Blog 3820 – 05.08.2026

Happy Camper

Fourteen years ago this summer I was driving back from a two month work assignment in Kenia, Alaska in my Jeep Wrangler to a work assignment in Colorado when I received a phone call from my contractor agency representative asking me if I was up for a six month work assignment as a third party welding inspector an a twenty-nine mile gas pipeline near Baggs, Wyoming. Since I had dreamed of living and working in Wyoming for a number of years, I jumped at the chance.

I detoured from my original route to Colorado and headed to a Wyoming town named Green River where I was to report in two days to get the particulars of the job and meet the client representative of the oil and gas company I would be working for. It was dark when I got to western Wyoming and I thought I was going to run out of gas before I found a gas station and a motel for the night. Gas stations and lodging places are pretty far apart in that part of the world. After first finding gas, I found a quaint little motel where everything in the room was western themed. Some sweet grandma had taken great pains to make it cozy. 

The next day I drove to Green River and got a motel and checked out the town. On the way to the client reps office the next morning I passed a small RV resale lot that has a twenty foot pull behind camper parked out front. I had worked for several contract agency doing third party welding inspection work in the Houston area. My representative for the previous one had gotten me a two month work assignment in Little Rock, Arkansas inspecting coating on 48 inch diameter pipe. It was for a big oil and gas pipeline in the northwestern U.S. where I had long wanted to live and work since vacationing there with my wife and son.

From the other inspectors on the job I got the names of several contract agency that had inspectors on that pipe line and I started calling them. One rep in particular said if he could get me on a small pipeline job so I could add that on my resume that he would then be able to keep me busy. It took him several months to find one, a three mile pipe line detour at a refinery near Detroit, Michigan. When that assignment was about to end on a Friday. I let my rep know on Wednesday and he said that he had work in three near by states. He called me Friday morning and asked, “How would you like a two month work assignment in Alaska.” After work that Friday, I pointed my Jeep toward Alaska and arrived there after seven days of ten hours drives. Per Diem and mileage were paid by the client and I got to experience the drive of a lifetime picking up my last three states along the way and the additional Canadian province, the Yukon. Alaska is jacket weather in June, July, and early August. It was a wonderful experience.

The contractor rep who had gotten me the two month work assignment to Little Rock had once advised me that if I ever got a six month or longer away assignment that I should but a used RV Camper to live it. He said the the per diem on one such assignment would more than pay for camper and thereafter I would save a great deal of my per diem only having to rent a space in a campground. He went on to say that monthly rates were usually quite reasonable.

After a short meeting with the client rep in Green River, Wyoming. I stopped at the RV lot and bought my first RV Camper, picked it up the next day and pulled it to the Happy Camper Campground in Baggs, Wyoming and began my six month work assignment there. I lived in that camper for much of the next nine years as I worked assignment not just Wyoming (I had two additional assignments there), but also on Colorado, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama. Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska.

I am writing this from my second RV Camper on my property in Bon Wier, Texas. I drove over from Houston early this morning to work till about noon. Just after I got her at 5:30 am there was a loud and heavy thunderstorm. At daylight I’ll slip on my rubber boots and see what I can get done. Or if the rain continues I just might watch a movie, read a book, or take a nap. Much as I enjoy the woods, working on the place, or a good rain storm, I love the peace and quiet of my little house on wheels in the Piney Wood. 

I am a Happy Camper!

Your friend and fellow traveler 

David James White