"Snowbird" Trucker: Is It Possible?
I need to bounce an idea off you guys. All feedback appreciated. Here's my situation. I'm an old bachelor who lives in a house that's paid for and hardly has any bills except a godawful property tax. :sad:
I've got a pretty decent bank account, so nothing is making me sweat at the moment. This old house is located out in the country on the bank of a beautiful little river in southwest Florida. I love it here. That is, I love it here from about November until June. Then it becomes hellish. The heat, humidity, rain, lightning, and most of all, several varieties of swarming, biting insects make me wish I could spend the summer months somewhere else, like our part-time winter residents, the "snowbirds" do.
I don't have enough money to completely retire, or to maintain a second residence in a northern state. Also, at the moment I have no income at all. I'm living on my savings. I'm pretty frugal, so I've been getting away with it. But, I know I've got to get back to work in the not-too-distant future.
Although I went to truck school and have a Class A with everything except HazMat, I love my home too much to always stay gone as an OTR trucker. A few years ago I settled into a niche as a local tri-axle dump truck driver. I greatly enjoyed it but unfortunately our local "construction boom" turned into a "construction bust", and everybody either went out of business or keep their dump trucks parked most of the time. Nobody's hiring, and the local dirt mines look like ghost towns.
It's apparent that if I'm going to stay in trucking, I'm going to have to find employment completely out of my area. I'd rather not be a fulltime OTR driver.
Here's the idea I want to bounce off you. Would it be possible to drive my RV up north somewhere at the beginning of every summer and find a job driving dump trucks or whatever for agricultural, road building, construction, or mining interests? Ideally, summer would be their busiest time and they could keep me busy. Then in the fall I could come back to Florida to enjoy our beautiful winters fishing, hunting, and tending to my vegetable garden and young fruit trees. Then, when summer is near, just lock up the house and head north (or west) again.
Are there any seasonal truck driving opportunities for a guy like me? What businesses should I be inquiring to? I don't have a clue.
Any ideas and advice will be looked into. Thanks.
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