By KATHLEEN O’CONNOR/YachatsNews
Five home bases in 12 months — that’s what Terry and Gail Thysell will have had by the end of December as Oregon State Park campground hosts.
They arrived at Beachside State Park a week ago, after having started the year at Harris Beach and Silver Falls state parks. After their stay at Beachside they will head to South Beach in Newport, then to Bullard’s Beach near Bandon, then back to Harris Beach near Brookings to finish the year.
The Thysells started working as campground hosts five years ago, and plan to keep doing it as long as they can.
Gail and Terry met in Gold Beach in 2009, just after Gail moved there to be near her sister. She rented an apartment in a building that Terry Thysell managed, and they married soon after. They spent their free time camping throughout southern Oregon and northern California, heading out 1-2 times a month even in the winter in their 30-foot RV.
When Terry retired from his job at Freeman Marine in Gold Beach they decided they wanted to be full time RVers, so they sold their large home, bought a bigger RV, and started retirement as campground hosts.
They checked out the many opportunities available on the Oregon State Parks volunteer website and decided to focus on the 362-mile coast. They have hosted in a dozen of the 40 state parks along the coast. Oregon State Parks allows hosts to stay one to three months. The Thysells have found that two months is ideal — one month is not long enough to get to know the campground and the rangers and in three months they are ready to move on. They travel in a 40-foot RV and tow a jeep. Charlie, their mini golden doodle, happily travels with them.
Question: What do you like best about this lifestyle?
Answer: We love everything about this life. We feel like we’re on a continuous adventure, and we hope we never have to stop. So far, in the five years we’ve been hosts, we’ve logged 5,000 volunteer hours. One of our friends is 84 years old, and he’s logged 30,000 volunteer hours. He’s our role model.
When we change from one state park to the next we must attend orientations, so we’ve been introduced to a lot of other hosts and many of those have become good friends. But we haven’t lost track of our southern Oregon friends; we always try to host at Harris Beach State Park at least once a year, which feels like going home.
Q: What do you miss about not having a permanent home?
A: The only thing we miss is the lovely view we had of the Rogue River. There is an old saying “As long as you own a home you have a job.” We just didn’t want all the responsibilities and work that come with owning a home anymore. Also, when we finally pass on, we didn’t want our four boys (three for Gail and one for Terry) to have to deal with the issues of settling an estate that includes a large home. One of Gail’s sons, Joe Schomus, lives in Waldport, which is one of the reasons we try to host at Beachside.
Q: What kinds of problems do campers have?
A: Campers are generally very happy people. They love being outdoors, they love the beach, they love campfires. They are generally respectful of one another.
Our worst problem this year was when a woman who had a reservation arrived at 12:30 a.m. and found someone else in her campsite. There wasn’t another site available so the intruder had to pack up and get back on the highway. The situation was a little tense. The parks department started a new online reservation system in 2023, and campers are still learning the ins and outs of the new system. If you have a reservation you can check in as late as you would like. Sometimes we have people who have rented a spot that is too short for their motor home or trailer or who are still learning how to back up a large vehicle. Occasionally we have problems with dogs or noise.
Q: What are your duties as camp host?
A: We are responsible for things like campsite cleanup, yurt cleanup, monitoring the grounds, selling firewood and answering dozens of questions each day. Here at Beachside there is also another campground host who we share duties with. Some campgrounds have as many as four campground hosts. Hosts at day-use areas and visitor centers have different responsibilities, and some hosts are specifically called maintenance hosts or interpretive hosts.
Q: What kinds of maintenance is involved with your 40-foot motor home?
A: Not nearly as many as were involved in keeping up our home in Gold Beach. We just keep it clean and monitor all the things that a diesel engine requires. We plan about a year in advance and try to arrange our schedule so that we’re not driving more than 100 miles to our next stop. That means we’re not actually driving our motor home that much.
We did have quite an emergency once, while climbing up Cape Sebastian in southern Oregon. Our new serpentine belt had a little too much play in it and the engine overheated. We went into “limp” mode and were suddenly going just 20 mph and had less than a quarter mile to try to find a place to pull off the highway. It was, in fact, quite terrifying.
Tell us a secret.
Right now, we have a view of the ocean at the back of our campsite that looks exactly like the beach on that old TV show, Gilligan’s Island. Each campground we get to host has its own charm.
- Kathleen O’Connor is a Waldport freelance writer who can be reached via email at kmoc8916@gmail.com