You'll be quite surprised at what you'll find here!
Welcome!
Indeed, welcome to Misthaven Resort! We're looking forward to seeing you roll through our front door.
Jesse and myself, Dennis, own the campground. We bought it in May 2023 and branded it as a gay-owned, gay-friendly, all-inclusive campground. After we bought it we learned that there are about 15 other campgrounds within a 30-minute drive of our own, all competing for the traditional family camping unit. There were too many campgrounds chasing a finite number of campers, so we decided at the end of 2023 to shift gears and convert to an LGBTQIA+ 18+ campground catering to a different demographic altogether: YOU.
Our backgrounds
Fast food junkies
Jesse and I spent YEARS.... decades even... in the fast food industry. Each of us worked from the crew level to store management, toiling away for little more than minimum wage. We worked for the golden arches, Wendy's, Burger King and even for Frisch's for a short time. Never heard of Frisch's? I'm not surprised!
We've done it all
When we weren't working for restaurants, Jesse was working at Kings Island as a ride operator and as a subcontractor for Amazon. Dennis was earning his stripes as a semi driver, of all things, and an apartment building owner and manager.
And in between all that....
You name it, we were doing it. Dennis worked in factories, warehouses and shipping departments loading and unloading trucks. We were ebay sellers for many years, while ebay was king (now replaced by Amazon). Add in a few stints such as working in cold-calling cubicles, driving taxi's (before uber was a thing) and pizza delivery, among others.
Any of this sound familiar?
The point of all of this is to help convey a sense that we're pretty much just like most of you. We've been there, working the opening shift, working the closing shift, handing that food out the window, dealing with customers, punching that time clock and waiting, just waiting for that day when our ship will come in (a nod to Dolly Parton's "9 to 5"!). We both operated fork lifts and delivered packages. We've sat down across from many interviewers, going through the motions, filling out applications, printing out resumes, running that rat race.
Any of this sound familiar to anyone?
One day, after working every job under the sun, working two and three jobs at once, working over-time and under-paid, we managed to pay off the house we lived in. Immediately after doing so, we set off on a new adventure altogether.
That new adventure was investing in real estate. Soon, we began buying up apartment buildings. Somehow, people like Jesse and me, neither of whom had accomplished much in life or gone through higher education, managed to pay off a home, and then, on top of all that, began buying real estate.
We started with one four-family apartment building. Then a couple more. By the time it was all said and done we had twelve. All of our hard work and toiling away at meaningless, reward-less jobs was beginning to pay off. All those years of waking up at 430 am to be at work at 5 am. All those countless nights of closing the restaurant and dragging ourselves through the front door at home at 2 am. Delivering countless pizzas and driving countless miles in semi's and delivery vans.
Any of this sound similar to the work you all do (or did) day in and day out?
Well, one day in 2022, we were having difficulty making a reservation in to a busy campground when Jesse jokingly said, "Maybe we just need to buy our own campground."
And that's exactly what we did! We began selling off our real estate, and used the proceeds for a down payment on this campground that we now proudly present to you as Misthaven Resort.
We're just as down-to-earth as all of you. If any of what we've typed strikes a chord with you, we'd like to share what we're creating here at Misthaven with all of you. Won't you come and check us out?