years ago we spent July 4th in our RV sitting on the levee at your lighthouse watching the fireworks over the water. Bandon is such a neat town, we miss the cheese factory and the dollar ice cream that used to be there. Of course I miss $2 gas too.
Oh how cool. I do wish that cheese factory was still here too….oh and the $2 gas wouldn’t be too bad either LOL
Nina
Talk about synchronicity. Sounds like you have a great plan thanks to a little help from the Birding RVers! And hopefully Paul will be soon be feeling fine.
Yup, love it when an unexpected plan comes together. BirdingRVers are the best!
Nina
Love the beach and clouds photo. So, this is probably a stupid question, but what do you do as lighthouse hosts?
I’ll be writing alot more about it as we go through the job, but basically a lighthouse host is reponsible for being at the lighthouse during open hours to welcome and host visitors. So, we work 3-hr shifts where we stay at the lighthouse and give tours (esp. into the tower), help people out with qs about the lighthouse, tell history and (in this particular lighthouse) we also run a small gift shop. There’s about an extra hour each day for set-up and shut-down too. So, total ~4 hrs per day. We get 2 days off per week.
Nina
Mr Magoo Oh My how way to funny is that…. Congratulations on your new assignment, sounds like you both fell in it and came out smelling like a Rose. Hope the move goes as planed
This sure comes at JUST the right time. We really are enjoying this area too.
Nina
What a nice gesture.
Yup, a VERY nice gesture indeed!
Nina
Great! Put it out there; you never know.
I do believe in throwing things out to the universe and taking advantage of whatever it throws back at you.
Nina
It’s always good to hear any kind of generosity.Too bad they’re not wordpresser, would love to follow kind birder couple.
It sure is generous. The BirdingRVers do have RSS on their feeds if you want to follow along. Nina
What a great couple and a kind gesture.
Yup, and can you believe we’ve never even met?! Can’t wait to meet-up with them and thank them in person.
Nina
I almost got a little teary-eyed when I read that. How very kind and thoughtful.
Enjoy the new spot.
I too got teary-eyed when we got the offer 🙂
Nina
Aw-w-w-w..that is so wonderful! Glad to hear things are going to work out so much better for you!
We’re very happy with the swap. The smaller lighthouse here will allow Paul to sit down and rest his back during the shift. Perfect for right now while he’s still healing.
Nina
I knew it….and knew you would really like them too..so glad it worked out for you…and yes this rv community is awesome….
Yup, RVers are definitely the best. The RV community kinda reminds me of the type of “village” community people used to have in small towns. Don’t know what it is, but RV folks bond and draw together in ways I just didn’t experience living in a house. Hard to believe, but I actually have a bigger community feel on the road than I did in the stix&brix house.
Nina
WOW….how nice is that! So glad everyone was willing to help. Hope Paul’s back gets back to being 100% healthy in the next month!
Marsha,
Me too! Hoping this next month heals him 100%
Nina
Nina & Paul, we are so glad we could help! Friends helping friends.
We hope Paul continues to get better! And thank you for pluggin’ our blog! Hope to meet you soon in real time! Grant & Kathy
Cheers to both of you…and really can’t wait to meet you in person!
Nina
What generous, giving folks! So glad to hear this is working out for all four of you. Looks like your time at Bullards will be overlapping with when we arrive so we will look forward to seeing you sooner than planned. I have to admit to a wee bit of speculation with your previous post. I said to Terry that if you were planning to learn the art of acupuncture in a week to doctor Paul then I was going to have to order you that WonderWoman cape – lol!
Excellent! Looking forward to seeing you both again!
Nina
Nina, a couple of decades since last @Girton, but what a fantastic idea! Love your blog. My family and I left San Diego mid 2009 after four years there and embarked upon a very short version of your tour (one month). Great flashbacks.from several of your pics and blogging. Continue to enjoy! Kjelli
What a blast from the past! Cheers for your comment and coming along for the ride on the blog!
Nina
Looking forward to meeting you. enjoying your photography on the blog. we are friends with Grant abd Kathy and are birders. we. are in B9 and serve as interpretive hosts.
So happy to have met you and spent some evening chatting at the BBQ! RVers are great and now I can say RV volunteers are even greater 🙂 LOVING it here!
Nina
what a lovely gesture of kindness..we have never met Grant and Kathy either but they have just confirmed what kind of people they are!..congrats on the new to you gig at the cutest little lighthouse on the coast!!
They really ARE great folks!! We finally got to meet ’em at July 4th volunteer BBQ and they’re just as lovely in person as through blogs & phone!
Nina