- I'm 90 years old as of October 20th '21.
- How old is too old to RV?
Well, Doris is gonna show you today that 90 is not too old.
Oh my gosh, I can't believe
I had the opportunity to talk with her.
She has so much to share and so much personality.
Now I know as you're watching this,
you're gonna say she's not quite focused,
I did have trouble with my camera today,
but she is so worth listening to.
- I've had quite a number of RVs
and finally got one in the early days
that I could actually use the bathroom and stay overnight.
And I used it mostly in my businesses,
which were mobile vendors at military bases,
shows, outdoor shows, state fairs, whatever.
In 2014, I retired out of Virginia and closed down
and moved down to Key West, Florida.
And I thought, I'll probably never move again.
But a couple of years later,
after it began to feel more like home
and I began to get itchy feet,
I decided I need to take a trip somewhere
or I'll never drive this big Bounder again.
So they said, "Oh, well maybe you're gonna go up
to Virginia to visit family, right?"
I said, "No, I'm going to Quartzsite, Arizona."
And they said, "Quartzsite, where's that? (chuckles loudly)
You can't go all the way up to Arizona by yourself."
And I said, "Well, I'm going to."
And I did.
And I was gone for four months.
I found a great place to park for $8 a night.
So I explored the rest of Quartzsite,
I went up to Parker, I went up to Lake Havasu,
and just had a ball.
And then I went to Tucson in time
for the Tucson Show which follows.
After that, I was kind of free to do what I wanted to do.
And so, I visited the Grand Canyon.
I found the Monaco TREK, 28 feet, that I have now.
Yes, it's built in 2016, it only had 6,600 miles on it.
And I stole it.
- [Stacy] That's fantastic.
- I hang around mostly in the Clermont,
Thousand Trails, Orlando area.
And, of course, the surrounding parks and various places
that you shift around to.
I like everything about it
except that it's a little too small,
and the bedroom is one of those funky bedrooms
where the bed goes up to the ceiling
to access more storage underneath and things.
And I wish I had a normal bedroom.
Think about what you have right now
that you can make use to get out there
and just take a taste of the RV lifestyle.
Don't wait till you have the perfect RV,
don't wait till the timing is just perfect
because the stars are aligned.
It just doesn't happen that way, you'll never do it.
Don't worry about your age
because when you get to a certain age,
what should you do?
Say, "Oh, I decide, I just make the decision right now."
Or let somebody else make the decision
that your life is over, that you have to do this
and do that a certain way.
Well, don't you think you're a little too old
to be doing this?
Shouldn't you get off and find a nice assisted living,
or a little apartment somewhere?
That would be like putting me in prison, you know.
And then just wait to die, that's all you're doing,
sitting in a chair, and with me,
it would be sitting at the computer, waiting to die.
And I am never going to do that.
I'd rather die in my RV.
And here's another thing,
"Oh, but you can't die in an RV.
Oh, you might die on the road."
What difference does it make where you die?
It's how you live.
Well, you're not on vacation
and you're not making speed runs,
unless it's an emergency, of course, that happens.
I had to kind of do that
when my sister passed away a few months ago,
and make a quick trip up to North Carolina from Florida.
And that was a little more driving that I like to do,
than I like to do.
And it really took a toll on me
because I was exhausted for days afterwards.
And then, finally, you know, got my strength back
but it had to be done.
Other than that, normally,
you wanna drive maybe three to four hours tops
and you wanna stop in the mid-afternoon,
and be thinking about where you're gonna spend the night,
have it all planned, with some flexibility.
And if there's going to be a Walmart,
or a Cracker Barrel, or something like that,
put your GPS onto that so that that's where it takes you.
That's hard to say
because there's so many things you absolutely need
but I would say the backup camera, which I was, oh, and
(chuckles softly) this rig had the backup camera
where it shows up on the screen,
the touch screen down here, the radio screen,
which was like down here and you are here.
It was absolutely unusable.
And if the light hit it, it blanked it out anyway.
And then, my camera just died.
So I said, "Okay, I'm gonna fix this problem."
So I got a brand new camera with a mount screen
that's up on the dash,
I don't even have to move my head,
just flick my eyes like that.
And it has a hood around it, two inches, three inches wide
so that it protects it from the sunlight
and it's full color.
And then, that in conjunction with my two side view cameras
which show up on the screen too, is perfect, it's perfect.
I can see the back edge of my cargo carrier, just the edge,
so I know where my back is.
- Yep, yep. - When I'm backing up.
And then the friends you make
in the campgrounds or anywhere,
even at a show here, it is just amazing.
Your friends are like family after a while
it's just a wonderful lifestyle,
and I keep myself busy.
I started up my YouTube channel,
so I'm selling on YouTube again.
And yes, you can do that from an RV,
as long as you're not selling,
like big generators or something.
And I also dabble a little bit
in some investments, and Robinhood.
And I do all kinds of things.
You're never bored.
It's called Trekin Lady, T-R-E-K-I-N,
because my current rig is a Monaco TREK, T-R-E-K.
- Make sure you head over to Doris' YouTube channel
and tell her hello.
She is such an inspiration.
I can only hope at 90, I am as spry, energetic,
and I am moving about the country just like she is.
♪ The best is yet to come ♪