NBC’s Sunday Today featured Scott Gregson and Sasha Bezer and their Cirrus 920 rig. Here’s the incredible story behind their national television appearance, and the video. Scott and Sasha also share their challenges as full-time truck campers during Covid.
For whatever reason, truck campers very rarely ever make the national broadcast news. When RVs are showcased, it’s usually a celebrity or politician in a Class A motorhome, or an Airstream.
Which is why we’re knocked out excited whenever we see a nice truck and camper featured on a major news program. The last time truck campers on major broadcast was November of 2019 when 60 Minutes showcased the Wright rodeo family and their fleet of Capri truck campers.
Before that, we have to go all the way back to our infamous ABC World News experience in 2013. If you know of another major broadcast news segment featuring truck campers, please let us know.
NBC Today: RV Nomads
Naturally we were thrilled when Scott Gregson and Sasha Bezer were spotlighted by NBC’s Sunday Today with their truck and camper. NBC’s host, Willie Geist, introduced the RV Nomads segment produced by Kerry Sanders.
The segment is shared with another family in a travel trailer (shown above), but the second half is almost all Scott and Sasha and their Cirrus 920 rig. Nice work, guys!
As endlessly curious people, we asked Scott and Sasha exactly how this opportunity unfolded. How do you go truck camping full-time and end up on NBC news? Scott and Sasha tell their television tale.
Above: Sasha and Scott’s 2018 Ram 3500 and 2019 Cirrus 920 in Jerome, Arizona
Before we talk about your NBC experience, how did you decide to live full-time in a truck camper?
Scott: When we first met back in 2014, we spent a great deal of time talking about our mutual desire to travel. That desire continued to grow and the ideas of how to go about it kept evolving. We went on several vacations including camping, hiking, and backpacking. We eventually bought a small travel trailer to use as our mobile base camp.
Sasha: We have always been curious about different cultures, languages and locations and wanted to spend time exploring them. We would always come home from vacations unsatisfied and wanting to spend more time in these new places. Very quickly we realized that the only way to do this was full-time.
Scott: Before Sasha and I met, I had owned and lived full-time in a 32-foot 5th wheel for a few years. Having the experience with both a 32-foot and a 17-foot trailer, I felt that both were too cumbersome for the types of adventures that we wanted to pursue.
Sasha: We wanted something nimble, but also rugged enough to be able to go over rough terrain. We didn’t want to deal with a travel trailer since it would limit our ability to go off the beaten path.
Scott: I’ve always been fascinated by truck campers and love the flexibility that comes with their design. Having four-wheel drive and the ability to separate the camper from the truck were huge advantages that aren’t available in any other setup. For us, a truck and camper was the ideal adventure rig that still provided all the comforts of home and gave us the freedom to roam freely.
Are you working from the road?
Scott: We do work on the road, usually too much. Sasha teaches English online and I do a mixture of IT consulting and odd jobs. We are both working on some new business ventures that will better allow us to maintain our travel lifestyle. Full-time travel creates many challenges for earning a living and we are slowly trying to create sources of income that work well with this lifestyle and help us follow our dreams.
Right now we don’t earn enough to support ourselves. We knew this would be part of the process and planned accordingly. We saved for years and strategically sold off our belongings to help fund our new life. We traded everything for this lifestyle and knew that the transition wouldn’t be easy.
The savings gives us a cushion to make the transition and allows for some additional time to build new sources of income. Our goal is to become financially stable before we run out of savings and build the future that we’ve both dreamed of ever since we met.
Sasha: Part of what we’re doing now is trying to figure out our passions and interests and incorporate them into our new jobs.
Above: Sasha and Scott were on NBC Sunday Morning in a segment called RV Nomads with Kerry Sanders this past Sunday, December 6, 2020
Where did the opportunity with NBC come from?
Sasha: Purely by accident. Back in the summer Scott was helping one of our YouTube subscribers, Debbie Lang, to pick a truck camper.
Scott: We spent a couple months exchanging Facebook messages about selecting the correct combination of truck and camper and all the details surrounding it. At one point, Debbie asked me if we were interested in doing an interview with her friend, Kerry Sanders, of NBC.
At first, we didn’t know that it was for the Today Show. We assumed it was a newspaper or local station. I did a quick Google search to find out who he was and Sasha and I were both a little shocked. Sasha and I discussed it and decided that it would be a great opportunity.
Sasha: That’s when Kerry Sanders reached out to us directly and we discussed all of the details. We couldn’t believe that it would be shown on national TV. It was so exciting!
Above: Kerry Sanders interviewing Scott and Sasha
What did they ask you to do?
Scott: Kerry asked if we could do a quick phone call to discuss the details and work out some dates. A couple days later we chatted on the phone for 20 to 30-minutes to go over what they were looking to cover and what they wanted from us. They wanted us to share our experiences, expenses, and what it was like traveling through the pandemic.
Sasha: Kerry also watched our YouTube videos and he loved them. He asked if they could use our drone footage and parts of our YouTube clips. Later, we coordinated a Zoom call to conduct the interview. Kerry asked the same questions he mentioned on the phone. The whole interview lasted for just under an hour and it went very well.
What was your reaction to the segment?
Sasha: Scott and I were very excited and anxious to see ourselves on TV. We watched enough Today Sunday shows that we knew that we had nothing to fear.
Kerry mentioned the 40:1 ratio. For every 40-minutes of actual interview, the production crew would air about one minute. Our interview lasted for just under an hour and we were lucky to have the amount of air time that we did. We absolutely loved the way it turned out. We were also pleasantly surprised with how much of our footage they used. We couldn’t have asked for more.
Scott: The whole process was exciting and eye opening and the end result was really good. It had a positive feel to it and we were really happy to see our truck camper featured front and center, even if it was just for a few seconds.
One thing we’d like to mention is the amount of time, energy, and work that goes into such a short piece of news. Sasha and I know first hand that making videos is a labor and time intensive process. But, seeing the months of planning and work that goes into collecting information, interviews, and footage for a few minutes of reporting still leaves us in awe.
Above: Arches National Park, Utah
How are you guys doing on the road with Covid?
Sasha: Covid has definitely changed a lot of things for us. We first really noticed the Covid situation last winter. We spent a week in Big Bend National Park without cell service or internet back in February. We were disconnected from civilization.
When we emerged, we noticed a drastic change. A lot of places were closed or had restrictions on how many people could enter the building or were by appointment only. We looked for a place where we could hunker down for a while if things got worse. A lot of state parks were closed and we couldn’t get reservations.
Scott: In the first few months of the lockdowns, we were really struggling with what to do. At the time, we were in Texas and had planned to continue west to New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. We heard that the Governor of New Mexico was going to be making an announcement about their Covid plans and stayed in El Paso until we found out what the announcement was. New Mexico did a pretty strict lockdown which told us that we should probably stay in Texas.
We drove back towards central Texas and used their state park system until that also closed. We were very lucky to have found a private campground called Dinosaur Valley RV Park in Glen Rose, Texas that had just opened a few months prior. They understood our predicament and welcomed us with open arms. A big thank you to Mark and Teena for their hospitality and help during such a difficult time. We stayed there for a little over six weeks until things loosened up a little and then headed back to New England to regroup a little.
Sasha: We continue to face a lot of challenges related to planning. Different states have different orders surrounding what’s open, and that continues to change. We don’t know what to expect anymore. If we want to plan our visit to a national park or a popular place, we need to do a lot more research to figure out if it’s possible. Sometimes information online is outdated and we need to call. That forces us to rapidly change plans making life chaotic.
Scott: Living on the road certainly has its set of challenges and frustrations. Covid has exacerbated many of these challenges. Availability of water, camping and activities has been greatly reduced. Just recently, we were having trouble finding free water in Texas. We finally decided to fill our water jugs in a Walmart, only to find that the filling machine had been shut down due to Covid. This forced us to to get water at a campground. We try to boondock most of the time, but we still use campgrounds in situations like this.
We have also had to skip dozens of activities that we had our hearts set on. Caves, trains, fairs, rodeos and many, many other activities are closed or restricted. This is completely understandable, but it does make it hard to plan anything. It means that we make a lot of phone calls and online reservations.
Everyone is struggling with Covid and we are no different. We’ve stayed very healthy and this lifestyle has allowed us to keep our distance from everyone. Aside from grocery store trips and occasional fuel stops, we have kept to ourselves. It’s a safe and responsible way to conduct ourselves, but it does leave us longing for the experiences and community that got us out on the road in the first place. Like most things, this too shall pass.
What are your plans for 2021?
Sasha: Our overall plan is to keep traveling. We would really love to go to Baja, Mexico and to Alaska through Canada, but we’ll see. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s really hard to plan right now. There are also a lot of places in the United States that we couldn’t go to last spring. We are hoping to go back to New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado.
Scott: We also want to visit Newfoundland, Labrador, and Nova Scotia. We will probably swing back through New Hampshire to visit friends and family. We have no doubt that plans are going to change and that we will have to adjust accordingly. 2020 might be drawing to a close, but 2021 will undoubtedly have its own surprises for everyone.
Above: Bass Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Maine
From a 50,000 foot level, where are you going with your full-time lifestyle?
Scott: Our plan is still changing from month-to-month. Our original plan involved five years of full-time travel, which is of course dependent upon finances. We wanted to spend two to three years exploring North America and then set out overseas to explore the rest of the world for a couple of years.
We now plan to keep our truck and camper and use it as a home base. We will park the rig and take one to two month trips overseas to various destinations. It will give us a place to come home to and get work done. We have only been on the road for a year, but we are already planning some trips in the future.
Sasha: When we planned our full-time travels we wanted this experience to be about exploring new places and a journey of self-discovery. We loved the economic stability of New Hampshire, but we were not fans of cold winters and snow. Summers are really short up there and we were hoping to find a place somewhere further south for us to settle down.
I would say our overall goal is to find a great place to settle down and explore the options along the way, while meeting great people and exploring the beauty of the United States.
Scott: I’m from New Hampshire and Sasha is from St. Petersburg, Russia. Together, we are trying to find a new place to call home that meets both of our wishes. Something with a warmer climate, access to water, mountains, and good infrastructure.
We are thinking about buying land and living in our camper while we build a new home, business or both. None of this is certain, but we have a dream and where there’s a will, there’s a way. We have come so far in the last six years and have overcome so many obstacles. We will succeed in our endeavors. We just aren’t quite sure how we will get there.
Above: Boondocking spot, Pikes Peak in the distance, Colorado
Is there anything else you’d like to share about the NBC experience or your full-time adventures so far?
Sasha: It might sound cliche, but we share our adventures in hopes to inspire others to pursue their dreams and make them come true. Scott and I mostly share our adventures through YouTube and Instagram. We were able to create quite a community between the two and we feel so grateful for the opportunity NBC gave us to spread the word even further. Our NBC experience showed us a completely different level of filmmaking and quality of editing.
Scott: We have met countless amazing people, made new friends, and discovered new opportunities that we could never have imagined. Getting into the full-time travel lifestyle has been a real eye opener for us and we aim to share glimpses of that with people that we meet and through our social media. Getting the opportunity to speak with NBC was a perfect fit for that goal and it was an experience that we won’t soon forget.
We are really excited about the freedom that truck camping gives us and really like to share what we’ve learned about it. Truck campers aren’t a good match for everyone, but for those who have similar travel goals, a truck camper really is the only option! Getting some video of our rig on a national television show was pretty exciting. We hope it made a few people say, “What is that?”
Working with Kerry Sanders was really fun. We learned a lot about the TV production process and just how much work goes into each and every minute of broadcast. Our previous understanding of it was really from a distance. This brief interaction showed us a different side of things.
The same holds true for our full-time adventures. When we were planning this lifestyle, we had some notions of how things would be. We spent hundreds of hours researching, reading and watching others share their stories through YouTube and other social media platforms. Now that we are a year into this, so much of what we thought turned out to be wrong, or at least not very accurate.
Before we started full-time, we overestimated the adventures and underestimated the people, community, and friends that we would make. Seeing all of the places we have been to wouldn’t mean nearly as much if we didn’t have people to share it with. Of course, we have each other, but our friends, family, and online community have added richness and fulfillment that we never anticipated.
The opportunity to share our experiences with Truck Camper Magazine is another great opportunity that we are sincerely grateful for!
Feel free to follow Scott and Sasha on their Facebook page, Instagram page, and YouTube channel.
