The Wayward Home Podcast

15: Solo Van Life with Amber Baldwin: What is it Like Living Alone on the Road?

November 21, 2022 Kristin Hanes Episode 15
The Wayward Home Podcast
15: Solo Van Life with Amber Baldwin: What is it Like Living Alone on the Road?
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Show Notes Transcript

Taking the leap to travel full-time in a campervan or an RV is tough - especially if you're doing it alone! Amber Baldwin made a huge change five years ago when she decided to give up her Seattle home to go RVing - she started in a Class C RV and ended up in a Hymer Activ Class B. Amber now runs a successful YouTube channel called Story Chasing.

She also has a Nomad Mentorship Bootcamp.  

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Full Show Notes:
https://www.thewaywardhome.com/episode15/

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Kristin: So just how scary is it living in a van or an RV by yourself? Will you be lonely? Will you feel safe ? In episode 15 of the Wayward Home Podcast, these are questions I ask Amber Baldwin of the YouTube channel Story Chasing Who's been living Nomadically on her own for five years. Let's go. Welcome to the Wayward Home Podcast, all about Van Life, boat Life, and Nomadic Living.

We'll bring you tips, interviews, and stories from the road and on the. Now here's your host, Kristin Haynes. Hey, I'm Kristin, founder of the wayward home.com, where I teach people how to live nomadically. I spend half the year in my DIY sprinter van traveling in the US and the other half of the year on my sailboat in Mexico in episode 15 of the Wayward Home Podcast.

I'm really excited to be talking to Amber Baldwin, a woman who's been a nomad for five. First in a class crv, but mostly in her camper van, a Heimer active class Brv. Amber is host of the YouTube channel story chasing where you can follow along on her latest adventures. So let's get onto Amber's story.

Now. Amber Baldwin was living in a house in Seattle where it seemed like she had it all her own place, a good corporate job. But when she went to the doctor and found some minor health issues, something inside her clicked. 

AMBER: I felt like I was dying this slow death in this corporate job, and I had no freedom whatsoever.

I almost felt like my life wasn't my own. And so I decided I just, I have to make a change. And because I wanted to always rv, I thought this would be the best change for me. And so that's what I did. I literally, like within six months of getting those blood test results, I put my house on the market.

Bought an rv actually, I, I did that in reverse order. I bought the RV first, then put my house on the market, uh, the next day, and sold my house three days later and had a 30 day close. So it went really fast. Before she knew it, Amber found herself living in a 26 foot long Winnebago spirit, a class C rv.

But I realized about six months after I was RVing that it was just too big for me and I really wanted to do. And I really wanted to get a van, and so I ended up getting a van because it was more nimble and I still really wanted that. I still had that thought in my head that for safety purposes, I wanted that, you know, engine attached to the home so I could jump in the driver's seat and go quickly.

Probably like looking back at it now. At least from my experience, it's not necessary. I've never actually been in a situation where I felt the need to jump in the driver's seat and go just like anything new and different. Amber did deal with feelings of fear, where to camp, how to boondock, how to dump tanks, and.

Everything she had to learn about RV as a solo woman on the road. You know, in my mind, the world was a big scary place. Um, at least that's what we hear sometimes on media, that it's a big scary place and there's bad people out there and you could be hurt, especially if you're by yourself and as a woman.

And so I had that in my head, but I found. Kristen that, first of all, I've, maybe, I've been fortunate, but I have a lot of nomad friends too, and I've just never heard any of them experience anything horrible out there where someone was going to attack them or hurt them even as solo women. But I, I just have never experienced that.

In fact, it was quite the opposite for me. Anytime I was in trouble, um, I've gotten stuck twice and had to be pulled out twice. If I needed anything on the road, like strangers were just there to help me and they were just so kind. So for me, I really felt like my faith in humanity was renewed and that what I thought about all the fears that were in my head prior to RVing were really unfounded.

She says she doesn't think solo. Being as a woman is much different than living alone in a city, in a house or an apartment. We were solo then and nobody really had too much concern for us there. But you. Be harmed in a city. They're thing bad things that happen all the time, whether you're RVing or not, and so it's really no different.

In fact, I feel much safer in rural lands and out in the middle of nowhere boondocking than I do in cities because there's just more people in the cities and more opportunity for someone who's looking for. To, to find you. But in a rural area, you're, you know, you're not really around people and most thieves or people who wanna hurt you aren't gonna be coming out to those places to find you.

It's too much work, to be honest for them. , so, I don't know. I just don't really have too many concerns about it. But besides all of that, I used my intuition in my gut about when I find places to stay. There have been some times where I went out to a place that I found to boondock and I was like, oh, I don't feel comfortable here.

Maybe it was because of the surrounding or people that I saw there. Um,  and I decided to change spots. So I always make sure when I go into an area that I'm gonna stay for the night that I have a couple of places to go to, just in case I need to switch gears a little bit. Since Amber runs a YouTube channel called Story Chasing is her primary source of income.

She often searches for boondocking spots based on phone signal, and I do that through apps. So Compendium is the big one for me. Compendium has a filter in there where you can. See if it has like at and t or Verizon, which are both of the hotspots that I have, and if the cell signal's good and that this is based on people who stayed, there's their reviews.

And so if they are saying that, yeah, the cell signals pretty good there, then I start looking them, you know, at other factors like, where's the location? Is it far away from the city or not far away from the city? Is it gonna be conducive for the van? Some places that you go to, you might need four wheel drive, which I don't have.

And so even though I'm in a van and I'm pretty nimble, this was a manufactured van. And so I have a lot of things kind of underneath the van that are low lines, so I have to be really careful with that. So no four wheel driving in my Van . So I look for that. And then just make sure it's a beautiful, quiet spot because at the end of the day, I mean, I wanna be able to go outside and put my camp chair in my table and go have breakfast outside, which is one of my favorite things to do.

And read a book and have my dog out there with me and relax and. Not here, like a bunch of people. Oh, and ATVs. ATVs are like the thing too. If it's a site that says there's a lot of ATVs around here, I usually don't go there either because they tend to be really loud and they also kick up a lot of dirt.

Totally fine that people wanna do that. I just don't really wanna be around it. Amber rarely stays in campgrounds, enjoying the peace and quiet of only nature around. I have a hammock too that I can get out if I, if there's some trees on the land, I can hang my hammock, you know, I can take my chair and my table outside my yoga mat and just really experience the peace and quiet around and do a lot of my living outdoors, which I really enjoy.

The van is kind of small, so the purpose, I think, at least for me, what I, what my philosophy on it is when you're ing, at least in a van, The purpose is not to necessarily live in the van, it's to live out of the van and be able to experience nature and, and be outside and explore more. So that's why I seek out those types of places so I can experience more beauty outside.

Well, Amber hasn't had any bad experiences while living in a van alone. She does have some safety devices with her. I do have a Garmin. Um, I keep that with me. It's the Garmin in reach. And so I keep that on me because I can, there's like a little button that you can program, um, if you're not familiar with it, to just hit a button and it alerts my friends and family who are on a list, a predetermined list, and it alerts them where my location is and then I'm okay.

And so every once in a while I, I'll. Connect with them by doing that. Plus you can take it hiking. So I do have that. I have, of course you have my cell phone. I'm usually in cell phone reach most of the time. But that's the other great thing about the Garmin is that you can actually alert, um, the police if you don't have cell service for some reason.

So other safety devices for me is, as far as physical items, is I have a knife, like a small knife that I can keep in a pocket. And by the way, like, I don't know whoever thought that only men could have pocket knives, but holy cow, they're the most, it's like the best thing in the world to carry around a pocket knife.

Like I use it all the time, . So I started carrying a pocket knife, and then I have a machete like knife that a friend gave me. So I keep that kind of like spread around, have like different devices in the rv. I've never had to use them, but they're there just in case. And then, uh, the best thing too, to carry with you, and this isn't just for an intruder, it's for wildlife too, is bear spray.

Bear spray shoots long ranges and. . Um, it's nice to keep that on you too, especially when you're hiking. So in case you do come across a wild animal, you can use the bear spray. And then, um, the other thing, which is not really a physical item. Is that I just try to really use my gut and intuition about places.

As I was saying before, I always try to find two places to stay when I come into an area, just in case one doesn't work out, and if I'm just not feeling comfortable or, you know, somebody came into the area that I'm, I'm just my, my gut isn't feeling good about it, I'll leave. And I've had to do that several times before.

Again, just using my gut, I feel like it's better to, to be safe and be inconvenienced by the move than it is to worry that something could happen. So that's a kind of a big one for me too. Amber said when she first started RVing, she was concerned she might be lonely on the road. She lived in a master planned community and had tons of friends and family in Seattle.

To be honest, like my social life is off the hook these days. . I mean, I have more community on the road than I ever had in a traditional sticks and bricks house. Um, I think it's because first of all, you know when you're traveling, you meet people all along the way, whether. They're RV or not. You meet people along the way.

Some of my really good friends now are people who actually live in homes. My friends from New York, mark and Grant, I met, I met them my very first year of rv. And we met because of our dogs. We were walking our dogs and we were, I was in a park. They were in a park and we ended up being really good friends and I've stayed in their home.

And, um, then you meet full-time RVers and. Start building this community on the road with RVers and I think with with RVers, there's this instant comradery almost because you have something in common instantly with rv. And I think we're all probably looking for similar things that freedom in life.

Exploration, quiet, peace, solitude. Uh, so we just instantly can make connections. So, um, one of the places that I went to besides just traveling and meeting people on the road, there's all kinds of groups that you can get involved with. So one of the first ones that I got involved with was the Escapers Group, which is, An RV kind of club community group and um, they have convergences and different types of events spread out around the United States.

And so that was the first thing that I did and I've been able to make a lot of friends through that community. And so those are a lot of times the people that I, I connect with on the road. And then, There's other types of, um, community. So I'm in a van. You can connect a lot with people who are in similar situations in like the Van Life community or even like, you know, when I had my Winnebago, there was the Winnebago community.

So there's all different types of groups to connect with. So you can be. As social as you want to be or as alone as you want to be, whether you're introvert, extrovert. So for me, being an introvert, that's the other thing is there's a healthy respect for that on the road because there's a lot of us who are introverts.

For me, being an introvert, I reach charge by being by myself. So sometimes I'll be with a group of people, but. You know, in a couple of weeks I need to like go out by myself and hang out for a couple of days or sometimes even a month, and just be by myself. Amber thinks she's found more camaraderie on the road, partly because there's been a fundamental shift in how people interact in housing developments.

Back in the old days, I'm doing air quotes when I say that. Back in the old days, uh, way before my time, they built porches on the front of homes. And now, like a lot of the homes are built with your garage in the front and you're really in your backyard when you wanna be outside. And so I feel like we've lost this community.

When you think about the traditional sticks and bricks lifestyle in a lot of ways about being in our community and being outside and connecting with others, because I swear it's that porch on the. When they took that away, everything started changing. But we have that almost full time in our RVs where we, we, because we live outside so much, we can build more community because we are outside and hanging out with other people.

So I hope that makes sense. One downside to RV that Amber struggles with is creating a routine in her life, especially when she's on the move a lot. In all honesty, I do much better when I can just sit for a while. And, and start building that routine again. But if I'm moving around a lot, like, you know, my ability to live in one place sometimes is dampened by weather.

It's dampen by errands or doctor's appointments that I have to go to. If I'm urban camping, I have to moves. A couple times a day, cuz usually I don't park all day wherever I'm sleeping at night. So it's harder to establish that routine in those particular situations. But generally what happens? So for instance, right now I'm urban camping in Scottsdale, Arizona, so I have to move.

Every day. And my routine for that typically is that as soon as I wake up, I move the van to a spot that I've already picked up for the day. And usually it's a spot that's in nature where I can hike, or a park or a dog park or something where I can walk my dog. But then, uh, once I get moved, I'll, you know, make coffee and breakfast and start working.

Um, or I'll be out exploring one or the other. When I'm in nature and I can just sit for a while for like a couple of weeks, typically out on rural lands, that's when I feel like I can really establish more of a routine. Again, it's still kind of the same situations of, you know, going. Eating breakfast, making coffee, eating breakfast and, and working or exploring, but seems a little bit more grounded, I would say in that situation because I'm not having to move every single day in her five years of full-time.

Nomadic living. Amber has seen a lot of changes in herself. Some of the changes were ones that I were.  I was seeking out, which was less stress, more freedom. What I didn't realize was how fast paced my life was prior to Aine, and I didn't think it was that fast paced, to be honest with you. But once I quit my job,  and I had started my own business.

I felt like it took me, probably people, believe it or not, it probably took me about two years to really feel like I had slowed down because I had this mindset of always doing something right. I always have to be doing something. I can't just go out and enjoy nature. I have to be multitasking. And that was a, uh, something that was unexpected for.

And so the benefits to me have been a, been to be able to slow down more, to reduce that stress a lot. And medically speaking, health wise, my health is so much better now. I've lost weight. I'm still losing weight, but I've lost, since I started Irvine, I've lost like 60 pounds. I still have a lot to lose. I was a really heavy girl, but a lot of that was stress induced.

I'm an emotional eater. I've had to learn how to manage that, and so this life has also helped me with that. Um, being and being more active, I feel calmer. Than I ever have, and I never realized. So not only am I an introvert, I'm also an empath. And I had just started learning about being in an empath, uh, probably a couple years before I started Irving.

Part of that, like, so they call empaths, you know, highly sensitive people and that can be in a variety of ways from your feelings and emotions to even your, your physical body environment related and. And I knew, like I always had this anxiety, sometimes around noise. Um, so I felt like there was always this probably underlying anxiety there that I didn't even recognize.

And still I, until I started RVing and then realized when I went into cities, how chaotic my brain felt and that anxiety would creep up in me. And then going out to rural lands and that anxiety would go away. And a lot of that was the, the empath in me because those external noises and factors really would, would wear on me.

Um, where my brain, where on my physical body and. So that was a huge realization for me and a huge benefit as I started Irving to understand more about being an empath and how to actually get rid of that anxiety. So now I know how to manage it a lot better. She says she feels more of a work life balance, living the van lifestyle.

When you're at a a job they give you sometimes if you're lucky, starting out two weeks of vacation a year, and as you climb that corporate ladder you get more and more vacation, but, When you think about where you would go on vacation, what did we usually seek? Nature. A lot of people are like, they wanna go to a tropical place or the mountains or it's always in nature.

I mean, not always, but a, a lot of times that's what people seek out. And so I love that we get to have that all the time. And while this isn't, people think this is a perpetual vacation. I mean, I do still work a lot, but it's my own business. Um, I get to explore a lot and experience nature. And be out in it all the time.

So at least when I'm done with work or taking breaks during the day from work, I get to be in nature. And so that's a huge thing. Are you thinking of living in an RV or in a van? Amber has some good advice. My advice to anybody who is thinking about rv, especially if you're a solo female, I'd really like to talk to them as I just really wanna empower you to.

You know, there's gonna be some fears related to this for sure. A lot of us have that. But to go ahead and keep moving forward towards your goal of RV because it's really not as bad as you think it is, are what you've made it out to be in your head. And sometimes the things that really scare us the most are the things that we need to push through and allow us to.

Feel the very things that we wanna feel, which is happiness and joy and fulfillment. So I always say this quote, Kristen, you've probably heard me say it a million times, is on the other side of your fears your greatest reward. And I absolutely live by that with everything. So, um, I'm a fear buster Now. Uh, I.

Meet that fear head on except for skydiving. I won't do that. , it's one of my fears, but I don't wanna, I don't wanna face that one yet. As you can probably tell by now. Amber has a great deal of experience as a nomad and has a lot of advice. That's why she started her Nomad Mentorship bootcamp. Where she helps walk you through every step of the process to becoming a nomad.

Uh, the Nomad Mentorship Boot Camp course that I built was really kind of came about because, um, this YouTube channel that I have called Story Chasing, it was about me travel vlogging and my experience with traveling and. What started to happen was I got a lot of questions from people about certain things that I'm doing, especially from a lot of solo women, and, um, how do you do certain things?

And so one of the things that I realized was that, as I was saying before about our fear of. Going out there and doing this on our own. There was a lot of other people who were out there, and so I built the No My Mentorship Bootcamp course to help them transition from this, you know, sticks and bricks lifestyle into a nomadic lifestyle that's very foreign to most people.

And so that's what the course is about. It's not necessarily teaching about rv, although there are a lot of RV aspects to it in there, but it is about how to create this action plan. It's a eight week module or eight modules, so you're gonna be creating this action plan every single week, and then by the time you're done with the eight modules, you'll have a complete action plan on what you need to do in order to move into this lifestyle.

That was something that I didn't have when I first started, and I felt like I could really be there for people to understand what they're facing and how to get there and get there a lot quicker than I did, but most importantly, to be supported. In this community. So we also have live video calls. I have a community on the course where people can go in and post comments, questions, concerns.

It's kind of like Facebook, but it's not Facebook. And then we have the live video calls every month, and so, Uh, as the core states, it's a mentorship program, so I can actually help guide you and address your specific concerns, uh, through this group setting on the live video calls and in the community, and help you get to your, your goal a lot quicker.

I'll put a link to Amber's Nomad Mentorship Bootcamp down in the show description and also a link to her YouTube channel story. Chas. I love Amber's YouTube channel because she's super honest about living the van life, the pros, the cons, and everything in between it. She really shares it all on there, so go give her a follow.

Well, I really hope you enjoyed this episode of the Wayward Home Podcast, where we talked about living in a van or an RV by yourself. A lot of people write me over at the Wayward home because they're worried about this. What's it going to be like? Am I gonna be lonely? How does an RV or a van work? But trust me, there is a good community of nomads out there who's totally willing to help you out and.

Always lend a helping hand or a listening ear, so you can also find this sense of community among nomads in the Wayward Home Facebook group. And I will leave a link in the show notes to that. So I hope to see you over there. Thanks so much for listening to episode 15 of the Wayward Home Podcast. I'll catch you next time.