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 ...
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 th...
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 ...
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 Americ...
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 deman...
Today I'll be speaking with a man who developed a way for Workampers to make a pretty good income by helping them sell RVs and referring people to his service. Deryle Jensen is the founder of RVWheelator, which is a play on the term realtor. His company specializes in connecting buyers to sellers in a rather unique way. RVs of all types are sold in a manner similar to how homes are sold in a private transaction between buyers and sellers. He developed the program after watching too many people being taken advantage of when they were trying to sell their motorhomes and travel trailers. In fact, Deryle guarantees sellers that their RVs will be sold and ensures buyers that they'll have instant equity in their new RVs. In traditional consignment transactions, dealers buy RVs from owners at wholesale prices, then sell them at retail prices. In other words, dealers pay as little as they can to buy a used RV and charge as much as they can to sell it. Deryle says his business model is 100% ...
Today, I am interviewing a man who has become a full-time online content creator producing do-it-yourself videos and hosting a podcast to help other entrepreneurs finance their travel dreams. Joshua Sheehan, his wife and twin 8-year-old boys started RVing in November 2021 after Kolie completed a 20-year career in the U.S. Air Force. The military family moved frequently during her career, yet they did not really know where they wanted to settle down. So, they hopped into a 30-foot bunkhouse travel trailer to search for the ideal place to call home. They selected that RV because it offered a separate living area from the bedrooms and used closable doors, rather than curtains, to help control noise and provide more privacy. The family relies on Kolie’s military pension to support their travels, but Joshua also started planning for location independence nearly three years ago when he launched a YouTube channel called Gander Flight. Because he likes tinkering, testing things and thinkin...
This week, I will be speaking with an RVer who started an online marketing agency to help business owners, especially other mobile-based businesses, to navigate the often-complicated world of digital marketing. Yet, the real reason they bought an RV was to serve others. Joe Meyers is the chief creative officer for Share Marketing, which provides digital marketing and consulting services to small businesses owners. Originally from the twin cities area of Minnesota, Joe and his wife travel the country in a 30-foot travel trailer with their two boys, ages 7 and 2, plus their playful rescue beagle named Mickey Mouse. RVing with young boys has been a great experience for the family because the boys get to wrestle with each other on a different patch of grass every week. Joe’s wife still has a job planning events for corporate America, which she performs remotely, and he set up his business specifically for location independence. Before launching full-time, they took a seven-week RV trip...
Today I will be speaking with an employer from South Dakota who is looking for help this spring at a campground near Rapid City. Justin Gonzales is the manager of Black Hawk Creek RV Park, which is located just a few miles north of Rapid City, right on the edge of beautiful Black Hills National Forest and all the popular tourist attractions, like Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Sturgis, and Custer State Park. The campground has been in existence for a while and was previously known as Little Jon Memorial Park. Two years ago, it was bought out and new owners changed the name to Black Hawk Creek, in honor of the little creek adjacent to the park. Right now, the park consists of 15 full-hookup RV sites and eight cabins. However, in the next six months, the campground will grow significantly with the addition of 100 new RV sites and another 20 cabins. The people who own Blackhawk Creek RV Park also own a company that manufactures custom RV skirting. The people who own the RV park ...