Because of the park’s sweeping ocean views and oak groves, it is a very popular location for weddings. But, weddings aren’t the only way people use the park. It has softball and soccer fields as well as a tennis center. The park is 230 acres in size, but only 90 acres are developed. That leaves lots of room for hiking and mountain biking trails. All 230 acres are designated as an off-leash dog park.

Clinton Young is a public speaker who addresses people around the country on the topic of having courage to live their dream life by overcoming doubt and fear to do some really big things. He is also a certified pickleball coach. Best of all, he operates his business from a 36-foot Holiday Rambler motorhome.

Being self-employed herself, Tricia works about 35 hours a week, but she can set her own hours and take time to join her husband and family on excursions. She loves the flexibility of being able to work with whomever she wants, whenever she wants and wherever she wants.

Today I am speaking with two people from a company in the Pacific northwest which will hire a bunch of Workampers to help with its sugar beet harvest this fall.

Aaron Firth is a district manager for Amalgamated Sugar, which has locations primarily in southern Idaho, but also in Washington State and Oregon. He oversees growing the beets, their harvest and delivering beets to factories.

He is joined by Taren Hutchinson, a human resources specialist, who is responsible for hiring people to fill all the roles involved in various aspects of sugar beet production.

Harvest is a time when the company experiences a real time crunch to extract beets from the ground, bag them up and get them into storage so they can be delivered to factories later and transformed into sugar products. During fall months, the staff more than doubles in size starting in early August and continuing through the middle of November.

Workampers generally get involved starting in late September for harvesting operations taking place in October. They are not involved in extracting beets from the ground. Rather, Workampers help with activity near piling equipment by controlling traffic in the area, cleaning up, and taking samples from every truck load of beets arriving at the facility. All of that work takes place outdoors and often during daylight hours.

Some Workampers are hired to help in a quality control lab that measures beet samples for sugar content and other parameters. All that work is done indoors, and the lab facility is operating around the clock.

It’s not difficult work, but it often requires a lot of standing. Workampers receive training for all the positions, but those who are applying with experience in harvesting operations tend to stand out. People who have experience operating skid steers and other heavy equipment are also needed.

This job is a way for Workampers to make some significant money relatively quickly. They generally average 60 hours of work per week by working 10- to 12-hour days Monday through Saturday. The minimum starting wage is $16.30 for the first 40 hours and overtime pay at time and a half after that.

Plus, if a Workamper has to drive more than 20 miles from their campsite to a piling station, the company gives them an additional 65 cents for every hour they work.

Amalgamated Sugar contracts with several campgrounds near their facilities to provide free full-hookup sites for Workampers. Some of the campgrounds will even fill an RV’s propane tanks while the Workamper is on the job. RVers pay for the propane, of course, but they don’t have to worry about working a full day and then trying to figure out how to fill their tanks when they get back to the RV.

The company typically hires 30 Workampers every year, but it’s an especially tight labor market this year, so they may need to hire even more. Amalgamated Sugar is hiring right now for jobs starting in late September that will wrap up by the middle of November. However, the company has some flexibility to accommodate Workampers who may need to arrive a bit later or leave a bit earlier.

The area around Paul, Idaho, may appear to be isolated on a map, but there is a Walmart and other stores a few minutes away in Burley, Idaho, and even more options 30 miles away in Twin Falls. Both Boise, Idaho, and Salt Lake City, Utah are about two and a half hours away.

The area is well-known for its fishing and hiking. Craters of the Moon National Park is within driving distance.

For more information about the job or Amalgamated Sugar, visit amalsugar.com. To apply for one of the Workamper positions, email [email protected].

This week I will be speaking with a man who is involved in the Habitat For Humanity RV Care-A-Vanners group. Their members travel in nearly every state helping to build lower-cost homes which people later buy.

Daniel Banks and his wife started building homes for Habitat For Humanity on weekends in 1993. They have been doing it as full-time RVers since they retired from their day jobs in 2008. They usually participate in two dozen home builds every year.

He said that one of the most popular misconceptions about Habitat For Humanity is that the group builds homes only to give them away. That’s not true because people buy them at cost, but the cost is considerably lower than conventionally-built homes simply because most of the labor to build them is donated.

The cost for some of the materials used in construction may be covered by corporate partners or donated by local businesses. Many times, homebuyers also qualify for an interest-free mortgage. But, in all cases, the homes are sold, not given away, to private buyers.

To be eligible to buy a Habitat For Humanity home, people go through an application process where they not only demonstrate a need for a low-cost home, but must also prove they have the means to make monthly payments. The money generated from those payments is used to buy supplies to build other homes in a process of paying it forward.

Daniel said there are 1,200 Habitat For Humanity affiliates in the United States in communities of all sizes. While groups in larger cities often don’t have any problem attracting volunteers to build homes, the RV Care-A-Vanners make a big difference by bringing volunteer labor to smaller communities.

RVers can visit the Care-A-Vanners website to see all the upcoming projects and the length of commitment needed to participate. Volunteers can sign up to work on any project anywhere as long as they are capable of honoring that commitment. The projects are short-term in nature where help is needed for a week or up to a month.

Many Care-A-Vanners are full-time RVers who take advantage of the free or low-cost RV sites volunteers receive for participating in the project. A few of the affiliate sites build so many homes that they have a continual need for volunteers, so they develop their own RV park to accommodate them.

Some volunteers stay in one area for a while so they can participate in multiple home builds. It’s a good way to reduce RV expenses while still enjoying an opportunity to explore the area.

The Care-A-Vanners program was developed to appeal specifically to Workampers who enjoy working short-term gigs and moving on to other jobs or activities. Tools are provided for volunteers to use, although they are allowed to use their own tools as long as they are OSHA-approved.

Volunteers don’t have to be experienced in any trade. They just show up at a scheduled job site and they’ll be trained on what to do and how to do it. Yet, Daniel said people can learn valuable skills that they can later apply to a variety of maintenance and building projects of their own.

This is not a type of Extreme Makeover situation where a house is built from start to finish in a few days. The projects take weeks to complete. However, there are various stages in the building process where volunteers are needed to do specific things, and they can volunteer to help with only those stages. For example, some Care-A-Vanners may be used to frame a house and erect walls, while others will be used to shingle roofs and paint walls.

At most projects, Care-A-Vanners put in six-hour days for five days, then take a few days off and start all over again. In disaster areas, people may work longer hours and more days just because of the tremendous pressure to build homes. However, most projects are not as time sensitive.

Today I am speaking with a woman who operates a business from her RV to help other people capture and preserve their photographs and memories in a way they can’t be lost.

Brenda Esdohr is the owner of PreseRVing Memory Lane. She and her husband started RVing fulltime earlier this year. It is something they have been planning for a while, and it was the process of downsizing that opened Brenda’s eyes to a new business idea.

She had boxes of photos, albums and videos they would not easily be able to take with them on the road. She didn’t want to leave them in storage because all it would take is one flood, tornado or extended period of high heat to destroy the memories forever.

It’s important to maintain those memories not just for her enjoyment, but for generations of people who follow and may want to view things like their wedding pictures or a video someday.

Brenda discovered preserving memories was a common pain point among RVers. She developed a system that not only captures the image, but also allows people to explain more about a photo, such as who is in it, what they were doing and why the moment was significant.

Anyone who has had to contend with an estate knows how frustrating and overwhelming it can be to discover boxes of photos and not know anything about them, like who the people are or where they were taken.

It’s a problem that goes beyond boxes of old photos. What are people supposed to do with the thousands of digital images they have stored on their phones and computers that can disappear in an instant with a hard drive failure or an accidental click of a button?

The beauty of Brenda’s business is that, once captured, the images, videos and memories are retained in cloud storage forever. They can also be distributed to other friends and family members so multiple copies of important photos are preserved, such as great grandpa and grandma’s wedding photos.

It’s a different system from Google photos in that Brenda’s company doesn’t own the images, nor will it use artificial intelligence to scan the images for data-mining purposes just to display more advertisements or to sell people more stuff. The images belong to the customer.

The couple runs their business from a 37-foot fifth wheel. It technically had three bedrooms and two full baths which were ideally designed for a family to use. However, Brenda and her husband converted both bunkrooms into office space. That will make it easy to work while traveling to visit their 22 grandchildren.

Brenda lost her first husband in a drowning accident in 1991. So she and her current husband made a conscious decision to start full-time RVing in their late 40s on the outside chance they didn’t reach 50. Brenda realizes growing old is not a privilege everyone gets to enjoy. Waiting until the ideal time to start something, like RVing, is risky because life may intervene and thwart those plans.

For more information about PreseRVing Memory Lane or to connect with Brenda, visit www.preservingmemorylane.org, email [email protected] or call her at 641-757-7809.

Today's episode is sponsored by The Dreamer’s Journey, it is an online course and community produced by Workamper News. Life is way too short to keep your dreams on hold, so don’t be held back by fear because you were designed for more!  Get started in the RV lifestyle the right way with this comprehensive guide.

For just $29.95 for one year of access, Dreamers have unlimited viewing of 50-plus videos to learn things like what type of RV to buy, goal setting, how to budget for the adventure, developing a positive mindset,

Today I am interviewing a man who owns several bed and breakfast inns in Arkansas. He hires Workampers to help serve guests and maintain the properties.

Chris Smith has owned the Wildflower Bed and Breakfast in Mountain View, Ark., for seven years. He recently purchased another property, the Ozark Country Inn, which is a few blocks away from the Wildflower. Chris also operates a small music venue on one of his properties where he hosts shows and concerts.

Mountain View is two hours south of Branson, Mo., and two hours north of Little Rock, Ark. It’s right in the middle of the Ozark Mountains. Chris says people need to be intentional about visiting the community because it is not near any major highways. Yet, thousands of people flock to the city every year because it’s known as the Folk Music Capital of the World.

Last year, Chris created an RV site at the Wildflower specifically for Workampers to use. Since then, he and his wife have employed four Workampers. It worked so well that they now use a Workamper at each property. Typically, solo Workampers are hired, but Chris will consider couples, too, and families with teenage children.

His Workampers help with housekeeping, kitchen clean up, taking reservations and checking in guests. They are also involved in the music events by selling concessions.

The properties aren’t very large. There are eight rooms at the Wildflower plus two cottages. The Ozark features six rooms and a small house for the full-time innkeeper.

Workampers usually work from Thursday to Monday. They may put in six-hour shifts most days and up to eight hours a day on busy weekends. Kitchen cleanup often requires two hours of time, and housekeeping tasks may take three to four hours, depending upon how many guests are departing that day.

The first 15 hours of work every week is used to cover expenses for the Workamper’s full-hookup RV site, which includes broadband wireless plus breakfast on days they are working. Then Workampers are paid $12 per hour for every hour beyond 15 hours per week. Chris and his wife often treat his staff to dinner every week or two and Workampers also receive free tickets to the Ozark Folk Center State Park.

If they like to cook, Workampers can help prepare breakfast, but it’s not required. The beauty of staying at those type of facilities is that the breakfasts are often made from scratch. They are much higher-end meals than guests at hotels generally receive.

The season typically runs from March through November. Chris is not looking for Workampers at the moment, but there may be a position available this fall. He is currently interviewing people to start work in March 2023.

There are no special skills or qualifications required to work at either facility. All Workampers are expected to help clean rooms and the kitchen. They should be friendly and sociable because bed and breakfast inns typically attract people who love to socialize with other guests.

Workampers will need to be able to use a computer to use the reservations software. If they have special skills, like maintenance or handyman services, Workampers may be able to use those skills on special projects.

People who are interested in applying for the job can simply call Chris at 870-269-4383. He will schedule a Zoom interview to answer questions and evaluate how well the Workamper interacts. He will also check references. To really stand out as an applicant, Workampers can stress their cleaning ability, eye for detail and desire to interact with others.

There are plenty of things for people to do in the Mountain View area, including music concerts which take place almost every day somewhere in the city. The region is popular for its hiking, fishing, horseback riding, kayaking and canoeing.  When they are not working,

This week I am interviewing a woman who gets to travel around the country interviewing RV industry professionals and working up feature stories about them for a major RV industry news publication.

Niki Benedict was an event planner until the COVID debacle put an end to all in-person meetings. After her job was eliminated, she found work for a company that performed data analytics for the automotive industry. That required working entirely on a computer from home, and since people weren’t supposed to do anything but sit home for months on end, Niki had a lot of extra time to surf the internet.

She eventually stumbled upon some online resources describing the concept of RV living, which Niki didn’t know existed. She connected with a few Workampers and, eventually, bought a Class C motorhome so she could travel easily with her dog.

But, before she even put the motorhome into drive, she signaled her intention on LinkedIn and connected with one of the owners of RV Business who invited Niki to work for them on a new project to interview RV dealers, campground owners and other industry professionals on location. She would also attend various events.

She moved into her 24-foot motorhome in March of 2021 and hit the road a few months later. She’s already had the opportunity to visit many new places and fell in love with Bozeman, Mont. This year, Niki is planning to spend time in Florida so she can help her parents transition into the RV lifestyle themselves.

Ideally, Niki likes to spend about three to five days in a new location before moving on. She likes to drive because it gives her an opportunity to think, dream and plan other things she’d like to do. Yet, she’s not opposed to spending more time in a location she finds intriguing just to learn more about the culture and area. For example, she planned to spend just a few weeks in Arizona and wound up touring the state for several months.

In addition to her work at RV Business, Niki also hosts her own social media channels and even hosts a Hump Day Happy Hour live on Instagram every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time. For that, she shares other RVers’ stories about why they jumped into the RV lifestyle and the types of things they like to do while traveling.

Niki has already faced some pretty significant challenges, such as having to replace her slideout, which required her to be out of her RV for three months. She also learned a valuable lesson about the need to make advance reservations when traveling to popular tourist destinations.

Of all the lessons Niki has learned, one of the biggest is not to be afraid to ask other RVers for help when she needs it. She had spent a lot of time scouring the internet for solutions to some problems she experienced, when simply asking someone for advice and help would have saved her a lot of time.

Niki has made a lot of friends among younger RVers as a member of the Escapee’s Club’s Xscapers group. She is also an active participant in several Facebook groups for RVers.

One of the most frequent questions she hears is what is it like traveling the country on her own as a young woman. It’s a concern many of her friends and family members shared. However, by being aware of her surroundings and using good judgement, Niki said she feels safe – especially with an overly-protective dog as a roommate.

The freedom offered through the RV lifestyle is the biggest benefit for Niki. She enjoys selecting a destination and then just heading out. If she finds out the area wasn’t what she expected it to be, she simply moves to another location.

Niki’s biggest piece of advice to new RVers is not to buy accessory items until they know for sure they are needed. She spent a lot of money buying things other people told her she would consider essential to RV travel; however,

Today, I am going to speak with a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ranger about Workamping opportunities in south-central Massachusetts.

Angela Erskine works at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project at Buffumville Lake and Hodges Village Dam, which is located in south-central Massachusetts, just a few miles from the Connecticut border. The 483-acre Buffumville recreation area includes a day-use park with a boat ramp and 300 feet of shoreline used as a warm water beach. There are also five fishing platforms and 7 miles of hiking trails near the lake.

The adjacent Hodges Village Dam features 963 acres of recreation space along the colder water lake. It offers 22 miles of hiking trails as well as canoe and kayak launch sites. Disc golf is available at both locations.

The project is located 7 minutes from Oxford and 50 miles southwest of Boston, which means there is plenty of opportunity to enjoy a quiet, natural respite not too far from one of the largest, most historic cities in America.

Workampers are needed to help perform maintenance on hiking trails, pick up trash, greet guests, keep the facilities clean and generally ensure people are able to have a good time. They might do some light mowing, repair stairs or painting.

There are no camping facilities at either location, so Workampers typically serve as extra eyes and ears to help rangers ensure the park operates smoothly.

Angela said a big portion of a Workamper’s duties involve keeping visitors safe by reminding them of rules pertaining to life jackets, and of the need to keep hydrated while using the lakes. Workampers are not involved in any law enforcement-type activities. If a situation arises where that kind of help is needed, Workampers simply call rangers and ask them to get involved.

The positions are volunteer and seasonal in nature. The parks are typically open the second weekend in May through the second weekend in September, which coincides with school schedules. Most of the visitors to the parks are families with children.

Workampers are required to work at least 20 hours a week per person and generally be on duty during weekends when the park is busiest, but there is some scheduling flexibility. Workampers receive a free full-hookup RV site in exchange for their time, as well as a golf cart they get to keep on site and use when working.

There aren’t any specific skills needed to do the job other than a love for being outdoors and working with the public. Angela said rangers work with Workampers to assign them jobs they’re skilled at performing, whether it’s light construction, landscaping or interacting with visitors.

From time-to-time, Workampers may get involved in interpretive programming, such as helping with presentations or nature walks.

The application process is as simple as contacting Angela to express an interest in working at the project. Then she will schedule a call to provide more information about the project, answer questions and see if it would be a good fit for the Workampers.

Being a federal operation, all Workampers are required to go through a background check, which includes being fingerprinted. If they will be required to operate government vehicles, then Workampers will have to take defensive driving and safety training classes.

Although it is a volunteer position, it lets Workampers stay in a very popular part of the country for free. There are plenty of historical sites to visit in Boston, Salem, Martha’s Vineyard and Springfield. It’s a quick drive to Providence, Rhode Island, and Hartford, Conn. It’s super easy to take a train from New Haven, Conn., to New York City. Or, people can enjoy a scenic drive into Maine.

If you’re interested in Revolutionary War or colonial history, there are plenty of places to visit within a few ...

Today I will be speaking with a full-time RVer who is a certified RV technician, but opted to specialize in a very unique niche – cleaning RV waste tanks – and she makes a very good living doing that.

Sue Rasmussen has been living full-time in her Airstream travel trailer for more than six years. She started as a personal coach helping clients to unclutter and simplify their lives. In fact, for about 24 years, she helped women and business owners who were feeling overwhelmed to help them streamline many of their activities so they had more control over their time.

Originally from Minnesota, it was easy for Sue to transition her business to a travel lifestyle because most of her coaching sessions took place online before COVID made Zoom popular.

After a few years of RVing, Sue opted to attend the National RV Training Academy to learn how to take better care of her own RV and to fix most of the things that went wrong with it. As Sue attended classes, she realized there was big demand for technician services, so she opted to complete all the advanced training to become a certified RV technician.

During class, she identified a way to simplify being a technician by focusing her efforts on one particularly troublesome area – flushing RV tanks. It’s a problem that impacts all RVers at some point, especially full-time RVers. Using a hydrojet, she thoroughly cleans black and gray tanks that are either backed up or displaying faulty sensor readings.

She also gets referrals from local RV technicians who despise that type of work. Because Sue invested in the right equipment, she can do the job quickly and efficiently. She describes how she cleans the tanks and the type of equipment used to do the work.

Although she lives in an RV full-time, Sue is not a full-time traveler. She picks an area to visit, then stays there for six months to a year to fully immerse herself in the culture and experience all that region has to offer.

Although she enjoyed being a Minnesota resident, Sue started RVing because she wanted to experience different cultures and travel to new places. One of her favorite experiences enabled Sue to live on the edge of a lake in Florida where she watched alligators and sandhill cranes every day.

Even though Sue has had just one traditional Workamping job, she has met many Workampers over the years and highly recommends the lifestyle to anyone contemplating travel, but concerned about how to fund it. She liked her Workamping job because it gave her behind-the-scenes access to the RV park and let her meet many new people.

But, when Sue decided to specialize in RV tank cleaning, she really liked that work, too, because she provides an important service needed by all RVers. When people see what comes out of their holding tanks, Sue’s customers are even more grateful for the work she does.

I love Sue’s example because she found a niche to provide a service everyone needs, but few have the desire to offer. She is rewarded for her effort because people are willing to pay her well to take care of a problem nobody else wants to touch. Sue earns $250 to flush a gray and black tank, and another $75 for each additional tank, if necessary.

It’s not glamorous, but it is a viable, mobile business that Sue can do anywhere she wants to travel. Campgrounds appreciate Sue because she doesn’t use any bacteria-killing chemicals to clean the tanks, which means she’s not hurting the RV park’s septic system.

I also love the very imaginative name she gave her business – Royal Flush RV Services. You can connect with Sue and learn more about her business by visiting www.royalflushrv.com.

Today's episode is sponsored by The Dreamer’s Journey,