During our 2 years on the road we’ve experienced several different workamping opportunities. First we tried paid seasonal work at a JC Penney distribution center (Sep-Dec 2019) and then volunteer work at Lake Mead National Recreation Area (Jan-Mar 2020). Recently our friends Steve and Joan told us about a workamping opportunity in our home state of Texas, so we arranged to join them for some volunteer time at Northeast Texas Community College (NTCC) for workamping experience 3.0.
Northeast Texas Community College is located in a rural setting just outside of Mount Pleasant, Texas. This small public college offers a large variety of degree and certificate programs for its 3000+ students. Plant Services is the department responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of NTCC. They offer several community-based programs that help improve the assistance they provide to the college—one of those is the Workamper Program.
Tom Ramler is the head of the Plant Services team at NTCC. He and his folks are very welcoming and supportive of workampers. There is a nice campground area with 5 spots currently, but plans are in the works to add 3 or 4 more spots in 2021. Workampers are given free rent and utilities, including WiFi and a mailbox, in return for weekly volunteer hours to help the Plant Services team. As a workamper, you can choose work that fits with your skills or you can learn new skills. You also have the flexibility to decide the days and hours that best fit your schedule. How’s that for a great deal?!
The college also has an extensive agricultural complex. They have a sustainable agriculture curriculum and a 250-acre working cow-calf and hay operation that provides a living lab for NTCC students and the surrounding community. Joan and I were lucky to be able to help with feeding the farm animals on weekends when the staff was off. I love animals so this was my favorite task!
Some of the other jobs I helped with were organizing records storage, inventory of air conditioner filters, painting fire lane curbs and handicap parking spots, repairing tennis court wind block netting, cleaning up the gun range area, putting new workstations together for cosmetology class, and inserting reflective poles around culverts.
Mike helped with repairing several fences, clearing brush from the gun range area, delivering hay to cows, mowing fields, building a gate, replacing light bulbs, and leveling RV sites. While neither of us have ever worked at a maintenance division or in a farm setting, we had a blast learning new things and making a contribution to the college.
Mike also led all of the workampers on a large project to remodel an existing building into a workamper community room and laundry/shower area. It was great that the college wanted to support camper needs with this project. We really feel so appreciated by the school and Plant Services!
Our fellow workampers at NTCC were very friendly and worked well together. We enjoyed a potluck Thanksgiving dinner together and several outings to local eateries. It was great to have our friends Steve and Joan there with us so we could continue our card games in the evenings. The WorKamper program really is a win-win for all of us as the college gets extra help in completing their workload and workampers get a great place to work and live.
On days we weren’t working, we had lots of time to explore the town and surrounding areas. Mount Pleasant is a friendly town of 16,000 people and offers all the basic necessities. They have a pretty downtown area and town square that we got to see decorated for the holidays. One of our favorite places was the Sweet Shop candy factory.
Paris, Texas, claims the title of second largest Paris in the world. The Texas version has its own 65-foot-tall Eiffel Tower complete with a 10-gallon red cowboy hat. Also in Paris is Evergreen Cemetery, where even Jesus wears cowboy boots. The grave of Willet Babcock has a 15 foot memorial with the Jesus figure on top sporting boots (zoom in to take a look).
Sulphur Springs has a beautiful town square with the Hopkins County Courthouse situated on one corner. The pink granite and red sandstone exterior is just as beautiful as the renovated interior.
Sulphur Springs’ biggest attraction since its 2012 debut are two all-glass public bathrooms in the town square. Each mirrored box has not only a toilet and sink, but also a panoramic view of the surroundings outside! The one-way glass is completely transparent from inside, but people outside cannot see in. Even so, it’s still a little disconcerting to use the facilities with such an unusual view. This was a fun and quirky find!
Longview is home to Carmela’s Magical Santa Land, a mile-long drive amid Christmas lights and animated displays. This has to be one of the largest Christmas light displays we’ve seen and even included Santa and hot chocolate stops at the end. Be prepared to get there early, though, as the line to get in can be quite long!
We really enjoyed our time at NTCC and plan to return again. I rate it a definite success as far as workamping opportunities go. Having our friends there to hang out with made the experience even better. An added bonus was getting to explore some of the surrounding towns in this area of east Texas. If you are inclined to volunteer service, workamping is a great way to give back while saving money on rent expenses.
Great recap Robin! Can wait till you get back.
Thanks Joan. Having y’all there made it the best! We look forward to getting back next month:)
Another great write up of a another one of your adventures.
The two of you are the definition of Full Time RV’rs!
Thanks Stu! It’s been fun finding new adventures and exploring new places. We look forward to seeing y’all again on the road:)
Awesome article Robin! I feel like I’m right there with you on these adventures.
Thanks Lisa–I’m glad you are following along with us. Miss y’all!
We enjoy your travel adventures so much. It’s almost like being there. Safe travels to y’all!
Thanks so much for your nice comments. Happy New Year to you both!
Wow, so like a great place to work, since you’d have a variety of jobs you could do. And we’d love to feed the animals and drive a tractor! We will definitely look into working here, at some point. Thanks for a great write-up on your experience.
Hi Eric & Jennie–thanks for checking out my blog! We really lucked out finding Northeast Texas Community College and loved our time there. Yes, feeding the animals was awesome:)
Hi Robin. I spoke with Joan on Tuesday and she told me about the article you wrote about the program at the college. I enjoyed reading it and seeing the photos. Loved seeing Joan and Steve in some of them. I know Joan is looking forward to seeing you soon. She misses your help with the turkeys 😄. Wishing you a happy and healthy new year.
Susan
Hi Susan, We had such a good time at NTCC that we didn’t feel like we were working most days. A lot of that had to do with hanging around with Steve and Joan:) I’ve heard we have 3 big turkeys now–it’s definitely better to pair up to handle them! Wishing you a safe and happy new year too.
Workamping here looks like it was a unique opportunity to learn some new skills and participate in some interesting experiences! That Sweet Shop Candy Factory has me wanting to go there and try everything. Yummy Yum 🙂 The bathrooms at Sulphur Springs’ are crazy but fun and yes a little intimidating too. Thanks again for sharing!
Hi Sandi, We did enjoy the workamping opportunity. It gave us a chance to learn, enjoy being with our friends, and save some money at the same time! Yes, the Sweet Shop is definitely a great (or should I say dangerous) place for chocolate lovers like me!