Episodes

Today we will talk with a campground manager who loves to have fun, especially with the help of a trio of bears. Desiree Schultz, or Ranger Dez as she prefers, is the manager of Yogi at Shangri-La, a family-friendly campground in Milton, Pa., which is just outside of Lewisberg and about an hour north of Harrisburg. The 191-site park boasts of a variety of amenities including a heated pool, splash pad, catch-and-release fishing, a recreation pavilion, bike rentals, a large group campfire and a ...

Today, we are going to talk with a doctor who has helped develop a new type of consumer-driven healthcare system that is ideally suited for people who live in their RVs full time. Dr. Tom Davis is the founder of TED Consulting, a company that helps other medical service providers transition into a direct pay system. He also helped develop WoW Health Solutions, a company based in Detroit that is not an insurance company, but rather a marketplace that allows healthcare providers to list their ser...

Today we will talk with the director of a living history museum in Maine that preserves equipment used to develop the state’s logging industry. Sherry Davis is the director of the Maine Forest and Logging Museum, which is located just outside of Bangor, Maine. She is looking for volunteer Workampers to live onsite and open the various buildings and staff the gift shop when the museum is open. They also help keep the grounds clean and in good shape. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, other volunteers ...

Darin Uselman is the vice president of franchise services for Kampgrounds of America, or KOA as the company is often referred. He helps campground owners by educating them on quality standards and KOA’s brand positioning. His team helps integrate new owners into the system, and provides education and training for KOA staff, which includes Workampers who attend KOA University Online. Almost every one of the 525 KOA campgrounds employ Workampers. For some campgrounds, Workampers are the only hel...

Today’s podcast discusses what may be one of the most lucrative short-term money-making jobs in the Workamping world. Alyssa Kaste is with Express Employment Professionals, and she hires hundreds of Workampers each year to help with the sugar beet harvest in Montana, Michigan and Minnesota. People work as samplers who collect and stack bags of sugar beets separated by machines. The firm also hires skilled workers to run the piler equipment as well as skid-steer loaders. Workampers are not wor...

Today we will talk with a group of folks from Texas who are looking for Workampers to help with their adventure campground near San Antonio. Mike and Melissa Cummings own Camp Riverview along the Frio River, which is a very popular destination for river tubing excursions. They are joined by Brian and Tina Bourgeois, who manage the camp. The campground is located in Concan, about 90 miles west of San Antonio, in the beautiful hill country of Texas. There are 75 campsites and 23 cabins to mainta...

Today we will be talking with a very special woman who runs an entire ministry from her motorhome to bring hope to parents after tragedy strikes. Laura Diehl is the author of When Tragedy Strikes, a book that relays her own painful experience of not only raising a handicapped child, but losing that child when she died at 29 years of age. Laura and her husband, Dave, founded GPS Hope, which stands for Grieving Parents Sharing Hope. By traveling the nation speaking at churches and conducting sem...

Today, we are going to talk with someone who knows a great deal about RVing in New England. Bob Zagami is a lifelong resident of New England. He has been a journalist covering the RV industry for decades. He is also the executive director of the New England RV Dealers Association and host of a weekly podcast called RVing in New England. Bob describes a number of fun and interesting things people can do and see in the New England area, both indoors and outside. He also talks about some Workampi...

Ben Souchek founded RV Real Estate Income, a company that developed virtual income opportunities in the real estate market in the Lincoln and Omaha, NE, areas. However, the work can be performed online from anywhere. The contractors do not need to be in Nebraska. Ben is looking for people who may be ready to put their homes on the market, but have not yet contracted with a realtor. So, he hires independent contractors to scour through public records and other documents assessable online to find...

Jim and Naomi Coleman are from Idaho and have been RVing pretty much their entire married life, but doing so full time for the past five years. Prior to that, they worked for a faith-based publishing house by operating a bookmobile that traveled from church to church for three months at a time. The bookmobile had sleeping quarters in it, and that’s how the Colemans realized they could enjoy the travel lifestyle full time. The couple had nine children and they would go camping on weekends in a ...

Today we are going to talk to some experienced RVers who are about to embrace the full-time RVing lifestyle. Julia and Carey Bryant are Texas residents and experienced RVers as weekend warriors in a 22-year-old motorhome without slideouts. Carey grew up in the RV and outdoor hospitality industry. His parents operated an RV dealership and campground in Abilene, Texas. Julia grew up tent camping, which is something she didn’t enjoy as a child. They really got the travel bug a few years ago when...

Today we’re interviewing a couple from Illinois who bought an RV and is in the process of downsizing before launching their adventure. Tim and Loretta Killian are RVers from Jacksonville, IL, which is just outside of St. Louis. They have a 28-foot fifth wheel that they use primarily for weekend trips. Loretta still works as a physical therapist and Tim is retired from the railroad. They purchased an older RV and then did some remodeling to better suit their tastes and lifestyle. Now they are i...

We have interviews today with two couples, both of whom are gathering information before they launch into the RV and Workamping lifestyle. My first guests are Tom and Mickey Ryerson. They are from San Antonio, Texas, where Tom works in building maintenance and Mickey works as a nurse. They are planning to retire in 2021 and are already preparing for that day. They recently ordered a 38-foot diesel motorhome and plan to pick it up this spring and then put their home on the market. This intervie...

Today’s show is going to be great because we’re talking to the woman who founded the Girl Camper movement. Janine Pettit loves to be outdoors and uses her RV to go wherever she’d like. She is married and sometimes goes RVing with her husband, but she also goes alone and has been doing so for many years. During her travels, she has encountered women who think that looks like so much fun, but they’re divorced or they’re widowed or they have a husband who’s a couch potato and has no interest in g...

Today, we are going to talk to three people – one experienced RVing couple and a woman who is investigating whether the full-time RVing lifestyle would be right for her and her husband. My first guests are Randy Lehnhoff and Marjory Snyder. Randy is from St. Louis and Marjory is from Effingham, IL. He was working as a truck driver for Walmart and that’s how the two met. They have been full-time RVing for more than seven years. When they first started traveling together, they would drive the tr...

Today’s show features two interviews. One with an experienced RVer with a big family, and the second with a couple who realized they don’t want to get in a situation where they are too old or too sick to do the things they have been dreaming about. The first interview is with Dave Meuer, a gentleman from Albuquerque who has been traveling for decades with his wife and six kids as they visited nearly 30 states. Now they have children and grandchildren scattered from Hawaii to the east coast of ...

Today, I’ll speak with two couples who are exploring the RV and Workamping lifestyle. My first guests are Ronnie and Marci Stacy, who are from Dayton, Ohio. They have been weekend warriors for quite a while, but plan to embrace full-time RVing this spring. Ronnie is a garage door installer and Marci oversees the transcription staff at a children’s hospital. They attended the 2019 Workamper Rendezvous in October to gather more information to develop a three-year plan for hitting the road. One...

Today we’re going to talk to the new director of the RV Safety and Education Foundation about things people can do to make their RV experience more enjoyable. Trey Selman is the executive director of the RV Safety and Education Foundation, an organization that teaches people how to operate their recreation vehicles safely and to follow weight guidelines. He describes the history of RVSEF and how he became involved with the group. RVSEF is a big proponent of getting motorhomes, fifth wheels an...

In today’s episode, we will feature several women who are embracing the RV and Workamping lifestyle with their husbands. When I interviewed her, Deborah Cole was already retired and waiting for her husband to follow her lead. They have been camping for years; first in a tent, and then in a popup before upgrading to a 27-foot travel trailer. Her husband is an international flight attendant based out of Memphis. While they do get to travel all over the world, when it comes to RVing, they have be...

Today we are going to talk with a couple who has been RVing and Workamping since 2005. Howard and Linda Payne are natives of Louisville, KY. They both worked professional jobs when, in 2005, they turned 42 and realized they wanted more freedom and flexibility in their lives. The motivation behind the move was interesting, as was the speed in which they embraced the change as everything fell into place. They bought an RV and hit the road in August of that year. Since then, they have worked nin...

Today we are going to speak with someone from North Texas Community College who is seeking several Workampers to help maintain the campus. Tom Ramler is the director of plant services at Northeast Texas Community College in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. It is a smaller college of about 3,000 students located about two hours east of Dallas and an hour west of Texarkana, TX. He hires Workampers to maintain the facility in a variety of different jobs. For example, they might do handyman repair in the dorm...

Today we are going to talk with a representative of a disaster relief organization that is looking for Workampers to help victims get their lives back in order. Jamie Allnutt is the program director for the RV Disaster Corps, an organization that sends groups of RVers to various disaster areas, but only after the initial cleanup is completed. These volunteers are not first responders. Rather, they are early responders who often arrive on the scene six to eight weeks after the initial impact, b...

Today we are going to talk with a National Park Service contractor who hires Workampers for a variety of jobs, especially at Glacier National Park in Montana. Xanterra Travel Collection is a travel and hospitality company that provides services to national parks and other popular destinations. As a whole, the company hires a bunch of Workampers every year. Mark Ducharme is the general manager overseeing the Xanterra operation at Glacier National Park. He is seeking Workampers to staff hotels, ...

Today, we will talk to a couple who was in the late stages of planning to launch their RV adventure when they attended the Workamper Rendezvous in October to solidify that plan. Chris and Bill Latimer are from California and have been camping much of their lives. Last year, they bought a 40-foot fifth wheel and started living in it as they downsized from a much bigger home. They were taking weekend trips to familiarize themselves with the RV and make sure everything was working as expected. Bi...