ARE YOU RETIRED? DO YOU HAVE A LOT OF MONEY SAVED UP?
Unfortunately, no and no.
THEN HOW WILL YOU AFFORD TO LIVE?!
Fortunately, there are tons of online resources that have helped us lineup seasonal work all the way through next September. While we're going to be full-time RVers, we're also what people call "workampers." A workamper is someone who RV camps and works in exchange for their RV site, which depending on the job, includes a salary. Many campgrounds, RV parks, national and state parks, and other seasonal businesses use workampers to staff their operation. Long-time workampers at the Live.Work.Dream blog have already eloquently explained workamping and you can learn more about it here.
Other great resources have been Workamper News, Workers on Wheels, and the Workamper Facebook group.
BUT WHY?
In short, we're restless.
In full-ish, a few years ago, Kenny and I were returning to Denver from a road trip we'd taken to the Pacific Northwest. Rolling down Colorado Highway 50, we pointed out plots of land for sale where we would put a campground/breakfast spot, boarded up restaurants in a sleepy stretch where we'd open a pizza shop, a forested area where we'd build our bed and breakfast. We were both unhappy with the jobs we were going back to and were inspired to do something for ourselves. Soon after we started taking classes at the Denver Small Business Development Center and writing our business plan for, not a campground or restaurant, but Potsko's Fried Pies. We decided our little pie business would be a low-risk test to see if we had what it takes to run a small business. We also had a far-fetched idea that we would jump on Denver's food truck industry and expand Potsko's from our home kitchen to a commercial kitchen inside a retrofitted 1968 travel trailer by the next summer. The trailer we bought to retrofit was more work than we signed up for, but pie business was picking up. We were at a crossroads: do we pour more money into our food truck project or jump ship?
ARE WE BRINGING ANNIE?
Duh.
First, we're going to go visit family we haven't seen in too long in Minnesota and Iowa. The last week of September we'll head up to our first workamping gig at the Sugar Beet Harvest in North Dakota. After that we'll be headed to Campbellsville, Kentucky to work at the Amazon Fulfillment Center for the holiday season (yes, we've seen the New York Times coverage on the poor treatment of their employees). After that, the plan is to head south for the winter and take a month off visiting my dad and brother in Fort Lauderdale. We'll be doing commercial workamping jobs to get started, but our goal is to move into more work at bed and breakfasts, resorts, farms, and campgrounds -- and we already have some cool things coming together for next summer. We'll share more details as they unfold.
We have a 2006 17' Casita Trailer and a 1990 Dodge Ram Van. Blog posts detailing our rig coming soon.
We look forward to camping in your driveway!