Sunday, December 28, 2014

Christmas and Stuff

Lavon, Texas
Weather Conditions; Sunny, 45 degrees

We’re hoping everyone had a good Christmas.

My son came in from Oklahoma and spent Christmas with us.

We haven’t spent Christmas together for 3 years. It’s really nice that he lives closer and we can get together for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Christmas day we had a big breakfast and then went to the movies. We saw the movie “Unbroken”. Great movie!

For Christmas Dawn and I bought new recliners. Lazy-Boy was having one of their famous buy 2 for the price of 1 sale. We don’t have them yet. We had to order them because we choose two different style recliners but want them covered in the same fabric. We can’t wait for them to be delivered!

I’ve been working part time at the Corp office. That is interesting work.

I worked on the desk in the fiver. Dawn and I have been using the chair area under our built in desk for storage for a good while. 

We decided to put a front on it and make it look more like a cabinet.

We went to a builder surplus and found a couple of cabinet doors pretty cheap.


I installed a shelf 


We bought a half sheet of oak plywood and our new cabinet doors and enclosed the opening.



I by no means, am a carpenter. Even with that said, it doesn’t look shabby.

It holds a lot of stuff!

We have purchased a dehumidifier too. That was a great investment.  We bought a Hisense 35-Pint 2-Speed Dehumidifier.


The windows on our fiver are always wet inside when it’s cold outside. We ran the dehumidifier for about an hour and the condensation disappeared. It didn’t take long to remove the moisture inside.

Even though we hang Dri-Rid bags in the closet, we still have found a little mold on the wall. I placed the dehumidifier in the bedroom near the closet and about an hour later, it had collected about 6 cups of water.

It’s a little loud but we don’t run it all the time. We turn it on for about an hour or so and that seems to work great.

We have 3 more months before we return for our final 6 months of gate attendant work.

Dawn is already planning where we might be going when we leave here. One thing for sure, we’ll be returning to Rockport for the winter months!



Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2014

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Recovered and Birthday Trip to Texas Coast

Lavon, Texas
Weather Conditions; Sunny, 55 degrees

Well, I had the biopsy done. The truth of the matter is I had two benign cysts. I say had, because while they did the biopsy, they were able to completely drain one. It was the size of a walnut and it was the one causing me pain. By the next day, the pain was gone!

A week later I had an appointment with the ENT. He explained that if the remaining cyst gets any larger, I would need to have it surgically removed. In the meantime, it just remains.

This isn’t my first rodeo with this cyst thing. About 25 years ago I had to have a cyst surgically removed in that same area.

I finished my 10 days of antibiotic and I’m feeling much better.

Now I need to reschedule my dental appointment and have a root canal done.

Since I was feeling better and we aren’t working, we rented a car and drove to Rockport for a week.

We left on Sunday morning and had great traveling weather. We arrived at Plantation Suites in Port Aransas around 6:30 P.M.

The weather was and we were excited to be in one of our favorite places. I feel so at home in this area of the Texas coast. I don’t know why. I was in my thirties before I ever visited the Texas coast.

Dawn helped me unload the car and then order pizza and salad for dinner. We were exhausted and ready for a nice warm bath.

After dinner, I went to run a hot bath and found there wasn’t a stopper for the tub.

I walked to the office and talked with the girl at the front desk. She told me to return to my room and she would bring one once she located one.

Within 5 minutes she showed up with stopper in hand. Awe, Now for a hot bath! NOT!

The water was cold and I turned the knob every way possible and no hot water.

I called the front desk and told the girl I had no hot water. She said she would call maintenance and report it.

I minute later the girl called back to report that a gas line had broken earlier in the day and the gas had been turned off to the entire building. The plumbers will return tomorrow to make the repair.


O.K, we’re tired and will take a bath later.

The following morning we got up early and went to the beach. The dogs love walking the beach. It was a little windy but warm.


After our walk on the beach we drove over to the marina park to snap a few pictures. I love the picture opportunities I get at the coast.


We decided to take a ferry ride over to Aransas Pass and into Rockport.

Not much had changed in the two years since we were there. We drove to the last RV park we stayed to see who might be there. It appeared a few of our winter friends had made it already.

Our friends Pauline and Bob were there. We pulled up at the site and a few seconds later they were outside and we were all trading hugs. While standing outside with them a few other more of our winter RV friends gathered around. It was so good to see them.

We left there and went to HEB. Dawn loves HEB. She was on a mission to pick up a few things that we can’t get at home. 


I stayed in the car with the fur kids. While sitting in the parking lot, a car pulled into a parking place one car over. Low and behold it was our friends Peter and Judy.

I slide down in the seat so they didn’t see me. I thought about it a moment and I knew when they walked by the car the fur kids would bark and they would recognize them. I made the decision to slide out of the car and I stepped in front to their car. They were both looking down. I started jumping up and down and waving my arms in the air. Judy looked up and it suddenly her mouth fell open and her eyes were wide. A second later Peter looked up and the same expression covered his face. They got out of the car with big smiles on their faces.

We exchanged hugs and talked for a moment when Dawn returned to the car. We visited in the parking lot for a few minutes. When we told them about the lack of hot water at our hotel, they told us about the Econo Lodge down the street they said was pet friendly.

After a short visit, we drove down the street and check out the Econo Lodge. Dawn went in and talked with the front desk. Yes they are pet friendly and yes they do have rooms available.

We drove around Rockport awhile before returning to our hotel. We were pleased to see the plumbers working on the gas line when we pulled up.


At 9:00 P.M we still didn’t have hot water. We made the decision to check out in the morning and move to the Rockport Econo Lodge Hotel.

Tuesday morning we packed up the car and checked out of the Plantation Suites. The manager discounted our room almost half. That is the least they could have done.

We went back to the beach for another walk. Little Willey could walk for miles on the beach. He has really missed it as much as we have. The other two can’t handle the wind as much.


They are terrified to walk in the grass because of the sandburs.

We drove around the area again before boarding the ferry to return to Rockport. Aound noon we stopped by EconoLodge to see when we might be able to check in. They had rooms available and let us check in.

Our room was very nice. We had a mini fridge, microwave and HOT water!


We unloaded the car and took turns taking a warm bath. How nice it was.

Pauline and Bob invited us back to their place for dinner. It was a great dinner with broiled breaded steaks, baked potatoes, salad and a strawberry birthday cake. Yes, I will be 54 on Thursday.


After dinner we played a game of FastTrack. We had a great dinner and visit.

We had full bellies when we left. Back at the hotel I enjoyed another hot bath before going to bed.

Wednesday morning we drove over to the Coastal Oak RV Park. We surprised a few more people there. We were able to visit with Vergil and Joy. It was really nice catching up with them. We also stopped by the office and surprised Daryl. He’s the manager there now and still does the RV repair business. We put our names on the waiting list while there.

We drove to Portland and shopped at Kmart. After our shopping spree we went to Granny’s Tamales in Ingleside. These are the world’s best tamales in my opinion!

We decided to have lunch at Butter Churn (all-you-can-eat) in Aransas Pass. We ran into our Friends Bud and Bette. We haven’t been able to catch them at home since we’ve been here.

They were on their way out. We agreed we’d meet up with them after lunch so we could visit.

The weather turned cool and it started to rain.

We stopped by to visit with Bud and Bette before going back to our hotel. We had a really great visit with them.

We went back to our room and I took another hot bath. These people are going to lose money on me!

Later in the evening we met up with Peter and Judy at Dairy Queen for dinner.

Thursday morning we took the fur kids to the park. The weather was getting cold out and it was raining off and on.

We drove out to Southern Star RV Park to check out their site. We visited with them for a while.

We didn’t spend much time outside since it was cold and windy.

Thursday night we had birthday dinner at Charlotte Plummer’s in Fulton with Bud and Bette. Dinner was great and the company was even better.

Friday morning we pulled out of Rockport and headed back home.

We got back home about 3:30 P.M. The weather was terrible. It was 31 degrees in our fiver. Dawn unloaded the car while I reconnected the water and turned on the propane. It didn’t take long to unload the car. What took time was unloading our bags.

It took about an hour to get the fiver nice and warm. We were in bed early.

The fur kids were very happy to be home and to have a sandbur free yard.


Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2014

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Doctors, Test and Vet Visits

Lavon, Texas
Weather Conditions; Sunny, 85 degrees

Since we closed the park we’ve been running our butts off. We had scheduled many of our medical and eye appointments for the first part of October.

We had our eye appointment. Yes are in good shape.

But Odis had to go to the vet for an eye problem. We noticed he was not able to open one of his eyes and didn’t seem to feel well.


Vet said he had ulcer on his eye. We were told to put eye drops in his eye 4 times a day. Odis weights 18 lbs. It took everything we had to wrestle this dog down to put drops in his eye.

We tried everything. We tried sneaking up on him; He got wise to that real quick!

We tried wrapping him in a blanket while Dawn held him. He jerked his head around so much that he got eye drops in his ear, mouth and Dawn even got it in her mouth!

We went back to vet and got a good report. But were told to continue the drops for another week!

He’s feeling much better now.  

We bought a new sofa sleeper. It sleeps well and fits great in our fiver.


Blood work, Well that could use a little work! Dawn needs to make a few changes to get those results to come out better.

Meanwhile, I had a lump develop just under the jaw line. I thought I might have an abscessed tooth, so I made an appointment to see the dentist.

After many x-rays, the dentist said nope. He sent me to my doctor.

A few days later, I was seen by my doctor who sent me for a CT scan with contrast and blood work. I was referred to an ENT.

A few days later we saw the ENT. He looked at the lump and said it appears to be the size of a walnut and that I will need to get an ultrasound guided biopsy done before having it removed.

The doctor was more concerned with my gravelly voice. He told me he wanted to look at my vocal cords.

He sprayed numbing solution into my nose and a few minutes later he shoved a tube into my nose and down my throat.

He said one side of my vocal cords was rough instead of smooth. He said I needed a biopsy on it and could have laser done on it to smooth it back out.

They scheduled the biopsy for tomorrow morning. I have an appointment for Nov 3rd to find out my results.

Now we wait!

During all these doctor appointments, I revamped our pantry. Our pantry is narrow and deep. Things get shoved to the back and they are never seen again. Costco had these great pantry drawer organizers and we decided to install 3 of them so we could see everything in the pantry.

First step, we had to clean everything out of the pantry. We threw away 2 kitchen garbage bags full of expired food.

I installed the drawers and Dawn couldn't be any happier. 



Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2014

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Park Closed for Winter

Lavon, Texas
Weather Conditions; Sunny, 87 degrees

We closed the park a week ago Tuesday and have been running non-stop since.



Since then Dawn smoked 2 large briskets for the Appreciation Picnic. The Gate Attendants, Volunteers, Wounded Warriors, Park Rangers and COE office staff have a get-together for a picnic.


We had a great time and there was a lot of great food too.

We have been running crazy every day. We bought a generator in case we need it this winter. Last winter we lost electricity for a couple of days when it iced over and had to barrow a generator.

We bought a Cabela's Outdoorsman Generator 4,000-Watt, with remote start and back-up recoil starter. Runs 12 hours at 50% load on a 4-gallon fuel tank. Four 120-volt receptacles include an L-5 30-amp twist-lock, 30-amp RV and 20-amp duplex. Push-to-reset circuit breakers. It also came with 8" wheel kit and 12-volt starter and battery. We got it at a good price.


We moved across the street to the other gate attendant’s site. We moved to the other site because we have a better view of the gate house and because this site has a wind block of trees and wooden fence behind it.


We will now have our back to the north this winter.


Odis has been scratching his eye and acts like he doesn’t feel well.

Dawn called our vet and we were able to get him in right away. Seems he has an ulcer on his eye. The vet gave us antibiotic eye drops. We have to drop the meds in his eyes 4 times a day. He does NOT like the drops. We have to put a cone on him. He’s NOT happy!


Today Dawn got a message and I got a perm.


Tonight we are relaxing at home.

Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010

Friday, September 26, 2014

Gate Arm Gone!

Lavon, Texas
Weather Conditions; Sunny, 86 degrees

We’re back at work.

We made it back to our park on Tuesday afternoon and back to work as gate attendants on Wednesday morning.

The park closes on October 1st for road repairs and Dawn and I will become park volunteers until April 1st.

It will be nice to sleep in for 6 months!

The park is almost totally booked for the weekend. The cool weather is bringing out the campers.

Today the contract mowing crew came in to mow. So glad they arrived. People don’t want to camp in knee deep weeds. I know I don’t.

When the grass is tall, people complain to us and we have absolutely no control over the mowing schedule. If we did, it would be mowed at least every 2 weeks instead of every 6 weeks!

Our excitement over the arrival of the mowing contractor quickly faded when one of the mowers roll-bar knocked our gate arm down! Ugh!


Now we have to depend on people entering the park to obey the stop sign mounted on the front of our building.

Thank goodness it’s our last weekend for 6 months!!!!!!! 

Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Fun with Friends at Dangerfield State Park

Dangerfield, Texas
Weather Conditions; Sunny, 92 degrees

We’re in Dangerfield having a great visit with friends from Dallas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Oklahoma.


This has become an annual trip and we take over the park when we get-together!


We take turns cooking dinner each night.



Dawn and I don’t kayak but everyone else goes kayaking either here at the park and Lower Fork River in Broken Bow, Oklahoma.


Yesterday one of the girls (Donna) had to be taken to the emergency room after getting a fishing lure in the knee while kayak fishing.


Today I’m happy to report that Donna is suffering from a sore knee but otherwise doing fine.


Tonight was steak night.

Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Friends Visit and Emergency on the Lake

Lavon, Texas
Weather Conditions; Overcast, 81 degrees

We had a very BUSY day here yesterday.

First thing yesterday morning we had a Search & Rescue K-9 group of about a dozen show up to preform drills with their dogs.

This cool weather has brought many people out for tent camping. The park was more than half full this weekend.

We had friends stop by for a visit. It’s always great to have friends visit! Betty and Sue have just recently become full-timers and they seem to really be enjoying it.

In the late evening Dawn was making her rounds through the park when she noticed one of the RVers was having a cookout. She noticed that many cars were parked along the narrow road making it almost impossible for her to drive a dually truck down the road.

She stopped by and asked that the cars be moved off the road. She explained that parking was available at the restrooms. She explained that emergency vehicles could not get through the area if needed.

His guest started the car shuffle before Dawn left.

Before Dawn returned to the gatehouse, I saw emergency lights approaching the park. I opened the gate and let the truck enter. The truck was pulling a doubledecker boat trailer carrying a hovercraft and a regular boat.


The timing couldn’t been any better. They drove through the area that Dawn had just cleared.

A few moments later a large fire truck showed up.

A second emergency truck (Incident Commander) arrived from across the damn and was at the gate trying to get it unlocked. Dawn ran over with our keys and unlocked the gate for him.


He thanked Dawn for unlocking the gate and told her that the call was for stranded boat on the lake.

All the emergency vehicles drove to the closed boat ramp. A few moments later we heard the boat taking off across the water. The sun was starting to sit.

About an hour later, the Incident Commander stopped by the gatehouse to inform us that they had rescued the boater and pulled his boat to the shore near the boat ramp. He was driving the boat owner to his truck and let us know he would be returning to collect his boat.

Twenty minutes later a truck pulled up to the gatehouse, the driver announced they were the people that had been rescued and that he was there to collect his boat. As I opened the gate to let him in, I noticed he had a couple of children with him.


WOW! So glad they were able to rescue them before it got too dark out. Thanks Wylie Fire Department.

Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Cold Front and Dangerfield Trip

Lavon, Texas
Weather Conditions; Overcast, 58 degrees

A COLD FRONT!?!

The weather has drastically changed since last week. A cold front moved through yesterday and today the temperature is in the 50s!

Can I just say” we’re so loving this weather change”

 We’re in the process of wrapping up our 2014 summer season gate attendant gig. September 30th is the last day the park will be open this year.


Dawn and I are trying to get things in order so that we can pull outta here next week for our annual Dangerfield and friend’s trip. 


We’ve been making this trip for several years and really look forward to the get-together.

Dawn and I are looking forward to spending time in a park where we’re the guest for a change!

I love taking pictures at Dangerfield. The park is so beautiful and peaceful too. My camera will get a good workout for sure.


We’re hoping the weather will remain cool while we’re in East Texas.

Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

No Truck A/C and Visiting with Friends

Lavon, Texas
Weather Conditions; Sunny, 98 degrees

The past four days were very busy for us. Our friends Peter and Judy returned for another four day visit.

On Monday we had to put our truck in the shop. The a/c motor quit working. These two old fat girls can handle driving in this heat without the a/c!

We also needed to have the speedometer looked at. On occasion it just stopped working. I read on the internet that Chevy trucks had a problem with the speedometer. There was a recall a few years ago and we didn’t know about it in time to get it fixed for free.

Before taking our truck to the shop, we had to pick up a rental car. We rented a 2014 Toyota Corolla LE Plus. Nice!
Driving a small car is very different after driving our big road hog truck!

Anyway, we were told that the service department was running a day behind and that it might be awhile before they could get to our truck. That’s the reason for renting a car.

In between running our errands and taking care of vehicle issues, we still had to time to visit with Peter and Judy.

We were very excited when the service manager called us late yesterday afternoon to tell us that our truck was ready.

We hurried to the repair shop and picked up our truck and then to the car rental place to return the rental car.

That running around saved us a little cash. We only had to rent the car for two day verses a week!

We are happy gals now that we have our truck back.

We stopped by and visited with our friends who will be pulling out tomorrow.

We are exhausted needless to say.

Today we started our four day shift. This is going to be a busy shift since it’s a holiday weekend.

Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Visitors and Other Stuff

Lavon, Texas
Weather Conditions; Sunny, 97 degrees

We had company!

Our friends Peter and Judy are here. They came in last Thursday. We met up with them in Kaufman, Texas and brought them in the back way to the lake. This way they could avoid all the Dallas traffic.

They followed us in to a neighboring park. Our park only has 30 amp and they need 50 amp so they are stayed at one of the other parks.

We’ve had a great time visiting with them. We’ve taken them to the laundromat.  Nothing like some good clean fun with friends!

We’ve eaten at some of our favorite places and played a few rounds of FastTrac.

They left yesterday to have some blinds repaired and then off to Durant, Oklahoma to play while we work.

The good news is, they’re coming back by for a four day visit before heading out.

Things have been really slow here at the park. School is about to start in a couple of weeks and it’s just too hot.

The lake levels are still very low and with only one boat ramp open, people are just not interested in driving so far to launch their boats.

Last Saturday a 27 year old man drowns after diving off a party barge.

Sunday night there was a near drowning when a boat capsized with one man aboard.

Today however has been interesting. This afternoon a car pulled up to the gatehouse. I recognized them right away. They are a young couple (late 20’s/ early 30’s) they are regular campers here.

They camp here with her parents. Her father died a couple of months ago. They have accompanied her mother in a couple of camping trips here since.

Anyway, the young couple asked to go into the park for a few minutes. They needed some alone time to talk.

I opened the gate and let them enter. I noticed they drove into the camping area of the park.

Thirty minutes later they exited the park and drove back to the gatehouse window. I opened the window and they both were beaming with huge smiles.

The young man looked over at the young lady and asked her if she was going to tell me the news. I said, yes tell me the news.

She leaned over him with her hand raised showing me a shiny new ring. She told me he proposed to her at their usual campsite. It was on that same site that her boyfriend had asked her father for his blessing months ago. It was her father’s last camping trip. Her boyfriend has patiently waited for a proper amount of time to pass before proposing.

It melted my heart. What a romantic story.

They were just beaming with excitement and we’re very happy for them.


Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Park Closing for the Winter

Lavon, Texas
Weather Conditions; Cloudy, 95 degrees

We haven’t posted lately because our work here has been kinda boring.

This park isn’t as entertaining as the park we worked last summer.


We recently received news that our park will be closing for the winter in order to make repairs to the park entrance. No gate attendant work for us this winter!

We still have a contracted obligation for next summer. That will be our last season here as gate attendants. We’ve enjoyed the gig but we’re ready to get back on the road!


After some discussion, we decided to sign up as volunteers for the winter. We’ll just stay here at our present location and be park security while the park is closed and do whatever it is they need us to do.

We’re planning on a few short trips this winter but we’ll drive the truck and stay in a hotel.

We have learned a few things about ourselves while being gate attendants this past year. One being, we’ve really missed the gypsy lifestyle. We miss exploring. We are from this area and so there’s NOT much exploring here to do.


The fact that the lake levels are so low makes the camping business here kinda of slow. The heat doesn’t help either.

Anyway, we have filled out the paperwork to become park volunteers and have passed the background checks. We should be in business as soon as our summer season contract is done.


Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2014

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Info for Becoming a Gate Attendant

Lavon, Texas
Weather Conditions; Sunny, 85 degrees

People often ask questions about our jobs as gate attendants and want to know the process for getting this type of gig.

I’ve covered a little bit of this information in previous post, but will give a little more detail for those interested.

The first step is to apply for and receive a DUN Number, Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) provides a D-U-N-S Number, a unique nine digit identification number, for each physical location of your business.

D-U-N-S Number are FREE for all businesses required to register with the US Federal government for contracts or grants.

The DUNS will be needed to begin your registration prior to entering SAM.


It may take several days or more than a week to receive your DUN number.

My experience was with Dun & Bradstreet was not pleasant. After waiting for over a week, I had to make several calls and talk with several people over the course of a week in order to finally receive my Dun number.

Once you have obtained the Dun number, you can proceed to the next step.

Next you must register with SAM to receive a number.

The System for Award Management (SAM) is the Official U.S. Government system that consolidated the capabilities of CCR/FedReg, ORCA, and EPLS. There is NO fee to register for this site.

You can register your Entity (business, individual, or government agency) to do business with the Federal Government. To register, you must first create a user account.


This registration takes time, so be prepared to sit at your computer for a couple of hours. (also, this is a government website and you must have a secured connection in order to be able to complete the application) I tried using my laptop with air card and it did not consider it a secured connection.

Your SAM number must be renewed annually. Failure to renew on time will cause you to have to go through the entire process again.

Keep these numbers handy so that you can access them. These numbers are your lifeline to government jobs.

Once you have you have completed these two VERY important steps, you can now go to Federal Business Opportunities website  https://www.fbo.gov

This is where you search for government business opportunities.

Once you find the items you wish to bid on, the real FUN begins!

You will select the opportunity, open the presolicitation. Look at the synopsis which will explain in detail what the contracting office is asking for.

These can be very lengthy. I believe the last gate attendant bid we did was almost 200 pages. There is a questionnaire and a lot of legal jargon!

By the way, you will be bidding on a particular year and season with an option period. For example, if you bid for next summer the option period will include the following summer. That makes for 2 summers! Generally they exercise the right to accept the option period as a done deal.

You’re required to fill out the questionnaire. You’ll be instructed to submit the questionnaire, a resume, application and bid document. This will be submitted to the contracting office via email as a PDF file by the deadline posted on bid.

The bid amounts are different from season to season and from park to park. In this area, summer bids pay more than winter bids.

There is also an evaluation form that needs to be filled out by a recent former employer. That evaluation form will be submitted separately by the person preforming the evaluation.

The information I just gave you applies to the US Army Corp of Engineers Fort Worth District.

I know that some districts require pictures of your RV be submitted with your bid.

I realize this can be very overwhelming. It certainly was for us the first time.  

Meanwhile, you’ll need to obtain a VIP (Volunteer in Parks) surety bond. This is not as easy as it sound.

Not every insurance company has underwriters that do these kinds of bonds.

The bond requirement is $5,000.00 and the cost is about $100.00.

You will have to periodically have to check the FedBizOp website to see if there any changes or updates to the presolicitation. You will have the check on it after the deadline to see if it has been awarded.

You will be notified via email if you are awarded the bid. Once you are awarded the bid, you will then be instructed to have your surety bond and a copy of your auto insurance available for submission to the lake manager.

Besides being paid monthly, we are furnished a covered RV site with full hookups. They also provide a 10x12 storage building at our site.


Duties for gate attendants for the US Army Corp of Engineers at this lake are required to collect money for Day Use and Camping, make reservations for walkup campers, patrol the park several times per day (in your vehicle using your fuel) reporting any problems and maintenance issues.

We work 4 days on and have 4 days off. Our hours are 6 A.M to 10 P.M. someone must be in the gatehouse at all times during your shift. You’re actually on duty for 24 hours a day during your 4 day shift. You’re on call in the event anyone has a problem.

There are periodic police and park ranger patrols from 6 A.M to 10 P.M.

You will be evaluated periodically on your performance. There is the occasional audit of cash drawer. Gate attendants are required to have their own opening cash. We started with $50.00.  

At the end of our 4 day shift, we take the monies collected and buy a money order. That money order and reports are mailed the NRRS.

We are required to buy our own office supplies, money orders, cleaning supplies (cleaning supplies are for the cleaning of the gatehouse) and postage.

We have enjoyed the work but would not want to make a career of it. The hours are crazy long and during the week, the days can be very slow.

The gate houses vary in size. Some are very small and some larger. Our current gate house is roomy enough that we aren’t sitting on top of each other.

This gate house is equipped with a computer, printer, cash drawer and a safe. We have a restroom too. That is important!

We brought in a microwave and the other gate attendants brought in a mini fridge.

There are different requirements for each district and I have experience only with the Fort Worth district.

I hope this information has been helpful for those of you that are considering being gate attendants for the US Army Corp of Engineers.

Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010