From Beverly Hills to Breaking Bad: Life as a Nomad

My name is Sandi McKenna, and this is Unforgettable Conversations. The podcast that is your roadmap to resilience, sharing, extraordinary stories from people, just like you and me who have weathered life's storms. You'll find inspiration and motivation in every episode. Melody Papaj is an artist and author, an entrepreneur and a boondocking septuagenarian whose journey has taken her from the comfort and trappings of Hollywood, California off the grid to a quirky little town in the middle of the Arizona desert known as Quartzsite.. In this episode, she shares the trials and tribulations of her life in her 1986, Shasta RV she calls nomad and that she lovingly describes as Breaking Bad on the outside but Beverly Hills on the inside. In this episode, you'll also hear why she decided to give up her comfortable lifestyle, how she overcame the fear of stepping outside her comfort zone and the roadblocks along the way. Melody welcome to the show

thank you for having me. It's, it's a wonderful to be here with you. It's wonderful to be here with you as well. And so the reason I wanted to talk to you is because you're doing something, what I consider to be really extraordinary. You're a solo woman, RV traveler. Is that a good way to describe you? Yeah. I'm a nomad and it's pretty amazing experience. And I started six years ago. And it's been, um, life-changing

one of the things that I wonder is, you know, what brought you to the decision to do that? Where did you come up with the idea that, I'm a single woman and I'm just gonna get myself an RV and I'm going to travel.

It started long time ago when I was a child, really. When I died in lake St. Claire, and, had quite an experience with it.

Can you explain that so that people understand what you're talking about?

Oh, I'd be glad to. I was on a raft my brother pushed me off and I went under the water and I saw a white light and I traveled through the white light. It seemed like it wasn't instant. It was almost like in slow motion. And then I went to the white light and I had all of my ancestors around me and greeting me. And then there was another being that, that spoke to me and told me many things and I did not have any recall of the things that were said to me until about two years ago. My sister pulled me out of the water by my hair. My father ran into the lake and picked me up and brought me to the beach and, was able to retrieve me. It was quite an experience for a family. That started because everything in my life seemed to change, the way I look at things, even when I was just a youngster, but, compassion of love and kindness was so important to me throughout my whole life. I didn't know that I don't know if it was at an event that brought me to be, opened up the intuitive empath in me and I see spirit guides and stuff like that. So that's how it all started. Six years ago, my spirit guides came back and they did talk to me. They abandoned me for like 20 years and I thought they were done. I thought they were done with me. They kept saying, you need to leave Los Angeles. And I went to a therapist to say, Hey, am I scitzophrenic?? And she said, no. Luckily my therapist and the psychiatrist, the reason I went to that was because I lost my business, a business that I had for 15 years that I was devastated.. And I couldn't get over a depression and I never experienced depression before. Not quite like this. Mine would last like two days and then I'd be out doing something fun. So I basicallyI realized I needed help. So I went to seek a therapist and then I told them about my past with my spirit guides and the things that were happening. And, you know, some of the, the gifts that were, I don't know if I'd like to call it gifts. I don't know what else to call it. The abilities that anyone could have. Everyone has a capability of this. So my spirit guides told me that I needed to leave Los Angeles and they told me to get an RV and I thought they were fricking nuts. I know you gotta be kidding me, me city, girl, out on the road. It's never going to happen. Okay. It got so strong. And I started to do my research and started to look at videos of people doing this. And I thought to myself, I have never really ventured by myself across the country. And I thought this might be a wonderful, wonderful journey that I could take. And it has been, I think, one of the most amazing journeys that I've ever, ever experienced. And I found an RV in Cotton, Arizona, and it was an old junky thing. I call it Nomad, because it there's no rhyme or reason to it, but it only had 47,000 miles. And the engine was great. It's gotten me across the country five or six times, you know, back and forth. it's been a great vehicle and it's a 27 foot Shasta 1986. I have everything I need. I have a bedroom, I have my living room, my big screen TV. I have solar. But I didn't start out like that. I started out, had no solar had none of this and I just added to it and added to it. But my first, adventure was, pretty crazy, but I've learned,

What did your family think about this? I mean, you have a daughter and you have a sister and a son-in-law and what did they think? Oh, she's just going to pack up and go.

My daughter told me this. She says you're nuts. She was not happy. I was going to be leaving Beverly Hills Hollywood. I was going to be getting into an RV, driving across the country by myself with limited funds. And she thought I was crazy. And when I bought the RV oh my God. She was so upset. How could you do that? How could you do that? She goes, mom, you didn't even have anybody look at it. You know, it was, it was bad. But I know she loves me and I know that you really wanted me to be okay. So then my son-in-law after I got it, I was on the phone with them and he goes Mel,, you know, it's an old vehicle and it's going to need a lot work and he pulled out a card, a credit card he says, if it breaks down, don't worry, you're covered. We'll take care of it., you're not alone in this. And, so they became supportive and my family members, I really didn't really go into details with my sister or my siblings, you know, whatsoever when I got it. And I really didn't tell any of my friends. I found it in Cottonwood and the guy drove it down to Mesa, Arizona. My friend's husband redid the inside hardwood floors and he made me paint the walls four times and sand each in between, you know, it was like, you gotta be kidding me. So my, my RVs looks like breaking bad on the outside, but on the inside, it looks like Beverly Hills.

I love that. When you started, what were your feelings? Were you nervous?

Well, I did have a regret the very first day that I drove it because, um, I was going from Mesa to Los Angeles. My first time I'm driving it. And remember I've never driven anything this big. I've always driven a little teeny sports car. You could take three of my sports cars and put them in here. You know, it was crazy and I'm driving through Phoenix and the whole vehicles doing like this. I mean, literally doing like this and I was scared to death. My hands were hurting from holding it, trying to keep it going straight. And I'm about 50 miles east of, of Quartzite, Arizona. And I stopped at a gas station and these two men are motorcycles. I asked could you please look at my, my, my oil? I don't even know where to put the oil in. And, uh, he puts the oil in and he walks around my vehicle and he goes, um, I hate to tell you, but your tire on the passenger side is bubbling. What do you mean? It's bubbling? he goes, it's going to blow and I'm in nowhere land. I'm at a gas station that I didn't even think they have tires. I mean, nowhere land. It was ridiculous. So I said to him, do you think that I can get to Quartzsite? So I drove 40 miles an hour on the freeway, which is very dangerous for other drivers because they could get on a hill and come down and it could be dangerous, but I didn't know. And I'm sitting there like, oh my God. Oh my God. So I get to Quartzsite and I pull into, um, the McDonald's and Pilots rest stop and I'm crying and I'm talking to my daughter, tears are coming down my eyes. I'm just like, I can't do this. I don't want to do this. And all of a sudden, I see Carrie's mobile RV service coming up next to me. I say to my daughter, oh my God, that's an RV service. She goes, mom, hang up the phone. Jump out there and get 'em. So here's this woman from, you know, Beverly Hills area, California, he's about as tall as I am wearing a cowboy hats and cowboy boots, you know, and I, and he's got a long beard, this is something new to me. And, I'm crying. He's reaches into his pocket Little lady call me at seven o'clock in the morning. And, make sure that you get to the tire place. You know, if you look across the street, there's a tire place right there. Cause I couldn't see it. It was dark. Then he said he would look at my RV and he did I had to buy all new tires. I had inner tube in my, one of my tires. An inner tube on the outside for people who travel, who've never traveled get new tires because you never know what's on the inside of them. They can be sitting for years and they still look good. So I learned that lesson very well. The next day, he came over and he put up my hood and he goes, oh, here's part of your problem. The mice have eaten all your wires. Yeah, it was becoming a very expensive RV and he fixed it. Then I took off and when I took off, it broke down on a highway and, uh, I sat waiting for a tow truck for three hours.

What gave you the courage to keep going at that point? Because I might've had second thoughts and said, you know, this is kind of scary. I mean, this is kind of crazy. I don't know anything about this, but you, you soldiered on. So what, what was it that made you really think that you could adapt to this kind of life?

I didn't, there was some times that I felt that this was not good. I did get to California to my daughters and if the RV broke down again, I mean, it broke down, you know, when I got there and we had people look at him and so many people looked at it, then my daughter decided she would travel with me from California to Michigan, and we broke down five times and it was the fourth time it broke down on this trip, in Badlands and in South Dakota, I said to her, if this breaks down again, I'm going to, I'm going to burn it. I'm going to blow it up on the side of the road. she looked at me and she says, mom, and this is really important because I always hear this in my, in my mind, she says, mom, you're not someone that gives up. She says, you, you never give up. Why would you give up? She goes, she goes, I'm ashamed that you even said that. And she was right, because I never give up. And I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, because sometimes we don't know how to stop. So we get to Michigan, she flies back home. Everything is great. And then she flies back out. We did find out what was wrong. It was the alternator. And we even bought four alternators and it broke down in the fourth time, they said, you know, it's not the alternator. And it was, and we returned all those alternators. And then the last person said this, an alternator. So every, since then my RV has been running. I mean, I only have 66,000 miles on this thing. That's pretty amazing for a 1986, you know, monster. And it starts up every single time and it runs really well. And I did put some stuff in it, but the thought of giving up, I spent a lot of time putting it together. A lot of. Researching a lot of time talking to other people, about RV. I paid attention and it was the first time that I actually was alone in my RV. It's when it struck me. And that was on our way back from Michigan and my daughter and I, um, met her husband in Kingman and we went to Vegas, had a great time. We went back to Kingman to get my RV and to have to say goodbye to them. I'm in Walmart parking lot and they're driving away I'm crying like a baby bawling my eyes out. And I'm like, what do I do now? So I take the 95 down to Quartzsite and I asked my mechanic who works on my RV Terry, what's best place for me to stop. I'm a newbie. I've got to figure this out. So I went down to High Jolly and parked in there and I didn't want to leave the RV because I thought there was rattlesnake scorpions, you know, tarantulas,, and every little rock I was like, I was scared, but oh, but before all this, when I was broken down in Quartzsite, I met an American Indian medicine man, who said, I have a dog for you. And I said, I don't want to dog.. He goes, I got a dog for you. I got, I want a dog. And he did something that I never allow anyone to do especially a stranger. He tapped my chest like this. I'm an intuitive empath because I feel things, and I've spoken to spirit guides and, and I understand these things. I looked at him and I said, look at everything that you say to me is going to be in my subconscious now by conscious level. Do you understand that? And he goes, your white, Indian, uh, you need to come home to your people. My mother was half Indian, so it was like, wow, I am. And that's why I I allowed him to do what he did. And so the next day, I asked Terry is, is, is Bear coming, you know, here, to Quartzsite. And lo and behold, he does show up with this crazy looking dog. He's Australian shepherd and half coyote. And he was the most ridiculous looking dog I've ever seen in my life had this big head, these big paws. And I fell instantly in love with him, but Bear was pushing him on me. And I told him to go away for an hour. I said, just go get out of here. Yeah. Don't, don't manipulate me because it's not easy to manipulate me. When you live in big cities, you don't take everything as face value. You questioned things. He left and he came back and he goes, well, what do you think? I go, I love him. I'll take him. And he has been an amazing dog. So. on my first day by myself, I had to walk him. That's why I brought him up. He was about six months old by then or seven months old. Cause I got him when he was three months old and yeah. Trying to walk him, thinking there's going to be a rattlesnake at every rock and crevice it was terrifying. And then I met two men that I was friends with on our village. And I don't even remember meeting them and them being my friends at our village we had a campfire at their place next to me cause that's where they were at. And that's how we connected that they knew me, who I was. And then they said to me, I didn't look anything like my photograph I wanted to belt them, but they were my first friends and that's why I feel so it's so important that when people are new is to, to help them, help them grow and they did. And they really, were great friends, you know? So then I met two more friends that we we're still friends. We're all still friends,. So I drove around with them to different places here in quartzite and, and unpacked and packed up and unpacked and packed up. And I said, nah, that's not it. But getting over this fear, if I can do it, anybody can do it. I don't, I didn't even go into city parks. I didn't like to be around the grass. Cause I thought they might have ants or spiders. You know, I was frightened of, of any little thing that would move.

So how did you get over that

I have seen two scorpions here. I've seen one scorpion in in Nevada, up at, at lake Mead. My daughter was with me and that was quite an experience. I'm walking the dog and I see this huge, huge, this was the biggest one I've ever seen scorpion. And I go back and I said, oh my God, I don't know what to do. So I moved the RV away from it, but it was still there. it's All about education. if you don't know the answer, you go on the net, you look it up and you find out. So it turns out that a scorpion, which I was shocked, a scorpion can stay in one place for three days waiting for its prey. So it wasn't dead. It's just laying there acting like it's dead. I can't do this. It was icky. It was gross. And it was about the size of my palm almost. And I'm scared to death because it's, there's nobody I know that can help me, you know, I'm in the new parking place, which is the parking place is where I'm at now. This is where this happened. When I first went out on my own without my friends and found a place that I like. And it was, um, crazy. And I, I did, I did eliminate his life. I apologized and cried afterwards. I really did cry. I said, I'm so sorry, but you scared me and I can't have you anywhere near me.

The style of, RV'ing that you do is, is called boondocking, right?

Yes.

Explain what that is?

Boondocking is where you go into a place where you're not hooked up to electricity. You're not hooked up to anything. You're at a lot of land and nobody's right next to you, unless you choose for them to be, and you really by yourself. And I could take this RV anywhere in any secluded area and survive, which is amazing.

What makes your RV adaptable to go out and boondock? What, what have you done to it?

The first thing I did was get solar. You know, solar was about $3,000 and so I have solar and I don't have to worry about electric. I have a little problem with my solar right now. This is the first time I've had problems with it. And I kind of not watching my big screen TV yet. I have a big screen TV now, too. I didn't have that when I first started and I didn't have solar. So I was at boondocking and I had to basically turn my, my RV on in order to charge a phone. And that was crazy. But we spent so many nights really late at night around a campfire. I could cook a meal if I didn't have propane, because my RV runs on electrical and propane. The stove runs on propane. The frigerator runs on propane or electrical. So right now it's running on my propane, which is in the tank underneath the RV. And then when that goes out there, Propane big propane containers. I think they're like five gallon or whatever they are. They're big. And I have two of them. And then at night when it gets cold, I have a thing called a buddy heater because I don't have central heating. I have air conditioning, but I can't turn it unless 'm plugged into electric or I have a generator that never worked. I've tried four or five times to get the generator fixed and nobody can fix it. So I'm going to have to get a new generator one of these days, but I can go anywhere. There's a place where I can fill up my, my RV with water, but I'd really, don't like to water here. I think it's, it's rough on my skin and I don't drink it. But I bring in a lot of water and if I get down to eight bottles of the gallon waters, I go buy eight more. I don't allow myself to get down on them because it's not just me. It's also the dog. So, I have the frigerator, I get water. I have electricity because of my solar. Um, wifi, wifi is, is another thing you got to think about. Cause you can go to a camp, you know, they have wifi, but I pay a lot of money for a jet pack where it's a portable wifi. So those are the things that you need. And also I just reordered lights for the bottom of my RV. Cause I like to put them on. So the mice can't get back into my RV, you know, and eat all my wires.. But mine burned out because I used them for so many years. So I just ordered a whole bunch of rope ones and they, yeah, they go on and off and twinkle, twinkle, whatever it is.

Oh how nice.

Yeah. So the, the mice don't like that. and I light up my RV. I put, fairy lights all over the place and spotlights on trees to accent them. And I have a, uh, a canopy. This is my third one that I cause the wind doesn't like canopies. And I have a tent, a small tent that's on the canopy, you know, in the back of it, it, it connects to canopies and this is my art studio. So I can do my artwork. I did have a shower tent, but I really didn't like it. So I just use my art studio. My shower now is my one of my storage units. I have a big tub thing that goes into my tent and I warm up hot water and I can wash my hair, which you see, I didn't, I was going to, and I says, no, it's going to be nothing but frizz, here in the desert, it makes it straight because it's so dry. The dry weather is amazing for your bones and aches and stuff like that. This is beautiful here. The sunsets and the sunrises are magnificent and that's what makes this all worthwhile. And the drum circles, you know, I go to drum circles, we can do karaoke. I have a big screen, all sorts of stuff can do movies. And I know a lot of people here, you know, so, it's not like I'm coming to something that's unfamiliar, but I have gone to places with my RV into regular RV parks. And it just doesn't feel the same.

What is a typical day like when you're boondocking out in the desert? What do you do? How do you fill your day?

Well, first of all, my dog barks and wakes me up because he does and I walk him. I drink my coffee, take my vitamins. I take him out the first thing. I don't take him out at night anymore because the last time out at night was when we met a rattlesnake and that was pretty terrifying. I had nightmares of meeting a rattlesnake and in my vision 'cause, you know, I'm going to be 70 years old. My vision was that I would panic fall. The rattlesnake would either bite me or the dog. And that would be it, you know, so I was really surprised that, I handled it like an adult. Cause it was bad. I mean, turned around with the light and there he was coming up ready to strike.

And what did you do?

My dog was going after him and I pulled him. I says, no bad boy, let's go that's bad snakes, bad. And I, I w walked through the garbage throughout my garbage and I go, okay. I had to take another way home. So I took another way home and I haven't seen one since and I don't want to see one. It was quite an experience. You know, between the know the tarantula walking through our camp several years ago, everybody was amazed, but oh wow. Look at, and they weren't scared. I goes in, why should I be scared? So those are my fears. I love this. I'm not the same person that left California.

And how do you think you've changed?

I'm more at peace. I'm a little bit more logical. I don't get involved in the drama of life anymore. I find pleasure in small little things. Two days ago, Kai started barking and woke me up early, really early, just as the sun was rising. And, I took him outside, for a walk and, um, it was the most incredible sunrise that I've seen in a very long time. And I took photographs of it and I put it up on Facebook and there's nothing like being out in nature. It's about overcoming the fears. When you overcome those fears, it will open up so many different avenues for you. I've always been fearless except for snakes, scorpions and tarantula..

You just dove right in. I'm a very fearful person. I I've always been afraid of everything and I try to get out of my comfort zone and I've traveled, which helped me a lot because you're forced to do things out of your comfort zone so much at the time. But how do you address your fear? Other than rolling over a tarantula or, walking away from a rattlesnake, is it just going right at it and saying, you know, it's, it's all or nothing

Don't live in fear. Getting over your fear is basically understanding That that is a fear. Comprehending it that I have a fear of this. I need to do at least one thing a year that I'm fearful of and to overcome it. I don't think you can overcome fear on everything in one moment, but if you take baby steps, little teeny baby steps, like I wanted to do stand up comedy. My dad was a stand-up comic and he was awesome. So I have this wacky one liner sense of humor. I went and did standup comedy. It was really difficult. When I started my TV network that closed down that caused me to get in that massive depression. I was fearful, but I overcome it. You gotta take baby steps. You gotta figure out what you need to accomplish in your fears. Not what other people can tell you. I don't call myself a religious person. I'm a spiritual person because I know there are spirits. And I know that there is something more than us. I pray to the creator and I pray for. Joy and love, but I also am grateful. So some of these fears you should be grateful that you have them because then you could overcome it. You could face those. I like to call them demons. I don't know what else to call them, but fear can stop you from everything I'm severely dyslexic. And I can't remember people's names and, it's just like ridiculous. And I, when I was in fifth grade, they told my parents that I was incapable of learning, but then I was a pretty little girl. I was going to marry a rich man. Well, that never happened. I never where you're rich man, but she was wrong. She was wrong because, and I learned things that I was fearful of. I learned how to write being dyslexic. I have a book called the education of Taylor on Amazon. My artwork, I take risk. I love working with a blowtorch. I mean, all of these things that, that you're fearful of doing, it's only going to suppress you. It's only going to stop you I also do a lot of meditating, you know, it's, it is connecting that spiritual side of who I am. And this is what this is all taught me. Yeah, it doesn't matter if I'm five pounds, 10 pounds, 30 pounds, 40 pounds overweight. It doesn't matter if my hair is gray and you know, I have to self love myself, not from the ego part of it, but from the love part of it, the compassionate part, when you're compassionate to others and kind, you should also be compassionate to yourself. Kindness is the most important thing in the whole world besides love and joy and peace when you're kind kind to yourself and kind to others. This is something that I've learned. Especially boondocking. Cause those days, I don't wear make up those days that, and you know, I'm dirty. I can look at my hands and go, I've never been this dirty even when I was a child, you know, it doesn't matter. None of this matters.

You have any regrets?

I have no regrets, not one regret in my life. And I have not had an easy life in many aspects of it, but it's the learning about who you are as a human being and we make choices. And that to me is so important. We always have to have a choice, but yeah, I have no regrets. I'm kind of glad I didn't marry that millionaire.

What an incredible story melody has had so far. And yet, somehow I think it's only the beginning. If this episode resonated with you and you know, someone who might enjoy listening, please share. I appreciate your listening and would love it. If you would rate, review and subscribe to the podcast, it really helps with the rankings.