RV LIFE Podcast

The Mother Road at 100, Roadside Kindness, and Women Reinventing RV Life - RV LIFE 156

RV LIFE Episode 156

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Travel inspiration, roadside kindness, entrepreneurial reinvention, and industry innovation all come together in this episode of the RV LIFE Podcast.

  • Explore why 2026 is the once-in-a-lifetime year to drive Route 66, as the legendary “Mother Road” celebrates its 100th anniversary with events and celebrations across the historic highway.
  • Meet a skoolie couple known as the “Angels of the Highway” who travel the country offering donation-based roadside assistance through their nonprofit.
  • Hear how one solo RVer reinvented her life at 62, learning to tow an Airstream, working remotely, and building new income streams through travel writing and photography.
  • Discover how mobile RV service and technical education are evolving, with programs helping more women build careers in the RV industry.

John talks with Alan Wininger about the upcoming Route 66 Centennial, the history behind America’s most famous highway, and how RVers can plan their own trip along the nearly 2,500-mile journey from Chicago to Santa Monica.

Then Jim and Rene share the remarkable story of Martian and Mouse, founders of Journey of a Spirit’s Mechanic, a nonprofit providing donation-based roadside assistance to stranded travelers while living full-time in their skoolie and spreading kindness across the country.

Rose and Glynn sit down with Deborah Dennis, a solo RVer who began RVing at 62 with no towing experience while working remotely as a UX designer, and who has since expanded into travel writing, photography, and other creative pursuits on the road.

Plus, Bob chats with Jessica Ryder, founder of Pull Through Sites Mobile RV Service and a board member of the RV Women’s Alliance, about the rapid growth of mobile RV repair, technical education programs for women, and the new “Chassis to Classy” project building a custom RV designed and assembled by women.

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Welcome & What’s Ahead

SPEAKER_08

You're in history. All you gotta do is pull over the side of the road.

SPEAKER_03

We have been dubbed the angels of the highway.

SPEAKER_02

I was more scared of not doing something I really wanted to do. The mobile service is growing and it's not going away anytime soon.

GLYNN

RV Life. RV Life.

ROSE

RV Life.

GLYNN

RV Life.

SPEAKER_01

RV Life.

ROSE

RV Life Podcast.

SPEAKER_01

Welcome back to the RV Life Podcast, where we bring you the travel inspiration, lifestyle stories, the entrepreneurial spirit, the RV industry updates that make life on the road a little smarter, simpler, and a lot more fun.

RENE

And oh boy, today's episode is packed. We've got a once-in-a-lifetime travel opportunity, a roadside kindness story that honestly restored my faith in humanity that day. We have a solo RV entrepreneur who proves it's never too late to reinvent yourself. And we've got an industry conversation that highlights how women are changing the technical side of RVing in a big way.

SPEAKER_01

You lost faith in humanity? Well, we won't go there. But we are going on quite a road trip with this one, folks. First, we'll get our kicks on Route 66. That's because 2026 marks the hundredth anniversary of the Mother Road. If you're not a Steinbeck fan, stay tuned to hear why it's called that, but I digress. John chats with Alan Winninger from Route66Centennial.us for complete details. If Route 66 or Route 66 is even remotely on your bucket list, this is the year to get going.

RENE

And then in our lifestyle segment, you're gonna hear a story that gives me goosebumps. We met Martian and Mouse, the founders of Journey of a Spirits Mechanic. This incredible couple is living the schoolie life while offering donation-based roadside assistance. Yep, they help people in need and they don't accept payment. Instead, they founded a nonprofit, basically spreading kindness on wheels. And here's the crazy part we ran into them completely by chance, twice in two different states. So when we saw them on International Kindness Day, we just had to stop and talk.

SPEAKER_01

I tell you, there are no coincidences. Next, for the RV entrepreneur profile, Rose and Glenn sit down with Deb Dennis, a solo RVer who started RVing at 62 with no towing experience while working remotely as a UX designer. Now she's built multiple income streams through travel writing and photography, and her message is simple. Don't wait.

RENE

Finally, Bob gives us an industry update after catching up with Jessica Ryder, founder of Pull Through Site's Mobile RV service and a board member with the RV Women's Alliance. She's helping lead an all-female technical training program and a new build project called Chassis to Classy, turning a brand new trailer into a vision coach built by women.

SPEAKER_01

So settle in, folks. This trip will take you everywhere from the nostalgia of Route 66 to the future of RV service and training.

RENE

Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01

Right. If you've ever said one of these days we're gonna go do Route 66, this is your year.

RENE

No, really. This is the 100th anniversary, and it means special events, new celebrations, and a ton of momentum across the whole route, from Chicago to Santa Monica.

Route 66 Centennial Deep Dive

SPEAKER_01

Did you know it's called the Mother Road? Because it became the primary route that gave birth to so many long journeys west, especially during the Dust Bowl era. Okay, and we've got a long show here. Right, right. Here's John and Alan Winninger from Route66Centennial.us, sharing what Route 66 is, how to plan it, and what makes this centennial year different.

JOHN

Hey everybody, welcome once again to another segment of the RV Life Podcast. My name is John DiPetro, and you know, one of the things that we do here at the RV Life Podcast is let you know about interesting events for RVers. And this is a very interesting year. In fact, it's a once-on-a-lifetime opportunity for most of us, unless we've been uh taking some kind of drugs that makes us live for 200 years. It's the 100th anniversary of Route 66. And joining me on this special broadcast is Alan Winninger. I say it right, Alan. You got it right. Okay, perfect. And Alan is with the uh Route 66 Centennial. And Alan, uh, welcome to the RV Life Podcast. It's great to have you here.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you. Appreciate it, John. I mean I'm very uh very honored to be here.

JOHN

Thank you. It's a it's an amazing opportunity uh this year because you know you hear about RVers taking the Route 66 trip um as a bucket list trip, but during the 100th anniversary, there's going to be a lot of new events that are taking place this year that haven't been before. But before we get into specific events, Alan, tell us a little bit about what Route 66 is. Where does it start? Where does it end, and and how did it become famous?

SPEAKER_08

Yeah, so it was officially started on November 11th, 1926. The technically it starts in Chicago, right? And off near um Michigan. It's kind of it's in almost in the middle of downtown. And so it goes from Chicago all the way to Los Angeles. The old bays document in the 20s and 30s, it actually has multiple different ways that it used to run from what you get today. Like it's been through Pasadena. The Rose Bowl Parade actually drives down parts of old Route 66. So there's a lot of historical touches. They've they've had what they've done alignments, which means they've actually changed the road. So when you're in your RV and you're looking at signs and it says Route 66, that may not be the original one, but it's it is Route 66. But there's so many offshoots that don't, you know, that have dead ends and stuff like that, because we're talking a hundred years. So the roads have changed, and then it ends. Technically, everybody says it ends at the Santa Monica Pier, and actually it ends in front of Mel's Diner.

JOHN

Mel's Diner.

SPEAKER_08

Yeah.

JOHN

So not just on TV, but the real Mel's Diner.

SPEAKER_08

The real Mel's Diner, and um, I think it's Liberty, but the the the whole idea is it's it's on that's the federal ending of it. And it's no longer a federal highway. So this all eight states are responsible for upkeeping it and things like that. There's some action to try to get it to become uh uh a parkway, you know, uh uh you know a designated for the National Park Service, and those efforts haven't finished yet, so they're still working on it.

JOHN

Why did it become famous? Who who were the first people that used it?

SPEAKER_08

It was designed, I think. Well, you're talking Dust Bowl. You're talking people migrating from the east to the west and trying to find a better life. That's a lot of it of what it was for. Like originally back in 26 when it first opened, the only thing you had on it was basically Fords, the Model T's and all that. That was that was the very first cars that ran up and down this thing. And so it became a lifeline. And it became it became nostalgic as it got older in the 30s and 40s, and you had the the small hotels and the diners and all that. So that was you know, mom and pop's, and it was basically, you know, it's uh it's also called America's Mother Road. It's it's it's it's the lifeblood of going from the east, mid east to the west coast for people to search for a better life. That was the importance.

JOHN

You know, it's it's funny. I'm sure there are young people here that are listening to this podcast and thinking, well, why didn't they just take the interstate highways?

SPEAKER_08

Wasn't there they weren't there? They killed Route 66. So when they 40, it bypassed Route 66, which caused all the towns in all the different places along the original 66 to go out of business because they just jumped on the highway and trucked on.

JOHN

You know, and so and that's the same thing, even on in in other states and Massachusetts, I-90, which is the longest interstate in the country from from Provincetown, Mass out to Oregon or Wisconsin, or not Wisconsin, Washington. Uh that killed Route 20 and uh in Route 6, which were all parallel roads.

SPEAKER_08

Yep, yep. And so, yeah, so that that basically did it in. And so that you know, the the the Williams, Arizona was the last town to be bypassed officially by Flag.

JOHN

And that is where you jump on the train.

SPEAKER_08

I'm in Flagstaff, Arizona.

JOHN

Yep. So you jump on the train to go to the Grand Canyon.

SPEAKER_08

Yep, that's where awesome trip. I mean, there's a lot of little things, and that's a big part of it too. We have Meteor Crater. Meteor Crater is right off of Route 66, so which is the you know, the big crater, you know, we're changed the civil, you know, the world. Um, so yeah, so there's a lot of nuances and different things. You there's a lot of ruins, there's a lot of ghost towns, and the idea is is as it in your RV and you're going down 66 and it's getting close to the end of the day, and you're out in the middle of nowhere, it's so easy just to pull over and camp. And you're in the middle of it. You're you're in history. All you gotta do is pull over to the side of the road.

JOHN

Just like that. Um, Alan, give me a couple uh not you can't miss places. Places that if you're gonna do Route 66, you absolutely positively have to stop at this location. Is that is that too much of a task to ask of you?

SPEAKER_08

No, it's not because we literally could spend three hours just talking about that. Because every locate every small old location that's in the books, and and I suggest people get the travel guides for Route 66, go online, and then you map out your map out your trip. Decide which significant place you want to go to. And there's hundreds of them. There's the blue whale, okay? There's there's different, there's the Teepee Host Mels, and there's the all the neon, you know, and then you got to look at Springfield, Missouri is the original capital of the um because they got the telegram that assigned the route number, so they claim that. But you also have Sligman, Arizona. And so you've got so much history, and there's so many places try to say word number one and all that. Every place is great. And it's just a matter of, you know, take it, take a dart, throw it at a map, kind of thing. Because every place you stop is going to be fantastic.

JOHN

If you were to go from one from Michigan Avenue, Chicago out to Mel's Diner, how many miles would that be?

SPEAKER_08

Uh yeah, you're stumbling all depends on how much of the road you want to take and how much of the original. Okay. So it could it could be longer or shorter. On average, I did 2,448 miles on my trip. Okay. So, and you could, and then you're gonna you might ask, how long does it take? Well, you want to do it in a week, or you want to see anything. Yeah, you're not gonna see anything, but you can do it really fast, or you can be like the foreign tourists and the and people from Asia when they come over and they do the trip, on average they spend about$150,000 and they take about a month and a half.

JOHN

Wow.

SPEAKER_08

And they rent an RV and they go the whole shebang.

JOHN

Foreigners have more of a um an affection for it than people who grew up here.

SPEAKER_08

This leads into my awesome RV story. Go ahead. Real quick. So I was at the gas station and I saw this RV and it had a European tag on it from the Netherlands. And I was like, oh, that's weird. How did that, you know? RV, I guess they brought it over years ago. No, I spoke to the couple, asked them what they were doing. Of course, they were doing Route 66. They literally took their RV, put it in a container on a ship, sent it from the Netherlands over to Canada, got it to Canada, took it all the way up to near Chicago at the border, and drove it across the border all the way to LA and back, put it back in the container and brought it back to the Netherlands. For the pure fact that they wanted their RV, their own personal RV, to make the trip and make history. They were that dedicated to it. It was an amazing story. I couldn't believe it. I was like, you're kidding me. And then I come to find out that's actually done quite a few times. It's not just that wasn't just a one-off. And they do it all every year. People are that dedicated.

JOHN

You know, there are people that uh depending upon their vacation schedule, etc., um, can't go the whole route, but certainly it's possible to take certain segments of it and and spend more time within that.

SPEAKER_08

And I think the last thing amarillo, yeah, you can take Amarillo and take a western chunk. So you start, let's say, starting Amarillo, where you make that big turn coming down from the north to getting on 40 and heading west, it's a totally different experience. If you were to take the Amarillo stop and go north to where you're going towards Chicago, a completely different experience. So it just depends on what you want to do.

JOHN

I would venture to say that with my um prior RV driving around Chicago, that uh being downtown on Michigan Avenue would be the last place in America that I would want to be with an RV. So I can say, you know what, I'll get I'll take uh the route up into Illinois and then uh round it off to say I went to Chicago, but there are certain cities that you know you don't want to take an RV to Chicago by any means.

SPEAKER_08

Oh well, and you also gotta remember you're gonna go through some big towns, you're gonna go through St. Louis, okay? You're gonna go through Albuquerque, okay, which isn't too bad. Um Amarillo, um, and so Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Oh my god, I'd I'd get it, I'd get ripped if I didn't forget to mention those guys. So Oklahoma's the longest stretch statewide, the longest stretch of continuous Route 66 original from the 1920s, is actually between Kingman and Sligman in Arizona.

SPEAKER_12

Arizona, yeah.

SPEAKER_08

It's the original small history historical, this is it. Yeah, so it just depends on what you want to do, how you want to carve it out. Route 66 is a kind of an REV trip that you can do it three or four times during the year and just do bits and pieces and then add it all together.

JOHN

All together, yeah.

SPEAKER_08

Every time is going to be different, every time it's gonna be you know, exploring and making memories that you you won't get anywhere else.

JOHN

And I would venture to say, Alan, that on the web you can Google Root 66 Centennial, and there are lots of different um websites that hundreds right.

Planning, Must‑Stops, And Myths

SPEAKER_08

Mine personally is root sixty sixcentennial.us. And then when you get on my website, you can click on the Facebook and I post a lot on my the root sixty six centennial Facebook page, all the current stuff. Um, there's now the the commission and others are out there, they've developed sites. There's a lot of groups that are creating their own um calendars, there's a lot of people doing a lot of different things for the centennial.

JOHN

So how about the kickoff date? Is there such a thing as a kickoff date for when uh the first activity is going to start taking place?

SPEAKER_08

Well, we just had it. This is actually happening as we're talking. Is that people can look it up? It's called the drive home. It started, it's uh to the Detroit Auto Show.

JOHN

Okay.

SPEAKER_08

So they left so they left California, they came through here the other day, they stopped at Lowell Observatory, which is our big famous part of Route 66. That is a must-stop. It's in the time top 100 in the world. So you gotta stop there. But, anyways, um, and they're currently in Texas, headed to Oklahoma today. And so, and then when they get to Chicago, they're gonna head to Detroit, and they're actually gonna put the, I think it's eight or nine historical cars are going in the Detroit Auto Show for the for the duration of week. Perfect. So there's a lot going on. So we're doing it now. It's gonna go all year, probably through to November. Um, I'm gonna be working on some racing things. I've got a couple other special things that I'm focused on that people can check out on my pay on my Facebook and my page. But there's gonna there's plenty to do. Okay, you're not gonna be perfect.

JOHN

Well, you know, for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, um, this year we've got Route 66, we've got World Cup, we've got America 250, all these things taking place all at the same time. So RVers need to plan their route and um you know, playing.

SPEAKER_08

One more thing, real quick. There's one big one. It's the 20th anniversary of cars. Disney picks our cars. Yep, and that is Route 66 focused. So, yeah, it's you know, you can take the kids and and map out the stops on Route 66 that court that connect to the movie cars. There you go. So you can so you can create a trip for the kids. Perfect.

JOHN

I'm trying to figure Rascal Flats. They were the word, they were the group that sang life.

SPEAKER_08

Life is a highway, my butt, my friend. Life is a highway.

JOHN

So life is a highway and Route 66 is a highway, and we want to thank Alan Winniger for joining us here today on the R of Life Podcast. Have fun, everybody. We'll see you along the road on Route 66.

RENE

Route or route, however you say it. I love how Alan explained that Route 66 isn't just one straight perfect line you drive once and check off a list. It's one of those trips you can take in sections or even revisit over time. And every stretch has its own personality.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm glad he said it out loud. If you try to do it too fast, you won't see anything. So slow down, people. The road is built for stopping, exploring, and letting the trip unfold. Like Steinbeck said, we do not take a trip. A trip takes us.

unknown

Oh my gosh.

RENE

Enough already. Speaking of unexpected moments on the road, the next story just feels so unreal to me. This is one of those only in RV life events. So, a while back, Jim and I passed this cool old green and white schoolie traveling north on I-25 in Colorado, right north of Denver. I snapped some pictures to see what all the stickers said, and one of them read, Kindness is alive. Then, months later, we saw the same bus parked near a truck stop in Arizona, and it was on International Kindness Day. So we just had to stop. We did. We couldn't resist. Jim stayed in the truck to take care of our dog Nelly while I went over and met Martian and Mouse, the founders of Journey of a Spirits Mechanic. They're a donation-based roadside assistance nonprofit. And what they do out there is pure kindness.

SPEAKER_01

I think this was our first impromptu roadside conversation. Check it out.

RENE

Okay, this is Renee for the RV Life Podcast. And today we are talking to A Journey of a Spirits Mechanic nonprofit. And your name is?

SPEAKER_10

Martian and my wife's name.

RENE

Martian and Mouse, it's so nice to meet you. We have seen you on Interstate 25, and I can't believe that today on World Kindness Day, we ran into you here right outside of Lordsburg, Arizona. It's amazing, and I I'd really like our audience to get to know you two because you are doing incredible kindness out there on the roads where sometimes things aren't very kind at all. Martian, can you tell me a little bit about why you guys started to do this roadside assistance and how what's your origin story? Is basically what I want to know. When did this begin? What year?

SPEAKER_10

About seven years ago, we decided that we would take a 2003 Ford Escape and take a couple of trips across the country to see how many people were on the side of the road that could use help. We thought it would be a lot of tire changes and a lot of out of gas, which it is those. I mean, those are still the top top ones, but we also found out that a lot of people were able to purchase parts if given a ride. So we expanded and basically started telling people that if you have money to buy the parts, we'll take you to get them and come back and put them on for you without expecting anything. Mouse had the same job for eight years, and I had hitchhiked for 16 prior to this, and I went to my brother's house to see them before I decided to take a long trip. And Mouse happened to be at my brother's house, and what was supposed to be a two or three-day trip to my brother's turned into at least a couple of months because his wife asked me to paint her Jeep for her birthday because I know how to do auto body taking. She convinced me to stay. I painted her Jeep. Well, while painting her Jeep, me and Mouse started to talk and hit it off. Instead of taking her hitchhiking, we decided to see if this would work.

RENE

Mouse, when you both came up with this idea, what did you think? Did you get support from people? How did they respond? How did your friends and family respond to what you wanted to do? So this would

SPEAKER_03

ever work, that this concept would never take off. And we, you know, proceeded on because we seen how many people that needed help. Thermostats, radiators, hoses. And we knew that if we were consistent and persistent, this would work. And seven years later, here you are.

RENE

Right. Here we are in a full-size school bus. Wow. I think you proved everybody wrong. And I think what you're doing is incredible. What how do people respond when you show up and offer your services for nothing?

SPEAKER_03

Okay. So we have been dubbed the angels of the highway. So a lot of people are praying for someone to show up and hope someone will show up. And we are that answer.

RENE

What are some examples of situations that you've encountered where you thought maybe it was hopeless or do you ever feel like that when you see something really difficult with difficult repair, difficult situation?

SPEAKER_03

It always hits home when we're uh first on scene. We never know what we're walking into. And we've been first on scene a few times where the car has been slipped. And he used to be a volunteer first responder, right? So he runs towards danger and I always get emotional about it because we just never know.

RENE

So I think those are probably the hardest ones. Something keeps calling you back though. What what is it about being in those difficult situations to know that the person's okay?

SPEAKER_03

There's been times where you know just stopping and making sure the person's okay and waiting for other first responders or you know whatever heavy the ambulance who actually it was Santa Fe. I think it was Santa Fe a couple weeks ago where an elder lady elderly lady we were on the other side of the mountain when we saw the cloud of dust and we're like well what was that? Well obviously we keep driving and see that the lady had flipped her car and it was kind of surreal because it was near a reservation. So like everybody stopped the interstate on that side. They like just stopped their cars right in the lane and he ran across the median to make sure that she was okay and then started to direct traffic because people are trying to get through but there's also people trying to you know protect the lady and I I think it was the first responders that took her out of the car because she was still in it. Wow. It's almost like you're put in the right place at the right time.

RENE

We tell that to everybody we're always where we're supposed to be it's the easiest way to put it why did you decide to form a nonprofit and what is the nonprofit's goal?

Slow Travel Mindset

SPEAKER_10

So we fought with that for several years on whether or not to actually form as an entity because for the longest time we always said that we didn't want people to donate for the wrong reasons because our lifestyle is based on intention and if people were only wanting to donate because it was a tax write off to us that was the wrong intention. But after we lost two opportunities with battery companies because they said that they couldn't work with us because we weren't an entity or a charity we decided okay maybe it's maybe it's time and not only that like times like this where it's harder than other days to do what we do by becoming a nonprofit tax exempt charity we're gonna be we it will open avenues of state and federal grants for us to help fund us to be able to continue to do this. And people ask me well do you plan on expanding and having more people under you I don't think I will ever be able to have a day that happens. And people ask me why I have me and her both have had a couple that we had considered over the years and within the matter of six months showed us why why we are the only ones that do what we do under our name. Because too many people if they're in a hard spot themselves it's too easy to put a value or a price and like I said before if somebody asks me what is this worth I don't care if it's an air compressor on a semi on the side of the road if it's a radiator in a semi I don't care what it is I will tell you tell you to call a shop and ask them what they're gonna charge because I will never put a price or a value to what we do. We offer kindness not a service and to me that's a difference. Love that I love that is there a limit to the type of repairs you'll assist with on the side of the road yes and no that's more situationally based there's some things I'm just not physically able to do like change semi tires on the side of the road. If they have a rim and tire I can swap them out but I can't actually change the rubber out on the side of the road any kind of internals on the engine there's nothing I can do. We would like to get a a scanner system a scanner program to be able to read semi computers but that's another thing at the moment we're not able to do if it's computer related issues they have to call somebody else there's nothing we can do.

RENE

But you could do it if you had a scanner.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah if we had the program I was looking online recently because we had a follower donate a new laptop for us that would be capable of running the program and the adapter but just for the program and the adapter is about 3500 so and there's other things at the moment that we we need more than that like kingpins.

RENE

So do you have a wish list somewhere?

SPEAKER_10

We do have a wish list on Amazon and then we also I believe there's a post on our page about our king pens needing to be replaced and then before that is our spring bushings because they both need to be replaced but it's getting to the point that the kingpins are becoming more important than the spring bushings.

RENE

Yeah now if somebody wanted to donate go see that wish list where would they go?

SPEAKER_10

They could go to a journey over spirits mechanic Facebook page on Facebook and I'm pretty sure it's pinned at the top we have PayPal Zell Venmo Cash App for all the platforms to donate.

RENE

How many people would you say that can you can you estimate how many people you've helped over the years?

Kindness On The Shoulder: Meeting Martian & Mouse

SPEAKER_10

Thousands really thousands um at least a couple of thousand over the last seven years where are you generally wrong during the winter below the 70 and during the summer above the 70 I like that I like that we we do tend to stay out west more we find more people to help west of the Mississippi than we do east of the Mississippi. We chalk that up to one there's an exit every quarter mile instead of every 40 miles. Out east they have a lot more states with vehicle inspections and emission inspections so they don't break down as often. That makes sense and again most of them if they're having an issue can make it to an exit and to a parking lot somewhere and well we would never find them.

RENE

That makes a lot of sense there's some long empty stretches especially what we're about to drive into we're headed to Tucson and there's long stretches of nothing from here to there. Yep just came from that wow how many miles would you say you guys drive a year a year I don't know in seven years.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah a little over a third of a million miles in seven years. I can tell you in the last two months we've done right around 10,000 miles in 13 states.

RENE

Well I believe it because where we saw you we were up in near Fort Collins and um we're quite a ways from there right now. I am so happy that we got to meet you guys and I can't thank you enough for taking the time to stop and talk to us and but really to do what you do it's restores my faith in humanity to know that there are people doing this kind of thing. They just they don't get the glory they don't do it for glory but you guys sure deserve it. And I hope that lots and lots of people listen to this interview.

SPEAKER_10

Hopefully it inspires many and we're not the only ones we have met others there's a guy in Denver actually he's a full-time security guard and he took his little four-door sedan and put yellow and white emergency lights all over it and on his days off he literally runs around Denver just helping stranded motors and refuses to take donations.

SPEAKER_12

Really?

SPEAKER_10

He will not take them and like I explained to him when we met him the only reason we accept the donations is because that's the only way we continue this. We one day we'll get to the point where we can not have to take donations but that's how we're able to do this is we spread kindness through kindness.

SPEAKER_01

I don't care how long you've been traveling that kind of story really hits you right in the heart.

RENE

It really does. They're not selling anything they're offering kindness and the way they described it as being we're right where we're supposed to be and showing up when someone is praying for help it's hard not to feel something after listening to that.

SPEAKER_01

Well they were right where they were supposed to be for this interview for sure. And I'll just say this if you've ever been stranded or you've seen someone stranded you know how big a deal it is when somebody stops. There was that time we stopped to help a camper change his tire on the Alaska Highway.

RENE

Whoa Jim this isn't about us stop so I want everybody to go learn more about Martian and mouse and remember they are donations based so feel free to check out their link tree in the show notes and chip in something if you're moved by their story.

SPEAKER_01

Alright shifting gears here into the R V entrepreneur we've got a guest who brings a totally different kind of inspiration.

RENE

Deb Dennis started RV and solo at age 62. She had no towing experience and she did it while working remotely what I really love is how honest she is about fear and how she basically decided that the bigger fear was not going to win.

SPEAKER_01

Rose and Glenn talk with Deb about remote work on the road building multiple income streams and why you don't wait for someday.

RENE

Here's Rose and Glenn with Deborah Dennis.

ROSE

Hello Deb. Welcome to the RV entrepreneur segment of the RV Life podcast we are so excited to have you on today. Thanks I'm very excited to be here. Deb, you are a solo RVer who started RVing at the age of 62 with no prior experience and you took your remote work with you on the road which I think is pretty remarkable. Your story really challenges a lot of the assumptions about who RV life and remote work are for. So for listeners who are just meeting you please share a quick snapshot of who you are today and how RV life fits into your work yes well thank you for that um I have been a UX designer for all my career in Silicon Valley in Northern California.

SPEAKER_13

And for the last 10 years I worked remotely just from my house and decided during the pandemic of all times to go on the road with an RV and take my work with me because it didn't matter where I was a matter of fact I never really told anybody where I was um just to keep things kind of simple. So today I'm still RVing but part-time and I do some UX work but I'm transitioning into other things and fun stuff and um yeah we can sure we can get into that.

GLYNN

Yes looking at starting RV life solo at 62, you make the statement in one of your articles that I read that's I quote I'm an introvert solo travel doesn't mean isolation for me it means intentional connection.

SPEAKER_13

So since you dove into the intentional connection the RV lifestyle encourages later in life what were your biggest fears going in well my biggest fears were going in since I'd never towed anything before I was terrified of you know towing something I just bought an airstream and I never towed a travel trailer. So being by myself I see lots of people get help and all that kind of stuff I had to back up and learn all that and I learned it through experience also videos asking people at parks and just lots of time on the road I mean it's kind of one of those things you have to learn. But I think my other fear was not going. I'd always wanted to travel in an RV. I've traveled all around the world in different places backpacks and teams and all kinds of stuff but I just wanted to go cross country in an RV and so I just decided to buy one. And people were like aren't you scared? And I was like I was just more scared of not going. I was more scared of not doing something I really wanted to do and I tell people that all the time just go do it.

GLYNN

That's deep that's really deep. Okay I too was scared out of my mind I had never backed up a trailer but I love what you're saying about you know scared of not doing it because we felt the same way.

SPEAKER_13

Oh we did yeah you just don't want to have that regret you know you want to live life now yeah and and I and I know women get very scared of doing stuff like that because I met many of them at the parks. They're all like who are you traveling with? And I said my dogs you know and a lot of them are like I'd love to do that. I want to leave the husband behind. And so there's clubs for that right and a lot of women are doing that in different clubs. And I think that's great. Uh and I hope I inspire people by that because maybe I'm a bit more you know savvy and fearless than some of them right and so a club I think is a really great place to start.

ROSE

Yeah there are a lot of clubs out there. I did interview some uh the Sister Core that was a neat one where they go out and they help uh rebuild communities and that kind of stuff that was kind of neat but then there's just more other clubs just for solo female RVing.

SPEAKER_13

So definitely and you know then feel like you have kind of a community.

ROSE

Right. So going back to a little bit about your work you initially took your UX and product design work on the road because as you stated in one of your articles RV life didn't interrupt your career it supported it. And over time now you've expanded into other income streams. How did that evolution happen?

SPEAKER_13

Well the tech world has gone crazy as you can uh tell right a lot of people got laid off a couple of years ago and so that just made an overflow into the freelance world which is where I live right and so uh rates went down people flooded the market and you know there wasn't a lot of work so I had to pivot I had to figure out what else to do and luckily I'd always had my blog going I've done a lot of photography and then I just started doing travel writing and I got published and I really enjoy that because I love telling stories. You know that's kind of what my blog is about as well. I do first person experiential stories about where I am like meeting people at campsites or going to different places and interviewing people that are doing these things. And that's what a lot of travel sites don't really do. They say oh go here go there go there but you know what is it I call it boots on the ground. It's like you're I'm there I'm experiencing it and I can tell you what it's like real life.

GLYNN

Boots on the yeah boots on the ground. I love that so it you had to diversify you had to create multiple income streams um I know that's sort of an obvious statement but why was that important to you?

SPEAKER_13

Well I just like to keep busy and I just wanted to keep an income stream going as well. And I like to be creative and I feel like the travel writing and the photography is a very creative and I wanted to see if I can sell my work right be published and that was kind of important to me. And so I I always have goals for myself I think it just keeps me going it keeps you know my brain working and um yeah I enjoy it too. Were there any challenges you faced with going different ways different income streams or did it just all click you know easy for you gosh no I think it's really hard yeah no I think it's really hard for people I mean it's hard for me when I uh didn't get a lot of UX work I kept beating the bushes you know get trying to get work and I just didn't and finally I was like I think I think we're done I think tech and I are done and it's a hard it was a hard thing to take. I was like oh they tell you to accept things and I resisted for a while. And it's slow getting new income streams right it's not as lucrative uh certainly and so that was difficult but I traded that being lucrative for it being so much more enjoyable right I just I love it everywhere I go I'm looking for travel stories and talking to people and it it's it's like photography for me. When I was a more of a full-time photographer I would go out and it made me talk to people because I'd asked permission to do photography of them and hear their stories and I do the same thing with travel writing and so I combine both of them now. And it just uh it gets my introverted side out.

GLYNN

I mean some people when I'm out doing my stuff they're like you're not an introvert but I definitely need breaks from it all right that's what an introvert really is yes yes you you're you're you can function in society just fine but it doesn't energize you it just drains your batteries so you gotta go home and curl up in a ball and sort of recharge right exactly so what did your day to day your work life look like on the road Wi-Fi client expectations and even protecting your time how did you manage all that?

SPEAKER_13

Yeah that was really hard when I went cross country uh for six months it was really hard it was just me and the dogs and I didn't know what to expect so I'm navigating I'm driving I'm trying to find the next campsite I was nervous about where to go so I'm always planning ahead and then I'm like oh my God I got to stop somewhere I got to make sure I have Wi-Fi I got a meeting at you know whatever and I got to do work and then I got to get somewhere else and yeah no the logistics were uh straining me and uh so I took breaks I stopped at friends' places people met me on the road and we would just take time in Yellowstone or the Grand Tetons and I have to say it was definitely challenging.

Why A Nonprofit And How They Help

GLYNN

It um if you have two people you know it's easier right somebody can drive somebody can navigate I didn't have any of that the dogs weren't into navigating they were just into stopping that's right you have dogs two dogs yeah well my one little dog passed away but I have one left but at the time when I was traveling yeah thank you oh that's hard on the road too oh oh he he didn't pass away on the road but oh okay yeah yeah after the trip yeah no he's he was with me for 15 years so oh yeah yeah but it was great with the dogs they're a great conversation piece you know everybody's got dogs and when you're RVing so everybody's very sympathetic to the situation and yeah it was great yeah they open the door for communication between others it's that one thing to focus on is just like pulling up with a motorcycle and seeing someone else on a motorcycle you start the con the conversation begins and and then one thing leads to the next and you've got friends on the road.

SPEAKER_13

Yeah very cool yeah and I have to say you know people would ask me aren't you scared? Aren't you worried about your safety? And I was like no actually and I and I say that because I think it gets overblown right I think the media overblows things they gets people scared. And when I was on the road I have to say your RVers everyone is so nice. Everyone wants to be so helpful everyone would come up to me and they're they'd see I was alone with the dogs whatever you know they'd invite me over to their campsite I mean conversations would start they'd tell me what trails to go on whatever and it was it was really wonderful actually I didn't have any problems at all.

GLYNN

Deb you nailed it and I would like to go on record saying again that two and a half years bouncing around this country we found nothing but good people everywhere.

SPEAKER_13

Yeah yep there's a lot of people forget all those other things that are out in the news who's what who cares about this or that it doesn't matter. You're on the road you're trying to live everybody's trying to just live their life it doesn't matter what they're doing. It just you know we're all doing the same thing. We're all just showing up and trying to get through the day and have a good time and maybe laugh and and then just explore and I think that that's what I love about RVing you know going off into wild distant places and just seeing how beautiful this country is I've been all around the world and I just I love just going around the US now it's just fabulous. There's so much about Canada this year. I'm going up to Canada oh how exciting it's wonderful.

GLYNN

Yeah yeah you've got multiple income streams and I'm trying in my head to bullet what each one of your income streams is I know as I was going through some of your content you've got photography you've got travel writing I know there's some affiliate links on there and and properly placed affiliate links are extremely helpful to bloggers or anyone who is a creator. So thank you anyone who clicks on those what do your revenue streams look like and I know I'm not talking about you know how much money you're making I'm talking about you know what is each one.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13

I would say my photography and travel writing are the biggest right now. I um put aside the blogging for a bit though the blog is a constant thing right I don't have sponsors Yet uh things like that, but I do have a lot of affiliates that I'm working on. But as you know, it takes so much time and energy that if I'm out traveling and doing my travel writing, um the blogging kind of takes a backseat at this point. But you know, it's cyclical. I think I'll certainly get back to that at some point.

GLYNN

Well, there's always something on your mind that you've got to put down on paper that you might not be getting out of your head with travel writing that just feels good to get it out on a blog. And I do want to say for the listeners, you are an exceptional writer. So it's a real pleasure to read your work.

SPEAKER_13

It really is. Oh, well, thank you. Now I'm gonna have to do more blog articles.

GLYNN

Sorry. I talking about it. I opened that door. Yes, you did.

SPEAKER_13

You did.

GLYNN

Sort of going back to the tech industry. And when it slowed, you didn't wait for things to go back to normal. And to quote you, and I love this nothing you learned was wasted. You just placed your skills in a new container. That is such a great statement. So, what helped you recognize it was time to pivot? And I know the obvious answer is the whole system was changing so fast, but reiterate if you can.

SPEAKER_13

Well, I I was changing too, you know, as I got older, I was just like, why am I doing this anymore? I don't want to be in tech. When I first started in tech at Apple, I loved it. I loved the whole industry, and the industry's changed a lot, and I don't really like it anymore. So I didn't want to be part of it anymore. And I thought, okay, this is this is the time. You know, I've got to figure out my money and and changing that and making sure I can, you know, support myself. But at the same time, I was like, okay, I'll just cut my income and do something I really enjoy. So it it was more that it was a deeper longing to do what I've want been wanting to do. I tried to be a travel writer for many years. And then even years ago, it was really difficult and it was a hard industry. And I loved photography so much. And then when I started trying to make money at it, it was really I didn't like it as much. And they say that you know, being a creative person, it's it's hard to make money at what you love, and you should just do what you love, right? Without having that monetary um component, if you can. And so I think I have a little bit of both in that, you know. So I I I like that. I I can put my photography on my blog and give it away to friends and you know, have my Instagram posts and you know, share it with people. I love to share stuff with people.

ROSE

How did you break into the travel writing and who are you writing for? That kind of thing. Yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_13

I, you know, and I didn't have any experience, but I just kind of jump into things. And so I just pitched one of these online travel places. It's called Only in Your State. Uh, it's a big web-based site. And months went by, and I had pitched them that I was gonna go to Yosemite, uh, Twelummy Meadows in Yosemite. They had just done a$20 million revamp of the campground there. And I said, I'm gonna go there. I want to write about it. And like literally three months later, at the end of the summer, just last summer, they wrote me and said, Yeah, go do it. I was like, What? So I literally got there on the last day of September that they were open. You know, it started to rain, it was getting cold. But I it was really fun. I met these backpackers who just came off the John Muir Trail. I met the Ranger on the horseback, I met the I met the bear guy, and so I wrote this article and they freaking loved it. And so the both the editors were like, we want more. And so that just kind of launched me.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

That's fantastic.

ROSE

Hey, that just proves just go for it, reach out to these companies, people, places, and offer your services. And you have a great portfolio online with your blog, so it bagged you up, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_13

Exactly. And they just think you know, they can try you or not. I mean, I had no idea. I and like I said, it took me months, so but I'm persistent and I've had that throughout my whole career. That's how I got into UX and all that. I didn't know anything about computers when Apple Computer hired me. Seriously. I started way back in the day saying, I'm just gonna do this, you know, it's other skills. They want other skills too. They want that writ and persistence and all that kind of stuff, and that's helped me a lot in my career.

GLYNN

Entrepreneurial tenacity.

SPEAKER_13

Yes, yes, it is. They're looking for that. Yeah. Being proactive, making your own choices, doing things that other people maybe won't do. You just decide to go do that.

GLYNN

There's the best advice for anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur. Yeah.

ROSE

RV Life definitely gives us some space and and maybe some clarity to kind of lean into some things. How did RV Life help you lean in more to storytelling, writing, and photography?

Donate, Wish List, And Impact

SPEAKER_13

Oh my God, I think there's so many great stories of people. I mean, listening to you guys and other podcasts and just just being on the trail and hearing people's stories. You just you just want to share them with people, at least I do. Uh and so yeah, I think that's just amazing because there's like all kinds of different people out there, right? There's one of my good friends that I travel with sometimes, she has a van, right? And so she's the van or and I'm the airstreamer. And you know, there's just young people out there all the time, and there's older people out there, and it's just it's just a whole big, huge, wide community that everybody has a very unique story, right? And I I I just love that energy about it. I mean, it feels like a big community when you say you're an R V or everybody's like, what do you have? Where are you going? Everybody asks me all the time for places to go. And I love that because now I have tons of places that I tell people to go. I mean, literally, people will just text me, they'll see a post I do on Instagram, and they'll be like, Hey, I want to go here. Do you do what do you recommend? It's just like kind of a mini travel agency. Maybe I could do that next. Yeah. There you go. Oh, idea.

GLYNN

I was I was gonna ask you, you know, for as someone navigating change or uncertainty right now, what encouragement would you offer? But I I think your encouragement would be the fear of not doing it. Would you say that's correct?

SPEAKER_13

Oh, totally. Yeah. I mean, and now, like people say, Well, I gotta do this, like, you know, my kids are this, or I gotta go here, whatever. I'm like, no, no, no, no. It you'll just put it off. I've seen that so much. And I'm like, go now. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you know. I didn't know anything. Just go.

GLYNN

Yeah, I really don't like the the phrase someday.

ROSE

Yeah, or wait until you're ready, or wait until everything's in order.

GLYNN

It will never be in order.

ROSE

No, it's like waiting to have kids for the right time, you know.

SPEAKER_13

Yeah, they say that about entrepreneurial entrepreneurialism, right? Too. Yeah, someday is not a time, it's not a time frame. And you need time frames. You need to put make a list, doesn't matter, check it off, start doing little things to get you there. And that's what I did.

ROSE

Do it. Oh, I love this RV life community. I love this podcast. We get to share all these great stories, as you say. And as we wrap up here, Deb, where can listeners connect with you and follow along with you?

SPEAKER_13

Uh everything's on travelswithwally.com. Uh so you can find me there and uh you know, connect to my Instagram and stuff and uh my articles, my travel articles. So yeah, I try and keep that all up to date. And I have to say, you guys are fantastic. I love listening to your blog, and I learned so much, and I hope this helps people as well.

ROSE

Great, thank you, Deb. That means a lot. Yeah, it does. So we definitely want to thank you for coming on today, taking the time. We appreciate it, and we hope to hear more from you.

GLYNN

Thank you, Deb.

ROSE

Great, thank you.

SPEAKER_01

That conversation is such a reminder that reinvention doesn't require permission. It and it reminds me of that someday syndrome so many people have.

RENE

I love her line about solo travel not meaning isolation, but how it means intentional connection. That's exactly what a lot of people discover once they actually get out there.

SPEAKER_01

Also, for anyone trying to build something of their own, her point about pivoting is real. Sometimes the market changes, but your skills don't disappear. You just put them in a new container.

RENE

If you want to follow Deb's work, we'll link to travelswithwally.com in the show notes, plus where she's writing, including only in your state.

SPEAKER_01

Now, for our industry segment, we're talking about something that affects every RVer sooner or later. Service and repair.

RENE

And the way this industry is shifting is so interesting. Mobile service is growing, and so is the push to help more people, especially women, understand the technical side of RV systems, whether they're in sales, warranty service, or running their own business.

SPEAKER_01

Bob is joined by Jessica Ryder, founder of Pull Through Sites Mobile RV service, and a board member of the RV Women's Alliance. They talk about tech education, their new chassis to classy project, and how understanding the language of RV systems helps the whole industry run better. Here's Bob with Jessica Ryder.

SPEAKER_07

Welcome back, everybody. And my guest this morning is Jessica Ryder, who is on the board of directors of the RV Women's Alliance. Also is the founder of Pull Through Sites, a full service mobile and uh technician company that works closely with everybody else in the industry. So Jessica, tell us what you've been up to lately.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so we are growing our uh mobile RV repair company in St. Louis. I know a lot of people probably don't think St. Louis is a growing market, but we are seeing uh double digit growth year over year. So that tells me that the mobile service is growing and it's not going away anytime soon.

SPEAKER_07

So I I think it's I think it's the direction of the future. They the brick and mortars aren't going to go away, but so many people have proven that mobile RV repair and mobile technicians are a lot easier for the consumer. So if we look at it from the consumer standpoint, being able to have somebody come to their house or their place of business to take care of their RV, that's significant.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_07

Now you'd carried the the love of the technical aspect of this over to your RV women's alliance responsibilities. And I know you're doing a lot over there. Tell us what you're doing over there.

Solo At 62: Deb Dennis’ RV Pivot

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So, you know, Bob, I started my company years ago because I saw the gaps in the industry and I wanted to help change that. And so we're doing that on one way with mobile repair. But the other way that I saw the gaps once in mobile repair was a lot of miscommunication and just gaps between knowledge of technicians in the field and those working at OEMs or suppliers with, you know, warranty and customer service. There's a gap in knowledge there. And so at RVWA back in 2021, we had the idea to do an all-female tech class. And so we started doing that in 2021. And in 2025, I received my master's certification from RBTI and I started teaching the class. I took over from the legend, Bill Stewart.

SPEAKER_07

Right. Legendary Bill Stewart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I cherished him so much. He was a great mentor to me. Um, taught me how to really connect with students, but also how to teach tech to women and help women understand it. Um, and so I've been doing that. This is this will be my second full year teaching those courses. And we have three getting ready to start on Monday with RVWA. And then we have two or three more programs we're gonna launch with it later this year. So it's exciting to bring, I'm not teaching these women how to be technicians, I'm teaching them the technical side of the RV so that they can help their dealers, you know, dealerships or warranty or wherever segment they're in, sales, they can help because they fully understand the technical side of the RV.

SPEAKER_07

Well, it's also the language of the business because that's that's as important as the technical side. And you you certainly uh congratulations on your master certification. Oh, thanks. Do you do you have any idea how many master certification women we have?

SPEAKER_02

There's there's a pretty good handful.

SPEAKER_07

There is.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know the exact number, um, but there's a there's a good amount.

SPEAKER_07

Okay. So um in the c now you're also doing something with the um well in in the hybrid, you mentioned the chassis to class. Explain what that is.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so RBWA, we just kicked off a new project we're doing called Chassis to Classy. And so with the wonderful donation of Thor Industries and KZ, they donated a uh brand new off-the-line KZ tra uh travel trailer to us. And we were able to help say what we wanted done with it, but we pulled it off the line at a certain point. And us as RBWA, all of our members, get to come volunteer to help build it out. So uh, Bob, you're probably very familiar with our last project called Drab to Fab.

SPEAKER_12

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

And where we took an old trailer completely tore it down and rebuild it. This time we're taking a brand new trailer and we are fully customizing it into this vision vehicle that uh again is going to be built all by women.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. And and and the vision of that is is incredible. Uh how did that how did that idea come about?

SPEAKER_02

Well, Susan Carpenter will tell the story much better than I can. Drab to Fab, I think, was uh back in 2019, 2020 when um RBWA first started. It was kind of just a a random spur idea of the moment that they had between her and uh Tracy Engelmeyer. They, you know, being two very driven women, they just decided to go for it. And the industry was extremely generous and donating support and time and everything. Uh, and it was a great way for us, RBWA, to bring women together during COVID.

SPEAKER_07

It put you on the map. You know, it was early, early in the organization, and uh it really put the association on the map.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. And so now people have been asking for it.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And we've kind of been pushing back, like, no, that's a lot of work. It was a lot, you know, we don't want to do it, we don't want to do it. And then it was kind of like we opened our minds. And I say we, I mean like Susan Itriks, he said, okay, maybe we should try this again. And um, so we, you know, opened and said, okay, and then started working with. We didn't want to do an old trailer again. We wanted a new one. So we started working with some of our partners. And again, very thankful to Thor and K-Z for coming through with that. Um, and we've got great sponsors on board. We've got Genesis, we've got Lipart, main sponsors giving a lot of the product, and then a lot of other sponsors giving us other stuff.

SPEAKER_07

So is it is it gonna come as an open slate, a completely open inside trailer, and then you're gonna build it out from the floor up, or will there be some components in there?

SPEAKER_02

There's some components already in there. So there's walls, there's wiring already done. Yep. Um, but we are customizing a lot of the appliances that go in there. We're customizing, you know, how the layout is, what we're doing with the back of it, really taking this a lot of times from a wim woman's perspective, right? I know there's not a whole lot of women designers in the RV industry. There's some, and kudos to them because they do an amazing job. But we took this from a woman's perspective and said, okay, it could be a woman with kids. It could be a woman that is solo. How do we make this room a true multi-purpose? And I think some of the ideas we have and how we're going to build that out. And then the rest of the coach just is going to be amazing.

SPEAKER_07

That's that's fantastic. Our guest today is Jessica Ryder with the RBWA board of directors and owner and founder of Pull Through Sites. Any other words of wisdom for the women that might be listening in terms of getting them engaged in the service training programs RBTI and RBWA?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, absolutely. So I would say if you have any interest at all in learning the technical side of RV, right? If you want to learn the systems, this is a great way to get your feet wet. Get that level one certification through RBTI because you can test and get that. Um, and what I tell people is, you know, the way I teach might be a little bit different because I come from a business owner perspective. So I look at it and say, this is how this knowledge can help your dealership make more money. This is how you can get warranty stuff through faster. This is, you know, these are the ways that you guys can enhance your jobs now with this knowledge. So we really work like that together.

SPEAKER_07

Well, not only that, you're giving them the education, but you are such a great role model in terms of being the master certified, being the business owner, many of them might decide to start their own business.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, there's been one or two that have taken our classes over the years that um have come just from me teaching in the last two years, have come and said, Okay, how do I do this? And we've we've kind of worked that out. And even when Bill was teaching, you know, the classes for us, there were several women that started their own companies from it. It was great.

SPEAKER_07

Fantastic. Jessica, thank you very much for joining us today. It's been a while since we had a chance to catch up on all your activities and and best of luck with the new RVWA project. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the women are going to be able to do there.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you're gonna have to come in town and see it in person, Bob.

SPEAKER_07

Uh if if I can, I will. How's that? Okay, there you go. Thanks very much, Jessica. Bye now.

SPEAKER_01

Big thanks to Jessica and all our guests today. Alan Winninger, Deborah Dennis, and especially Martian and Mouse. Seriously, folks, check them out. And if you see that green and white schoolie out on the road, buy them a coffee or lunch or some tools.

RENE

Or of course, thank you, John, Rose, and Glenn, and Bob for bringing these conversations to life.

SPEAKER_01

And thank you. It's our listeners who really fuel this show. So like, subscribe, and find out how easy it is to share your story at podcast.rvlife.com.

RENE

And if you take one thing for this episode, I hope it's this. Whether it's planning a Route 66 road trip, stopping to help someone, starting over at 62, or learning a new skill in the industry, you don't have to wait for that perfect moment. You just start.

SPEAKER_10

Safe travels, everyone. Until next time, remember we spread kindness through kindness.

RV LIFE

It's not just about reaching your destination, it's about enjoying the journey. And with RV Life Trip Wizard, every journey is effortless. Learn more about this game changing feature at rvlife.com.