Retired Couple is Part of Growing RV'ing Trend
Wed Dec 16, 2009
Author: Brett Wilkison
Source: visaliatimesdelta.com
Above an illustration of a pickup pulling a trailer across the countryside are the words "Have RV Will Travel."
And the fact that the retired Visalia couple have a business card at all is the other hint. They're looking for work — volunteer work to be specific.
For the past five years, Bruce, 68, and Pam, 64, have been on the road, volunteering in a half-dozen states — and seeing the other 44 in their spare time — in exchange for a free camp spot for their hi-lux 40-foot Medallion Estate Fifth-Wheel trailer and diesel Chevrolet pickup.
That makes the married couple of 45 years part of a growing trend in the United States. It's called work camping and it involves travelers, generally retired people with RVs or trailers, who trade their labor at wildlife refuges, resorts, amusement parks or charitable projects nationwide in exchange for pay or a free spot to park their rigs.
For the Griffins, who describe themselves as lifelong campers, the lifestyle made sense both because of their penchant for volunteerism and their desire to see the country.
"I think we've been talking about this ever since we were married," said Pam, stretching out on a lounge chair inside their Medallion Estate trailer during a recent interview in Visalia.
"We thought it would be a fun way to see the country in an economical way," the couple said in tandem.
Growing Trend
Americans have always been a mobile bunch when it comes to retirement and recreation, but the combination of the two is a relatively new trend that really got going when RVs became popular in the 1960s and 1970s.
People also have been traveling and working for years, but the activity didn't have a label until the late 1980s when an Arkansas couple started Workamper News, now the country's largest job and news clearinghouse for traveling workers.
The company publishes a bi-monthly magazine of articles and job listings, and maintains a daily hot line — via e-mail, RSS feeds or cell phone — that alerts subscribers to new postings.
