Oil boom chasers: Next stop, Kansas

Golden and his loyal 'boom dog', Molly.

I've been in the oilfields 29 years. [I started] in Bakersfield, Calif.

I was [also] in Coalinga, Calif. Then we had an opportunity to start in North Dakota and I volunteered. I wanted to get out of California and see the world, and I headed up to North Dakota in my trailer.

It was really different when we first got up there because there was hardly any people up there. But after a year, people just poured in and poured in. You couldn't find a place to live and the price of living went sky high.

Then I had an opportunity to go to Colorado for a while to run a pipeline and I went over there for about a year. And then my boss asked me if I wanted to go to Kansas, and here I am.

[I like] meeting the people, the adventure, seeing the world.

You don't know [how big the boom will be] until you get going. We started up here with 15 guys and now we got like 100 people up here. But I don't know if it will ever get like North Dakota. I hope it doesn't get that crazy.

It's like [being] a gypsy when you're in the oilfield -- you don't know where you're gonna go because you don't know what's gonna boom. It might be a gas field here and an oil field over here -- you just gotta be ready to move and go.

My kids are back in California and they're grown. I got my dog, though. And she's been with me everywhere I've been, and she's a good companion. She always finds friends. And she's the one that finds all the women for me.

NEXT: Casey