Episodes

Today I am going to talk with a couple who jumped in to the RV lifestyle as a favor for their dog who lost a leg to cancer. They wanted to give him an adventure of his lifetime, but the experience changed them to the point they continue traveling in their RV to encourage others to “be more dog.” Jim Nelson and Rene Agredano hit the road in 2007 with their furry friend, Jerry G. Dawg, a German Shepherd who they describe as the chief fun officer of their graphics design company. When Jerry devel...

This week I will be interviewing a woman who launched a business that she can operate from her RV to inspire others to try their hand at quilting. My grandmother loved to quilt. She made blankets for all her children, grandchildren and even her great grandchildren. She inspired my own daughter to follow in her footsteps by creating ornate quilts of her own. People who quilt find it to be very relaxing, and they have something to show for their effort. But, quilting doesn’t have to be as elabor...

Today, I am talking with an employer in the beautiful hill country of South Dakota about Workamping opportunities still available for this summer. Amanda Burleson is a human resources partner with Prairie Berry Winery in Hill City, S.D. The firm also brews its own brands of beer. Workampers are hired to help staff the wine tasting and beer tap rooms to serve up samples for guests to enjoy while describing how the products are made. Prairie Berry is not an actual vineyard, rather the firm bring...

This week, I’ll be interviewing one of the park rangers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project along the Okeechobee waterway in Florida about volunteer opportunities in the Sunshine State. Rob Hill has been involved with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for almost six years. He works for a water resources development project that stretches the entire Florida peninsula from the Gulf of Mexico through Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean. The waterway allows recreational boaters to save a ...

This week’s podcast features a company based in Florida that hires Workamper teams to travel the country conducting physical surveys of commercial properties around America. Mark Braddy is the director of operations at ID Plans, a commercial property management solutions company based out of Tampa. For 20 years, the company has hired teams of RVers to trek across the country performing physical surveys of commercial real estate properties, primarily at retail locations, like malls or strip sho...

Today I have a fun interview with a woman who guides people on ways to transform just about any activity into an adventure. Heidi Dusek is a married mother of three who lives in northeast Wisconsin. Her family enjoys a lot of outdoor activities, and even though they own a pop-up camper, they have rented larger RVs in the past to take longer trips. Everyone loves the RV adventures so much that they are hoping to buy a motorhome soon to enjoy some periods of extended travel. Heidi works remotely...

Today we are going to talk with someone who owns a fifth wheel and decided to become a certified RV technician. Anthony Montelongo started a mobile service business in north Georgia right in the middle of the COVID shutdowns. He completed five weeks of advanced training, went to work for an RV dealership to get some experience and then ventured out on his own by launching Certified RV Solutions in Ellijay, Ga. His company does more than just fix RVs. He also offers inspections as well as enhan...

This week’s episode features a couple from Texas who have been full-time RVing since 2018. Dan and Patty Harrison had a sticks-and-bricks home in Texas which they sold in 2018 in order to enjoy a life of full-time travel and Workamping. This winter they are in Yuma, AZ, Workamping at a very large 1,300-site campground where they are cleaning campsites after people check out and are preparing them for the next guests. The Harrisons adopted a routine where they find a Workamping job for three mo...

Today’s podcast features a couple from Columbus, Ohio, who have been RVing for the past six years. Tracy and Lee Perkins have been married 32 years and travel the country in a 40-foot fifth wheel because it has more windows than a Class A, which makes the RV feel less like a bubble and more like a home. The Perkins have been crisscrossing the country a number of times and funding their travels by Workamping along the way. They have sold Christmas trees, harvested sugar beets, shipped products ...

Today we will be talking with a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers park ranger about opportunities this summer at a project in northern New Mexico. Tyler Marye is a park ranger at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cochiti Lake Project near Pena Blanca, N.M., which is located between Santa Fe and Albuquerque and just a few miles off Interstate 25. Tyler is looking for paid gate attendants, and that involves greeting guests on arrival, opening and closing the gates, issuing permits, collecting fees, an...

Today’s show features an interview with a couple who have been RVing part time since 1994 and shifted to full time in 2016. Ron and Gerry Bays are from Castle Rock, Wash., but they got tired of the nearly-consistent rain in that part of the country and just decided to hit the road. They had already retired from Ron’s career as a barge crane operator for a chemical plant and decided to become Workampers. Their first assignment was a volunteer position at a state park, but they soon decided they...

This week’s show features an interview with a dog trainer who is planning to use his RV to travel throughout his market area to put on training seminars for pet owners. Dan Ross is a professional dog trainer from southern California who has been in business for six years. He has developed a way to communicate with dogs that has become second nature to him, and he shares that knowledge with other pet owners in hopes they’ll bond more closely with their own dogs. In fact, he specializes in worki...

Today, we’re going to address one of the most important questions people have when contemplating the Workamping lifestyle: Can we get health insurance and medical services on the road? The answer is yes, and my guest will explain how to do that. Where to get health insurance is one of the biggest questions many people have as they contemplate embracing the RV lifestyle. Many times, it is THE stumbling block holding people back from pursuing their dream of full-time travel. That’s not surprisin...

Today, I am going to talk with one of our friends at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about Workamping opportunities in central California. Emily Kohl is the park ranger for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project at Lake Sonoma, near Geyserville, Calif., which is about 25 miles north of Santa Rosa in the heart of wine country. She describes the property as a gem located at the end of dead-end road. Very few people venture that far down the road, but those who do are treated to a natural wond...

As we start a new year, today’s show will feature interviews with two Workamper employers. They are The Golf Club at Devil’s Tower and Geode Yoga Fitness. Lots of people are familiar with Devils Tower. It was America’s first officially-sanctioned national monument. Located in northeastern Wyoming, it was the focus of several Hollywood movies, like Close Encounters of a Third Kind. But, few people realize there is a first-class golf resort just a few miles away. The Golf Club at Devils Tower is...

For our last podcast of 2020, I will be interviewing Georgia residents who now do RV inspections full time. Mike and Donna Bender are both originally from Pennsylvania, but later had a farm in South Carolina. Then, they opted to do some traveling before settling down in the Atlanta area to make a career of inspecting and repairing RVs. Because they had one child on the east coast and another on the west, Mike and Donna saw full-time RVing as a way to see the country and maintain those importan...

This week’s show is rather special. In honor of our 100th podcast, Workamper News Executive Director Jody Anderson Duquette and her husband, Luke, Workamper News Technical Director, opted to record a special show to commemorate the milestone. Jody and Luke recall the key historical highlights of Workamper News that took place during the past 33 years since its founding in 1987 by Greg and Debbie Robus in the tiny town of Heber Springs, AR. Back in the late 1980s, Greg and Debbie were familiar ...

Today we are going to talk to a Workamper who was facing an empty nest when he and his wife decided to live out their travel dreams to become full-time RVers. Jason Weiner and his wife, Amanda, were at a crossroads after their daughter grew up and ventured out on her own. They were just going through the motions of going to work and coming back to a quiet house day after day. That time period also coincided with a realization that Jason had hit a career wall in the tech industry and he either n...

Today we are going to talk to an employer in the great state of New Hampshire who is looking for Workampers next summer to help out with his riverside campground. Andy Hoffman manages the Saco River Camping Area in the Mount Washington Valley region of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. It is located near Conway, N. H., and about 9 miles from the border with Maine. He describes the location as an outdoor-lover’s paradise in a gorgeous area of New England where people from around the world come t...

Today I am going to interview a couple who met on E-Harmony and discovered they shared a love for travel. Today, they are passionate about sharing the Workamping and RVing lifestyle with others. Kimberly Leal and Phil Gunder have been together for almost six years. They started full-time RVing about two and a half years ago with their two dogs and a cat in a 28-foot travel trailer. Kimberly grew up in Missouri, but Phil had already amassed a lot a travel experience due to his 22-year career in...

Today we are going to speak with a woman who just completed her first Workamping assignment and will describe the joys and challenges of that experience. Kary McElroy spent the summer working for the U.S. Forest Service at the Wild Plum Campground in the Tahoe National Forest. With 47 sites, the campground was considered a remote location, but with lots of trees along the banks of Haypress Creek. She was responsible for cleaning eight vault toilets every day and keeping track of reservation ca...

Today, I am going to interview a couple who runs a business from their RV helping other small business owners with their accounting needs and by serving as a virtual assistant. Former Boston residents Don and Pat Hawes have been RVing for about 25 years and traveling full time for five years in their Class C motorhome. They started Workamping before they even knew what it was by helping the owners of a campground they regularly visited with cooking or other tasks on busy weekends. After realiz...

Today, I am going to interview a man who has been full-time RVing for three years and Workamping almost the entire time, except when he and his wife take time to enjoy traveling. They enjoy the RV lifestyle so much that they launched a YouTube channel to help people experience the same adventures. Steve Turtle is from York, Pa. He and his wife, Loreen, live in a 34-foot travel trailer, which is 9 feet longer than the RV they started with. They needed the extra room to accommodate his wife’s sew...

Today we are going to speak with another experienced couple who has been full-time RVing and Workamping for almost four years. Chris and Barbara Kay are from the sunny state of Florida. They have been married for 36 years and raised three children. For the effort, they were rewarded with seven grandchildren. They started to imagine becoming full-time RVers while taking a cruise to Alaska. They had a great experience, but decided they just didn’t have enough time to see and do everything the st...