FULL-TIME RV LIFE Your Questions Answered HERE! Today, Cheap Winter Camping, Dump Stations, Solo...

Welcome to an all-new ViewQ where I answer all your best questions about my full-time RV life. And today we're going to talk about where to find cheap long-term winter camping, vandals and thieves, married people who travel solo, decision fatigue and more. Hey bird watchers, I am finally out of that RV park and back on the road and it is making me deliriously happy. So I went back to the last ViewQ to get the questions for this ViewQ. Of course if you have a question for me put it in the comments below. But last time we talked about UFOs for just a second and I have to tell you so many people have seen UFOs on the road. If you're interested in those comments they're great. You can find them in the last ViewQ. A lot of people had some great advice and cautionary tales about their tall rigs hitting things while they're driving like signs and overpasses. We did get one comment from a truck driver that had some great advice so I'm going to give that to you really quick before we get to the first question. 84greenbear says, I'm a truck driver and can tell you a few other good things to watch for when operating a tall vehicle. One, trees with low hanging branches. Two, telephone poles that lean towards the road. Three, right hand turns. Don't I know it. And four, arched underpasses. Be safe. Thank you very much for that comment. It was great. Lots of you had questions about long-term visitor areas or LTVAs because I mentioned it in passing last time like this one from Ardeth. Six months for 180 bucks? That's my kind of rent. Me too. That's why I live in an RV. Well here's a little bit more information about that. There are seven long-term visitor areas that are run by the BLM in Arizona and California. Basically it's like boondocking. It's like driving out into the desert and having solitude if you want it. Some LTVAs are more crowded than others, but you don't have to leave in 14 days and you have access to some resources. When you drive into any of the LTVAs, there's a camp host. You pay either $180 for six months or I think it's $40 for two weeks. They give you a pass and you can use that at any of the LTVAs. So if you like to move around, you can. Different locations have different resources. Some of them have water in a dump and trash and others might just have trash in a dump. So decide what's right for you. If you want to camp long-term in the winter, it's a great deal. You can't beat it. Okay, the next question comes from Cindy Jamison. She says, when you're boondocking and going to town or sightseeing, are you concerned about your fifth wheel being broken into or vandalized or heard stories about others? Then she said, also loved your novels. Great job and where's number three? Need to find out about Sam Wheeler and I saw your dartboard ready for a challenge. I definitely am. You might know that when I first hit the road, I made my living writing romance novels. The hero for the third book was named Sam Wheeler. It was three quarters done and I got sidetracked doing this creativity RV thing and now I have to tell you that I'm working on a suspense novel about RVers that I'm very into. It should come out next year. So sorry that book number three in that series hasn't come out, but I appreciate you asking. Now for the dartboard. If you like to play darts, I tell you this was such a find. I will link this on my gear page. If you go to the top of comments below, you can see one link for all my recommended gear. I'll put it in there for you. Basically it's silicone, so the darts don't have any pointy ends. They're not going to wreck your walls and the dartboard can also be just propped up outside on a table. It works great. On to the vandalism and theft question. Of course, when I leave my rig, I can be concerned about something happening to it because it's, you know, my house. But I mitigate that risk in a few ways. You may have heard me say before that I only camp in places where I don't see things like spray paint, needles, bullets, things like that. I try and boondock farther away from towns because people tend to party in those areas more if you're near a town. If I get any kind of a weird feeling, I leave. And if I see any of those elements, I leave. I have never had a problem and I actually don't know anybody that has. If anybody out there has been vandalized or robbed, please do put it in the comments below. I'd love to read about it. I'll tell you guys, the thing that I was most concerned about with a fifth wheel when I first got it is that if I'm gone, somebody else with a fifth wheel hitch and their pickup can back right up and pull my house away. So I did get a hitch lock. Here it is. I will put that on my gear page too. That stops somebody from doing that. And I got another one that's kind of like a wheel chock that goes between the wheels with a lock so the wheels won't actually turn. That means nobody can roll it away. I also keep stickers in my window that tells people they're being recorded by video surveillance. Yes, I finally did get a camera system. More on that soon. And when I leave, I usually play some music inside or something like that. So people think there might be somebody in there. If anybody else has a tip on this, also please do put it down below. And a quick heads up for everybody. Amazon Prime Day is Tuesday. So I'm going to be up at 12 a.m. to look at every single thing on my list and see what's for sale. And early Tuesday morning I'm putting out a special video to tell you guys all the RV gear on my list that's on sale that day. If you haven't hit the little bell for my channel to be notified of videos, do it so you don't miss that one on Tuesday. Moving on to question three. The question really is, where is the dump? What a dump. Like Sherry asked, when you end a boondocking session, where do you find a dump station to empty your tanks? I tell you, this question actually stressed me out when I first started. And that's why I put together just an arsenal of apps that I use. You might remember that I did a video maybe a couple of months ago called Don't Get Stranded. I will link that below because it actually walks you through step-by-step all the apps that I use to figure out my camping spots and also my dump station spots. But in general, here are three good go-tos. Go-to big truck stop gas stations like TA, for example, or Pilot or Loves. They have good websites. They'll tell you where the dump stations are, but a lot of them have it. They are pay dump stations. They're on the highways, so those are always good. A lot of rest areas have dump stations. Some of them are free and some of them you pay with a credit card and that unlocks the actual dump itself. That's not uncommon. And if you need to find a dump station and there's not one of those things available, look for private RV parks. You don't need to camp there necessarily to use their dump station. A lot of them allow non-campers to use the dump station for a fee just called. This question is from Lorena. She said, hi, are there any solo female RVers that are married but their spouse is not the least bit interested in the lifestyle? I'm so ready to jump in and do this, but I don't really want to do it by myself. Any suggestions? I'll tell you guys, there were so many great responses to this question, so check that out. But here's my two cents. You guys probably know that I'm in a relationship and I've been traveling solo. I didn't expect that. I met my boyfriend, Doug, right before I hit the road and I'm lucky because he's been really supportive. I told him I wanted to do this. He was not ready to do it and so I went out on my own. If you go back in my playlist, you can actually find a video I did the first year I was out called Nomad Love, which talks about what we did while we were separated to keep it going. Doug also came out and visited me a lot on the road and I always went home for the holidays between November and New Year's to be with him. Now, if you're in a great supportive relationship where your partner is like, yeah, go do it. It's cool. You don't have to travel by yourself. In my second to last book, Be a Nomad, Change Your Life, I have an entire chapter on social life with links to lots of groups. There are Facebook groups and travel groups like caravans and escapees and sisters on the fly and RVing women. You can find people to travel with and then, you know, you meet friends and you can travel with them in the future or just have them on speed dial. You can meet up along the way. That's what I do. I'm camping with some great friends that I haven't seen in a while right now and it was like no time at all went by. And finally, I'm going to tackle a whopper. I get questions like this all the time. I'm going to read three different questions to you and then give you my take. The first one is from Southern Bell. She said, I've listened to your recommendations and all the different things that you can do for RV living. So many things to take care of. Challenges are good but I do wonder, sealing or leaks, things breaking the RV, power, water, tank maintenance, weather, leveling, finding camp spots, strangers and safety. The list goes on and it doesn't seem to end. Does the physical and mental work ever take a break? It seems like there's always something to worry about. Hashtag decision fatigue. The second question is from Nancy. Is there any kind of course out there about RV repair for ladies? One thing that always bothers me from deciding on traveling in an RV is not having any repair knowledge. And the third question is from Wanda Holmes. She said, I'm 60, recently retired female. I'm seriously considering selling everything in RVing. I have the funds within reason but I'm alone and concerned about the logistics of it all. While I'm not hindered physically, I am about 60 pounds overweight and not interested in a lot of hiking or roughing it. I do enjoy travel and solitude. I've been looking at small class C's but am concerned about the space. I'm starting to consider a fifth wheel or a trailer but I've only pulled a trailer once in my life and don't know how to back it up at all. Do you have any suggestions for me? Okay, let me answer the RV repair question first and then I'm going to give you my thoughts on everything else. Yes, there are schools that you can go to online to learn about RV repair. There are three or four. I don't have any experience with them so I can't recommend them. But go and look at the reviews and what you want to learn and see if there's something that fits you. There are also programs through escapees and like Good Sam that also have classes that can help you. But here's what I want you to know. When I hit the road, you might know that I had never been in an RV. When I lived in an apartment or a house, I always called a repair guy or I called the landlord because I had a job and I did what I did and they seemed like the best option to get something done. So I didn't learn along the way. So when I went into an RV, I had that mindset that I had to go to a dealership or a repair guy to get things fixed. And actually, I have a video coming out Sunday on mistakes that I made when I purchased an RV. And one of them was buying a new RV with a warranty because I thought it gave me backup. I thought it gave me a safety net. It doesn't. When you go into an RV shop, they take months of your time off the road. And I'll go into more of that next week. But I found when it was just me and I was out somewhere and there was a problem, I had to learn to fix it myself. So I'm a writer. I had never done anything like with electrical systems in my life. But in my first rig, when I had electrical and water issues at the same time, I was literally looking up at my wiring with a schematic using tools I had never used before. And it goes on from there. And I'll tell you, after three years, I know I can almost do anything. If I can't do it myself, I know people that can help me figure it out. I've got YouTube, I've got Google, and I've got mobile repair guys. One of the great things about this life is that it kind of forces you to learn how to do stuff yourself. And because of that, I know I can do it now. And if I can do it, believe me, you can do it. It's very satisfying to fix something yourself. So don't be scared of that. If you join these social groups and you find friends on the road or you join forums, you are going to have resources you need to know how to fix everything. And for the question about decision fatigue and everything that goes into being on the road, I just had somebody tell me the other day that there is a lot more involved daily in RVing than he thought. Well, yeah, you do have to do things like level and find a dump station and find a campsite. But I'll tell you what I'm not doing. I'm not stuck in a Monday morning meeting where people are yelling at each other. And I'm not stuck in traffic or juggling bills because housing is so expensive. Everything is a tradeoff. So I do have to do all of those things again. At this point, I find it satisfying, but I don't have to deal with those other stressors in my life that I just let go. And when you have to look for the low hanging branch or you have to be in tune with the weather, I find that I do live more in the moment than inside my head, which is a good thing. Yeah, there's a lot of different rigs you can look at and a lot of different places to go and ways to RV. You're going to make mistakes. Most people do change their rig after about a year when they learn what works for them. The thing is that you're choosing a life. You're not just choosing a camping spot or a rig or a solar system or something like that. You're going to learn along the way. If you want to do it, do it. Don't let all of the options cripple you. Dive in. See if it's for you. If it is, you're going to pivot and you're going to adjust. And if you're like me, you're going to love it. Oh, I wanted to throw this quick tip before I go. For anybody out there who is actually camping, October is a great time to see meteor showers in the sky. There's going to be like 20 shooting stars an hour, they said. So I hope you get to check that out. I've seen a few already myself and I'm loving it. Please do give this video a thumbs up. Subscribe if you haven't already. Share it with your friends and hit that little bell so you get notified of new videos so you don't miss the Prime Day video on Tuesday. And, of course, I'll see you guys next Sunday. Until then, I hope you're all doing well out there. Have happy travels and be free!