RDBE

From the March/April Escapees Magazine:

There was an Escapees heavy-duty truck rally in 2006 and during the rally, Davina Szmyt founded a new group. The group, for women who drive heavy-duty trucks or want to, is called RDBE (Rigs Driven By Estrogen). Davina says that she first came up with the idea at a medium-duty truck rally when Carolyn Fennel, wife of Art Fennel, previous president of the medium-duty truck group, called the men the "testosterone bunch." Davina thought the women should have a group with whom to talk trucks. She posted a survey on the Escapees H-DT Website. In her survey, she asked women if they drive their trucks some of the time, all of the time or not at all.

She received 11 responses at first. By the end of the rally, she had 29 women signed up for the group.

"This is an informal group," she says, "with no dues or rules." It is simply to:

• Advise and encourage women to step into the driver seat and take control,
• Provide a communication network for women to ask questions and share ideas,
• Offer helpful hints on how-to's when setting up, traveling in and converting H-DTs, and
• Create an RDBE forum for women drivers to have access and voice regarding the H-DT lifestyle.

Davina took pictures of the women with their trucks at the rally in Wichita and is currently creating a 2007 RDBE calendar.

If you are a woman RVer who is or wants to be a full-timer, I recommend joining the Escapees. And if you drive a medium- or heavy-duty truck, you'll have support from other woman RVers.