Here's Chet...

Chet and I work together as live-on volunteers at Manzanita Park (in Prunedale, California). In my three months at Manzanita, Chet's been a patient mentor as he teaches me new things about caretaking a park. He has shown me things from how to get a drinking fountain operational after shutting it down until the water is deemed drinkable again to why and how to operate the work truck in four-wheel-drive mode.

Chet Breazeale, Live-on Volunteer and Caretaker

Chet and his wife Sally (who died suddenly last Thanksgiving) had been coming to Manzanita Park winters for years before becoming full-time park volunteers and caretakers (at Manzanita and of North Monterey County Youth Association) in 2007.

Here's an interview I had with Chet this week.


Levonne: How long have you been on the road as a full-time RVer?


Chet: My wife Sally and I left Cloverdale (California) for Zion National Park twelve years ago to help with a native planting project. We’ve been on the road ever since.


L. What kind of rig do you have?

C. I have a thirty-foot 1994 Sportsmaster fifth wheel with two slides. I'm getting a new Chevy Silverado 2500 next week to pull it. I have been pulling it with a Dodge diesel 250 until now.


L. Why are you full-time RVing?

C. Sally and I wanted to go out and see the countryside.


L. What did your family and friends think about your choice to go full-time?

C. They wished us good luck and wished they could go too.


L. How long do you intend to be on the road?

C. We didn’t plan to return to Cloverdale twelve years ago. We wanted to be full-time nomads. I’m enjoying what I’m doing. I don’t have plans to change but I have thought about doing a caretaker job on a tropical island.


L. How is full-timing now that your wife is no longer with you?

C. Daily life hasn’t changed much. But it gets lonely. I’m tired of talking to the dog.

This is Chet's dog Terry!

L. What is a day like for you?

C. I’m up early and I’m semi-busy all day long some days and other days drag. Some days there is not enough time. But as a caretaker volunteer, you can always find something to pass time.

L. How do you financially support yourself on the road?

C. Social security. We had an IRA until the stock market dropped.


L. What do you do for medical coverage?

C. We went without medical insurance for five years but now I have Medicare and a supplemental health insurance plan.


L. What prepared you for being a full-timer?

C. Trial and error. If something goes wrong, you’ve probably done something wrong. I learned to tow the fifth wheel from a friend. He followed me in his truck as I towed. We both had two-way radios with us. He called and told me when I was doing something wrong – like you’re making your turn too narrow. The first time I emptied the holding tank, I didn’t know there was a pipe that connected the tank to the dump station. And that was after driving from Santa Rosa, California to Texas with five women. Trial and error.


L. What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a full-time RVer?

C. To navigate down the road safely. When you are towing five tons down a steep mountain with a diesel pickup, braking can be a challenge.


L. Where do you plan to go and what fun things do you plan to do over the next year?

C. I’d like to go steelhead fishing at the Trinity River.


L. Is there anything else you would like people to know about you and your RV lifestyle?

C. My life is fun every day. Something new pops up every day even if I’ve been in the same spot for four years.

L. How can people get in touch with you?

C. My email is bsach@hotmail.com but I am slow at responding. I like to think about what I’m saying before I say it.

(Chet's just learning about computers and the internet. So if you like, drop him a line to help him get some practice opening and responding to emails.)