My Season at Adventureland

I had arrived at The Adventureland Campground safe and Sound.  I was a little nervous about working in an amusement park.  But hey it sounded like fun and all the things I had read about it were positive.  The day after my arrival I had a breakfast meeting at the human resources department.

This was the employee entrance!

At the meeting we were given 2 uniforms and our name tags after filling out the employment forms.  They had also asked about our pets.  They wanted to know who had pets so if there was a power outage they could send us home to tend to them.  Now that is thoughtful!

The amusement park has a Canteena attached to the employment office where we could eat inexpensively when we were on duty.  I must say for the most part the food was really good.  I loved chicken days!

We were informed of a staff meeting that would take place in a couple of days and sent on our way to enjoy the rest of the day. 

The park entrance for employees is on the opposite side of the park from the campground.  On days when the weather is not so nice it is a long walk.  There is some limited employee parking nearer the entrance but I figured by the time I got in the truck and drove around there and found a parking spot I might as well walk.  I can only remember driving a couple of times all summer.

The next day I got out and found Wal Mart.  It is just down the street from the Adventureland offices.  I really liked the little town of Altoona.  It pretty much had everything I needed.  It was nice working at Adventureland until Memorial day and after Labor day we only worked on the weekend. 

The day of the staff meeting we had a group meeting with most of the workampers.  Adventureland hires hundreds every year so there are lots of people with common lifestyles.  We all love our lives living in an RV and workamping.  After the group meeting we broke into smaller groups to meet with our direct surpervisors.  The people that were hired to work in the games department reported to the Bingo hall.  There we received our handbooks and were able to ask questions.  There are 3 games areas in Adventureland.  I asked our surpervisor after the meeting if it would be okay to walk around the park.  He said yes and 2 couples and another single lady joined me.  One of the couples had worked there the year before so were great guides.  In each of the 3 areas there are about a dozen games.  It was neat to rotate between the 3 areas and work different games.  By the end of the season I had worked all of the games at least once.  Some were more fun to work than others..but hey it was called work! 

My first day at work it was windy and cold.  The next day was even worse as it we had snow flurries!  I was lucky the second day as I was inside the arcade for all my shift.  I found the hardest part of working games was standing inside the little areas in one place most of the day.  I loved interacting with the guest. 

In the first few days my new friends Dan & Rita asked me to go out with a group for supper.  We went to a Mexican food place nearby.  I was blessed to meet Bob & Vicki there.  It was a neat group of people that seemed fascinated by the fact I was doing this alone.  That year there were several of us single ladies there.  I made friends that summer that will be friends for life.  I still keep in touch with a bunch of them.  This past year I have managed to even see Rosalie & Larry, Margaret and Bob and Vicki.  Since we are all mobile we seem to cross paths occasionally.  We keep in touch with phone calls and email that way we can plan our routes to include friends.

My summer in Iowa will always be a fond memory.  Other than the great friends I made visiting some of the sights in the area was fun.  I saw the Pella Tulip festival and even went back in September to visit the unique little town. 

The Pella Windmill.

I also visited the Bridges of Madison County and John Wayne's birthplace in Winterset Iowa.

One of the Bridges of Madison County

John Wayne's Birthplace.

Did you know that John Wayne weighed 13 lbs when he was born?  They lived in this small three room house at the time.  It was really cute but tiny!

In the fall I road the Boone Valley Railroad with a group of Adventureland buddies.

Inside the train!

A group of us were some of the last people of the season to float down the Iowa River on tubes! 

Ready to ride the river!

This was a fun group of people!  Rita and Margaret were great at planning things for us to do together!  All summer long we had pot lucks and pool parties.  Sometimes it was this group of people and sometimes it included way more.  Everyone was always welcome! 

While Iowa can be hot and humid and sometimes stormy it was still overall a great summer.  I will always be thankful to all the fine folks I met at Adventureland for making my first summer workamping experience the best!