Work Camping in Branson, Missouri

As the recent New York Times article on Work Campers reported, the RV work camping movement is bigger now than ever, and many of our parks depend on work campers to survive. Although most work campers are retired and supplementing their pensions, investments and Social Security benefits, not all of them are retired. Many are like David and me, pre-retirement, pre-Social Security, and living on the road.

We decided to round our our RV lifestyle experience by becoming work campers for a six-month stint and found ourselves accepting a work camper gig with Branson Shenanigans RV Resort. Now we get to see RV resorts from both sides — the guest’s perspective and the  owner’s perspective. We receive our RV site with full hook-ups in exchange for 26 hours per week as a couple. While other female work campers and I handle reservations and other administrative duties in the office, David and the guys greet arrivals, guides them to their sites, and keeps the grounds shipshape. Oh, and we all get to clean the bathrooms one shift a week. (That freaked my sister out, so to spare her from nightmares about our getting H1N1, we promised to wear gloves and masks.)

Why Branson? Because when David met the owners at the Tampa RV Show in January, he knew we’d be happy working for them. Plus Branson offers lots of opportunities to get part-time seasonal work. Besides the appeal of an additional source of cash flow, we’re eager to immerse ourselves in a community for an extended period of time. (Six months for “on the roadees” like us is a l-o-n-g time!)

Since we are travelers, we want to get to know the culture of this place in depth. In lots of ways, Branson is like a foreign country to us. The lifestyle, the area’s predominant political, social and economic views, and the work style are considerably different from anything we have personally lived, and from any place we have chosen to live. To a great extent, our time here is an experiment to find out what we learn and how we grow when we voluntarily throw ourselves outside our comfort zone.  (Remind me of that if in future posts I cry “what am I doing here?”)

Meanwhile, David and I will continue to do our photography and writing professions. The Internet and cell phones certainly make working on the road fun and easy!

Come to Branson and say “hey!” We’d love to show you around.