Episodes

Today I will speak with a couple from New Orleans who have found new purpose and enjoy lots of fun by working at several amusement parks. Dawn and Jorge Hernandez have been married for 42 years and spent most of their lives living in Florida, Tennessee, Georgia and New Orleans before deciding to hit the road as full-time RVers. They were attracted to the lifestyle by friends who had purchased an RV to do some tailgating before Louisiana State University football games. Then, after their friend...

Today I am going to interview a couple from Louisiana who have been RVing since 2004 and have lots of experience Workamping at various jobs throughout North America – even Alaska. Dale and Margie Parker completed their first RV trip in a pop-up camper when they traveled 6,000 miles along the west coast. That convinced them to upgrade to something a bit sturdier, so they opted for a 40-foot Jayco fifth wheel. They selected a fifth wheel over a motorhome for the ability to park the RV at a campsi...

Today I am speaking with a woman who has developed multiple income streams to fund her family’s RV travel experience and she’ll describe some of them. Danielle Sulzer is originally from Flagstaff, Ariz. She has been traveling at a breakneck speed through the Midwest this summer with her husband, Scott, and two daughters, 13-year-old Samantha and 5-year-old Lilly. She was in Dennison, Texas, when the interview was recorded six weeks ago and has since been traveling through Missouri, Illinois, Wi...

Today I will be speaking with a Workamper who just wrapped up his second assignment, this one working at a state park in Wisconsin and he’s heading to a new job at the other end of the state. He was celebrating his 67th birthday the day we recorded the interview. Richard Ruppel is a former truck driver and HVAC installer from Milwaukee, WI, who just started Workamping this summer. He had three back-to-back assignments and is really getting the hang of the RV and Workamping lifestyle. Before he...

Today I will be speaking with an employer from Iowa who is looking for volunteer Workampers for the 2022 season to work in a remote part of the state, but not too far from Des Moines. Jessica Heath is a park ranger with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project at Lake Red Rock, Iowa. Nestled in central Iowa, about 35 minutes southeast of Des Moines, Lake Red Rock is the largest lake in the state. It was made in 1969 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) erected a dam along the Des Moin...

Today, I’ll be interviewing a couple from Pennsylvania who currently live in Phoenix. They started RVing a little over one year ago after they retired and they will be sharing their story. Doug Lehman and Donna Hughes had been RVing for five years by taking shorter trips when they opted to go full time once they retired. They started Workamping right away, then took three months off last winter to see what real retirement was like. Neither of them liked it and thought Workamping was a much bett...

Today we are going to talk about a big what-if in Workamping. What if you’re injured, sick, need surgery or require some other type of long-term care, but you don’t have a sticks-and-bricks home to return so you can recover? What are your options? Fortunately, there is one in the great state of Texas. Russ Johnson is the executive director of Escapee’s CARE, which stands for Continuing Assistance for Retired Escapees. It’s a program developed by the Escapees Club just for full-time RVers who ha...

Today I am going to speak with a couple who I interviewed two years ago. They were the first Workampers I ever interviewed for this podcast and we’re going to elaborate on that brief conversation recorded at the Workamper Rendezvous in October 2019. Since our last conversation, Mike and Betty Gill have sold their sticks-and-bricks home and hit the road as full-time RVers along with Mike’s youngest son. They have been sidelined this summer due to some family issues that require them to hang arou...

In this episode, we interview a couple from North Carolina. He is semi-retired, but she is still actively working for a company. In fact, she encouraged the firm to let her go RVing full time as a way to save money and time. Jill and Randy Shepard are from Raleigh, NC, which is their domicile state. They have been RVing for a little over a year after having started out of necessity during the COVID lockdowns. They had been looking for a specific RV for quite some time when Jill was notified on...

Today, I’m going to interview a fun couple who works at Dollywood amusement park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. Ann Marie and Jim Fulton met in a roundabout way. Ann was originally from Atlanta and Jim lived in Detroit. They met by chance at a motorcycle rally in Virginia. From that point, they frequently motorcycled together around the country. One year, at a different rally, they camped in a tent next to a friend’s RV. When it rained, the couple wound up on the sofa in their friends’ RV. It wasn’t t...

Today, I am going to talk with Workamper News Executive Director, Jody Anderson Duquette, about how employers can find the best Workampers for jobs they are looking to fill. This episode just isn’t for employers, Workampers themselves will learn more about the recruiting process. As we start our discussion, Jody reminds employers what Workamping is and who Workampers are. They’re typically retired people looking for part-time work to stay active and help reduce travel expenses. Many Workampers...

A lot of RVers today travel with dogs. I forgot the exact number, but I remember reading that more than half of full-timers travel with a dog. Today, I am going to speak with a veterinarian about things people can do to make RVing easier when traveling with their furry family members. Dr. Lynne Swanson is a retired veterinarian who founded Safe Harbor Farm, a canine rescue and rehabilitation center in coastal North Carolina. She grew up living with around 20 dogs at a time and has invested thr...

Today, I speak with a woman who has a fascinating job as a host on an excursion train operating within the Georgia State Parks system. There are lots of hosting positions available in the Workamping lifestyle. There are campground hosts and museum hosts, and even hosts at restaurants. But, I have never heard of a train host. Nina Dalk is originally from Savannah, GA, and moved to Atlanta in 2008. Then, a little more than a decade later, she retired and hit the road in her RV. This summer, Nin...

Today I am going to interview an author who describes ways to maintain a positive attitude. Anyone who has been full-time RVing for long knows that trials and tribulations can pop up unexpectedly to steal your joy, and this author has some ideas for helping to maintain a sense of peace. John Stange is a pastor of Core Creek Community Church in Langhorne, PA, and the author of a new book titled Dwell on These Things. He has been a pastor for nearly a quarter century, has started three podcasts a...

Today we have a great show planned. I will be talking with Jody Anderson-Duquette about finding the ideal Workamping job. She is the executive director of Workamper News and one of the owners of the business. She literally grew up in the Workamping industry and has a lot of experience connecting people to short-term jobs. She has identified 12 steps people can take to find the right job for them. It all starts with doing your homework to learn what type of jobs and employers are available. Con...

Today I’m going to speak with a man looking to match volunteer chaplains with RV parks in Arizona, Texas and Florida. Robert Ruesch is the founder and CEO of Christian Resort Ministries, an organization based in Evergreen, Colo. It was founded in 2002 as a way to answer a question many full-time or seasonal RVers have when they’re spending several months at an RV resort – where can they go to worship as a temporary resident of the area? Robert wanted to create an environment where people of fa...

Today I will speak with two women from Aramark Hospitality Management about Workamping opportunities at resorts around the country, and specifically, about the need for Workampers in northern Arizona. Lindsey Jaroszek is a talent acquisition account manager with Aramark Hospitality who is responsible for finding people to work at resorts in several western states. She is joined by Tracy King-Garappolo, who works as an assistant human resources specialist at Lake Powell Resort and Marina. Arama...

Today, I will speak with someone from an RV park management company who helps campground owners improve their operations as well as run the parks for absentee owners. He’s looking for Workampers not only at the three RV parks he owns in Florida and Texas, but also for other parks within their network around the nation. Austin Faught is the founder and president of RV Park Management, a company located near San Antonio. His firm owns two RV parks in Texas and one in Florida. However, his company...

In today’s episode, we’re going to look at two issues that many full-time RVers often think about – staying healthy and making money. Greg and Bonnie Dixon are from Vancouver, British Columbia. They have been RVing since October 2017. In fact, they have put on 18,000 miles traveling between what they call the alligator line and the snow line. They describe some of the places they have visited and experiences they have enjoyed. The couple also explains what attracted them to the RV lifestyle an...

Today I will be speaking with two women who work for a legal transcription company that is looking for a number of Workampers who want to work remotely wherever they travel. Janice Brea is a recruiter with eScribers and Dena Farbman is a Workamper who has been supporting her travel lifestyle by doing legal transcriptions for quite some time. In the past, courts relied on stenographers to record every word of a legal proceeding. Today, judges and attorneys rely on digital recordings made from s...

This week I am interviewing a campground owner from Mobile, Ala., who is looking for Workampers to serve at what he describes as the most technologically-advanced RV community in the world. Ed Bridgman is the owner and developer of Homestead RV Community, which is about 20 miles south of Mobile, Ala., and less than two miles from the Gulf of Mexico. Using a high-speed fiber optic network, the RV park offers the fastest internet service available and monitors water and electricity consumption a...

Today, I will be speaking with a gentleman who owns a brand-new campground in north-central Wisconsin who is looking for an entrepreneurial Workamper to help get the park ready to open and to manage it going forward. Jeff Knutson is the owner and developer of Bethel Place Campground in Bethel, Wis., which is about 15 miles from Marshfield. The year-round campground is located on a property that was a former nursing home. When the first phase is completed, it will have 150 RV sites and two larg...

Today’s episode features an interview with a park ranger with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, who talks about Workamping opportunities in one of the prettiest places in America. Andrew Huddleston was been working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since 2012 when he was still a college student. Today he oversees the recreation operation at Albeni Falls, Idaho. The dam the Corps built in the mid-1950s created one of the largest and deepest lakes in America....

Today I will be speaking with an employer from the great state of Michigan who is planning to expand the company’s Workamper program in 2022. Leah Moskovitz is the workgroups and housing supervisor at Cherry Republic, a company that sells just about anything related to cherries, those delicious fruits Leah refers to as “ruby red morsels of joy.” The company is headquartered in Glen Arbor, Mich., which is in the far northwest corner of lower Michigan along the shores of Lake Michigan. It is one...