Couple Remain Full-Time RVers Even After Hurricane Milton – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
After Hurricane Milton ravaged central Florida last October, 55-year-old Stefan Kaschkadayev, a life-long camping enthusiast and full-time RVer, briefly considered relocating from the Tampa Bay area to Nebraska.
The Category 3 hurricane not only destroyed his 40-foot Cedar Creek Champagne fifth-wheel in Palmetto, but also the warehouse in St. Petersburg, 20-plus miles to the north across Tampa Bay, where he stored his tools and equipment to repair boats.
Even though Stefan and his wife, Wendy, are still working mostly full-time, with Stefan repairing boats and working as a private, “for hire” boat captain and Wendy working as a yoga instructor, they had been living full-time for the past three years in their fifth wheel at The Tides RV Resort in Palmetto.
“We have two RVs,” Stefan explained. “We have one we live in full-time and we have another one, a small Class C, that we travel all over the place in. We love the freedom of it.”
While Stefan and Wendy were able to escape Hurricane Milton in their 26-foot Born Free Class C motorhome, and stay out of harm’s way with friends in Richland, Ga., losing their fifth wheel home was devastating.
“For me, (Hurricane Milton) was singlehandedly the single worst experience in my life, to know that we had lost our home,” Stefan said. “To lose that was devastating. It’s real emotional. And not only did we lose our home, but we lost the warehouse I had been renting the last 12 years in St. Petersburg. So it was kind of like getting kicked twice.”
But even though they suffered the loss of both their home and warehouse, they ultimately decided to not only purchase another RV and to keep it at The Tides RV Resort, but a truck so they could move it out of harm’s way whenever they need to do so.
“Full-time RVing is really cool,” Stefan said, adding that he and Wendy love living at The Tides RV Resort and can’t imagine changing the full-time RVing lifestyle they have enjoyed in the Tampa Bay Area for the past three years.
“I may be on a project several weeks at a time and then we might take off and take a trip somewhere, go surfing or go visit friends,” Stefan said, noting that they do all of their traveling in their Class C with their two cats, Mr. William Turner and Elizabeth Swan or “Lizzie,” both named after characters in The Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
“They go everywhere with us,” Stefan said, adding, “Life is too short not to enjoy it.”
In fact, Stefan and Wendy upgraded to an even more luxurious RV to use as their home base, purchasing a barely used 2022 DRV Mobile Suite from a retired couple who were no longer able to travel due to health issues. They found the couple through an online ad they placed to sell their RV.
“They said they needed to sell it and we needed a new home. So we got a new home and new friends,” Stefan said, adding that he and Wendy enjoy their friendship with them as much as their new RV.
Stefan added that he just can’t imagine giving up camping and RVing or, for that matter, the snowbird lifestyle they enjoy at The Tides RV Resort.
“I started living the snowbird lifestyle in my 30s. You gotta take your retirement when you can take it and enjoy it,” said Stefan, who has camped and backpacked his entire life, hiking sections of the Appalachian Trail and traveling across the country in different types of RVs, working their up, as many people do, from a popup camper to a motorhome.
RVing, he added, is a way to escape what he calls “the American Nightmare.”
“The ‘American Dream’ is increasingly becoming the ‘American Nightmare.’ They have everybody conned to think that if you work hard and save, you’ll wind up in a gated community. But that’s a prison where you don’t get to see and experience what everything is about,” he said. “I’ve seen too many people in my life who have worked their whole lives and then they get into their late 60s or 70s and their life becomes a hospital bed or chemo treatments.”
RVing, however, provides people with a way to enjoy life while you can, he said. “I feel like the richest man in the world because I don’t need the latest iPad. I just need (my RV) and a good pair of hiking boots.”
Stefan added that now that he and Wendy have a Dodge Dually, they can move their DRV Mobile Suite whenever they need to dodge another hurricane. “If you want to protect your RV, you need to be able to get it out of harm’s way, whether you hire somebody (to move it) or buy a truck,” he said.
