Gearing up to hit the road

[bird woman]

Hello! I will be hitting the road some time within the next few months - not exactly sure when. Tired of my absentee landlord and his drug addicted manager. I having been considering this for years, I guess it's time to go for it. I am not new to roughing it but have gotten a bit soft at age 59.

I will be starting out with the vehicle I already have, my trusty 2003 Toyota Camry. I have slept in it before, sort of comfortably so I'm hoping I can adjust to sleeping in it all the time. The front drivers seat fold back almost flat. I have an old friend, a self-professed "curmudgeon", who once said that he decided to learn to sleep anywhere, so nothing stops him from going where he wants with freedom and low cost. I'm going to give that a try before I just buy something else bigger. 

I retired 2 years ago from being self employed 20 years as a piano teacher. For current income I sell clothing on Ebay, that I find at thrift stores. I have been doing that for about 4 years and so I have a solid business model. I will be storing my inventory in storage units as needed. 

I plan on tracking my travel related expenses and living expenses while on the road. I am going to start this before I leave, so I can track pre-travel costs. If anyone is interested, I will post this monthly. I can be quite frugal when I want or need to be.

 

[Qxxx]

Welcome to your new life, Bird Woman.

You might be interested to take a look at this woman's youtube channel, whom Bob Well's interviewed a few months ago. Lives in her car. The secret is being very well organized. Everything in its place. She has already acted as a campground host in Washington state - and was happy at that, but chased out by mouse infestation.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG_GabIBd_cIU6mKckySX0g/videos

Start simple, get some experience, and go from there. Good luck.

 

[Kaylee]

I plan on tracking my travel related expenses and living expenses while on the road. I am going to start this before I leave, so I can track pre-travel costs. If anyone is interested, I will post this monthly.

Yes, please do.

Cars are challenging but doable.
If you decide to go long-term, you'll have a much deeper appreciation of something bigger.
You'll learn what features matter the most to you, which is hard to access without real experience.
I say all that from experience.

Are you a birder?

 

[bird woman]

Thank you Qxxx! I will check that out!

 

[bird woman]

Yes Kaylee I am a birder, off and on since age nine. I still have my identification book that I used way back then! I rescued a little baby sparrow who I named "Agnew". I made a little cage out of cardboard and some kind of screen or something. I feed him raw hamburger and tried to teach him how to catch bugs for when I released him. When I did finally release him, I was concerned that he might not be able to find food on his own, so I spread a whole bag of birdseed all around our pool. He just flew up to the telephone pole, sat there for a while and flew away. I had to sweep up all that birdseed. I've been a birder ever since. Somewhere I still have one of his feathers.

I am going to try sleeping under the stars on occasion. It's been a while, but I have done it. I'm not afraid to do so except maybe in scorpion territory or something. The question is - can I do so comfortably enough.

 

[Qxxx]

Thought I'd mention, in case you gals have not seen it, one of the funniest bird movies ever made, The Big Year.

 

[Kaylee]

+1 on Qxxx's recommendation!

It stars Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson.
While it's technically a comedy, there's no slapstick silliness, and I personally consider it a very light drama.
It's a very sweet, gentle, thoughtful (without straining), lovely movie.

There was considerable hype among the birding community, but I did not believe anyone could capture our passion, so waited until it came out on DVD... I was wrong! They not only captured it, they made it accessible to non-birders.

There's no bad (or even vulgar) language in it, and it's a perfect family movie.

Welcome bird woman!
I came to this lifestyle reluctantly (series of terrible to downright evil landlords), but early on it suddenly occurred to me that this would force me to relocate regularly to areas I would probably not have visited otherwise, and that a vehicle is the ultimate bird blind.
I'm mostly dispersed camped at the same spot (my local NationalForest has very generous rules), and I've had some lovely close up encounters with a nice spectrum of critters.
So far, nothing exotic, but this winter should be interesting.

 

[rvwandering]

Welcome to the CRVL forums bird woman! A monthly post of expenses will be very helpful to a lot of us. Please start a thread in the Captain's Logs section and keep us updated on your travels!

To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips, Tricks and Rules" post lists some helpful information to get you started.

Most of our rules boil down to two simple over-riding principles: 1) What you post should provide good information (like your introductory post), and 2) Any response to someone else's post should make them feel glad they are part of this forum community.

We look forward to hearing more from you.

 

[badmotorscooter]

Bob has done several video interviews of woman traveling/living in a car.

The courage and determination to do this is just plain awesome. I wish I was that brave.

I am trying to talk myself into a minivan and a springbar tent, but I keep finding excuses on how it would be too hard.
It would be a very cheap way to travel/live with lower fuel costs and the option for a reasonably cheap vehicle replacement when the time comes. I'm trying to figure out a modular/removable build that will work for me and be easy to transfer to another vehicle or even a small cabin. I'm looking for property in New Mexico off the beaten path but not too far from shopping/civilization. Planning to build a tiny arched metal home on on unimproved land so property taxes will never be a burden. A real home base that won't really cost much to own and maintain, plan on traveling most of the time.

I have always been an animal lover and found birds fascinating, though not an actual birder. That is until I started raising chickens about 4 years ago. Started with 19 tiny chicks and still have 16 going strong. I have fallen completely in love with every single one, had no idea how truly amazing birds are. They are one of the main reasons I haven't become a nomad yet...

 

[FlowerGirl]

Welcome, and it sounds like your love of birds could be a strong motivator to see how many species we have in this country! I want to see all the hummingbirds down in Sierra Vista and nearby areas in the SW. 

Please keep us all posted on how your plans for the road are progressing...it's always exciting to read about and to cheer each other on.
LOVE the way you make a living. So ingenious! You sound like the kind of resourceful woman who'll do well on the road....

Happy Journeying when the time comes....

 

[eDJ_]

Interesting business you have going.  

I could see you traveling thru South Dakota to establish a residency there so you will have no state income tax.  Setting up a small business where you could travel and write off your fuel and vehicle expenses. 

In this way you could broaden your scope of finding items to resale.  That is if you wanted to do things this way.

www.score.org   is a source of free small business & entrepreneur counseling that is nationwide.

I've met people who have become ordained ministers online and enjoy a host of benefits.  Since you can perform music
and perhaps have a keyboard,  yours could be a ministry of music. 

But these are just some thoughts.

 

[badmotorscooter]

You can go to Youtube and search for "Serene and Simple". This amazing lady makes it look very appealing and possible.

 

[michaelwnoakes]

I have a 2019 Dodge Caravan which gets an average 25-27 mpg. I cook my meals on a Coleman stove. I sleep only in free areas, no camp grounds. Since January I've been averaging $1,100 a month. Hope this helps you, have a great time, you'll love it.

 

[maki2]

It might work but you will be tied down to having to stay close to your storage unit(s). Works best if you can figure out something small, light and easy to take along with you in the terms of a product to sell. Something like scarves, knitted hats, belts, etc. Go for the accessory stuff and see how that works for you. I have known a couple of women who sell nothing but cute socks and made a very good living at it in a retail space. One of my neighbors sells only vintage T shirts in her Etsy store. Those roll up pretty small for storage. So if you can get away from having a store room it reduces your cost and lets you do more travel time.