 Hey everybody, it's Robin with Creativity RV and today I'm going to talk to you about something that got me a little fired up a few weeks ago and that is the interview that Bob Wells did on CBS Sunday morning about nomadic life. Now, Bob was great, love Bob, and you guys know that he's the one that encouraged me to go out on YouTube. I actually interviewed him for my blog prior to me being on YouTube and I got to know him really well and his story really well and I watched that video and I'm going to show you some clips of it here in a minute and tell you why I think it was just wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong for people that are looking at full-time RV travelers or nomads or whatever you want to call yourselves. If you're looking at those people or you want to be one of those people or you are one of those people, some of the messaging that gets out there, I find a little bit troubling. So I watched that interview and some of it had some good points, but it just didn't wrap it up and explain this life in the way that I think it should be explained, at least for the vast majority of us that are on the road. Now you guys know that I wrote a book called Be a Nomad, Change Your Life, The Ultimate Guide to Living Full-Time and a Van or RV. I live on the road myself full-time and I've also been working on a book for the last two years that is just interviews with nomads. So I have been interviewing all kinds of nomads, young, old, single couple, every kind of race and orientation and rig and style of camping you can imagine. And so I feel like I have a really wide perspective on who's out there on the road. So let me tell you first of all some stats about people on the road and then tell you why I think that that show and some of the other things I've been seeing in the media are really missing the boat. And I feel like I kind of have to be a voice for the, I don't know, average nomad that's out here because people are not seeing us. And if they don't see us, then all they can rely on is the other things they see in the media or maybe on a street corner. So let me tell you what I'm talking about. Here let's look at some clips from the actual video. In the beginning of the video they interview a great family who lives in a schoolie and they said something right in the beginning that I was like, yes, this is going to be a great interview because they said living in a schoolie was a choice, not a consequence. I thought, great, they're going to explain that not everybody on the road has to be on the road, that for a lot of us it's a positive choice. And then they went to Bob who looked great and said great stuff and did a great job. But this is the way that they framed Bob. They said that he was the archetypal loser who lives in a van down by the river. And then the guy that was actually the host of the episode tried to stay overnight in a van and he said the first thing he wanted was a shower and that what people wanted to know was where you poop and that van life was not for him. And it's not for everybody. But do you see the way that they were framing it? In juxtaposition to Bob they showed a bunch of gorgeous Instagram people that had like music studios and their fans, the gorgeous ones with the floppy hats and like the solar lanterns outside and everything is perfect. And it was like there was the beautiful Instagram people and there was the guy in the van down by the river. And you guys, they completely totally 100% missed the boat and this is where they were wrong. According to the RVIA, which is the RV Industry Association. There are a million people living full-time in their RVs that is self-reported. So I think there's a whole bunch more. I mean, nobody's ever asked me if I live full-time in an RV. And the fastest growing segment of people choosing to live full-time on the road are middle-aged women. So you can look up those stats. Go talk to any dealer who's selling RVs and they'll say they're shocked at how many people come in that are women. I go out into beautiful national forest areas like this and the vast majority of people I see are women. Like I said, people only know what they're exposed to. So people that don't know about this life and I was one of them think that people that live in RVs are either retirees, you know, with a bunch of money or aren't working, or they are people that have to live in an RV because they have a substance abuse problem or a mental illness. And, you know, you see these pictures of urban blight where, you know, there's rows of RVs parked on streets that don't move or in Walmart parking lots. And because this is what people see, they think that that's all of us. And I'm here to tell you that's not all of us. According to the CEO of Outdoorsy, who is just on Bloomberg, RV travelers contribute $130 billion into local communities every year. And let me tell you how that happens. I'm out here in this little pocket of national forest in Oregon. I'm near some cities. I'm near some towns. So what happens is I travel through these little towns. I get gas, I get groceries, I dump my tanks. Maybe I go spend $5 at a little historical museum where their locals are not coming in to support that local museum or gift shop or restaurant as much as these travelers are. A lot of these small communities competing with big box communities are relying on the RV traveler. So I come through, I spend my money, I come and I camp in these beautiful places. I pay taxes, I have an employee, I pick up after myself. And I am not the only one. There's a million of us out here. And sometimes I find that we're fighting against this stigma that we all have some problem out here. For example, in that CBS This Morning interview, they wrapped it up. Literally, they finished the entire tone of the video by saying, it's a story of desperation and that Bob is chipping away at the model of America that exists today. Here's what really bugs me about the mischaracterization of people that live on the road. It's not that our lives were crushed somehow. We have to choose to live a smaller life in an RV. For me, my life is bigger and broader and way more fulfilling than it ever was when I was in a house. And that is thanks to technology in large part. Because I'm working like I am with you right now, you guys know that I'm a writer and a blogger and a YouTuber and a painter. And I can do that all from the road thanks to the internet. This is something that we didn't have 10 years ago. Public lands, like the ones that were behind me, were always available for camping. We weren't able to go through these communities and help contribute to them financially and stay in touch with each other and stay safe until just the last few years. And so to me, this is a very exciting time to be on the road. And I look at my RV as another housing option. It doesn't have to be forever. And it might be because I love it that much. And I literally look at all the places I can go and I get sad because I'm 50. And I might have another 40 years, I hope, that I can go out and see things. Or if I love a place, then I want to go back every year, but then I don't get to see other things. And those are the stresses that I have. I mean, think about this, think about your neighbor. You see her in the hallway of your apartment building. And you guys hit the elevator about the same time and you see her locking her door and she's got a bagel in her hand and her briefcase or whatever. And she's trying to make a phone call or do something with the kids or whatever it is. And you guys wave at each other and that's it. Then imagine that you come out of your door one day and your neighbor is coming out of her door and she's got her bagel in her hand. But when you look in the door, she's packing up to go and you ask her what she's doing. And she says, oh, I'm leaving to live in an RV. And you think, oh God, she couldn't afford her apartment. She lost her job. And when you talk to her, you find out she's still got the same job. She just works remotely now and she's not giving up her house because she can't afford it. She's choosing an RV as an alternate type of housing because she can and that's where they got it wrong. And look, I know I'm gonna get a lot of comments from people out there that say nomadic people don't wanna work, they're lazy, they don't contribute, they live off society, you're a bum. You guys can think that if you want to. I'm here to tell you that there are a million of us who are regular members of a society. And look, the full-time community is full of all kinds of people with all kinds of lives and problems, just like any other community. So yes, are there people in crisis? There are. Are there introverts? Yes. Are there extroverts? Yes. Are there people who struggle to get by? Yes. Are there entrepreneurs? Definitely. For me and for a lot of us living on the road expands our options. And it allows us to live a more fulfilling, rich life than we would have had we just stayed in an apartment and watch TV at night and watch the world go by. That's what I wanted to let you guys know. Respect for all the people that were in that interview, including Bob Wells, Bob I Love You. And I just wanted to give my two cents on the topic because I feel like my demographic of nomad out there is not being represented. And that's what I wanted to say.