Orientation day at Crazy Horse

Posted on May 16, 2014 by liv2rv

Wednesday, May 14 was “back to work” day!! We were both excited to start our new adventure for the summer, and it will be nice to have money coming “in”, instead of always going “out”. The first day is just orientation, filling out tax forms (only Federal since South Dakota has no state income tax), along with going over the basic rules that you have with any job.

Dan’s mom always took a ‘first day of school’ photo, so I thought I should get a ‘first day of work’ photo to continue the tradition!

Back to work!

We watched an excellent film on the history of Crazy Horse in one of the 2 theatre’s in the Visitor’s Center of the Memorial. If you ever come to Crazy Horse, we highly recommend viewing the movie as the first thing to do in the complex. It goes over the history of the Memorial, and has interviews with the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski (pronounced ‘jewel-cuf-ski’), who passed away in 1982, as well as his wife Ruth.

Then we took a tour of the many buildings in the complex, and then headed back to our meeting room for more orientation. We had an excellent complimentary lunch in the Laughing Waters Restaurant, followed by the highlight of the day, a van tour to the top of the monument.

I plan on a separate post about the history of Crazy Horse, as well as what is all available to see and do on-site. There simply is too much to cover in one post.

A FEW FACTS ABOUT THE MONUMENT

The first blast on the mountain was June 3, 1948, with 10 tons removed. When completed, the memorial will be 563 feet high, and 641 feet long in the round. The face of Crazy Horse is 87 feet, 6 inches. In perspective, the heads on Mt. Rushmore are 60 feet tall.

Korczak refused to take any money from the state and federal government. This policy remains in effect today, and the family has turned down several grants from the government. He did not want the memorial to remain unfinished, like Mt. Rushmore, after they accepted money from the government. The original plan for Mt. Rushmore were for more complete profiles, at a height of 285 feet. Another difference between the two, is Mt. Rushmore was carved on a mountain and Crazy Horse is blasting a mountain into a monument.

The memorial is supported entirely through admission fees, gift shop sales and private donations.

THE RIDE TO THE TOP

Our orientation group was able to take a van tour to the top of the memorial. For the general public, there are two ways you can get to the top. Twice a year, they have a Volksmarch, where the public is invited to walk to the top for a small donation of $3.00. It is 6.2 miles (10K) round trip. The other way to the top is with a private van tour, which costs $120.00, with $100.00 going as a tax-deductible donation to the non-profit foundation.

The roads are all crushed gravel, made from the rock blasted off the mountain. There is a ‘graveyard’ of old equipment, that they use for parts to repair current machinery.

The graveyard

There are deer and mountain goats that live up in the hills around the memorial. We saw some deer, along with this little critter. It is called a Marmot, which is similar to a woodchuck. The animals don’t seem to be bothered by the regular blasts.

Marmot

They are working on the hand, and the nose of the horse. This view of the outline of the hand is not visible to the general public, as it is on the back side of the monument.

working on the hand

This picture is directly on top of the hand, and shows the red lines where they will be blasting out for the hand.

markings for future blast

The face of Crazy Horse.

standing on arm

We had to wear hard hats, as they were working below.

This is an old shark tank which was donated to the memorial. When they are blasting on top, the workers will stay inside this to avoid getting struck by flying debris.

sharks?!

The view from the top….spectacular!

view from the top

To put the size of the memorial in perspective, this is the view from our campground…

view from our campground

And this is the view of our campground from the top of Crazy Horse.

CG from Crazy Horse

This is the view of the visitors complex.

Visitors Complex

The rock formation below is where Korczak is buried, as well as his daughter Ann, who passed away in 2011.

burial site

We did make time at the end of the day to stop back into the restaurant to sample Kuchen, the state dessert of South Dakota, as well as some Indian Flat Bread. Both were delicious.

SD State Dessert!

Indian Flat Bread

Dan commented that it was the best 1^st day orientation that he has been a part of!

Quote for the Day: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius

Initial impressions of the Black Hills

Posted on May 13, 2014 by liv2rv

After 2 long days of driving (to stay ahead of the Winter Storm Watch), we arrived at Heritage Campground in Custer, SD in very heavy fog. Phil came over and welcomed us and we caught up on things since we last saw them at Amazon. Late Wednesday night it began snowing, and we were thankful we did not have to drive in the snow with the fifth wheel.

Heritage Village CG

view from CG

We can see Crazy Horse from the campground, even on a winter morning.

Crazy Horse from CG

view from CG

Makena and I were up early Thursday, taking pictures of the area from our campground, as well as scraping off a few snow-covered vehicles in the campground (I missed doing that all winter!). It was a beautiful and peaceful morning, and we are very happy we decided to come to the Black Hills for the summer. We have made a long ‘to do’ list of the area’s attractions that we plan on accomplishing this summer.

First, a little facts about our new ‘home’ state of South Dakota (remember, one should never stop learning!!). The population of the state is 814,180. Pierre (pronounced “peer”) is the capital, and the nickname is The Mount Rushmore State. The highest point is Harney Peak. At 7,242 feet it is the highest point east of the Rockies. The state dessert is Kuchen, a coffee cake. South Dakota is home to the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota. There are nine tribes from these three dialect, representing about 62,000 Native Americans.

We are in the area referred to as the Black Hills, as it encompasses 1.2 million acres of the Black Hills National Forest. The hills are primarily Ponderosa pines, and the valleys have Black Hills spruce. Many visitors to the area inquire about the orange trees in the forest, and those are the ones killed off by the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic. The population in the Black Hills area is around 250,000, with Rapid City being the ‘big city’ at 69,200 people.

Custer State Park, at 71,000 acres is also nearby, and is home to over 1300 bison, as well as elk, mountain goats, burros and pronghorn. It has lots of fishing, hiking, biking, canoe/kayaking and horseback riding available.

Thursday night we went out for dinner with Phil and Rudee, at a nice restaurant in Hill City, about 9 miles away. They drove us around the area, past Mt Rushmore (never gets old seeing that), and to check out the rock formations on the back side of the monument (since this is a PG blog, I probably should leave out those photos, but Dan put them on Makena’s Facebook page!!!). We stopped in for a brief tour at Crazy Horse, and met some wonderful co-workers. They really have a large complex with many interesting things to see and do. I will have much more on Crazy Horse after we start our jobs there.

Friday, once the snow started melting, we ventured out into the city of Custer, which is about 4 miles away, and checked out the area and did some grocery shopping at the local market. They will have a farmers market in town on Saturdays, starting in June, so we hope to check that out. Friday night we went out for a fish fry near Hill City, with two other couples that we will be working with, Dick and Cheryl, and Phil and Sandra. Phil and Sandra have been full-timing for 13 years!

Saturday we took a drive on 16A, which goes thru Custer State Park, and up to Iron Mountain Road, which is a very scenic 17 mile road, with 14 switchbacks, 3 tunnels and past the 4 Presidents. We basically had the road to ourselves, which made for a pleasant drive. We were able to stop and take pictures in the tunnels which is something that won’t happen once tourist season is in full bloom.

Custer is famous for their buffalo, but we only saw two on this drive.

There are several lakes in the park.

ready for fishing!

After leaving Custer State Park, you enter right into the National Forest. On 16A, when you see the first park sign, that is when you get your first glimpse at Mt. Rushmore, from a distance.

Custer, SD

Mt Rushmore is just above the hood of the truck.

Mt Rushmore in the distance

Here is a closer view.

1st glimpse of Mt Rushmore

Black Hills

Black Hills & Presidents

scenic views

There are also some fun tunnels to go through, with two of them giving a view of Mount Rushmore.

No problem with this tunnel

tunnel with a view

coming thru with Presidents in view

There is an overview/stop off where you can see Harney Peak in the distance. They have several hiking trails to the top. We are pondering the 6 mile round trip hike. ( I think it would be easy to do if we had a scanner and a cart to push and pretended we were at Amazon!)

Harney Peak

Iron Mountain Road (16A) is a must-do drive, but don’t bring your RV!

Not an RV friendly road!

After 16A, we turned West on Hwy 244, which goes right past Mt. Rushmore, so we took some more “drive-by” photos.

Mt Rushmore from Hwy 244

There is a turn-out down from the monument, where you can get a profile view of George Washington.

profile view

The scenery here is breathtaking and we look forward to exploring many parts of this majestic area. We would like to travel on the Needles Highway (Hwy 87), but there is one tunnel that has a width of 8’4”, and we did a rough measurement of our dually pickup, and we think it is 8’7”. So we will hold off on that drive for now!

Sunday was a cold, blustery day with constant winds around 25mph. So it was a perfect day to do laundry, and go through the many tourist brochures we had picked up. In the afternoon we visited with Steve and Joan and had a wonderful time getting to know them as well.

Monday we checked out the library in Custer, which not only has free wi-fi, but seems to be the social hub of the community, based on how chatty the librarians were with the patrons. It had the ambiance of a coffee shop, but no food or beverages allowed!

We took Makena on a long walk along the George S Mickelson Trail, and picked up annual passes at the visitors center in Custer. All user fees support the trail. The trail follows the old Deadwood to Edgemont Burlington Northern rail line, which was abandoned in 1983. The trail was originally called the Black Hills Burlington Northern Heritage Trail, but was renamed in 1993 after the death of Governor Mickelson, who supported the trail and dedicated the first 6 miles of it in 1991. All 108 miles of the trail were completed by 1998.

Tomorrow (Wednesday May 14) we have our orientation at Crazy Horse, and will find out what our schedule will be for the summer. We look forward to a fun summer getting to know our co-workers more, as well as visiting the many attractions in the area.

Quote for the Day: “Once a year, go someplace you have never been before.” – Dalai Lama

Still plugging along….

Posted on December 7, 2013 by liv2rv

The internet at the park has been down for several days, so I had to wait to make a new post. We had been using our phones as a hotspot, but then we received a message from Verizon that we used 1.9 of our 2 GB, so we had to shut that down as well!

We are just strictly in work mode for now, no more playing tourist until we are done at Amazon. If all goes well, we will be working 16 of the next 18 days. We should find out in the next week what our tentative end date is for our workcamping job at Amazon.

Black Friday was a busy day for us, as well as Cyber Monday. I had been averaging 11 miles of walking per day at work. On those 2 days, I hit 15 miles. In our welcome packet that we received when we started, we had a sample of BioFreeze pain relieving gel. Well that got used up in a hurry after this week! We worked 5 days in a row, and had a restful Wednesday and Thursday off. Our highlight of the week was getting propane, as we completely ran out. (lesson learned: running the furnace really sucks up the propane!). We have since purchased a space heater from Amazon!

It was also nice to see the sun on Wednesday. It is dark when we leave at 6am, and dark when we arrive back at the camper at 5:30pm. We didn’t realize how much we missed seeing daylight, until we had our off days. Makena also enjoyed having us home during the daylight hours as she was able to get some extra play time outside.

We are now working 6 days in a row, as we have 1 day of mandatory overtime, and 1 day of voluntary overtime (for the workcampers). The regular Amazon employees must do the 60 hours of overtime. But it is only for 2 weeks, and we have a full jar of Icy/Hot, and a full bottle of ibuprofen ready for the task!!!

Another highlight for us this week was the arrival of Columbo: The Complete Series! We have picked so many of that set, that we decided to order one. The only problem we have with it, is that we are so tired when we get home we fall asleep while watching it. It takes us about 3 days to get through one episode! The set consists of 35 DVD’s of all 7 seasons of the tv show, as well as 23 made for tv movies!

Amazon had a job fair last Monday for the workcampers. It was nice meeting with some employers such as Yellowstone Park and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Things to keep in mind for future years!

We hope all is going well for everyone!

Quote for the day: “Just one more thing…..” Peter Falk

Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on November 28, 2013 by liv2rv

We hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

This afternoon we are going out for a Thanksgiving dinner with a group of our neighbors at the campground who also work at Amazon. We are looking forward to a good meal and great conversations. Hopefully the Packers can get a win today…? Unfortunately we won’t be able to watch the game today, but at least we should be able to stream the audio.

Tomorrow begins the official start of the Christmas shopping season, and all shifts will be working at Amazon. Should be an interesting day. We may, depending on the volume of orders, start mandatory overtime next week. We are hoping for it. We have already had 3 voluntary overtime days so far this season. We could potentially have mandatory plus voluntary overtime for 2 weeks, which would mean 60 hour weeks ( we may need to buy another pair of tennis shoes!)

This week the managers handed out fresh fruit during our afternoon break, which was a pleasant surprise. I guess they will be providing occasional treats for us.

They have also been having picking contests one day a week. Dan has won both times now!! The first time he won two tokens which can be used in the vending machines. This week he won $10 in “Campbellsville cash”. The ‘cash’ can be used to purchase Amazon branded items such as t-shirts, chip clips, glassware, etc.

Quote for the day – “Be thankful for what you have, you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” Oprah Winfrey

4 more Saturdays!

Posted on November 23, 2013 by liv2rv

The end is near, as we only have to get up early on Saturdays for 4 more weeks! The volume is picking up at work, and there are so many people in the building now. When we started on September 30, you could pick for several hours without seeing anyone. Now there are people all over, and another group of 20 or so temporary employees started today in picking. We had over 130 pickers this morning. When we started, there was about 30 in the morning.

The last 2 Saturdays Dan and I, along with a few other pickers, have volunteered to work in ICQA, which is the inventory control/quality assurance department. With this job, we take our scanner, go to the bin on the scanner, count all the items in the bin, enter it on the scanner, and move on to the next bin it assigns us to. Unlike picking, there is very little walking around. It is a pretty easy job, although you have a lot of bending/squatting to look into the bins closer to the ground. And there is no time required to do this job. With picking, your scanner tells you what item to get, and where it is located, and it will have a little timer telling you that you how many seconds you have to pick that item. ICQA is very laid back, and you get to browse more at the merchandise. But we both prefer picking, as we like to keep moving.

We only get one tv channel here, the CW, which plays endless episodes of The Peoples Court. But they are constantly running commercials advertising the live broadcast on NBC of The Sound of Music with Carrie Underwood on December 5. Today I noticed a bin full of the audio CD’s of the “music from the live event”. So I’m not sure how live it is! It is available now as a pre- order.

I also had time today to look at the Susan Boyle “Home for Christmas” CD. I have picked a lot of these, and it looks like a pretty good Christmas album.

Originally, we were to have off next Tuesday, and work Black Friday instead. That way, Amazon didn’t have to pay is overtime. But now they are offering voluntary overtime on Tuesday, so we signed up for that. In December, we will have mandatory overtime on Fridays. There are 2 weeks that we may be able to get additional overtime, so we could be doing six 10 hour days each week….ka-ching!!$$$

Quote for the Day: “The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today” – Elbert Hubbard

Happy Thanksgiving and Veteran’s Day!!

Posted on November 11, 2013 by liv2rv

As with Halloween, Thanksgiving has come early here in Campbellsville. Amazon had a catered Thanksgiving meal of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, pumpkin pie and apple pie today, for all the employees. It was very good, and we both appreciated the gesture by Amazon. My pedometer read 11 miles at the end of our shift, so I figured I burned off everything I ate…could have had another piece of pie!!

Amazon also paid tribute to all the employee’s that are Veteran’s, and gave them a special pin.

Today the 12th and final group of workcampers started, so Amazon handed out the 2013 Amazon Camperforce t-shirts to all of us as we left. People were very excited about the color of the shirts this year, turquoise. There is a day in December that we are all supposed to wear them. Amazon has lot’s of activities planned in December for all their employees, to keep us going during peak season. It should be an interesting month.

Tonight they are predicting an “artic blast” coming thru, with temperatures below freezing. We might even see a snowflake or two! This just gives us further incentive to keep looking at more campgrounds in Florida for February!

Last week we did go to the National Corvette Museum and the Corvette Assembly plant in Bowling Green, KY. I have been having problems uploading photos with this slow as molasses internet, so I will wait to post on that until I can get the photos working.

We signed up for voluntary overtime on Thursday. We have to call the morning of, to see if it is still on, as it could be cancelled. So place your orders folks, so we can keep busy!

Last night we had dinner in town with another couple, Phil and Rudee. I have been following their blog for a year or so, and they are now working at Amazon for the first time as well. It was great getting to meet them in person, and listening to their adventures. You can check out their blog at http://workinrvers.blogspot.com/

Tomorrow is our “Friday”, which means “happy dance Tuesday”!! I have a few other ladies that join in with me on the happy dance! It doesn’t take people long to catch on to doing a little dance at the end of the workweek!

Quote for the day: “On this Veterans Day, let us remember the service of our veterans, and let us renew our national promise to fulfill our sacred obligations to our veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much so that we can live free.” – Dan Lipinski

And God said…..

Posted on October 3, 2013 by liv2rv

….shop at Amazon!! Today I was going around picking the merchandise, and my scanner said “Communion Wafers”. I paused for awhile, as I thought these came from some special store, but apparently not!! I guess they really do sell everything.

Makena wants to know which one of her dog blog followers ordered the book “The Wonderful World of Squirrels”?!! I picked one of those books today. Makena would like to borrow it, so she can look at the photos!

Dan said he was ready to call Human Resources today, to see if I told them to make him exercise more. He was pretty pooped out tonight, as he had to pick in all 3 buildings.

When we got home, Makena was ready to play football. During the week, the tent site area is empty, so we have been taking her over there and letting her run around off leash…..shhhh, don’t tell the park ranger!

Monday thru Friday morning, the tent site area is vacant.

tent sites

It is really a beautiful area, right on the lake. During the week, this area becomes Makena’s playland;

Playtime!!

RV’ers have a lot of pets. Lucy has been trying everyday to get Makena to play with her. She is very friendly, but Makena loves people, not other dogs. Makena needs her cousin Reagan to come and visit to play with Lucy. And Rudy can come down and chase all the ducks and geese that hang around the shoreline!

I just want to play with you!

Quote for the day: Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. – Roger Caras

A Giant Scavenger Hunt

Posted on October 2, 2013 by liv2rv

Today was our first day in our specific job assignment at Amazon. We are assigned to Picking, which is the most mobile of all the jobs. Today was just a five-hour workday, and the first half was going to “Picking School”. We had 2 excellent and patient trainers that worked with our group of 10 Workampers. In very simple terms, you have a scanner, and it tells you where to go in the building, what aisle, and what shelf and bin. The hardest part is just figuring out where to go, as there are 3 buildings in the warehouse, all connected. I felt like we were on a scavenger hunt all afternoon.

After our 15 minute break, they let us loose, and we started to pick actual customer orders. There are no names or anything associated with the scanner. Everything is done by bar codes. And there is no rhyme or reason about what is on the shelves. The Stowers (people who put the merchandise away to be picked), just put the merchandise wherever they find an opening. So you can pick 5 items from one shelf, and then 5 more of the same item in another aisle. And the variety of items is amazing. It’s very fast paced, but not very difficult.

And yes, I decided I better start wearing my glasses, so I can read the tiny little print on some of these items!

Tomorrow we have another 5 hour shift, and they will probably give us orders in another building. Today we just stayed in one building. I am going to try to find my pedometer, and see how much walking I am doing. They have coolers of bottled water all over the buildings, and free Gatorade and coffee in the break room. Of course the safety lady stopped and reminded me to keep 2 hands on my cart when I am going down the aisles. They are very safety oriented at Amazon.

Makena was very excited to see us when we got home, and we went for a long walk around the park. They are starting to decorate for Halloween here at the State Park as they have a big Halloween Party in a few weeks. The park is also starting to fill back up, and there are lots of kids, which was a bit puzzling. Kentucky has no standard start date for their schools. The schools around here start in early August, and they are now on a Fall break for the week. And they are done in May. The schools in the northern part of Kentucky are on a different schedule.

Quote for the day: If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito – Dali Lama

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s Off to work we go!

Posted on September 30, 2013 by liv2rv

We are staying at Green River State Park here, all paid for by Amazon. It is the only park that does not have sewer, so Amazon pays for a “honey wagon” to come once a week and pump everyone’s tanks out. The fact that we don’t have to deal with “dumping” for the next 3 months is another nice feature of this park that we chose.

pump and dump

After the important stuff was taken care of, we drove into town to begin our new jobs.

Welcome to Campbellsville

Today was “meet and greet” day, where we met the general manager of our plant, as well as our “camperforce” administrative team. It was nice to put faces with the folks we interviewed with. We received our assigned positions, shifts and days. Amazon always makes sure that couples will have the same shift/days.

Dan and I will be working the day shift, 6:30am – 5:00pm, on Saturday/Sunday/Monday/Tuesday. So for those that worked with me at the hospital, my Sunday “happy dance” will now be done on Tuesdays!! We will be “pickers”, which means we will be picking the merchandise off the racks and taking it in carts to the packing area. We will learn more this week about the job, but basically, we will be walking 6 – 10 miles/days. So we are getting paid to exercise!!! Bonus!

Tomorrow we have orientation, and then safety training. Amazon is very big on safety training. Wednesday thru Friday, we will be working 5 hour days on our specific jobs. Then we will have off Saturday, and then Sunday starts our regular work week, but only 7 1/2 hour days. The 3rd week we will go to the full 10 hour shifts. Amazon refers to this as ‘work hardening’ to get everyone accustomed to the physical nature of the jobs.

At our meet and greet, we also received a big bag containing coupons from local stores and restaurants, and brochures with free or half-off coupons of some tourist attractions in the area. The Amazon folks said the community really likes it when the workampers come into town, especially the veterinary clinics, since the majority of RV’ers travel with pets. That was a nice little bonus, and we will definitely check out some of the places on our off days.

After we finished today, we drove down to the marina part of the state park, to see what was there. Lots and lots of houseboats. Some of these are pretty big.

view of the marina

There is also a dam up the road.

Green River by the dam

dry side of the dam

Tomorrow it’s back to packing lunches!!!

Quote for the day: “Believe you can, and you’re halfway there” – Theodore Roosevelt

Our new Kentucky home

Posted on September 28, 2013 by liv2rv

“You have arrived at your destination on the right” said the excited voice on the GPS. This after 48 miles of “incomplete map data, proceed with caution”! We have arrived at our home for the next 3 months, Green River Lake State Park, in Campbellsville, Kentucky. The state park is very nice, with 30amp service, water and free WI-FI. However, we only receive 3 tv stations, and 2 of them are PBS, and I think the other is CW. Now I know why most of the people here have satellite dishes hooked up. I don’t know how much this park charges, as Amazon is paying for it. They cover 2 days before your start date, and one day after.

Here is a shot of the row we are in. All but one of the people in our row will be leaving tomorrow/Sunday, so it should be pretty empty around here.

view down our road

Tomorrow we plan on driving around Campbellsville (about 9,000 in population) to see what there is around town. We also have an overflowing laundry basket, so we may check out the “outdoor” laundry facility that they have here.

We met another couple this evening that will also be working for Amazon this season. They worked there last year as well, and said it is hard work.

Green River Lake State Park

I do want to add one more photo from our trip to the top of the Arch in St. Louis. Dan took this panoramic view with his camera. I think all “smart phones” have this feature, and it does take a pretty nice looking photo, in my opinion. So you may want to learn how to do this on your own phone.

Panoramic view from the Arch

vertical panoramic

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! We are now on Eastern time, so we lost an hour today. Take care

Today will be a picture “quote of the day” from the back of the campground sign in Litchfield, IL. You can decide which question is more important!

Important reminders

Liv2RV

Living and working around the country in a RV

Tag Archives: workamping