What if the space between parenting and grandparenting became your most vibrant, alive season? In this episode, entrepreneur and community-builder Carol Tice shares her transformative journey—from selling their Seattle home to living full-time on the road in a 24-foot RV. Discover how she and her husband designed a life centered on mobility, minimalism, and meaningful work, turning “someday” into their everyday reality.
Carol recounts their pandemic-era trial run—healthy habits, vegan cooking, long bike rides—and how a full year on the road reshaped their priorities. She dives into the practical choices behind RV life: choosing a rig that fits anywhere, solar power as a game-changer, and navigating boondocking at hidden gems like the Lost Coast. She also highlights the social fabric of RV communities, especially in Quartzsite, Arizona, where neighbors swap help regardless of class or politics.
Highlights & Key Takeaways:
- Why waiting for grandkids isn’t the only way—start living now.
- Building sustainable, location-independent income streams.
- Minimalism as a pathway to financial and personal relief.
- Selling your house to reduce costs and embrace freedom.
- How a trial RV trip can jumpstart healthier habits and clarity.
Carol Tice Bio
Carol Tice is the founder of Community Growth Academy on Skool. Her previous community, Freelance Writers Den, grew to 1,500 paying members over a decade, generating $6 million across the life of the business. She sold the Den in 2021 and she now travels in her RV with her husband while she helps coaches, consultants, and other experts build their own communities with help from Community Growth Academy.
Find Carol Online: Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Website
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Sitting around waiting for the grandkids is a
sad, sad scene.
There's nothing good there.
And all your friends have allthe pictures of the grandkids
and all they talk about is thegrandkids?
Yeah, I I would like to see someof this world while I am really
free to do whatever I want.
SPEAKER_02 (00:17):
So good.
I'm free to do whatever I want,any old time.
SPEAKER_01 (00:21):
Welcome to this empty nest life.
Join Jay Ramsden as he leads youon a transformative journey
through the uncharted seas ofmidlife and empty nesting.
If you're ready to embark onthis new adventure and redefine
your future, you're in the rightplace.
Here's your host, the emptinesscoach, Jay Ramsden.
SPEAKER_02 (00:40):
Hey there, my emptiness friends.
Have you ever thought aboutdownsizing and escaping and
hitting the road in youremptiness life?
Well, my guest today does justthat.
Carol Tice, an entrepreneur whospecializes in building online
communities, has taken her workon the road, and she and her
husband travel the U.S.
in their RV.
Today we're going to dive intoall things RV life and how
(01:03):
becoming an entrepreneur hasprovided Carol the freedom to
live out her dream.
Carol, welcome to this emptinesslife.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
Hey, thanks for having me.
Yeah, we are currently heredriveway camping in my cousin's
driveway at our home base ofSeattle, which is where we sold
had our last house that we sold.
We've been up here 30 years.
We love it.
But we don't love the winter ofit so much, like many
Seattleites.
SPEAKER_02 (01:28):
And driveway camping.
That's just what caught me.
I love that driveway camping.
unknown (01:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (01:34):
So you escape the winters then.
SPEAKER_00 (01:36):
Yeah.
So we go down south.
We did three months on the firstrun of it, did four and a half
months last year, and now we'recelebrating our first full year
of being full-time in the RV.
We sold our house last August,and uh we're we'll probably go
for more like five months thistime, five and a half.
SPEAKER_02 (01:55):
Now, do you go someplace specifically or do you
pick different places?
Tell me how the like I'm sointrigued about this lifestyle.
Uh everybody needs to be.
Yeah, exactly.
Cool.
How do you make that work?
What does that look like?
SPEAKER_00 (02:08):
Well, let me start with how we grew into this
lifestyle.
So I built and sold a paidcommunity that I sold in 2021.
And at that point, my my planwas kids were graduating.
I'm selling the business, andthen we're gonna sell the house
and be free.
(02:28):
And then we looked at each otherand we were like, we will
downsize to where exactly?
My husband, fishing cabin in themiddle of nowhere, me, somewhere
where there's a synagogue,college-educated people, bike
trails.
And we were like, hmm, there'snot a lot of overlap here.
Where is this place?
And so getting the RV, I starteda little bit as a way to go
(02:53):
search for that place.
And so while we still had thehouse back in like 21, during
the depths of COVID winter, webought the RV and went on a
three-month tryout trip, and itwas awesome.
We were our best weights ever.
We were so fit and healthybecause no restaurant eating.
(03:14):
We would just put on our masks,dive bomb through a grocery
store once every 10 days, getour healthy vegan food.
We were eating super, superclean, super healthy, and
biking, hiking, doing all thethings.
We just part of the go downsouth is that like your exercise
options get less in Seattle inthe winter.
And we're both very kind ofprefer the outdoor exercise.
(03:36):
And we did not find the place.
We went to a lot of places.
We're based in Seattle and welike the West.
We're both from California.
We went and visited family andfriends there.
We went to Arizona where thereis cheap land you can stay on.
And I don't know, nothing wecould afford jumped out at us.
(03:58):
I mean, we would love to go backto Santa Barbara where we met,
but we can't buy a closet therefor what we sold a five-bedroom
house in Seattle for.
And so then we came back, andwith the money from the sale, I
had also fixed we had also fixedup the house.
And, you know, we had a nice newkitchen, and we were like, we
love it here.
(04:20):
So there was a few more yearsduring which kids bounced back.
First one, then the other, thenthe other again.
And um we started to see that ifwe stayed in the house, that
this might continue to happen.
And the other thing in our lifeis that uh we have two of our
three kids are adopted and had arange of special needs, and they
(04:42):
weren't good travelers.
So we didn't get to camp andhike and pedal and bike and fish
the way we imagined we would asa family.
So we had a lot of pent-uptravel energy going on, and we
finally decided to sell thehouse and, you know, go hardcore
and do it.
We liked the first trip, weenjoyed it, and thought we could
(05:05):
do it and make it happen.
And besides building paidcommunities, the other thing I
do is ghostwrite books.
And I ghost wrote a book for akind of contrarian financial
manager who was launching aconsulting business and learned
his contrarian investing system,tried it out, liked it.
So we sold the house, took allthe money, and I invest our
(05:27):
money and one of my three jobsthat I do from the road.
SPEAKER_02 (05:32):
I love it, I love it.
SPEAKER_00 (05:34):
And yeah, so this time we really dug into the trip
more.
We were kind of celebrating thehome sale this time, so it was
glampy.
We went to some expensive RV,more uh pricier side RV parks
like in Avala Beach.
We went to Flying Flags, whichis just a fantastic little town
(05:56):
out from San Luis Ibispo.
SPEAKER_02 (05:58):
If you've never seen my brother and sister-in-law
were just in Avala Beach, it'stheir favorite.
SPEAKER_00 (06:04):
Love Avala, happy place, good paddling, and uh
good biking, yeah.
Fun little it uh you feel likeyou're in a Bond movie in the
60s on the French Riviera.
It's like there's no powerboats, it's very adorable.
SPEAKER_02 (06:18):
Adorable, yeah.
Um they love it.
She's from San Luis Obispo, andso that's kind of like their
go-to spot.
SPEAKER_00 (06:24):
Yeah, it is a lovely place.
So, yeah, we went to a lot oflittle happy places.
We went and saw family andfriends in Palm Desert and LA
and San Diego, and we went toSanta Barbara because we love
it.
And then we went out and reallystarted to explore more the
boondocking, really cheapcamping side in Arizona, and
(06:49):
went to the epicenter of all RVlife, quartzite, Arizona, which
some people know from NomadLand, the movie, and um got into
that scene and kind of hold thethe whole world of RV culture,
which really is like its owncommunity, which since I build
communities was so much.
SPEAKER_02 (07:08):
Brilliant love that connection, yes.
SPEAKER_00 (07:10):
Yeah, it's it is what I was saying to a friend at
the camp I was at this weekendis that the thing about RV
community is that in most of ourlives we are in very class
segregated communities.
You are in an upscale communityor a very working class
community, or and the thing isthat you go out to Quartzide,
(07:31):
Arizona, and you have all theeconomic strata right on right
on top of each other.
People camping in a tricked-outvan that they bought for$2,000
to people rolling those three,four, five hundred thousand
dollar land yachts in that havewashing machines in them and an
(07:55):
office and a living room andthree TVs, and yeah, and you're
all right together, and it'sMAGA country and LGBTQ rainbow
flags and all the things, it'sall the things right together,
and it's a very interestingsocial experiment to me.
SPEAKER_02 (08:13):
Who knew that RV life was the true melting pot?
SPEAKER_00 (08:16):
Was the great equalizer, yeah, yeah, and what
I learned is that people arepeople, and that I can put a big
smile on my face and go toanyone and say, hello, friend,
hello neighbor, I have can Iborrow a cup of sugar or your
(08:37):
lights are on, or we're we areall living in a rudimentary sort
of way, a lot of us on solarpower, and things break, and we
kind of all have to sticktogether and you know to make it
all work.
People have medical emergenciesand you need assistance getting
(08:58):
to town, and so it's it's kindof an interesting world to be
in.
And we also hear other couplesfighting in their RV, and we're
like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no.
We have a very strict nofighting in the RV rule.
Like, hello, we're living in 50square feet here.
(09:18):
So we decided we did not want agiant RV.
We are in a 24-foot coachmancrosstreck and has a lot of
storage, and it's just not verybig.
It's um can you can still parkit anywhere.
Those giant ones, you can onlypark them at an RV park or in a
gas station in a truck stop toget gas, which you have to do
(09:38):
every five miles because you gettwo miles.
SPEAKER_02 (09:41):
They're so big.
SPEAKER_00 (09:42):
Yeah, they they do not get good gas mileage.
And um, so yeah, we ran afterthis trip, we ran a whole set of
specs about whether we wouldchange it.
Where whether we might go biggeror different, go to a truck and
trailer instead of an RV, whicha lot of the more living
full-time people tend to do,unless they're buying the giant
(10:05):
diesel pushers.
And we our conclusion was runthis one into the ground.
Because in the five years sincewe first bought this one, it RVs
have gotten so much moreexpensive that it doesn't make
sense.
SPEAKER_02 (10:20):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (10:21):
We're like, just keep it going, keep dealing.
And the other thing I thinkpeople don't know about RV life
is that you're not necessarilyalways in the RV.
I just went on a cruise with mydad.
We went on a trip to Europe foralmost a month.
Uh we house sit for friends, sowe go stay in an Airbnb.
(10:42):
The thing, the thing you don'tanticipate is your house is also
a car, and that's the car needsto go in the shop sometimes.
SPEAKER_02 (10:50):
So of course, yeah.
Yeah, so then we're in it.
SPEAKER_00 (10:53):
So then we're in an Airbnb while they upgrade the
heater or whatever's happening.
So it's not like we're in thisthing every second.
But we love it.
We're we're pretty darn happywith it.
SPEAKER_02 (11:05):
What do you like when you travel, what do you do
with it?
That that would be my firstquestion.
Oh, we're gonna go to Europe fora month.
What do we do with the RV?
Do you is there places to parkit?
Do you park it in a friend's?
Do you beg somebody?
What does that look like?
SPEAKER_00 (11:17):
This time for Europe, we left it right here
where you're seeing.
Okay.
Uh in my my cousin's driveway,which is our sort of crash pad
home base here in Seattle.
You need somewhere to put it.
Some people do there's heatedstorage for RVs.
A lot of people who aresnowbirds drive their RV to like
(11:39):
Yuma and put it in storagethere, and then they fly home to
Canada or wherever, and they flyback and get it.
And so they don't do the longdrive up down.
SPEAKER_02 (11:51):
Okay.
So they do the summer in Canadaor someplace else, and then
they're going to Arizona toright.
SPEAKER_00 (11:57):
They're spending half the year in Minnesota or
wherever, and then they fly backdown to where they stored it,
and you make friends with peoplewho have nice flat driveways,
and you're like, hello, friend,would you like to earn a little
extra money using your drivewayto store my RV?
(12:18):
Yeah.
Um yeah, I what I love about RVlife is that you discover that
you just really don't need somuch stuff, America.
SPEAKER_02 (12:32):
Uh yes.
Yeah, that's minimalizing.
SPEAKER_00 (12:35):
Drowning in stuff.
We have way too much stuff.
Our stuff owns us.
We don't own stuff.
It's bad.
Oh, I love that too.
SPEAKER_02 (12:44):
Yeah.
The stuff owns us.
SPEAKER_00 (12:47):
Yeah.
You are you're a slave to thestuff.
And that's really why anotherreason we made the decision to
sell the house is we were likewe bought a house and the value
of it skyrocketed, the taxes ofit skyrocketed.
We refied the mortgage when therates were low during COVID.
It was still going up, up, upbecause of the taxes and
(13:08):
insurance.
And it was like, well, I cancontinue working this hard, and
my husband husband can continueselling cars for Toyota, and we
can work, work, work all thetime.
Or we could just cut this babyloose and not have to work so
much.
Now my husband's retired.
I do work I love, so I'm stilldoing it, but I can do less of
(13:30):
it.
And as it happened, it allworked out great because all
three of our grown kids ended upneeding financial support for us
in the past year or so.
Sure, as they do.
Some quite unexpectedly, and wehad the money.
Just didn't have to worry aboutit.
They were like, okay, we canhelp keep you off the street
here till you get the next jobor whatever, get over your
(13:52):
illness and yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:55):
Yeah.
So it I'm curious.
I know you you had freelancewriters.
That was your first community.
Yeah, freelance writers can.
And then was that when you soldthat, was that the impetus for
the RV or did that come later?
SPEAKER_00 (14:08):
Well, that generated the cash to buy the RV, which we
did buy for cash from a privateparty.
unknown (14:13):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (14:15):
We probably should have financed it and kept more
of my cash for investing.
I've now learned.
But it was COVID, no, no RVswere being made.
It was very hard to even getyour hands on a new one.
Prices were skyrocketing as aresult, and we we just didn't
want to spend tons.
I didn't want to spend more thana hundred grand on it.
(14:36):
Didn't know if I'd love it.
I I wanted to get in at sort ofa really modest, not
life-changing, not I've pouredmy life savings into this price.
And uh that was buying from aprivate party.
SPEAKER_02 (14:50):
So then now you you're splitting time between
Seattle, which you love, andthen other places you can hop
around.
What's been your favorite?
Yeah, what's been your favoriteso far?
SPEAKER_00 (15:01):
Oh, my favorite, huh?
We I I would have to go with acouple of places.
There is a tiny like federalBureau of Agriculture Campground
or something called MatoleCampground, and it's at the top
of the lost coast in California.
(15:24):
So you're you're and there's seastacks and stuff.
There are 10$10 a night spacesor something at this place, and
so you're on a beach, aspectacular Northern California
beach, and there's nobody.
SPEAKER_01 (15:38):
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (15:39):
And you're at the top of the trail you can hike to
hike the lost coast.
So you can go hiking, justfabulous.
We tried to go back again onthis the trip this year, and we
got blown up by the bombcyclone.
It's really a bummer.
So we were were hoping to do itthis year.
The other one that became ourreal happy place, so is an
(16:00):
interesting campground that mayor be in California or maybe in
Arizona.
SPEAKER_02 (16:05):
You're not giving it away.
SPEAKER_00 (16:06):
Depend no, it depends on what your which GPS
you look at.
It's right on the border.
And it is it was known as SquawLake and was said to be changed
to a native name, but now we'renot doing that.
So I guess it is still SquawLake.
And it has it is as close to afree campground heaven as we've
(16:30):
ever found.
Amazing lake that feeds out ontothe Colorado River, so you can
paddle either the lake or outonto the Colorado, and all kind
of little nooks and crannies andside trails you can paddle in,
just spectacular paddling.
I'm a stand-up paddleboarder,set up.
And uh, my husband has a kayakhe fishes from, and you can
(16:52):
catch bass in this lake, andthere are showers, and for
seniors, it is 7.50 at night.
SPEAKER_02 (16:59):
Wow.
Wow, it's just the economicalpiece of of I mean, other when
you have to go to repair your RVfor some reason, right?
It's like having a car, but theeconomics of it sound
intriguing.
SPEAKER_00 (17:11):
They yeah, you can you can do this lifestyle cheap
or you can do it fancy.
And or both.
SPEAKER_02 (17:20):
You could do both if you really wanted to.
SPEAKER_00 (17:22):
Yeah, the first trip we kind of really did some of
each.
And yeah, we went we went fancyplaces like Campland on the bay
by the bay in San Diego, whichis right on Mission Bay, not a
cheap campground, and we keptextending our stay because it's
so awesome.
Um it is a it is a planet ofRVs.
There's a stage and shows and alaundry and you know, a store
(17:47):
and a merch store, and uh it's awhole scene.
And there the trail to bikearound Mission Bay is like right
at the campground.
You can throw your paddle boardin in the bay every morning.
Incredible, but not beautiful.
SPEAKER_02 (18:03):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (18:04):
How much many amenities?
SPEAKER_02 (18:05):
Many amenities.
Time do you spend at eachcampsite?
I'm assuming you have to reservethem in advance and give like a
hotel kind of like we're gonnabe here from X to Y.
SPEAKER_00 (18:15):
It depends.
It depends.
Some places don't takereservations.
Matole doesn't takereservations.
SPEAKER_02 (18:22):
First come, first serve.
SPEAKER_00 (18:23):
Actually, Squaw Lake doesn't take reservations.
Camp Land, all the big ones takereservations.
State campgrounds, fest, youknow, federal campgrounds,
national parks take reservationsusually.
Um, but some of them will havefirst come, first serve.
They'll have a block they keepfor first come, first serve.
Um, so that really depends.
I tend to be a planner person.
(18:45):
I come from a very plannerfamily.
My family would like to know inlike it's summertime now, so
they would like to know if I'mcoming to the family Hanukkah
party in LA in December andcan't and are b baffled that I
don't know the answer yet.
So I come from a very bigblunder family.
So I I tend to map it out.
(19:05):
It's kind of like the Normandylanding.
I'm like, we're gonna stay herefor this long, and but we leave
some wiggle room because of theworld of boondocking, of just
being able to just parksomewhere.
And now there are websites thattell you where.
SPEAKER_02 (19:20):
Yeah, what for the people who are uninitiated in RV
life, what is boondocking?
SPEAKER_00 (19:24):
Boondocking is like you just park somewhere, you're
not plugged, you're not hookedup to electricity, you're just
faking it in a neighborhood or aparking lot, or there are many
places you can stay.
SPEAKER_02 (19:36):
Truck stop or for free.
SPEAKER_00 (19:38):
You can stay at truck stops, you can stay at
casinos because they want you tocome in and gamble.
You can stay at most of theWalmarts.
So there are places in town, andthere are just random places,
I'll say.
And there's a site calledfreecampsites.net.
(20:00):
Um, some people like Campendium,there's iOverlanders.
So there's a Whisper networkessentially of crowdsourced
information on websites about Ioh, you know, I stayed at just
like mile 37 of this thing, orthis rest stop on the major
highway is actually reallyawesome and has an R V dump and
(20:20):
it's really quiet and it's faroff the road.
So there's all kinds of intelyou can tap into about where to
stay in between point A andpoint B.
Because sometimes you have twogreat camp campgrounds you want
to go to, but it's like a longdrive between them, and you want
you're not going to go there inone day.
We don't believe in driving forlike 18 hours.
(20:40):
Yeah.
We we try and keep it to likethree, four hours of driving in
a day, partly because I'mworking.
I need the I need this to stopso I can like get go do some uh
a little write a book chapter oranswer community questions or
something.
SPEAKER_02 (20:55):
When you when you're it sounds like you you've you're
stayed mostly on the west coast.
SPEAKER_00 (21:01):
We have the southwest and Pacific Northwest
and down in the west.
I once thought I would when wegot the RV, we'd go all around
all those states and currentlynot on my agenda.
SPEAKER_02 (21:15):
Not on your agenda.
Yeah, my yeah, my aunt and unclehad an RV.
That was like the first personthat I knew to have an RV, and
they did that when they bothretired and they were traveling
around the U.S.
But it was just like thisforeign concept to me.
So I appreciate you enlighteningus a little bit in terms of how
it works.
What would be your top threethings to know for people who
(21:36):
were like, oh, this isintriguing.
I may want to check it out.
SPEAKER_00 (21:40):
There are so many different models and ways to set
this up, and the decision ofwhat you're gonna get is a
complex one.
And my husband has sold cars andis a car guy, and this was
totally him.
I was like, you go, you figureit out.
I I trust him to do these kindof things to pick the cars.
(22:03):
And he looked at so much stuff,and we went to RV shows and went
to RV lots and looked throughtrailers and looked at a lot of
things.
You want to think about, yeah,how what am I going to be
bringing with me?
What will I be doing?
We originally thought we wouldbe more off-roading, going down
forest service roads and parkingin the middle of the nowhere,
(22:24):
just like me and the woods.
But we ended up getting an RVthat's actually not that suited
to that.
You did one with a lot ofclearance, the heavy duty
chairs, high clearance for that,which tends to be more truck and
trailer.
SPEAKER_02 (22:37):
Truck and trailer.
SPEAKER_00 (22:39):
Yeah, you want to think about where do I imagine
myself going in this RV?
What kind of activities do Iwant to do?
How much gear do I need to bringwith me?
We want to bring a paddleboardand two a bike, a pair of bikes,
and a kayak, blow-up, blow-upkayak.
I need a lot of clothing choicesin my life.
So I have more clothing than myhusband with me.
(23:01):
And we have a whole pantry area.
We have a lot of food with us.
We we like to cook and eathealthy food on the the idea
that you have to like live onhamburgers and hot dogs and take
up pizza or something.
No.
We eat great food and we metother people who were eating
good food.
Good health on the road.
Yeah, I love that.
SPEAKER_02 (23:21):
Yeah.
I I would imagine too, you couldeven kit out like a van.
Like I have a friend who's acoach and her husband that do
part-time between a house andthat lifestyle, and they have a
kitted-out van that they use.
Absolutely.
Powderboards and climbing gearand all that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (23:38):
People are taking those like gear trailers, like
the the uh toy haulers, and justfitting them out and living in
them.
Yes.
The other big culture, wholesubculture of its own is
schoolies.
SPEAKER_02 (23:51):
I was gonna ask you about that.
I see those videos on Instagramall the time.
SPEAKER_00 (23:55):
You can get them cheap.
Yeah, the schoolies, and theyhave conventions of all
schoolies.
They all get together and tradebest practices about getting out
their schoolies.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (24:05):
I love that I didn't even know they were called
schoolies.
I love them.
Yep, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
I am fascinated by thatcomponent.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00 (24:13):
I'd say if I had a to-do over, if I had a to-do
over, I would get an oven.
SPEAKER_02 (24:18):
In your because I missed making my own bread.
SPEAKER_00 (24:22):
Yeah, yeah.
I toured me a Winnebago at ahome exchange, I stayed at, and
they had an oven, and I was likesuper jealous.
I was like, ooh, yeah.
I just have we have a sort ofnot a dorm-sized fridge, but
sort of halfway between that anda full-on fridge.
SPEAKER_02 (24:40):
And a full fridge.
SPEAKER_00 (24:42):
Tiny freezer.
And uh we have two burners and amicrowave.
So that's what we're and we havea foodie grill with us.
We haul that along so we canhave our roasted vegetables and
everything.
SPEAKER_02 (24:53):
There you go.
SPEAKER_00 (24:54):
And uh we have a rice cooker now.
My husband got into that,decided we needed that.
SPEAKER_02 (24:59):
You needed a rice cooker.
SPEAKER_00 (25:00):
And yeah, everybody's rolling their own
way, doing their own thing.
SPEAKER_02 (25:06):
You you said choosing is complex.
Is that because there's so manyoptions?
Is that what makes it complex?
SPEAKER_00 (25:13):
So many options.
It's a big expenditure.
And yeah, are do you want an RV?
Do you want a truck and trailer?
Do you want a giant dieselpusher?
What's the shape and size?
Is it a fifth wheel where youbolted onto the bed of the
truck?
There's that kind of a deal.
(25:34):
It there's a lot of differentformations of it.
There's different layouts of howthese work.
We felt I felt like two things.
One, I wanted to be able todrive away if anything weird was
going on without having to getout of my trailer and walk
around and get into my truckthat weight in favor and of the
(25:58):
RV, and just maneuvering it.
We would just look at peoplebacking the truck and trailer,
you know, and RT's like a track.
SPEAKER_02 (26:07):
Yeah, if you're not used to having a boat or
something in the back.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:10):
Yeah.
And we were my husband was like,I don't want to park that.
So just we ended that's kind ofhow we came to the R V math of
it.
But yeah, we have the lack ofclearance.
So we do think about truck.
Our dream is a Rivian electrictruck that can tow the trailer.
(26:32):
So far, none of theall-electrics can really do
that.
SPEAKER_02 (26:35):
Actually, tow, yeah, do a heavy load.
SPEAKER_00 (26:37):
You'd have to stop to reach our and and there isn't
enough infrastructure built forcharging yet, really, to go the
kind of middle and nowhereplaces you want to go.
So, yeah, it's it's still comingdown the line, but that would
like be our fantasy.
SPEAKER_02 (26:52):
That would be the fantasy.
Riving and charging.
SPEAKER_00 (26:54):
We do not have a generator.
So the thing to know about RVsin me is that I never imagined
myself getting an RV.
We were backpack campers andtent campers.
And one time I was interviewingan RV salesperson, and they
said, You got to understand thisis the way life works.
When you're young, you backpackcamp, and then when you're a
little older, you tent camp, andthen you car camp with the kids,
(27:15):
and then you get an RV.
And I was like, That's the path.
That is never going to happen tome because RVs are horrible.
I have camped next to RVs andthey have those loud, nasty
diesel generators going all daylong.
No, that's never gonna happen tome.
But now solar has come onto theworld of RVs and it's awesome.
(27:38):
You can be in an RV park andthere's an it's quiet.
And it's great.
SPEAKER_02 (27:43):
Makes perfect sense.
It's wonderful.
Yeah.
As you're driving, you'recollecting energy and yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:49):
Driving the car chargers, but we have solar
panels too.
We have three on top and and auh move mobile one, and we could
go up, I gather, in quality onthat.
We when we started, it just hadone on top, and that's what we
learned on the first trip was wedidn't have enough.
And we came back and got twomore and uh got the move movable
(28:11):
one.
Okay, so that's in the winter,you know, the sun is low, it's
hard to get it to hit the roof.
So you get that mobile one andyou point it right at it.
Right at the sun.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (28:21):
So what did you learn?
That we you just mentioned oneof the things you learned on
that inaugural trip.
What else did you learn?
SPEAKER_00 (28:27):
Hmm.
Just that my husband and I likedetours.
So if we we are willing todetour, and our kids would be
like, No, what what are we doingnow?
Uh they were even more plannerthan me.
Uh we were like, oh, it saysthere's a lighthouse here.
Oh, I didn't have that on themap.
(28:47):
Let's go take a look at that.
So we go on so many little sidetrips, and we get lost and end
up places.
We actually got lost on thismost recent trip.
We were trying to go from PalmDesert from visiting my parents
to Vegas, and we didn't want togo back to Quartzide and Up,
(29:08):
which turned out to be the waywe should have gone.
Uh, we were trying to go somebackwards women and it was
getting really weird, and it wassending us into the Mojave
Desert or something, and we werelike, no, this is wrong.
We're gonna backtrack.
And we ended up in Area 51,which was super fun.
SPEAKER_02 (29:25):
Yeah, yeah.
So it it paid off that it wasout of the way.
SPEAKER_00 (29:28):
Yeah, so we're into kind of that we're both down for
that.
The let's see what's over here.
What if we go this way?
Oh, this sign says the world'slargest something.
Is this a way?
What we're we're up for that.
Which I think makes sense,right?
SPEAKER_02 (29:43):
If you're gonna live that RV life traveling around,
why wouldn't you?
It's not such a linear approachto travel.
SPEAKER_00 (29:50):
And often, even though we're going all around
the West, um, you have that wemay never pass this way again
feeling anytime you're going.
In on these trips, and so it'swell, let's go check it out.
SPEAKER_02 (30:04):
I love it, I love it.
What's one thing you've learnedabout yourself through RVing?
SPEAKER_00 (30:09):
That I just I don't have to have a big place.
I really did that for my family.
You know, I built them thatAmerican dream, big house by the
lake, lifestyle, and it wasreally never for me, it was for
them.
I was always like my originalvision was that like I would
never meet anyone I who wouldmarry weird me, and I would live
(30:31):
in a garret above a store andwrite song lyrics and be a rock
star.
Like I always imagined myself ina kind of a small space, I
think.
And I'm not a I need the bigflashy car, I need the big
showyest house in myneighborhood.
I'm I'm not that person.
(30:51):
I was never into that sort ofconspicuous consumption.
And so I love it.
I just feel very light and freeand happy.
We look at our bank balance, andtwo weeks later we look at it,
and it's basically the same asit was.
Just the amount no-paying uhgardener, a termite
(31:14):
exterminator, a roof cleaner,snow removal guy, all the
things, yeah.
All the things, yeah, just allof the cost related to owning
property.
SPEAKER_02 (31:24):
I love it.
I love it.
What comes to mind for me, whichI think might be even the point
of this conversation, is thatyou're living the life you were
meant to be living.
You did the traditional way, andthen as the kids left and grew
up for talking about anemptiness life, you've actually
pivoted into the life that youwere meant to be living.
Not to say you weren't supposedto be a parent and have kids,
(31:45):
but like in this time of yourlife, you're not just sitting
around waiting for things tohappen.
SPEAKER_00 (31:51):
There's well, there we are sitting around waiting
for something to happen, andthat something is grandkids.
SPEAKER_02 (31:58):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (31:58):
And like many other empty nesters, we are
confronting a generation that isnot that interested in having
children, certainly notinterested in having them young,
except for my sister who's anOrthodox Jew who has scored
eight grandkids already.
But in general, most of us areon a long wait to grandkids.
(32:19):
One, our oldest is 32, notmarried yet.
And so we've I feel like thiswas the other reason it was hard
to pick a place to live, isbecause I'm gonna want to live
wherever grandkid is.
But no, there is no grandkidyet.
So if I buy now, I'm just gonnahave to sell that one and and
buy again.
(32:40):
So what if we did this kind ofinterim period where we just
were mobile and yeah, we love totravel and be outdoors, and
we'll just do that until suchtime as there is an or another
organizing principle to my life.
There you go.
Where maybe I want to bewherever there's the grandkid.
The grandkid.
(33:01):
And we ended up with this gap intime here where we're retired
and semi-retired, and butthere's no grandkids to play
with, so we're free to moveabout the cabin.
Yeah.
Which I think is we may notalways be, but we may not always
be.
SPEAKER_02 (33:17):
But my what I talk about a lot in my in my work is
don't wait for the grandkids.
Do things like you're doinguntil they come.
But just don't sit and do theold routine until they come
because they don't always comeright away.
It could be a 15-year gapbetween when the kids finish
school or 12-year gap, whateverit may be.
(33:38):
But a lot of times people dojust wait around for the
engagement and the wedding andthe grandkids rather than living
life.
And but you're living life theway you want to.
SPEAKER_00 (33:47):
Sitting around waiting for the grandkids is a
sad, sad scene.
That you know, that there'snothing good there.
And all your friends have allthe pictures of the grandkids,
and all they talk about is thegrandkids.
Yeah, I I would like to see someof this world uh while I am
really free to do whatever Iwant.
SPEAKER_02 (34:06):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
Girl, before I let you go, it'sbeen a fascinating conversation.
One of the questions I love toask my guests is what is your
emptiness life motto if you hadone?
SPEAKER_00 (34:21):
Free to do what I want.
SPEAKER_02 (34:23):
I love it.
SPEAKER_00 (34:24):
Any old time.
SPEAKER_02 (34:26):
Love it.
Perfect.
Oh, so good.
I'm free to do whatever I want,any old time.
And that is a perfect ending tothis episode, Carol.
Thank you so much for coming onthis emptiness life and sharing
a little bit about the RV lifeand kind of how you you funded
it and how you got there andsome of the things people need
to look at for.
I know for me it was quite aneducation and something that I
(34:48):
don't know, Colleen, my wife, ifyou're listening, I'm not
thinking about the RV life, butit's just an interesting
conversation.
SPEAKER_00 (34:55):
Well, I think the thing that holds people back, if
I can put a PS on it, is they'restill working and they, you
know, think that ties them to aplace.
And I've designed a work lifefrom far back from like 2005 or
so that with that would bemobile, that would be digital
nomad enabling.
(35:16):
And that's what I help people dois build that life.
SPEAKER_02 (35:19):
That life, yeah.
Through your coaching, right?
You coach people on how to buildcommunities together.
SPEAKER_00 (35:23):
I have a community for people who want to get into
that.
SPEAKER_02 (35:27):
Who want to get into that?
Plus, you do the freelancewriting, and you said a third.
What was the third?
I think I missed the third.
I manage our money.
Oh, manage the money, that'sright.
Yeah, you're the investor.
Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_00 (35:37):
I am my own financial advisor.
SPEAKER_02 (35:39):
I love it.
So good.
What a great combination.
Carol, thank you so much forbeing here today.
I really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00 (35:46):
My pleasure.
SPEAKER_01 (35:47):
Are you ready to start living and enjoying your
empty nest years?
If so, head over tojasonramsden.com and click work
with me to get the conversationstarted.
This empty nest life is aproduction of Impact One Media
LLC, all rights reserved.
Sitting around waiting for the grandkids is a
sad, sad scene.
There's nothing good there.
And all your friends have allthe pictures of the grandkids
and all they talk about is thegrandkids?
Yeah, I I would like to see someof this world while I am really
free to do whatever I want.
SPEAKER_02 (00:17):
So good.
I'm free to do whatever I want,any old time.
SPEAKER_01 (00:21):
Welcome to this empty nest life.
Join Jay Ramsden as he leads youon a transformative journey
through the uncharted seas ofmidlife and empty nesting.
If you're ready to embark onthis new adventure and redefine
your future, you're in the rightplace.
Here's your host, the emptinesscoach, Jay Ramsden.
SPEAKER_02 (00:40):
Hey there, my emptiness friends.
Have you ever thought aboutdownsizing and escaping and
hitting the road in youremptiness life?
Well, my guest today does justthat.
Carol Tice, an entrepreneur whospecializes in building online
communities, has taken her workon the road, and she and her
husband travel the U.S.
in their RV.
Today we're going to dive intoall things RV life and how
(01:03):
becoming an entrepreneur hasprovided Carol the freedom to
live out her dream.
Carol, welcome to this emptinesslife.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
Hey, thanks for having me.
Yeah, we are currently heredriveway camping in my cousin's
driveway at our home base ofSeattle, which is where we sold
had our last house that we sold.
We've been up here 30 years.
We love it.
But we don't love the winter ofit so much, like many
Seattleites.
SPEAKER_02 (01:28):
And driveway camping.
That's just what caught me.
I love that driveway camping.
unknown (01:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (01:34):
So you escape the winters then.
SPEAKER_00 (01:36):
Yeah.
So we go down south.
We did three months on the firstrun of it, did four and a half
months last year, and now we'recelebrating our first full year
of being full-time in the RV.
We sold our house last August,and uh we're we'll probably go
for more like five months thistime, five and a half.
SPEAKER_02 (01:55):
Now, do you go someplace specifically or do you
pick different places?
Tell me how the like I'm sointrigued about this lifestyle.
Uh everybody needs to be.
Yeah, exactly.
Cool.
How do you make that work?
What does that look like?
SPEAKER_00 (02:08):
Well, let me start with how we grew into this
lifestyle.
So I built and sold a paidcommunity that I sold in 2021.
And at that point, my my planwas kids were graduating.
I'm selling the business, andthen we're gonna sell the house
and be free.
(02:28):
And then we looked at each otherand we were like, we will
downsize to where exactly?
My husband, fishing cabin in themiddle of nowhere, me, somewhere
where there's a synagogue,college-educated people, bike
trails.
And we were like, hmm, there'snot a lot of overlap here.
Where is this place?
And so getting the RV, I starteda little bit as a way to go
(02:53):
search for that place.
And so while we still had thehouse back in like 21, during
the depths of COVID winter, webought the RV and went on a
three-month tryout trip, and itwas awesome.
We were our best weights ever.
We were so fit and healthybecause no restaurant eating.
(03:14):
We would just put on our masks,dive bomb through a grocery
store once every 10 days, getour healthy vegan food.
We were eating super, superclean, super healthy, and
biking, hiking, doing all thethings.
We just part of the go downsouth is that like your exercise
options get less in Seattle inthe winter.
And we're both very kind ofprefer the outdoor exercise.
(03:36):
And we did not find the place.
We went to a lot of places.
We're based in Seattle and welike the West.
We're both from California.
We went and visited family andfriends there.
We went to Arizona where thereis cheap land you can stay on.
And I don't know, nothing wecould afford jumped out at us.
(03:58):
I mean, we would love to go backto Santa Barbara where we met,
but we can't buy a closet therefor what we sold a five-bedroom
house in Seattle for.
And so then we came back, andwith the money from the sale, I
had also fixed we had also fixedup the house.
And, you know, we had a nice newkitchen, and we were like, we
love it here.
(04:20):
So there was a few more yearsduring which kids bounced back.
First one, then the other, thenthe other again.
And um we started to see that ifwe stayed in the house, that
this might continue to happen.
And the other thing in our lifeis that uh we have two of our
three kids are adopted and had arange of special needs, and they
(04:42):
weren't good travelers.
So we didn't get to camp andhike and pedal and bike and fish
the way we imagined we would asa family.
So we had a lot of pent-uptravel energy going on, and we
finally decided to sell thehouse and, you know, go hardcore
and do it.
We liked the first trip, weenjoyed it, and thought we could
(05:05):
do it and make it happen.
And besides building paidcommunities, the other thing I
do is ghostwrite books.
And I ghost wrote a book for akind of contrarian financial
manager who was launching aconsulting business and learned
his contrarian investing system,tried it out, liked it.
So we sold the house, took allthe money, and I invest our
(05:27):
money and one of my three jobsthat I do from the road.
SPEAKER_02 (05:32):
I love it, I love it.
SPEAKER_00 (05:34):
And yeah, so this time we really dug into the trip
more.
We were kind of celebrating thehome sale this time, so it was
glampy.
We went to some expensive RV,more uh pricier side RV parks
like in Avala Beach.
We went to Flying Flags, whichis just a fantastic little town
(05:56):
out from San Luis Ibispo.
SPEAKER_02 (05:58):
If you've never seen my brother and sister-in-law
were just in Avala Beach, it'stheir favorite.
SPEAKER_00 (06:04):
Love Avala, happy place, good paddling, and uh
good biking, yeah.
Fun little it uh you feel likeyou're in a Bond movie in the
60s on the French Riviera.
It's like there's no powerboats, it's very adorable.
SPEAKER_02 (06:18):
Adorable, yeah.
Um they love it.
She's from San Luis Obispo, andso that's kind of like their
go-to spot.
SPEAKER_00 (06:24):
Yeah, it is a lovely place.
So, yeah, we went to a lot oflittle happy places.
We went and saw family andfriends in Palm Desert and LA
and San Diego, and we went toSanta Barbara because we love
it.
And then we went out and reallystarted to explore more the
boondocking, really cheapcamping side in Arizona, and
(06:49):
went to the epicenter of all RVlife, quartzite, Arizona, which
some people know from NomadLand, the movie, and um got into
that scene and kind of hold thethe whole world of RV culture,
which really is like its owncommunity, which since I build
communities was so much.
SPEAKER_02 (07:08):
Brilliant love that connection, yes.
SPEAKER_00 (07:10):
Yeah, it's it is what I was saying to a friend at
the camp I was at this weekendis that the thing about RV
community is that in most of ourlives we are in very class
segregated communities.
You are in an upscale communityor a very working class
community, or and the thing isthat you go out to Quartzide,
(07:31):
Arizona, and you have all theeconomic strata right on right
on top of each other.
People camping in a tricked-outvan that they bought for$2,000
to people rolling those three,four, five hundred thousand
dollar land yachts in that havewashing machines in them and an
(07:55):
office and a living room andthree TVs, and yeah, and you're
all right together, and it'sMAGA country and LGBTQ rainbow
flags and all the things, it'sall the things right together,
and it's a very interestingsocial experiment to me.
SPEAKER_02 (08:13):
Who knew that RV life was the true melting pot?
SPEAKER_00 (08:16):
Was the great equalizer, yeah, yeah, and what
I learned is that people arepeople, and that I can put a big
smile on my face and go toanyone and say, hello, friend,
hello neighbor, I have can Iborrow a cup of sugar or your
(08:37):
lights are on, or we're we areall living in a rudimentary sort
of way, a lot of us on solarpower, and things break, and we
kind of all have to sticktogether and you know to make it
all work.
People have medical emergenciesand you need assistance getting
(08:58):
to town, and so it's it's kindof an interesting world to be
in.
And we also hear other couplesfighting in their RV, and we're
like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no.
We have a very strict nofighting in the RV rule.
Like, hello, we're living in 50square feet here.
(09:18):
So we decided we did not want agiant RV.
We are in a 24-foot coachmancrosstreck and has a lot of
storage, and it's just not verybig.
It's um can you can still parkit anywhere.
Those giant ones, you can onlypark them at an RV park or in a
gas station in a truck stop toget gas, which you have to do
(09:38):
every five miles because you gettwo miles.
SPEAKER_02 (09:41):
They're so big.
SPEAKER_00 (09:42):
Yeah, they they do not get good gas mileage.
And um, so yeah, we ran afterthis trip, we ran a whole set of
specs about whether we wouldchange it.
Where whether we might go biggeror different, go to a truck and
trailer instead of an RV, whicha lot of the more living
full-time people tend to do,unless they're buying the giant
(10:05):
diesel pushers.
And we our conclusion was runthis one into the ground.
Because in the five years sincewe first bought this one, it RVs
have gotten so much moreexpensive that it doesn't make
sense.
SPEAKER_02 (10:20):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (10:21):
We're like, just keep it going, keep dealing.
And the other thing I thinkpeople don't know about RV life
is that you're not necessarilyalways in the RV.
I just went on a cruise with mydad.
We went on a trip to Europe foralmost a month.
Uh we house sit for friends, sowe go stay in an Airbnb.
(10:42):
The thing, the thing you don'tanticipate is your house is also
a car, and that's the car needsto go in the shop sometimes.
SPEAKER_02 (10:50):
So of course, yeah.
Yeah, so then we're in it.
SPEAKER_00 (10:53):
So then we're in an Airbnb while they upgrade the
heater or whatever's happening.
So it's not like we're in thisthing every second.
But we love it.
We're we're pretty darn happywith it.
SPEAKER_02 (11:05):
What do you like when you travel, what do you do
with it?
That that would be my firstquestion.
Oh, we're gonna go to Europe fora month.
What do we do with the RV?
Do you is there places to parkit?
Do you park it in a friend's?
Do you beg somebody?
What does that look like?
SPEAKER_00 (11:17):
This time for Europe, we left it right here
where you're seeing.
Okay.
Uh in my my cousin's driveway,which is our sort of crash pad
home base here in Seattle.
You need somewhere to put it.
Some people do there's heatedstorage for RVs.
A lot of people who aresnowbirds drive their RV to like
(11:39):
Yuma and put it in storagethere, and then they fly home to
Canada or wherever, and they flyback and get it.
And so they don't do the longdrive up down.
SPEAKER_02 (11:51):
Okay.
So they do the summer in Canadaor someplace else, and then
they're going to Arizona toright.
SPEAKER_00 (11:57):
They're spending half the year in Minnesota or
wherever, and then they fly backdown to where they stored it,
and you make friends with peoplewho have nice flat driveways,
and you're like, hello, friend,would you like to earn a little
extra money using your drivewayto store my RV?
(12:18):
Yeah.
Um yeah, I what I love about RVlife is that you discover that
you just really don't need somuch stuff, America.
SPEAKER_02 (12:32):
Uh yes.
Yeah, that's minimalizing.
SPEAKER_00 (12:35):
Drowning in stuff.
We have way too much stuff.
Our stuff owns us.
We don't own stuff.
It's bad.
Oh, I love that too.
SPEAKER_02 (12:44):
Yeah.
The stuff owns us.
SPEAKER_00 (12:47):
Yeah.
You are you're a slave to thestuff.
And that's really why anotherreason we made the decision to
sell the house is we were likewe bought a house and the value
of it skyrocketed, the taxes ofit skyrocketed.
We refied the mortgage when therates were low during COVID.
It was still going up, up, upbecause of the taxes and
(13:08):
insurance.
And it was like, well, I cancontinue working this hard, and
my husband husband can continueselling cars for Toyota, and we
can work, work, work all thetime.
Or we could just cut this babyloose and not have to work so
much.
Now my husband's retired.
I do work I love, so I'm stilldoing it, but I can do less of
(13:30):
it.
And as it happened, it allworked out great because all
three of our grown kids ended upneeding financial support for us
in the past year or so.
Sure, as they do.
Some quite unexpectedly, and wehad the money.
Just didn't have to worry aboutit.
They were like, okay, we canhelp keep you off the street
here till you get the next jobor whatever, get over your
(13:52):
illness and yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:55):
Yeah.
So it I'm curious.
I know you you had freelancewriters.
That was your first community.
Yeah, freelance writers can.
And then was that when you soldthat, was that the impetus for
the RV or did that come later?
SPEAKER_00 (14:08):
Well, that generated the cash to buy the RV, which we
did buy for cash from a privateparty.
unknown (14:13):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (14:15):
We probably should have financed it and kept more
of my cash for investing.
I've now learned.
But it was COVID, no, no RVswere being made.
It was very hard to even getyour hands on a new one.
Prices were skyrocketing as aresult, and we we just didn't
want to spend tons.
I didn't want to spend more thana hundred grand on it.
(14:36):
Didn't know if I'd love it.
I I wanted to get in at sort ofa really modest, not
life-changing, not I've pouredmy life savings into this price.
And uh that was buying from aprivate party.
SPEAKER_02 (14:50):
So then now you you're splitting time between
Seattle, which you love, andthen other places you can hop
around.
What's been your favorite?
Yeah, what's been your favoriteso far?
SPEAKER_00 (15:01):
Oh, my favorite, huh?
We I I would have to go with acouple of places.
There is a tiny like federalBureau of Agriculture Campground
or something called MatoleCampground, and it's at the top
of the lost coast in California.
(15:24):
So you're you're and there's seastacks and stuff.
There are 10$10 a night spacesor something at this place, and
so you're on a beach, aspectacular Northern California
beach, and there's nobody.
SPEAKER_01 (15:38):
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (15:39):
And you're at the top of the trail you can hike to
hike the lost coast.
So you can go hiking, justfabulous.
We tried to go back again onthis the trip this year, and we
got blown up by the bombcyclone.
It's really a bummer.
So we were were hoping to do itthis year.
The other one that became ourreal happy place, so is an
(16:00):
interesting campground that mayor be in California or maybe in
Arizona.
SPEAKER_02 (16:05):
You're not giving it away.
SPEAKER_00 (16:06):
Depend no, it depends on what your which GPS
you look at.
It's right on the border.
And it is it was known as SquawLake and was said to be changed
to a native name, but now we'renot doing that.
So I guess it is still SquawLake.
And it has it is as close to afree campground heaven as we've
(16:30):
ever found.
Amazing lake that feeds out ontothe Colorado River, so you can
paddle either the lake or outonto the Colorado, and all kind
of little nooks and crannies andside trails you can paddle in,
just spectacular paddling.
I'm a stand-up paddleboarder,set up.
And uh, my husband has a kayakhe fishes from, and you can
(16:52):
catch bass in this lake, andthere are showers, and for
seniors, it is 7.50 at night.
SPEAKER_02 (16:59):
Wow.
Wow, it's just the economicalpiece of of I mean, other when
you have to go to repair your RVfor some reason, right?
It's like having a car, but theeconomics of it sound
intriguing.
SPEAKER_00 (17:11):
They yeah, you can you can do this lifestyle cheap
or you can do it fancy.
And or both.
SPEAKER_02 (17:20):
You could do both if you really wanted to.
SPEAKER_00 (17:22):
Yeah, the first trip we kind of really did some of
each.
And yeah, we went we went fancyplaces like Campland on the bay
by the bay in San Diego, whichis right on Mission Bay, not a
cheap campground, and we keptextending our stay because it's
so awesome.
Um it is a it is a planet ofRVs.
There's a stage and shows and alaundry and you know, a store
(17:47):
and a merch store, and uh it's awhole scene.
And there the trail to bikearound Mission Bay is like right
at the campground.
You can throw your paddle boardin in the bay every morning.
Incredible, but not beautiful.
SPEAKER_02 (18:03):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (18:04):
How much many amenities?
SPEAKER_02 (18:05):
Many amenities.
Time do you spend at eachcampsite?
I'm assuming you have to reservethem in advance and give like a
hotel kind of like we're gonnabe here from X to Y.
SPEAKER_00 (18:15):
It depends.
It depends.
Some places don't takereservations.
Matole doesn't takereservations.
SPEAKER_02 (18:22):
First come, first serve.
SPEAKER_00 (18:23):
Actually, Squaw Lake doesn't take reservations.
Camp Land, all the big ones takereservations.
State campgrounds, fest, youknow, federal campgrounds,
national parks take reservationsusually.
Um, but some of them will havefirst come, first serve.
They'll have a block they keepfor first come, first serve.
Um, so that really depends.
I tend to be a planner person.
(18:45):
I come from a very plannerfamily.
My family would like to know inlike it's summertime now, so
they would like to know if I'mcoming to the family Hanukkah
party in LA in December andcan't and are b baffled that I
don't know the answer yet.
So I come from a very bigblunder family.
So I I tend to map it out.
(19:05):
It's kind of like the Normandylanding.
I'm like, we're gonna stay herefor this long, and but we leave
some wiggle room because of theworld of boondocking, of just
being able to just parksomewhere.
And now there are websites thattell you where.
SPEAKER_02 (19:20):
Yeah, what for the people who are uninitiated in RV
life, what is boondocking?
SPEAKER_00 (19:24):
Boondocking is like you just park somewhere, you're
not plugged, you're not hookedup to electricity, you're just
faking it in a neighborhood or aparking lot, or there are many
places you can stay.
SPEAKER_02 (19:36):
Truck stop or for free.
SPEAKER_00 (19:38):
You can stay at truck stops, you can stay at
casinos because they want you tocome in and gamble.
You can stay at most of theWalmarts.
So there are places in town, andthere are just random places,
I'll say.
And there's a site calledfreecampsites.net.
(20:00):
Um, some people like Campendium,there's iOverlanders.
So there's a Whisper networkessentially of crowdsourced
information on websites about Ioh, you know, I stayed at just
like mile 37 of this thing, orthis rest stop on the major
highway is actually reallyawesome and has an R V dump and
(20:20):
it's really quiet and it's faroff the road.
So there's all kinds of intelyou can tap into about where to
stay in between point A andpoint B.
Because sometimes you have twogreat camp campgrounds you want
to go to, but it's like a longdrive between them, and you want
you're not going to go there inone day.
We don't believe in driving forlike 18 hours.
(20:40):
Yeah.
We we try and keep it to likethree, four hours of driving in
a day, partly because I'mworking.
I need the I need this to stopso I can like get go do some uh
a little write a book chapter oranswer community questions or
something.
SPEAKER_02 (20:55):
When you when you're it sounds like you you've you're
stayed mostly on the west coast.
SPEAKER_00 (21:01):
We have the southwest and Pacific Northwest
and down in the west.
I once thought I would when wegot the RV, we'd go all around
all those states and currentlynot on my agenda.
SPEAKER_02 (21:15):
Not on your agenda.
Yeah, my yeah, my aunt and unclehad an RV.
That was like the first personthat I knew to have an RV, and
they did that when they bothretired and they were traveling
around the U.S.
But it was just like thisforeign concept to me.
So I appreciate you enlighteningus a little bit in terms of how
it works.
What would be your top threethings to know for people who
(21:36):
were like, oh, this isintriguing.
I may want to check it out.
SPEAKER_00 (21:40):
There are so many different models and ways to set
this up, and the decision ofwhat you're gonna get is a
complex one.
And my husband has sold cars andis a car guy, and this was
totally him.
I was like, you go, you figureit out.
I I trust him to do these kindof things to pick the cars.
(22:03):
And he looked at so much stuff,and we went to RV shows and went
to RV lots and looked throughtrailers and looked at a lot of
things.
You want to think about, yeah,how what am I going to be
bringing with me?
What will I be doing?
We originally thought we wouldbe more off-roading, going down
forest service roads and parkingin the middle of the nowhere,
(22:24):
just like me and the woods.
But we ended up getting an RVthat's actually not that suited
to that.
You did one with a lot ofclearance, the heavy duty
chairs, high clearance for that,which tends to be more truck and
trailer.
SPEAKER_02 (22:37):
Truck and trailer.
SPEAKER_00 (22:39):
Yeah, you want to think about where do I imagine
myself going in this RV?
What kind of activities do Iwant to do?
How much gear do I need to bringwith me?
We want to bring a paddleboardand two a bike, a pair of bikes,
and a kayak, blow-up, blow-upkayak.
I need a lot of clothing choicesin my life.
So I have more clothing than myhusband with me.
(23:01):
And we have a whole pantry area.
We have a lot of food with us.
We we like to cook and eathealthy food on the the idea
that you have to like live onhamburgers and hot dogs and take
up pizza or something.
No.
We eat great food and we metother people who were eating
good food.
Good health on the road.
Yeah, I love that.
SPEAKER_02 (23:21):
Yeah.
I I would imagine too, you couldeven kit out like a van.
Like I have a friend who's acoach and her husband that do
part-time between a house andthat lifestyle, and they have a
kitted-out van that they use.
Absolutely.
Powderboards and climbing gearand all that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (23:38):
People are taking those like gear trailers, like
the the uh toy haulers, and justfitting them out and living in
them.
Yes.
The other big culture, wholesubculture of its own is
schoolies.
SPEAKER_02 (23:51):
I was gonna ask you about that.
I see those videos on Instagramall the time.
SPEAKER_00 (23:55):
You can get them cheap.
Yeah, the schoolies, and theyhave conventions of all
schoolies.
They all get together and tradebest practices about getting out
their schoolies.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (24:05):
I love that I didn't even know they were called
schoolies.
I love them.
Yep, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
I am fascinated by thatcomponent.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00 (24:13):
I'd say if I had a to-do over, if I had a to-do
over, I would get an oven.
SPEAKER_02 (24:18):
In your because I missed making my own bread.
SPEAKER_00 (24:22):
Yeah, yeah.
I toured me a Winnebago at ahome exchange, I stayed at, and
they had an oven, and I was likesuper jealous.
I was like, ooh, yeah.
I just have we have a sort ofnot a dorm-sized fridge, but
sort of halfway between that anda full-on fridge.
SPEAKER_02 (24:40):
And a full fridge.
SPEAKER_00 (24:42):
Tiny freezer.
And uh we have two burners and amicrowave.
So that's what we're and we havea foodie grill with us.
We haul that along so we canhave our roasted vegetables and
everything.
SPEAKER_02 (24:53):
There you go.
SPEAKER_00 (24:54):
And uh we have a rice cooker now.
My husband got into that,decided we needed that.
SPEAKER_02 (24:59):
You needed a rice cooker.
SPEAKER_00 (25:00):
And yeah, everybody's rolling their own
way, doing their own thing.
SPEAKER_02 (25:06):
You you said choosing is complex.
Is that because there's so manyoptions?
Is that what makes it complex?
SPEAKER_00 (25:13):
So many options.
It's a big expenditure.
And yeah, are do you want an RV?
Do you want a truck and trailer?
Do you want a giant dieselpusher?
What's the shape and size?
Is it a fifth wheel where youbolted onto the bed of the
truck?
There's that kind of a deal.
(25:34):
It there's a lot of differentformations of it.
There's different layouts of howthese work.
We felt I felt like two things.
One, I wanted to be able todrive away if anything weird was
going on without having to getout of my trailer and walk
around and get into my truckthat weight in favor and of the
(25:58):
RV, and just maneuvering it.
We would just look at peoplebacking the truck and trailer,
you know, and RT's like a track.
SPEAKER_02 (26:07):
Yeah, if you're not used to having a boat or
something in the back.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:10):
Yeah.
And we were my husband was like,I don't want to park that.
So just we ended that's kind ofhow we came to the R V math of
it.
But yeah, we have the lack ofclearance.
So we do think about truck.
Our dream is a Rivian electrictruck that can tow the trailer.
(26:32):
So far, none of theall-electrics can really do
that.
SPEAKER_02 (26:35):
Actually, tow, yeah, do a heavy load.
SPEAKER_00 (26:37):
You'd have to stop to reach our and and there isn't
enough infrastructure built forcharging yet, really, to go the
kind of middle and nowhereplaces you want to go.
So, yeah, it's it's still comingdown the line, but that would
like be our fantasy.
SPEAKER_02 (26:52):
That would be the fantasy.
Riving and charging.
SPEAKER_00 (26:54):
We do not have a generator.
So the thing to know about RVsin me is that I never imagined
myself getting an RV.
We were backpack campers andtent campers.
And one time I was interviewingan RV salesperson, and they
said, You got to understand thisis the way life works.
When you're young, you backpackcamp, and then when you're a
little older, you tent camp, andthen you car camp with the kids,
(27:15):
and then you get an RV.
And I was like, That's the path.
That is never going to happen tome because RVs are horrible.
I have camped next to RVs andthey have those loud, nasty
diesel generators going all daylong.
No, that's never gonna happen tome.
But now solar has come onto theworld of RVs and it's awesome.
(27:38):
You can be in an RV park andthere's an it's quiet.
And it's great.
SPEAKER_02 (27:43):
Makes perfect sense.
It's wonderful.
Yeah.
As you're driving, you'recollecting energy and yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:49):
Driving the car chargers, but we have solar
panels too.
We have three on top and and auh move mobile one, and we could
go up, I gather, in quality onthat.
We when we started, it just hadone on top, and that's what we
learned on the first trip was wedidn't have enough.
And we came back and got twomore and uh got the move movable
(28:11):
one.
Okay, so that's in the winter,you know, the sun is low, it's
hard to get it to hit the roof.
So you get that mobile one andyou point it right at it.
Right at the sun.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (28:21):
So what did you learn?
That we you just mentioned oneof the things you learned on
that inaugural trip.
What else did you learn?
SPEAKER_00 (28:27):
Hmm.
Just that my husband and I likedetours.
So if we we are willing todetour, and our kids would be
like, No, what what are we doingnow?
Uh they were even more plannerthan me.
Uh we were like, oh, it saysthere's a lighthouse here.
Oh, I didn't have that on themap.
(28:47):
Let's go take a look at that.
So we go on so many little sidetrips, and we get lost and end
up places.
We actually got lost on thismost recent trip.
We were trying to go from PalmDesert from visiting my parents
to Vegas, and we didn't want togo back to Quartzide and Up,
(29:08):
which turned out to be the waywe should have gone.
Uh, we were trying to go somebackwards women and it was
getting really weird, and it wassending us into the Mojave
Desert or something, and we werelike, no, this is wrong.
We're gonna backtrack.
And we ended up in Area 51,which was super fun.
SPEAKER_02 (29:25):
Yeah, yeah.
So it it paid off that it wasout of the way.
SPEAKER_00 (29:28):
Yeah, so we're into kind of that we're both down for
that.
The let's see what's over here.
What if we go this way?
Oh, this sign says the world'slargest something.
Is this a way?
What we're we're up for that.
Which I think makes sense,right?
SPEAKER_02 (29:43):
If you're gonna live that RV life traveling around,
why wouldn't you?
It's not such a linear approachto travel.
SPEAKER_00 (29:50):
And often, even though we're going all around
the West, um, you have that wemay never pass this way again
feeling anytime you're going.
In on these trips, and so it'swell, let's go check it out.
SPEAKER_02 (30:04):
I love it, I love it.
What's one thing you've learnedabout yourself through RVing?
SPEAKER_00 (30:09):
That I just I don't have to have a big place.
I really did that for my family.
You know, I built them thatAmerican dream, big house by the
lake, lifestyle, and it wasreally never for me, it was for
them.
I was always like my originalvision was that like I would
never meet anyone I who wouldmarry weird me, and I would live
(30:31):
in a garret above a store andwrite song lyrics and be a rock
star.
Like I always imagined myself ina kind of a small space, I
think.
And I'm not a I need the bigflashy car, I need the big
showyest house in myneighborhood.
I'm I'm not that person.
(30:51):
I was never into that sort ofconspicuous consumption.
And so I love it.
I just feel very light and freeand happy.
We look at our bank balance, andtwo weeks later we look at it,
and it's basically the same asit was.
Just the amount no-paying uhgardener, a termite
(31:14):
exterminator, a roof cleaner,snow removal guy, all the
things, yeah.
All the things, yeah, just allof the cost related to owning
property.
SPEAKER_02 (31:24):
I love it.
I love it.
What comes to mind for me, whichI think might be even the point
of this conversation, is thatyou're living the life you were
meant to be living.
You did the traditional way, andthen as the kids left and grew
up for talking about anemptiness life, you've actually
pivoted into the life that youwere meant to be living.
Not to say you weren't supposedto be a parent and have kids,
(31:45):
but like in this time of yourlife, you're not just sitting
around waiting for things tohappen.
SPEAKER_00 (31:51):
There's well, there we are sitting around waiting
for something to happen, andthat something is grandkids.
SPEAKER_02 (31:58):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (31:58):
And like many other empty nesters, we are
confronting a generation that isnot that interested in having
children, certainly notinterested in having them young,
except for my sister who's anOrthodox Jew who has scored
eight grandkids already.
But in general, most of us areon a long wait to grandkids.
(32:19):
One, our oldest is 32, notmarried yet.
And so we've I feel like thiswas the other reason it was hard
to pick a place to live, isbecause I'm gonna want to live
wherever grandkid is.
But no, there is no grandkidyet.
So if I buy now, I'm just gonnahave to sell that one and and
buy again.
(32:40):
So what if we did this kind ofinterim period where we just
were mobile and yeah, we love totravel and be outdoors, and
we'll just do that until suchtime as there is an or another
organizing principle to my life.
There you go.
Where maybe I want to bewherever there's the grandkid.
The grandkid.
(33:01):
And we ended up with this gap intime here where we're retired
and semi-retired, and butthere's no grandkids to play
with, so we're free to moveabout the cabin.
Yeah.
Which I think is we may notalways be, but we may not always
be.
SPEAKER_02 (33:17):
But my what I talk about a lot in my in my work is
don't wait for the grandkids.
Do things like you're doinguntil they come.
But just don't sit and do theold routine until they come
because they don't always comeright away.
It could be a 15-year gapbetween when the kids finish
school or 12-year gap, whateverit may be.
(33:38):
But a lot of times people dojust wait around for the
engagement and the wedding andthe grandkids rather than living
life.
And but you're living life theway you want to.
SPEAKER_00 (33:47):
Sitting around waiting for the grandkids is a
sad, sad scene.
That you know, that there'snothing good there.
And all your friends have allthe pictures of the grandkids,
and all they talk about is thegrandkids.
Yeah, I I would like to see someof this world uh while I am
really free to do whatever Iwant.
SPEAKER_02 (34:06):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
Girl, before I let you go, it'sbeen a fascinating conversation.
One of the questions I love toask my guests is what is your
emptiness life motto if you hadone?
SPEAKER_00 (34:21):
Free to do what I want.
SPEAKER_02 (34:23):
I love it.
SPEAKER_00 (34:24):
Any old time.
SPEAKER_02 (34:26):
Love it.
Perfect.
Oh, so good.
I'm free to do whatever I want,any old time.
And that is a perfect ending tothis episode, Carol.
Thank you so much for coming onthis emptiness life and sharing
a little bit about the RV lifeand kind of how you you funded
it and how you got there andsome of the things people need
to look at for.
I know for me it was quite aneducation and something that I
(34:48):
don't know, Colleen, my wife, ifyou're listening, I'm not
thinking about the RV life, butit's just an interesting
conversation.
SPEAKER_00 (34:55):
Well, I think the thing that holds people back, if
I can put a PS on it, is they'restill working and they, you
know, think that ties them to aplace.
And I've designed a work lifefrom far back from like 2005 or
so that with that would bemobile, that would be digital
nomad enabling.
(35:16):
And that's what I help people dois build that life.
SPEAKER_02 (35:19):
That life, yeah.
Through your coaching, right?
You coach people on how to buildcommunities together.
SPEAKER_00 (35:23):
I have a community for people who want to get into
that.
SPEAKER_02 (35:27):
Who want to get into that?
Plus, you do the freelancewriting, and you said a third.
What was the third?
I think I missed the third.
I manage our money.
Oh, manage the money, that'sright.
Yeah, you're the investor.
Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_00 (35:37):
I am my own financial advisor.
SPEAKER_02 (35:39):
I love it.
So good.
What a great combination.
Carol, thank you so much forbeing here today.
I really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00 (35:46):
My pleasure.
SPEAKER_01 (35:47):
Are you ready to start living and enjoying your
empty nest years?
If so, head over tojasonramsden.com and click work
with me to get the conversationstarted.
This empty nest life is aproduction of Impact One Media
LLC, all rights reserved.
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