Linda Dowding along with her husband, Terry, sells tickets and licenses for Clinton State Park. The job allows them to live at the site on their 325-square-foot RV.

A large acorn and redundancy helped bring Linda Dowding’s dream of traveling around the country as a work camper to fruition.

She and her husband, Terry, are the ticket and license vendors at Clinton State Park. You’ll see them smiling at the booth, or sitting outside their 325-square-foot fifth-wheel RV in the early evening, drinking in the sights, smells and sounds of the 1,500-acre park.

“Terry and I love to travel,” she says.

“We got fed up flying and staying in other people’s beds, so we decided we’d take our bed with us. My parents had great fun camping when they retired, and that fueled my dream.”

Dowding grew up in Desoto, graduated from Desoto High School in 1965, took business and accounting classes at Johnson County Community College, and worked in the payroll field for over 30 years.

She married, moved to Lake of the Ozarks and spent weekends camping with her family.

“I loved being outdoors and just hanging out having fun with my two daughters,” she says.

She returned to Kansas in 1982, divorced, remarried in 1995, built a 3,700-square-foot home in Bonner Springs and joined a large payroll company.

“We were always working on strategies and goals at management meetings,” Dowding recalls.

“People would say they wanted to be better managers and leaders and things like that. When I said my goal and dream was to become a permanent work camper and travel around the United States, they stopped in their tracks and stared at me.”

The Dowdings bought a hi-lo pushbutton trailer in 2000, then traveled to campsites in New Orleans, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Kansas and Missouri. They enjoyed it thoroughly and decided to downsize their home, upgrade their trailer, and spend more time camping. They moved to a 1,700-square-foot apartment in a complex they hoped to purchase. When the deal failed, they remodeled a 1,000-square-foot home to suit their needs.

On their first visit to Clinton Park in October 2008, a large acorn fell between their sliders during the night. They drove into town to hire a ladder to remove it.

“On the way back our truck broke down, so we had to call the gatekeeper for help,” Linda says.

“Turns out it was someone who’d been Terry’s colleague 25 years previously. Once we got the truck and acorn sorted, Alan told us he was looking for booth volunteers for Friday nights. We decided to give it a try. Within a few months we were enjoying the park so much we stayed here all week.”

Linda was made redundant in January just when the ticket vendor position became available. She decided it was time to fulfill her dream.

“We put our things in storage, rented our house and moved here,” she says.

She doesn’t miss her house.

“I’ve assured friends this is my last downsize. I’m not moving to a tent,” Linda says with a smile.

“We’ve got everything we need here. I’ve a king-size bed, separate living room and kitchen, washer-dryer, the Internet and beautiful surroundings. It’s wonderful.”