Meet Roger & Gail Stairs
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heir background story on how they came to live in TGO is pretty much like the rest of ours. It was 2013 when Roger and Gail met a couple who owned a lot on Oak Cove which they were able to rent. After a short time,they fell in love with this place and eventually purchased a port on Coach Club. Sound familiar? Their RV adventures started in 2011 after Gail retired. They knew they didn’t want to spend their retirement in a couple of rocking chairs, so they sold their house and all their furnishings and bought an RV. Gail was an elementary teacher for nearly 35 years. She has a masters degree in teaching reading and became a district reading specialist for the Mount Pleasant, PA, School District, splitting her time working at five different elementary schools. Roger was a Navy man who worked as an aerographer and, after serving four years, went to Penn State where he studied meteorology. He worked for NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in Albuquerque, Chattanooga, Atlanta and Pittsburgh. He retired in 2009, just a bit before Gail.
Now, Gail will tell you she’s not a competitive person, but we wouldn’t suggest asking her who had the best North Dakota/Montana border. It sounded like a different rating between her and Roger (at Amazon.) adventure so off they went. Roger ran the harvest equipTheir first motorhome adventure took them out to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming where they worked inside the National Park. They were part of a camp work program which allowed them to live in the park for that summer. Gail worked at a first come, first serve park while Roger worked at the Coulter Bay RV Park, where he managed reservations. It was a great opportunity for them to experience what it was like to live in a National Park. When winter arrived, they headed back east, parked their motorhome and hopped on a plane for Germany to accomplish one of Roger’s goals - to run the Berlin Marathon. Roger is a marathoner! In fact, he has run 22 marathons over his lifetime. This obviously explains why it’s so hard to keep up with his daily schedule. Back in the states and back in their motorhome, and now living in TGO, R&G have spent their time crossing the country working at a variety of RV parks in places like Branson, MO, Chickasaw, SC, and Rapid City, SD. While in Rapid City, they heard about a sugar beet harvest that was happening on the
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ment while Gail was the “sampler taker,” which meant she monitored the sugar content and weight of the beets - all while working in the cold, the rain, and the mud. Like others in TGO, they spent some time in Campbellsville, KY, working for Amazon as “stowers.” It was a 10 week stint where they worked from 6 am to 4 pm, five days a week. Stowers basically load product into a drawer so the pickers can pull orders and load it into tubs, all the while being rated on their productivity. Now, Gail will tell you she’s is not a competitive person, but we wouldn’t suggest asking her who had the best rating between her and Roger. Their RV trips have taken them to all 48 contiguous states, with maybe the exception of Wisconsin... they can’t quite recall being there, but 47 states is still an impressive feat. As we mentioned earlier, Gail was a teacher for 35 years. In her retirement, she wanted to do something that would make an equally big difference in her life. She had heard of the Appalachian Trail and decided she wanted to do the hike as a “thru-hiker,” which is someone who hikes
