Marion: What did your friends think?
Zoe: That was a definite negative. Our friends knew we
were insane. They did not understand. None of them,
not one of them, understood. They couldn’t relate to
it; they couldn’t relate to us.
Marion: But what was that response about? You traveled a lot.
It wasn’t about the traveling then. It must have been the RV?
Zoe: It was because we didn’t have a home. We went off
and sold everything we owned, and went off into
the wild blue yonder. They couldn’t deal with this
notion because we didn’t have any roots. We didn’t
even try to convince them otherwise. That’s what
spawned the RV travel club. We needed connections
who didn’t think we were crazy.
I felt, Lovern didn’t care—she was having a good
time—but I felt I needed connections while I was on
the road. I needed to be able to see people and visit
people and have something in common.
Marion: I want to come back to your friends’ reactions.
Zoe: It wasn’t discussed. Everybody was very polite about
it. You just knew they didn’t know what was going on.
Now, the very same people understand completely.
We’re all good friends again. I don’t know what
to tell you.
Now this sounds easy. But any time you move
to another community, or move out of a community,
there’s a lot of emotional stuff going on. Some
people give up at that point. They say, “Well, there’s
this little thing to overcome and that little thing to
overcome, and I guess it wasn’t meant to be.” And
they give it up.
When you set a goal, you can’t let little things
get in the way. You can’t use them as an excuse not
to meet your goal. You just set a goal and you deal
with all the obstacles that get in the way until you
get there. But you don’t say, “Oh well, I guess it
wasn’t meant to be,” and give it up. You do it. Then
if it isn’t right, you can always quit. Nothing’s cast
in concrete.
If you look at it like, ‘this is the end, it’s all over, I
can’t change,’ you’re going to believe it’s impossible.
The truth is, you can change anything in the world
you’re doing.
Once you don’t have to work, then this philosophy
can be actualized. When you’re working, things are
different. Or when you’re raising kids, things are different.
You just do what you have to do. Once you’re
free, you haven’t got an excuse.
Zoe: I never thought that I’d be interested in RVing again
tent-travel back and forth across the United States
with my kids. After that, I decided I never wanted
to pack or unpack another rig as long as I lived.
But while Lovern was in France on sabbatical, I
had a compulsion to buy an RV. I shopped for weeks
for an RV, not really wanting one—knowing that I
didn’t even like RVing.
So I finally found an RV I didn’t want. I ordered
it custom-made, and I got it as small as I could. I got
a 23-foot Born Free and wrote to Lovern and told
her that I had bought an RV and I had no idea why.
Zoe: I had no idea. I was going to park it in the driveway
I was going to do.
Marion: You get home to Seattle, where Lovern has her work in
business. She decides to go out and stay overnight in the
rig in the driveway.
Zoe: We did take one overnight trip, and then after that she
I said, “If you’re going to do that, let’s move the rig to
an RV park and sleep there.” I didn’t want to sleep
in the driveway.
We kept the house, until Lovern said, “We could
go full-time RVing if you didn’t have to work.” So
that’s what we did. I sold my business and we began
RVing in the mid-1980s.
I was a psychologist by profession. Somebody
asked me once if I thought certain behavior modification
used with kids could work with dogs. I thought
that was the funniest thing I’d ever heard in my
life. Then I started looking at it. There was such a
market for it that I started taking care of issues on
the side.
Marion: What did your family think when you made the commitment
Born Free?
Zoe: I didn’t ask them at that time. I just told them and
just glad I was out of Los Angeles. They didn’t care
what I did.
Heads up: Notice the sound quality variation from
Zoe’s opening comments and the grainy variation
from then on…a microphone computer connected
quality versus a long distance cel phone connection.
Sally: What might be interesting for folks to know, Marion, is the
about that?
Marion: In 1993, we bought a ’93 Bounder motorhome. What
go into the video business. Someone who was doing
that in Denver trained us to do it. Within six months,
we learned from first-hand experience that Arizona
is the sixth largest state in the union. We were averaging
about six to eight miles to the gallon and we
were out on the road weekly. There were places we
couldn’t get that 34-foot Bounder into small video
store parking lots.
We had to find some alternatives. We had to buy
a van; we had to move into a park model; a small and
very nice trailer. I now know I can live simply.
It was a struggle for us because there’s a lot of
risk in starting your own business. We had started
a business before but not like that. So the RVing for
us didn’t last very long.
Sally: You meet some people who do RVing, some really amazing
telling of their story, what is your fascination with these
women who live this lifestyle—the RVing lifestyle?
Marion: I’ve always been a big fan of the WPA (Work Projects
student at Phoenix College and they built most of
the buildings there. I go over often and admire the
plaque with President Roosevelt’s name on it and say,
“Here’s the buildings those guys built.”
I met women who did work in that era. I found
that connection fascinating. I met Ruth Silver and
talked to her and heard her story. I began to realize,
while I may not be RVing anymore, I’m around
women who are and their stories are important. Then
just kind of all came together.
Sally: So here you are with a big Web site, www.togivevoice. com,
all of your own. But the big question is: Are you still
Sally: And what gets you beyond that? Because clearly, you’re
this stuff. Where does your love of the storytelling business
come in, in terms of telling other people’s stories that are
not fictional, for example?
Marion: One of the things Mom said about me as a kid is
me—to the point where she’d have to keep an eye on
me. And to me, that was just another story you hear
from your mom.
Someone I know said, “No, it’s something about
you personally.” So that was the first time I was aware
that people singled me out for a reason.
from in here. I don’t know if it’s a sense of empathy
or friendliness because I’ll tend to say “Hey” before
someone else does. I finally realized that’s my gift
and people don’t get heard, but they need to be heard
and that led to To Give Voice in terms of realizing
that’s my remaining life’s work.
Sally: People need to be heard. Can you say more about that? I
this is. I think this is really important—the whole “people
need to be heard” thing.
Marion: There are far more stories out there than I’ll ever have
from now, I think that effort will matter to someone.
My intent was to capture stories in a way that
would be put in a time capsule and buried somewhere
symbolically.
The challenge is that if people don’t keep up with
technology we won’t be able to hear these voices in
the future. The book becomes important because we
can still read it.
So the multimedia is important because it allows
me to afford people an opportunity to speak for
themselves. The only reason I’m being interviewed
is because others want to know, “Why are you doing
this?” Some people think I’m absolutely out of my
mind, and they’re probably right.
Remember…audio may not always match the text
due to book editing decisions…two different mediums.
Meeting with my audio “Guru” shortly.
I have always been fascinated by who people are, where they
come from and why they live on one side of the street instead
of the other. Imagine my surprise when I met a group of
women who chose to live on no street at all.
The following five interviews come from women who made
the decision to RV full-time. Each comes to her story from a
different perspective but they all share a strength I just had
to explore.
Who drives away from the American
Dream and into a nomadic life?
How do you build community
with other nomadic travelers?
And when you can no longer travel …
What happens then?
These interviews are not about buying an RV and they are
not RVing travelogues. Rather, they reveal the courage it takes
for a woman to RV. These women are unique. There’s a strength
within them—a strength they may not see themselves.
And THAT is the core of my passion for these stories.
I want to know what other women think, even if you don’t
RV, but you do see yourself reflected in their strength. Or you
would like to.
The interviews occur in an order that resonates as the stories
progress:
Marion Orem opens with this brief introduction and
Part I of my own RV interview, conducted by Sally.
Zoe Swanagon follows with her compulsion to buy
an RV and the legacy impact that compulsion would have on
1000s of women.
Lovern King shares a decision to RV full-time that led
her and Zoe to found RVW, a travel club for women who RV,
in the early 1990s.
Sally Exworthy & Jan Scott follow with what
they had to keep and what they had to let go when they began
RVing for a second time.
Ruth Silver reveals a story in her monologue that
begins with an RV focus but ends with her thoughts about
community.
Marion Orem closes with Part II of her interview by
exploring why these stories are important to any woman,
regardless of her RV experience.
Now, I‘ve been warned on occasion, “Senior women won’t
visit your Web site. They won’t care about a blog or even know
how to listen to a podcast. They won’t have a clue how to download
mp3 files. Who’s interested in these stories anyway?”
I’m interested, and as a member of the Arizona Book
Publishing Association I’ve been assured, “We all have an insatiable
need to read and to hear stories about ourselves ….” I’m
hangin’ with the authors and publishers on this one because if
we don’t get our own stories, no one else is going to.
This interview process has been a humbling experience. It
has challenged my own thoughts about community and how
each of us can benefit from these women, their strength … and
their wisdom.
Note: Episodes content may vary from the book and audio
due to reader and listener editing choices.
It takes courage to go off and live full-time in your RV, even
more so for a woman, I believe. Thoughts that can occur:
❖ Can I drive an RV?
❖ Is it safe?
❖ How will I meet people and experience a sense of
community?
❖ What do I do if I have a problem? Can I really sell everything,
give up my home and live in an RV?
Having a mentor, another woman who is living on the road
and who loves the RV lifestyle, can make the difference. She
provides you with a role model, someone to whom you can go
if you have questions. Think of her as a friend who has already
figured out the ropes.
Women who choose this lifestyle are strong and courageous.
They have bravely stepped into the unknown. They push forward
in spite of their fears, possessing the self-confidence to
know they will be able to figure things out as they go along
and deal with any problems as they arise.
The joy of the open road and their own personal freedom
are what matters most to these women.
Women Who RV and Their Kindred Spirits gives voice to women
who had the courage to follow their dreams and take the path
less traveled. These women are special and can be mentors to
other women who have thought of the RV lifestyle as an attractive
option but have not yet taken that step toward living it.
They are also role models for living your dream, whatever
that dream may be. It takes courage to step out of your old life
and try something new. These women did it in spite of questions
and fears. They found new adventures, new abilities, and—in
some cases—new lives as a result.
So can you.
—Jaimie Hall Bruzenak
Author of RV Traveling Tales: Women’s Journeys on the Open
Road, The Woman’s Guide to Solo RVing and other RV books.
—RVLifestyleExperts.com
Add Footnote to every blog/podcast…
By · CommentsWWRV: Women Who RV – NAOPB: Noble Art of Printed Book – Reply: Click on Subject Line
Meeting with my WWRV audio ”Guru” shortly.
Wednesday: “Your second book will be easier…”
By · Comments
I’ll be adding SmartDraw and other jpeg visuals to the July through September WWRV blogs and podcasts series. I was so focused on my first audio CD and book that I had little time for anything else.
Wordpress makes it very easy to add media once you learn how to do each option. Not only that, there are a lot of Wordpress resources around so you can minimize your learning curve’s impact on any one helpful soul.
ABPA members told me ”Your second book will be easier…”
While that’s true, there’s now a whole SmartDraw learning curve ahead. Social media’s influence and demands actually strengthened my NAOPB process.
Patience will be a key as I move through this podcast and blogs series. Mine not your’s…
I met with WWRV resource Media Mike (as I call him) today to get a brief but thorough overview of Wordpress. My Wordpress web site was recently revised by NAOPB resource Dave Barnhart – more on Dave shortly.
