BE City Campground has new campground hosts
Wenkheimers ready to welcome campers
The City of Blue Earth Campground is open for the season and has two new campground hosts, who are from Indiana.
Or, at least they used to be from Indiana.
“We are actually homeless, I guess,” says Michele Wenkheimer, who along with her husband, Jim, is one of the new camp hosts. “We did live in Spencerville, which is northeast of Ft. Wayne, Indiana.”
Jim explains that it was a year ago that he retired from his job as head of maintenance at a rubber factory that made rubber parts for trucks. Michele had previously retired from her job working at a hospital in the medical billing department.
“On May 10 of last year, we sold our house and most of our stuff, and bought this trailer,” Jim explains. “We have been living in it ever since.”
They came to the Blue Earth City Campground last year and stayed for about six weeks.
“Our son, James, and his wife Alex, and our two grandsons, Max, 7, and Leo, 5, live here in Blue Earth,” Jim explains. “That is why we were here that long last year.”
While they were here last summer, the previous campground host, Denise Karau, told them she was not going to return as camp host in 2024.
“We talked to her about what the job entailed, and talked it over, and then we asked her to submit our names for this year,” Michele explains. “And now, here we are.”
The couple explains that they spent years by their daughter, Nicole, and her husband, Trevor, and granddaughter Raegan, 7, who live in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
“So now we will spend about five months by our son and daughter-in-law and grandsons,” Michele says. “That will be fun. The boys have a lot of energy.”
Both Jim and Michele say it took them awhile to adjust to living in a camper after selling their 3,000 square foot home in Indiana.
“We have a space (toy hauler area) where we have the motorcycle and the bikes and other items when we travel,” Jim says. Michele adds that it turns into her sewing area when they are parked for a while.
It is also a space for their three dogs to exercise.
“We have two of our own and now we have a third dog, which we got when a relative died,” Jim explains. “They are our travel companions.”
Both Jim and Michele love to ride their motorcycle all around, as well as their electric bikes.
Their other hobby might be a bit more difficult to do in Blue Earth, Minnesota.
“We both love to scuba dive,” Michele says. Jim adds he loves it so much that he has become a licensed scuba diving instructor.
When they left Blue Earth last summer they toured around the country. They went to South Dakota, northern Minnesota, Mackinac Island then down to Indiana for a bit.
From there they headed to Pennsylvania where Michele has family, upper New York State where Jim has some family, then down the East Coast.
“Then we went to North Carolina and the Outer Banks,” Michele says. “That area is absolutely beautiful.”
From there they headed to Florida – first in Kissimee, Florida, and then in Marathon, Florida.
In March they started the trek back north.
“We kind of followed the same route back home,” Jim says. “We knew we had to be back in Blue Earth by the last week in April.”
They made it back in plenty of time and the campground opened on April 27.
“We have already had two campers in the camp and we have a couple more coming around the first of May,” Jim says. “And if the weather gets nice we expect to get really busy.”
They already have a lot of reservations for many weekends and other dates throughout the summer.
“There are busy times, like graduation and weddings,” Michele says. “It will certainly be interesting to see how many campers we get, and see where they are all from.”
After the camp closes, in early October, the Wenkheimers will take their fifth-wheel camping trailer to a place to get some repairs and maintenance work done to it.
“I guess that is when we really will be homeless,” Michele says with a smile. After that, they plan to wend their way back down to Florida to spend the winter there again.
And ride their motorcycle and do a little scuba diving, of course.