My job as a writer affords me the opportunity to meet numerous interesting individuals; some of whom have exclusively chosen volunteerism as their Workamping lifestyle. When Lee and I met Ken and Patti Marsh as they served as interpreters at San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, we discovered that they are indeed professional volunteers. We also noted that they thoughtfully planned for their lifestyle.

“For four years, we researched RVing,” Patti says. “Since we are drawn to old houses, we were drawn to a vintage coach.” They found their 1989 Wanderlodge Bluebird, and bought it two years prior to the sale of their Minnesota home and their ultimate retirement. “Basically, we have a house that drives down the road,” Patti continues. “We had to do maintenance on our house built in 1929, and we have to maintain our coach.”

Seven feline traveling companions are their first priority. “We didn’t want slide-outs because every time we roll, we don’t want to take census to make sure one is not caught in a sliding room,” she says.

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There’s a saying in South Texas: Every Texan has two hometowns.  Their own and San Antonio.  Residents in the multicultural city extend that same hospitality to folks beyond Texas borders.  With an average annual temperature of 69 degrees and 300 days a year of clear, blue skies, San Antonio is a city with a climate as warm as its welcome.  The city and its surrounding area, offering a multitude of sights, events, cross-cultural festivals, music, and food, sums up an ideal location for RVers for a stop-over or even a winter's stay. Lee and I spent a full week exploring the city's historic sites, museums, the famous River Walk, and the old missions. From our RV park, we rode a city bus each day into the downtown and followed their signage to various places.

Major interstate freeways lead into San Antonio, making it a crossroads connecting the United States’ east and west coasts and the countries of Mexico and Canada.  An outer loop surrounds the city itself, but all freeways lead into the central business district.

Cowboys, padres, and pioneers settled along the banks of the San Antonio River, joining the Native Americans who already made that part of the country their home.  Today the river's winding waters, tamed by mossy-rocked walls, remain the lifeblood of the city. Stairs lead to a level below the bustling metropolis where brick and pebble pathways make up the River Walk. Passenger barges slip under stone archways and around gentle curves.  Trees, bent from years of resisting the river’s force, sway like canopies over the still waters.

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Imagine visiting Russia, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Hawaii, Australia, and Ecuador—without a passport. That’s what Lee and I did in mid-April when Silver Dollar City near Branson, Missouri, hosted these countries—or states—at America’s Largest International Festival. Five new shows topped the schedule; each one representing a unique culture and style of music. At least four groups representing Russia, Ireland, Austria, and Ecuador returned to the City’s stages.

The boot-shaped country of Italy, bringing one of the five new shows, transformed the Red-Gold Heritage Hall and its courtyard into “Little Italy.” Elegantly-dressed ladies and gentlemen straight out of story book pictures strolled the Italian Market Place, nodding and bowing to guests as though we were all attending a fancy ball. On pedestals, statuettes stood in silence; yet from the corner of my eye, I caught a slight—and discreet—change of pose. Under the arbors, vines mysteriously came to life and a royal Italian couple passed on stilts. Inside the Red-Gold Heritage Hall, we sat at small tables set up like an outdoor café. Italian chefs with operatic voices introduced “La Bella Musica,” translated as “The Beautiful Music.” One chef even bowed and kissed my hand.

The voice of Aaron Caruso, a classically trained tenor with performances in Carnegie Hall to his credit, mesmerized the audience with classic love songs and operatic favorites. Soprano Melanie Goerlitz captured hearts with her clear voice, her blonde beauty, and her stage poised personality. The two were joined onstage by world-champion accordion artiste, Cory Pesaturo. A nine-piece orchestra, appropriately costumed as Venetian gondoliers, accompanied the program.

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 While in Arizona, I discovered stories of many strong women who homesteaded ranches and built towns in the Arizona Territory. They raised families, tended livestock, and grew gardens. Many also endured dust and drought, wildfires and flash floods, arrows of warring Indians, deaths of husbands and children, and a few unscrupulous neighbors. Sarah Agnes Prine, great-grandmother of author, Nancy E. Turner, is one of those women. In diary format, Turner captured the life of a pioneer woman, creating scenes of turmoil and tension, self-sacrifice, and simple living. Turner writes in her description of her first book, These Is My Words, “I met my great-grandmother Sarah only once when I was young…. The first thing I saw was her gnarled and very aged hands. …I was afraid to get close enough for her to touch me, but I also remember crying and being pulled from her lap when it was time to leave, so she must have had a way about her that helped me overcome my fears.”

Turner goes on to explain that These Is My Words was inspired by her family’s oral history of the real Sarah Agnes Prine. She sets the record straight about writing in diary format. Much of her family’s written history was lost when Sarah’s house burned down in 1958. Sarah Agnes Prine did not leave a diary. Turner used her imagination to write the stories related by her grandmother Minnie about Sarah Agnes Prine. She told Turner that her mother ranched and worked like a man all her life. Turner wrote the three books as she believed Sarah might have written her day-to-day existence in a diary, including such rules for her life as laid down by her dad: “A nice girl never goes anywhere without a loaded gun and a big knife.” According to family stories, Sarah also knew how to use those weapons with great skill.

Turner says Sarah Agnes Prine gave birth to nine children in her own bed in a tiny wooden house with no running water or electricity. Some of the names Turner used in These Is My Words, and in Sarah’s Quilt and The Star Garden, two sequels that continue the saga of her great-grandmother’s life, are real, but some are invented. She says each of Sarah’s nine children had tales of their mother, describing her as larger than life. It was said she could out-ride and out-rope her five brothers, work all morning as hard as a ranch hand, and then go to the house and kill and cook two chickens for dinner, in between sewing, washing, and gardening.

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Recently, the NBC Today Show aired a segment on trends for retirees. At the end of their feature, Workamping received a nominal mention—linked to the phrase “…working in campgrounds.” An audience unfamiliar with RVing probably did not even pick up on the word “Workamping.” The host himself likely has no idea that Workamping or Workamper has a registered definition that would look a bit like this in a dictionary:

Workampers - wor·kampers ’wer-kam-persn -                                                                 adventuresome individuals and couples who have chosen a wonderful lifestyle that combines all kinds of full or part-time work with RV camping.

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One hundred years ago in the dark morning hours of April 15, 1912, the Titanic, the largest and most luxurious ship in the world, plunged to the ocean floor. Touted by her builders as unsinkable, a mammoth iceberg turned the Titanic’s maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City into the greatest maritime disaster ever known. The inky black sea swallowed 1,317 of her passengers and 891 crewmen. The ship, Carpathia, steaming 58 miles away came to the rescue of 712 passengers, mostly women and children.

The Titanic Museums with locations in Branson, Missouri, and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, step back to 1912, giving each guest the boarding pass of a particular traveler on that legendary ship. “Passengers” experience what it was like to walk the hallways, parlors, cabins and the Grand Staircase of the Titanic while surrounded by artifacts and exhibits that tell the story of the ship’s history and fate. First Class Maids, Captain E.J. Smith, and other crew members bring the timeline and heroic stories of that crucial night to life. At the end of the tour, guests discover the fate of the particular person whose boarding pass he or she held.

Together, the two museums represent the largest permanent monuments in the world dedicated to the memory of Titanic. Immediately recognizable for their ship-shape design, the museums are homes to hundreds of artifacts from the ship and its survivors. The concept for the two venues is the same. At the Branson location Molly and Carter, Titanic's mascots, are a daily presence as a tribute to the dogs that were on board the ship. The Pigeon Forge location is larger with a section called Tot-Titanic, designed for children age nine and under. These small guests get to steer the ship, talk to a polar bear, and try and put the ship back together.

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One February day, we drove from Lake Havasu City, Arizona, to have lunch at a favorite little restaurant not far from Parker Dam, an arch-gravity dam across the Colorado River between the borders of Arizona and California. At 320 feet in height, with 235 feet below the riverbed, Parker Dam is considered to be the deepest dam in the world. Its primary functions are to create the wide, blue reservoir of Lake Havasu and to generate hydroelectric power. Controversy between Arizona and California over water rights set up a disagreement on the construction of the picturesque dam, which started in the mid-1930s. According to Parker historian, Deanna Beaver, the hullabaloo was strong enough that then-governor B.B. Moeur declared martial law in the town of Parker and mobilized 100 troops of the Arizona National Guard to resist invasion on Arizona soil. Upon their arrival in Parker, the guardsmen initiated a plan of action that included the use of two local ferryboats flying the Arizona flag. As a part of the town’s colorful history, the boats were dubbed “the Arizona Navy.” Without this debate, no doubt, Arizona’s water rights would be mandated differently today. In fact, the water allotments were not settled by the Supreme Court until 1963, and the court has had to adjust the agreement several times since, most recently in 2000.

Highway 95 between Lake Havasu City and Parker is one of Arizona’s most scenic drives. The rugged mountains range in color from chocolate to sandstone to russet, and sometimes even violet. Yellow brittlebush typically blooms along the road side.  Desert plants that reminded me of clumps of feather dusters dotted many of the lava rock-strewn hillsides. Between the jagged mountains, we caught glimpses of the snaking Colorado River, and then a wider view as we drove over a bridge spanning the fork to the Bill Williams River.

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The people of Arizona—indeed, the whole of America—owe a debt of gratitude for the vision of Sharlot Hall in preserving Arizona’s frontier history in a museum complex at Prescott, Arizona. Born in Kansas, but moving with her family to Arizona Territory at age eleven, Sharlot Hall became a ranch woman, a historian, a writer and poet, and a woman with political influence. Although she had some education in public schools, first for a couple of brief terms in a log-and-adobe schoolhouse four miles from her family’s ranch, she was largely self-educated.  At a young age, she showed an interest and talent in poetry. But childhood days were spent with her brother on the Hall homestead, Orchard Ranch, raising horses, tending pigs and cows, and growing vegetables, apples, and pears. Later, she boarded in Prescott for one year of schooling in town. Upon graduation she attended the Cumnock School of Expression in Los Angeles. However, she did not receive an honorary Bachelor of Arts from the University of Arizona until 1921, more than a decade after she had made her mark in Arizona literature and politics.

At age 20, she had sold her first article to a children's magazine, and within two years, she was recognized as a journalist, poet, and essayist. Sharlot became a regular contributor to a magazine Land of Sunshine, which later changed its title to Out West. In 1906, she was promoted to associate editor for the magazine. During the years she contributed to Out West, legislation to admit Arizona Territory and New Mexico Territory as a single combined state was proposed in the U.S. Congress. Sharlot opposed the measure and toured the territory, gathering opposition for the bill. In a 64-page article for Out West, she touted Arizona’s numerous resources and the importance of the territory becoming an independent state. She wrote the epic poem Arizona, mocking the proposal. After it appeared in several publications, a copy of the poem was placed on every Congressman’s desk on the day of the vote. The legislation was defeated, partly due to her efforts.

In 1909, Sharlot became the first woman to hold a salaried territorial office when she was appointed as Territorial Historian. Her first compilation of poems, Cactus and pine: Songs of the Southwest, was published. During her tenure as historian, she visited prehistoric ruins and Indian reservations, collecting pioneer material throughout Arizona. In 1911, Sharlot made a 10-week wagon trip to the Arizona Strip above Grand Canyon in an effort to raise awareness of the area's potential among Arizona residents. The trip’s goal was to prevent Utah from obtaining the region as Nevada had obtained Pah-Ute County in 1866.  However, in 1912, the year Arizona gained statehood, she resigned as Territorial Historian and returned to her family ranch to care for her parents.

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On a sunny February day, Lee and I left the high desert at North Ranch Park in Congress, Arizona, and climbed the distant mountain to the sleepy old mining town of Yarnell. Our destination for the day? Prescott. (we learned it is pronounced “pres-kit,” much like we Southerners say “biskit.”) We traveled the highway through Yarnell and drove past ranches in Peeples Valley, admiring the desert grazing lands fenced for miles with bright white rails. We climbed higher in elevation and the landscape changed dramatically to pine forests and green mountainsides. Our road twisted around and through mountains that reached 6,100 feet in one peak. What a contrast in Arizona terrain from the desert floor at Yuma to green mountains and crisp, cool air at Prescott.

We walked around Prescott’s historic square centered with the courthouse plaza, a park-like setting under huge old elm trees, of course, leafless on our winter visit. However, people sat on sunlit benches and a few walked dogs around its perimeter. We were told that on summer nights, cultural events and musical performances happen there. Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican nominee for president, launched his presidential campaign from the steps of Prescott's Yavapai County Courthouse. The Goldwater name figures prominently in Prescott’s history with the Goldwater and Brother’s Store dating back to 1876. Today, shops and restaurants line sidewalks across the street on four sides of the square, one named Whiskey Row back in the early days due to its high number of saloons. Today, the street sign remains, but many of the buildings house upscale shops and eateries, as well as a few modern-day saloons.

Prescott, under the shadow of its landmark peak called Thumb Butte, did not exist when President Lincoln signed the bill that separated New Mexico from Arizona in 1963. But with the Civil War raging, and the discovery off gold near the headwaters of the Hassayampa River, the President saw the importance of locating the territorial capital in the Bradshaw Mountains near that wealth.  Certainly, he did not want Arizona’s Territorial Capital to be in southern Arizona near Picacho Peak populated with sympathizer to the Confederate cause. During the fall of 1964, construction started on the buildings of Fort Whipple and on the Territorial Governor’s Mansion, still in its same location on the grounds of the Sharlot Hall Museum. And so, Prescott began, growing from a rough and tumble mountain hamlet to an upscale retirement community. In 2011, Smart Money/Wall Street Journal named the mountain town as the second-best place in the U.S. to retire.  and destination for RV travelers.

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In the early morning hours of February 29, 2012, an EF-2 tornado whirled over Branson, Missouri, and ripped down the typically-packed Highway 76, more commonly known among residents and visitors as “The Branson Strip.” Fortunately, no fatalities and only about three dozen minor injuries were reported. Yet the devastation touched six of Branson’s 50 theatres, 22 of the more than 200 hotels, and 26 of the town’s numerous restaurants and eateries, displacing entertainers with no stages and support staff with no businesses to serve. Also many other stores and homes throughout Stone and Taney Counties sustained major damage and power outage as a result of the storm that swirled from a nighttime sky.

But Branson has heart. Branson has faith, and Branson has good neighbors who were already pitching in by daylight to clean up, restore, and rebuild. Branson Mayor Raeanne Presley said, ‘We have some broken places, but we’re going to fix them. We are blessed that no one died due to this tornado, and our thoughts and prayers go out to those families who did lose loved ones as a result of this large storm system that affected much of the Midwest. We’ve been touched by the outpouring of support from around the nation. We forget how many years and how many millions of guests we have welcomed to Branson. During times of great struggle, we are renewed by our guests’ love of Branson.”

Timothy Haygood, whose family owns Americana Theatre, arrived on the scene at 2:00 a.m. on February 29 to clean up, move equipment, and assess the damage to their building. He noted that many businesses were hit hard, but he expressed a pride in the city’s fire, police, and electric utility crews for their work in helping Branson recover. “Americana Theatre hosts four shows: 3 Redneck Tenors, Todd Oliver and Friends, Cassandre’ Haygood, and Joseph Hall’s Elvis Rock N’ Remember, and employs over 60 people who are counting on us to rebuild,” Timothy said. “I will personally make it happen. The Americana Theatre will be back in 45 days with Dad Haygood’s construction company leading the way.” The Haygoods moved their show in 2012 to the RFD-TV Theatre, which did not receive damage and the schedule of shows at this facility is on target.

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