Workamping — The New Vagabond Lifestyle of Living in an RV and Chasing Seasonal Jobs

http://www.alternet.org/culture/workamping-new-vagabond-lifestyle-living-rv-and-chasing-seasonal-jobs


Duncan and Jessica from Traveling On The Outskirts, their workamper video series.
Photo Credit: Flickr.com

For anyone who dreams of living on the road like a mid-life version of Jack Kerouac, there’s the tale of Duncan and Jessica. Their spunky YouTube series, Traveling On The Outskirts, followed the pair as they crisscrossed America and made their RV home.

“We lived like like everybody else. We had a house, a car payment, a big TV, and a regular 9-to-5 job to try and pay for it,” Jessica gleefully confesses, in each episode’s opening. “One day we got rid of it all to live life on the road,” chimes in Duncan, who looks like 1970s rocker. “And now we are leaving mainstream society and making everyday different and traveling on the outskirts.”

The couple worked in advertising. Season Two, Episode Nine is “Workamping & Making Cash While Fulltime RVing.” Jessica, hair tied back, gets right down to it. “A lot of people think you have to be a millionaire to live this lifestyle. In fact, it’s the opposite,” she begins. “You’re living on less, and therefore you can make less, and live just the same lifestyle—except for you’re on the road. So now we’re going to talk about all the different ways that you can make money while RVing.”

Option one is workamping. The term was created by Workamper.com, which is dedicated to the lifestyle of living in the road in RVs or campers and working seasonal jobs to keep moving. Traveling On The Outskirts is just one of many websites extolling the freedom of tossing a cautionary life to the wind and finding breathtaking scenery, camraderie, and spiritual rejuvenation as a motoring voyager. “Maybe you were a gypsy, vagabond or hobo in a past life, but you think you could never afford to live the life of freedom you long for?” says cheaprvliving.com’s homepage, a go-to site for how to join this band.