Hi and welcome! I am a Solo Female traveler who loves RV Living!
Are you ready to embrace RV Living Full Time?
If so, then read on to find out how I started living my RV Life.
There is no simple answer to how I came to move into a 29’ RV at forty-eight years old. I didn’t just wake up one day and say, “Ok, today I’m going to leave the community I’ve been living in for 28 years. I will sell everything I own, buy a 23-year-old RV, and wander around the National Forest now.” No, it was a lifetime of experiences and choices leading me here. For my full story, check out this YouTube Video.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had an adventurous spirit and a desire to travel and experience everything. But the chaos and dysfunction of my childhood led me to seek a life that was the exact opposite. I was chasing the American Dream of success, money, and stability: things that in my eyes, would make me Somebody.
However, when I got the husband, house, and career, instead of feeling like I’d arrived at some magical place, I felt trapped!
I didn’t have freedom, and I did not feel secure. In fact, my life became the exact opposite of freedom and security! Instead, I was bored, unfulfilled, and uninspired. Daily, I commuted an hour each way to an unsatisfying job in a claustrophobic office. I lived for weekends I spent doing housework, yard work, and running errands. For forty-nine weeks of the year, I fantasized and longed for the three weeks of freedom when I could take a vacation. I was miserable…And in the throes of alcohol addiction.
In 2008 when the Great Recession hit, my world shifted. I lost my house, lost my job, got divorced, and decided it was time to reclaim my sobriety. I wanted to change my story.
So, I started my marketing consulting company, picked up backpacking again, and made plans to travel the world. I also started therapy to work on myself. I had to lose everything to realize I had spent decades building a life I didn’t really want.
In 2015, I backpacked the John Muir Trail – 256 miles over 26 days, alone (You can read my blog about that adventure HERE).
Toward the end of the hike, as I sat in the dirt outside the Tuolumne Meadows store in Yosemite, a ginormous Class A motorhome pulled into the parking lot, just a few feet from my dirt-streaked legs. The contrast struck me. I glanced down at my own version of a motorhome: my 63-liter REI Flash backpack. All I could think was, “WOW, some people can’t take a vacation to enjoy nature with less than they can cram into a 40+ foot million dollar monstrosity, and I’ve lived out of my backpack for twenty-three days.“
My whole backcountry journey living and hiking in the wilderness alone had brought me to that moment. The hike awakened a truth that had been bubbling near the surface for years – and maybe my whole life. My pursuit of success and money and “stuff” wasn’t real. None of it was real. All it did was take me further and further from myself.
“Real” is the mountains and the trees and the lakes and streams. For me, real life is sitting completely alone on a mountain top deep in the wilderness with everything I need to survive carried on my back. Real is hopping on a plane and traveling to a foreign land immersing myself in another culture’s reality – even if just for a few weeks. All the rest is stuff I’d cluttered my life with for the sake of chasing the elusive – and in my opinion- false “American Dream”.
When I returned to my apartment in a crowded suburb of San Francisco, I felt like a caged animal. If I wanted to walk my dog someplace quiet, I had to drive to crowded open space areas that half the city used. Living in an apartment, I had no real private outdoor space and few windows. The traffic and crowds, noise and commotion of life felt shallow and pointless and no longer fit me. I longed to be back in nature where I felt truly at peace.
After spending twenty-six days alone in the wilderness, I could finally admit that I didn’t believe in this version of the American Dream of working my ass off for stuff I didn’t want that left me feeling empty. All I wanted was to earn enough to live in the forest, backpack, travel, and be free to wander where my heart led me. Now, finally, at forty-eight, I decided to live that life.
I started Googling “off-the-grid living” and “tiny house living”. One day I stumbled upon a whole community of people, many just like me, who lived in RVs. I thought to myself, “That’s it! That’s what I will do! I will live in an RV!”
The next step was figuring out how I’d support myself. I had a couple of client contracts that would run through the end of the year – and I worked with those clients remotely. So I knew I’d have enough to live on for at least 6 months.
Within three months of making the decision, I had my RV. And six weeks after that, on April 26, 2016, I’d sold everything I owned (except my car which I put in storage), moved out of my apartment, and hit the road.
My first few months of stealth camping and boondocking in the Bay Area and Northern California were chock full of trials and tribulations: I learned A LOT in those first few months – and I’m still learning!
So that’s my story of how I got here. I hope you found some things that inspire you to chase your dreams – whatever they may be!
Check out my Blog Library and my YouTube Channel to see my adventures from the beginning! You will find helpful tips, How-Tos and some fun adventures and amazing sights that will to guide and inspire you start your Nomad Life or any lie you dream of. Happy trails!
As a Full-Time RV living solo female, Digital Nomad, YouTube Creator, and blogger is to inspire others to chase their dreams and to provide tips and advice to help you plan. This site is for women and men thinking about taking the leap to freedom. And for those who already have, I have fun adventures and stories about my travels.
I’ve been full-time RV Living since 2016, and I have learned a lot along the way. I’m here to share everything I have learned, so you can be successful living in an RV or Van. On my site, you can find everything from how to buy an RV for full-time living, stealth camp in a Class C RV (yes, you can!), find the amazing free remote National Forest campsites, basic RV repairs and improvements, and so much more! Plus, I shared some of the best (and worst) of my RV travel stories along the way.
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