Our most recent workamping adventure was working as gate guards, guarding oil rigs in Texas for 21 days.
Why would we want to do that? Well, it pays from $175 to $200 a day, and it would also be an adventure.
The Texas Department of Public Safety regulates private security in the State of Texas. TxDPS has decreed that all Security Guards in Texas must be licensed. So that is your first step in getting a job as a security guard in Texas. Register for the class. The training can cost in the range of $50 to $300. You will have to look into what type of training you need and if there are discounts for veterans. Step two will be to take the test. Step three, make an appointment to be fingerprinted. Step four, wait for the background check before they send your license.
We needed a level II license to work as gate guards for oil rigs and could take the class online. Level II security guards do not carry weapons. You do not need to be employed by a security guard company before you take the training but some companies will help you with it. Ours did. We were encouraged to arrive at their office, park our motorhome in their backyard and stay while we were getting our licenses.
Here we are, parked in their backyard. We arrived and took the test at their office. They set up appointments for us to be fingerprinted. They explained the jobs and we waited for our first gate. We only had to wait one night.
The next day, we followed our supervisor down dusty roads to our first guard gate in Carrizo Springs, Texas. The roads do not show up on our GPS, possibly because these roads are on a ranch, and both of our phones did not work there. They set us up with a large generator to power our coach as well as a large outdoor security light, a tank with water, and a poop tank. We were given an iPad to log in trucks that would come in and out the gate, and paper forms to fill out.
The job is to guard the gate 24/7 so one of us had to be available at all times. I took the night shift and my husband the day shift, as he is a morning person and I am a night owl. The first two days I also worked the day shift three times because my husband had to go into town to get working phones. We had to switch from Verizon to AT&T/Cricket because it’s the only one that works there and they gave us new phones. But finally, we had phones that worked.
To get any kind of supplies, gas was 19 miles away, the grocery was 20 miles away, and the Cricket store was inside the grocery, it was a drive. He’d be gone four hours at least if he had to go to town for anything. I preferred to be the one who stayed while he went to town because if our truck had broken down on one of those remote roads with iffy phone reception, I would have had a problem. So I worked longer on those days. That wasn’t my favorite part of the job. We were a 10 hr drive from the Mexican border, but that’s if you went by car. Walking, as you can see from this map, it’s not far.
Was I scared/worried while we camped there? No, not really, even though I worked nights and it was dark out. The thing about me is, I climb lighthouses because I’m afraid of heights. There was a time I wouldn’t have, but that’s not who I am today.
What did I like about living out there? The wildlife. I loved listening to the birds when the trucks weren’t going past. This little one visited the first week we were there.
We had a roadrunner who visited in the morning. Usually, my husband saw him, but if I was up, he would say the roadrunner is here and I would hurry to try to see him. They’re fast, so I only saw him a couple of times.
They have to be fast because of this guy. It puts me in mind of old Roadrunner and Coyote cartoons from my childhood. I watched this coyote for thirty minutes one night, as he hunted back and forth, across the road. He had a path he would take, where he could slip under the fence.
I wasn’t so fond of the mouse family that decided to take up residence in our RV. My husband bought traps in town and that first night all four traps snapped up a mouse. The only plus I could think of was that with all those mice around, we were less likely to have a snake under the RV. (My first week, about every other truck that came through had a driver who warned me about snakes. I was already watching for them, all the time. I wouldn’t be much of a guard if I wasn’t situationally aware.) Thankfully, I did not see even one snake anywhere during our time there.
My husband saw these buffalo one day, just over the top of the hill where our RV was parked. Our gate guarded the ranch, so the animals, and the ranch house. We didn’t have the big traffic of other gates.
One day we saw a couple horses on top of the hill. But none of the ranch animals ever came over the top toward the gate.
Watching the sunset is one of my favorite things and it can be beautiful out there.
I didn’t catch any sunrises because I’d usually be asleep by 4 a.m. It took a bit to get used to, at first, but by the second week I was sleeping til noon, and once in a while, beyond.
Were the stars clear out there, giving me beautiful views every night? No. The only time I could see stars was when the security light was turned off. It’s much too bright for the stars. I did see them one night before I turned the light on, and they were beautiful. But walking out there with a flashlight wasn’t my idea of fun, because, there might be a snake. So that only happened once, and I didn’t spend much time looking up, even that night.
Internet was a no-go unless you used your hot spot. I might be able to check my email on a good day. Luckily my assistant could help me with messages and tasks. All my online interviews and panels had to be canceled.
Did I get a lot of writing done? Not as much as I thought I would. On a night when I only had five trucks come through, I was able to write. On a night when 59 trucks came through, not at all. With that kind of volume, I was lucky to have time to make a sandwich and take a bite every time I got to come back inside. It took me an hour and a half to finish my “dinner” one night, and that was a peanut butter sandwich. There was no way I was taking anything outside with me to eat, because of the dirt and dust that blew around. Big trucks stir that up, a lot. I quickly learned to wear a bandana like the old-time cowboys.
Five little steps on a motorhome can be like a stair master machine at the gym, if you go up and down them enough times. You will really feel it in the back of your legs.
One night there was a big storm with 60 mph winds that blew the dirt/dust all over. You could see it blowing down the road. It shook the motorhome because we had the sliders out. That was the only night I woke my husband. We put the sliders in after I had watched out the window as our chairs blew over and the wind tumbled one chair about. The other was wooden, but it knocked that one down too. Not one truck came through that night, and my phone screen had frozen on a weather report which said the DFW area (Dallas Fort Worth) had spotted a tornado. So, I needed his phone to watch the doppler. The quiet of no trucks, even on the main road was eerie. We closed up the RV and rode it out.
On the plus side, that’s one more thing I can write about. On the minus, it was scary (the only time I was scared there) and I was praying we didn’t get a tornado. Then there was the dirt, which had blown everywhere, showing me where every crevice on the motorhome was, whether inside or out. After we left the gate guard jobs, we were going to have to clean everything.
Then we were moved to our second guard gate, in Three Rivers, Texas. This gate had grass, and much less dirt to blow around. There would be fewer trucks, and it would only last five days because they were closing down this oil rig.
There was a cattle guard, and we were closer to the gate. It was still an hour to town for groceries and the Cricket store. If you’re going to take on a gate guard job, you need to be well-stocked for anything you might need. This is true of living anywhere away from towns.
The gate in Three Rivers was a relaxing gate, and I enjoyed staying there.
After the gate closed, we moved on to the Corpus Christie, Texas area. That will be a travel blog post for another day.
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