Two Years on the Road as Full-time Solo Female RVers
In this article (and linked to videos) listen and watch as three single female RVers each tell you how they live their frugal, fun, and adventurous lifestyle.
Becky, Peppi and Vanessa live the RV lifestyle in different ways. Becky and Peppi have both been RVing full-time now for more than two years and Vanessa started in July 2014. What they have in common is that they all three love the RV lifestyle and the freedom.
Let's start with Becky Schade's story. Becky covers all of her expenses doing what's called, "workamping" as she travels around the country. She has been RVing full-time now for more than two years and loves the lifestyle and the freedom.
Below is a picture of her rig.
You might think that this is small, but Becky is actually thinking about downsizing. Casita makes a camper that's slightly smaller.
It's not fancy, but it's very functional. This picture was taken in the Badlands National Park in South Dakota.
She gets 15 mpg pulling her camper. The truck is a 2001 Dodge Dakota with a 4.7 V8 engine, 2-wheel drive with a factory installed tow package. It had 87,000 miles on it when she bought it and she paid $7,000 for it. So far it's proven to be very reliable.
The camper is a 1999, 17-foot Casita Spirit Deluxe. She paid $9,000 for it. Her total investment for her truck and camper was $16,000. Here is her story.
After a year of planning . . .
Becky Schade left her career as a laboratory veterinary technician and hit the road as a full-time solo female RVer at the age of 28. Now two years later she is still on the road and enjoying it even more than she expected.She travels across the country working 1-month to 3-month seasonal work jobs in interesting places she wants to visit. By the time each work gig is finished, she usually has multiple offers for next stop. She said, "I like to have choices."
She has worked in SC, GA, FL, UT, KS, NV, SD, TX, WY etc., you name it. She finds what is called work camping jobs such as packing boxes at Amazon distribution centers in the months before Christmas. She has also worked as a campground host, a welcome center greeter, a gift shop clerk at a national park, and at a nature preserve, just to name a few.
The good thing about these jobs is that in addition to getting paid, she gets a free camping space. The pay isn't high, but her living expenses aren't either. They consist basically of food, insurance, personal expenses and gas for when she hits the road again, along with a few miscellaneous expenses.
Becky has a college degree and was making a good income, but she wasn't living a fulfilling life. She said, "Now I get to travel around the country, see beautiful places, and hike unique and fabulous trails. I'm covering my expenses and even saving some money. It's total freedom and I'm loving it." In addition to the other benefits, she said that she has a lot more friends now than she did before she started full-time RVing.
Becky finds her jobs by going to websites such as: CoolWorks.com, Workamper.com and others.
Other sources of income
Most young full-time RVers work some seasonal gigs and many of them also have one or more, location-independent sources of income. Location-independent sources of income are things like Internet businesses, website design, freelance writing or photography, video projects, etc.Becky is also working towards having some location-independent sources to of income. She has just published a book about solo full-time RVing on a budget.
I don't recommend many books, but this is one I highly recommend if you're considering RVing on a tight budget or considering solo RVing.
Below is a previous header picture from her website showing her on one of her many hikes.
She loves to hike. She says that hiking is a lot of fun, it's great exercise, and it's an inexpensive form of entertainment.
If you want to see a short, 11-minute YouTube video interview with Becky talking about her life on the road, why she chose this lifestyle, and how she supports herself, you can find the video at the link below:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebbo800_Rg0
This video was made and edited by Chris Dunphy and Cherie Ve Ard, mentioned earlier.
Here is a link to her website:
http://www.Interstellarorchard.com
Bottom line: Becky's story proves that it's possible to live full-time in an RV by just doing work- camping jobs. You don't have to have some fancy Internet business or other sources of income.
Of course, having streams of income other than just workcamping jobs is always nice and I go into details about several ways of making money with and without the Internet in other articles.
Here's the story of another young, single female RVer
Peppi Peterson lives full-time in her 20+ year old Class A RV. Below is a link to a short YouTube video where she talks about the Pros and Cons of living the RV life.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1EIdQN5rq0
If you search YouTube, you can find several of Pippi's videos where she shows how she replaced the carpet in her RV, replaced the commode, changed the oil, repaired the plumbing (all of these tasks by herself) and how she does a lot more projects that many men wouldn't tackle.
Watch some of her videos and I think they will inspire you and convince you that you too can live and enjoy the RV lifestyle.
Here's one more story
Vanessa Fox left her job woring for Google. She hit the road in a RoadTrek 170 motorhome in July of 2014. She supports herself doing computer projects for clients all over the world. You can learn more about her travels and her lifestyle by visiting her website at
To learn more about her Motorhome and how she lives, go to the link below:
http://www.girlmeetsroad.com/inside-roadtrek-170-popular-non-cartoon-transformer
As you can see, these three single, solo, female RVers are living their dreams of living full-time on the road in their RVs. They have different types of rigs and they earn the money to support themselves in different ways, but they have one thing in common -- they're all three living life their way.
Update: Vanessa still has her RV, but she has just finished building a house for a home base.