About the Author
I’m Rae Crothers, a thirty year old Canadian gal and definitely not a ‘typical’ RVer!
It would take a book to explain all the reasons why I decided to drop my life and hit the road full-time in an RV, but these two quotes really sum it up:
“…we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, and playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice.
Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?”
and
“I don’t want to come to the end of my life and realize I have lived someone else’s version of it.”
I’ve been asked if I had some sort of nervous breakdown or quarter-life crisis. Why did I feel a need to run away? Why not just stay where I was and deal with my problems? That’s just the thing. I’m not running away from my problems. This is my way of dealing with them, of being true to my spirit, of keeping step with my soul. These questions also demonstrate just how different I am from the people who shared my old world. They just don’t ‘get it’, and that’s fine! I don’t get them either! It’s just really, really nice to finally live in a world where people understand me and I them.
After a year of trying out RVing, I knew for sure that it’s the right life for me, so I officially quit my job, went into business for myself, and am presently dividing my time between the Yukon and British Columbia where I work in several different locations. I love this life! How else could I possibly see all of North America and still sleep in my own bed every night with my trusty feline co-pilots by my side?
There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by.
I believe your second quote sums it up pretty well. Live the life you want; not the life you should.
Or the life THEY want me to live.
I am another Canadian, older than you, who has been traveling in my Class A since 2003. I ‘ve done two different winters in Alaska, the most recent was this February. If you get 1′ thick styro blue board and build a 3-sided box around your water supply from the spigot to your rig, you will have less freeze-ups and its easier to defrost with a hair dryer. You don’t have to disconnect anything to defrost.
I use 4 foot sections of styro insulation noodles to direct heat from the vents to areas where the water lines aren’t getting enough heat. If the manufacturer has placed a board at a 45 degree angle along the floor, where the wall meets the floor, you can pry that up to get heat to the water lines running under it.
To improve your comfort in the cabover bed, put 1″ styro blue board UNDER your mattress and pre-heat the bed with a 12Volt or electric blanket about 20-30 minutes before bedtime. If I don’t do that, the memory foam covering on the mattress is a memory BLOCK.
I’ve been following the weather in your neck of the woods, because it comes down south to Utah when it’s finished with you. This is an unusually extreme winter for B.C.! I’d invest in more styrofoam 4 X 8′ sheets to skirt the rig, and preserve heat near your holding tanks. You should also invest in a wireless temperature monitor (try Home Depot, Oregon Scientific brand is best). I used simple thermometers the first year, and almost had valves freeze up. Now I can check frequently during the day and supply heat to the compartment if the temps are dropping.
Hello, thank you for visiting!
My biggest problem with these weather conditions are the park restrictions. I’m not allowed to use cheap techniques, like styrofoam, to skirt the rig, because it looks ‘ugly.’ Our water pedestals are quite well insulated and the freeze ups are happening underground; thankfully I have access to a heat gun that gets things moving very quickly! Except for the line to the toilet, I haven’t had a problem with my interior plumbing freezing thanks to the heater I put in one of my basement compartments. So, except for my black tank being frozen solid, I’m doing much better than I would have expected!
I keep a regular mattress over the cab mattress, which definitely helps with the cold barrier, as does heating up the area before bed. I’d love to get an electric blanket, but I’ve unfortunately run out of amperage. My next rig is going to have 50, not 30!!!
Another thing to try is get some Reflectix bubble wrap sheeting and get that between the water lines and the floor/wall any where you have access to the water lines. Any EXTRA insulation in those spots will extend the amount of cold it will need to freeze the lines. Don’t enclose the line! You want the heat from the inside to be reflected onto the water lines from the Reflectix. You could probably get the 2′ X 25 foot roll and a roll of two-sided carpet tape to make a double layer of this for your cab windshield, and the windows in the cabover bed area. Remove them during the day to allow condensate to evaporate, and let in sunshine (if you get any?).
Every window and door frame in your vehicle is a metal frame holding the glass in. The metal frames act like a cold sink, directing cold right into the cabin. I cover all the windows with Reflectix at night, with the windshield getting a double layer, to prevent the cold bleed through. Cut down a piece of 4 x 8 blue styro board to fit the door way, to overlap the door frame, if you can. Slide that into place to block drafts thru the door, and the cold coming thru the metal door frame.
Don’t despair the cost of the blue styro board! I have all mine from Alaska under my pass through basement storage, 2″ thick 2 foot X 8 foot lengths. I don’t even have to skirt anymore, because of the extra basement insulation. A one inch or 1/2″ thick strip of this crammed next to your holding tanks, between the access door and the holding tank improves the tanks heat-holding capability. I put all spare pieces in the floor of the compartment where the dump tanks are. The compartments are also made of metal that conduct the cold next to the dump tanks.
Is your black tank enclosed or exposed to the outside?
Are you running 750 Watt heaters? I run two of those non-stop, and the only time I have to stop them is to run the hot pot, microwave or hairdryer.
The 12 Volt heating blanket runs fine on 30 amps, with two 750 Watt heaters running. I only use it to take the chill off the bed, the dogs provide the rest of the heat at night.
Except for the line to my toilet, I’m really not concerned about my water lines because they haven’t frozen up, not even on the night where we went to -21. Sure, the water froze coming in from underground, but that was before it hit the section of pipe covered with heat tape. To get to the line for the toilet would be way more work than it would be worth it.
It’s exposed. I have a class C with exposed tanks unfortunately.
Again, park restrictions prevent me from doing anything to enclose it, plus there isn’t very much clearance between the ground and the bottom of the rig, preventing me from doing much work under there.
Thank you for all your suggestions; I really appreciate them! I’ll see what the weather is like in Vancouver and will implement a lot of them. Right now, I don’t pay for electricity, so I don’t care if I’m not as insulated as I could be since I’m not paying for heat.
My heaters’ lowest setting is 900W, so they gobble up 7.5A each. I’m going to rearrange some things so that next year I can run a heating blanket. Right now, just putting a space heater up there for a half hour, then curling up with the cats, is sufficient.
Love the second quote !!! I certainly have lived someone else’s version of it ……..up until now !!
Dee, is that you?! What are you doing on my blog at 11:30PM on Xmas Eve?! LOL!!!
If you’re not Dee, the question still applies!
Jeez you guys, if you’ve got an RV why doncha just come on down to Arizona for the winter. There are lots of places to camp for free…
I lived in bush Alaska for 8 years, and while I loved it, I’m not plannin on goin back
Best Regards
Stacy
Stacy, that’s for visiting! LOL! Soon as I can afford to not work six months of the year I will be the first in line to spend a winter in Arizona!!!
How I wish I had had your foresight and adventure when I was in my 30′s. So many wasted years living within the lines drawn by others.
I’m catching up now tho, there’s still quite a few years left.
Brenda, if I wanted to drive myself crazy, I could add up all the money and time I wasted in trying to live the way most of society does. I figure that it was all experience that serves as proof that THIS is the life that works for me. Good for you for getting off the merry go round. Thanks for visiting!
Hey! What type of motorhome are you driving…. i’m looking to live year round and my budget is SUPER low lol– i figured i’d ask ur opinion if it’s worth getting into this adventure in a class C i spent $4000 on… i’m ok with unexpected surprises… and i love the chance to get resourceful (especially with all the tips flying around on this discussion board) but would I be getting myself into trouble thinking i could make the winter in Quebec with something like that? Any thoughts? And here’s to some great fall camping coming up!!!!
Love the qoutes..
,I’m getting ready for my second adventure in nomadics. Trying a small POD type tralier this time around ..All the best, M
Miranda, Thanks for the reply on the hot water issue in skp, then it helped me find your website. I read a litte about bankruptcy to my wife Janie and she wants to read everything. We are also not the average RVrs although closer to the age than you. We live in a 29 foot Jayco. We work for peace and justice and we often travel to places where we can learn about oppression, creative anwers for this economic wasteland, etc. Thanks for writing, we’ll be reading more. By the way, we visited the Anishnabe near Kenora, Ont (Grassy Narrows) a while back with Christian Peacemaker Teams, a somewhat radical violence reduction group.
Hey Miranda, so great to read about your thoughts & life, and others’ as well. Marty & I are human rights activists/war tax resisters from the US, who got sick of the whole capitalist agenda, always needing more & more (money, stuff, employment) to have less & less (time for music, time for relationships, relaxation…). I’d hardly been in an rv before we bought a Toyota Dolphin and now have a larger Jayco Granite Ridge; we’ve found this 29 footer is plenty big for us, while still not humongous for the planet, and like you, love being home wherever we are; I like it that if we decide to stay longer after some conference or happening, we can, nobody tells us we must do this or that, and we don’t have to double our carbon footprint to “go home”; we just go where we want to next. btw, don’t know what kind of work you do, but I’m a traveling Physical Therapist Asst. with AdvanceMed; we’ve found I can work 3-4 mo per year & get the finances we need for the rest of the year–it’s a great gig & there may be things like that in your field. It’s so encouraging to know about you–hope we hook-up sometime. happy trails!
Hi Janie,
Thank you for stopping in and commenting.
I don’t have a ‘trade’ per se, but am hoping to eventually support myself full-time through my writing!
Hi Martin, thank you for visiting and commenting.
[...] About the Author [...]
Hi Rae, Just found your blog today. Good for you! I’ve got 15 yrs on you in age, and 3 cats instead of two, but I’m still actively working on “ditching it all” to get to that place where I can start living my own dreams instead of someone else’s. Better late than never, right?
Patch, late is definitely better than never! I hope your kitties take to your dream as well as mine did.
I have been on the move since I was a child, my parents moved every 2 or 3 years and I got used to it. Then I worked for Gov. and moved every 2 or 3 years again. Moving around is just part of my life. I tried living the normal life and it just doesen’t feel right. Like sleeping in someone else’s bed, it just doesn’t feel right.
I am happy when I am on the road, just finnished a road trip from Dallas to Houston on to Las Cruces NM, then on to Tucson, Phoenix, Flagstaff and the four corners then on to Colorado Springs, Kansas, Oklahoma, and back to Dallas via Tucomcari NM. Loved it !
I travel with my two dogs cat and sister (on occasion)
Have fun it may be later than you think……
It is often much later than we think it is, hence why I decided to start living before retirement.
I lived in the same town my whole life and hardly traveled as a child, so I guess I’m making up for that now!
HI…It was refreshing to find your site.
I am a Canadian and I have been living and traveling in RV’s since I was 25 so that is 30 years now….everything from vans to sailboats to all classes of rv’s.
I now have a 35′ 5th wheel and I tow my motorcycle behind it.
I have dual citizenship so i can be in the USA in the winter, somewhere between Mexico and Lake Havasu City.
I want to spend next summer in Saskatoon, probably at the Gordie Howe Park.
Been from the Alaska Hwy to Key West and all over the world by plane.
I am in Tulsa OK today, waiting for the weather to cool a little so I can hook up and head west.
Nice to meet you and all the other nomads out there.
Brent
Thanks for taking the time to comment, Brent!
Lucky you having dual citizenship. I wish I could work in the US.
I’ve stayed at Gordie Howe. Pretty nice park and well situated, but so, so, so many rules! I really liked Saskatoon; quite a beautiful city.
Now that I’ve experienced so much of Canada I’m ready and eager to see The Rest of the World.
Cheers!
I have an idea to help you further your foreign travels.
Have you thought about TEFL or TESL, Teaching English as a Second (Foreign) Language.
I went to the school in Costa Rica two weeks ago to check this one out, really nice and in a nice neighborhood in San Pedro, right beside San Jose, Costa Rica.
A TEFL cert. will allow you to travel the world and teach english, you do not need to speek the language of the local country.
Pleae contace me if you need any more information.
Brent
I have thought of teaching English abroad, but it’s not an option for me while I have my cats. It is something I will explore in that sad distant future when they have passed on.