We're loving our time as campground hosts, but
is it time to go all in on full -time RVing again?
We'll share the real costs of keeping a house
you barely live in, the challenges of selling
right now, and the opportunity to escape winter
for good. Plus, how we're working remotely, making
money on the road, and why mosquitoes are our
biggest enemy. Stick around. Welcome to the Restless
Nomads, the ultimate RV show for modern -day
rubber tramps and weekend warriors alike. Whether
you're chasing sunsets full -time, savoring seasonal
escapes, or just hitting the road for a quick
weekend getaway, this is your go -to show for
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as we dive into everything RV. Choosing the right
rig. Surviving life on wheels. And navigating
the highs and lows of life on the moon. From
towables to motor homes. Budget hacks to campsite
secrets. We've got you covered. So buckle up,
Nomads. And let's hit the road to adventure.
One mile at a time. Welcome back to the Restless
Nomads, another show coming to you live from
Crescent Lake, Oregon. Don't forget to check
out our travel blog at therestlessnomads .com.
Also, you can find us on YouTube. Just YouTube
search the Restless Nomads and find us on Facebook.
That's Facebook forward slash the Restless Nomads.
Hi, baby. How are you? Hi there. Great. How you
doing? got back from Eugene. I saw a wonderful
play that my granddaughter did. She did amazing.
I'm so proud of her and just got to see everybody
and engage in some joyous moments and laughing
moments because the Pirates of Penzance is funny
too. Yeah, and that's one of the advantages of
this job is that If one of us needs to take off
for whatever reason, whether it's the dentist
or going to grandkids place and things like that,
we can do that and the other person can cover
the hours. Or just get away. Because, I mean,
we are good friends. We are married. We genuinely
love each other. But we live in a box. We live
in a box. And sometimes it's good for us to get
our own space. That's true. That's true. To refill
our well and to engage with ourselves, connect
with ourselves. Sometimes you need a little bit
of alone time. Yeah. Well, the RV news update
for this show. The RV lifestyle is hotter than
ever. Here's what's happening. Campground host
positions are in high demand right now. It is
super easy to get a work camping job right now.
We're at that time of the year where some of
those folks that have started are quickly finding
out, hey, this isn't for me. Whatever. They miss
their grandma. They have to go home. So they
quit. and those jobs are opening up so if you
want a camp hosting job they are plentiful. All
you got to do is get on the Facebook work camping
groups and you'll learn all those campground
hosting jobs. There's just company after company
after company that are seeking people right now
through the end of October. Hard to find. are
the winter gigs still not a lot of them coming
out quite yet but we have our ear to the ground
for that because we're looking for a winter gig
also used rv prices dropping flood of inventory
means great deals for buyers if you're upgrading
or getting back into rv now's the time to shop
look for those 2024 models we did that when we
bought our rv And then also kind of some personal
news. We're back on Starlink and it's performing
okay. Better than our Verizon Gateway, I think.
Yeah. And we're on that Starlink Roam package.
That's the kind, I think it's $165 a month. You
can start and stop it. Basically pause your service
if you need to. But Starlink outperforming Verizon
Gateway for now. So baby. Full -time RVing again.
What do you think? Tell us the tell us the history.
We did it for I like the idea of being on the
road and I like the idea of moving to different
locations and the fact that you know, we are
big on you know, the weather and the climate
and so and We don't like mosquitoes. Yeah, so
that is one thing. We're having an absolute blast
doing this camp hosting again. Oh, that we are.
And, you know, that consists of primarily cleaning
bathrooms, tracking reservations, collecting
fees, and yeah, of course, the mosquitoes. There's
Luna playing with a toy in the background. Of
course, we're in this box, so you can't escape
the dogs either. So that can be kind of challenging.
But the mosquitoes are pretty ruthless up here
in Crescent Lake area this time of year. But
even though it has its challenges, it's super
rewarding. It is. And not only is it rewarding
to offer a good time to these campers, protect
our forests, but also rewarding in a financial
sense too. The money is great this year. Yeah.
And honestly, I think this is my favorite gig
so far. It's simply that because we are doing
less hours and we are doing maybe four hours
of work each day and Each of us have 20 allotted
hours for the week So together we have a 40 -hour
position and that's the lowest amount of hours
that we've ever taken on and it's been kind of
nice because We both work about four hours a
day Then we're we're done and we can kind of
enjoy camping for the day and I'm making more
money than I did caregiving Believe me that was
rewarding for the 38 years that I did it, but
this is even more rewarding and it's also being
good to myself Absolutely, I like being out there
in the woods and making a difference making sure
people are respectful here in The campgrounds.
It's been a really good work -life balance up
to this point. We actually get home Well, we
work from home here, you know in their campground
but You're working 40 hours a week each you get
home. You're so tired. You don't really want
to cook So it's a lot of microwave TV dinners
that kind of thing but working 20 hours a week
each we have a lot of time for Camping stuff
so we've barbecued and we cook here in the RV
and stuff So far. It's been a lot of fun now
our boat is in a slip about three miles away
and unfortunately I struck the prop on a rock
when I launched it so we haven't been able to
enjoy that at all yet. I've been researching
how to change a prop and I've got to go pull
it out of the water with Angie's help and then
we've got to change the propeller and I think
we're going to bring it over here to Crescent
Lake because the wind and the waves are much
less here at Crescent than they are over at Odell.
Every afternoon over there it's like the freaking
ocean. It's so choppy there. It is. So some things
that we've been kind of considering. We're really
enjoying the RV Lifestyle full -timing again
and we're kind of considering whether or not
Having the house is worth it. We spend about
$2 ,000 a month for the house when you consider
the mortgage and all the utility bills and everything
else. Right now we're renting out our guest bedroom
and we get about $1 ,100 a month for that. So
we're still at a loss when it comes to the house.
Now one thing that we've thought about doing
is taking the master bedroom, some of the furniture
that you know is kind of personal like our bed.
and taking that out and renting that out as well.
That would help. And then we have a third room,
the office, that we could potentially turn into
a bedroom as well. But that would get us at least
three times our expenses or so on the house.
So one of the difficult things is that Right
now the selling market for houses if we were
to sell it is not great. Apparently I've heard
that many houses have been going on the market
and sitting there because the interest rates
are so high no one wants to finance their home
with a 7 % interest rate. Which makes sense.
I get it. Well and they just opened up a new
neighborhood with a bunch of brand new homes
that they built too. Today was opening day for
that. Where? In Klamath Falls. Oh, I didn't know
that. Yeah, huh? Well, yeah, if there's brand
new houses out there, that's gonna make it difficult
to But that is something that we're considering
plus just the emotional aspect like we did spring
cleaning a couple months ago before we rented
out the house and That was a major pain in the
butt having to Clean all of that house It was
you know, we have a it's a smaller house. I think
it's about 1 ,100 square feet but Probably too
much more more room than we need and the maintenance
on it is Kind of a pain too. We had to pay a
HVAC guy to come service our air conditioner
just like any homeowner has to but with us really
enjoying living in the RV and the prospect of
traveling and getting out of the snow during
the wintertime has us reconsidering homeownership
altogether, it's It's been a wonderful house
for three years, but I think we're ready for
some adventure. We'll see. We're giving ourselves
the summer to really make sure that that's something
that we want to do. And then we will make a decision
at the end of the summer, at the end of this
job, if we're going to continue on and maybe
move down to Arizona for the winter time. Or
Utah. Yeah, somewhere warmer where we can work.
another campground job probably or another work
camping job altogether. So something to think
about when it comes to having the house it's
an appreciating asset and as long as nothing
goes wrong there might be some headaches associated
with it but at least we are we have an investment
in it although the headache would go away if
we sold that's for sure. If we did put everything
in storage or got rid of everything and rented
the whole thing out, it would bring in some steady
income, which would be nice. And then we could
continue RVing full -time without the house draining
the bank account. But that comes with headaches
all of its own. Managing tenants, especially
when you're on the road. If there's a pipe that
busts or something like that, it could be property
damage. Yeah, it could be a problem. Now, we're
using Airbnb as our platform for month -to -month
rentals and we do it past 30 days so that we
don't have to worry about the short -term rental
stuff with the city of Klamath Falls. So they
have to stay at least 30 days and right now we're
running out to contract workers like travel nurses
and construction workers and things like that
that just need a place for a month, a month and
a half or so. Yeah, they seem more forthright
and respectful and Given more time to their schedule
schedule. Sorry where they would need long -term
rental Help in our House yeah, and I guess the
only disadvantage when it comes to these shorter
term you know month -to -month style rentals
is if we were to put someone in there on a lease
for 12 months it would be guaranteed income no
problem whereas But, you know, some people don't
want to make that commitment. Right, and I don't
even know if we want to make it. At least six
months. Yeah. Yeah, you really got to be for
certain. Because if we change our mind, we want
to come home. And the only disadvantage I can
see with doing the Airbnb 30 -day plus rentals
is there could be a month where no one needs
it. And then you're just stuck eating the cost
of the mortgage and the utility bills. Although
they would be pretty low because no one was using
it at the time. Yeah, so our first gentleman
that we got his stay is for two months. And then
we got somebody else that wanted to come in.
But. This gentleman apparently wants to stay.
Yeah, he wants to extend so So we'll do that
because he's already there We're gonna lose some
money by doing it, but I think it's the right
thing to do because he's already there Yeah,
and we haven't had any problems with him. Nope.
No problems at all. We hope the house is Still
in good shape. Yeah, I'm sure it is alright guys.
Well, we're gonna go to a break and right after
that break we're gonna dig into Maybe some of
the upsides of if we are able to sell the house
and do this thing full -time So we'll be right
back after this This is Dave Dave makes the tastiest
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small budget, big reach, real results. And we're
back. Don't forget to visit goldcountryradio
.org. That's the station that this show originates
on. It's aired first at Gold Country Radio in
Klamath Falls on 103 .3 FM and then turned into
a podcast for people to listen to around the
world. Isn't that right, baby? It is. Absolutely.
Let's talk about the RV Pro Tip of the Week.
mosquito heavy spots like where we're at, Crescent
Lake, and what we're doing to survive. So Holly
gave you some bug spray, right? Yeah, she sure
did and it's a bug spray. It's a bug spray. There's
even mosquitoes in the RV right now. Of course
it's called off, made by Johnson. It's a clean
feel. It's not the sticky yucky type feel of
insect repellent. It says it feels good on the
skin. It's fragrance free. You definitely want
fragrance free because you don't want to attract
any mosquitoes. That makes sense. So yeah, this
is off clean feel. And it's an eight hour guarantee
of protection and my daughter says it works fantastic.
We're gonna have to try this. Angie gets bitten
by a mosquito and swells up and really has a
hard time. Mosquitoes absolutely love her blood.
I get bitten but not nearly to the same degree
that she does. And I wear these long sleeve bat...
Well, they're black long sleeve knit shirt under
my work shirt because it's cold in the morning
generally, but it also protects me from getting
bit like crazy on the arms. Yeah. Yeah. I get
little bites here and there kind of bugged me
a little bit, but not. to the same degree as
Angie, that's for sure. And then we do have,
I've got some medication for eczema called Triamcinolone.
It's a steroid. It works fantastic. That seems
to be the best thing for mosquito bites. It sure
does. It takes that histamine away. Other people
have used thermocell devices. They put them on
their chairs or even wear them. One of the biggest
things that you need to do is check your screens.
Make sure they're closed tight on your RV so
that skiers at least will be limited on getting
inside. We still have them get inside because
they're so thick here. We have to open the door
to take the dogs out or come in and out to talk
to campers. So we get them in here occasionally.
It just seems like it's during certain times
of the day. It's not consistent and fluent throughout
the day. It's just here and there. Definitely
citronella candles. In the morning. Oh, go ahead.
Yeah, citronella candles, but beware because
you don't want to be burning one in your RV.
That's just bad for your respiratory health.
No. So we have a screened -in enclosure. We have
cedar and eucalyptus. It's a eucalyptus candle.
Yep. And for inside. We'd use the Centronella
candle outside in our screened -in enclosure
and that seems to work pretty well for when we
want to hang out outside. Another tip, you can
buy permethrin for your clothes. You don't want
to put it on your skin. That is pretty dangerous
stuff but you can coat your clothes with this
chemical called permethrin and it will help.
You can do all your gear like your backpack and
things like that too. Sage, eucalyptus, and tea
tree oil. They save you eat a lot of garlic that
rears them away from your skin. They don't want
to bite your skin as much. That could be maybe
why they don't like me as much. I tend to eat
a lot of garlic, I don't know. And Angie's just
sweeter, so they're after a bloody slushie. What
can I say? So back to what we were talking about.
Some of the ideas that we have, you know, if
we are able to put the house on the market and
sell it. Then it would mean total freedom for
us. We wouldn't have to worry about Utility bills
and we wouldn't have to worry about snow come
wintertime. We could just go down Kind of chase
the warm weather and so that would be really
nice now I like the first snowfall and I like
oh, yeah the brisk cool air so we We would probably
hang out up north long enough to see the season
change but then as we got sick of it we would
make our way back down south. Now of course if
we're committed to some job we may not get that
luxury. We may have to be there a little bit
before the season starts. But we could focus
fully on our on our work camping gigs and not
really have to stress so much about the house.
although we would lose that investment essentially.
So what we're leaning towards, like I said, we're
going to take the summer to think about it. Right
now we're leaning towards just holding on to
the house because the market is so bad for sellers.
So we'll probably investigate renting out more
than just the guest bedroom to at least cover
the cost of the house and maybe make a little
bit of money at it. at least for the next year
or so and then we'll reassess at that point and
it also gives us a whole year to kind of ensure
that this is the right decision to get rid of
the house and go full time again. Of course we'll
be full time for the year more than likely but
it'll give us a chance to back out and go back
home if we need to do that. Don't see us doing
that. I mean we did it for a year before we bought
the house and we did grow weary Moving every
two weeks and we wanted a real kitchen. There
are some there's some downsides to RVing That
you won't see on the YouTube channels that are
promoting full -time RVing But there are many
upsides too and I think we're craving some of
those upsides after being in the house for three
years you know just the freedom to pick up and
move and some stabilization you know some community
interaction is what we crave we know that being
loners is not always the best thing it it's good
to have friends well and your purpose I think
it's important to make those friends if you're
going to be on the road you need to find a community
to get plugged in whether that's online or just
wherever you go you need to or where you work
need to have some traveling buddies yeah and
then if you're if you're work campers then you
need to have that social interaction with your
fellow employees you know although we do like
this is one thing that's a little different about
this job we are pretty much on our own most of
the week we're independent and And we fix everything
ourselves. Our boss comes around once a week.
We kind of like that because everything that
we manage is our own. Whereas Lake Cochise, we
worked, that was a campground in Washington that
we worked in 2023. And we worked as a part of
a team of like, what, 16 people? And that was
good and bad. I mean, it was cool to have people
to talk to, but it also meant that you had to
deal with everybody else's way of doing things.
Which could present challenges, right? So anyway,
as far as the decision, right now we're going
to put it on ice and see if we can maybe make
a little bit of money in the meantime and take
this summer to really make sure that we're ready
to start bouncing back and forth across the Mason
-Dixon and chasing that warm weather, chasing
the sunshine. Well, I don't feel like we've really
hit very many warmer climate state areas. They've
mostly been cold or rainy. Well yeah, and let's
see. Snow. In our... Nonetheless. We've had three
RVs. We started out with a motorhome, a 1997
Winnebago Adventurer. We felt so blessed when
we got that. Yep and then we moved into an apartment
for a year. Sold that. Didn't have an RV for
about oh maybe what eight months. Wanted an RV.
We wanted to do the full -time thing again. So
we bought a 2004 Fleetwood Prowler. 26 foot long
travel trailer and that thing was great. We loved
it except for the bed because it was a corner
bed Oh my gosh, and it made a bad decision. Yeah,
it was not all the way around. We did not think
about that No, we we did we thought we could
maybe get used to the corner bed turns out we
couldn't it was awful So then this is our third
RV and you know what they say by the time you
buy your third RV You really know what you want.
So hopefully we made the right decision and it's
a little bit bigger And I love this thing. What
do you... Yeah, I feel like it's very suitable
and it meets our needs. Yeah, this is a 2024
Keystone Hideout 220 Midliving Slide Western
Edition. That's the model. MLSWE. And if you
want to see pictures of our travel trailer, you
can go to the restless nomads dot com. We've
got pictures or you can follow us on Facebook
too. We also have that YouTube channel you can
check out and we've got certain things. Oh, one
of the things that I did to upgrade this trailer
just recently and we haven't tested it out yet
is the new Oxygenics Fury Showerhead. Yeah. So
we're looking forward to testing that out. Absolutely.
Before our massage in the shower. I'm sure it's
not going to be like, you know, the Hilton. Oh,
that's OK. But it'll be better than that slow
dribble that we got from the stock showerhead.
So and then we also put a guard up on the screen
door because we've got two little darling pooches
that like to scratch at screens. So we got that
in and installed before they could destroy it.
One of the smartest things that. you have done
and a handle for the screen door too that was
an upgrade we made yeah and then we've got a
cell phone booster that uh that we installed
and a mast a 20 foot mast uh that's mounted to
the a frame of the trailer and all that's available
on uh on the restless nomads .com or the youtube
videos as well if you want to see all those little
nitinoid upgrades that we've done and If you
don't know how to do it, you Google it. That's
right. That's the idea. YouTube, how to fix this
stuff and how to upgrade this stuff. Don't take
it to a shop because they'll keep your RV for
two months and you won't be able to use it. And
it's always good to learn something new all the
time. It is. And it really saves you a lot of
money. It is. Yep. Well guys, I hope that you
come up and visit us here at Crescent Lake Campground.
That would be great. Yeah, come by and say you
heard us on Gold Country Radio and or you listen
to the podcast either way. We're in the host
site here at Crescent Lake Campground and we're
here all week checking in campers. So come on
by and say hi and we'll keep you guys posted
as we move through the summer. You know usually
during every job there's times where you really
question whether you're doing what you want to
be doing. That's a normal thing for every campground
host, especially around the holiday season, like
July 4th, because things just get so bananas
and really makes you wonder, what am I doing?
But that quickly fades and by the end of the
season you look back on all the time that you
spent with great fondness. It's kind of weird
how that happens. Well guys that wraps up this
episode of the Restless Nomads. Thanks for coming
back and listening to us. What would you do?
Tell us what you think. You can drop us a line
at TheRestlessNomads .com and we'll get back
to you wondering what your idea is. Of course
we will always manage the radio station Gold
Country Radio in Klamath Falls. Don't worry it's
not going off air. We'll be running that remotely
and then we'll be back in Klamath Falls periodically.
We managed a radio station there, so we got to
come back and say hi to everybody, but it's on
the horizon. Some things that we're thinking
about. Well, until next time, stay bug free,
stay adventurous, and as always, happy camping.
Can't wait to see you up here. Happy camping!
At Crescent Lake. Don't forget the bug spray.
Oh, that's right. Alright, see y 'all later.
Take care. I don't know. Bye!