The Nonsense of W&J

Retiring Early – On a Budget

Our first two years of RVing Full-Time, we did not know anything about workamping.  We had both retired early from our jobs to take a break and spend some time together.  We created a tight budget for a lifestyle we thought we could afford.  Our budget did not include much expense for adventuring or campgrounds.

Our initial plan was to stay on Thousand Trails Campgrounds with our membership and see sights around these campgrounds.  We expected to stay on our tight budget by doing this.  But, of course, after the first six months, we wanted more!  More adventures, more toys, more fun.  With our tight budget, our adventuring was more limited than we wanted.

The second year was also a little scary for us.  The stock market was falling and we were traveling in the Northwest.  We experienced higher diesel prices for the truck, higher cost of food, and, of course, we had to do some cool boat rides in this area.  So, after that second year, we decided we needed to work.  For our first workamping experience, we stayed for seven months with a relative and worked as Professional Housekeepers over a winter.  We learned a lot on our first Workamping Job that we could apply to future positions.

Our Workamping Experiences

Working for family – Our First Workamping Experience

Our first boss was amazing.  She trained us well and then let us run amuck.  You might think that cleaning toilets does not sound like a good job.  But there are many positives to professional cleaning.  As mere employees, the boss handled all communications wih the clients.  We did attend meetings, work outside in the elements, or work full-time.

Our first workamping gig was a great experience and we learned a lot.  We did the best job we could and we left on excellent terms.  So, we added the experience and our reference to our Workamping resume on Workamper News.

The Beet Harvest – Our Second Workamping Job

Our second workamping gig was the Beet Harvest.  This workamping experience was a little more intense simply because of the long hours.  However, the job is pretty simple and it only lasts a couple of weeks.  We planned ahead by preparing and freezing meals so we would not have to cook while working the Beet Harvest.  We also kept old clothes that we no longer wore so we would not have to do laundry while working twelve hour shifts.  When the beet harvest was finished, we simply threw them away when we were done.  It sounds like waste.  But, after all the beet dirt, you do not want to wear those clothes again.  After every shift, Jessica would dump the beet dirt out of her sports bra before walking into the travel trailer.

The Beet Harvest was awesome for two reasons.  Everyone knows you make a lot of money in just a couple of weeks.  It really helps with the adventuring budgeting.  However, we also received an extra benefit at the beet harvest.  We worked on a fabulous team and met some amazing people. Because of our great experience, we signed up to work it again this year.  But now we will be on nights.  Jessica is not sure how well she will handle nights, and how much coffee she will require.  Windell has already promised to keep reminding her of next year’s planned adventures.  Hopefully, we will also be on the same awesome team as before.

Working at a Florida Resort

The same year we first worked the Beet Harvest, we signed up for Housekeeping in a beautiful resort in Florida for the winter.  We really did not know at first what to expect.  We had never worked at a campground/resort before, although, most of the other Workampers had lots of experience at campgrounds.  They would work half the year in Florida for the winter and the other half at a campground/resort up North.  We felt a little out of place with our limited experience.  But as we tell ourselves with every Workamper job, “if it doesn’t work out, we will simply leave.”

But it did work out!  The resort is gorgeous.  We only worked three full days a week.  That left us four days a week for adventuring and RV maintenance.  We were still Housekeeping, so we could keep to ourselves and simply do our job.  Our supervisor was laid back and had a great attitude.  Again, we were trained and then allowed to run amuck.  We loved the cleanliness of the resort and the great location for adventuring.  And, Jessica learned how to drive a golf cart!

Some of the owners at the resort were not sure about us either.  And we can understand why.  Sometimes the workampers and the employer work out great, as has been our experience with all our gigs.  However, we have also heard stories about workers and employers not being a good fit.  Also, we know we are not perfect workampers.  But we will try to remember to clean the vacuum filter next time before complaining about it!

After a few months of cleaning and doing our best, people at the resort became more friendly toward us.  We tried to learn names, and they already knew ours.  More “hellos” came our way, and we even added new subscribers.   When we started working the parties at the end of the year, we met even more awesome people.  We worked as food servers and had a chance to dance with the owners at the last parties for the season.  What a blast!

Our Future Workamping

Workamping has been an amazing experience for us.  We have loved learning new skills and meeting new people.  Sometimes there has been a little drama.  Jessica does get a little cranky when she is tired or not out adventuring enough.  Sometimes others try to throw drama on you.  But, overall, we would definitely recommend workamping to anyone wanting to earn a some extra cash flow.

Although we have met some amazing people, our favorite part of workamping has been the huge increase in our budget.  We love booking bigger adventures and buying more toys.  Now we are even looking at traveling more overseas in the upcoming years.  The increase in our wages and our budget have expanded our adventuring.

We have not explored all the opportunities of workamping.  There are many more skills to learn.  Jessica would like to workamp on a farm.  Although Windell says no.  These are temporary positions in different places.  You can apply for whatever position you want wherever you want to be.  If it does not work out, your career is not affected.  You do not get demoted or put on corrective action.  If you don’t want to, you do not have to work the same job for twenty years and hope you can retire while still physically healthy.  You can explore and adventure while you work.

So, if you are traveling full-time and you need some money, look into some Workamping opportunities.  It is a lot of fun.  We already plan to continue workamping for many more years to have bigger and more exciting adventures.

We discovered the Big Hickory Island near Bonita Springs, FL by accident.  We had spent a morning kayaking near Fort Myers, Florida at Manatee Park.  There are lots of manatees at this Park.  However, it is not a spring and the brown water makes it more difficult to see the manatees.  We prefer to kayak Silver Springs and other areas near Ocala.

The day we went to Manatee Park, the water was actually down a little and the current was strong, so we finished our kayaking earlier than we expected.  As we sometimes do, we looked up on our phone to check out new places to kayak.  Big Hickory Island came up as a cool place to kayak and we decided to wing it and head that way.

When we arrived at the kayak launch, there was a kayak tour van from Paddle Naples  in the parking lot.  So, us being us, Windell walked over to talk to the owner of the kayaking tour company.  He was super sweet and even let Windell take a picture of his map.  Then he told us about kayaking to an island.  Boy, are we glad we did!  As soon as we arrived at the island, porpoises not even 50 feet from the bank were making their way to the bridge we had just kayaked under.  We sat and watched them until they were out of our sight.  Then we explored more of the island, gathering beautiful shells into a pile.

It was a fabulous day for flying by the seat of our pants.  If you want to check out our video https://youtu.be/-tIhcD3jL2o A copy of the map is posted on our Facebook page 

We love snorkeling at Phil Foster Memorial Park!  Over winter 2023 we snorkeled  thirteen times at Phil Foster and saw so much sea life.  We only snorkeled on days where the high tide was from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and when the wind was not too strong.  We found these were the best times for us for clarity and to fit our schedule.  idiveflorida.com has a great Blue Heron Bridge Tide Schedule, where Phil Foster is located.  It even highlights dark green for the best diving times.  There are many divers and snorkelers at Phil Foster; the park can become very busy.

We usually enter the water an hour before high tide and snorkel for about two hours.  We have discovered that we like to go in near the lifeguard station under the bridge.  The best trail for us is to head out to the end of the swimming area and make a left towards the pillars.  That is where we see the most sea turtles and eagle rays. Sometimes we go all the way to the pillars with our Diver Below floatie.  This is simply for safety reasons as we don’t get ran over by a boat.  It makes us more comfortable to travel to the pillars with the floatie.  After checking out the pillars, we make our way up to the shark statues in the other direction, following the manmade reefs.  This leads us past the lifeguard station and closer to the bridge where we started.  This is the area we usually see moray eels.  Phil Foster is an amazing place to visit.  We see something different every time we snorkel there.  You can see a current map of the Phil Foster Snorkel Trail to plan your visit.