The Workamper Show Podcast

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, Ill., for most of their lives where they raised four children, who are all married and starting families of their own. The second couple, Robert and Jessica Weyman, is from Texas, and they are also planning to hit the road soon. Robert worked as a high school principle and Jessica worked as a dental hygienist.

Rendezvous is like a bootcamp for workampers. It packs a ton of essential information into a week’s worth of training to prepare people to launch on their journey as full-time RVers and workampers. But, all that information can still be overwhelming for people who don’t have RVs, but are just thinking about embracing the lifestyle. Steve Anderson will outline the new Dreamer’s Journey, an online training program that takes place over a 12-week period. It features 24 coaching sessions with an open forum discussion session each month where people can ask any question.

Jeff Parsons is the executive director of Bayshore 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. Bayshore hires workampers to help serve meals, manage the camp store and oversee the mini-golf course as well as help with mowing and landscape work. Workampers even help check campers in and out every week.

Bill Linsenmeyer is the owner of Your Best Address, a company ideally suited to support RVers and workampers. The company helps RVers set up residency in South Dakota, get a driver’s license, register their cars, register to vote and even handles all their mail while traveling.

Jill Sessa has certainly figured out how the system works and how to bypass years of banging her head against a wall trying to climb some corporate ladder only to retire when she’s too old to really enjoy the things she likes to do. Jill explains how she creates structure in her day in order to be able to see some amazing things and enjoy some incredible adventures, but also work the 15 to 20 hours a week necessary to maintain her business and lifestyle.

Guard 1 Services provides security to the oil industry by staffing gates through which trucks and oil workers pass every day. The firm pays at least $150 per day, and includes a full-hookup RV site. The company prefers to hire couples because the gate must be staffed 24 hours a day.

The first interview is with Clay Adams, a registered nurse/paramedic who is also a registered RV technician and Level 2 certified RV inspector. He describes his first assignment last year that turned out so well that he is headed back to Alaska again this summer. Bill and Becky Brown are dreamers who are counting the days until they are both retired. They talk about what attracts them to the workamping lifestyle and what they’re doing to prepare for the adventure.

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 company can offer full-time work, benefits for workampers and the opportunity to long-term projects in different parts of the country.

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. When she’s not traveling with her husband or family, Colleen likes to take part in activities organized by Sisters on the Fly, a group of women of all ages who like to get together for fly fishing, but also to do Dutch oven cooking, kayaking and just hanging out at the firepit.

Basecamp Hospitality is a National Forest Service contractor that manages 116 campgrounds within 2 million acres of forest land in Utah and 19 other states. SkyMed is a membership organization that promises to bring people home if they are sick or injured while traveling. Both firms offer opportunities to workampers.

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.

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. Their passion is to help people better understand how technology works in a basic sense, and how various apps can make their lives easier.