“Sometimes it seems like yesterday that I pulled into my first job outside Big Bend National Park,” she says. “The ad described the place as a resort, but it looked like a typical convenience store. It did have running water and a desert golf course, so maybe that reckoned a resort in West Texas. I had to give myself a big pep talk before going inside.” However, the Big Bend Motor Inn turned out to be a good experience. Joy met other Workampers, and she found that she enjoyed interacting with the patrons as a waitress—a job she’d never done before.

“The place was clean, the food good, and I discovered locals who resembled characters stepping out of a western movie,” she continues. “One of the residents, rough on the outside, but with a heart of gold on the inside, preferred to ride a mule everywhere she went.

“One of my best tips came from an unexpected source. When I cleared the table for a couple of motorcyclists, I found a small Bible had my tip tucked inside. Another time I suggested a man try cinnamon ice cream on his apple pie, and he left a $20 tip for a $15 meal!”

The long drive to a grocery store proved a disadvantage to Joy’s job at Big Bend. However, she returned for the same two early spring months the following year.

After Big Bend, Joy headed for Adventureland and a job in games. “I’m so glad I went to Adventureland my first summer on the road. The Workamper friends there became my family,” she says.

Before Joy left Adventureland in September, co-workers offered her a job on their team for See's Candies in Fort Worth, Texas, during November and December. See's is a California based company (information about See’s in Road Work II: The RVer’s Ultimate Income Resource Guide) with kiosks in malls. “I was not thrilled with their uniform—an old-fashioned white dress with a big black bow—but giving out candy samples all day is not hard.”

In May of 2006, Joy traveled to Yellowstone National Park to work for the concessioner, Delaware North, at Grants Village General Store. Along the way, she learned some of the lessons of RVing. By that time, she had upgraded both her truck and trailer. In Kansas, she pulled into a campground. “I had to put one set of my trailer tires up on a block to level the trailer,” she says “No problem, but ooops! I forgot to put chocks on my tires before unhooking. The trailer rolled off the blocks!  I had to jack up the front of the trailer so I could hook it back to the truck. I got it all done—and by myself. And this is the only time I’ve forgotten to chock the wheels.”

Arriving at Yellowstone National Park, Joy parked her trailer in the employee campground and watched elk roam in her yard. She worked as counter support at the Village Grill inside the store, comparable to working the counter at a fast food restaurant. “It was not my dream job, but living in Yellowstone for a summer made up for the hectic pace of the grill,” she says. “I ran the register, cleaned tables, and made gallons of coffee.

“The store and floor managers helped in the kitchen and behind the counter when a tour bus of hungry tourists arrived. Delaware North usually hires half Workampers and half foreign college students,” she continues. “I almost always found someone who wanted to join me in exploring the park. One evening I had people in my truck speaking five different languages. What a blessing getting to know such hard working young people!”

In the spring of 2008, Joy journeyed to work at the Niagara Falls KOA on Grand Island, the first of several jobs with KOA. She says that repeatedly in a campground, guests come in thinking they have reservations when they do not. She remembers one family handing her a crumpled note with a scribbled phone number with the same area code as Niagara Falls KOA. She called the number and discovered they had reservations at a different campground. “Sometimes I had to play detective to find a person’s reservation,” she says. “That particular family ended up staying with us.”

After her season in Niagara Falls, Joy traveled to Florence, Arizona, to work at a 55+ park where some folks own their lots. “It was a new experience,” she says.  “I discovered I don’t really care for the desert, although the sunsets were spectacular. Some of the saguaro cactus scattered throughout the park bloomed before I left in the spring.”

In late April 2009, Joy drove to the KOA in Bozeman, Montana. In addition to her office duties, she supervised the tye dying of tee-shirts with guests each Saturday morning. “It was fun to see the shirts that kids came up with,” she continues. “I enjoyed that park so much that I returned the following summer. If I was going to settle down in one place and did not mind cold winters, Bozeman would be home for me!”

In the fall of 2009, Joy went to California to work at a KOA. Unfortunately that job did not work out, so she headed back to her home turf in Texas. She traveled I-10 and stopped at Fort Stockton RV Park. As she checked in, she mentioned she was a Workamper. “The owner offered me a job and I ended up spending the winter there,” Joy says noting that she had the perk of free meals at their onsite café. “I believe God looks out for me and that is only one example of His leading me to the right place at the right time.”

Joy found her fall and winter job in 2010 at the Lake Conroe KOA. In her off time, she took square dance lessons and attended a big “Go Texan” event in one of the park’s ballrooms. New experiences and challenges are some of the perks she finds in the Workamping lifestyle.
On weekends, she worked with the assistant manager. “He was new to the KOA Kampsite system, so I taught him,” Joy says. “When guests came in, they looked at his name tag, and then looked at mine. Often, they asked: "She is teaching you?"

At campgrounds, Joy likes to greet guest by their names. “It’s relatively easy when I get down to the last few reservations and an RV pulls in that matches the one expected,” she says. “People are shocked that I call their names, but it gets us off to a fun start. I know how tired people can be when they get off the road for the day and I try to make the checking in process as easy as possible.”

During the spring of 2011, Joy took the road to the Boston/Cape Cod KOA. “I enjoyed seeing the eastern part of the country,” Joy says. “The park is about halfway between Boston and Cape Cod and only 12 miles from Plymouth. If I chose to move to a big city, I would choose Boston. I loved walking all around, and I was awed by the North Church.”

Prior to Christmas in 2011 and 2012, Joy worked at amazon.com, first in Campbellsville, Kentucky, and next in Coffeyville, Kansas. She did jobs from stowing (putting merchandise into the bins) to picking (using a hand scanner to select products for shipping) to receiving and working in the crisp plant. In March 2012, she started a job for Louisville South KOA in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. In 2013, Joy worked three days a week for her site in an RV park in Bryan, Texas. Her summer job for 2013 is in the bookstore at Mount Rushmore National Monument. Joy considers this a “dream job.”

In a way, eight years is a lifetime ago—the end of life as Joy knew it and the beginning of a totally new one. “Workamping has allowed me to go different places and do things I would have never been able to do otherwise,” she says. “The people I’ve met along this journey have so enriched my life.”

Enrichment goes two ways. Joy has been—well, a joy—to those she has served and worked beside. If Workamper News made a poster to encourage solo Workampers, Joy’s smiling face would be front and center.