Listen to George and Lisa as they talk with Jenell Jones about her solo RV adventures. Jenell has been solo RVing all around the United States, Canada and Mexico. Jenell shares her experiences, her ups and downs as well as giving us some very useful advice and tips on how to make it on the road on your own.
Listen to George and Lisa as they talk with Jenell Jones about her solo RV adventures. Jenell has been solo RVing all around the United States, Canada and Mexico. Jenell shares her experiences, her ups and downs as well as giving us some very useful advice and tips on how to make it on the road on your own.
Lisa RichartHernandez 0:00
Hi, welcome to our view. We've got a great show for you today. We've got Janelle Jones. She is a seasoned solo RV traveler, and she's going to tell us all about the joys and challenges of solo RV travel. So stay tuned.
Outro 0:16
Welcome to RView with your hosts George and Lisa Hernandez each week listen as George and Lisa talk about their RV and travel adventures all around the world. George and Lisa travel in their 40 foot Class A Tiffin motorcoach to tow their Jeep Wrangler, always looking for fun and adventure.
Lisa RichartHernandez 0:46
Hi, welcome back to our review. I'm Lisa RichartHernandez. And I'm George Hernandez and we have Janelle Jones with us today. She's a seasoned solo RV traveler, and she's taken to the open road with her 36 foot RV. And so we are going to listen to the solo female traveler and all of her tips and advice today and hear what she's got going on. So welcome Janelle.
Jenell Jones 1:11
Well, thank you guys. Thank you for having me, Georgia. Lisa. I appreciate being on here today. And getting to talk about my favorite subject, which is driving all over the country without much of a plan.
Lisa RichartHernandez 1:24
That sounds good to me. I think that's a lot of people's dream.
Jenell Jones 1:28
I really do that and people don't believe it. I mean, I don't do it all the time. But I really do the day I bought my RV you know how they tell you at the dealership to buy and go park close by or stay in the parking lot or or camping your parking lot or your driveway? Not me. I bought that RV took a left headed to California. It did I don't know week and a half trip and had no idea what I was doing. And that began this adventure. That's
George 1:55
awesome. Wow.
Lisa RichartHernandez 1:56
So did you sell your like did you have a home? Did you sell your home and go full time RV just right off the rip or what's your Do you still have a sticks and bricks?
Jenell Jones 2:06
Know when I retired I bought an RV about a year after I retired. I call it my starter or I wreck that thing. I hit a McDonald's I wiped everything off the roof with a branch. And I mean everything. I had a hurricane and that I mean just a trampoline hit the side of it. Yeah, so that was my starter RV. And I bought that. And then he started getting my feet wet a little bit. And you know, and I had my house in and I realized I was only going home it 24 months, I went home four times. And I was only going home to check on my home. So I was like, why don't I get rid of this house and all these other bills and buy another RV because that's what I needed a bigger RV than the 24 foot I was trying to drive around. So I bought this class a 36 foot one. And then I started completely full time on the road and have been that was in 2020 You know, COVID days? Oh yeah, I've been on the road ever since.
George 3:06
That's amazing. Let me ask you a question. How quickly did you realize, Wow, I don't need any of that stuff that I have in my house. All I need is this 400 square feet. I mean, you know
Jenell Jones 3:18
what, George, when I lived in that, I can't remember if it was 21 or 24 C Class C and it was had no slides. So I mean, it was TD when I tried to put my clothes in there because I did what every girl does at the beginning. I like matched outfits. And this goes with this and this goes with this. So I had the you know 15 outfits with adorable shoes and a matching handbag just so ridiculous now looking back, but and I put that in that little two foot wide closet and the rod kept falling. And I was like, you know this feet piece of junk that never occurred to me that the 60 pounds of clothes that hanging. But once I got down to what did I really wear every day and I started getting rid of clothes and get rid of clothes. I even wrote a article on the anxiety of getting rid of my clothes and how one bathing suit helped me with my life and my anxiety. I had probably six shirts, five or six shorts, 10 dresses and one bathing suit now. And I'll say I wear three of the 10 dresses. But you know I keep a block when just in case you never know. You never know. I don't I have so little now and I love it. I love it.
Lisa RichartHernandez 4:30
It's so funny because I think that when I hit that realization was in 2020 and we have a 6000 square foot house in Charleston, South Carolina. So we've got so much stuff. And I said you know you build your whole life to get all these things. And then once you realize that you don't need them. I'm going to spend the rest of my life getting rid of things. And I don't buy anything anymore now but once we did our we did our 2020 we did a cross country trip in the RV. And so we had packed for you know 30 degree Cold weather and 100 degree hot weather. And I left the house and my whole entire closet was still full with clothes. And I didn't even use half of the stuff that I had packed in the RV. And I said, Why do I have all these things? And so I've been doing the same thing going through the process of like, I really don't need any of this 100 dresses that I have. I never wear these things anymore. But it is hard to give away right at the beginning. I think it
Jenell Jones 5:27
really is. I've been retired like four or five years by the time I got in this a. And you know, I packed the tan suit that you need, unlike a couple of shells for underneath it, and a couple of high heels to change the look. And that was my way of paring down. I carried that tan business suit for I don't know two years and realized why do I have this? There's not much call an RV park for a tan suit with you know a pinstripe it was an I got rid of it. And I had needed sense. And I even got rid of the high heels that went with it. And it was I looked back at those so dumb. Nobody actually,
George 6:03
I think everybody does that. We did the same thing. When we did our cross country trip when we got back. I took a lot of stuff out of the RV and put it in the garage because we weren't going to do a big trip. And I said that Lisa, do you realize we took this with us and we never used it. We just hauled this thing across the country? For no reason whatsoever. Yeah, so we're getting ready to hit the road. And I said to Lisa, alright, the only things we're taking with us are things that we for sure are going to use. If I find something in this RV that we haven't used, it's going straight to the dumpster when we get back.
Lisa RichartHernandez 6:40
The only thing I have to laugh because we're so Mobile, Alabama is like the birthplace of Mardi Gras. And that's where we're saying right now we're working with this resort development. And Mardi Gras is a huge thing here. And they have all these balls. And we got invited to these gate like, you know, like where you need a gown and a tuxedo and I was like, Well, I can honestly say the only thing we have not packed at our RV, gown and a tuxedo. I never would have million years would have thought we would have needed that. So I've got plenty at home in Charleston, but none
Jenell Jones 7:13
out of make fun of you. Yeah, I've heard you take it out. It totally made fun of you on your back,
Lisa RichartHernandez 7:18
I would have made fun of me too. And so I had to laugh. Like, I can't believe that I actually needed that. And I didn't back it was like, just as like one another, you know, woman traveler, like thinking to myself, I can't really imagine going out on the road without a companion. You know, like just on my own? No, I I've always thought of that. Because, you know, we own in these different RV resorts and someone will lose their spouse and we wonder, Oh, is she is she gonna stay in the RV lifestyle or not? And, and then I see some other like super independent like women just like yeah, I'm I'm on the road. And I'm just like, I admire that so much. So how, like, did you have any anxiety about doing that? Or where you're just like, I'm doing? Let me just go? And I'm on my own? You
Jenell Jones 8:09
know? Yes. It would be. It would be naive of me to say I didn't have anxiety. I wasn't afraid. But I definitely had anxiety because of the unknown, right? Oh, well, I'm one of those people I embrace the unknown. I look forward to what's next. Next and hopefully didn't kill me. But I look forward to what is next what's coming up what's going to be interesting. Sometimes it's a blown out front tire on a highway and then sometimes it's a bike ride through the Grand Canyon for 13 miles. So I try to have as in my passenger seat if you will. I try to have the real open mind and a sense of adventure of what's going to happen today.
Lisa RichartHernandez 8:52
Yeah, I think I think mindset I think is the big big Oh to that for sure. Like well, like George was George had to leave for a couple weeks and I've been here in the RV and not moving or anything but working from the coach and it's like I want to go out but you know, what am I going to do? Then I would have you know like I have to go find a friend I don't like to sit at a restaurant by myself and stuff like that. So I guess I guess this is like a learning girl right? Like in a sense. Yeah, yeah,
Jenell Jones 9:22
it is. And I had these questions that I asked people because I get you know from my RV club that I have I get people call me all the time and you know just kind of want to talk through their anxiety and I so one of that's funny you mentioned that because I say can you go sit in a restaurant by yourself and eat? Not a fast food? I'm talking about a restaurant maybe you sit at the bar but you know at a restaurant can you sit there by yourself? Because if not don't project what you're gonna do no project. Tell right now. Do you go and do that? I'm not saying I go all the time, but I will go in a nice restaurant. I'm not going to let not having somebody go with me. This helped me miss out on going to another fabulous restaurants in New Orleans in the French Quarter. I'm going to let you go in there and eat and nothing happens. Nobody cares that you're sitting there by yourself and you have a great meal. You
Lisa RichartHernandez 10:12
know, it's so funny, because that was one of my anxieties. and on Wednesdays, we go down to Dauphin Island, we play darts. And so we've got like a few friends that we've met from there. Well, we've been down here for about six months. I said, you know, I gotta get out of this RV, and he's like, just go down to the, to just go down to the pub, you'll know, you'll know somebody and I'm like, I don't know. So he literally like forced me to go to it, I sat at the bar, and the bartender, I knew the bartender, and she was kind of got me a drink, or whatever. I sat there for about 30 minutes. And I was like, I think I'm gonna leave. And then a purse, another familiar face walked in. Well, by the end of the night, long story short, I had four brand new girlfriends that we've been in touch ever since then, you know, we're like, my new best friends. So it was, you know, I think it was just getting over that initial fear. And I'm a very outgoing person, I'm a salesperson, you know. So I'm used to that. And I'm used to doing those kinds of things. But I guess when you like, I've guess I've been with, you know, traveled with my husband for so long that like, all of a sudden, being alone was just so good. Just gave me so much anxiety, which was just very odd. And I thought to myself, I don't know if I could just do this on the road in different places all the time, where you don't know, people and are constantly meeting new friends and having to overcome those fears over and over again. But
George 11:28
that's probably part of the adventure is getting out there and meeting all these people and doing it on your own. I mean, you got to, I guess you got to put yourself out there to experience it. Otherwise, you just sit in your RV and do nothing all day long.
Jenell Jones 11:43
At most will sit in your house, you know you have a house and walk your dog up the neighborhoods. And that's it. And that's all you get out. You know, I don't want to be flippant about it. I mean, it's certainly something to drive a 60 foot. Well, you know, with my car, I'm 60 feet going down the road. It's a war skill, for sure. But it's still just driving. I mean, it's got a gas pedal and a brake steering wheel. It's just driving and you took out a few curves the first year, you know, Fernan. But after that, it's just driving. But it's just that that mindset, just think least if you went to that same bar every week on Wednesday, after a while, you'd be like, Oh, go on, I'm running down there, you wouldn't, it wouldn't be anxiety for you. Because it was the fear of the unknown is over, nothing happens. You meet new people, maybe because you're not sitting there just talking to one person the whole time. It opens you up, it exposes you. And that's the part I like, and you have to have that to have this solo RV lifestyle where it's one of almost constant travel.
Lisa RichartHernandez 12:44
Yeah, yeah, I'm in so many of these, like little RV lifestyle groups and stuff like that on Facebook. And I see so many times people both are thinking about going full time, you know, then all these people will be like, Well, you shouldn't do it by yourself, especially if you're a woman because you know, things break. If you don't know how to fix it, you shouldn't do it, you know? And I'm like, Okay, so did you Would you consider yourself handy? Like how do you handle things that break down and things that break and I know I rely on somebody to a credit card and someone to come fix it for me if Georgia isn't? But like, how do you handle that? Are you like really, Andy? Like, what would you consider yourself, I
Jenell Jones 13:26
would consider myself not wanting to spend money. When I first got this RV, I was intimidated, of course, you know, by the size of it and messes something up. So something broke, I would drive five hours to a dealership that could fix it because it was under warranty. And then a shade fell. I mean just fell. I was sitting there it just literally I looked over and it was laying on the ground. Like with the Hill sort of driving. I'm like I'm gonna figure that out. So I put that shade up. That's the first thing I did. It was two screws. And then since then fast forward four years later, I can change the oil in this RV. I can change my generator or a change on a water pump. Right now waiting for you guys in our talk today. I was changing out my ring doorbell because something's wrong with it. I'm not handy, but I've learned that I can at least look at it. I can take it apart and see and you know, have I taken stuff apart and then had to drive with it hanging out duct tape to the dealership? Yeah. But you know what, nine times out of 10. Eight times out of 10 I've been able to fix it myself. I'm not ever paying $300 for another oil change. I can tell you that right now. It's
George 14:32
funny how many things are actually pretty simple to do. If you like you said if you take the time to look at it and say oh, it's just these two screws. But there's so many people that are like, Oh my god, I gotta go to the other. I got to drive to Alabama and see what's going on. And I don't know why this is leaking. Well, it's right there. The pipe is leaking tighten the nut. We just had that this morning, Lisa like we got water. I'm like okay, let me take a look. Get on everything. And, you know, somebody just said to us recently, because we were talking about things rattle and things move and things break because you're moving. And he said, you know, you got to realize an RV is a house. But it's a house that's going through an earthquake every single time you drive. So yes, things are gonna come apart, things are gonna break, you've got to be able to fix some of the small things. Or also it will cost you an arm and a leg. Because you know, you got to get to it, you got to find a candidate because they can't get to it right away, then they charge you to repair it. So it can get very expensive if you don't at least take the time to see if you can do it. Take
Jenell Jones 15:43
a second. You know, somebody told me I like your earthquake thing. And somebody told me that stop being mad that things break because when I when I first bought this brand new RV, I was just the side myself. Anytime something break, I paid a fortune for it. It's brand new. Once I stopped it realized something something is going to break. Don't stop with a shouldn't No, it's going to just stop readjust my attitude. And that helped tremendously. And I find that, you know, please go and knock on wood but big things. It's the smaller things. Okay, I had a tire blowout. That was pretty big, you know, but I was going 30 miles an hour's on a windy, windy road or block traffic for two hours. The cops kept telling me you need to move on like, Yeah, I know, dude, I'm all open, where do you want me to go? But once you kind of embrace the fact that things are gonna break it, it. It's a great mind shift. And it's different. And it takes that anxiety away, I think. Yeah, absolutely.
George 16:45
I totally agree.
Lisa RichartHernandez 16:46
So what inspired you to go on this RV lifestyle? Like what? What made you say, You know what, I'm just gonna go travel the country in my RV. Like what was when
Jenell Jones 16:57
I retired, I sold my house and I was living in I was living in South Florida. And I was living on the beach. I rented at Airbnb for like the last six months because I didn't know how fast my house would sell. So in my household and I retired and I moved out of that Airbnb, I packed, I put all my stuff in storage. I packed one big suitcase for cold weather, and one big suitcase for hot weather. And I took 20 grand and I hit the road. I hiked the Amalfi Coast in Italy, I hung out in the Champagne region of France for two weeks. I went to London for two weeks, I could do the Lewis and Clark Trail. And I don't remember other stuff. Oh, I went on a cruise to Alaska. So I did all this stuff and had no home. No, nothing. I had just that storage room and those two big suitcases. And I realized I loved traveling a lot, which, you know, I like everybody, I went to Europe and here and there. The United States on vacation, you know, like we all do. And then I realized I love traveling, but I'm sick of these suitcases. I want to RV. I want to have my house with me. And when I got back, that's why I bought the little starter RV.
Lisa RichartHernandez 18:08
Wow. So you never had like, oh, I grew up in an RV. You know, like, wow,
Jenell Jones 18:14
I never even been an RV never vacation never drove one. Oh
Lisa RichartHernandez 18:18
my gosh, no, nothing. Wow. That's a big leap of faith. Yeah,
George 18:24
I know. It's awesome with that though, you did the Europe thing like everybody wants to do and we love them off the coast. Oh my God, that's one of our Yes, places in the world. But for me, for instance, this is such a big country. And there's so many things to see here in our own country that we take for granted. And now that we have the RV lease, and I when we did our first cross country trip, we kind of did it fast for 45 days, 45 days, but now we know all the places that we love, and we will want to go back to and it has inspired us to look at different places and and just think outside the box. You know, we we have our house with us. We don't have to worry about anything else. We just go pick a spot and enjoy what this country country has to offer. Yeah,
Lisa RichartHernandez 19:11
I think COVID brought out a lot of that because we couldn't do international travel anymore. And all of a sudden it was like okay, well, there's nothing else going on. Like let's just hit the road. And I started doing some research and I have to be honest, like I was absolutely mind blown. How much beauty there is in our own country that I never even imagined. We take for granted like the redwood forests was just like, incredible. Like you can't even describe the redwood forest other people and like unless you've been there, you know, like you don't understand how big these trees are. You know?
Jenell Jones 19:48
That is so true. You know, then I've been on an airplane one time since I got my RV. Once I got that starter RV and that was you know, fly to mind go waters house because I was in Utah decide to fly south Florida. Otherwise, there's so much beauty here. Why would I ever go back to Europe again? I don't ever see myself. Yeah. Yeah, there's so much beauty in this country. I haven't been back to Europe out of the United States except when I went to the Canadian Maritimes last summer. But otherwise I haven't been out of the states yet. Since since I got this already. There's no reason to. Have you seen Michigan. It is every bit as beautiful as the Amalfi Coast different but every bit is beautiful. And you could just drive there.
Lisa RichartHernandez 20:33
Yeah, we actually did a trip to Well, I grew up in Michigan. So like my perspective of Michigan is like, just cold and rainy and cold. But we went in August, so that was the best time of year to go to Michigan and I took George up to Mackinac Island. He had never seen that before. We went to the Upper Peninsula and we went to picture draw, and that was beautiful. We did kayaks all the way out to the to the pictured rocks. And that was a long, long kayak day different when you do kayaking on a lake as opposed to a flowing river for a week. Yeah,
Jenell Jones 21:13
I just did the Bay of Fundy in a cat and a kayak last summer and Canadian Maritimes. You don't need the you hear about the day of fundies. Oh, my God, that's the hardest thing I've done since I retired. I mean, it was a workout. I was exhausted after that. Because we were in waves and it was considered a calm day.
Lisa RichartHernandez 21:30
Yeah, yeah, we were to we were watching the tourist boat go by with a big you know, motor boat. And I was like, Yeah, that could that could be that could be should be. Yes, but it was beautiful. Right up close. But I probably would have been just as happy with the tourists version of it in the boat.
Jenell Jones 21:48
Yeah, but now you've done it. And you can you know, it's great memory. And that's how I tried to look at stuff as like that day, a day of fun the eight hours of kayaking, when you know I do once a month for 30 Min, maybe twice a month for 30 minutes an hour here and there. So it but I thought this is gonna be such a great memory. And I don't need to do it again. But it's gonna be such a great memory. Yeah,
Lisa RichartHernandez 22:09
there's I think we've we've had a lot of experiences like that, that for sure. We we found on our cross country trip, places that we couldn't wait to go back to and then places that I was glad I went. But like, for example, Yellowstone National Park, that was like the most like it was cool to see the geysers and everything. But like I didn't like waiting in lines. In nature. It was the nature and we're in line. It doesn't make sense to
George 22:35
me. It was the Disney of National Park. Yeah.
Jenell Jones 22:40
Drew beautiful, but it's horrible. Really. I mean, I hate to say that out loud with our national parks. But the crops is just next level. Yeah,
Lisa RichartHernandez 22:49
yeah. Yeah. And to me, that's not like what getting out in nature is all about like, when we when we went to the redwood forest, we did a kayak trip down the Smith River, and the guy who was just Georgia Niantic guide. And I mean, the water was crystal clear. And of course it was flowing water. So it was much easier. It was more like you could stop paddling, he kept on moving. We were there for the ride, basically, then, we we packed a lunch and we got out and we walked into this Big Grove have of these redwood trees and it was just like, felt like I was on another planet like I was waiting for like the Star Wars Ewoks to like come flying through the trees or something like we were just it was incredible. And those are the memories that we really, really love. And I said, Now I know why people like to go hiking. I can never figure that out before. I'm like, why would you purposely walk up a hill? Well, now it's because it's so beautiful, you know, and so I could really understand that so much better. We loved that. And Custer
George 23:48
State Park. That was incredible. Oh, yeah, we
Lisa RichartHernandez 23:50
did you have you done Custer State Park with wild wildlife loop with all the what are they called bison? Have you seen that? But
Jenell Jones 23:59
I have not. I've seen bison but I've not done that. And I have not done the redwoods.
Lisa RichartHernandez 24:04
Oh my god like oh, you've got Oh, yes, something. Yeah.
Jenell Jones 24:10
It is. It's on the for Washington, Oregon. I'll be there in June, July, no August end of August. So I'll be in Oregon. And then I'm coming down with my RV Club. We're driving down the California coast and redwood is definitely first on the stop. Oh,
Lisa RichartHernandez 24:26
and you know, the other thing that I never realized was so beautiful. You know, growing up on the East Coast, spending so much time over here like I never I almost forget that Oregon wasn't even a state. And would we we went up to Seattle we did whale watching there. And then we drove down the coast of Oregon and it was some of the most beautiful landscape that I've ever seen. We did a harvest host we stayed at this really cool winery. We were the only people just like our RV right in the middle of like all these vineyards at Cripps, Chris James and So that was our that harvest house was our most expensive stay we've ever
George 25:03
had mostly free stay. Yeah, yeah. Yes,
Lisa RichartHernandez 25:07
we ended up joining the wine club. So every you know, like once every three months, we get a big case of wine. And I'm like, well, there we go again. But it reminds it reminds us of the great memories that we had at that of that night that we spent at the harvest house. It was really fun. So I like
Jenell Jones 25:21
Harvest hosts, I stay there when I'm traveling by myself. And I free harvest. Oh, stop one time cost me What $400? Is that a farm? And I bought all this meat? Yeah.
George 25:31
Been there done that.
Lisa RichartHernandez 25:35
That's where they get your nuts? I guess. Yeah, they're hoping for. So you said you said traveling with your RV club. Tell us a little bit more about that. When all that entails.
Jenell Jones 25:44
Yes. So when I started this life, you know, in the starter RV, I joined everything like everybody does, you know, every club, every group, every good, Sam, everything I could join. Well, one of the things I joined was the wandering individual network called winds for short, and it's RV club for at the time, it said single people I'm like, Well, I'm single, and I'm an RVer. So I went and joined them and traveled with them and really loved it just really, from 2019 on when I bought this RV, you know, September 2019, I started I traveled with them and have been traveling with them ever since, you know, on and off. It is a 36 year old RV club and it's a membership paid membership $120 a year. And for that you get all these trips that you know we make up and with itinerary of exactly where to go, when to be there. And from wherever you are in the country, you just come join the club meet up with the club. And the other thing that I liked about this particular group was it's other our viewers that are like me, they are solo travelers, and they are out living their lives and active and like the kayaking and the hiking and seeing the the side the local sights and scenery, whether it be the small town in Montana, or you know, Yellowstone Park waiting in line. It's a great thing. It's a great tool in a solo RV person's life to have. Yeah,
Lisa RichartHernandez 27:18
that that sounds great. Like, it's funny, because, you know, George and I always say one of the things we love about the RV lifestyle is we meet other couples that are all very like minded, they're always really nice. And nobody would choose to spend their time together and 400 square feet, if they didn't really like each other. And so we have some of the best friends that are also like our viewers that travel around the country that we just we love because they had that same like minded lifestyle. So I love that there isn't like I didn't, you know, obviously, we're married. So I didn't know that there was like a whole solo traveler group too. So I'm so excited to be able to share with our listeners that information and hopefully inspire somebody to, you know, hit the road of them and not be afraid, you know,
Jenell Jones 28:07
that's so true. And you know, Lisa, I appreciate you asking me about it. Because, you know, yeah, it's a small business, but I'll tell you, it feels such a void. And there's such a niche there that people don't realize, you know, you you guys being a couple where you just you know go about your life. Well for those of us that travel on our own, it may be two weeks before I see somebody that I have a meaningful conversation with outside of you know, if I'm at a campground and I like to boondock a lot and you know, stay in nature, like we were talking about earlier. So I'm gonna it may be two weeks before I actually really see somebody and hang out with them. So as a new rver it's invaluable to have a place where you can go that number one, the other people don't think you're crazy for striking out on your own and RV driving 60 feet going across the country. And And for somebody that's you pick up so many tricks and tips when I bought this RV, I couldn't figure out how to turn the hot water on. So I'm like driving cross country in this big fancy RV boiling water in milk jugs and pouring hot and cold water on the white shower. True story. Like does anybody know how to turn this hot water on so they walked in what click? There it is right there. So
George 29:21
here's another thing I always tell everybody, for if they're new and RVing if you ever want to meet anybody at a campground anywhere and you have your RV, the only thing you need to do is open one of your cargo bays and stand there like something that's wrong. And 20 people come over and go okay, what are we fixing?
Jenell Jones 29:42
Yeah, what's what are you looking at? What are you doing? Oh, that is so true. That is so
George 29:47
true. And the next thing you know you got, you know, then your cocktails and you're hanging out and you forgot what you were fixing. So funny
Jenell Jones 29:56
they screw and then when you're solo Oh, just go on right there on what George was talking about when you're solo, sometimes they'll invite you to stay and have cocktails or come over for dinner. And sometimes they don't. And so, you know, we've all been that person that sitting at the table for eight at the wedding or the event or whatever. And they've got that, you know, got that one chair that the, you know, nobody's sitting at, and it's just so obvious. Well, when you are in this RV club, it's not obvious. It's obvious when you're a couple. It's like, oh, well, they're together. Getting
George 30:37
it probably belonging to a club like that, like there's a club for everything, but belong to a club like that. It probably alleviates the 900 questions that you typically get from everybody else. Because they're so low, they're traveling by themselves. They they know exactly what you're doing, why you're doing it. And if you you know, if you meet a couple, it's like, why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? Are you scared? And you're
Lisa RichartHernandez 31:05
being a, you know, a woman,
George 31:07
which is sad to say in itself? Yeah,
Lisa RichartHernandez 31:09
I know. It's sad to say, but I'm a woman. And like, you know, like, one of my agents that work for me, Tracy, she's the only one that drives her motor coach, she drives her 45 foot Class A toes their thing, and her husband just sits in the passenger seat. And she says she pulls in, you know, while people are all looking like, whoa, what's this lady doing driving this big, giant bus? You know, and it's too bad that, I guess that look
George 31:34
like? Why are you letting her? drive better than me?
Jenell Jones 31:40
Why not? You know why?
Lisa RichartHernandez 31:42
I know. I know.
Jenell Jones 31:44
It's all. I'm gonna pause here. In case you want to edit this out. Sometimes, especially at gas stations, I'll have I'll be pumping gas and somebody pokes their head around us or you know, they'll make a joke about the gas. Oh, I'm glad I'm not filling that up. Or I'll get just as often. Oh, is that yours? Are you driving that? I did? Are you by yourself? I mean, they're just like, and that's men and women. They're just like, shocked. Yeah, it's so if it's if it's, you know, that they seem friendly, and I try to judge their personality in 30 seconds. You know, if I think it's appropriate, I will. I will say something like, yes, when I ordered this RV, I got the non penis model. And it's very easy to drive.
George 32:28
Yes, I love it's hilarious.
Jenell Jones 32:32
Yeah, that stops them. They'll stop them and they're going, going back to the club, you know? So for nougat person, it makes great sense. Because you're right, George, they don't ask you try that by yourself. You know, you pull up and you see 75 year old women pulling 40 foot fifth wheels and hooking it up. I thought I was like all this big travel when I got there. And I learned quickly to sit in the corner and be quiet. These people have been doing this a long time and know much more about what they're doing. It's so for somebody who's been on the road a long time by themselves or RV on and off by themselves or you know, their spouse doesn't do it or is no longer with them. They realize the value of a friends road friends, I call them you know, RV friends. They realize the value of having a club like
George 33:20
this. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So tell us how our audience can join your club. How? What are they need to do?
Jenell Jones 33:30
Well, the easy way to do it is go online to the wandering individuals network. And any of them buttons, you push it, you go to the website and it's got join now want information this and that. Any of those sends you right to me, or you know, right to where you can can log in, and my phone number is on there. Somebody wants to call and yeah, I'll be glad to talk them through their anxiety and make them realize you're not crazy. And also what I want to do for you guys, Giorgio and Lisa, is I want to do $10 off for $220 a year no contract, and I want to give them $10 off if they use your website name and put it in those like little areas something who can we thank or do you have a coupon put that in there? And they'll get to know us off their first year membership.
George 34:18
Awesome. Well, there you go. listeners.
Lisa RichartHernandez 34:20
Yeah, so they can just put in our view. That's our V I ew. And and save $10 That's awesome. Yeah, thank you. We appreciate Yeah,
Jenell Jones 34:29
and there's a lot of information and frequently asked questions about you know, how does this work and why would I join and troubled people? I don't know because that's what I get a lot of what I don't know you will have it I go across the country with you. And it's a valid question. It's a good question. But all that's addressed on there. And then I guarantee you after you traveled with us a couple months you'll be sad when it ends and you'll want to keep going and travel some more with the group. Now
Lisa RichartHernandez 34:52
so so you just like no is it more like one off sort of like rallies where you say okay, like this month we're gonna meet in Texas er, this month we're gonna meet in Florida or is it like, we're just on the road content? Like, are you continually sort of traveling together? Or how, like, explain that a little bit more.
Jenell Jones 35:11
Alright, so that's what another thing that makes us different. Some of the other clubs, like you said, you meet for a rally in Austin, Texas, and we're here, you know, January 1 through 10. I know, our club is month long trips, and you come and go as you please, for instance, or fixes start waltz across Texas, what we named it, we're going to start March 18, I think it is and Big Bend National Park. We're going to go from there, do east, we're going to go to Harper, Texas for the for the solar eclipse. And then we're going to go up through Texas, Oklahoma, et cetera, et cetera, to Pella, Iowa to a Tulip Festival. From there, we're going to take a left, if you want to go west, you could take a left and go all across. We're calling it the Badlands for about seven weeks, we're gonna go across that western United States and see all that stuff, we're going to end up in Washington and Oregon for a couple months. And then we're going to drive down the west coast to California or we're going to end up in Arizona. And we can then we have a trip itinerary to do the Arizona winter for six months. Now, when you are in Pella Iowa going backwards, if you want to go to the east, you can go to Michigan for a month or two. And I'm trying to put together Canadian maritime circuit or we call our trip circuits. I don't know why the club's 36 years old, they call them circuits wouldn't change in the change in the terminology. But you can go the Canadian marathons and then we'll do an East Coast self to see the fall colors. And that'll put you in Florida. And you could do a Florida winter for six months if you want. So you could travel with us all the time, or come in and out however you want. That's
Lisa RichartHernandez 36:51
really cool. Now, do you like a lot of times with a rally they'll say okay, we've got you know, 50 spots that such you know, they take care of reserving the spots for you like and that kind of thing? Is this more of like, we're all going to meet up here kind of an area thing? Or do you actually like book The spots all together and travel as a group and sort of caravan like that?
Jenell Jones 37:12
No, no caravan, no nothing. We travel on our own. But together. So let's just say using that wall to cross Texas, let's say you've been to the Big Bend National Park 100 times you don't want to go again, don't go meet us at the next stop. And so once you join, you'll see online, we're going to be Big Ben, from March 18 to march 30. I don't know what the exact dates are. But let's just say that's it, here's the exact address, here's a phone number or website to click on and reserve your own reservations. Maybe you want to stay longer, maybe you want to get there earlier than the group, which I'm doing. I'm getting there about three days before everybody else I made my own reservation. With the places we pick, we try to make it so that well. First of all, we try to stay at campgrounds. Not that we do all the time. But that's our goal is not to stay in a campground. So we'd like to National Park State Parks if you can get in and then BLM land and in some other areas, little tricks and tips that we know. And we try to make sure there's plenty of parking. Or if there's only like 10 parking places, it'll be clearly noted and you'll need we tell you what to do you know to be one of those 10 Or what happens if you're number 11 or 12 and want to go to that stuff. We like said this Club's 36 years old, they know what they're doing. They got it going on. Yeah,
Lisa RichartHernandez 38:32
I love that. Because it's kind of like, it's kind of like saying, Oh, hey, my friends are there. If I feel like going on, we can meet up with them. Otherwise, you know, I'm just going to hang out here and do whatever I want. I love that. That's
Jenell Jones 38:44
that, well suppose Texas, I'm going to be with them. And then I'm going to drop off when they get to Fort Worth, and they're going to stay somewhere else. And I'm going my family's there. So I'm gonna go over see my mom and my five brothers and sisters. So you come in and out as you please, you can stay with us the entire time or drop out or, you know, the Canadian Maritimes we did last summer we were there like three months, we had probably 10 people drop in and drop out of that in addition to the 16 that went because they were already in the area. They were only two hours away they drove over. So that's what I really loved about the club. I don't want to pay an X amount and then because of the fact that I paid $7,000 for this trip, I gotta go and everything and making every day I don't want to join something like that.
Lisa RichartHernandez 39:31
Okay, yeah, that's because there's a lot of those like, I don't know that like we've been looking at the one to Alaska actually. Sunday when we have time for all that but like they do a caravan up to like Alaska. And there's like, you know, like, I don't know what, like what do they call the guy at the front and somebody? Oh, yeah. And they kind of have everything sort of planned out for you but they are expensive, like you said, so you've got to stay with the group. So I don't know I'm not sure if I if I would like it or not like the I'm not the stand in line kind of a person, I like to do my own thing. So I'm thinking like, Oh, I wonder if there's other clubs that are like that, that that aren't just for singles? I need to find something like that. Hey,
George 40:15
we mean, well make our own club.
Jenell Jones 40:17
Well, that's yeah, they're out there. There's tons of that, but there wasn't one for single people or so when I bought the club last March about a year ago. Now, first thing I did is got rid of that single thing. i It's so low club for solo trover. Because, frankly, some of our members, I don't know, 10 of them are married. If for whatever reason the spouse can't travel doesn't want to travel is sick and traveling. And so they, you know, are certainly welcome to go with this. And if the spouse joins here in there, that's okay. We just don't want it to become all very couples. And we're back to that table for eight. You know, I'm sitting there by myself. We just want to stay away from that. But we've got a we don't caravan because traveling on our own, but together, I don't want to get up at six or seven o'clock and get cracking and drive off. No, I'm at 10 ish. Yes. Right. But the people that want to get up at six or seven, go ahead, we'll see you at the next stop, you know exactly the address, so you know where to be, and I know where to be. And I'll see you when we get there. We caravan we're gonna go to Alaska this year in May, May 29. And then we're going to do Fall Haul February first, we're gonna carry on for that one. And then we do Mexico for a month here and there. And we caravan on that one, just because people like Mexico, one for the ones that are scared to go down there, like, want to go on a group. Exactly, exactly. Otherwise, you know, we do show up and you leave whenever you want. And you don't even need to check in and tell anybody. I
George 41:52
really, I don't like the idea of a caravan. It's like herding cats, you know, and you're slow as your slowest person and I just rather tell me where we're gonna meet. I'll meet you there. And I'd rather do that.
Lisa RichartHernandez 42:06
Yeah, that's really cool. It sounds like you've got a bunch of amazing trips planned. So we're gonna have to schedule another podcast. So you can give us like, tips on all of the places that you're going, because all of those things you just mentioned are on our bucket list. You have places that we've wanted to see. Yeah, there's
George 42:21
definitely a bunch of them. We're heading
Jenell Jones 42:25
on to festival in Iowa. I mean, I've always wanted to go to home and see the tulips. But somehow I don't remember I saw this Tulip Festival in Iowa. And they have like 200,000 tulips that they put out for this one week. Oh, my. Oh, we're totally going there.
Lisa RichartHernandez 42:39
Wow. That's incredible. Yeah. When when we were driving from like Custer State Park to Yellowstone, there were these fields of sunflowers. Somewhere near the corn palace. Oh, my God, as far as the eye could see. It was like yellow, like rolling hills of sunflowers for as far as you could see. And of course, there was a fence. And I was like, if we could just pull over. I could get in there and get a picture of myself and those flowers, but
Jenell Jones 43:10
it was like everybody else. Right? Exactly.
Lisa RichartHernandez 43:13
Probably why they have a fence there.
George 43:16
Nobody's ever done that before.
Lisa RichartHernandez 43:18
Yeah, no, no. Yeah. I've also been dying. Like on my bucket list is the Balloon Festival in New Mexico to the hot air balloon. Yeah. That's, you know,
Jenell Jones 43:29
there's one in Lake Havasu. That apparently is just as great and had like 50 balloons don't quote me on that. But like 50 As you know, blues this last month when they did it to so in our group went there. Oh,
Lisa RichartHernandez 43:43
wow. Oh, yeah. Yeah,
George 43:46
I like, I like it like,
Jenell Jones 43:49
it really is. And it's part of our western winter, we call it where it's about six months, you know, in the Arizona and Nevada Southern California area, so that you can, if you want to spend the winter there, you can have a nice, mild winter, we have all these places that we've gone to many, many times and know all the tricks and tips.
George 44:08
Wow. Yeah. So you can walk across the London Bridge.
Jenell Jones 44:11
Okay, there you go. Yeah, there you go.
Lisa RichartHernandez 44:14
Let me let me ask you a question. Because this is one I see. Oftentimes, you know, people think, okay, we're going to sell our house and we're going to live in our RV and we're going to travel and it's going to be like we're going to save money and it's going to be like the cheaper way to live. What would you what what's your you've now sold traveling living in the RV? In it sounds like you go all over the place. What would you have for advice or tell somebody if they wanted to budget their money? Like what? Yeah. What it like what is it? Yeah. Yeah.
Jenell Jones 44:52
Well, I am lucky that I went into this without debt. You know, once I got rid of my house, I didn't have any Debt, I traded off a really nice Ford truck, I had a big 70,000 truck, I traded that off and got rid of that $1,100 car payment, and bought a Nissan Versa, which was $15,000.18 out the door with tax title and whatever. Because I realized, number one, I can't tell that truck, it would be too heavy, the gas would be too much, and it would beat it up. So I bought a cheaper car, so that it would get you know, gets beat up on the RV. But so I was lucky to be able to get rid of that big payment I have and get down to this car that I own. And so I had no no debt walking in here. And I think that's super important. Otherwise, I think it's a very economical way to live. And even with my RV that has, you know, an 80 gallon gas tank at $3 or 329 a gallon, let's do some, you know, crushing math there for a second. But even with that, it's strategic and how I move like right now I've been sitting for a month it cost me $800. I'm in an RV park and here in Southern California, and it was $800. But you know what, that's a fixed cost. There's no gas. And there, there's nothing. The places that my group travels, we know places to stay there either free or extremely cost effective. Because we've been doing it so many years. We know places to go see it. Same with Florida. I can have you in Florida for six months, all during the winter. And I think twice they pay for camping and one time it's $18 you have to buy a fishing license. It's some weird loophole to be able to stay there. So if you do it right, this could be an economical way to live, certainly, while living this big fulfilling life that's way outside of the norm of having a stick and Brickhouse. Yeah,
Lisa RichartHernandez 46:53
that's good to know.
George 46:54
Because then you said you also stay at a lot of state parks and national parks, those are real economic also, their fees are minimal. And
Jenell Jones 47:05
beautiful. My gosh, rather stay there. As you did have a place in you know, in a campground, we know a place to stay. For instance, the club does that. It was me it was somebody years before me nine miles outside of the Grand Canyon in land that we know to go to, it's nine miles, that's closer than any campground that you're going to pay $80 a night for, except for the one in the park that you know, you can't ever get into, you know, because it's backed up. I think again, I keep pushing the club. But I mean, again, that's an advantage of joint whatever club you join, that's an advantage because they're going to know stuff like that,
Lisa RichartHernandez 47:41
well, that $125 of membership is worth its weight in gold just from knowing those things. I mean, exactly, you're gonna save that much money on your very first trip, because the only other options you have is to really just pay for campgrounds. And that's really where it really starts to add up for us. Now, like we're doing the same thing in Alabama, we're paying about $1,000 a month for our spot here. But when we when we drive out to Phoenix, I mean, we're talking, even if it's only 60 or $70 a night place, it starts to add up, you know, quick, and I'm like, Oh, cool. We just spent $4,000 on just, you know, campgrounds and not really great experiences, you know, where
Jenell Jones 48:25
anymore, you're packed in so much, you know, and somebody's dog is barking and the trash guy comes through. And I'm like, This is not what I signed up for at all, much rather be sitting in the woods or side is something and I mean, I guess we all would but I've have invested, you know, go back to the money. I've invested probably 10 grand and solar on my roof, so that I can sit out there and my big RV with my residential refrigerator, meaning it's electric, I can sit out as long as I've got even half it is Son, I don't need to be plugged in or hooked into anything. So that was an upfront cost that I slowly added to over the year. You know, the couple years, I dropped five grand and I had another 1000 other 1000. And so I'd say I'm about 10 grand now, but I mean, I can go sit in the woods and all run out of water before anything happens.
Lisa RichartHernandez 49:19
Wow. That's cool. Yeah, that is awesome. Yeah. Yeah, we're, that's we're definitely nowhere near that stage yet. We're a second diesel and paid for upscale RV resorts.
Jenell Jones 49:33
And you know what I mean, every once in a while I do as well. I mean, the one I'm in here is real nice. You know, I think it's $70 a night to stay here. Yeah. And you know, I did a deal and this is their last month of of this shoulder season, I think I don't know. But anyway, the price was significantly down from December in January. But I just worked out I was going to be in this part of the country and I'm going to I'm hanging out here until I start that Texas one logicals, Texas in March 18, but you know what? Yeah, we're gonna sit in that resort and just enjoy the big life going to the pool hot tub every day.
Lisa RichartHernandez 50:08
Yeah, that sounds great. We were actually we're heading out that way to in the next month we're gonna go to the family motorcoach Association show we have a booth there in Tucson, Arizona. So we're working our way out there. We're going to be up in Nashville the first week in March and then we're heading we're going to be in Austin, Texas for St. Patrick's Day weekend. And then I think we had to Tucson and then we're going to Moab Utah. Have you been to Moab Utah yet? Oh, I
Jenell Jones 50:35
I not my favorite. But I got to do site. I went in August my group. That's so hot. It was hot. Next Level. Brutal. I stayed two days. I'm like, I'm out. I'm done. I'm out of here. So I know I need to go back.
Lisa RichartHernandez 50:54
You gotta do better. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because this screwed up.
Jenell Jones 51:00
Yeah, yeah, we did. timing was off on that one. It
Lisa RichartHernandez 51:03
has for sure. And in that phase. Oh, yeah.
Jenell Jones 51:07
I had my generator running 24 hours and could not cool the RV off. Yeah. I mean, it was like, What am I doing? I don't suffer. I don't do hot. And I don't do cold. I'm leaving. That's
Lisa RichartHernandez 51:17
when you should be in Michigan. Okay, because the weather's beautiful in August. Yeah. Yeah,
Jenell Jones 51:25
I don't. We didn't. Since I've owned the club. We don't do that anymore. I can tell you that right now.
Lisa RichartHernandez 51:31
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we'll be there. April. So it'll be nice. It should be really nice weather.
Jenell Jones 51:37
It's a good life isn't it? It's a It's if you will embrace it. And it's just get start driving and go somewhere that my first year when I had that starter RV you guys, the first place I went, I literally took a paper map of the United States turned it around to three times with my eyes shut, open it back and put my finger on a spot and I'm like, that's where I'm gonna go no matter where it is. And my finger God's love it was on barber main, or was in May. And I chose Bar Harbor. So that is the first place that I ever drove in my RV. I was in South Florida and I drove to Bar Harbor, Maine. Wow.
Lisa RichartHernandez 52:15
Wow. That's we want to we want to plan the East Coast trip to we want to go up there and go to Nova Scotia and see that whole area. Yeah.
Jenell Jones 52:25
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Today and maritimes IS NEXT LEVEL beauty and whether I'll be there next summer, not this summer. 2025. I'm gonna take the group there. 2025.
Lisa RichartHernandez 52:36
Wow, that's awesome. Yoshi
Jenell Jones 52:39
joined the group?
Lisa RichartHernandez 52:42
Yeah, well, if nothing less, just so that we can get the travel itineraries to see where all the good places to go are. Right. The research.
Jenell Jones 52:52
You'll have to buy another RV. So you're traveling solo. Yeah, it's it's all good. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, it's all good.
Lisa RichartHernandez 53:00
Well, I have enjoyed this conversation so much. And I just love to hear from other like independent women that are not afraid to just take the wheel and just go for it and enjoy their life. And that's like, such a great story for me. So I really enjoyed meeting you. And we'll definitely have to follow your travels. And tell us one more time how our listeners can join your club and reach out to you if they have any questions. And what's the best way to contact you?
Jenell Jones 53:31
Yes, so we've you know, got my website, of course, wandering individuals network, we've got a really robust strong Facebook page, same name wondering individuals network, and then Instagram is wins RV club, I needed to shorten that wins RV club and make any of those they can send me a private message on and I'll answer them. But if they look around that website that you know, it's gotten a lot of questions answered for them then and don't forget to $10 off. It'll be good for, say 30 days from the air of this podcast. And they just need to put in the name of your, your podcast, and they'll get the $10 off. Awesome.
Lisa RichartHernandez 54:09
Well, we appreciate it. And it's been great talking to you. If you have questions or didn't write that down, you can also visit our website. We'll put a link to gentles site there were RV podcast.com r v uw podcast.com. And share and like us and share this post and share this podcast with somebody that you know that should hit the road that's just been hesitant to do it or whatever, as an inspiration.
George 54:37
Basically, being Cielos not an excuse. That's right.
Jenell Jones 54:41
That's right now why you would want to go
George 54:45
exactly meet people and enjoy this beautiful country. That's right. Go
Jenell Jones 54:49
live your life. Thank you, George and Lisa, appreciate y'all having me on allowed me to use your platform to talk about this club. I think as I said it has a niche for certain person Then who needs it? And I encourage him, look us, do a little research call me let's talk and start living a wonderful fulfilling life on the road.
Lisa RichartHernandez 55:12
So much. Have a good day. Bye bye
Outro 55:19
Thanks for listening to another episode of our view. Don't forget to drop us a line at our view podcast.com That's the letter R view podcast.com And like, subscribe and follow us so you don't miss out on our next adventure.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai