One of the cheapest, and often the best, ways to travel is to live at a flea market.
You pick a permanent market and stay right there. Many RV’ers do this. Almost every state in the nation has markets that let dealers stay overnight; usually on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Many have RV parks tied to them for vendors. Some allow you to park right
behind your booth and stay there by the week or even the month. Often, parking is free or there is just a small charge for electricity.
A lot of markets even have showers and laundry rooms for dealers. If you stay at one of these markets for a few weeks, you will meet some really nice vendors; the kind that never hesitate to help you out in a jam.
I set up in one of these markets in Ga. a few years ago. By the time I got there, we were down to about $100 in reserve. The front oil seal was leaking on the motor -
like 1 quart every 100 miles.
We pulled in and found the manager. I rented a double booth by the week and yes, you could set up every day if you wanted to. I pulled the rig right in behind the booth, unloaded some merchandise on to tables that were supplied by the market.
Next, I put a tarp over the stuff and was basically tucked in for a whole week. At that time, the total cost for a double booth plus free parking behind (no hookups) was $ 17 dollars!
Copyright © 2004 Larry L. Austin
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Living does not get much cheaper in this country. Live and sell right out of the same spot. There are places like this all over the country.
Road Travel Note:
If, for some reason you get sick - I mean hospital sick, take some advice I got from an old road Carney. Before you allow the hospital to toss you to the wolves ( the pot-luck doctors), politely and confidently ask a couple of nurses if they have any recommendations about a good doctor for you.
Remember, the nurses are the ones who see the doctor screw-ups and they know
who has the highest body count and malpractice law suits against them!!
Copyright © 2004 Larry L. Austin
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Chapter Twenty Six
Part Time Work at Campgrounds
It is not uncommon for RV’ers to work part-time at a campground in exchange for a free site for the RV, including hook ups. Check out the publication called The Caretaker Gazette
Gary C. Dunn
The Caretaker Gazette
PO Box 540
River Falls, WI 54022 USA
Phone: (715) 426-5500
E-Mail: caretaker@caretaker.org
Another related publication is the:
Workamper News (ISSN: 0895-3678) is published bi-monthly (6 issues per year) and is delivered via First Class mail.
Publisher: Debbie Robus
Editor: Greg Robus
Address:
709 West Searcy Street, Heber Springs, Arkansas 72543-3761
Phone: (501) 362-2637 Fax: (501) 362-6769
Copyright © 2004 Larry L. Austin
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Email: info@workamper.com Website: http://www.workamper.com/
Way out West in New Mexico, I often parked right behind the in-town flea market.
This was an ordinance NO-NO. The flea market manager let the cops know that I was “night security”. This worked out great. I parked near the backdoor of the market for free and the cops left me alone.
It’s only human nature to want to help others. So if you are honest, polite, and friendly, you can get by just about anywhere.
One time, I pulled into my favorite campground in Deming, New Mexico. I was
running the high road; a late-model 40 foot Coachman Fifth Wheel and a big,
shiny, red truck to pull it. A new partner. It was great!
One problem… people were really friendly, too friendly. We were always being offered things to buy. Everyone was nice as long as they thought they had their hand on my wallet. If that didn’t work, they stopped being friendly.
A couple of years later, I pulled into the same campground with my trusty 1977
Toyota Chinook motor home ( I still have both of them).
I rented a spot for a month. At that time, it was 100 dollars a month which
included water and sewer hookups. Cable TV was an extra 6 dollars per month.
At the end of the month the total came to 126 dollars including the electric. Not too bad considering it was close to everything, had a nice recreation room, clean restrooms, a laundromat and a hot tub to use whenever you wanted.
Boy - was it different. People were honestly friendly with us (yes, I know - the poor drifters, just trying to get from here to there, blah, blah, blah).
Copyright © 2004 Larry L. Austin
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This time around they were giving us stuff, not trying to sell us stuff. Several times, we would come back to the RV site and there would be bags full of stuff left for us; clothes, shoes, kitchen gadgets… it was great.
Friends that we made in the campground took us out for dinner. Often, they would give us a ride to the grocery store so we wouldn’t have to unhook our little rig. I loved it. Give me the low road any day!!
Copyright © 2004 Larry L. Austin
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