The Coolest People I Know: Charlene Rouse, aka "The RV Nomad"
Do you dream of downsizing 90 per cent and calling the road home? Here's how someone I least expected to have that dream made it a wonderful reality.
I met Charlene Rouse about a dozen years ago through professional connections and we quickly bonded over our mutual love of golf, live music, and being authentically ourselves. We later became co-workers— Char was always game for a happy hour meet up, a supportive chat about work issues, and an inclusive invitation to the many social gatherings she hosted.
She’s a proud native of Kentucky and lived in her home state for the first 67 years of her life. Since June 2021, she and her husband, Mills, now call home a 38-foot RV, and are enjoying exploring the country to visit their three children, soon-to-be four grandchildren, and hundreds of friends. But her heart will always call the Bluegrass State home. And I’ll always be grateful to Char for introducing me to my first cup of steaming Kentucky burgoo at the Keeneland races one spring season. I hope you enjoy our conversation!
Sally: Had you and Mills been dreaming about and planning this for a long-time- your post-retirement nomad life?
Char: No, not a long time at all. It wasn’t until the late stage of the Covid shutdown after working from home for several months that I realized I could do this, I could enjoy being home every day. I could see a life after my career. Before then, I was in no rush to retire. I figured I’d work until I was 70. I mean, I loved my job. I managed a great team, and I was involved with a lot of local organizations that I really enjoyed.
But that span of months in 2020 when I was home full-time just really opened me up to the concept of retiring. Once I made that decision in early 2021, then I really started the process of downsizing and how to live well with much less space and stuff. We were in a 4600 square-foot home but living in basically about three rooms. We were always keeping doors shut and closing off vents because so much of the house wasn’t being used.
Our first plan was to rent an apartment in our same community, and then take some time to explore other cities that we might consider living in. Mills still had his law practice but had cut back a lot on his work. All three of our kids were living a long distance away so we had ideas of moving closer to one of them, but nothing firm. But as we started looking at apartments in the spring of 2021, we ran into this “dynamic pricing.” Kind of high-pressure tactics to get you to rent today at a certain price but if you wait until tomorrow the price goes up! I had no idea this was a common practice- I thought it was ridiculous.
So we started to think of alternatives, to just open up to different options. I think it was Mills who said, “Why don’t we just get an RV and travel for a while.”
Sally: Did Mills have to “sell” you on this idea of living life on the road?
Char: Well, I was intrigued- I’m great at planning trips, but I wasn’t as sure about the camping part! But I was willing to check it out. We rented an RV and took a short trip to get a feel for it, like a practice trip. By this time, we’d sold our house and were in the last couple of weeks until the closing when we would need to be out.
We decided this was the route we’d take, at least in the beginning. We bought an RV, and the day we were moving out it was parked in our driveway along with a truck for stuff we were putting in storage. I was directing the moving guys to either put stuff in the RV or put it in the truck for storage. By evening we handed over the keys to our house to the new owners and drove our new RV home about an hour away to start what’s now the phase of retirement we’re still living in.
Sally: You had such deep roots in your community and your neighborhood. And worked in management at an office within a 10-minute drive from home. Honestly, you were not someone I thought would create a post-retirement life on the road!
Char: And I would be the first to agree! I was always that person who has to plan it all out and know exactly what’s coming next. It was the freedom of choosing retirement, that change, that allowed me to really let go of all of that stuff I was responsible for. I realized, “I CAN do this! I can make a change.” I couldn’t see it before, even just in the previous year to making that decision to retire.
And we went into this with the attitude that this was an experiment. If it turns out this isn’t for us, then we’ll sell the RV, and head back to northern Kentucky, pay a crazy-high rent for an apartment, and then start a new plan!
Sally: It’s so interesting to find out how little time you did actually put in planning this big change! I knew you wanted to downsize but you made so much happen so quickly- I’m impressed by the courage and sense of adventure you have.
Char: When I look back on it all know, I don’t know how I did it so quickly. The first huge task was to go through all of our stuff and choose what to keep and what to either donate or sell. Our kids’ generation isn’t interested in a lot of the items we inherited or kept from our parents and grandparents. While I didn’t keep some of those things, I have photos of every special item that has a family history. It brought me so much joy going through those things and remembering.
People sometimes ask if there’s anything about downsizing, letting go of stuff and selling our home that I feel bad about. And there’s nothing. I have no regrets about any of it.
Sally: Did you envision that you two would still be on the road, living the RV nomad lifestyle, almost four years since you started?
Char: Probably not, but you know we didn’t really have a set end date to this lifestyle. We just said to ourselves, “When we’re done, we’re done. And when that happens, we’ll talk about where we’d like to settle.” And that’s still what we say now, three and a half years later.
The nice thing is, we get to see a lot of communities as we travel. We see a lot of options. But as far as going back to our old neighborhood and community, a lot has changed. Other neighbors have moved, our children have all moved away to develop their careers. Both of us, our parents passed away and we don’t have as deep of family ties to the area that we once did.
Sally: I always keep up with you via your social media posts. You really explored a lot of places in the U.S. in that first year, but now it seems you’ve found a little home base and community in southern California.
Char: We learned quickly that we like to spend the winters in a warm place- makes sense, right? We’re spending our third winter in California, near Indio. Two of our children live in southern California and our youngest, our daughter, is having her first child this spring. I’m loving being near her to be part of all of the wonderful planning and celebrations!
This year we decided to purchase a lot so we can come and go but then each winter come back to this spot. It starts to get very hot here in May- that’s when we start our explorations around the country. I call it our “summer vacation.” Even though we’re on the road, you can’t live like every day is a vacation. Some days we’re just doing the mundane things that make up life. It still feels like a summer vacation when we pull up and travel around.
This year we are heading to New England, there are eleven states in the northeast we want to visit plus the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia. New Brunswick and Newfoundland. We’ve met other RVers here at our winter home spot and we get a lot of tips and ideas from their travel experiences. We have a travel club where we meet to share ideas for traveling a region. It’s really helpful for making plans when you get can so many good ideas from others also driving an RV.
Sally: What’s been the unexpected joy of your nomad lifestyle?
Char: I knew I would enjoy traveling to new places, but I think it’s been such a great thing to meet so many new people who are becoming friends. We spend time together, then we go our separate ways on different trips, but we can stay in touch and plan to do some trips together or just meet up again back in California. I feel like I’ve got friends all over the country now.
Sally: And, I have to ask, what’s the most challenging aspect of your day-to-day living this way?
Char: Well, the first thing that pops into my head- which is funny because I really don’t think about it too much- is the limited space for clothes and shoes. You only have so much room. One in, one out- that’s the rule. Buy something new and something you own has to go.
I wish I had more refrigerator space sometimes. Now that we’ve got a great outdoor space for entertaining, we can have six or eight people over and I don’t have a ton of space to keep food for that many.
Sally: It seems that though you’ve made a radical lifestyle change, you’ve kept active with the things that have always brought you joy. What lifelong passions have you kept following in your new lifestyle?
Char: Mills has been able to keep making music, which he’s done all his life. He’s met people along the way who love music, too, and he’ll get his guitar out or the keyboard and play for people sitting with us outside. At our winter place, he’s met another guy who plays music, and they’ve performed together at monthly happy hours. And, you know us, we’re always looking for places that have live music when we travel along to new places.
And I love to cook, so I’ve learned to find recipes I can make in our limited space. Now that we have a good-sized outdoor space in the winter where we park, I have a much bigger outdoor kitchen which allows me so many more options. We’ve got entertaining space, and that’s what I love. Just having people over and entertaining, and I’ve found a way to keep doing that.
Sally: Do you feel as though you’re doing new activities and have a new sense of adventure to try things you might not have before?
Char: Well, as Dr. Seuss once said, “Oh, the places you will go.” It seems like we’ve still got so many more places to go, things to see and people to meet.