Walking for a Kidney: Thomas & Denise of Golden Life Travelers | Community Spotlight

SPEAKER_02 0:04

This is Lauren to RV, and we are here with Thomas and Denise, and they're a really neat couple, but we are here at the Adventure Bandits Rally, and they just happened to say that they were doing some really special stuff. So let's start with how did you guys get into RV?

SPEAKER_00 0:20

That was about 20 years ago. Yeah. 2004 we started.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Well we did you start with like did you retire or like we actually were working?

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Looking for, yeah, we're both working. We're looking for fun things to do. We had a boat at first. And uh Denise said, if I caught a fish and the fish wiggles, she wasn't getting on the boat. We uh we sold a boat and bought our first RV, and that was in 2004. And uh we've uh just upgraded and upgraded until we got to the coach that we want. And we drive a nice Tiffin Allegra Red now. It's a 40-foot diesel pusher. And we're happy with it. It's a sweet ride. We've been enjoying the life. Yeah, we've been doing it for for a while.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

So when you first started RVing, did you think that it was hard to make friends on the road? Oh, I mean, way back it was it was different. There weren't as many of us.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

It was different. No, we didn't know people that was doing it at all. And we were sort of like a young couple doing it at that time. And we were saying, you know, most people wait till they retire to actually do this, and we happened to to stretch out and do this. But on our very first trip out of town, we went to a place called Fair Harbor up in uh Perry, Georgia. Perry, Georgia, yeah, Perry, Georgia. And we met this camping group that was there called Merrimax out of Atlanta. Okay. And we was like, wait a minute, these people are around our ages and stuff, right? Yeah. So since they were there, you went, you know, we stopped mingling with them, and and next thing you know, we joined that club. Yeah. Yeah. And uh that opened the the waves and doors for everything else, and we was able to see exactly what was out there because they was more experienced than us, and they just told us about everything. They didn't have YouTube's and all that back.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

You know what I mean? No, you had to find the community.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

You had to find the community.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

And we learned so much from them. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Learned a lot. Well, and I think that that's kind of the magic of it is the community. But as it's grown, it's changed. Yes. And so, how did you guys get involved with like the adventure bandits?

SPEAKER_00 2:08

This so happened. We started watching uh different YouTubers on on television. Of course, the venture bandits popped up the most. They was it was like, wow, they seem to be even younger than us. And uh, you know, we're in our 60s, so they seem to be younger than us. We're like, wow, they seem to have this thing down pat.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

And we started watching them on Saturdays. That was our TV on Saturdays, watching them, the places that they were going and how they were traveling and moving around and about. So that encouraged us even the more to get out. And you know, the um rallies and things that they were having, the meetups and things. So that was very encouraging that to know that to see how people were intermingling in the RB community. And RV community to me is like none other. It's like none other. The people that you meet are like family write-off. There's no boundaries, there's no guards up, there's no anything for hindrance. Everybody's like one big happy family. Yeah. So when you go to a meetup or you meet people, it's like it's family, like a family union. So it's it's a different level of people.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Sure enough, yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

That I wish that the whole world can be like RV communities. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

It's it's just that wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yeah, no, I mean, there's a magic in the RV community that isn't anywhere else for sure. What kind of rig did you start out in?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

We start out in a 30-foot with one-slide hurricane. Classic. Built by thought. It's classic. So you've always always been class A. Okay. Yeah, and uh a month later, after, you know, like we went to that first rally, we seen what those folks were driving. We was like, wait a minute, this is not gonna work for us. We traded it and went one month and went and got the next level. Uh 35-foot adventurer. Okay. And I think it had three slides, maybe, something like that. Yeah, two slides. Two slides or something like that. And we hit the road. We, as soon as we got it out of Tampa, we was down there lazy days there. We drove straight to Key West that night, that evening. Straight. Straight there. Might have got there at three or four o'clock in the morning. It left the key out for us, and we was able to get in and park. And we enjoyed that for about a year. And then uh we went to another camping, get together again, and they had uh camp owner, well, RV owners out there, and they brought this pretty Winnibago veter out there. It's a diesel tube, but we we we went and got that diesel pusher, and we kept that for about 12 years, I would say. Yeah. And then on my job, I got a promotion. I was the president of an organization called the International Longshorming Association in Savannah, Georgia, C Union outfit. And we load ships and stuff that comes in from over off the seas. And that took, for about three or four years, that took so much of the RV life away from. And uh decided to just come out of that and just do something different in the job. And we got back into RVing again. Then here we go. We bought the fourth one and went over in South Carolina there and bought that Challenger and kept it for, was it two years? Uh about somewhere around two years. So that two years, it ended August of last year. And then we bought this Tiffin Allegro bus last August. And that's when we started our page. The very first video was we showed us uh buying and trading our other RVN and buying the new one. Nice back in August.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

So what is your page? Let's start there.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Yeah, the Golden Life Travelers. Right now we're just on YouTube. This YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

We haven't did the Facebook yet. We'll eventually get into that, but right now we're on the YouTube um YouTube channel.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

And it took off. It took off. It could be around a little over, probably 12,000 subscribers and maybe. That's awesome. Yeah. And just a few months.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

So what made you choose a TIFFN? Uh I just like that.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Yeah, I just like the floor plan.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

I want their showers. So I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Yeah, they got the big showers. They probably had the biggest showers in RVs.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

And the best roof in the industry. Yeah, that's true. It's 0.7 millimeters thicker than all the rest.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

How about that? Yeah. Wow. It's well built. The cabinet and cabinetry is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Have you met Bob Tiffin at first? Yes, we have.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Yes, we have.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Yeah, such a sweet heart. He's so awesome.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

They are. He is. Yeah, we we were at Tampa Super Show down there, and he had one of his special editions. And we was in there. And oh man, they laid the carpet out. They rolled out the red coppet now.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

They do. Yeah, they're actually planning to go over to um Red Bay to the Tiffin Company in July. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

And we're part of the Allegra Club as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yes. Yeah, they take good care of their people.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

They do.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

So have you done a Tiffin rally yet? We're planning. No, we uh have not done one yet. They're so booked.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Yeah. It's you have to get on the waiting list if you don't move right away. The last one that we saw by the time we saw it, it was already booked.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

And the way that they do their rallies is different. But it's very well done. I've been to a bunch of them because we're a tiffin benefit partner.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Oh god.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

They sell they actually do a lottery type thing to select you to go to the rallies. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

I mean they serve you dinner and nice dinners, and there's great connections and there's activities and they do such a good job. Absolutely. So we're planning on it. Different type of rally than this one. And so, like, and and that's the thing, the more rallies you go to, the more interesting they get because they're so different. So, like, there's gonna be more seminars, there'll be more vendors. Um, but at the same time, you'll have the education side of it, but it's always done in such a nice place. You know, they know their they know their customers, so they get that.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

So we're looking forward to that. Yeah. Going to one of their rallies as well.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

So when when I first heard your story the other night as you were introducing yourself here at the Adventure Bandits rally, I was intrigued because you talked about your husband needing some having some medical challenges. What's going on and how can our audience help you?

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Well, I'm in need of a kidney. My GFR fell down to about a seven, and I was right on the bread of uh going in to have to go on dialysis. But talking with the doctors, I asked them, I said, man, if y'all can just give me a chance to get out of this hospital and tell me what to do, I'm gonna try to turn it around. And they really didn't have no faith that it would turn around at all. But uh, I was weighing about 330 pounds. I weigh 210 now. So I lost 120 pounds and my GFR shot straight up to 20. But still not out of the zone for transplant, of course. But, you know, that and Denise's uh commitment of changing my diet, helping me change my diet, you know, and the walking routine, you know, we we yeah, we actually started a little video series called, you know, Walk for a Kidney.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

For Thomas.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Yeah, for Thomas on our YouTube page as well. A lot of any of the content creators or anybody, family members and all, they do shorts or they do little videos and they send it to us. And I tag them or either I do a uh a video and splice them in and letting folks know who's walking with them. Well, having that for sure. Yes, and it's picking up. It really is.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

People have been willing to and wanting to send their video clips.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Um Thomas's, he's CK'd polycystic kidney disease, and it's hereditary on his mom's side. So that's where the issue comes in from. That's why he's in need of the kidney. The G EGFR that he's speaking about is the kidney function number, and that's what it what they determine, whether you go on dialysis or get on a kidney transplant list. He started this back trying to get on the list last year, about in March. March 12th. And um that's when he started losing the weight, changing everything around. Yes. He was put on the list. He's listed at Piedmont in Atlanta, Georgia. He went on the list there in October. He's also listed at Medical University of South Carolina. Yes. He just got listed with them this year.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yeah, April as well. April one.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

So he's listed in both those places. A live donor gives you the opportunity, it lasts a little bit longer than what they call a cadiver kidney, which is a deceased kidney. They work as well too. So if one comes available, then yes, he'll take that one as well. But a live kidney donor, the kidney lasts a longer time. So um that's why we're advocating for a live donor. Anyone willing to be tested, we will appreciate it so much, even if it doesn't match. At this point, they don't look for matches, they just look for a willing donor to donate because that donor can still donate. And if it's not a match of his, then Thomas would go to the top of the list for a match, a kidney. And when they when one comes available, the first one that comes available with his pleod type, he will get that.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

He would be moved to the priority status on the list. That's awesome. Yes. So that's why we're just advocating for anyone to just be tested um on Thomas's behalf and willing to be tested and be a donor, a live donor for him.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

If they're willing.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

We actually have a a good friend out in the desert that we met years ago when my husband was active duty. His name's Roy. And Roy was in his late 60s when he needed a kidney and he got a kidney, and he's now in his late 80s. And so the reality is that can be a life-changing item. And they only gave him like four or five years to live, and he's outlived that by lots and lots of years. And we totally believe in that. Absolutely. But Learn to RV, the podcast was started last year. We're 65 episodes in now. And so it was a place where we could share people's stories. So that community spotlight, you know, in in the RVing space is so different than in so many other places because you are real RVers. Yes. Yes. So what made you not stop RVing?

SPEAKER_00 11:09

I love the lifestyle. And I want to be here with this beautiful lady, our children, our grandchildren. We also participate in our church. We grew up as church singers and musicians. I'm a musician and she's a singer. And uh they count on us at the church a lot. Um and we sung in all kinds of groups. We toured with people, and we like that life as well. And uh, and just to be around our families. And that this great big family of RVs right here, I want to continue. And of course, when I heard about this news uh about this condition, I was like, kind of a little depressed, didn't want to do nothing, sitting in my chair, getting dinner and all of that, you know. But then I thought thinking about, I'm still living and I could still do this until that kidney comes. So uh the doctor said if you walk, you keep your body healthy. So whenever you have that operation, the surgery will go well, you'll be able to recover well. You know, if you slop around, you might have complications, all that. So I said, well, I'm gonna just walk and stay in shape. And my numbers change. And that's just been what's been doing it for me. So I got all this energy now. I got rid of a whole person. You know what I mean? Right. And it's it's working.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

If people were to find your channel, let's go over that one more time, just so they can find you.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Golden Life Travelers with an S on the N of Travelers is our YouTube page. And that's where you can find us at. But we do have a QR code or a code that we can have if anyone's interested in donating or being evaluated to donate a kidney for Thomas. And we do have that information as well.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

That's that's fantastic. Yes. So let's let's go back just a little bit because a lot of what we see on the road is is community centered. You know, friendship on the road, would you say you've made more friends traveling over the years, or would you say that it's harder to find those?

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Yes, more friends. Way more friends. And she don't meet strangers.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Way more friends.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

I just love talking to you. She just walk up to a total per stranger person she'd never seen before. Next thing you know, they're laughing and giggling. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Getting phone numbers, exchanging numbers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

So much. All right. So as things have changed for you, how does travel look for you now than when it did before you had the diagnosis?

SPEAKER_00 13:14

In the past, we would travel from here to Vegas, here to the Grand Canyons, all the way to Anaheim. But because I'm on this list now, I can't go too far out of range. And uh so that we'll be able to be back and in case we get that call. It could come any day. And uh we don't want to be, you know, three or four days travel, getting to a center to have a transplant. Or, you know, we would have to leave our rig, try to jump on an airplane or something like that. And that probably would just be a lot of complications. So we try not to be too far. We kind of stretched it a little bit, come in here. I've I do have the ability to make this drive within a 15-hour period, but they're frequent stops. You know, freak every three hours I stop, get out, walk for five minutes, we'll get back in, we'll travel some more, then we'll sleep for four hours. You know, then we'll get up and do the whole cycle again. Next thing you know, you're home.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Yeah. For sure. All right, but you had lots of rain. So how have you been doing the walking thing here?

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yeah, well, I think it was two days we wasn't able to walk.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Right, because of the weather.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Yeah, and I came in and I I did see the treadmill, but uh I I didn't come over and use it, but we got out today. And walk extra. And yeah, walk extra today. So I usually try to do about five days. So, and then tomorrow probably wouldn't be a good day to walk, but I usually park way off at a rest area and uh walk around in the rest area. Yes, get some steps in. Get the steps in and try to keep up with the time and the pace and all of that, you know. Uh because you know, we're like I say, we stopped several times. Even at the the loves and the pilot stations, I get out and move. I just keep the circulation and all because not, you know, my legs start swelling up.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

And even when we're driving and have to drive and not drive our RV, if we're traveling and just driving in a car, we still go to the gym and the hotel. Yes. Or um we'll we'll find if it's if at home, if the weather's bad, we do have a treadmill at home. So he'll get on the treadmill at home and get his steps in. So it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Yeah, no excuses.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

No excuses in his mind.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

I love the dedication because you don't always find that. Yes. So you you you you're taking it to the next level. So yeah. All right. Anything you tell the audience about not waiting to travel. My dad died really young. My dad was 61. I was never gonna live this lifestyle. That was 13 years ago when we hit the road full time with our kids. And so we're weirdos and this industry to start with. But like the reality is is, you know, we've had so many people that say just don't wait. What would you tell somebody that's like on the verge of like thinking about traveling? Maybe they're at the edge of retirement and they're just looking at the plunge. What would you tell them?

SPEAKER_00 15:46

I wouldn't wait. I wouldn't wait on retirement at all. At all. At all. Matter of fact, uh, if you go ahead and shoot for it now, you don't have to start out big, you know. We started out small. And then that way you'll know whether you like it. Just like when we bought that boat, it wasn't panning out, you know. So uh thank goodness we didn't buy some jig big, gigantic bolt, you know, and I have a hard problem trying to get rid of it, you know. Right. But we we bought a 20-foot angler and it was easy to resell. So we started out in a smaller RV. We liked the lifestyle, we liked it the people in the community, and we didn't wait. And there were people in their 60s, 70s when we started doing this. And some that was already retired. But we made a commitment to ourselves, you know, that uh every month we're gonna do something, whether it, whether it's in the RV or not, but most times it is, but we're gonna do something as a family, you know, and traveling was our thing. We love to travel. We love traveling. We love to travel. So please don't wait because you don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring. You don't know what tomorrow, you know, anything could happen.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Live it that life now. Live it now. Because if you don't, you you may regret it later. You might something might get some type of ailment and said, I wish I had got that RV. You know what I mean? I wish I was able to travel and now I can. So just live life now.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Yeah. And I would say the memories are priceless. The memories are priceless. We can sit down and talk about how it was or trips that we've made. So in our mind, we've always said, we're gonna travel until we can't travel anymore. Yeah. And then at that time, we sit down and we live off the memories. We've made a lot of memories that we can sit back mentally, go through a picture album in our minds and just share. Remember when we did this, remember when we went there, remember when we did that? We can share those memories when we can't travel physically anymore, if that ever came to that. So we live our life every day of making memories that's gonna last a lifetime, precious memories that's gonna last a lifetime. And we can sit down and share stories with our kids and grandkids.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

100%. Yeah. So my husband was 38 when he retired from grandport. We hit the road a year later. So he was 39. Everybody said, Oh, it's a phase. We're in year 13 of that phase, so here we are. Oh, by the way. We've been full time ever since. And so we traveled with six out of seven of the kids. Wow. And so we still travel with three of them, uh, 19, 16, and 14. So we graduated kids from the RV. Wow. And so, like, they live normal, healthy lives as adults now. And so, like, you know, it didn't change everything. And so, you know, I do believe strongly in just living where you're at, when you're at. And I didn't want to ever do this ever in my life. So it was one of those things where I was like, okay, over my dead body, am I ever gonna do this? And God said, Yeah, that's funny. So here we are, you know. And so the other thing I'd want you to do is talk a little bit about walking. Why is that so important?

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Walking is is very important because I didn't realize walking was gonna be part of what's uh keeping me from going on dialysis. When I discovered walking was that important, I've heard about it. You see people do it on television, all the commercials and all of that, that just goes through one air and out of the other. But until I got into this situation, once I tried it and it worked, I started pushing people, said, listen, even if you're not walking for me, walk for yourself. You know, because it's gonna change things in your body, you know what I mean? Your circulation. It controls my blood pressure. I had no idea. You know, I can get up with a blood pressure, might be a little higher, like 123 over, let's say 86. And uh if I walk one mile, it'll come back down to 115 over 79. Wow. Just by just walking. Just walking. Just simply pick one one of those 16 ounce bottles of water and get out there and walk. But uh I do two miles, most times two and a half miles, uh, five days a week. There's some weeks I do the whole seven, but mostly there's five days a week. And I I just encourage everybody, you know, just for your own health and your own benefit, I'm gonna let witness that it works. And it also kind of pushed the the weight to come off fast. You know, food alone wasn't the only cue to this thing. You know, you had to combine it with the walking. And that helped, man, the pounds start dropping off just like that. You know what I mean? And in a short period of time, too. Some people say it takes a year to lose uh what, a hundred pounds or so? I think I did it in about seven months. Wow. Yeah, and I don't look sickly, you know. Uh I'm not as strong as I used to be. I don't have the muscles and all. So I just walk around with little weights now from time to time, trying to build the muscle back up. You know, you lose weight, you lose your muscle as well. Yeah, you know, so but yeah, I I just would encourage everybody just if they don't do anything else, if no other type of exercise, walking is a is a key. It'll keep you alive.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Now, did you always do you walk with him? I don't walk with him every day. Um, maybe about three days out of the week or whatever, I'll try to walk with him. Um I'm I'm diabetic, so that's why I'm not a donor, but I um I do walk with him about three days a week um to try to give him some company and encourage him. But I really would like to challenge everyone today to walk on behalf of Thomas's getting a kidney. I challenge you. I ask you to, I ask everybody to advocate for a donor for Thomas to get a kidney. Um, we have the information that we gladly to share, but I challenge everybody to get up and make a video, make a short video, send it to us, and Thomas will put it on our channel to appreciate everybody and let others know that there's other people out there that's walking in solidarity with Thomas for a kidney. So I challenge everybody to do that today. Thank you guys.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

I so appreciate you. And thanks for sharing their story. That's so important. You know, that's what makes this whole RV industry go around. Yeah, it's our story. Thanks again for coming. We appreciate you too.