 You can do what you want to do with your life. If a guy with no legs and only five fingers can do it, you can too. It doesn't matter if it's traveling or being. Doesn't matter going back to school, whatever it is, you can do it. You can find a way. Hey, everybody, it's Robin with creativity RV. This interview was filmed a couple of months ago before we had social distancing protocols, but I have to tell you it's been on my mind ever since because there's such an important message in this video that everybody can use regardless of their circumstances. Today, I sit down with Neil from No Legs, No Problem TV who's a triple amputee who lives part-time in a 17 foot trailer solo and he's figured out how to overcome obstacles in his life and still pursue his dreams. He's going to tell us how he did that and how you can too. So first we're going to do a really quick tour of his 17 foot trailer so you can see how he lives in his trailer and then we're going to get into the interview so you can hear from the man himself. Hey, Neil, can we get a tour of your rig? Sure. Well, come on down the long hallway to the kitchen with dirty dishes. Well, like we all have and then across from the spacious hallways is the dining area and then that's where no magic happens. So that's my rig. It's a very small rig. It's tailor-coached 17 foot. The door is actually in the back. So you turn around look at doors right out the back and works well for me because it's really low and I don't have to step up a whole big bunch of steps. What do you pull it with? I pull it with a 2007 Chevy Silverado Classic with a Vortech V6. And how heavy is the trailer? The trailer is 1500 pounds dry. Great. So how is it to hook up and unhook for me? It's very easy. I put an electric jack on the front of it and I have a backup camera on my truck. So I back up and I'm hooked up done very simple very cool. What's back here now? What's back here here? Yeah. Well, there's the back door. This is this is my closet. This has an amazing amount of storage space and then on this side here is the privy. That's the bathroom and then I just have fridge and and more storage. There's no potty. So I have a I have a porta potty in there. So if I have to have a shower, the porta potty comes out. Gotcha. But perfect works for you works for me. Jiu Jitsu. Yes, I trained Gracie Jiu Jitsu. I am a third degree blue belt and I am working on getting my purple belt. I train a lot because it gives me good cardio. Obviously I can't run and I never was a runner even back when I could wiggle my toes and it keeps me healthy and it keeps my mind in the right place. So every morning when I get up, I have a sign up here and it says today I will do what others won't. So tomorrow I can do what others can't. I kind of I kind of live by that motto because I have to. This is Neil. Hi. From no legs, no problem on YouTube, Neil, I had heard about before I ever met him through some friends was really excited that I got to camp with him. I travel from say October to March or so to get away from the cold because I am I'm a crappler and I am retired firing EMS. So all of my joints hurt regardless of the fingers or the legs or whatever else. My knees hurt from football in high school and wrestling and my shoulders hurt and my elbows hurt and and in the wintertime back home, it's no fun. So so I come out to a slightly drier warmer climate and also I I don't walk very well on snow and ice. So my first experience getting an RV was after I lost my legs and my fingers. I got a pop up and I hated it just absolutely hated it because it was a lot of work. You know raising it up and down and you're so low. Yeah, yes, I am so low just me when I camp with friends. I try and camp with friends. So I'm everything that I do and it and my truck and my tools and everything is set up. So even me with no legs, I can deal with things. I am 46 years old and at the age of 37, I got sore throat and literally I need to throw out Lawson's kind of thing and two weeks later, I was in a coma. What had happened was that I had a MRSA infection in my throat and I went to the doctor several times. They kept misdiagnosing my throat and it kept getting worse and so there I was feeling very sick and I did what any grown man would do. I called my mommy and I said, mom, I'm going to be off work a few days because I don't feel good. Would you drive and come get me and take me to your house? I'll be sick on your couch instead of mine. If I hadn't done that, I would not be here right now because I would have laid down on my couch and died, which is almost almost what happened at mom and dad. So they when we got to the ER for the last time somewhere in the ER, I died and they brought me back and they put me in ICU. I was in coma for three weeks. And so the MRSA went from my throat to my lungs, my lungs to my bloodstream and I went septic. Medication that they used to keep me alive, which keep all my blood pressure up in my core, killed my feet and my fingers. So that was that. That was at the that was in they took my they took my fingers the first week of November of 2010 and the next week. They they took my legs below the knees. Wow. Yeah, that had to have been really hard to go through. That was the toughest thing that I think I will ever go through in my life besides basic fatherhood because I have a son that's 24 and that you know the legs and the fingers that was a one time thing you get over, you know, having a child you always worry. But once it was over and done with the pain was gone. I got better. So, you know, it is what it is. So you grew up and you did sports and and you went hunting and you did jiu-jitsu and then all of a sudden you had to relearn how to do everything. I had to relearn how to do everything from going to the bathroom to tying shoes to brushing my teeth because I'm my hand. That's what's left of my hand and I'm left handed. So I had to I had to relearn to brush my teeth even so which which was weird and even still to this day. If I don't pay, you know, I brush my teeth with this hand and just brush brush brush brush with this hand stick to first in there and move my mouth. You hit your eyeball. I can't I just I just I move my mouth around. But so I had I had to relearn how to do and especially relearn how to walk on prosthetics which is a whole thing in and of itself. And I've said in the past I'd learn how to be human again and in people that don't really get it. They go that you're always a human. You're just you can't talk to yourself like this and now you don't understand when you're a little lump laying in a bed sitting in a wheelchair and you can't walk. You can't do anything for yourself. You can hardly feed yourself. You really don't feel human. I got back to feeling like a human being again. I would imagine there are some people that don't make that leap. What made you get up and relearn everything and then decide to even go beyond that and do something like this kind of an stubborn asshole and and I don't give up very easily and what I heard in the hospital and while they tried to be encouraging about things I kept hearing about all the things I wasn't going to be able to do anymore. And that just lit a fire under me. If you tell me you can't. I'm going to tell you I'm going to find a way. And so I'm actually the last day that I was in the hospital. I met the guy who was going to be my prosthetic maker and so I'm laying in this bed and you got to imagine that I could barely roll over. I lost all of my muscle tone because I wasn't I was in a hospital bed for three months straight and I lost all my muscle tone at your feet. I could barely roll over and he asked me about all the things I've done in my life. I work on motorcycles. I ride motorcycles firing EMS train Gracie Jiu Jitsu. You know all the things that I've done and he said I'll have you back to do a 98% of the things that you did before wonderful. No, I wonderful because I wouldn't worry about the 98% of suddenly I was fired up about that last 2%. That 2% I wouldn't be able to do and so that's what I worked on. I you know I made a list of things that I wanted to try and do again and I tried to go back to fire and EMS and work the ambulance and I found out that I could not be an effective team member. I couldn't I couldn't go up and down steps and carry a patient anymore and and and all of that I couldn't drive the ambulance very well because the pedals were all too close together. I couldn't do that. I couldn't be a firefighter anymore but I could be a dispatcher so I went back to work for a while at the fire station dispatching. I peer counsel used to peer counsel a lot more which is a new like a new amputee I would go visit them say you know kind of show them the ropes given the pep talk chew on them for a while if they needed to you know sometimes they just go I just I just can't do this the hell you can't do this get up and walk on your legs sometimes you have to do that people had to do that for me and then sometimes it's just you know you're you're just a cheerleader form when they're doing well so so I did do peer counseling work with kids that are only different training them in self-defense and jujitsu and things like that I've worked with a great organization called nub ability and they're based out of the coin Illinois so I've worked with them a lot. I got past feeling like I need to prove everybody that I can do things and now I'm just back to doing the things that I want to do for me in my life what's ahead for you I want to get my black belt and jujitsu I want to just travel I want to build things I want to enjoy life and what life has to offer I want to eat lots of good food at lots of different places and see lots of cool stuff and me when you first told your friends and family that you were going to do this what feedback did you get my family wasn't worried and anything that I want to do they go go go do it nice yeah no worries so they like me travel matter of fact you know back home right now there's a lot of flooding and there's the bad flu going on back home and I'm like mom I'm coming home in a couple weeks she said well I hope all the flooding is gone and because you're feeling good out there and see because I have autoimmune disorder and I've had it my entire life and I was diagnosed with that at 27 it's called Bichette's disease so my family does worry about me being at home in the winter sometimes because everybody gets sick you know and so that's something to consider for me what what do I have to watch out for as an amputee that amputee that other people don't yeah I have to be careful of where I part my rig if you look at the area where I walk so it's all a little bitty rocks there's not big rocks okay okay like walking over to our friends rig or walking over to where your rig is at there's big rocks big rocks are hard for me to walk on so I look for level ground with a little bitty gravel and things like that to make it easier on me to walk so I have to make sure that I'm safe in my rig because at night I take my legs off and it takes me a couple of minutes to put my legs on in the morning so I have to have so like this rig that you know that I have it's a straight shot for me to in the middle of the night if I have to go to the bathroom I can hop right down crawl right there and because I don't put my legs on in the middle middle tonight so I have to worry about things like that I have to make sure that I have power tools available for me so for instance if I if I get a flat tire on my truck and I have to change out to a spare I keep a battery powered impact wrench with me because I can't I I'm physically unable to break loose lug nuts with with a with a lug wrench because because I don't have calf muscles and feed in my balance isn't very good I mean I could if I had to the consideration is free isn't for me is making sure that I have an easy way to do things how did you decide those things is it because you had an experience where you didn't have the stuff you needed or were you thinking ahead to make sure you had everything before you left I am obsessively compulsive about looking ahead and thinking about things and planning things out I am used to the disease that I have the auto-immunicator that I have and I'm used to my legs I know if I have an attack coming on I let everybody know guys I'm not feeling good I may not come out of the rig for a day or two don't worry about me I'll check in and text with you or whatever but I may not come out for a day or two because I feel bad so if there's somebody out there that has a dream to do something or they have some kind of a disability and they think that they're too limited to do something that they've dreamed of doing what would you advise them to do well if you know your disability and you know your limitations you know how to work around them in your daily life so you should be able to figure out a way to work around them if you want to travel like this yeah here's a very good for instance I have a friend of mine Brian Freeman I trained jiu-jitsu with him he lives in North Carolina he's in a wheelchair he's a disabled vet he wants to travel like this as soon as his daughter graduates high school he wants to travel like this he said but I don't know how to do it I said dude I said I know a bunch of people who have buses converted to RVs get a bus that's got the the lift the lift on it and he was like you just solved my problem there's always a way I have a truck that I don't need hand controls or anything like that to drive I drive with my prosthetics but I found the right truck I found the right tools to work with my truck I have an electric jack on the front of my rig so it lifts it up and down so I don't have to do the twisty thing and all that I just it's just the little things I always make sure that I've got I've got extra food and extra food you can just pop the top on the knee if I don't feel good but I have to have some fuel in my body right things like that you know you know anybody who wants to come out and Boondock has to do some planning yeah you have to plan when we were talking the other day I asked you if there was one thing you wanted to let people know and you said I believe life's not over yeah yeah if you have a bad thing happen in your life whether you lose a limb you lose a family member get a divorce I've been through a couple whatever it is life is not over you can get up and you can do things and you can enjoy life it's all about where you are in your headspace you can find a way to do something if you want to do it find a way and you can get up you can get on with your life you can enjoy life if you decide life is over because of what's happened to you then that's all in your head it's all in your head thank you a lot of people are going to need to hear this I surprised him because I brought up his book which he didn't know I was going to bring up stand up I heard that it was really really well written well done inspirational he didn't know I was gonna ask him about it I'm gonna pin it at the top of comments below so you can check him out thank you Neil you're very welcome all right you guys until we see you again out here on the road we hope you're all having happy travels no legs no problem be free