DO I FEEL SAFE AS A SOLO FEMALE RVER? 3 Scary Stories & 4 Tips!

as a solo female or veer are you scared and I'm gonna answer that question I'm also gonna give you my three scariest stories and I have been in some jams by myself out there on the road and I'm also going to give you my four tips for how I feel safer [Music] hey everybody its Robin with creativity RV and today I wanted to sit down and share with you my answers to the question that I get asked most of the time which is as a solo female or veer are you scared and I'm gonna answer that question I'm also gonna give you my three scariest stories and I have been in some jams by myself out there on the road and I'm also going to give you my four tips for how I feel safer again you know I've been at this ten months now and so I'm still pretty new but when you're full timing it you learned pretty quickly so let me start with my three scariest stories and let me tell you guys they're embarrassing I'm sharing this in the hopes that maybe somebody else will learn from this or get a laugh because it's similar to something they did and maybe not feel so bad I cost them myself so number one one time I was going from Trinidad which is in Colorado over to New Mexico it was warm and front dad and then all of a sudden I hit a mountain pass called a ratone pass I had never heard of this pass I didn't know if it was dangerous all of a sudden the fog came rolling and the temperature took a dive like 15 degrees and I got a little nervous because I was still pretty new in the RV I think I've been in the RV maybe four months and I didn't know if I was coming up on some windy roads or some ice and I got really nervous and I decided to pull over into a truck way station which also happened to be the state police station so I pulled over into this parallel spot it looked like there were two parallel spots where you could get off the highway and then back on the highway I thought for people like me and so I was wearing shorts so the first thing I wanted to do was change because it got cold and then I was going to pull up on the internet the weather report and see if I could get some idea of how I'm hairy this pass was so you know I stopped the car and I ran into the back and I was literally changing my pants and the whole RV started to go like this and I thought wow there really is a storm coming in that that's a big gust of wind but then I realized that the whole RV was rocking and I turned to look out the front windshield and my RV was going downhill with me in the back not in the driver's seat and you know not very fast but remember I'm totally fogged in as far as I know I am literally driving off a cliff right here so quick like a bunny I ran downhill and jumped into the driver's seat and threw my feet on the brake and I realized that the keys were still in ignition and I had not quite put the car in park now I know stupid but believe me I've never made that mistake again I had no idea that I did it and the lesson that I got from that is you know like always be mindful that's one thing I'm trying to learn in the RV you know I don't hurt myself as much I'm still covered in scrapes and bruises and all kinds of stuff but I'm I'm you know I'm careful with what I do now but I was able to like start the car with my finger shaky my fingers were shaking so bad I could barely hold the steering wheel and I threw the car into reverse and I was able to reverse it back up the hill I guess it was only about fifteen feet but I had gone over the bump the asphalt bump that they put there it wasn't it was kind of a kerb and had gone all the way down the hill now later when I came back and it was sunny I realized that I would have gone dumb hill into a parking lot but I couldn't even see that parking lot and so honestly it was terrifying I thought that was the end scariest moment number two a little pet sematary okay so I was solo camping like I always do in Buena Vista Colorado this is when I was really new and I went to this free campsite that I had heard about and it was really hard to get there and then once I got there I couldn't find a good spot but the verizon signal was five bars and so I was like I'm gonna stay here for five days I'm not gonna leave the first thing I see when I get out of my RV is like a femur and if I can find it I'll put a picture in a picture here and show you it was it looked like a human femur it was probably from an elk or something right I got a bad vibe then I thought about packing up and leaving but it took me hours to get there and a long time to get level and find a decent spot and I also violated one of my rules to stay safe which I'll tell you about in a little bit so I didn't feel terribly safe but I got settled there was a giant boulder which was next to my RV and I think that picture with the femur shows you this huge boulder so I got on the phone I have my slippers on I have a glass of wine I'm talking to my boyfriend and I start walking to just take a look around and I go around the side of this Boulder and all of a sudden I whisper poor guy into the phone and he goes what what and I was like oh my god and he said what and I go please don't move please don't move please don't move and I'm backing up I'm backing up so slow and I get into the RV and my heart is pounding and I tell him that what I saw was a giant cat foot I thought and I thought that there was a mountain lion behind the boulder and there I am totally unprotected I was outside without anything luckily I had my phone on me so after about 20 minutes I got the guts to go back out there and like I generally went around the corner to see if I could see again what I had seen and sure enough it was a mountain lion but it was dead and it must have been I don't know six or seven feet long it had been there for a while I actually got shots of that but I won't put it here because I think it's a little disrespectful but um after that I found hooves that were partially eaten I found I think what was a baby mountain lion I think I found probably thirty carcasses or partial carcasses right there where I was and later I talked to a ranger and she thought that it was a dumping ground so maybe somebody killed the mountain lion because it was killing cattle or I don't know I don't know why people would just dump a bunch of carcasses there but I was seriously creeped out I mean I didn't go 20 feet from my RV for five days and usually I like to take walks and hike around and take pictures and I was so sad on this site that I didn't want to go as a lesson you know leave if you're in a pet cemetery I found a bunch of other great campsites nearby there and if I had just trusted that I could find another spot then I would have left much sooner I won't do that again the third thing Oh God another thing that I did that was just stupid I was in [Music] Yosemite I do this every time Yellowstone I do this every time I was in Yellowstone and I'm driving along and I see this sign that says scenic route scenic byway and I thought oh that'll be cool so I turn and I didn't read the signs properly because it turns out that there was a little sign which I saw later that said no trailers only cars so no RV as I assume also so this is a one-way road first of all paved road that went about four miles in and then there was a dirt road that went up this hill and you know what I saw the dirt road I thought ooh that looks a little dicey but let me just go up a little ways and you know see if that's you know where I'm supposed to be going maybe it opens up well I go and it did not open up in fact after about I don't know probably was 70 or 80 feet it wasn't that far and I realized that the the road was actually narrowing and so I'm in the driver's seat and to my left I'm right up on the wall of this rock formation and then my tires on the right seemed like they were pretty close to the edge and you know like I said it was curving so I had to buy myself reverse my way out of there hoping that nobody came towards me and more importantly nobody came up behind me he was coming around one of those curves and didn't see me and the whole time I thought that my tires might go over the edge and I could tumble off I scraped to the side of my RV on trees because I was trying to get as close to the edge as I could and then you know I had to do like an eight-point turn to turn around and then I had to go for miles approximately the wrong direction on that paved road and people are losing their minds and honking at me and I don't blame them you know I'm the jerk but there was no other way there was no turn around there for me to get off so note to self RVs don't do well on Scenic Byways a lot I learned that and always be sure that you can go where you're going it is not a car so I think I just got ahead of my skis there those were the three scariest things most people are surprised that I have not been scared by people I'll tell you I had some friends that tried to scare me my very first camping trip out up by Lake George Colorado I had some friends up there that wanted me to go out with them and it was late night and you know I didn't I didn't want to do it they had some cottages nearby that they that they had some cabins and so I told him that I was just going to go back to my RV and at nightfall three of them came out to my RV and they were scratching their fingernails down the side of my RV going one life you've only got one I have to live Cara Kelley you know who you are I may have screamed some profanities I wasn't scared at all I knew it was them now that doesn't mean that if you're if you're thinking about doing this when you get out and your RV you're gonna be a little more on edge for the first month or so you know you hear a noise outside and you peek out the window now I hear a noise and I barely even think about it you know now a lot of places that I go I you know when I turn my lights out inside I open up the blinds I know that I'm on gravely areas so if they come up I'm going to hear them and unless they have night vision goggles I'm gonna see them and I go outside at night and I feel very comfortable now and I think that that is a process I've never you know woken up with a hook in my door you know like the old ghost stories and I've never had anybody hassle me and maybe it's because I don't put out a vibe that I'm weak or I'm a victim so I don't think people mess with me as much and they probably shouldn't so let me get to the things that make me feel safe and so I'll go right to that number one I have an arsenal in here you know the movie home alone that movie from the 80s with the kid who hurts the burglars by setting up traps for them I feel like my RV is home alone 2.0 any edge of my RV that you come into either I'm gonna know where something's gonna happen to you and I don't know oh yeah it just makes me feel better I have noisemakers and weapons which I won't go into inside the RV when I go outside the RV and I'm in my camp chair I have a massive like 30-foot shooter's bear spray on the side of my camp chair all the time if I'm going to go very far away from my RV first of all I try and carry a spare key I'm just in case and a bunch of other stuff my favorite thing actually I'm gonna get it so I can show you okay so when I when I go out on a hike or something I take a little fanny pack with me and I keep a bunch of different things in here but my favorite thing is I found this little glove and it's got bear spray on it see so what you do is you put your hand in it and I actually have two of these so when I really want to you know get down I have one on each fist it's actually got some you know reinforced knuckles in here and here's what I like I'm walking I'm walking and it doesn't fall out it's right there and so if somebody comes at you it's actually designed so that you're pointing the nozzle right at them if you just hold your fist out so you just turn the little cap and spray and so I can put this on my hand and not even worry about it I don't have to reach for anything I've got something right on hand if anybody messes with me by the way I will put a link for this down below I have never seen anything else like it and it's one of my favorite things in the world makes me feel great so yes have an arsenal whatever that means to you a lot of people ask me if I have I'm gonna go ahead and keep that information to myself and but I will tell you that I have a lot of weapons in here so you know I'm sure that solo male travelers are just travelers due to so women you know solo female travelers do it you you can protect yourself out here and you should so I'm gonna steal a tip from Carolyn from Carolyn's RV life of course I've been to watched her before I got out on the road and one of the most important tips that I got from her and this is the one that I violated up in Buena Vista with the mountain lion is always face your exit now I only have a view out of one side of my RV really because I have a Murphy bed back here and that blocks that view so a lot of times I'm more concerned with parking so I have a pretty view but the more important thing is that you know if gets real I can peel out and get on the road quickly without getting stuck or having to do like that eight point turn and I have found that that makes me feel like I'm ready to go if something happens I don't even want to say feel safer I'm just ready you know I've got keys in different locations and weapons at different locations and if something happens I'll probably hurt somebody and then get out of here so my fourth tip or my third tip is I always let friends and family know where I am I use Google Maps for this I drop a pen and I share my location with them so they get an email where I'm at and if I'm going into a place where I think I won't have any cell reception I tell them look I'm on this road this is where I'm going I don't know if I'll be able to talk to you once I get up there so just so you know I'm going this direction and I'm planning to stay there for X amount of days and that you know makes everybody happy and if something happens like I fall hiking or you know something worse something medical who knows and they don't hear from me for a few days I know that they will send help my direction and my final tip that I have found that when I boondock which is mostly all the time I like to find a campsite that is about two or three miles from a main road like a highway or a town I used to go a lot further into the backcountry and my RV didn't have the clearance for some of the stuff that I was doing and I was really taking a toll on the RV I still go to really beautiful places I am feeling like I'm in the middle of nowhere but I'm really careful to watch my drivin and so if I had to hike out for example at night if something happened I know how to get out and it would be easy for me to get into town if I needed to without the RV and there are going to be services that are close enough to help me if something happens like I don't know if you guys saw the video I did the other day three knocks one night where I got you know three different officers pounding on my door and and in one day a ranger and two cops I was in the middle of nowhere and they were out there and they had a lot of gear but it was I was in Blue Mountain which is a pretty remote area but I was close enough to towns that they had all of that stuff so before you go hang on because after this I'm going to show you a view of my current campsite so I can give you an idea of what I'm talking about I right now am about two miles outside of the town of Pahrump Nevada which I have to tell you I've never been here and the name Pahrump I thought it would be plain but it is actually gorgeous out here and I got some footage that I hope works out for you guys of the wild horses that are I can see them right now they're right outside my campsite and the view is spectacular but just that direction is town that means the cell signals are the cell towers are really jammed and everything with people which isn't great but I'm just a couple of miles from anything that I might need and I appreciate that when I find a spot like that so I'm going to put the coordinates for that down below I'm also going to put this video on free campsites dotnet so people can find this spot because it's not on but finally I want to leave any solo travelers or travelers or solo women travelers with this thought don't let fear stop you from coming out on the road if you're thinking that you want to do it this is a very rewarding experience out here and I have to say you know when I was working my corporate job and I was commuting and I lived in cities my risk was a lot higher my risk of having an accident or being attacked or mugged or something happening was a lot higher than it is here in the desert and near a community of our viewers who I find to be mostly helpful so we can imagine in our minds that things are gonna happen that are never gonna happen and it's like death by a thousand cuts and I can tell you that my experience has been incredibly positive I have been scared but the things I've been scared about were things that I created myself they were just problems I created myself and every single one I learned from so I want to leave you with that thought if you have any comments or questions for me or you want to start a discussion about this please leave it in the comments below I will respond and if you have found this helpful then please do subscribe to my channel I've got a lot more good stuff coming and like this video and ring that little bell thanks a lot everybody I'll see you next time this is Robin from creativity RV [Music]

Channel: Creativity RV

Views: 323,756

Rating: 4.9413123 out of 5

Keywords: RV Life, How to RV, Rv safety, solo female RV, cheapRVLiving, Zona cararolyns rv life, RV Organization, Boondocking, Van Life, RV, RV Travel, Nomad, Blog, Interviews

Id: plzeqejNc5Y

Length: 20min 3sec (1203 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 21 2018