Amazon Camper Force Program

Welcome to Heartland RV park in Campbellsville, KY.  This park is one of several local campgrounds which become the 4-month home of many of the Camper Force individuals who work the holiday seasonal period for Amazon.  Three of the Amazon distribution centers hire Camper Force people.  They are located in Campbellsville KY, Fernley NV,  and Coffeyville KS.  These centers do not have enough local residents available to work temporarily to supplement the full-time personnel to handle the increase in orders during the busy holiday season.

This is the office for the RV park which starts to get pretty busy around the end of September as the work campers arrive.  

Here's the clubhouse which Amazon uses to greet new Camper Force workers.  During the meeting, you get your shift information, job assignment, and are briefed on pay and other pertinent information.  Additionally, they take photos of you for your Amazon ID badge.  The building is also used for park gatherings such as pot luck dinners and other park functions.

 Here we are parked in site number 90.  The park has 111 sites of which 58 are occupied as of this posting. All the sites have been reserved for additional personnel scheduled to arrive in the next couple months.

You can see in this photo that the campground has several layers.  All sites are gravel with full hook-ups. Amazon pays for our campground site, including electricity and wifi, each month of employment. We arrived August 30th for a September 3rd start date.  Not too many RV's in the park!  If you look very closely, you will see the Amazon name on the white building in the distance.  That is where we walk to work.

This is the level where we originally parked until the first rain storm.  We learned that the water does not drain well from this level and decided to move to a lower level.   Also, some sites are larger than others. 

The primary reason we selected this RV park is that its location is right across the street from Amazon.  We can walk to work in a matter of minutes which helps a lot when you get up at 5 a.m. 

I took this photo of a scanner used at the local Walmart.  We use a comparable scanner at Amazon but due to proprietary reasons no one is permitted to take photos inside the building.  

One great benefit of working here in Campbellsville is Amazon Camper Force workers can eat at Campbellsville University.  You can purchase a 10-meal pass for $55 dollars which means meals cost $5.50 per person.  You can't eat and drink at McDonald's for that amount and the food is considerably better.

Here's a picture of our new friends, Dave and Judy.  They own the fifth wheel parked next to us. We are at one of Judy's favorite dining places the local Dairy Queen.  We enjoyed the chicken tenders and also the Ice Cream for dessert.  They are in their second season as work campers for Amazon.  They have a wealth of local information as well as being great neighbors.

FMCA's Motorhome Rally - Indianapolis IN

The FMCA's 87th Family Reunion and Motor Home Rally was hosted at the Indiana State Fairgrounds August 27-30, 2012.  More than 160 seminars covering technical, lifestyle, and other topics are offered for attendees.  Here's the caravan entering I-69 South towards Indianapolis.  The pictures were taken by Margie & Vaughn Wood who was holding up the rear of the caravan.

We were number three out of five coaches that traveled together for the rally.  We met up with the group at a local fuel stop off of I-69, to configure the caravan.  

We arrived safely midday Saturday at the fairground and were parked in the 30-amp electric area.  Due to the extreme heat, they turned on the generators early and allowed all the rigs to hook up to cool down.   

Just our luck, we were parked right next to the generator.  You have great power when you are close to the unit, but sleeping is an entirely different matter.  Not so bad when the rear A/C is running as it does drown out the generator noise somewhat. 

I would estimate there were 500-600 coaches parked in the in-field and almost that many parked in various other areas of the fairgrounds.  

After Ron & Janice had to move their coach because they had been erroneously instructed to park directly in front of the generator, the group settled in and discussed how we would have parked all these rigs. After careful consideration, we decided that dinner was more of a priority.  So Pizza it was!

On the second day it started to rain, and rain, and rain.  Did I say "It Rained".  The water got so high that the generator stopped since most of the electrical connections were under water. Keep an eye on the smaller coach to the right of the generator.

This is a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Notice the guy in the right side of the photo.  The water was up to his knees.  A few more feet of water and the little coach may have drifted away!

After the rain settled down everyone came out for a look.  We had to take up our Welcome mat as it started to float away.  Three hours after this photo the water subsided enough that we could again hook up to the generator.

At the Pepsi Coliseum for the first night performance.  

Wednesday night we visited downtown Indianapolis with Todd and Gloria and had dinner at a local restaurant.  We decide to leave the rally on Thursday to beat the rain to Campbellsville Ky.   We did not want to arrive on Friday and have to set up the coach in the pouring rain which is expected from hurricane Isaac. 

During the rally we purchased nine MCD Gold Series Day/Night Shades for the inside of our motor home. The shades will take about four weeks to arrive and we will install them ourselves.   We also purchased several replacement cabinet door hinges from the Alliance Coach mobile parts trailer.  

We thoroughly enjoyed the company of our fellow rally members Ron & Janice, Vaughn & Margie, Terry & Kathy , Jerry & Sharon, and Mick & Chris .  We thank them for the great hospitality, food and camaraderie. 

The Old & the New RV Faucets

Here is a photo of the original sink faucet that came with the RV.  It's a delta knock off and once it starts leaking you cannot replace any of the parts so you have to purchase a new faucet. You can see it has a single handle and the front head pulls out as a sprayer.  The unit to the left is for filtered water which Dave only used for making spaghetti. 

We decided to upgrade the unit for something more practical.  We examined all the faucets from Lowe's, Home Depot and Menard's.   We decided on the Delta Bellini from Lowe's.  It provides a single handle, side-sprayer, soap dispenser and  incorporates a high arcing spout.  With our military discount, the unit and supplies were slightly under $200 dollars. 

Here's a close up view of the new unit installed.  The unit provides excellent water flow for the spout as well as the sprayer.  The soap dispenser can be easily refilled by removing the head and pump assembly and pouring the new solution into the bottle. 

The Bellini  has a stainless finish and incorporates diamond embedded discs that offer unsurpassed protection against leaks.  The unit has a lifetime warranty from Delta. 

Remember when I mentioned the high arcing spout.  Look again at the first photo.  With the old faucet it was impossible to fill even a glass of water with the top sink covers in place.  You can see here that you can easily fill a large pot with the new spout.   

Here's a photo of the shut off valve connected to the water supply line.  I used plumber's goop between the brass fitting and the bottom of the shut off valve.  This will ensure no leaks.  I do not however recommend the use of the plumber's goop on the plastic connection from the main water supply. 

Here's a photo of the new faucet in the bathroom.  We also replaced the faucet in Kathy's sink. The old units leaked had to be replaced.  

2012 AM/CAN Golf Tourney

The 2012 AM/CAN was hosted in Oneonta NY, 19-20 July. Oneonta is about 21 miles south east of Cooperstown NY where the Baseball Hall of Fame is located.  Here's a picture of the attendees.  It was great seeing many of our Deer Creek friends again.    We stayed at the Susquehanna Trail campground near the Oneonta Country Club where the event was being played.  Kathy and I were captains of the Blue Team. Go Blue!  The format for the event was a two person scramble.  We shot 68 net on the first day and 71 net on the second.  The approach shot to the green was very demanding as many of the greens sloped front to back.  To the satisfaction of all players the competition was declared a draw, however I do believe that the Canadians out drank their American friends.  A great time was had by all!