There was a potluck scheduled for 2:00 here in the fairgrounds this afternoon.  The afternoon started out warm but breezy, I think everyone came, and there was lots of good food.  

Our camp hostess is named Marlene.  She will be staying here every day while we go off to work, but she will be working too.  All the folks who have brought dogs with them need their dogs walked while they’re working, so they’ll leave her their keys and she’ll go from RV to RV and walk each dog during the day.  She’ll also make sure our RV’s are safe.

Chippy is one of a number of dogs Marlene will be walking daily.

Marlene put together this potluck and she started out by asking us to introduce ourselves, say where we are from, how many times we’ve worked here, and where we’ve been assigned.  It was quite a large group, but I’d say at least two thirds or three fourths of us were from Washington.  I was amazed!

Marlene asking us to introduce ourselves.

One guy described himself as being homeless in a jesting way.  We all laughed.   Another one said he isn’t from anywhere, because if you’re from somewhere, what’s the point of living this lifestyle?  I heard one person describe themselves as a hobo.  I prefer to think of myself as a gypsy or a “Man Without a Country” (after the classic book title).  My neighbor, Carla, showed us that her driver’s license lists her as a continuous traveler.  A young couple near me said they’d like to have a driver’s license that just says: USA.  We all have a sense of being footloose and fancy free.

We started out eating in a big circle two rows wide, but then people spontaneously started turning their chairs around and forming small groups.  My small group stayed the longest.  I finally left at 6:40 when the bugs started coming out.  By then it was also getting very cold, but I hated to leave.  We were having such a good time swapping stories and advice!

Mark cleaned his plate!

Carla and her husband, whom I had gotten to know at Amazon last year, were in my group and I got to visit with Carla a bit more.

Carla and her husband

There was also a young couple named Justin and Trisha who are on their maiden voyage as Workampers.  I asked how they got into Workamping and Trisha said that when they first heard about it she was going, “What’s the catch?”  This lifestyle seemed to make sense to her.  They’re young enough that they really don’t have a lot of expenses.  Trisha owns a house but she’s renting it out for the amount of the mortgage and she figures in twenty years it will be paid off without her having to make the payments.  They were excited to figure out how little it would cost them to live this lifestyle.  They are surprised more people aren’t doing this.

Justin and Trisha – the newbies

Because this is their first Workamping job, all the old-timers were giving them tips, some of which I’d never heard before.  One woman was talking about how many Workampers dumpster dive, and she wasn’t talking about doing it for food.  She said she found a perfectly good guitar and guitar case in a dumpster.  Another guy said he calls it “going to Walmart”.  He found some antique skis in a dumpster and traded them for food and beer.  The first woman also said a lot of Workampers barter.  She said it was going to take two weeks to get her dog in for grooming until she told the groomer that she had salmon to trade.  Then the woman told her to come on down.

Someone else talked about going to Mexico for dental, vision, and prescription drugs.  She said they go every year through Yuma, AZ to Los Algodones, MX.  She said there’s a campground right at the US border there and you can walk across and down a block or so on the other side is her dentist.  She said he was trained in California, speaks English well, and has all the modern equipment.  She also talked about how inexpensive and easy to get prescriptions are there.

A lot of stories were swapped too.  One couple told about how they were driving somewhere but stopped in front of a tunnel that said it was thirteen feet high.  The driver didn’t know how tall his RV was but he was afraid it might be a little taller than thirteen feet.  Cars were piling up behind them and then he saw a bus in the line.  He decided that if the bus thought they could make it, he’d give it a shot.  After all, if it didn’t work he could fall back on his insurance.  Fortunately they made it through, and when he later measured the height of his RV, it was twelve feet, eight inches tall.  His GPS hadn’t warned him about the low tunnel before hand.

Justin and Trisha plan to work in Alaska next summer.  A couple of us were weighing in on whether to drive or take a ferry when they go.  The other woman said it would be better to take a ferry on the way up because of the possibility of snow, but I said it would be better to take one on the way back due to our experience with road construction.  Someone else suggested they just take a week long ferry trip while they are up there.  Just in case they decide to drive, I gave them our Milepost guide.

We old-timers also told the young couple about setting up a domicile.  They are from New York.  It hadn’t occurred to them to change their home state.  I brought out our “Choosing Your Domicile” book and gave that to them too.  It was fun to be able to give these newcomers the kind of information I wish we’d had when we first started.

This kind of camaraderie between Workampers is, so far in my experience, one of the benefits of working at these intensives such as the beet harvest or Amazon.   I don’t think you really get this experience where there are only a handful of Workampers.  That’s one reason I like working on these big, short-term jobs.