Solo, Surgical & Seven Years Rolling: Candice Cameron’s Life as a Traveling Surgical Tech │ Community Spotlight

Community Spotlight is Sponsored by RV Roofing Solutions

What does it take to solo RV across 21 states, work in 30 hospitals, and share your rig with two cats and a ball python? Candice Cameron has been figuring that out since she was 29. Tasha sits down with this solo female RVer and traveling surgical technologist to talk about the career that makes her road life possible, the pets that keep her company, and the hard-won lessons she’s picked up at truck stops, campgrounds, and everything in between.

Learn How:

●      A career in surgical technology creates the ultimate mobile work setup

●      Solo women RVers are quietly changing the culture at campgrounds

●      Harvest Hosts and Good Sam fit into a life of extended-stay RVing

●      To build confidence behind the wheel of a 31-foot rig

●      To keep pets (including a 4.5-foot ball python) happy on the road

●      To trust your gut when safety is all on you

Links & Resources:

🚐 RV Roofing Solutions: rvroofingsolutions.com

🔒 Wyze Home Security: wyze.com

🏕️ Harvest Hosts: harvesthosts.com

🌟 Good Sam: goodsam.com/club

🐾 RVing with Pets — Learn To RV: learntorv.com/traveling-with-pets

👉 More RV Life Resources: learntorv.com

🎤 Podcast Website: learntorvthepodcast.com

👥 Join Our Free Facebook Community: Learn to RV: The Community

📸 Follow Our Adventures: @LearnToRV

📺 Watch on YouTube: Learn To RV Channel

💛 Support the Podcast:

Patreon (Join the Campfire Crew for bonus content, early access, exclusive episodes, + swag)

Buy Me a Coffee (drop us a tip ☕)

💬 Are you a solo RVer — or dreaming of hitting the road on your own? Share your story in our Facebook community! Ready to hear your story read on our Campfire Confessions episode? Email it to connect@learntorv.com. 

✨ If Candice’s story inspired you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review at learntorvthepodcast.com!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hey, welcome to Learn to R V The Podcast. I'm Tasha, and today for our community spotlight, I have Candace Cameron here with us. Not from Full House. Don't get excited, but it is a a much cooler Candace Cameron. I think so anyway.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Thank you. Candace, welcome to the show. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Tell us a little bit about yourself. I'm personally 35 and um I have been traveling in my RV for I'm coming up on seven years now. Um my profession allows me to travel nationwide. And I got this idea from other travelers that do the RV life and fell in love with the idea and dove headfirst into everything and haven't looked back since.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

That is so cool. So you're 35 and you've been doing it seven years. So you were let me do mental math, and I am not a math person. So you were 27, 28, 20, 28.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

29, because I I bought the RV at the end of 2019, and so I was 29.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

So have you been in the same RV the whole time? Yes. Can I ask what kind of RV you're driving?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Yeah. Um, I have a 2008 Winnebago chalet. Um, he is 31 feet long and uh we're class C. And I lucked out, uh it was actually my mother who found the listing. It was through Camping World up in New Hampshire. Um, I was on an assignment in uh where was I? I was in Connecticut, um, drove up for the weekend. Um, he had a great floor plan, two owners, uh low miles. Um, I only bought them with 26,000 miles. Um and it wasn't a smoker. I didn't smell dogs, and I pretty much was like, I I test drove it. Um, test drive didn't go quite as well as the dealership hoped for. We went down a hill and was around the circle, and I smelt burning rubber, burning metal. And uh he had me pull over and the front brakes were had seized up because the he had been sitting on the lot for so long. Yes, yep. So we quickly pulled over, saw that they were flaming red. Um, and he was like, crap, I'm so sorry. Uh, I gotta call my manager. I was like, oh my god, please don't catch fire because I really like this RV. But I we'd gotten through that, and he's like, I will be getting you brand new breaks. I'm like, Yes, you will. I we went went home after that. I had sat on, you know, took pictures, took videos, sat on it for a week, and I was like, I think this is the one. And I put a deposit down, and it was the next weekend. I went down, did a full walkthrough, signed papers, and it was the brakes, and then the backup camera needed to be fixed, and so it was a week after that. I drove them off the lot. Candace.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

That's so steep and cool. Okay, so I have so many questions. Are you ready? I'm not gonna rapid fire the menu, but I have so many questions. Okay, so first off, I feel like I need to start with what maybe the biggest question is what do you do that allows you to the freedom to kind of go work where you want to work? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

So I am a certified surgical technologist and first assist. So that is I pretty much sum up my job of if you've seen any medical show, I'm the person who hands the surgeon the scalpel. Um I yes, so there's more to it. I help get the room situated, make sure we have all the sterile supplies and instruments, and I help with the patient. And then during surgery, I will help the surgeon in kind of any way that they need. And then as a first assist, I can go a step further. I can help close the incisions, and so it's a very in-depth behind the scenes job, but I love it. I do get to help people. I'm not as like memorable and notable as a nurse, but the nurses and surgeon could not do surgery without me. And so that's a really important job. Yeah. Um, and so my certificate is nationwide. Um, and so I get to go to all 50 states. And I how I do the traveling is very similar to a traveling nurse. I am hired through a company and they contract me out. I go to a hospital that say somebody went on maternity leave or had surgery and they're just out for three, six months. They the hospital doesn't want to hire somebody, so they get a traveler, and their standard is three months. And if you want to stay and the hospital still needs the need, then you can stay a little bit longer. Personally, I I like the travel aspect. I like to go to the place, experience it, spend the three months, and then move on to the next. And so I have been to 21 states. I have a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

That was my next question.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Yeah, I've worked at 30 different hospitals. Wow. I I don't count the states that I've traveled through, it's only the states that I've worked. Um, but it's it's been fun. I've been able to see the country, see places that I would have never even thought of. Um like most notable was Utah. Um, there is an assignment there, and I was like, well, okay, let's go see what's in Utah. And I, you know, for me, I don't know anybody. I don't I kind of research the town and I'm pretty independent. I can like to go out and explore, do camping trips, and so it's that has allowed my job has allowed me to do what I do both in the medical field and as traveling. The I I kind of joke of I love the RV life with traveling for my profession because it's my bed, it's my sheets, um, it's my environment. I don't, I'm not at the mercy of trying to find an apartment and put laugh in the first and last month. And before I'd gotten the RV, I did a couple travel assignments and I kind of had some sketchy housing. So to to make my life and my pets' lives a little bit easier, of having my own space has has been great. So you travel with pets? I do. Who what I have two cats okay, and then I have an exotic. I travel with a snake as well. So it's a weird mix of that is.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

That's like I don't know. I have a cat, but my cat is 17 years old. And I think if I added a cat snake to the mix, the cat would like make sure the snake knew who was boss by the time I got home. Yeah. So I have to know who rules the camper of the three, and then how long you've had each of them. Did you have them like before you hit the road, or did you get them after you set out? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

So uh my girl, my oldest cat, she definitely rules the roost. I got her, she's 12 now. So I got her before traveling. But she with her, I was actually able to kind of train her. She's leash trained, so she goes on walks. She got comfortable with the car.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

You're one of those great people. The people that I see out walking around, I am one of those people. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yep. You're gonna have to teach me all your tricks. If I tried to put Edward on a leash, I swear he would not go. He would just sit and stare at me and be like, what are you? Just flop over going. Like, this is not happening today. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

I'm so impressed. Yes. I I I lucked out with her. She pretty much was like, once we got the leash and the harness all trained, and and I opened up that front door, the apartment outside, and she knew what it meant. She's like, Okay, I I've got this. That's awesome. My boy, on the other hand, he was a little, I got him as a kitten, so he's no issues with the harness, but he is a homebody. He doesn't really like to walk around. I made a system of where I've got a run that I've got coated cables that are anchored to each side of my awning arm. And I flip their retractable leash on the cable with a carabiner, and they can just roam with me sitting outside um in that area. And he just he'll go out, he'll find a patch of grass, and that's it. He's shown no interest in walking. Yeah, he he likes the backpack. Um I feel like he feels okay with the backpack, but walking didn't really like. And then the snake was the last. I got him while on assignment in South Carolina. My my girl, I don't even think she knows it's in here. Um, he's just oblivious, doesn't care. My boy, he he was curious at first, but then now he's like, eh, okay. You're part of the family. You don't move that much. You're not that into training. It's a ball python. Holy moly, you did not go small. So well, okay, so the ball pythons, he is about four and a half feet long. So he's not gonna get that's not gonna get any biggers. Uh the fattest part, what is that? Maybe tennis ball.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

That's less than a foot shorter than my 21-year-old child. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Yeah, footing, footing like a few inches shorter than me. Yeah. But they're bully pythons are are so chill, they just kind of sit there. He's definitely more nocturnal. I've been able to take him out outside um in the southern states while it's warm. But he's kind of he's just like along for the ride.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Do you have to have special equipment or anything inside your RV to keep him warm, like any lights or anything like that? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Yep. He's in a he's in a uh tank, a vararium that there's a light source, a heat, and two types of heat source, and then a light that mimics the sun. And he, since they're tropical, he likes high humidity. Um, so I kind of they've got a mister, and it's the size of the tank is um four feet by two feet by eighteen inches. I wanted to go a little bit bigger because they say four feet by two feet by two feet is the standard, but you're kind of limited on space in an RV. So I had to only go 18 inches, but it's it's been fun. He he's been really cool. I have always loved snakes. As a kid in high school, I volunteered at a wildlife refuge center and out of school. Um, I fell in love with the California king, and of course, his name was Elvis, and he was just the chillest dude. He, I mean, you would just take him out of his enclosure and he would just sit on your shoulders while you're doing paperwork or just chilling. That is so I learned I learned a lot from there, kind of fell in love, and I had always wanted a snake, and it just so happens I was on assignment, and in town there was an exotic show, and you know, the old saying of, oh, I'm just going to look, I'm just going to look. Just want some meal, get some research, get a basis, and then you come home with one.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Uh-huh. You've you've been traveling, you are in this class C with your three pets. You've gone to 21 states. Was Utah your favorite stop? Is that like the best place that you think you've been? Or was that the best like workplace that you've been?

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Utah, unfortunately, wasn't the best workplace, but Utah definitely was in my top three. I really loved Denver, Colorado. That was super fun. Denver. I sat in the summer, so that was even better. Yep. And then the other was Washington. Um I fell in love with Washington State. Uh, I kind of was a little biased because that's where I was born, but I left my family and I left Washington when I was six. So I hadn't been back maybe when I was a teenager to visit family, but that was it. And I spent a little over a year in the Pacific Northwest. So I did Washington and Oregon.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Yeah, I fell in love. I uh I went up to the Pacific Northwest for work before we hit the road, and it was just a trip. I mean, I had been up there when I was a kid on a vacation, but I keep telling my family, like, yeah, we're gonna get up there, and we have still oh yeah, not made it there. And so my son is 18, and he's like, Yeah, I don't, I don't think you're ever gonna take us to like we're never gonna get to the Pacific Northwest. I'm like, No, I promise. The furthest that we got, we'll do it. We're gonna do it. Yeah, we got up to we were in California, we got up into like wine country north of San Francisco, and then we ran out of time and we had to start heading up east because we had rallies that we had to get to. But I keep telling him we're gonna we're gonna wrap back around. That's what we were supposed to do this last year, and then we hugged a tree with RV, and it was a whole thing, and we had to have repairs, and our our entire trip got derailed. But so I'm very jealous that you got to spend like a good a good chunk of time up there. That whole area is just gorgeous. It is. So this next year, no, I mean, we're at the beginning of the year. How far out do you plan with your work? Because I know that you know, you were saying that the hospitals like to have about a three-month contract. Do they book those out far in advance? Are you like booked for the year or how far do you know?

SPEAKER_00 15:28

No, I so I will um I'll start looking for a next assignment about a month out. Um I have a I do kind of a general idea of my route that I want to do for the year. I definitely I chase the sun. So I try and go north for summer, south for winter. Even though I've gone south, I have always seemed to have freezing weather and or snow. So that really hasn't quite worked out. But I kind of will get an idea in between each assignment. I take a week off. It just kind of allows me to get there. Um, I will try and just do like maybe a state or two away. And when I first started out, you know, I was trying to go like eight hours driving in a day, and I was just like, ugh, forget this. I'll drive four or five hours, go to a harvest host for the night, chill, relax, get up bright and early, um, enjoy the drive. And so I kind of have a rough idea of in what region I want to be at what time. So, and then I just I'm not picky in where I go. I'll just say a month till I end the contract. I'm like, okay, we're looking. I'm gonna go east. And let's say, you know, I'm currently in Florida, I'll look maybe Carolina's Virginia, see what's out there. My recruiter will send out, send an email to me with all their job postings. I'll do the research of the town, make sure that there's actually a campground. Um very important. And I have to, yes, very important. And then I have to make sure that I am the campgrounds within 30 minutes of the hospital because we do take call. And so there is a time restriction of about 30 minutes from there. Yeah. Yeah, you get called in, then you gotta get clocked in. I've only had to shy away from bigger cities just because they don't have a campground, downtown Boston, downtown Denver. So it kind of limits there. And but other than that, I've done big cities, I've done tiny little towns, and it's it's always been it's always been fun.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Do you have like we have a thousand trail membership and we kind of use those to get campsite to campsite? Do you have memberships like that? I know you said you use Harvest Host to kind of get across places. Do you use a lot of memberships to help you out that way? Or is it just kind of a whatever is near where you need to go, that's where you're staying? Yep.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Um, I I only have Harvest Host and Good Sam. For the most part, because I stay at one spot for three months. I haven't really been able to it's like when I started out, I I did have KOA, I had KOA membership, but I learned quickly that that's only for nightly, weekly stays. If you go do an extended stay, they won't give you the points, they won't give you the discount. Yeah. So I've just kind of dropped it, and for the most part, I've been kind of half and half between chains or just mom and pa campgrounds. And so it's for me the only membership I keep in accordance to like stays is harvest host. Um but I mean that's that's been fun. I've yeah, I've gotten to see uh a lot of farms and picked up some really good ground beef and some steaks along the way, and a couple stopped at a couple breweries, got some lagers and ales and all, you know, all that fun stuff. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

So you are you're gonna start moving north, you said, right? Yep. Yep. So you're hitting all of this kind of cooler weather that we're hitting. We're I was like, this is not what I signed up for when I said sure, let's winter in Florida. Yeah. So as you start going north, is there like a part of the country this year that you're like really hoping to get to that you haven't gotten to yet?

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Um, I'd like to do a little bit more on the East Coast, um New England kind of area, east of the Mississippi. I have done Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, West Virginia, Georgia, and Florida, and Ohio. And so I've got a lot of other states and to check off the list and because I have the ambitious goal to say I worked in all 50 states before I retire. I can I can definitely see the Continental 48. Um, Alaska and Hawaii are a little difficult to do in the RV.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Yeah. But you know, but maybe you could like park it somewhere and take a flight over and hang out somewhere for three months in Hawaii and work and then come back and pick up your rig.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

I mean, I can see that happening. I've I've kind of I kind of had a plan of I'd send, I'd have to first go to Arizona, drop off all my plants with my grandmother, and probably drop the snake off with her as well. I'd go to up to New Hampshire where my parents are to drop the cats and the RV off, and then I'd probably hit Hawaii.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

That's right. Maybe you should drop the cats off first, and then go to Arizona, and then go from Arizona to Hawaii. Yeah, yeah. That might be a better trip. So you're okay, so I we haven't gotten to this part, and I really want to touch on this because I like this has been such a big deal for me. I've been wanting to talk to solo women RVers, um, because I'm supposed to be a PG, so I'm not supposed to say the Word that I want to say, but you're just kind you're a rock star. That's the word that I'm going to say. But as a solo RVer, first of all, like applaud, applaud. I have so much applause for you just as a solo RVer, period. But there's so like I am not a solo RVer, but I park the rig. Like, and I can drive the rig. And I've talked about this on the show before. I will be driving, and people will come up and will be like, um, excuse me, do you did your husband leave? Do you need me to do that for you? No, I can park my rig. We're okay. Like, I know how to back into the space. So I am wondering for you, is that something that you encounter a lot whenever you arrive? And how do you kind of like get people out of your space and get them to like what kind of do you think that that's improving at all? Are you seeing an improvement there? And how is there a community growing? Um, I guess is my question for solo RVers. And is there a networking that you've seen that way? Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Um, so when I first started, yeah, um, I had a lot of these people, um, older gentlemen coming up and offering to back up or, you know, just stand at the corner of their lot and think that they're about to mock somebody for not being able to back up 31 feet of RV. Um, I do have to admit, I had gotten the rig end of 2019, then obviously COVID hit. Um, me and my father had pretty much gone from bumper to bumper, renovated it. And in that time where um I had them stored, I was just down the road from a mall. And since the mall was closed, I had a giant parking lot that I could practice backing up, checking my mirrors, figuring out that algorithm. And so I I was able to look out. I had practice before I hit the road. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

But you should have driving any rig. If you're driving a VW bug, you should go practice before you hit the road. Yes. Like that's just a given.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Yes. And so it that helped kind of with my confidence. And like I said, in the beginning, yeah, I I would get a lot of looks, and you know, people peeking through the the shades, and um, but it kind of it definitely has gotten better, and you just kinda have to put your game face on. Um I I've been able to kind of shock some people of being able to back up and park and first try, and I kind of wait until I get into the rig and then I kind of jump up and down for joy and giggle because I actually did it on the first try. But it's it's just kind of yes, it definitely has gotten better. Um, I have met along the road other females that are doing it by themselves, but it's there's also the wow factor of I I go to, you know, I I go to work and new assignment, and people want to know all about you, and I tell them what I do and doing the travel thing, being in the RV, and they're like, How long are you? And I'm like, I'm 30, it's 31 feet, bumper to bumper, and then I tow a car behind me, and so that's about another 20 feet, and by myself, and they're like, Really? Okay, that's really cool, but I don't think I I don't think I could do that. I couldn't do that. And I was like, Yes, you can. You just have to believe in yourself and have the confidence to just go out and do it. And I've told uh told a lot of people that it's like you you can do it, don't doubt yourself, just yeah, have a good head, have a calm heart, and if you mess up, you mess up. I mean, yeah, there's been days where you're doing a 20-point turn to try and get in, and you keep going in and out, in and out of the truck, and you're trying to put rocks where you're supposed to go, and then you roll over the rock, and it's just it is what it is. But I kind of I have a family and that allowed me to figure things out for myself. I thought you know, I've been doing this for a while, but I'll be the first one to admit that I still call my dad at every other week. I was like, Okay, how do I do this? Okay, what do you think about this? Can I do this? And he's like, No, let's think of this through. And um, my dad, YouTube, um, and Facebook. And you've got a build-in support system.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. So if you do you have any tips in regards to like safety or just like, hey, you're gonna be a solo RVer. These are the things that you need to know that maybe would be easier if you had another person with you, but you need to take extra precautions because you are the only one who's who's there. So you need to make sure that you've got this on hand or you need to make sure that you're ready for this because you don't know what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Yeah. Um for safety, like I said before, you just kind of have to game face and go with your gut. I have definitely listened to my gut a couple times when traveling from assignment and couldn't find a campground, or you have a tire blowout and you spend six hours on the side of the road waiting for a progressive to try and send somebody to fix your tire. And I'm talking from experience. And you just I have that experience. Yeah. So you just want to be done with the day and you go to the closest truck stop, but you just you get a feeling, and you're like, nope, go in, grab some caffeine, pound it, go to the next one. And if it if you have that gut feeling, listen. That intuition. I also I also kind of went a step further. Um, I have a security system for the RV. That's awesome. I was able to find a company, and the company calls is called Waze. Um, Wise. And they partner with another company to do monitoring. And so each window, each door has a sensor. It allows me temperature sensor, leak detection, which has saved me a couple times. Yep. Yeah. And I always have it set when I go to bed, and other things to have on hand when you're by yourself is a good toolkit. I was able to stealslash borrow some tools from my father before I left and spare screws, bolts, washers, zip ties, duct tape. You just kind of acquire different things and having a good toolkit, you know, something if a screw breaks, or if you need to install something, having that has always been a a good comfort. Um, and just kind of, you know, not not be ashamed to go look at YouTube. Um, I joined a couple full-timer RV groups and I've posted some questions and they've been pretty good, have been able to give me answers, and but then I've also had to call the mechanic and be like, hey, I need help. Gone through all my resources and I still can't figure it out. And I've luckily been able to get some some nice guys and they've applauded me for trying to figure it out and talking to them, explaining everything. And I always have my phone out. I kind of record what they're doing. So if something, if the other side you know, happens again, then I can just go back and just kind of having confidence in yourself. Um if you feel confident in going out, then you'll you'll enjoy it. My first leaving, leaving the comfort of being close to my my my father and fully going out on my own after fully moving in. Obviously, that was my maiden voyage, and I blew a rear internal tire and but yeah. Um that's a big one. And yeah, it was a big one. Yeah, yeah. So it's it's just just kind of going with your gut feeling and yeah, not being afraid to get dirty. Trust your trust your intuition.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

I love that. Well, Candace, I cannot thank you enough for coming on and sharing your story with us. If you have a story that you want to share with our community, you can reach out to us at connect at learn torv.com. We are also starting a new segment um coming soon this season where we're gonna start telling some campfire stories. So if you have some of those just crazy wild stories that you like to share around the campfire about things that have happened to you, you know, I've got a million Martin Mayhem stories that happened to us along the road, but maybe it's not a whole episode worth, but it's just a really good story with a lesson in it. We're gonna start doing some episodes with those. So you can email those to us uh to read on air. So those at connect at learn to rv.com and subscribe, share with your friends, and we look forward to sitting down at the campfire with you next time. Thanks for joining us.