Courtesy of Susan Hindman

Imagine retiring with longtime friends who are always within earshot and can expound on your stories of the road, catch you on your tall tales, or hold your hand when your health falters.

RVers have a one-of-a-kind opportunity. When they can no longer safely negotiate the highways, they can steer their ride into the Escapees CARE Center, put ’er in park, and, with help similar to that found in assisted living facilities, stay put in their RV as long as they’re able.

It’s a different kind of aging in place, a different kind of assisted living, and the only one of its kind in the country.

CARE stands for “continuing assistance for retired escapees,” and the center has served members of the Escapees RV Club since it opened in 1992. It’s the center’s affiliation with the club that makes it all possible, said Robert “RB” Brinton, director of the center, located in Livingston, Texas, north of Houston. “It’s because of the generosity of the 60,000 members that we can provide services at a lower cost.” Members donate time and money, both of which help defray the full cost of services.

The residency program costs $800 a month for one person and another $400 if there’s a second person. It pays for a site for your RV, a storage shed, three meals a day plus snacks, two weekly loads of laundry “washed and folded,” cleaning service for the inside of the RV, help with daily activities like bathing and dressing (if the person lives alone), and staff available in case of emergencies. There’s a daily adult day care program, which is optional, a day program for residents with Alzheimer’s, and a small house that offers overnight and weekend supervision for residents when their caregivers are away.  

“We don’t have beds or provide skilled care nursing around the clock,” Brinton said. “Our people have to be able to take care of themselves from 5:30 PM to 7:30 AM, or must have a caregiver who can take care of them.”

Drivers take residents to medical appointments or on shopping trips—“primarily to Walmart, twice a week, where they can load up on their junk food or any other needs,” he said. There are outings to local attractions or restaurants, but staying in and eating isn’t so bad either. With a “good cook” on staff, “usually most people who come here gain weight,” he said. “We’re a small town, and our food is at least as good as what may be in local restaurants.”

The CARE Center has 35 RV spaces, so a maximum of 70 people could reside there; currently, Brinton says, 38 people are in the residency program. Ten are in adult day care. The day care program is open to nonmembers as well, at $36 a day.  

Some people come to recuperate from surgeries, but most come to stay, he said. “They’ve been RVers who are now off the road because of something like macular degeneration, or because of age are no longer able to drive.”

People come from all walks of life, he said. Most are in their mid-to-late 80s; six residents are 90-plus “and are still ambulatory,” he said. “They’re (all) still quite active for their age. Most share the common interest of RVing. Many have known each other through the years when they were RVing, and now they’re here. It’s like a big family community. If you come into our dining area, it’s much different than being in a nursing home. There’s a lot of laughter, a lot of noise of conversation. It’s honestly just a fun place to be.”

Much like an RV rally, “You come in, park at a site, come over to the care building which houses the day room where most of meals and conversation go on,” he said. In the back is a multipurpose room, and that’s where you’ll find bluegrass jam sessions, exercise classes—from chair exercises to tai chi—and movies, speakers, or other activities. “We’ve always got something happening,” Brinton said.

One of the volunteers is a train buff, and, for the next few months, there’s a 20- by 20-foot railroad setup with bigger cars and engines, “so people having trouble handling small things can handle these,” he said. The center has invited other local nursing homes and assisted living facilities “to come over and enjoy the trains.” It’s part of an effort to get together with other seniors in the town.

One of a kind

In 1978, Kay and Joe Peterson founded the Escapees RV Club, which is headquartered at Rainbow’s End RV Park, adjacent to the care center. Escapees CARE Inc. was incorporated as a nonprofit in June 1992 and began offering adult day care in 1996.

The center came about because of Kay Peterson. “We call it Miss Kay’s Dream,” Brinton said. “She was the one who had the vision for the care center, and she was and still is a moving force behind it. She’s now 82, sweet, smart, very active. Kay was a nurse, and she wanted to have a place where people could stay relatively independent and maybe never have to go to a nursing home. But if they did, it would be delayed.”

That delay helps keep families from shouldering the care of an ailing loved one for an extended time—and also keeps the elderly person from having to adjust to living with an adult child. “Putting in 20 to 30 years of living with family is very burdensome,” Brinton said. The center won’t “get after” older folks like adult children might. “So when someone finally has to move in with family, it’s not like they’ve lived with them already.”

He told the story of one resident who is in her 80s and has a daughter in her early 60s. “Her daughter came to Thanksgiving one year and told her mother, ‘I’m not going to come for Christmas because I don’t like being around all those old people.’” The mother decided, well, she didn’t want to be around her daughter’s friends, so she stayed put for the holidays. “That kind of tells the story,” he said. “For many of our people, this is their home, and these are their friends.”

Club members—who are “thankful” for the existence of the center, he said—don’t hesitate to step up and help. The center certifies 80 to 110 volunteers a year who go on to donate over 100 hours each every year. “Some of them donate more than 500 hours,” he said. Volunteers get a free RV site, along with meals, and in return, stay for at least a month and work in the kitchen, do maintenance, drive residents to medical appointments, and perform other tasks.  

Though there are more Rainbow’s End RV parks around the country, creating more care centers isn’t possible, Brinton said. It takes all the donations from the current membership just to sustain the one center. “The club would have to double in size,” he said. “We would have to have that much more money to be able to open another care center.”