Working Wherever

By Amanda Swanson

IT’S BEEN MORE than three years since Adam asked me if I wanted to quit my job and sell our house and belongings to roam the country together in a travel trailer. Adam and I, along with our two Bengal cats, Roscoe and Rahja, went full time in May of 2019, saying “see you later” to our family and friends, and stepping far outside of our comfort zones in pursuit of a different way of life.

One of the most frequently asked questions we get while traveling is, “What do you do for money?” For a while our answer was “nothing,” because we had just sold our house. But just shy of our one-year mark, we decided to “settle down” and work our first seasonal campground gig in California. I subscribed to Workamper News, an email-based job board for nomads, and was receiving daily job updates that helped us find a five-month commitment in the Redwoods. It was a wonderful first taste of what it’s like to make money on the road, and it was just the start!

Many people think that just because they wouldn’t be able to work remotely with their current role, it automatically means they could never travel full time. I’m here to tell you there are many opportunities to work while traveling, and most of them aren’t even remote.

CAMP CHRISTMAS TREE

Never in a million years did I think we would end up selling Christmas trees in 80-degree weather in south Florida for the holidays. But it’s one of our top experiences from life on the road. In the summer of 2020, we knew we really wanted to spend the upcoming winter in Florida. However, I quickly learned that it’s quite expensive and hard to reserve. Our backup plan was to find another campground position that started right after our commitment in northern California completed. But most workamping positions in Florida are booked a year or more in advance! I was searching the Workamper News emails every day, waiting for something to pop up, and that’s when I was introduced to our first short-term gig!

A job for Christmas tree retail lot managers was posted in south Florida. The commitment was only about five to six weeks and promised a hefty base salary plus commission opportunities. The pay was more substantial than our last position, and we would only need to work a fraction of the time! It felt like the perfect opportunity.

We’ll be gearing up for our third season selling Christmas trees this year. We’ve already made lifelong friends and partnerships, plus we had the top-grossing lot last season! We had the opportunity to visit the farm where the Christmas trees come from in North Carolina, right at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains. This next season, we may get to help with pre-season preparation, which means more money and more time in Florida, but without the commitment of the entire winter.

REMOTE WORK

Long before we went nomadic, I was dreaming of a completely remote job that would allow me the location freedom I desired. In the beginning of our RV life, I wasn’t searching in the right places—I was only looking for writing jobs, which left me feeling exhausted and depleted by the amount of effort they took. Truthfully, the past few years of the pandemic have been a blessing in the remote world, with more opportunities out there now than ever before!

In the spring of 2021, I reached out to my former boss from a Minnesota based credit union I worked for before RV life. I asked if they had transitioned any positions to remote, and if they had any openings. To my surprise, Human Resources quickly contacted me for a temporary remote position through the summer. Over the past few years, the company had gone completely remote and had more flexibility than ever before. One thing led to another, and before my temp assignment was up I was hired on permanently as their first traveling employee. Since they knew me and had worked with me in the past, they allowed me to work with them while traveling, within certain parameters. I love that this position allows me to continue to use my administrative skills to power our journey!

SUGAR BEET HARVEST

One key thing we’ve learned over the past few years is that some of the best and most rewarding workamping jobs require the shortest time commitments. There is an opportunity in the Midwest each fall to partake in the Sugar Beet Harvest. A company called The Unbeetable Experience hires about 600 workers in northern Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana.

This opportunity was another great find through Workamper News. The position was not as an entry-level beet sampler like other positions up north, but as a semi truck driver at a much higher pay—plus, the commitment was only for about three to four weeks! Adam also helped with other duties on the farm, such as harvesting soybeans and grain, and fixing farm equipment. The family hosted us in a small county park a few miles from the farm with a handful of other workampers.

I’ll never forget how excited Adam was the first few days he got to drive that 53-foot semi through the backroads of southern Minnesota, with no CDL needed, since it was a family farm. He said he felt like he was living out childhood dreams with all this farm equipment, and even though the hours were long, sometimes even 18-hour days, the gig flew by and we were on to the next great adventure.

ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIES

Letting go of what we thought making money should look like was the best decision we made to keep funding our RV journey. It’s so exciting to start saying yes to all these opportunities we never would have had otherwise! We use our resources, like Workamper News and workamping Facebook groups, we talk to other RVers and ask what works for them, and in the process, we’ve started to pave our own way, too!

Follow Amanda on Instagram @sparkfireswan