What We Do As Hosts
The belief that a team goes beyond the assigned job title has always been our attitude.
We Love helping fellow team members succeed by rolling up our sleeves or with support when needed.
Want to Know More About Us?
We are Susan and Steve Smith. A couple of Nomads roaming the United States, one Workamper Job at a time. We are in our early 50’s, and want to explore until we physically can’t!
We both love meeting amazing people. A stranger is just a friend that we haven’t met yet. Providing guests with fun activities and good conversation. Helping any way we can to make their stay the best.
We take the definition of hospitality seriously
Hospitality (noun) hos·pi·tal·i·ty – /ˌhä-spə-ˈta-lə-tē/
1: hospitable treatment, reception, or disposition.
2: the activity or business of providing services to guests in hotels, restaurants, bars, etc. —usually used before another noun.1
This is one of those questions that doesn’t have a definite answer. You don’t know what you don’t know. There are lots of things we haven’t tried. But we are always up to try new jobs out!
We don’t work for free. We feel that our expertise, our problem solving and our work ethic has value. You do get what you pay for.
Our Coach: 407FW Coachman Cross Country Sports Coach. The Specs: 2016, Class A, 3 Slides, 42′ Long.
We bought our coach in January of 2021, in Wichita, KS at Gander RV.
After buying our Coach in 2021, we went on several month-long trips. We fell in love with the nomadic lifestyle. We made a 5 year and out plan.
Several things played into that decision.
Within two years Steve’s Dad, Son, and Mom has passed away. My sister Vicky had a massive stroke and is confined to a wheelchair. The cancer that Mark (my other sister Mickey’s fiancé) has fought for years was back with a vengeance.
Steve worked on the road for ten years as a Coal Yard Nuclear Density Drilling Specialist. He was home maybe three months each year. Steve was tired of missing everything and I was tired of taking care of our huge house with the 2,000 sf deck.
Time started taking on a whole new meaning.
After going on another month-long trip in Feb 2022, we decided we enjoyed the freedom of a nomadic lifestyle enough to speed up our plans. The less is more philosophy gained two new disciples! Memorial Day 2022 became the target ‘move-in’ date.
July 1, 2022 was our official ‘move in’ date!
Nope! We sold our 2,500 sf home in 2022. With Memorial Day 2022 the target date to list the house on the market. Over those next few months, we decided what to keep, what to give away, what to put in storage and what to sell. The whole month of May became ‘Estate Sales’ weekends. The weekend of May 22, Steve was home to help with the last sale. He ended up selling the house at that sale! The suburb we lived in had a very good school district, and houses didn’t come up for sale very often. So when he told a customer that the house was going to be put on the market soon, negotiations began. And ended that day with a contract to be out on July 1!
The freedom of traveling and not having a set property. No yard to mow, pool to clean or deck to stain. (Unless it is a Workamping Job). Housework takes less time and the upkeep is minimal compared to a sticks & bricks house. If we want to go see family, we can take our ‘House’ with us. We love meeting new people. And running into old friends from our previous stays. We aren’t Minimalists, but we do like the ‘less clutter’ of having less space. (It isn’t so easy to lose things!)
Sometimes the coach seems a little too small (mainly when we have too many rain days in a row). When I see a really cute piece of furniture or wall art that won’t fit in the Coach, no matter how I try to rearrange. When things break they always cost more and are harder to replace or fix, and at the most inopportune time!
What’s Normal? We definitely don’t miss our old life of rush, rush and not enough time together. Our ‘New Normal’ suits us just fine!
Steve traveled the country as a Coal Yard Nuclear Density Drilling Specialist and I worked in the office calculating coal yard volumes with GPS & Lidar surveys. OK, ok… reality check. Steve stood on a coal pile in extreme weather conditions pulling levers. I worked in a closet-sized office looking at millions of points all day. Doesn’t sound so glamorous now, does it?
We have a married daughter, son-in-law, and grandson, (Steve’s biological), a son, (Susan’s biological). They all live in the Mid-Missouri area. We also had another son (Steve’s biological), from 1994 – 2001.
They have gotten used to it. The daughter has a pad at her house that we stay on when we visit. They like it when we go to ‘cool’ places that they can come visit. We just can’t stay at any Wal-Mart parking lots overnight and we have to check in every few days. Wow, how things have changed!
There are so many places we want to go! We would like to finish exploring the East Coast in the next few years. Then start heading west. But that is the wonderful thing about having a home on wheels. Plans can change if the right opportunity comes along!
1. “Hospitality.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hospitality. Accessed 8 Feb. 2024.
