The reasons to choose the RV lifestyle as a solo traveler — or single parent — vary widely, as do the challenges and benefits the lifestyle affords.
By Jeff Crider
March 2021
Bobbi Harden, F310648, was born and raised in Leicester, England, about two hours north of London. That’s where she met her future husband, JP Harden, a U.S. Air Force pilot who was stationed at a military base in her hometown.
They fell in love and eventually moved back to JP’s home state of Georgia, where they became avid RVers, working their way from a pop-up camper to a truck camper to a travel trailer and eventually to a motorhome.
By the time JP passed away 16 years ago, the couple had taken RV trips in most of the 50 states. But Bobbi kept going.
“JP died before we got to the last four states. I wanted to finish,” she said.
Bobbi Harden (seated) belongs to several RV clubs and travels with friends each summer.
Bobbi still has a thirst for adventure, and she keeps herself busy. She has joined several social groups for single RVers, including FMCA’s Singles International chapter; Loners on Wheels; and the Escapees singles group, SOLOS.
When I caught up with her recently, Bobbi was staying at Florilow Oaks RV Park in Bushnell, Florida, a 55-and-over facility for single RVers.
“I’ve met some wonderful people,” she said, adding that she’s had some wonderful adventures, too.
Bobbi travels in a 36-foot Itasca Meridian motorhome and tows a Jeep. She’s a member of the Southeast Loners on Wheels chapter, which organizes seven-day campouts in different Southeastern states once a month between April and October. She also travels with friends and takes big trips during the summer months; prepandemic destinations included Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Last summer, she traveled to Colorado.
“We kayak. We ride dune buggies. A lot of my friends are in their 70s and 80s. We even have one guy who is 90. We’re all very active and have a good time,” she said.
But while many solo RVers are retired widows or widowers who once enjoyed RVing with their spouses, a number have experienced divorce, financial challenges, or other life changes that prompted them to travel full-time on their own.
After a divorce, Paul Tassone transitioned from a stationary home to a travel trailer. He pursues acting and travels with his dog, Daisy.
Paul Tassone, an Australian actor, has been RVing solo for about a year and a half. He previously lived in Ojai, California, a scenic community in the oak- and pine-covered mountains near Santa Barbara. But after going through a divorce, he found it increasingly difficult to make ends meet, especially in an expensive area such as Ojai, where house rentals can be steep.
Paul had joint custody of his two teenage kids, but he found his costs of living were forcing him to eat into his savings.
He pondered on ways to cut expenses — even considering the merits of a tiny house — before he settled on a 31-foot Sonoma travel trailer.
“I wondered what it would be like to go from a big house to living in a travel trailer, but I’ve never been happier,” he said. “I can’t express to you the relief when I moved into my RV before (COVID-19) hit. I knew that every month I would be able to cover my costs. I hadn’t been able to do that for four years. I stopped the bleeding, finally.”
Paul’s children recently moved back to Australia with his ex-wife, but he said he plans to stay in California to continue pursuing his acting career. At this writing, he was camping at Ventura Ranch KOA in Santa Paula, about 30 minutes from his former Ojai home. With this living arrangement, he said, he has cut his monthly expenses in half.
“It was a much greater, holistic life choice that has given me so much more freedom and joy than I ever could have imagined,” he said.
Of course, the concept of living and traveling across America for extended periods of time in an RV is on many people’s bucket list. Sometimes, a combination of difficult life situations prompts people to jump into full-time RVing sooner than they expected. Holly Blake is a case in point.
Single mom Holly Blake homeschools her sons in a motorhome, which provides opportunities for exploring, such as Upper Provo Falls, Utah.
A few years ago, Holly went through a divorce and subsequently had trouble getting lender approval for a home in Jacksonville, Florida. To make matters worse, she suffered a series of health issues, which made her start thinking she better act on her bucket-list dreams sooner than later. One was to travel across the United States as a full-time RVer. So, in mid-2019, she took her two kids and embarked on the solo parent adventure of a lifetime in a 40-foot Newmar Canyon Star motorhome.
Holly still marvels at the fact she was approved for financing for two vehicles — her motorhome and the Jeep she tows — but couldn’t get approved for a stationary house. But she said she has no regrets; she’s doing something she always wanted to do, and sharing the experience with her 11- and 16-year-old boys, whom she is homeschooling in her RV.
“I am a single parent on the road with my two kids and two dogs,” Holly said proudly. She generates income selling acrylic ornaments, personally engraved bracelets and jewelry, T-shirts, and other personalized items through Etsy, an e-commerce website.
That’s not to say the transition to full-time RVing has been without its challenges, however.
“You can encounter unexpected costs,” she said, noting that she has had to spend thousands of dollars on repairs; the latest was replacing her water pump.
She has learned how to perform many RV repairs on her own, however, so she doesn’t have to hire professionals each time. “I’ve become handy,” she said. “If you don’t, then you pay somebody to do the repairs and it’s not cheap.”
Holly Blake and her sons celebrated Halloween at a Lakehills, Texas, campground.
Holly also has learned how to research the most affordable places to camp. She noted that she can cut her camping costs by staying a month at a time at a location, because monthly rates typically are more economical than nightly rates. They have found sites through Thousand Trails, Boondockers Welcome, and Harvest Hosts, among others. The family was camped at Pio Pico RV Resort & Campground in Jamul, California, when we spoke.
Holly also has been equipping her RV with solar panels. “We’re pretty well able to go off-grid and be self-sustaining for quite a while,” she noted.
Holly also carries a trucker’s atlas and often picks up the free maps at rest stops along the highway to ensure she doesn’t get lost. “Many times, we don’t have a cell signal, and you can’t find your way with navigation,” she said.
While full-time RVing has its challenges, it also has created opportunities for Holly to build incredible memories with her boys, especially during their trips to some of America’s lesser-known parks. Their favorite experiences have been hiking in Tallulah Gorge State Park in Georgia; at McKinney Falls State Park, outside of Austin, Texas; and in the redwoods near Klamath, in northwest California’s “Bigfoot country.”
Rob Neely was unexpectedly thrust into full-time RVing much earlier than he expected when his partner died of cancer two years ago. Their plan had been to RV full-time after they retired, but Rob became a full-timer on his own following his partner’s death.
“I put our house on the market and it sold in one day,” he said.
He immediately moved into his 34-foot Forest River Georgetown motorhome, thinking it would be a temporary stay until he found another house.
“It started out as just a safe haven. I loved being in the motorhome because it provided good memories for me. Initially, I thought it was temporary. But then COVID hit. I went to see friends in California, and I spent six months on the road traveling our nation,” he said.
Suddenly single, Rob Neely turned to RVing, which enabled him to continue his hairstyling business on the road.
His journeys included the entire California coast, two weeks along the Colorado River, and a month in Colorado itself. “I came back through Laughlin and the Grand Canyon,” he said. “I saw the most incredible sunrises on the desert and the most incredible sunsets. It just changed me, and the more I got away from the normal rush of the day, the more I wanted to be out just with nature.”
A high-end hairstylist who previously operated a salon with 30 employees, Rob has enough regular clients in the Fort Worth, Texas, area to support himself. But he’s now thinking of becoming a traveling stylist after the COVID-19 vaccines become widely distributed. “I’m realizing I don’t have to be at a fixed location to run my business,” he said.
At this writing, Rob was camping at a variety of locations in Texas, including Tres Rios RV Resort in Glen Rose and Brazos Outdoor Center in Rainbow, a tiny campground about an hour’s drive southwest of Fort Worth with RV and tent sites near the Brazos River.
Rob said he has come to enjoy the full-time RV lifestyle so much, he’s not sure when or if he will move into another stationary residence.
“The only space I used in my house, as a single person, was the kitchen, the bathroom, and the bedroom,” he said. “The RV gives me all the space I need with ever-changing views. This lifestyle is fantastic.”
Paul Tassone, the actor from Australia, said he plans to continue full-timing for the foreseeable future. “I wish I would have thought about full-time RVing years ago,” he said.