For personal reasons, I needed to be in SD (preferably near Rapid City) for the summer. I thought I’d hit the jackpot when I found a WK gig less than 1 hour south of Rapid City. The phone interviews were proforma and we quickly came to agreement. I’m not going to go into all the gory details (I’ve already posted those on a workamper review site) but the situation got to be unbearable for me.

As we like to say, your house has wheels so you can move whenever you want. I found another opportunity less than 2 hours east, gave 1 weeks notice and rolled out.

The new opportunity is something I’d looked at before just because it’s unique. The first time I saw it advertised it was just running a farm stand in a rural SD town and staying in an RV park 1 mile away. The current iteration was slightly different.

It involved actually staying on the farm and performing other duties in addition to the farm stand. There’s a lot of back road driving involved, but that’s certainly less back breaking than shoveling dirt to make sewer repairs. And there are bonuses to being on a farm. I get fresh eggs for breakfast. I get to sample a lot of produce and get the overage at times.

It’s remote though. The nearest paved road is 9 miles away and I really got concerned bringing the RV over the road. The owners have tried to make it as RV friendly as possible. There are several FHU RV sites on the property and the Wi-Fi is reliable enough to stream video.

Overall, it’s a good gig for 7 weeks but I’m still looking forward to heading east for Amazon. This far east in the state it gets HOT. Not a problem when I’m inside but the farm stand is a different story.

When you travel around the country constantly, pulling a 15000 lb trailer behind you, taking unfamiliar routes, maintaining your vehicle or getting emergency repairs can be challenging at times. I’ve broken down on the side of the road a few times and been very fortunate that my emergency roadside assistance has come through for me.

On the last trip from Gulfport MS to Custer SD, I noticed that my truck’s exhaust brake stopped working once I got to the Black Hills. I typically only use the exhaust brake on long downgrades so I don’t have to abuse the regular disc brakes. There were only a few downgrades where I would’ve used the exhaust brake and they were manageable without it.

But, that still left me with the problem of getting it repaired. It was not a standard item when I ordered the truck. I had it installed about a year and a half after I bought it. Coincidentally, the work was done by a Dodge dealer in Rapid City SD, less than an hour away. But since that time, I’ve also learned a few things about the brake. The kit that was installed was actually a Jacobs exhaust brake, spec’d by Cummins and designed specifically for the Cummins engine in my truck. The parts needed for repairs cost significantly less when ordered directly from Cummins instead of through a Dodge dealer.

Armed with that knowledge, I started looking for a suitable shop to make the repairs. I found a Cummins service shop in Gillette WY, about 2 hours away. That’s a long drive but I could be fairly confident they’d have the expertise and the parts readily available. Since it wasn’t an urgently needed repair, I kept looking for other options. While driving through Rapid City, I noticed a truck repair shop that had a Cummins sign hung outside.

I contacted them and found out they typically worked on bigger trucks but were willing to discuss mine. They didn’t have anyone with actual experience with my exhaust brake. After providing them with a lot of information, they were leaning towards buying the whole kit (about $1300) and replacing all components. Based on a previous repair I was pretty sure I knew which part needed replacing. They were going to do more research after I balked at the entire kit. Don’t know how they’re doing on that since I never heard back from them.

Before I realized they were going to abandon the project, I started doing my own research. I found the installation manual and identified all the components under my hood, then started looking online for the one part I thought needed to be replaced – the vacuum pump diaphragm. Found one on eBay for $85, shipped. Since it looked like a fairly easy replacement, I rolled the dice and ordered it that night.

After it got here, the installation was not that simple. Actually, the removal of the old part was almost impossible the way I was going about it. Just as I was ready to remove a front wheel and wheel well to get a better angle on the bolts, one of my fellow workampers stopped by to offer assistance. After looking at the situation, he returned with a special ratchet from Snap-On and we were able to get the old part off in about 15 minutes. (I checked afterwards and that ratchet was selling on eBay for $165) Anyway, an hour later and the repair was complete. I held my breath and turned the key. Much to my delight, it started right up. When I activated the exhaust brake, I heard the expected change in engine sounds and the test drive confirmed the braking ability.

Workamping does have advantages besides a free site or a paycheck. I had the luxury of time to compare options. You normally have access to campground tools and resources, and other workampers who may have specialized tools or experience. Part of the repair required adding about 1 ounce of engine oil to the new pump. Since I had access to the garage, I didn’t need to run downtown and buy a quart of oil just to use an ounce.

I’ve written previously about working the sugar beet harvest, Amazon peak and various campgrounds or RV parks. These are the more traditional methods of ‘workamping’ that many people are aware of but they’re not the only ways to make extra money. There are some internet groups dedicated to helping people find non-traditional ways to support an RVing lifestyle.

Many of these options are more or less telecommuting jobs. They’re geared toward folks without a retirement income yet. They can include jobs such as accounting, proofreading, transcription, website design and teaching. Pretty much any job that does not require a physical presence can be done from virtually anywhere you have a good internet connection. These options are great for someone who still wants to work fulltime but I just don’t need that much extra income each month.

Some people in my situation perform services on the road (RV repair, hair care, pet grooming, massage). I tried in person computer support for a couple of years but discovered that RVers can be a very frugal bunch of people when it comes to computer services. Others sell arts and crafts. Count me out on that one. I’ve never been very artsy or crafty.

Tally ho! I stumbled across something recently that seems to be right up my alley. The website is http://app.usertesting.com

Companies with websites or smartphone/tablet apps are always trying to improve and need a lot of unbiased user input to make decisions. They contact usertesting.com and get testers to perform specific tasks and provide opinions and impressions.

Before I explain further, I need to emphasize that this is NOT a way to get rich or replace a fulltime income. It’s also not very steady work. When I first signed up, I had to create a basic profile and complete an in-house test. They listened to it, graded me, offered suggestions and cleared me to accept live tests. Between signing up and being cleared for actual work took only a couple of days.

So, I signed in to their website and waited for tests to start popping up. At this point, it really helps if you’re a multitasker. It could be hours between tests popping on your page so you don’t want to just sit there staring at the monitor all day long. Your computer will ding when a test pops in. Prepare yourself for a little more frustration here. Each client wants a particular skillset or demographic to check their website or app. You probably won’t qualify for most tests. When you do qualify, accept it quickly since only a limited number of people will get paid for it.

Within a day or 2, I qualified for a test. I completed it and thought I did a fairly good job. According to my dashboard, I had earned $10. They pay to a PayPal account exactly 7 days to the hour after you upload a test. Now, enter more frustration. Your first live test has to be manually graded by someone at usertesting before you can take another test. They were backlogged after my first test and I had to wait nearly 3 weeks before I could take another test. After that, I started qualifying for several tests a week. Depending on how much time you want to spend, you could probably make $50-$100 a week.

Again, this is not going to make you rich but it could pay for dinners out or campground fees without breaking your back or putting in set hours for someone else.

Well, it’s been 7 years since I’ve wandered the aisles of an Amazon fulfillment center during the Christmas rush. I’m at a different location now. The last time was at Campbellsville KY, where the RV park was a short 2 block walk from work. Now I’m working at Murfreesboro TN and staying in an RV park in Smyrna TN. That’s about a 20 minute drive down I 24, usually not too bad but metro Nashville traffic can really get intense. The first few days I used Google Maps and about 6 times per trip I would get a notice about a disabled vehicle.

Is the work any different? Not really. There are a few small differences that I’ve noticed. Here at BNA3 (Amazon slang for Murfreesboro) , they have 2 start of shift briefing locations instead of the 1 at Campbellsville. That means you have to get logged in to your scanner a few minutes early to see which side you’ll be picking and go to the correct briefing/stretching location. They also use walkie talkies extensively. That makes it much easier to get help anywhere in the warehouse but it also means they can’t pipe music out to take our minds off the drudgery of the work.

After a 7 year break, I obviously had questions about my physical abilities. Good news/bad news there. 3 weeks in and I haven’t been bothered by blisters or chafing rashes like the first time. My feet are in fairly good shape. I can still walk after a 10 hour shift without problem. But…… have you ever heard a sportscaster talk about an athlete losing a step late in their career? I know the true meaning of that now. While I can still scoot down the aisle at a pretty quick pace, it’s not quite as fast as it used to be. I got one more surprise – my eyesight. Those scanners have fairly small type so I frequently have to use my reading glasses. I don’t use glasses for distance or own bifocals so I do a lot of flipping the glasses on and off the top of my head.

My attitude has also changed. The first time around I was constantly trying to get the highest numbers possible, strictly an ego thing. This time I’ve come to a couple of realizations. First, no matter how quick I pick, my pick rates will always be limited by the scanner and by the stowers. The scanner tells me where to go and what to pick. If it sends me on a 20 second walk to pick just one item several times an hour, my numbers will be low. The best hour I had at Campbellsville was standing at a bin full of gift cards for the better part of an hour, picking 10 or 20 at a time without moving. Stowers are the people who put merchandise in the bins for me to pick. If they jam a bin with many similar items, I have to spend extra time pawing through the entire bin for the one item I need. Beyond those 2 limitations, it simply doesn’t make sense for me to kill myself trying to get high numbers. I get paid the same regardless of my pick rate. As long as I meet Amazon standards, I keep getting paid. They also print out reports of all the pickers rates and hang those on a board for review. There are still many pickers with lower numbers than me so I feel fairly secure in my job.

Right now, I have 4 work weeks left. At least 2 of those will be 50 hour weeks. I’ve done one 50 hour week so far but the extra day was in the middle of my 3 day weekend. Future overtime will be 5 days in a row so I’ll be a very tired puppy by the end of the week. The permanent employees refer to a workday as 4 quarters, marked by 2 breaks and lunch. After talking to some coworkers, it seems like many of us are surviving from one quarter to the next. With my first pick of the day, I start counting down to the first break, then to lunch, then to the afternoon break. Maybe they need to figure out a way to get that music in the warehouse to get our minds off that.

My last scheduled shift is 12/21. I’ll take a few days off and tow the 5th wheel down to MS for the winter.

For the second time in as many months, I’m truly grateful that I maintained my YMCA membership instead of cancelling when I left Sequim WA. I’ve visited the Y at every location since I left Sequim but it didn’t seem quite so vital as recently. Last month the hot tub and sauna were used as often as possible during the cold weather snaps at the sugar beet harvest, This month I started at Amazon. I’m a picker again, which involves miles of walking on concrete every day. I just finished my first full week and feel better than expected. But, these next 3 days off will certainly find me at the local YMCA, in the whirlpool, letting those hot water jets work their magic on my feet.

It is now October 31st and I’ve officially finished my last shift at the Sabin MN piling station. It’s been a very trying month, with lots of downtime due to weather. The actual work hasn’t been too bad although there were a few times we got slammed as farmers tried to play catch up. I was slightly surprised at the number of people who left early, or hired on late and only lasted a few days. These were mostly local people, not the RVers. We’ve had short shifts the last couple of days and that came in handy to prep the RV for travel again. Looks like I’ve done OK financially although I won’t have final numbers until my last check in about a week. At this point, I’m really looking forward to hitching up in the morning and heading south to get out of these frigid temps.