Ch. 45 – It’s time to move on
Late August Max, Myself, mom and dad all had a sit-down meeting in the newly finished lodge about plans for the campground, and we decided to list the campground for sale to see if anybody would like to purchase it. We were asking for 3.5 Million, which seemed to be appropriate seeing how much we put into upgrading the campground, and the income that the place generated.
When we built Rockinghorse Acres, I made sure to have all the utilities for that area totally separate from the main campground. This section was not part of the listing; the plan was to simply remove or keep the gate that leads to the main campground locked. I could clearly have a private small campground if I wanted to.
We ended that season around the end of October and bid our work campers the best of luck on their next adventure, plus we gave each couple $2,000 bonus for staying the whole season.
When we had went to the ABDL convention that fall we had stated that we owned a campground that had a private camping area that could host smaller events. Before they had left for the season I had Marcus design a website for Rocking Horse Acres Camp. We were going to offer up a private camping area for other like-minded folk. We passed out cards to people who may want to book a weekend or more. We directed them to the website to sign up for the next season when the campground opened.
As always the convention was fun for me and Max enjoyed being around other grown ups as well. We took the Kamp with us behind the Jeep. The crib on the front end of the camper was finally completed and was quite comfy to sleep in. The furnace kept us toasty warm that weekend as it started snowing that second night. Like usual, we stopped off at a harvest host site for one night on the way home.
The whole trip home my phone kept going off with people signing up to come to Rocking Horse Acres, which we will call RHA for short. We decided to start the planning process of a ABDL campout the next summer.
Over the winter we had several bites on the main campground, many of them were lowball offers. We knew what we had and what it was worth. Finally we decided to just hire a management team to run it. We would give them full power to do anything short of capital improvements. They answered to the 4 of us who were the owners, but we wanted no day-to-day involvement. The rules and such stayed the same as the previous year, as did the pricing. This would allow us to run a much smaller property, deciding who we wanted to have camping with us, when we wanted to be open as well.
We finalized the agreement on March 1, and the next day a letter and email were sent to every seasonal camper that we had to let them know of the change.
We had asked the new management to consider keeping the same staff that we had last year. We basically stepped away from the campground and left it as was at the end of the season. The gate between the two properties was kept, but would be locked unless there was an emergency. It was a fun time running the big campground, but we all wanted a break and the ability to travel when we wanted to do.
I had emailed Shawn and Marcus about the change in management, and if they wanted to work for the new people or not, we could keep them busy at RHA, the hours would be pretty much the same, but with less work.
Shawn said that they would be happy to work with Max and I this year and we hashed out a contract. Basically Shawn and Marcus, Max and I would run the RHA camp. Mom and Dad would help whenever they were back in town.
We all agreed that we would shoot for April 15th to soft open. With reservations starting May 1. We got a reservation system up, opening 15 sites to be booked. This allowed enough room for the owners/workers/family and a few extra spots if needed. The lodge would be available mid summer.
We had lined up in the owners section, My big RV, our Kamp, Mom and Dad’s Kamp, Max’s Parents and Marcus and Shawn’s.
We quickly got a steel building started inside the new entrance gate. Had more fence erected around the entire property, with the priority to block the old campground from our place. No Tresspass signs went up on the fence on both sides.
Max’s brothers came down that first weekend in April to help, and as soon as school was out came to the campground for the summer. They were a great help in getting the camp opened for the year.
We had our first campers on May 1, and as organized as Marcus was, he had all units checked in quickly, Shawn and David and Riley were directing people to their sites. We had filled to near capacity that first weekend.
One of the nice things about it being private is that people could actually walk around however they wanted as long as genitals were covered, so if that meant that people were running around in just a diaper… so be it.
We got projects laid out for the year. We built a shelterhouse in the common area, a recreation building was started, along with getting land cleared and started for an in-ground pool. It took us till about August to get the pool completed, but it would be enjoyed next summer.
The lodge stayed booked by groups from Mid June till the end of the season. With 6 bedrooms, that meant 8 cribs were available and the 5th bedroom had a queen sized bed, and the 6th was the storage room for now. Sofa beds were in most couches… This meant that about 14 people could sleep in beds.
The Kamp factory called to say our two 13’ campers were completed and we gave them updated delivery instructions, so they would come in the new gate for our property. They arrived the next week and as soon as the delivery people left we got to work on doing the crib modifications to them.
We had bought models that did not include a bath, but had AC and a heat strip. These were to be rental campers, and were placed near the shower house so the lack of a bathroom would not cause too much issues.
We kept the place pretty much 50-75% capacity the entire summer, with it picking up once others found out or heard about us. We had a warm fall and did not close until November. Again Shawn and Marcus left us for the winter season working at Amazon.
Max and I went to the ABDL convention, taking the Kamp and the Jeep. From there we headed down south to Florida to Disney, where we camped a couple weeks, then headed back home for just long enough for Christmas.
For Christmas, we had everybody up to the lodge, where we had plenty of room for everybody to eat. The twins each got a car from Max and I. They were used Chevy Cobalts, one in blue the other in red, having found out that Riley was now able to get his license. They were shocked and amazed as it was kept well under wraps for several months. I had hid them in the garage at my house.
The day after Christmas we set out for the winter, along with dad and mom. We dropped down along the gulf coast to New Orleans and then we just bounced around for about a month, we would drive for a bit, stop check out the area, vlog it the next day and then drive a bit more. If we got towards a cold climate we would change direction. We had the solar panels that would charge the battery in the day so that we could run the roof fan at night along with opening the windows.
It was strange traveling without a generator that you could just fire up and run the AC, smaller freshwater and grey and black water tanks. We were dumping and filling tanks like every other day it seemed. We would boondock for a day or two and then find a campground, just to dump the tanks, fill them and charge up the batteries and work.
I was not going to go back to uploading at any scheduled interval. I would edit and upload a video or two, and slowly release them. I certainly missed our multi-gigabit internet that we had at the campground, often taking almost 2 hours to upload a single 15 minute video. I did some longer videos and simply mailed a portable SSD to our families for them to upload for us. This was most important to backup raw footage and finished projects. We even rendezvous with my parents for a few days out in Sedona and Phoenix.
With March closing in on us we headed back east up to Memphis, Nashville, Louisville and then home. The campground was still winterized, as was the big RV, so it was to our house to stop and do laundry. We semi-winterized the Kamp just in case it froze again. Basically we emptied the tanks and blew out the lines.
First week in April, Shawn and Marcus arrived and we got to work on opening the campground up for another fun season. This would be the first full season for the pool at the campground, so it needed to be properly opened up and readied.
I had hired the local pool supplier to open and close it, and make sure it was ready for use. It is so much easier to have them deliver the chemicals we need for the season, than for one of us to be constantly running to get more.
Before we even opened we were pretty much booked for the entire summer for the campground and for the lodge. Max and I lived in the big RV, and then when we would travel for little trips we would take the Jeep and the Kamp. We even had some part season work campers. Basically people who wanted to camp for a month and save money on their fees. We would basically assign them to things like trash pickup, bathrooms, and checking people in or showing them to their camp site.
Max and I went up to our favorite place on Lake Erie, Put-In-Bay, this time taking the Jeep and Kamp over on the ferry and camping there from Monday to Thursday, since mom and dad were at the campground along with Shawn and Marcus.
In my wildest dreams I never thought we could fill this entire campground every weekend with kink friendly people, yet there we were full. We started last fall with planning themed weekends, some were a full out kink fest, and we even did family friendly weekends where the kink stuff was kept out of sight. For lack of a better description the campground rule was just chill people who don’t bother each other.
My folks were at the campground during the week, and then would go off camping for the weekend, especially if the theme was a bit too much for them. Sometimes they just went next door to the old campground where we had a permanent spot, other times they travelled out of the area.
The itch to travel more became apparent with Max and myself. Max, I and my parents decided that we wanted the ability to be away more often. Promotions and offers were made.
We offered Shawn and Marcus a full-time permanent seasonal position with part time in the winter months. They could stay there year round , be paid and have their spot for the year. They were allowed to hire however many people they needed. They had a labor budget, and the ability to add 1 work-camper team.
Mom, and Dad would step back from the operation entirely, they basically were permanent campers, who may sometime help out. Mom would continue to help with the books and office stuff, dad would come out for projects or busy weekends.
Max and I would be around too as this was mainly our home in the summer. Mom and dad kept their camper at the campgrounds when they were not out traveling too.
One week the 4 of us went up to Lake Erie for a fun few days, while cruising the islands we found a large lot for sale. We called the realtor and found that we could take this lot, build a tiny utility building where we could have water, sewer, electric, a laundry room, shower and bathroom, and then pour two slabs for parking our RVs and/or trailers. Without a doubt we decided to buy it. Let’s face it, in the last two to three years neither of us were at our houses much, we basically lived either on the road or at the campground. Now, I was not going to sell my house where it all began, we would be there in the winter when we were not traveling, and it was a nice home base for packages to arrive at.