We decided many years ago we wanted to live in a motor home and travel and work around the country. We prayed for the right rig and to have the money so that we would not have a “house” payment while working & traveling.
Our desire is to travel around the United States and work for churches or church camps. Ron’s experience in construction, plumbing and remodeling and Alice’s experience in office management, customer service and motivational speaking and God’s guidance will one day allow us to do this on a regular basis.
In the meantime, we work wherever the Lord leads us.
One day when Ron went into pay our rent, the property manager said she was so frustrated because so many of her rental clients would buy a home from another realtor instead of her. Ron told her we didn’t want to buy a house we wanted to buy a motor home. Leslie laughed and said she had one she would sell us. She encouraged Ron to go and take a look at it, show it to me and take it out for a drive.
We had certain things we wanted in a motor home: the bed to go the same direction as the rig moving down the road, for their to be plenty of room to seat guests who came to visit (we love to entertain), have more than one door for an exit and it had to feel like home. Off we went to check it out. We walked and it felt just right. It had seating for 1 1 people and all would have a seat belt. The bed was facing the correct direction and most of all, it felt like home as we walked in.
Now we had to see if we could afford it. So Ron was off to talk with Leslie. She originally was asking $20,000 ~ way too much for us. She dropped the price to $15,000. Umm no, we don’t have that much money either. She then asked if we had $1,000 for a down payment and could we make $800 a month payments for 10 months = $9,000!!! You betcha!!! Our rent had been $800 a month so she knew we could afford it.
We took possession in October 2006, moved into it over Thanksgiving weekend and moved to a campsite the first week of December. All the while I was in the hospital for a week with pneumonia so friends helped Ron pack up our stuff. And we made our first payment on December 1, 2006 and paid it in full on September 1, 2007!!!
God had blessed us with a motor home we could afford and it was paid for before we ever took off in it other than for a weekend getaway.
Our first job was for Funtastic Shows, a carnival based out of Portland, OR. We worked for them from March 2010 to September 2010!
October 2010 found us traveling and spending time with our kids and grandkids!!
Our second job was with Noel Christmas Trees. Yep, we thought selling Christmas trees would be fun. It was a lot of fun. Now we say “we wanted to sell Christmas trees, we have sold Christmas trees and we won’t be doing that again.” In our case it was way too much work for a little amount of money YET we give thanks to Jesus because he provided for us for that month and a half and we were able to meet our obligations at that time.
While selling Christmas trees we applied for many campground manager jobs. We were offered and accepted positions at the Alamo Area SKP aka The Lone Star Corral in Hondo, TX. We worked there from February 2011 to April 2012.
April 2012 we left Hondo, TX and headed to Branson, MO. First accepting a one person, part-time job as Assistant Manager of Branson View Campground. May 6, 2012 found us in the position of Campground Managers with full-time work.
Here’s the list of all the places we have worked since starting this full-time RV journey!
Funtastic Shows ~ traveled with the carnival for a season around Oregon & Washington
Noel Tree Farm ~ sold over 250 Christmas trees, every tree gets touched at least 5x! Had two trees stolen during the season and two after we closed up on Christmas Eve.
Lone Star Corral ~ managed a 150 site Escapees campground
Branson View Campground/Tri-gild ~ managed a 40 site campground for a bank
Amazon (Ron)~ Coffeeville, KS
Back at Branson View Campground for a new owner, managed the campground
GUMI Camp USA (Glad You Made It) a place for Veterans to heal
Astor House, part of Holiday Retirement, an Independent Living Community ~ Co-managers
Methodist Children’s Home/Methodist Boys Ranch ~ House parents to 8 boys at a time
Hi Road Campground outside Zion National Park ~ campground workers, a fun place to be but the altitude about did us in 😳
Timekeepers ~ Gate Guarding and Ron’s journey with breast cancer
BlueBonnet Youth Ranch ~ House parents; finally got the girls we always wanted, so many funny stories, just ask Ron about B
Providence Home ~ a six bed emergency teen shelter, home parents
A Kid’s Place ~ home parents – not the best experience,
Amazon (Ron) in Wesley Chapel
Camp Sparrow RV Resort & Spacious Skies Peach Haven ~ Gaffney, SC ~ workampers
Big Creek Missions ~ Bear Branch, KY
and the journey continues!
If you care to read about our times in these positions check out the blog archives.
And if you have any questions about any of our traveling jobs just drop us a note!
We love to answer questions.
Life with us ~ The Wandering Workentins 