Living the life at the Lewis and Clark RV Park
By Lee Coleman
We see the Lewis and Clark RV Park full most of the time. We know the park is primarily used by workers from all over the country who have come to our area to work. We know they are skilled professionals.
But we don’t really know who these folks are.
Imagine if you will, selling everything you own, including your home, and moving hundreds of miles away with your family to live in an RV park and work in completely strange surroundings.
Say hello to Darren and Marnie Smith and their 15-year old daughter, Elsie, and 10-year old son, Wyatt.
They came to Hazen from Odevolt, Iowa, after selling their belongings and borrowing enough money to start Darren’s trucking business, Mile 2 Trucking.
“Western North Dakota was an opportunity for us to work every day and work long hours and get better pay than we could get at home in Iowa,” Darren said. “We looked at it as an adventure and we were looking for some good changes in our lives, and this was an opportunity to try something new and something different.”
Having just completed their third summer in Hazen, the Smiths have been here for 18 months and have all but decided to give the North Dakota winter a try, albeit maybe not in the RV.
“We have built many relationships here with the companies we have worked for, and we’ve always gone down to south Texas and run our equipment down there in the winter,” Darren explained.
