If you helped in any way with High Plains Camping, in the office, at the cash register, greeting the guests on the phone, at the propane station, on the grounds, renovating or maintaining it, insuring it, financing it, adding features or enhancing it …

If you sent a friend or relative to camp at High Plains Camping …

If you made one of my nearly 100,000 guests feel welcomed here through your hair styling, massage therapy, medical care, vehicle maintenance or repair, veterinary care, or meal preparations …

If your business or attraction added to the enjoyment and warm memories of my guests …

If you smiled upon me, made my life easier, uplifted me, or prayed for me …

I sincerely thank you.

It’s my hope you will genuinely embrace, accept, support and welcome Jim and Jessie DesRoches. Please help them carry it forward.

Sincerely,

Mary Arlington

P.S.  I invite you also read this other posting on our blog.

Thirteen years ago my husband and I set out on a new mission:  to buy and manage an RV park. We spent 2 years preparing for our mission and in 2002, we bought what you now recognize as High Plains Camping, near Oakley, Kansas.

The park we found was in need of attention; some little jobs (like hauling loads to the dump) and some enormous ones (big enough to require lots of big-boy-toys). Tackling it alone was not what we set out to do, but when John passed away a year into our ownership, I began doing what a wise person once told me, “If someone else can do it, so can you.”

The park today is no longer on the verge of being ousted from ratings programs, having achieved outstanding ratings several years ago and now being affiliated with Best Parks In America. The park today is in the top 8% of all parks in the country with its 5W-rating by Woodalls for our facilities. The park now is also one of merely 12 nationwide which have achieved the GuestRated “A” Award every year since its inception in 2008 (including the most recent one given to us last week).

Since 2003 I’ve worn so many hats in Kansas I can’t list them all, from the full range of roles within the Kansas Association of RV Parks (KARVC), the Travel Industry Association of Kansas (TIAK), and the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds (ARVC), not to mention my activity with many other organizations.

The titles are prestigious, but more importantly the roles provided amazing opportunities to serve people, not only my guests (the highest honor) but countless other wonderful, hardworking, compassionate, thoughtful, and devoted people in the RV park and Kansas tourism sectors.

My work has brought an abundance of recognition with awards from the state and national industries coming to me from out of the blue. I did what I did from my heart, with the skills, knowledge, tools, and wisdom that God granted to me. If it helped, then I’m grateful I did it. If it eased someone’s journey, then I’m very grateful I did it. I was blindsided by the awards.

Yet what I truly enjoyed were the guests. To stand behind my counter, virtually every day of the every year, and greet each guest, hear their tales, share in their laughter, ease a burden, share a bit about Kansas, direct them to solutions for their needs … no finer job have I ever been so honored to have. Over these years my ‘backyard’ has been an overnight home to nearly 100,000 people. Some of them have become very dear friends. One even became an employee as well as a friend. Many of them made me feel that every ounce of energy my job required was worth every bit of the effort.

To everybody involved in this chapter of my life, I can’t thank you enough. Whether we agreed or disagreed, I am where I am today because of where I once was and what I’ve come through.

High Plains Camping is now beginning a new chapter. Like all stories in life, there is no ending … just a continuation.

Although my time here is finished, the coming months will be exciting as I begin to see where my journey takes me. I’ll look at my park in my rearview mirror with tears while I look down the road in anticipation of a continued fantastic journey.

I hope you will warmly welcome Jim and Jessie DesRoches as they take High Plains Camping into its new chapter.

But I’m baaa’ack!

This summer has been FANtastic!

At the end of each summer this park owner has a handful of ‘those guests’ you wish hadn’t come. This year there’s no one on that list. I’ve been blessed with the most enjoyable guests!

At the end of every summer this park owner has a lengthy list of big and little repairs & renovations that are needing attention when things slow down. This year there is nothing on that list. And that’s a good thing because things aren’t slowing down! We’re having the busiest September in our 10 Septembers of running this place.

While I’ve been busy with the park and with so many wonderful guests, some people have posted very nice things about us on Facebook, in their blogs, and on Twitter. Try as I might to monitor things, I probably missed a few, but here’s what our guests have posted on our survey page, and here’s a blog I that was posted today about our place!

Our store saw a drastic make-over as the season unfolded. Many guests enjoyed finding the vast array of items in our store, from some newly released books by Kansas authors, Wallaroo hats, birdhouses, baskets, and dog toys to RV supplies, flip-flops and outdoor carpet.

Before Memorial Day 2011

Before Labor Day 2011

If you have camped with us, we invite you to fill in a survey about your stay (we all get inundated with surveys, but I really truly do use the data I collect so I’d really truly love if you would take a few minutes to fill it in for me).

Oh, and if you missed it earlier this summer, we have a new design to our web page. I’ll be adding a lot more to it once things begin to slow down a bit around here.

To all who read this, THANK YOU for being interested. To all who camped here, THANK YOU for choosing us. To all who wish to camp here, THANK YOU and come on out!

On that note, we compiled a few statistics regarding how far our guests travel.

On average our guests traveled about 300 miles on the day of their arrival (meaning they started their day in some other state).

In reviewing our guest ledger for 2009 and 2010, our visitors have come from every state (yes, even Hawaii, although I doubt they drove the entire distance).

The state which wins with the highest number of guests for us is Colorado, with 11.3%.

Texas comes in second, with 9.8%.

Missouri makes in at third place with 6.2%, but Florida comes in next at 6%, while California is a very close fifth place with 5.9%. That’s quite a close race between those 3, even though they’re many miles apart from one another.

Kansas itself finished in sixth place with 5.2%, and Oklahoma is next at 4%.

FYI, all the Canadian provinces are also represented in our population, but combined came in at 3.5%. They seem far more prevalent to me because they account for the majority of my winter travelers, but when we study the entire year their numbers blend in more.

Fine Print #1:  Technically speaking, a “guest” is anyone who came here at least once in a year. This report doesn’t take into account whether a guest stayed 1 night, 10 nights, or 70 in a calendar year.

Fine Print #2:   I can’t give statistics without this disclaimer, too.  Many of our guests are full-timers, so their addresses show for their “registered” state even if they don’t really live in that state. Therefore, it’s not as though those RVers found us through a publicity program in that state. Just saying…

That sums it up for this statistical blog. For more information about camping with us, please see our webpage or join us on Twitter or on Facebook.

Her husband & her drove their family around Kansas in their RV in 1975. They put 1,080 miles on the RV and never left the state. That was their full vacation and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

The next January she saw on the news that Kansas was celebrating 115 years. She decided they had to join in the celebration. She created a rectangular cake and cut off the NE corner to make it look like Kansas. Then the kids and her used icing to outline their vacation meanderings around Kansas.

She said that the Kansas scrapbook was the only one she made in all the years of raising her family. The photographs from other vacations were put in boxes. She’s now spending some time creating those scrapbooks, but the Kansas one has been enjoyed over all the years.

I’d sure love to see a picture of that cake! Wouldn’t you?

Holy-Field Vineyard and Winery is located in northeast Kansas, a bit of a distance from High Plains Camping, but since the average RVer who stays with us has traveled over 300 miles on the day they reached us, you might be just down the road from them very soon.

So let me tell you a little about the them. Holy-Field Vineyard and Winery is a family-owned operation with 14 acres planted with Native American and French Hybrid varieties. This was all started in 1994 and continues today as a warm and friendly place to enjoy fine wines and specialty gifts.

Their wine list includes 16 varieties. Their services include private tastings and an area for large parties, receptions and meetings. Walking tours are available by appointment, and you can find out other very entertaining things about them when you follow them on Facebook or Twitter. I’ve enjoyed their comments for several years now.

We have their brochure available to our guests in our wine section. No, we’re not allowed to sell wine, but we stock your cork screws, wine glasses, and other “winey” things because we know many campers accidentally leave these essentials behind when they’re packing for the trip.  So for your wine selection while you’re with us, you’ll need to BYOB, and if you’re coming from the east maybe you’ll BYOB of Holy-Field wine.

 Aside from finding them on Facebook and Twitter,  you can also find them online on their own webpage.

As always, to book a campsite with us, you can do so anytime online at HighPlainsCamping.com.

FINE PRINT:  If you’re keeping tabs on such “commercials” I can honestly tell you these wonderful people didn’t pay for this blog space or for their space in my store. Their hard-earned awards speak for themselves, and I’m just proud as punch (well, really “Corky’s Barrel wine”) to spread the word about another fine Kansas product. Just like Kansas’s wonderful Blacksmith Coffee Roastery, I enjoy spreading the word about things my customers rave about.

Last night Farmer David announced that the first produce was ready for picking. Time to put up our sign in the office! The sign grows as the season unfolds, listing for our guests the full multitude of what’s ripe & ready for the picking. But, oh no, the baby wasn’t here yet to hold the sign!

This morning, much to our delight, we found Sweet Pea’s baby … errr, babies …  That’s right. She didn’t have one. She had four!

The 4 Who Announce What's Ripe & Ready for Pickin

We’re proud as cucumbers to announce the arrival of Brussel Sprout, Baby Broc, Sweet Potato, and Sugar Snap.

Our readers were extremely helpful in the naming process! Thank you.

This year the garden has 3 more patches than it did last year. Last year’s garden had 3 more patches than it did in 2009. Our garden is definitely a crowd-pleaser!

For a list of what’s growing, see this earlier blog.

Come and stay … enjoy our garden! Book your site today.

With two commonly known nicknames, Kansas is known for agriculture:   the Sunflower State and the Wheat State. Combines and tractors seem to be as typical in Kansas as bicycles are in Seattle or subway stations in New York City.  

Corn  -  Planted in the Spring and harvested in the Fall, the area’s corn is used as a vegetable and is also a livestock feed. The sorbitol (byproduct) is used in toothpaste.

Grain sorghum (milo)  –  Harvested in the Fall, this crop provokes the most questions from my RVers. During the weeks building up to the harvest the majority of my guests ask me what that corn-like crop is with the brown top. Milo is used primarily for animal feed but is also being used in ethanol.

Soybean  -  A November crop used in vegetable oil, margarine, salad dressings, sauces, bakery goods, bio-diesel (fuel) and in crayons.

Wheat  -  Sowed in the fall, it turns a lush green until June when it begins to turn golden soon before its harvest. The harvest is a major event in our area. It’s toward the middle-to-end of June and into early July. I recommend you read our other blogs relating to the wheat.

Northwest Kansas is very dry, receiving only about 18″ of precipitation a year. What’s grown here is challenged by Mother Nature’s dryness, winds, and hail.

For those who camp with us, our office has a display of our local agriculture. There are framed pictures of each crop, some close-up and some of the fields, and we have jars with the produce from each of the crops. Come on in and see them.

For more information on High Plains Camping, or to book a site, please see our website.

Our U-Pick Organic Garden produces wonderful fresh produce for our overnight campers. They can pick whatever is ripe on the day they’re here with us. From the time the seeds are planted the rows are labeled so that people can identify what’s growing.

Farmer David created our U-PIck Organic Garden in 2009. He expanded it in 2010, and this year he expanded it again! As produce ripens, Farmer David tells the office staff. A board is posted in the office, listing all the pickables. That board is what I want to revamp this year.

Having been with us for a year, perhaps Sweet Pea needs a baby. How about a baby scarecrow, in coveralls with patches on his knees, holding the “pickables” sign in the office? I’m sure our readers can help me create this fella (maybe even physically rather than just with ideas for me to create), and of course the baby needs a name.

So there it is. Please chime in!!! How do I make a baby scarecrow for my office? And what is his/her name?

The laundry equipment accepts US quarters. If you don’t have sufficient supply of them, we keep some on hand in our office.