Lee Cowan goes looking for RV adventures in Arizona, probably in the Quartzsite area, and finds a group of older women who aren’t afraid to travel alone for their adventures. There are 9 million RVs in America now, which is a million more than in 2005.
Of the many interesting women he meets, Jaime Hall Bruzenak has written books on women RVing solo, and how to earn a living while RVing. You can find her books at Pine Country Publishing. Jaime says that more women than men RV solo, which is interesting to think about why that might be.
Another woman nomad that Lee calls the matron of a women’s RV group is 82-year-old Billie Rusk. She travels in a 22ft Winnebago Aspect and jokingly says that TomTom GPS
These women love to have the freedom to go wherever they want, for as long as they like. They’ll meet up at favorite RV parks each year, sometimes traveling quite a distance to get there.
As far as safety goes, some use tricks like leaving large boots, dog bowls and leashes outside the door. They rely on themselves, each other and the RV community that has support clubs, such as the RV Emergency Roadside Assistance from the Good Sam Club for a flat or engine trouble in the middle of nowhere.
They enjoy the freedom to chase sunsets, without any drama.
(We removed the video from playing on this site because it is in Flash and is problematic for many users – it also will not play on the iPad at all. Here’s the direct link the video to copy and paste to your browser: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7397831n&tag=contentMain;contentBody )
Close Enough Transcription of Video
The CBS Morning Show did a fabulous video that you should see for yourself. In case the video link ever gets broken, here’s a shot at writing up a transcription.
Older women escape winter winds in RVs video with Lee Cowan reporting
(Notes –
- (Video’s captions are in parenthesis)
- [My observations or notes of visuals are in brackets]
- Lee alternates between mostly narrating the story and interviewing the women)
Lee: This is one of those stories that we didn’t know what we were going to find until we got there, and it turns out that “there” is anywhere of the beaten path.
Far off on the horizon of this otherwise barren Arizona desert lies a temporary city growing by the day. Like boxy tulips, this rag-tag community springs up here every winter. Tens of thousands of nomads navigate their RVs to the middle of the middle of nowhere to escape the winter winds.
[Background music from Fleetwood Mac plays, “Listen to the wind blow…watch the sunrise.”]
It’s a tribe unique both for its look and its language – if you have to ask what “dry camping” or “boondocking” means, then you’re not in the club. And increasingly that club has a decidedly feminine touch.
Jaime Hall Bruzenak [(RV Enthusiast)]: It’s quite interesting, there are more women who do this, that RV by themselves, than men.
Lee: Jamie Hall Bruzenak started RVing 20 years ago with her husband. And after he died, she stayed on the road where she met countless other women, just like her. And, it’s where she met her new husband.
She’s penned two books on the subject of women and their rigs [RV Traveling Tales: Women’s Journeys on the Open Road and The Woman’s Guide to Solo RVing, both by her and co-author Alice Zyetz, are shown in background.], and her audience keeps growing. [Speaking now to Jaime] And why do you think that is?
Jaime: I think it’s because women like adventure, perhaps they’ve not been able to do that in their life. They’ve been working, having families, may not have had the money, and so then when they get the chance, they want to get out and do something.
[Showing old Airstream Trailer commercial video clip, “Building Dreams is Our Business”.
Airstream clip’s narrator: “Every man dreams of high adventure and faraway places.”]
Lee: It’s a long way from the Beaver Cleaver notion of RVing when it was considered largely a man’s past-time. RVs have been in the fast lane recently. Almost 9 million Americans now own one. That’s a million more than in 2005.
And these days, outside RV parks like this one outside Bandera Texas [Skyline Ranch RV Park], women out number the men by design.
[Lee’s talking to a small group of women at a picnic table.]
Lee: Men are not allowed…
One of the women: Men and kids under 18…
Lee: …are not allowed.
One of the women: No men and no kids.
Lee [narrating again]: The Rambling Roses are an exclusive club. Their members are mostly retired, some widowed, some divorced, and aren’t shy about calling themselves pioneers.
Carol Storm: [(RV Enthusiast) and apparent Rambling Rose member] These are women taking on risks that they may have never taken on before in their life. Getting self confidence, you know a sense of value, bucking the odds and the rest of us woman watching these women breaking trail.
Lee: Few some up the group’s independent brand of moxy better than 72 year old Betty Burnett.
Betty: I don’t have to get involved in anybody’s drama. I get to see new places at will. I can stay as long as I want or as little as I want.
Lee: It’s just the freedom…
Betty: It’s just the freedom [nodding in agreement].
Lee: She knows no strangers, as she puts it, home is wherever the brake lights come on.
But the matron of the group is 82-year-old Billie Rusk [who’s cleaning the windshield of her Winnebago Aspect, Class C RV], small in stature perhaps, but a giant among her RVing peers.
Billie: When I go out like this, I consider it running away from home [both laughing].
Lee:She drove some 800 miles, from Arizona to Texas, to be here, all by herself, sort of…
Billie: I have a Tom Tom GPS, and Tom is the only man in my life [both laughing again].
[Now she’s fiddling with the water connection at the service compartment of her RV.]
Billie: Where’s all that water coming from? [as it’s leaking down to the ground].
Lee: Which is why perhaps that I got called into duty to help her disconnect her rig. [Lee’s unhooking the water from the rig, and says] Look at me, I’m RVing [laughter]. This is the water, and not the sewer, that I’m unscrewing, right? [laughter]
Billie: Yes
[Billie is now driving the rig]
Lee: She seems as much at home now behind the wheel of her 22 footer as she does behind a Volkswagen. [Now asking Billie] Do you ever get in a tight spot?
Billie: All the time.
Lee: And it’s okay?
Billie: Well, I just squeegee around ’til I get out of it.
Lee: It’s not without its risks. Women traveling alone on the open road, are for some, a target. But Jamie says everyone has their tricks.
Jamie: And some women go the extent where they’ll put a big dog dish and chain outside their door, or maybe big boots so it looks like they’re traveling with someone.
Lee: The freedom to chase sunsets does come with a price, but seeing the sky painted every shade of lipstick is worth it.
[end of video as sun is setting]
Lee and two of the CBS This Morning show anchors, Erica Hill and Gayle King, discuss the story. They talk about friendships on the road and the importance of friendships that women have that are cultivated over space and time.
Also discussed was the concern for safety of women traveling alone. Lee says that the women feel like they have a lot of support, not only with these friends, but within the RV community as well. He specifically mentioned RV clubs, such as Good Sam Club, for if you get a flat or have engine trouble in the middle of nowhere.
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