For Nancy and Jerry Langer, volunteering is second nature. While raising five children, each worked with Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts. Nancy was a Big Sister and served as a trustee at a Community College. She is certified in Red Cross Standard First Aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and automated external defibrillator (AED) for the Professional Rescuer. Jerry volunteered on the fire department in their hometown, Rochester, New York.
“We work for hats and tee-shirts,” Jerry Langer says. He explains that, although they are not adverse to receiving wages, they basically are not Workamping to earn money. “We are lifelong learners and we seek positions that utilize the skills and talents we honed in traditional jobs. We look for a reason to be in places we want to explore. And we like the idea of giving back to federal lands such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.”
“The magazine became a motivational tool for me,” the vibrant young RVer states. “But the premature death of my mother in 2003 gave me the final push. She was my best friend and we often camped together in the pop-up trailer I had bought. That little camper was worth every dime!”
For almost a decade, Natalie Barrow longed to run away, going at will from Point A to Point B, paying her way at different jobs. “I always thought of it as bumming around,” she says, flashing her contagious smile. “And then I discovered Workamper News and said, ‘Oh, there’s a name for it!’
One hot Sunday afternoon, Dorothy came up with the idea of offering free ice water to travelers. With quips modeled after the Burma Shave advertisements, they hammered homemade signs along the road that tracked near their town. "Get a soda . . . Get a root beer . . . turn next corner . . . Just as near . . . To Highway 16 & 14. . . Free Ice Water. . . Wall Drug."
Back in 1936, Ted and Dorothy Hustead spent many hours looking out the window of their storefront to a two-lane South Dakota highway. The young entrepreneurs wondered how to attract some of the highway’s travelers to their soda fountain and pharmacy in the tiny town of Wall. Located on the edge of what was then the Badlands National Monument, Wall boasted a population of 326 farmers, most of them poor and reaping the devastation of the nation’s dust bowl days.
As part of their plan for early retirement, the Berrys sold their house 10 years prior to their target date and moved into a manufactured home, cutting their house payment by two-thirds. Two years before leaving their jobs, Vicki in research and development at the healthcare company and James in advertising sales for Gannett Publishing, they moved into their fifth-wheel.
On the day in 2004 when Vicki Berry retired from Cardinal Health, Inc. in El Paso, Texas, James picked her up, pulling their fifth-wheel behind their truck. They drove away on their full-time adventure and never looked back!
“The earnings and amenities are a bonus that defrays our living expenses,” Richard says. “But meeting folks, keeping in touch via e-mail, and then meeting again as we travel to another place is the most fulfilling part.”
Reta Averill’s RVing parents gave her and her husband, Richard, the idea for taking to America’s roads in retirement. Their plan for Workamping came from their goal to get to know the people and customs of particular areas of the United States.
They found their 1989 Wanderlodge Bluebird, and bought it two years prior to the sale of their Minnesota home and their ultimate retirement. “Basically, we have a house that drives down the road,” Patti says. “We had to do maintenance on our house built in 1929, and we have to maintain our coach.” Seven feline traveling companions are their first priority. “We didn’t want slide-outs because everytime we roll, we don’t want to take census to make sure one is not caught in a sliding room,” she continues.
Ken and Patti Marsh are planners. “For four years, we researched the RVing lifestyle,” Patti says. “Since we are drawn to old houses, we were drawn to a vintage coach.”
Although Mike had retired from the United States Postal Service as a rural mail carrier, and Jeanie retired in 2007 as office manager of an orthopedic surgery clinic, they had essentially been Iowa farmers for thirty-two years. “We know farming,” Joanie says, noting they had listed their expertise on their Awesome Applicant Resume at Workamper News.
Early one morning in March 2008, Mike and Joanie McMains received a call from a volunteer coordinator at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in San Antonio, New Mexico. “We need farmers,” Mary Lou Jorn said over the phone.
Following high school graduation, he swallowed his fear and hopped a Greyhound bus to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, carrying $500 borrowed from the Fort Lauderdale Ladies’ Aid Society in his pocket. “I enrolled at Bowman Technical School, one of only two schools for hand jewelry engraving in the United States, found a job at a gas station, and a place to live,” he recalls.“I worked nights and set a record by finishing the school’s eight-month self-advancement course in two and a half months. I had no money, so I had to get going!”
Growing up in the Everglades west of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Bill Mains found his calling at age 16—and he’s never looked back. After apprenticing as a goldsmith and a watchmaker before the age of 18, he listened to people in the jewelry trade speak reverently about two hand engravers—Mr. Miller and Mr. Dongees. “That’s what I want to be,” he said.
The registered title WorkCamper with a “C” adds another dimension and identifies RVers who volunteer for charitable organizations. Under this WorkCamper umbrella, some organizations, such as Habitat, are humanitarian, while others support a Christian mission.
Traveling around the country and talking to RVers who are on the job, I frequently hear, “We’re not Workampers. We don’t subscribe.” Some will say: “We’re not Workamping; we’re volunteering.” The fact is that many RVers do not understand the definition of the registered name “Workamper,” which encompasses all individuals who live and travel full-time or part-time in an RV and work for wages or volunteer full-time or part-time.
No television, no cell phones, no radio, and no newspapers. At our campsite—the only campground in the park run by a concessioner—we were over 100 desolate miles from a shopping mall or medical services. We opted for full hookups—and a limited Internet link to the outside world. At our nation's most lightly visited national park, we sought Workampers who had discovered this remote 800,000 acres separated from Mexico by the Rio Grande River.
"Stop the world. I want to get off!” For those who have uttered those words, Big Bend National Park is the “getting off” place. On a January day, Lee and I rolled our motorhome wheels off the edge of the earth—at least, off the bottom of the United States. From Persimmon Gap Visitor Center, the entrance to Big Bend, we followed a newly surfaced two-lane road past Panther Junction to Rio Grande Village.
“We work for hats and tee-shirts,” Jerry Langer says. He explains that, although they are not adverse to receiving wages, they basically are not Workamping to earn money. “We are lifelong learners and we seek positions that utilize the skills and talents we honed in traditional jobs. We look for a reason to be in places we want to explore. And we like the idea of giving back to federal lands such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.”
For almost a decade, Natalie Barrow longed to run away, going at will from Point A to Point B, paying her way at different jobs. “I always thought of it as bumming around,” she says, flashing her contagious smile. “And then I discovered Workamper News and said, ‘Oh, there’s a name for it!’
Back in 1936, Ted and Dorothy Hustead spent many hours looking out the window of their storefront to a two-lane South Dakota highway. The young entrepreneurs wondered how to attract some of the highway’s travelers to their soda fountain and pharmacy in the tiny town of Wall. Located on the edge of what was then the Badlands National Monument, Wall boasted a population of 326 farmers, most of them poor and reaping the devastation of the nation’s dust bowl days.
On the day in 2004 when Vicki Berry retired from Cardinal Health, Inc. in El Paso, Texas, James picked her up, pulling their fifth-wheel behind their truck. They drove away on their full-time adventure and never looked back!
Ken and Patti Marsh are planners. “For four years, we researched the RVing lifestyle,” Patti says. “Since we are drawn to old houses, we were drawn to a vintage coach.”
Early one morning in March 2008, Mike and Joanie McMains received a call from a volunteer coordinator at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in San Antonio, New Mexico. “We need farmers,” Mary Lou Jorn said over the phone.
Growing up in the Everglades west of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Bill Mains found his calling at age 16—and he’s never looked back. After apprenticing as a goldsmith and a watchmaker before the age of 18, he listened to people in the jewelry trade speak reverently about two hand engravers—Mr. Miller and Mr. Dongees. “That’s what I want to be,” he said.
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