Episodes

Tim Martin is a sales representative for Kitchen Craft, a company based out of West Bend, WI, that produces cookware of all types and sells it at big events like RV rallies, fairs and campgrounds. He travels with his wife and two daughters doing live cooking shows around the country demonstrating how people can make meals in their RVs and how Kitchen Craft products can make it easier to do the job. The waterless cookware steams food to help maintain more nutritional value. Tim explains what m...

Thank you, Steve. Today we will talk with two couples – one of which are experienced Workampers and the other which is still in the dreaming stage. Johnny & Tracy Bercegeay are from Louisiana and they have been full-time RVing for a little more than two years. They are nowhere near retirement age, and their only source of income is their ability to do seasonal jobs as they crisscross the country. Their first job was managing a restaurant at an RV resort in the Black Hills of South Dakota, whic...

Today’s episode will feature an interview with an employer who is looking for Workampers to serve as camp hosts in various parts of the country. Kyley Moody is with American Land and Leisure, a recreational property management company that serves as a concessionaire for the U.S. Forest Service. The firm also oversees campgrounds in California state parks as well as those owned by utility companies. A few of the campgrounds are located in Florida. He explains some of the tasks the Workampers do...

Today we are going to talk with two couples who are active dreamers in that they are gathering information and developing a plan to hit the road on adventure. Dennis and Tracie Utley have lived in Peoria, IL, for most of their lives where they raised four children, who are all married and starting families of their own. The Utleys have entered a phase in their lives where they want to embrace RVing and the Workamping lifestyle. Retirement is still a few years away, but they are actively inves...

We have a special edition of The Workamper Show for you today in which Workamper News President Steve Anderson unveils a brand-new program designed to help people who are just starting to explore the RV and Workamping lifestyle. I know Steve has been looking forward to sharing details of this new program for many months. He mentioned the idea to me at last year’s Workamper Rendezvous, and the staff has been working on making the vision a reality ever since. Rendezvous is like a bootcamp for Wo...

Today we are going to talk to someone who runs a Christian summer camp in Michigan and hires Workampers to help ensure his own guests remain happy campers. Jeff Parsons is the executive director of Bay Shore Camp and Family Ministries, which is located along the shores of Lake Huron, about two hours north of Detroit in the thumb of lower Michigan. The camp has been in operation for more than 100 years and serves adults all year, and caters to children and families during the summer months. Ba...

Today we are going to talk with a company that helps RVers set up residency in South Dakota, get a driver’s license, register their cars, register to vote and even handle all their mail while traveling. Bill Linsenmeyer is the owner of Your Best Address, a company based out of South Dakota that is ideally suited to support RVers and workampers. People set up accounts with Your Best Address to have all their mail forwarded to that location in South Dakota. From there, the company sorts it and s...

Today we are going to talk with a woman who loves adventure and runs a business from her RV wherever she wants to visit. Jill Sessa launched an adventure eight years ago when she traveled around on a bicycle and stayed in hotels. Then, a little over seven years ago, she bought an RV. Although she still loves biking, she has also added an inflatable boat to her equipment list. She’ll take advantage of any excuse to get out on the water, especially if it involves paddling and interacting with ma...

Today, we’re going to look at a full-time workamping job as an oil field gate guard. Guard 1 Services provides security to the oil industry by staffing gates through which trucks and oil workers pass every day. The company has hired workampers for many years to staff those gates and control entry into and out of the oil fields, primarily in Texas. I’ll be talking to James Jenkins, the recruiting coordinator from Guard 1 Services. The company staffs 100 gates with workampers who typically stay ...

Today’s episode will feature two interviews recorded at the Workamper Rendezvous a few months ago in Heber Springs, Ark. My first interview is with Clay Adams, who lives near Austin, Texas. He had been a registered nurse/paramedic for many years until he was caught up in some downsizing. In looking for a new job, Clay wound up transporting RVs from manufacturing plants in Indiana up to Alaska. During those long drives, he listened to podcasts and learned about workamping, so he decided to give...

Today we are going to talk about a great workamper opportunity, especially for younger folks who are still looking for full-time work with the ability to travel throughout the country. Eric Reed is the vice president of human resources for Southern Cross, a firm that contracts with utility companies throughout America to help detect natural gas leaks in pipelines. The workers walk along roads and property with a sophisticated sniffer and record their findings on a laptop. The utility companies...

Today’s episode will feature an interview with a woman who RVs with her husband, but also likes to enjoy adventures on her own with a popular women’s group. Colleen Iund has been camping for 62 years. Her family started an RV dealership selling towables back in 1959, but her family was camping in tents for several years before that. She likes travel trailers and is looking to upgrade to a larger towable, but isn’t looking at a bigger fifth wheel. She’s also looking at ways to make the travel t...

In today’s show, we’re going to talk about two companies that hire workampers, one of which that offers a plan to help any RVers if they get sick or injured on the road and need to get home or to a hospital. Basecamp Hospitality is a National Forest Service contractor that manages 116 campgrounds within 2 million acres of forest land in Utah. We’ll talk with Steve Murphy and Nick Smith, who describe the company’s workamping program that gives workampers not only a free campsite with full hooku...

Today’s show will feature interviews with two workampers. Marcia Mercer has been a solo RVer, and Walter Meckley is a life-long handyman who is preparing to embrace the workamping lifestyle with his wife, Charlotte. Marcia has been RVing on her own and workamping for seven years. The Michigan native had a dream to see America as far back as high school, and eventually decided to make it a reality. She talks about some of the fun experiences she has enjoyed and the people she has met along the...

Today we are going to talk with a couple of heavy-duty geeks who make a good living on the road helping others better understand technology and use it to their advantage. Chris and Jim Guld are the owners of Geeks on Tour, a company they started in 2003. They were full-time RVers for 14 years, and recently downgraded to a Class B motorhome. They now spend 50 percent of the year on the road meeting people at rallies and other events. The Gulds bought one of the first IBM personal computers off ...

Robbin Beach has been RVing with her husband, Dennis, full time for two years. They had used an RV on weekends and while on vacation for four years before deciding to venture out year-round in their 40-foot Winnebago diesel pusher. One of her big motivators for full-time RVing was to visit friends and family they hadn’t seen in quite a while. It was too difficult to fly in for a day or two only to leave again right away. They wanted to spend some quality time connecting with people they care ab...

Today’s episode will feature interviews with two companies that employ workampers. One is Whiterock Conservancy, an outdoor recreation area in Iowa, and the other is with Good Sam, a company that evaluates campgrounds and RV parks across the country. Our first interview is with Daniel Gudahl, the executive director of Whiterock Conservancy, a 5,500-acre nature preserve west of Des Moines, Iowa. It features 40 miles of trails for mountain biking, hiking and horseback riding. Workampers help man...

Today’s podcast features interviews with some pretty incredible youngsters who are growing up RVing with their families. One of them now lives in an RV park managed by her parents. I bumped into 15-year-old Raylea Willey at the 2019 Workamper Rendezvous in October, and I met 10-year-old Maddie Karnes while visiting the National RV Training Academy the week before Rendezvous. Raylea lives at the Texan RV Park in Athens, Texas. Her mother, Stephanie, is the administrator of the academy, and her ...

Editor’s note: The original podcast recording was somehow damaged when it was uploaded and the interview abruptly ended at 9 minutes and 40 seconds. That has been corrected and the full 25 minute interview in now include in this episode. We apologize for the confusion. Jerri Burrell started RVing with her mother and stepfather in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in her late teens. She continued RVing when she moved to California 30 years ago. This summer, after her daughter graduated from high school, Jerri...

Today’s episode will feature interviews with two more employers who participated in the 2019 Workamper Rendezvous. For our first interview today, we’ll speak with Jo Brooks, the human resources recruiter, and Jessica Norton, a human resources specialist, at Silver Dollar City, which is a theme park and water park in Branson, Mo. The site offers 40 rides and attractions, 18 restaurants and 60 retail centers plus a campground, most of which are staffed with workampers. The workampers are hired ...

We’ve all heard the saying that you are as young as you feel. Today we’re going to talk with a woman who started RVing and Workamping when she was 73 years old. Barbara Alpher has enjoyed camping much of her life, but always in tents. When her mother died in 2013, she made a decision that changed her life. She bought a travel trailer and hit the road seeking adventure. The remarkable thing is that Barbara was 73 years old at the time. She is spending this winter in southwest Arizona working at...

This episode features two shorter employer interviews for Wall Drug and Aramark. First up is Anne Spotted Bear, the human resources director for Wall Drug, which is one of the country’s most well-known tourist attractions. Anyone who has done any amount of traveling in the western states has likely heard of Wall Drug. The company has billboards everywhere promoting it as a travel stop. It started as a simple drug store, but exploded into a landmark by simply offering cross-country travelers f...

A lot of people seek to become workampers when they decide to pursue the RV lifestyle. But, some people start businesses while others figure out ways to bring a current business with them. Eric and Tami Johnson opted to buy an existing business, and use that to finance their travel dreams. They still qualify as workampers because they are living and working from their RVs. They explain why buying an existing business was the best choice for them because they knew it would provide cash flow fro...

What do salespeople do when they want to slow down, but still have the drive and skill to succeed in sales? We’ll talk to a workamper employer who is looking for people who are experienced in sales and marketing to work short-term assignments around the country. Our guest today is Brian McGuinn, the director of business development for Southeast Publications, a company based in Deerfield Beach, Fla. The firm produces guides that are distributed free to people when they check into campgrounds a...