Nomadic Freedom: RV Tour of a Solo Woman Living Cheap in a Class C RV!

other video today we're going to need a fellow nomad barbara and you'll get to know her and uh how she ended up out here and i think you're going to be really interested in in meeting a new friend so barbara tell us a little bit about yourself how uh how long you've been at nomad um next month it'll be five years five years that's a long time five years and uh how did you end up on the road well when i retired i was living in san diego and my social security just didn't uh didn't work for that that city or even california california in general and so i had been um thinking about actually thinking about doing this and i had bought my my motor home right before i retired so once i retired i i got on the road got rid of my condo and uh i've been traveling ever since so there was a little bit of uh economic necessity i mean you couldn't really afford to live in california yeah for sure yeah yeah i'll never go back it's just too expensive right the cost of land was in homes and housing is just living everything from outside yeah even the cost of gas so it was true it was outrageous uh and so you had been any reason you chose to be living in an rv or background in it yeah um no i have no background in it didn't i mean obviously i knew about them but i thought they were just for vacations i'd never been in one and then i visited my my daughter and son-in-law one mother's day and they had just bought a pop-up and that kind of turned on the light for me my daughter christy and i were talking about what i was going to do when i retired and all of a sudden full timing came up so i went online and i started reading blogs and i started reading forums and it just it was the perfect answer because i'm a nomad i've always been a nomad i've always moved i moved every two or three years sometimes for income tax reason or tax reasons i had to wait two years and sometimes that was hard and so i would buy a house get a job be there live in my house and then i would start getting itchy that i wanted to move and i would sell my house quit my job go to another town and i did that for years and so you know this is just like the obvious answer for somebody like me i never knew there were other people like me right and that we weren't all weird no no no because of my family i was weird yeah yeah that's almost always true the family you're going to do what sell your house and live in an rv and they're all very stable yeah yeah that's such a bizarre idea to most people yeah so but you had a lot of courage then because you just pushed through that you know it really wasn't even courage it was something i think i really felt i had to do i think i really had to do it and it answered it answered so many questions for me and it solved so many problems it was perfect so there was a little bit of need to but you could move to another state and live cheaper kids wanted me to live with them um and they still do um but no this this really kind of hit me it hit me hard more than just um economic necessity uh it was happiness this makes you happy yeah i am a loner um i love socializing i love being with people but then i want to go back and be by myself if i socialize with people for weeks at a time then usually i kind of want to go somewhere else and you know be alone for a couple of weeks and do my own thing and then i'm kind of ready to so this this afforded me i mean having wheels on my house afforded me that opportunity and i can move whenever i want wherever i want so uh tell us about your five years of uh of on wheels how was that gone did you stay in california did you drive everywhere when i first started this is the rig i started with i was really lucky that i picked the right rig the first time which not everybody does and this is a tell us about the rig it's a forest river sun seeker um 24 foot motor home it has class c and you'll see it when we go inside but it has everything that any house i've ever had has or ever ever owned had it has my well it's got the car it's got a kitchen full kitchen full bath living room couch dinette bed it has everything i ever used any other space i had in any other house or condo i had was wasted so this this is the perfect size for me wouldn't be for everybody but it is for me and so what i did in the beginning is i was in san diego i lived in san diego the last time and so i just started north visited my son and daughter-in-law my my son lives in san diego so obviously i was visiting them so i went up to vacaville where my daughter and son-in-law lived visited them for one last time before i took off and then i headed to the coast and went up the pacific went up went up 101 i guess it was the coast route and i went up through uh um oregon in washington over to idaho down into um wyoming montana then wyoming well yeah well i just kind of made that route down into arizona i didn't have solar yet and i wanted solar so you were staying in rv park i was staying in rv parks and that was that was expensive i was doing the best i could i joined all the groups joined passport america and all the groups where i got a discount um but then when i got to arizona i had my solar panels put in and i got a wave 3 catalytic heater and those are the two things that allowed me to really live like this so now i mean ever since then i do it a little different than a lot of people do a lot of people just love to travel and i'm not a traveler and i'm not a sightseer this is really my home and all i want is to have a different backyard a different front yard so i don't need to travel a lot to get that and so what i've done really since that first trip north and then south into arizona is i go to new mexico for the summers and i buy their annual pass for their state parks it's two week minimum or tweak maximum in each park and so i just move up and down and it's free if you have the pass tell there are people that won't be familiar with that and it's a super deal yeah it's 225 for a non-resident if you're a resident it's only a hundred so i mean it 100 a year or 225 years so i've paid every year i've been on the road i've bought for 225 dollars i've bought their annual pass and i've gone i've driven over there usually i start i come from arizona and so it's very hot so i start south and move my way north and then usually kind of move my way south again and then when it starts getting colder let's see when it starts getting well when the temperatures change and it's cool enough in arizona then i come to court side and i buy their long-term visitor area pass for 80 for the season and it goes from it lasts from september 15 through april 15th so september's really a little too hot i usually come in october and there are a lot of different long-term visitor areas you can go summer in california kind of right on the border of arizona and some are in arizona but there are enough that if you have itchy feet you can still move around and it's free and and you have free dump free trash collection and free water so you are staying in campgrounds for the well ltva really isn't a campground yeah but you're staying in a developed area i am yeah for 300 a year yeah that's amazing that's my rent for the entire year um now you don't get hookups in the new mexico state parks you don't you pay the extra to get them no the only time i did was was the summer of 15 because i was thinking about getting a little um park model um in arizona as a home base i kind of wanted a home base and so i thought i need to see if i can live in arizona during the summer because because you can rent those out and um i mean depending on the park that you're in you can rent them out and get a lot of rent for them and that can pay your costs for the rest of the year and but i thought this summer you're not going to be able to rent it out so i wanted to make sure that i could live in a park model for the summer and so i stayed in elephant butte state park in in new mexico for the summer and i did have hookups i needed them but i have a dog we both did fine we just ran the air conditioner when we needed to elevate it's not high enough to be comfortable it got pretty hot it was in the high 90s yeah it can get into the high 90s that's not comfortable yeah yeah especially in an rv right right yeah so and then you stand like you said so you stay your two weeks at each park and then move on and so that satisfies your itch to move yes your itchy feet yes as this as we say uh and yet it you can live very very inexpensively oh yeah because you're not burning a lot of gas you're only moving every two weeks right and i'm not moving far most of the time most of the time i'm not moving far right there a lot of the parks are very close together yeah yeah um and i didn't notice do you have a toad no never had a toad didn't want one still don't no uh so you're you want to go into town you're but you're not hooked up either i'm not hooked up and um it takes me well just like moving over here two days ago a friend and i were driving home from doing laundry and shopping it was it was two o'clock and we went back to our campsite i put everything away drove over here by three o'clock i was i was all set so it takes it doesn't take me long at all you just have a few chairs outside and a few outdoor things bathroom things go in the sink kitchen things go in the sink i take the antenna down walk around to make sure everything's good and i'm gone well now a lot of people are going to say well aren't you bored out of your mind i know no i i don't think i've been bored once not once i mean i can go places i can visit with people i have a computer i have a tv i have serious radio i have crossword puzzle books i have regular books i listen to audio books i play games i clean i do everything that everybody else does right i clean i shop i do laundry i do every you know this is a house i do everything if a person is is um easily bored they might get bored out here but i'm not easily bored whatever you did at home you're going to do here right you have the same house you've just taken away the 90 percent that you never used and the mortgage and the mortgage yes and all that cleaning and the pg e yes and the electricity the sewer and all that yeah the electric bill yeah yeah yeah no so it's it's it's a great life you've you you don't have any regrets after five years no no in fact this summer my friend and i were doing um um uh blm camping of free camping up and down our plan was up and down arizona to find me my park model and when we started and i started looking i decided i'm not ready yet i'm not even ready to have a home base yet so i'm going to keep doing what i'm doing i don't know for how long but this is it this is it for a while for me yeah i have no thoughts of doing anything else and so your kids are close by they come over and see you and you go over and see them no they're not really that close by and they're both really busy they both have their own businesses and their spouses are busy they would like to see me more and i would like to see them more but i go home once a year i see them at least once a year and so um that's kind of we keep in contact and one of these days maybe when i settle down i'll try to find a place a little park model by an airport so they can fly in but um now i'm not doing a lot of visiting but it hasn't really affected my relationship with my kids they understand they are they're busy yeah i'm lucky that way yeah well now um my girlfriend has a young granddaughter now and so has that been an issue to you the grandkids only that my daughter would like her kids to see me more right but you know what when i go to visit them they are so happy to see me there's um it's it's almost um i'm not going to say it's better but they're not used to me so it's a big deal and grammy comes right you know right and uh so yeah no um i i'm hoping that won't be a regret i have in the future but mine are still young enough that i think i may be settled down in another five years or so and and they're almost at the age couple of them are where they could come visit me they could fly in and visit me you know stay with me for a week and then i can put them on a plane so they're getting old enough that we may start doing that yeah and there's skype there's phone calls there's one of my grandsons hooked me up with instagram so we we've got that and they all have i think they all have phones now and they all have um email so i can keep in contact they can they can keep in contact with me and as they get older they'll drift away anyway that's just the way all kids are true true so yeah yeah so uh well thank you would you mind showing us your home no no all great let's go on inside okay that's the dog she has two bad legs she has arthritis and one seroma in the other so when she can't walk really well and i want to take her on a walk then we throw her in the stroller oh yeah like rv sewing crew so the bed is up there that's i i sleep in the over the bed cabin you do sleep in the air yeah i sleep in the bunk where is your ladder the ladder is in my son's at my son's house yeah i can with the way this is arranged i climb up here climb up there and climb up there it's really simple i had a problem with my ladder i didn't like it so so it's it it's here if i ever sell it i'll have it but so we have a nice little bunk up there and you just use over the air tv yeah just over the air and most places you go you get a lot of channels oh yeah well here i have 30 31 i think wow 31 channels yeah yeah i don't get that everywhere but whatever tv i really want i can get on my computer so we have the couch it's a really long couch it's a razor couch it'll pull out so if i want to take a nap or sleep somebody else there i can do it and you uh enjoy driving the uh 24 foot is that good for you oh yeah oh it's so easy to drive so it's just like driving a truck it's just like driving a small truck like a like a pickup exactly yeah because when i'm driving all i see is what's in front of me i don't see what's in back of me sometimes i'm amazed when i'm sitting outside looking at it that i'm actually driving down the road with my house but um no i've never had a problem driving it surprisingly yeah but i have my nice dinette and my computer and um printer i have i've got a wii a wii fit setup that i that i use when i want to everything i had in my condo that i used so you you've got all the facilities you just left out all the open space and then cody's gonna eat all your dogs come here code go don't you can't eat their food i i feed you i really do and then this is the little wave 3 uh heater that's a propane heater uses very little propane and no electricity so it's really efficient so you never use your furnace i do if it's super cold in the morning if i wake up and it's in the 30s or 40s i'll turn on the furnace until it gets until it takes a chill off and then i turn this on one of my secrets though for people that are having a problem being organized the best secret that i found for storage are these kinds of boxes i have them all over the rig and they're decorative and they hold things so that if you don't have a lot of storage as long as you keep track of what's where i've got them all over the place and most people don't notice them or they compliment me on them and that's actually my storage secret what are they made out of they're just like yeah the cardboard cardboard you get them at michael's or um um bells or a lot of the stores have them yeah they have in little books i used to have like three books that i put here that were different sizes and oh yeah there's one that's what's under your printer sitting on there that's one also and also all my kitchen stuff in the front in the cab there between the two seats oh yeah all my kitchen stuff that's big like colanders and strainers and big spoons are there and then my little quilting tote that i had when i was quilting is below it and that's where i keep all my tools right so things are easily accessible right at hand they're right here but it's not cluttered looking at all right and everything has a place in in one of the boxes so i know where everything is yeah let's see that isn't used i've never seen that before yeah it works out that's completely new and then this is my i wanted a back kitchen the rear kitchen i don't know if they make these anymore but i really wanted a rear kitchen i don't believe i've ever seen this yeah so i got my rear kitchen and i'll tell you something i love waking up in the morning looking down at my kitchen it's just every morning i wake up happy it's almost always a back bathroom or a bath and the kitchen's on the side bedroom yeah right exactly yeah you walk in you look at the kitchen right that's very unusual and do you run your generator for your microwave or just don't use it no no i run my generator i run it for the microwave for my coffee i have a curried coffee maker which i love and so whenever i make coffee i run it and i have a little toaster oven there and that's about it i guess that i run it for it except to top off my batteries if i need to yeah and this my son made look at this what is that you have no give me your code you have to scoot back just a minute scoot back just to move our neighbor's food this is last easter i went to visit the kids for easter and my son built me this pantry look at this is that great that's amazing we just went to a lumber yard and he cut it and we stained it and is it beautiful it took like three inches out of your house and yet look at what i don't know how amazing organization he gets and i have to show you this you have to get this on film see this right here this is my roadrunner that's actually a knot in the wood can you see it oh yeah it's just a natural sure that's my favorite bird a lot of them here yeah i know yeah so i keep him in there with with the low spices so every time i open this i see my roadrunner but it's super well built and yeah and so um this is the bathroom yeah you can i keep all my hats here on the door and the bathroom again has a good sized bathroom everything and it's a dry bath meaning that you just the shower stays in the shower yeah the shower is the shower yeah water stays in the shower lots of room i've got good storage skylight up there fan there uh yeah a lot of um that rv bathrooms are so tiny they're almost unpleasant yeah and this one is not this is nearly a home size a small home sauce yeah i love my bathroom yeah well i actually love there is nothing about this motorhome that i don't love the only thing i miss is a bathtub right but that's a sacrifice that's the only thing i miss then and i'm getting so much yeah yeah i can see that why you would really like this did you buy it new no i actually bought it i bought it in 2010 2010 and um and it's a it's an 06 2006 but it had almost no miles i think it had the generator had like eight hours and the engine of the truck had i think 400 miles so my only problem was was it used enough but i mean everything was brand new there was no stain there were no odors it was absolutely perfect when i bought it so this is an actual freezer yeah this is the freezer and that's the refrigerator nice to have that nice to have a freezer oh yeah oh yeah and mine's cold i can keep ice cream in there yeah my mine is really cool and then my closet is here where i keep hanging things and storage things and then i've got drawers here very very good organization storage yeah well i have a toaster all the storage up here cabinets over the top over here i don't have a lot of storage outside though i don't have big storage bins outside but i have it all inside well i can see how you can be very very happy living here this is a very pleasant home yeah and it's small but you i don't would never think of it as deprived no not at all i don't even think of it as that small because well for one thing i have high ceilings i think my ceilings are higher my door my entry door is wider than a lot i have a lot i mean i can do my wii right here i i can put my refrigerator right there with the tv there and do it i think my aisles and my entry hall here might be bigger than some rigs that are bigger i would say so um it doesn't feel crowded at all no and my windows are not coated so i don't have the privacy that people with the darker windows have but it brings in all the light but then what i did was i got these curtains so like if somebody is too close to me i can just pull that i can still see out but they can't see in and i have that on my windows so that's kind of how i solved that problem and and tell us again what model is this it's a forestry it's a forest river sun seeker 2006 and the truck is a 450 ford ford yeah it's the 450e super duty so it has a lot of power so i have no problem going up hills well this would be one i would seek out because this is a very nice design yeah it really is yeah i i think down the road hopefully many years when i when i decide i want to sell this if i ever do hopefully i won't have a problem yeah it's a i think it's a real gem well barbara thank you so much for sharing your life with us in your home uh i think people are just going to really enjoy this and and envy this you've got a great life i know i do i do yeah i i feel very fortunate yeah and you put in your time you did you put in your time you got your retirement and you built up your pension you bought and sold and upgraded homes and now you've got the rest of your life to just really enjoy it exactly yeah super well thank you so much uh and uh [Music]

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 1,608,511

Keywords: live, living, car, van, RV, Fill-time, nomad, gypsy, camper, camp, boondock, travel, Class C, Forrest River, LTVA, Long Term Visitor Area, New Mexico, State Parks, Pass

Id: GRn5xcgLnrI

Length: 23min 3sec (1383 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 04 2016