RV Tour 🚙 SOLO FEMALE Full Time RV Living in an Airstream Basecamp 👩 with a Dog and Cat 😸🐶

In today's video we'll be touring Cass' really cool Airstream Basecamp. what is going on youtube i got a really special treat for you today i've got cass her dog jasper her cat napoleon is in the rig waiting for us to come on the tour cass is going to tell us her story today and she's going to let us take a peek inside of her airstream base and then she's going to answer some of the questions that you submitted earlier so without further ado let's talk to cass hi everybody i'm cass welcome to the video and thank you for checking out our story i'm 32 years old can't even keep track of my own age and i've been on the road now as a nomad for about three years i launched from austin texas and i didn't have an rv i bought a class b and it had some issues a little broken so i had to sell it and i ended up just having my toyota 4runner so we traveled the country for about eight months between airbnbs and sleeping out of the back of the forerunner and i was just sitting on my airbnb bed one day waiting for the shower to clear up from everybody else in the house and i decided it'd be nice to have my own kitchen and my own bathroom so we ended up looking at rvs i wanted something i could tow behind the forerunner which means you have to have something kind of small so i started looking at the base camp i looked at it actually in idaho found a better deal on it in new jersey with a really highly rated rv dealer so drove out to the east coast picked up and we've been living in this for two years ever since so if you're curious what it looks like inside and how to live in one of these 16 foot rvs with a dog who's 85 pounds and a cat come on in and i'll show you around so before we head on inside i'll tell you a few of the cool things about the outside of the base camp and some of its specs one of the reasons that i love it and but purchased this unit is that it has two doors so the ventilation for having all the animals inside is really great so it's got the side entry door like your standard rv door and then on the back it has a rear hatch door that's meant to put in bikes kayaks things like that because it's a mini toy hauler i always have the bed down so i just use the screen and the back door with the latch to keep it open and then let the fresh air come in so even on a really hot 75 80 degree day out here in colorado with just the doors and the fan going it's cool enough for us to hang out inside so it's one of the ways we can boondock and not have to worry about air conditioning it has 160 watts of solar on the roof and that helps us boondock and it really is enough to get by as long as the weather is good i do have two deployable solar panels as well so we can run completely off grid the base camp comes with a little zamp plug right on the front you can just get a suitcase panel plug it right in and everything works it's really easy to use the other thing that's unique about the base camp is it has a 26 gallon fresh water tank but then it has a combined black and gray tank so anything from the bathroom the shower the sink all of it goes into the same tank it makes it so that the tank fills up a lot faster than when you have two separate tanks but there's ways to get around that you learn to conserve water there's little tips and tricks so we can still go about two weeks boondocking in this rv the other cool features is it has an outdoor shower that's how i give jasper a bath it's just a feed through with the shower head from the bathroom but it's enough that i can give jasper bath outside and not make a huge mess in the wet bath so this is a 2018 airstream base camp at that time they just sold the airstream base camp but in 2019 they came out with the x version so i got a few of those upgrades added on to this so it's a half base camp half x depending on what features you're looking at so i got the solar guards put on the front windows that helps when you're driving down these rocky roads if a rock flies up you're not going to crack your windows there are usually stainless guards on the front but i didn't want the extra weight up there they were about 30 to 40 pounds and that's extra tongue weight that the 4runner doesn't need to try to carry so the other exhibition that i got added on was the three inch lift and the larger wrangler tires the tires that came on the regular base camp honestly were completely fine they were really good solid street tires they're not your normal tiny rv tires so even boondocking with the regular tires you'll be completely fine the three inch lift is just a nice piece of mind so that when i'm driving down a road by myself if there's a rock or something i know i can clear it without having somebody to look at that for me and that's about it on the features outside so come on inside we'll show you around and uh you'll get to meet napoleon this is napoleon he is my 14 year old adventure cat i've had him since he was a kitten and he's hiked camped and traveled with us for the last three years jasper is a four-year-old german shepherd husky mix he's a rescue and i also got him as a puppy he spent three of his four years on the road this is also his moose if he has his mousse he's happy so let me give you a tour of the inside we'll start over here on the kitchen area the kitchen is a panoramic kitchen that takes up the whole front of the rv you have your sink you have your two gas burner stove and you have panoramic front windows which is actually one of the reasons that i bought this rv you can't find a kitchen this size in another 16 foot or smaller rv so it's really one of the big selling features the other thing is when you're sitting on the bed or at the tables and you're looking out the front those panoramic windows it's just incredible the views that you can see there's also a little fridge there's enough storage i actually store my clothes in the kitchen as well as my kitchen items on the other side as well so there's a ton of storage and that's actually where most of my belongings are next to that is the wet bath i know wet baths are a little bit weird to a lot of people where the toilet is in the shower but you actually get used to it really quickly the other thing to keep in mind with wet baths is to make sure that you actually fit in them so when i was shopping around for an rv i was looking for something that i could actually wash my hair in and really take a true shower in this one you have enough elbow room it's tall enough i actually tested it out when i was checking out the base camp the salesman was awkwardly sitting on the benches while i was in there trying to pretend take a shower and it was an awkward five minutes but i made sure that the bathroom actually worked for me and you get comfortable with it and after a while you don't even notice it's a wet bath anymore in the back we have two benches which actually fold down into the bed as well the bed when it is folded down is about a king size bed those are really only the dimensions of the front and the full length because of the way the air stream curves back it is a little bit shorter than a king size so even as five foot seven female i sleep at an angle and then that leaves enough room for jasper on one side napoleon on the other then during the day i can take the memory foam that i have on the bed just fold it right back the table pops up and i can sit there and i can work you can also eat there play games do however you would like on that table the other place that i work is actually right up on the front counter i have a standing desk that i just put up there put the mouse right on the kitchen counter and that's where i work and it's really comfortable standing desk you have those panoramic views and it's really a beautiful thing before i filmed cass's rig tour i asked her if she'd be willing to answer some subscriber questions she graciously agreed and i asked you for questions and you gave some great ones so that's what we're going to do we're going to do a quick q a with cass the first question is why did you choose the airstream over other types of rvs like a van i actually owned a class b rv for about a month it was a 2001 chinook concourse absolutely beautiful condition it was a great rv i loved it but there was maintenance issues that even though i got inspected were hidden and came out during that month i also learned during that month of owning it we didn't live in it at the time i just drove it around was trying to move everything into it that the cabinet shaking really scared jasper so i have some funny pictures of jasper with huge eyes completely freaked out driving it and i just knew that i couldn't put him through that so that's one of the reasons i ended up going into a travel trailer is both napoleon jasper know the is what moves that's uncomfortable they don't necessarily enjoy it but when they come into the base camp it's home they feel comfortable and they feel safe the reason i ended up with the base camp itself is because i was looking at rvs that were under 5000 pounds but then i also had a really long wish list of things that i wanted one of them was a really large kitchen a really large bed and a shower i could actually stand up in the other thing was a place for the litter box because you have to have a litter box and there's a lot of small trailers that literally don't have the room to put a litter box in so in the end when i saw the base camp i had a measuring tape and it was the only one that could actually fit everything i wanted so we ended up with it how good of a tow vehicle is the toyota 4runner so the 4runner does a decent job at towing the base camp uh it does well enough that i haven't actually wanted to upgrade it or really change it out i've gone up these passes here in colorado wolf creek pass it doesn't overheat i can downshift going down it tows the base camp very well with that said it also is still an suv with a v6 engine so when we're going up wolf creek pass you're doing 35 miles an hour in the slow lane hanging out with 18 wheelers while everybody's blowing past you i also don't like putting the engine really in the high rpms so i usually say about two and a half three rpms when we're going up the passes so are you going to be flying around the colorado passes towing the base camp with the 4runner probably not but it does a really good job towing it especially once we go boondocking and then there's dirt roads you got to climb over rocks different things like that the 4runner does really well there's only been twice that i've had to put it in four-wheel drive and that was to get up a steep really rocky hill so the rocks are sliding underneath the tires and i just put in four-wheel drive for safety i don't know if i actually really needed it but i wanted to do it just in case how do you pay for your travel lifestyle i'm a process consultant i work for a large insurance carrier and basically what i do is try to make other people's jobs easier and more efficient so i look at internal processes try to figure out if there's a way to use computers or automation to try to make somebody's life easier or even just look at older processes that have been around for a while that might be inefficient and see if there's a way to make them better isn't the aluminum siding hot in the summer and cold in the winter yes the interior panels on the base camp are aluminum so you can feel the heat you can feel the cold if it's a really cold day and lean up against the base camp you will let out a little sound the other thing is the way that you see the bed against the aluminum walls dog claws scratch it very easily so this lovely tape on one side and then it's a padding on the other side helps protect that aluminum so that is one slight downfall to having the aluminum on the inside how do you keep your rv clean with two pets the dirt from the pets you kind of get used to it i have a little broom that i clean the floor and wipe it down about once a day i have a little vacuum for the rug in here and i vacuum about once a day as well there's the litter that you also have to deal with and when he goes to the bathroom he usually comes flying out of the litter box and the litter goes everywhere so i usually end up sweeping up right after him so it's a constant battle you're constantly cleaning it up but the thing is i can deep clean the whole entire base camp in under three minutes so it doesn't really take that long to keep up with them what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of a small rv so the advantages of living in a shorter airstream are it's very easy to turn this thing around so i've done this a few times you can do a u-turn on a regular two-lane highway so it's when you have four lanes together you can also turn around when you're looking to go boondocking and you're in a really tight spot so for example i was up in the grand tetons started going up shadow mountain and it was too busy couldn't get around so i was able to back into this tiny little area right off the road turn around and come back out that would be almost impossible in a 30-foot airstream the disadvantages are that you have less room on the inside my bed is also my dining area it's also my living area and you have to put the bed up and down most of the time i just leave the bed down and you end up doing everything in bed what is your favorite place you visited so far so i have a few favorite places um last year we went to banff and jasper up in canada and it is absolutely beautiful up there there's so much to see and do the other place i really love is i'm probably going to pronounce it wrong but ooray colorado it's out near telluride they are the most beautiful and spectacular mountains that you can see in colorado i think and it's just a gorgeous area if you go there in the fall you can see the aspens when they all turn golden and it is absolutely spectacular what is your favorite meal to prepare in your rv so my favorite meal is kind of a base it would be fried rice um and then you can put all your vegetables and seasoning right in that fried rice and make a big batch of it you put in your fridge and then throughout the week you just cook up different proteins between eggs and chicken and steak mix it in with that fried rice and you can take that one meal and make it last a really long time and also not get bored of it if you could change one thing about your rig what would that be so if i could change one thing about my rig and if i could dream big what i would really love to do is put a recirculating shower in since i only have a black and gray tank combined taking showers really fills that up very quickly so if i could put in a system where the water from the shower just recirculates and filters with an endless hot water heater then you could take real long showers out boondocking and it would really be great what have you learned about yourself living as a nomad so traveling and being a nomad actually teaches you a lot and it really can change you in good ways i think the biggest thing is you learn to rely on yourself and you become even more independent so even if you are an independent person to start you run into situations where you have to diagnose or react without anybody else there and you really need to learn to rely on yourself so you learn what your limits are you learn what you can handle you learn what you like and what you don't like and you really kind of understand yourself a little bit better do you have any advice for solo female travelers so if you're a solo female and you want to get into the traveling lifestyle don't hesitate um go ahead and do it it safety is something that you need to be aware of and you need to keep on the back of your mind so trust your gut if you're in a situation or if you're in a location it just doesn't feel right leave um keep an eye out you know don't go blindly into something always make sure you're watching out for yourself but honestly in three years of travel i've never had anything that was really scary and that made me really nervous when i go in here at night everything's locked up i have jasper i have a can of bear spray i feel completely safe i can boondock by myself i can sit in a walmart parking lot and feel completely fine there's also really good communities out there so depending on what you're interested in whether it's rving and you want to join something like escapers which is where i met most of my community or if you want to find hobby groups or if there's groups for your specific rv type find a group get a community and it's really great to have them to rely on even if you don't travel with them all the time if you're out there you're feeling lonely you're not quite sure if you want to continue you'll have people who understand what you're going through and they can really help you along so give it a try and then always have a backup plan if you don't like it you can always change thank you cass for letting us tour your really cool airstream here and introducing us to jasper and napoleon it's been awesome if you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up and even if you didn't like me and you didn't like cass but you like jasper you can still give it a thumbs up so thanks for watching life

Channel: 30 And A Wake Up

Views: 1,656,849

Rating: 4.9355016 out of 5

Keywords: rv, rv tour, solo female, solo female rv, solo female rv living, solo female rv life, rv living, rv living with dogs, rv living with pets, full time rv living, full time rv, airstream, airstream basecamp, rv life, rv lifestyle, rv travel, rving, rv camping, rv living full time, rv life full time, full time rving, travel trailer, basecamp, camper, tiny home, tiny home on wheels, tiny house on wheels, tiny house, camping, travel, RV, 30 and a wake up, tails of wanderlust

Id: J8QXKKGRnVA

Length: 17min 34sec (1054 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 23 2020