RV Road Stories: Thomas Turnbull
Veteran And Now Full Time RVer Decides On A Life Of Traveling, Meeting New People And Visiting Campgrounds
What would make a retired park ranger decide to spend his retirement volunteering and working seasonal jobs in parks? Thomas Turnbull, was born and raised on the east end of Long Island, New York. Not the bustling city, but in green farmlands. Tom was insistent on his rural upbringing, “When you tell people you are from New York, they always want to know what part of the City you lived in and what you did in the City. They don’t realize that there is a lot more to New York than just the City”. After a tour in Vietnam with the Navy and two years working at a steel mill in California, Tom decided to return to Long Island to work as a contractor with his father. However, in the 1980s Tom began to see his beloved Long Island changing. He and his wife Victoria decided that it was time to take a new adventure and move out of New York.
In 1999 they were finally able to sell their home in Long Island and moved to an apartment in Santa Fe. Initially they had planned to find work as addiction counselors as they had spent the previous six years working with addicts in New York. However, once they got away from working with addiction counseling, Tom could feel a weight lifted off him, “I realized after I was away from counseling for a while how much it weighed me down. It was a very emotional job and we made the decision to find something else.”
Tom got a job with NM State Parks at Heron Lake State Park in January of 2000. In 2003, his wife Victoria lost a battle with colon cancer. After his wife’s passing, his husky, Blue, became very depressed. That is when Tom found his current traveling partner Chance. “I was looking for a companion for Blue to help him cope with the loss of my wife. When I first saw Chance she had three legs in casts, blood dripping down her face, and her eyeball was nowhere to be seen. I told the lady that was taking care of her that if she survived, I would adopt her. She got better and we’ve been together since.” Chance had been run over and received her name due to her second chance at life.
After a couple of years working at Heron, in 2005 he decided he was getting restless and felt the need to branch out. He applied for parks jobs across the country, but ended up staying in New Mexico becoming the first manager of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park. Under his leadership, the park underwent two major renovations and became the first state park dedicated to Vietnam Veterans in the country. Tom spent the next five years managing the park.
Prior to his retirement in 2010, Tom decided that he had enough of the snow and cold weather in Angel Fire and he decided to purchase a new two-wheel drive truck. “I figured if I bought a two-wheel drive, I’d have to get out of the snow in the winter.” In addition to the truck, Tom purchased a small pop up camper and planned to travel after his retirement.
“I had a friend tell me that while pop ups are nice, you will not be happy until you have a hard side camper. After retirement, I was on my way to Oregon to see my daughter and I got stuck in a hail and sleet storm in Idaho. As I was setting up my pop up getting pelted by the freezing sleet and hail, all I could hear was my friend saying, you won’t be happy until you have a hard side. When I got to Oregon, there was a RV show in the Salem, where my daughter lived, so we went down there and I bought a small 16-foot hard side camper.”, recalls Tom.
In his first year of retirement, Tom spent much of his time returning to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park to help with major events. He also spent time at Heron Lake State Park volunteering at the Osprey Festival. After his first year of retirement, he began to apply for other volunteer and seasonal positions. He worked the first couple of summers at Abiquiu Lake in New Mexico and eventually found himself spending his winters in Patagonia Lake, Arizona and his summers in Detroit Lake, Oregon. At Patagonia, he would lead birding tours on pontoon boats and work at the visitor center. At Detroit Lake, he worked as a seasonal park ranger, and camp host volunteer. He had become a full time RVer with Chance by his side.
“Chance is a good companion, she likes to travel. We stop every couple of hours and stretch our legs. Her favorite spot is in the passenger seat of the truck. In fact, when I take people with me, I have to put them in the back seat of my truck, because the queen will not relinquish her seat”. When Chance is not riding in the passenger seat, she can be found huddled under the nearest bush watching all the campground activity from a safe place.
When asked about his favorite campground, Tom admitted he holds a special fondness for Seven Feathers RV Park in Canyonville, Oregon. The park is owned and operated by the Umpqua tribe and is located near the Seven Feathers Casino. Tom enjoys playing poker tournaments and black jack and swears the RV park is the nicest he has ever stayed at.
When asked why he would retire from a career working in parks to spend his time visiting parks, Tom said, “I guess you just have to call it a bus man’s holiday. What does a bus driver do for a holiday? He takes a bus somewhere. What does an ex-park ranger do? He goes camping. There’s something about the personality that grows upon a park ranger, the interaction with people. When you get tired of them you have trails to walk in the woods. Also, most federal and state parks are in scenic areas and it’s never tiring to have your living room be a million acres of desert or rocks and mountains.”
When asked about any advice he could offer, he recommended that people get out and rent an RV. “For those that are wondering what the RV life is all about and wanting to see if they could actually do it, they should go rent an RV and give it a try. There is RVing for everyone out there. People use their RVs to go on water adventures, kayaking, or hiking adventures. There are so many different venues that are open to you as an RVer. You could even stay in a Wal-Mart parking lot if you want to stay close to your urban roots. One of the best things about RVing is the people. If you are having trouble with anything, just ask. We have all been there and we all started somewhere and most are eager to help each other.”
Tom plans to keep RVing, and is looking forward to exploring Florida this summer. As long as he and Chance are able, they will be RVing.
Jared Langenegger
A graduate of New Mexico State University with bs in wildlife and fisheries biology Jared spent 15 years working in fisheries and parks management. He enjoys camping, fishing, hunting, painting, and wood working.
Make Sure To Stay At:
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