Are you a wolf or an ant

[izifaddag]

Without all the ants where would all the vans,auto parts,highways and bridges, cool camping gadgets, internet infrastructure, laptops, batteries,solar panels and all the other wonderful things that make this lifestyle possible come from?

Sitting back and enjoying the fruits of labor done by others is not the coolest thing...

Yes, Bob is a very nice man but he has an impossible utopian view of life. Your post nails it. Living a mobile lifestyle brings all its own problems and it is not free by any means. It can be very expensive. You save on rent and spend on gas for a generator. No mortgage but that Florida primitive campsite is STILL $10 or $15 a night and you have to move along after 7 days.
Then there is the explosion in this life that has happened in the last 3 years. I watched it right before my eyes change from fringe to every hipster with a man-bun living in a 'tiny home'. Just down the road from me they even sell them as prefabbed homes !!   The YouTuber Foresty Forest had to avoid 1 particular town that had been vanner friendly because it got swamped with the mobile crowd and they'd turned nasty - out of self preservation. 
The world and his wife cannot all jump on the let's live in a sprinter train because it just isn't possible.
But there Bob is video after video preaching about leaving the ant life and being a wolf.
Oh well I still love the guy.

 

[user 423]

I was hoping for a discussion of what my peers did from their experiences.

I was a Bob ant, and mostly loved it. Now I am a Bob wolf, and mostly love it more.

You have to remember there are a lot of older people on the forum and many of us could get typer's cramp were we to give a rundown on what we've experienced.

 

[izifaddag]

+1. 

From several years of observation of posts to this forum, I'd say maybe only 5% or so are full-timers. Guys like DB1954 have lived several lifetimes, in and out of S&B, and are a fountain of knowledge. People like that can see things from both sides equally well, because they're actually "done" it.

Very true. I am also a mixture. Owned houses, condos, rented apartments etc. Became a trucker leaving a complex profession behind that only became more demanding and less money over the years. Quickly lost everything in the crash and lived permanently in the truck for 11 years. Learned to live a comfortable life in a tiny tiny tiny space. Forced retirement with nowhere near enough money saved. As soon as I would save some it would be whipped away. Lucky to get out with my skin.
So I moved into a 12 ft converted cargo trailer and here I sit. Lots of knowledge and experience all dressed up and nowhere to go. 
And I post. 
So I live on rubber round things, have a background rolling around America and Canada, want to go but can't and I look and I see that it is continually getting more and more and more expensive to be out there.
You can't park there, no generators here, double the price of gasoline over there, we charge for water, no don't use our dumpster.      
I am sitting still but know the problems and actually live on wheels. I'll bet a lot of forum posters / members are the same as me. AND dear 1shemp it had nothing to do with "poor life choices". A lot of us have degrees in getting continually kicked to the ground. Not everybody can afford to "camp on a lake".
This will probably end as I am sure it does for many. Death in my van probably in the company of other mobile lifers. 
Not pessimism just the truth for many. 
The silver lining in all this is the community, the friends you can make. That has to be worth something. Doesn't it?

 

[Qxxx]

You have to remember there are a lot of older people on the forum and many of us could get typer's cramp were we to give a rundown on what we've experienced.

You don't have to tell your whole life story. But might be fun to hear how you stared into the abyss, and then took that first step, .

 

[user 423]

I was a Bob ant, and mostly loved it.

That's the thing. Many people do like their jobs. I wish everyone could work at something they were suited for and where they felt like they made a positive contribution.

I knocked around in many jobs when in my 20's and some involved travel, which I loved. In my 30's I settled down as a biomedical technician working in hospitals. Good income, job security and it gave me great satisfaction to help out.

Accidents and various health problems came later but I've dealt with them the best I could. Now I'm in a mode to enjoy travel while I still can.

BTW: I've always been a tinkerer and a pretty good, half-assed constructor and for a long time my dream was to convert cargo trailers to flip. Not so much to make money but to stay busy. Physical limitations and a lack of capital have tripped me up on that one.

 

[izifaddag]

Thanks to all that showed support for my position. I think it may make it clearer to say it is not my job to promote anything. I see my goal as informing people who are interested in the ups and downs of it.  There are many other options in between paying $2,500 a month in rent and living in a car.

Many older people are financially forced into creative housing. I think Bob serves them well, and I have no problem with his capitol ism. I figure he pulls in 6 to 10 grand a month or more between videos, Amazon links, product endorsements, and charity management.  My problem with his message has more to do with young people. His screw the system, be free, only do the things you want to do is not going to bode well for them in the long run. Being a migrant farm worker or Amazon packager, or camp host does not have a great future. By the time their body ages and tells them they can't go on, it is a bit late to get an education and a good job. The education could very well be a trade, (it was for me).  Being menial labor will get you a menial future.

Well said. You perfectly capture my feelings. Nomad evangelism is foolish hippyism. It does not work. It is a childish view and not at all realistic. If I could live in a nice house I would. There are aspects of mobility that I really like but I didn't foresee ending my life in a metal box eeking out a social security check. The 50s & 60s are truly dead. It is proven by just how many over 60s are forced into 'creative housing'. That lady Dee is a prime example. At her age she was forced to live in a car in the desert??? On $600 a month??? Are we mad???
Thanks for you post.

 

[izifaddag]

You have to remember there are a lot of older people on the forum and many of us could get typer's cramp were we to give a rundown on what we've experienced.

So true. My ex Russian gf used to try to encourage me to write a book but that is never going to happen.

 

[Qxxx]

 Lots of knowledge and experience all dressed up and nowhere to go. 

"... nowhere to go".

We've all been through a lot, made this and that, lost this and that, got screwed in the crash. I personally live a very frugal life, mostly supported by Social Security, and it's taking a full 3 1/2 years to pay off my van. I live in a shoebox size apartment when not traveling, which is now about 4 months out of the year. I have books stacked from floor to ceiling.

Some people put miles on continuously, whereas I tend go to some place, and then stay for weeks in the same area, so traveling is not a huge expense. I was within 100 miles of Quartzsite for 2 months this past winter, and camped in about a dozen different places. Off grid and living on solar. I have so many projects in the mill, I'll never get 1/4 of them finished before I die. That's the basic choice I made, I live extremely frugally, and I don't have a lot of regrets.

 

[iamk]

Death in my van probably in the company of other mobile lifers.

Me too - hopefully I'll have given them some good stories to tell about me.

 

[user 423]

My ex Russian gf used to try to encourage me to write a book but that is never going to happen.

That applies to all of us with PHD's in life...

 

[Qxxx]

Nomad evangelism is foolish hippyism.

DB1954 is actually the guy Bob was talking about in his wolf versus ant video. DB isn't a hippy nomad out monkey-wrenching the system. DB lives in S&B, but is also a traveler. He's the guy Bob was talking about at the end of his video, in the place I underlined.

And as I pointed in another post, my estimate is that only about 5% of people who post here are actually full timers. As DB mentioned, there is a vast middle ground between 100% ant and 100% wolf, and most of us in that middle part.

 

[user 423]

You don't have to tell your whole life story. But might be fun to hear how you stared into the abyss, and then took that first step, .

Well, I had wanderlust early and did a lot traipsing around in my 20's.  Settled down later, married then divorced, changed job paths a couple of times and then had to deal with serious health problems at age 41. A few years later after several failed treatments, I was confronting the possibility of early death or a risky major organ transplant.

So I said, to hell with it, I'm going to hit the road and try to enjoy what I had left. Bought an old Class B off eBay and left for the Oregon coast.

 

[desert_sailing]

Well said. You perfectly capture my feelings. Nomad evangelism is foolish hippyism. It does not work. It is a childish view and not at all realistic. If I could live in a nice house I would. There are aspects of mobility that I really like but I didn't foresee ending my life in a metal box eeking out a social security check. The 50s & 60s are truly dead. It is proven by just how many over 60s are forced into 'creative housing'. That lady Dee is a prime example. At her age she was forced to live in a car in the desert??? On $600 a month??? Are we mad???
Thanks for you post.

Them damn hippies.. how dare they live their way!  /s

Nomadic life does not work for everyone ... they are alternatives lifestyles....not even in the "normal" does everything work for all.
Not everyone can shake loose from a dogma that has been shoved into their brains. You know.. theone that says you have to be a good consumer like the neighbors.
Living on a farm, milking cows and goats and collecting eggs before breakfast isn't for everyone.. I dont know if calling those folks foolish is fitting.
Not everyone is going to have alot of financial resources.. but there is no doubt there are many people making their regular paycheck or are getting good revenues from youtube and other sources of media.

In regards to Dee.. she has come a very long way since her first video with Bob. She is healthy, she is happy and she is filled with joy.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5MIcYL0SmgBD9GBlEYO55Q

That link is to her channel.  She has benefited from this lifestyle and I am so happy for her. She is as much of inspiration today as she was when she took that brave first step to find something more to life than day in day out. Im so thankful that she has found it!

Please let us not return this thread to where those who choose the nomad life have to sit and listen to the naysayers telling us how we should live better in a settlement somewhere doing the 9-5 drone duty.

Hippy is a pejorative for those  black sheep just wanting to live on THEIR terms.  It drips with contempt and judgement and isn't even a stones throw away from the n word for being nasty.

 I would take  a nomad van life over any mansion any day.... People all over the country are realizing that material things and the process to obtain and keep those things does NOT bring peace and happiness and instead they seek out to be fullfilled by the intangibles.. like human compassion and the belief in Liberté, égalité, fraternité.


Not everyone can break free from being part of the human centipede.

 

[iamk]

I would take a nomad van life over any mansion any day.

+1

 

[Qxxx]

So I said, to hell with it, I'm going to hit the road and try to enjoy what I had left. Bought an old Class B off eBay and left for the Oregon coast.

Back when I was about 45, I was very ill for about 9 months and not getting any better. then I likewise just said to hell with it and started living my life again, come what may. Live or die. Things gradually got better, and every day for about 2 years afterwards, I woke up every morning, looked up at the mountains, and said thanks for still being alive. True story.

 

[desert_sailing]

Just to share abit. and maybe this should be in the what are you listening to.. but I really feel it belongs here for the message.

It is a old yiddish tune.. Abi Gezunt which means as long as you are healthy.



I have the lyrics in English below because not many folks speak/understand Yiddish.

A little bit of sun, a bit of rain
A quiet place to put your head down,
As long as you're well, you can be happy.
A shoe, a sock, a dress with no patches,
In your pocket three or four dollars,
As long as you're well, you can be happy.

The air is free for everyone equally,
The sun shines for everyone,
poor or rich,
Some joy, some laughter,
a drink with friends,
As long as you're well, you can be happy.

One person seeks riches,
one seeks wealth,
One - the whole world.
Another thinks complete joy
depends only on money.
Let them all seek,
let them all grovel.
But I myself think - I don't need it because
Happiness stands at my door.

 

[Qxxx]

... but haven't yet done.

The wolf leaves the ant in his dust.

 

[rvwandering]

This is the second time that I've had to delete a series of posts in this thread so it is closed.
Please read Bob's Rules of the Forum especially #4.

4) Don’t be a know-it-all or dismissive of others. We’re family and we’re here to help and support each other. So before you hit the “Send” button, ask yourself if what you are writing is helpful and supportive or is it to make you feel better about yourself. Are you just trying to prove you’re smarter than everyone else and you’re right and they're wrong? That turns into fighting and bickering over nothing and that makes this an unpleasant place for people who come here in need.