PBS News Hour

JUDY WOODRUFF

The pandemic has spurred a surge in camping and R.V. travel, as social distancing has become one of the catchphrases of COVID-19. But it's not all fun and vacations. One group of Americans has long since adopted a self-sufficient lifestyle, living full-time in motor homes and working seasonal jobs to support themselves. Our economics correspondent, Paul Solman, has the story. It's part of our Making Sense series Unfinished Business.

And a note

Some of this story was shot before the pandemic began. DARLA MCLAIN,

Workamper

This is the couch that turns into a bed.

PAUL SOLMAN

To Darla McLain, 64, and husband Bill, also 64, a former biker and hell-raiser, this is home sweet home. BILL MCLAIN,

Workamper

Our whole bedroom is done all in Levi's. These are all my old pants.

PAUL SOLMAN

The McLains have been living in an R.V. since 2010, after the Great Recession sank their L.A. motorcycle repair shop and their home.

BILL MCLAIN

We had a $700,000 house that we owed about $200,000 on that sold for $131,000.

DARLA MCLAIN

On the auction block.

PAUL SOLMAN

Broke, the McLains sold what was left and hit the road.

DARLA MCLAIN

It was that or rent an apartment and get jobs locally. But there were no jobs.

PAUL SOLMAN

So, they drove to where the work was.

BILL MCLAIN

Our first job was Amazon in Coffeyville, Kansas.

PAUL SOLMAN

A two-month stint in the warehouse, holiday rush.

DARLA MCLAIN

It was pretty rough. They expect certain numbers, and you have to hustle.

PAUL SOLMAN

Bill over-hustled.

DARLA MCLAIN

He blew his knee out.

BILL MCLAIN

I don't normally walk at 60 miles an hour pushing a heavy cart going around 90-degree turns.

PAUL SOLMAN

Amazon was the first of some 20 seasonal gigs. When we first met them last fall, the McLains were parked across from a Las Vegas Ikea to peddle pumpkins and then Christmas trees.

BILL MCLAIN

With us, we have what we call wheel estate. We just we just take the covers off, lift the levelers, fire it up, and we go where the economy is good.

PAUL SOLMAN

Tens of thousands of retirement-age Americans are migrant laborers, or workampers, driven by economic necessity and wanderlust. This is Judy Arnold's fourth year workamping. She's been tending a store in Yellowstone National Park since June. JUDY ARNOLD,

Workamper

It wasn't very busy at first, but, as time went on, it got busier and busier, until we have more people now than we have had in regular seasons. People are just tired of being cooped up at home, and they thought, let's go to the parks.

PAUL SOLMAN

More sightseers, drawn away from COVID and back to nature, means a lot more work for a workamper like Arnold.

JUDY ARNOLD

I'm doing the work of three people right now.

PAUL SOLMAN

The pandemic has driven an awful lot of Americans onto the road, but the number of mobile-living, gig-hopping workampers has been growing for years. Every January, hordes convene in Quartzsite, Arizona, the site of an annual R.V. show. That's where we met 66-year-old Susan Otteros. SUSAN OTTEROS,

Workamper

You end up in these really neat places, like Yosemite.

PAUL SOLMAN

Otteros works as a camp host. Main tasks? Checking in campers and, if you're up for it, cleaning.

SUSAN OTTEROS

I don't do the bathrooms. (LAUGHTER) My boyfriend does the bathrooms. I collect the money. (LAUGHTER)

PAUL SOLMAN

Mitch Craighead drafts camp hosts for Thousand Trails campsites. How many 75-year-olds do you recruit? MITCH CRAIGHEAD,

Thousand Trails Campgrounds

More than you would expect. Baby boomers are retiring. The pool of workers that we're hiring for is growing dramatically.

PAUL SOLMAN

That was in January. The company declined to give us specifics, but Mitchell says campgrounds are busier than these days.

MITCH CRAIGHEAD

We have always looked at ourselves in the camping industry as the original social distancing. And a lot of our new customers are telling us just that. We have seen a significant spike in reservations for the remainder of the camping year this year.

PAUL SOLMAN

At the R.V. show, workamping veterans Rick and Tammie Wommack moved into their motor home nine years ago, after their son died by suicide. TAMMIE WOMMACK,

Workamper

We started out with what we call our Journey for Joshua, which was to honor our son. But the reality after that three years was, it's expensive to live on the road. You need new tires. Maintenance costs are high.

PAUL SOLMAN

And big campers get just seven miles a gallon. So, for the past seven years, they have worked the North Dakota sugar beet harvest.

TAMMIE WOMMACK

I didn't even know what a sugar beet was. I thought sugar came from sugarcane, because where I come from, it does, you know, Dixie Crystal. But, instead, 55 percent of our sugar comes from sugar beets, instead of sugarcane, in the country.

PAUL SOLMAN

Muddy 12-hour shifts at $14 an hour, plus overtime, until the beets run out. Some nomad gigs pay a lot more than that. Ms. J. transports R.V.s from manufacturer to dealer, and sees the country. MS. J.,

Workamper

I can pick the jobs I want to take to go see various destinations. So, if there's an R.V. that needs to go to Florida, which I have done this, delivered in Miami, I went on over to Key West

PAUL SOLMAN

And how much do you get paid for that?

MS. J.

I would say somewhere between $60,000 and $75,000.

PAUL SOLMAN

That's $60,000 to $75,000 a year, driving four days a week. These days, R.V.s are selling like hot cakes, but Ms. J. is sitting out the pandemic in a tiny house in Georgia until next year.

MS. J.

The cases are up, especially for certain communities, communities of color. And I'm -- I know quite a few of people who have been affected. And so I just kind of choose to lay low until things kind of simmer down a little bit.

PAUL SOLMAN

Can you afford to?

MS. J.

I can. I have been doing this pattern over a number of years, where I was able to financially prepare myself for the what-ifs. And this is one of those what-ifs.

PAUL SOLMAN

Back in January, in the big tent, there were hawkers of tire pressure monitors, R.V. window-cleaners, orthotics. We reconnected with Bill and Darla McLain, who'd driven here from Mexico, where they go for affordable health care.

BILL MCLAIN

Shrimp tacos are killer. (LAUGHTER) We have a great pharmacist down there. We get glasses and our teeth worked on. I don't know why -- how they can charge so much for stuff here that you can go right down there and get the same thing for a fraction of the price.

PAUL SOLMAN

But the McLains were at the R.V. show for a gig, to sign up other workampers as oil field gate guards.

BILL MCLAIN

You have to man the gate 24 hours a day. They pay $150 a day for that.

PAUL SOLMAN

Now, look, workamping obviously isn't for everyone. Does this interest you?

MAN

No, not at all.

PAUL SOLMAN

And why is that?

MAN

Because I retired for a reason. I don't want to go back to work.

PAUL SOLMAN

But Bill and Sandy Collins liked what they heard. They workamp, helping fund their wanderings. SANDY COLLINS,

Workamper

We work Adventureland. Then we go to J.C. Penney and then...

PAUL SOLMAN

Doing what?

SANDY COLLINS

Working in the warehouse at J.C. Penney's.

PAUL SOLMAN

Even in bankruptcy, J.C. Penney's warehouse is still running. And as, at Amazon, you have to step lively. BILL COLLINS,

Workamper

On Thursday, I walked 23,355 steps.

PAUL SOLMAN

According to 72-year-old Bill's smartphone, that is.

BILL COLLINS

And as long as I keep doing it, then I think my health is going to stay a lot better than I would if I sat down.

PAUL SOLMAN

That's one of the appeals of workamping to George Stoutenburgh. GEORGE STOUTENBURGH,

Workamper

I can't see myself stopping work. I can't do nothing. What is nothing? You sit around and, what, wait to die? That's not me.

PAUL SOLMAN

But he also needs the money. GEORGE STOUTENBURGH, It's not like we're broke, but we're certainly not millionaires. We can't afford to just travel the world and do whatever we want to do. That would be a wonderful thing, but it's not my life. Judy Arnold's current Yellowstone gig has kept her more than busy, but, when it ends in October, she isn't sure what she will do.

JUDY ARNOLD

There's a huge population of us that are still in limbo, wondering if there is a next job to go to. And a lot of my co-workers, where they normally go, the places aren't open. So, I'm definitely worried, because I definitely need an income.

PAUL SOLMAN

As for Bill and Darla McLain, they have been parked outside their daughter's house in Arkansas for several months, making repairs to the R.V.

BILL MCLAIN

I think, for the most part, we have been surviving and trying to get through this, like most people are. It is a little weird for R.V.ers. I know that for a fact. It's not the easiest thing in the world to find a place.

DARLA MCLAIN

It's not really that we can't travel. It's just once you get where you're going...

BILL MCLAIN

Where do you stay?

PAUL SOLMAN

But, this weekend, they're getting back on the road, headed to a new job, working and hoping to find places to camp. For the "PBS NewsHour," this is Paul Solman.