American Gam

“Jobs fill your pocket but adventure fills your soul.” ~ Jamie Lyn Beatty

So we landed at our new digs here at the KOA campground in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We chose this place to live and work for the summer because there are so many amazing sights to see in this region, like national parks, historic towns, and scenic drives, with most of them within a two-hour radius of our location.

Most people want to know how we got this gig of workcamping at the KOA at Mount Rushmore. Well…

Fifteen years ago, on our very first date, Treva and I talked about buying a camper and traveling around America. Two and a half years ago we sold our home in New Hampshire, bought a truck and travel trailer and started the adventure of circumnavigating the country. Six months ago we decided to put our resumés on Workamper.com. Seven minutes after posting our resumés we got a call from the KOA at Mount Rushmore asking us if we’d be interested in workcamping this summer. Of course, we said yes! Five months later we landed here at our temporary South Dakota residence.

I had stayed at this very KOA on my first solo trip across America so I knew that there is a lot of beautiful countryside to explore in this region. You can go back to see that solo trip on American Gam.

This KOA is the second largest KOA in America. (The largest is in Okeechobee, Florida.) Here we have close to three hundred dedicated RV campsites, over a hundred tent sites, and an assortment of cabins and a lodge. There’s two heated pools, a waterslide, miniature golf, a bouncy pillow, a climbing wall, two restaurants, laundry, ATV/UTV rentals, bicycle rentals, car rentals, and a few places to buy wine, coffee, and ice cream. The Peak restaurant has an amazing Bison Meatloaf!

There is also a working horse ranch here with over a hundred horses for your trail riding pleasure. The ranchers host a nightly chuckwagon dinner show and a monthly rodeo. Our campsite is abutting the horse pasture making all of the beautiful horses our neighbors, which also includes the wafting smells of the ranch. It’s like living in the mountains and on a farm at the same time!

So far we’ve enjoyed our experience here. There are twenty-five other couples working with us who have come from all over the country for the opportunity to work and play here in the Black Hills. It’s a melting pot of America that teaches you to be more open and accepting of different values, beliefs, and perspectives; a tribe of many tribes.

This workcamping adventure is just beginning for us so stay tuned for our future adventures in the Black Hills!

I hope you’ll come visit us here this summer in the shadow of the great presidents.

The gam continues…