Networking at the Spring Escapade

I've been at the Spring Escapade in Stockton, CA for the past week representing RV Bookstore and delivering a seminar on Saving Space and Weight in Your RV. There were 825 RVs and 2300 people; 500 of those were walk-ins or visitors on Community Day.

I also met several solo women RVers who are members of the Solos BOF (Birds of a Feather) group in Escapees. We are blessed to be full-timers who live and travel when and where we want. How many of you out there in cyberspace are full-timing solo or want to?

As you can see from the picture, we were having a bit of a good time. The Fall Escapade will be in Goshen, Indiana September 9-14 and I hope to be there delivering another seminar on Saving Space and Weight, as well as a class on Basic Self-Protection for women RVers. If you live in the area and have time to attend, I'd like to meet you.

RVing women and wannabes

RVer Penney Sales of Coeur d'Alene is organizing an event called "RVing Women and Wannabes."
The day includes a "Living Your Dreams Workshop" lead by Sales, a life coach. Author and former fulltime solo RVer Joei Carlton Hossack will be on hand to talk about her life on the road. Julianne Crane, Wheel Life columnist, will be a guest speaker.

When: Sunday, May 6, 2007, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Sign-in begins at 9 a.m.
Where: Lake City Senior Center, 1916 Lakewood Dr., Coeur d'Alene.
Cost: $35. Bring something to share for a potluck lunch.
Registration deadline: Wednesday, May 2.

For information call (208) 665-7782.
Read more about Sales and "RVing Women and Wannabes" on Saturday, April 21, in Wheel Life in the Today section of The Spokesman-Review.

When nothing else will do...

...how about making your own personal ice cream? This is the perfect boondocking treat: no electricity is needed and you don't have to crank for hours. Here's how it works. Gather the ingredients:

1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons salt (rock salt is best)

1 cup of crushed ice or broken ice cubes

Put the milk, vanilla and sugar in a zip lock freezer bag. Put ice and salt into another zip lock freezer bag, drop the sealed bag with ingredients in and shake for 10 minutes. Bam. Ice cream. You'll love it. Your kids will love it, especially if you let your kids make it.

Something old, something new...

As I was drinking my first cup of coffee this morning, I looked out the window of my old RV through the sheets of rain streaming down the glass. At my right is my new laptop (three weeks old) and I was pondering the contrast between the two.

Wendy, my motorhome, is what the sailors call "yar." She's warm and dry inside, and if she could float, she would be seaworthy.

The RVs you see in the picture are all rentals and the RVers are from Germany. They went to Alcatraz for a tour this morning in the rain and will return to a windy but sunny afternoon. The men (husbands) do the driving, but the women (wives and mothers--they have children in each RV) direct them into the site, and help with connecting hoses and cables.

When they leave the park, however, the women will drive to the dump station and the men will assist with the procedure. Everything is done with efficiency and good humor.

I spoke about the "fear factor" in a previous blog and I wonder how I would handle going to a different continent where I don't speak the language well, renting an RV, driving on strange roads, and relying on strangers to give me advice about the best places to see and things to do in the area. I think I would do well and the excitement might help me cope with any fear or hesitation.

If you have visited another country and rented an RV, what was your experience like?

An emergency radio can save the day

I can highly recommend the Freeplay Emergency Radio from C. Crane for everyone, especially solo women RVers. It will give you information through AM/FM radio, NOAA channels, and TV channel sound; it will charge your cell phone, give you an emergency light and works on rechargeable battery, 12 volt, AC/DC or wind-up. This one pictured and several others are available at http://www.ccrane.com.

A single life on the road

RVtravel.com editor Chuck Woodbury bumped into full-time RVer Betty Chase in Quartzsite, Arizona, where he sat down with her in her motorhome to talk about her life on the road as a single, woman RVer.
Here is a brief excerpt of what she had to say.