How did you end up on the road, and why are you still here?

[user 29855]

For me, it was alcoholism. Not mine, but my partner's. During our 10 year relationship, her drinking and behavior worsened, and like a fool and a co-dependent and a guy in love, I stayed till the bitter end. The bitter end was having the police visit our home several evenings in a single week because the neighbors thought I was killing her. (She was a screamer!!)

Anyhow, we talked it over and I left, taking with me my clothes, tools, Harley, and my Chevy Blazer. I was working full time, and thought it would be an adventure to take all of the seats out, cover the entire empty area with a plywood "floor," and sleep in it until I found a new rent. After about a week of sleeping in the Blazer, cooking and washing at work (I know, not much of a real van life, but a start....) I decided I would buy. I did, and I've been living in the van full time for 5 years.

I still work part time, and have a nice Social Security check each month, so I could certainly go back to a "real" home. I just don't want to. The freedom from stress, the ability to move my home to wherever, and all of the reasons that you are familiar with, keep me happy and satisfied.

How about your story?

 

[wb8vyn]

My story is 180 degrees from yours. I worked as a long haul truck driver all of my working life, so travel was what I did. Married and lived happily with a plan to retire when i got old. The company that i spent the last 19 years with were good to me but in the end I was given a choice of going to an office, pushing paper or retiring at age 79.
So I retired!
Soon after my wife of 57 years had a stroke and died. Plans were underway for her and I to travel. We had all the stuff needed, plenty of money and an open ended plan of travel.
Well after sitting in my chair for over a year waiting to die myself. A neighbor found me sitting on the porch, not moving for two days, called 911. Off to the ER I was taken. I was examined and sent to a shrink. After being pocked full of holes and fed IV's for a while, I found out that I had given up on eating. Only weighed 119 pounds, now up to 130 and gaining steadily. After the shrink suggested that it would be good if I did the plan that my wife and I had cooked up about nomad travel and share the adventure with her in a journal. Here I am. I still have the knot in my stomach but life goes on and on and on.
Since i am 83 years old now, finding some one to share this adventure with is not going to happen. Most women I meet who know how to cook are stuck on their dogs and cats, think I am crazy for moving around as I do, Eating hot dogs and fruit loops. They seem to think kale is a gift from heaven. I find contentment in a sun rise, I do not desire to run after it. I like to watch youngsters run and dig holes with a stick or find a bug to torment. I like to watch fish swim in cool creeks. I like quiet times with no one around so i can talk to myself and my wife with out some one judging me as off my rocker old kook. Ya, i know, Linda (my wife) just told me to shush, what will the neighbors think. Time to go build something. (or not)
Ken

 

[user 29855]

My story is 180 degrees from yours. I worked as a long haul truck driver all of my working life, so travel was what I did. Married and lived happily with a plan to retire when i got old. The company that i spent the last 19 years with were good to me but in the end I was given a choice of going to an office, pushing paper or retiring at age 79.
So I retired!
Soon after my wife of 57 years had a stroke and died. Plans were underway for her and I to travel. We had all the stuff needed, plenty of money and an open ended plan of travel.
Well after sitting in my chair for over a year waiting to die myself. A neighbor found me sitting on the porch, not moving for two days, called 911. Off to the ER I was taken. I was examined and sent to a shrink. After being pocked full of holes and fed IV's for a while, I found out that I had given up on eating. Only weighed 119 pounds, now up to 130 and gaining steadily. After the shrink suggested that it would be good if I did the plan that my wife and I had cooked up about nomad travel and share the adventure with her in a journal. Here I am. I still have the knot in my stomach but life goes on and on and on.
Since i am 83 years old now, finding some one to share this adventure with is not going to happen. Most women I meet who know how to cook are stuck on their dogs and cats, think I am crazy for moving around as I do, Eating hot dogs and fruit loops. They seem to think kale is a gift from heaven. I find contentment in a sun rise, I do not desire to run after it. I like to watch youngsters run and dig holes with a stick or find a bug to torment. I like to watch fish swim in cool creeks. I like quiet times with no one around so i can talk to myself and my wife with out some one judging me as off my rocker old kook. Ya, i know, Linda (my wife) just told me to shush, what will the neighbors think. Time to go build something. (or not)
Ken

Thanks for sharing all of that. I agree that the chance of finding someone to share my van life seems pretty slim. The time when I feel most alone is when I find something unique and/or beautiful (and it happens often!) and I don't have someone to nudge and say "wow! Look at that! and share the wonder. But life does go on, and at least I can enjoy the adventure. And I also agree that many of the women who I have met in my travels seem to think I'm a nut, and I think they are too into their animals to have time for a human.

 

[wb8vyn]

Thanks for sharing all of that. I agree that the chance of finding someone to share my van life seems pretty slim. The time when I feel most alone is when I find something unique and/or beautiful (and it happens often!) and I don't have someone to nudge and say "wow! Look at that! and share the wonder. But life does go on, and at least I can enjoy the adventure. And I also agree that many of the women who I have met in my travels seem to think I'm a nut, and I think they are too into their animals to have time for a human.

I'm coming to grips with being alone. Still as you say, some one to nudge is missing. Women bring a softer dimension to living in general.
Like you, Pets such as dogs and cats require attention and care, along with short life spans, even shorter if they are not able to move freely about or when their diet is not attended to correctly. Personally, I am way beyond being a "nut", more like crazy as a march hair! You know, prone to go off on a tangent without endless planning in advance. Camp grounds give me the willies, more so if you have to pay to be cheek by jowl with some one you don't know. I'd rather be near others who I can't hear doing their thing. Don't get me wrong, I do like most people in general, but for the most part, fleeting interaction. My personal life is not open, I do not need a stranger telling me what I should have done. I do like to hear idea's to be considered. Or experiences that might be of interest. Then onward to the next cold snack or next cup of coffee. I'm not comfortable with "beliefs" or "feelings" without evidence that I can see, touch or hear. you know the 5 senses.
I've lived in this home for over 50 years and never locked a door. I refuse to live in fear. I do leave a light on just in case someone needs help in the night (or day).
An example, The school bus dropped off kids here to play and get a snack until parents got off work to pick them up (8 or 10 most often) our place was always alive with laughter and games most afternoons and weekends too for some reason. As time went of, "fixing" bikes and Linda teaching the girls how to bake cookies, still later tuning up some old car, and the girls and my wife talking about boys or crying over something some one said. The boys trying out words like "cool" and and girls saying "cute".
Most of them still come by with husbands/wives and babies and such. Not so much since Linda died.
My life has been so full that I don't think many can match it. So now I am adrift with no anchor. That's what I'm going to do, just drift along where ever the wind and mood moves me.
Ken

 

[Tony's Dream]

I am not on the road full time, I just travel for 10-14 days at a time. My father did a great job of investing for his retirement and put away a small fortune. My parents did some traveling early on, but most of the time they chose to stay home. My parents woke up, had breakfast, played skipbo, had lunch, watched TV, had dinner, then went to sleep. As I approach my retirement, I can't see myself doing this every day. To me, it would feel like sitting around and waiting to die. So I chose to be on the road to see life fist hand. When I am older and can't travel anymore, then I will be like my parents. Until then.....I want to live my life and see all I can before then.

 

[wb8vyn]

I don't have a picture of my parents off hand but let me tell you about them. They were one! Not just husband and wife or father and mother, they were one being.
The day my dad died, he sat in the big chair talking to me while my mother sat and just listened.
My dad told me as he sat there, 69 years 364 days and 23 hours old that he had one last thing to teach me. I was 54 years old at the time. He said "this is how to die" He then said that he was tired and was going to lay down, he got up, walked into their bed room and went to sleep, He was dead one hour later on his 70 birth day. My mom went in to check on him at midnight and found him. She did not cry but she had no further reason to live, so she too died 30 days later. She wanted to be with him. Nothing at all medically wrong with her.
I tell you these things so you will remember you have only a few days on this earth.
Each one is here and gone. As an old person, like me (83 years) all you can do is pass on you abilities and knowledge to those who follow you. Then slide into death without complaint. Spending the value passed on to you without the ability to give it away robs you and others that follow you.
So go out where ever you are in anyway you can. Be free, that's a gift that was given to you. Let others see joy, excitement wide eyed wonder. don't let fear rule your time.
Money will not buy you time, Things will not make you content or happy, Freedom is really cheap and cannot be put in a bottle, It is given to you to be used.
Get up off your dead butt and do it now. Take your freedom now, Tomorrow will probably be too late, you will have missed that chance. It will never come your way again.
Ken

 

[scaredycat72]

I like going to festivals and other events in my region and I usually drank too much so I learned to sleep in my Yaris. Then I drank too much when I went out in my city so I learned to sleep in my Yaris. Then I got into a relationship with someone with a bad drug addiction and we lived in my car for awhile. Now I'm sober, single and on VA disability for all the stuff that had my drinking too much so I want to travel, escape, runaway, something, while living in my SUV because it's cheaper than hotels and I'm terrified of bed bugs, which I've experienced in 2 hotels and 1 domestic violence shelter. They're horrific and now I have a phobia.

 

[Freelander]

Well for me, I am a bit of a restless soul. I had a house and didn't like all the repairs and upkeep that goes with it. I hated mowing the grass and I REALLY hated that damn Weed Eater. LOL My wife had MS I knew her days were numbered. Both of my parents died in 2019, 3 months apart, and I realized that my wife probably had a year to a year half left, so I started making plans.

I didn't have any real friends or family were I was living, so I thought I would retire and start making plans for when the wife died. I know it sounds cruel but I needed to face facts.

So I started looking for a small RV, I found a 25' Class C that I liked and bought. My wife had to go to a nursing home soon after that and she stayed there 14 months until she passed away. Meanwhile I was fixing the RV the way I wanted it, and had made a few trips in it to see if I could live in it. At the time I was planning on keeping the house, it was payed for already.

The wife passed away in Nov of 2020, and after the funeral I made a the trip to Quartzsite. Meanwhile most of the US was covered with snow and ice.

When I got back home I found my water pipes had frozen and broken, and is was going to cost $6000 to replace them, I figured what it has cost me for the 2 1/2 months that I was away. And the cost of keeping the house was around $600 a month, figuring Insurance, and utilities. It was crazy to pay that and I wasn't even home!!!

So I sold the house jumped in the RV and moved to Texas. I got a job here driving a School Bus, and was doing good until I passed out riding my bike back from work and broke my arm. I am currently living in my RV at my cousin place, Mooch docking LOLOLOLOL. After I get healed up I will be back on the road again and I have a LOT of places to go and see before I pass from this world.

 

[rruff]

Thanks for sharing all of that. I agree that the chance of finding someone to share my van life seems pretty slim.

If you are truly happy with yourself... it just might happen when you are no longer needing/wanting/looking... and least expect it.

 

[Owlie]

I don't have a picture of my parents off hand but let me tell you about them. They were one! Not just husband and wife or father and mother, they were one being.
The day my dad died, he sat in the big chair talking to me while my mother sat and just listened.
My dad told me as he sat there, 69 years 364 days and 23 hours old that he had one last thing to teach me. I was 54 years old at the time. He said "this is how to die" He then said that he was tired and was going to lay down, he got up, walked into their bed room and went to sleep, He was dead one hour later on his 70 birth day. My mom went in to check on him at midnight and found him. She did not cry but she had no further reason to live, so she too died 30 days later. She wanted to be with him. Nothing at all medically wrong with her.
I tell you these things so you will remember you have only a few days on this earth.
Each one is here and gone. As an old person, like me (83 years) all you can do is pass on you abilities and knowledge to those who follow you. Then slide into death without complaint. Spending the value passed on to you without the ability to give it away robs you and others that follow you.
So go out where ever you are in anyway you can. Be free, that's a gift that was given to you. Let others see joy, excitement wide eyed wonder. don't let fear rule your time.
Money will not buy you time, Things will not make you content or happy, Freedom is really cheap and cannot be put in a bottle, It is given to you to be used.
Get up off your dead butt and do it now. Take your freedom now, Tomorrow will probably be too late, you will have missed that chance. It will never come your way again.
Ken

Got off my butt and moved into a van in July 2021. Almost 7 months full time Nomad living. It's still a struggle and a constant adjustment, but I was not going to do what I watched my grandparents and parents do: sit in a chair and wait to die. After being widowed 10-1/2 years ago, getting our sons to independent adulthood and running out of all savings and resources except SS, I started researching Tiny Home living which eventually led me to CheapRVliving.com. Then van life. Once I determined that I could do this, I purchased the best used van that I could and invested everything I could scrape together and the help of my still very young adult sons to get it liveable. I stealth/ urban camped for 6 weeks while the work continued, and hit the road bound for Nevada in late September. I've been learning to live the Nomad life ever since. Now, I am feeling more established and grounded and an beginning to think about heading back to the Midwest, or East/NE for the spring and summer months! Next winter is still undetermined. There are plenty of us retired, or just tired, "old" folks out here living without huge RV's and all the comforts of home! My personal opinion, if you don't want to just sit around being old, quit thinking like an "old" person, and get out there and live!

 

[bebewanna]

I am living in my van because I am my own worst enemy, lol.
I am happy alone and at this point, by choice.

Decided to chase my dreams, so sold about everything including 20 acres next to Columbia River with a 2 story log house I built and bought 5 acres and small vineyard on an island in the Adriatic Sea off coast of Croatia .
A true unspoiled paradise.
Sadly for me EU admission means all countries must have the same residence laws for Americans and things changed and I stayed and fought to stay until I didn't have much left to fight with.

Add to that Serbian GF stealing from me, lol ain't love great. I owned 5 more acres inside Olympia National Forest which I stupidly sold 7 years ago to neighbor heading back to Europe to be with her. Then I figure out her game but luckily I can live on the land still as part of the agreement of my selling him the land.
Then along comes COVID and he loses a 150k a year job and must sell the property... I now don't have cash to but it back because prices in 7 years here skyrocketed...

So... I did this to myself chasing dreams and bad girls.. It was fun while it lasted lol.

The ex NFL QB Bobby Lane said you should die and run out of money at the same time.. Good plan if you can make it happen.

If I didn't have the dogs, one 15, one 10. I would be off seeing the world or living in Eastern Europe where my SSA check makes me a king, not living at poverty level.
Once the male Pit Bull has passed on, hopefully I will still be able to carry a pack and travel...

I have been in the van since last April... I am luckily in an area the law says hello are you OK and that's it. I don't move around on Govt land, same spot from April to December and nobody bothers me. Helps there are few others doing the same here so they don't seem interested in me. Actually still in same community I lived in. We have made it through the winter, really no issues and warm.

As for relationships... Good luck.

 

[wb8vyn]

I like going to festivals and other events in my region and I usually drank too much so I learned to sleep in my Yaris. Then I drank too much when I went out in my city so I learned to sleep in my Yaris. Then I got into a relationship with someone with a bad drug addiction and we lived in my car for awhile. Now I'm sober, single and on VA disability for all the stuff that had my drinking too much so I want to travel, escape, runaway, something, while living in my SUV because it's cheaper than hotels and I'm terrified of bed bugs, which I've experienced in 2 hotels and 1 domestic violence shelter. They're horrific and now I have a phobia.

I'll have to give your post some thought. First, I think your post was written with thought behind it.
I'm guessing a lot here. It looks like you grew up like so many others did in the later 40's and early 50s' and 60s'. In an urban area. The pressures of the exciting peer pressure of others in your neighborhood plus the fact that adults of the time were busy trying to live the American dream allowed kids to more or less raise themselves.
So here you are way past that time. Way past the time when you could have been preparing for the now. That past time when you were living for today and right now.
Ok, Onward, away from all of that. Shoulda Coulda Woulda ain't gonna cut it.
Stop! You are in your own prison. Afraid of the unknown. Fear is a trap of your own making. New surroundings, New strange people, doing new strange things, new smells, new sights, New sounds, new places far away from what you are used to is scary. None of it will hurt you, just makes you uneasy and fearful, causing you to want to run back to the familiar.
There it is again, "fear". Living a life of fearfulness is not how you want the day to begin or end.
Being thoughtful and adult enough to know that you must have basic needs met such as food, shelter, clothing are a given. Everything else in life is as you choose, such as Where you are, is a choice. There is no way for me or anyone else to tell you that you must have courage. You will have to dig that out from within yourself.
My experience has been that being scared is normal and human nature. Standing up and facing that feeling head on is how we live. Knowing in advance that everything may not be "alright". May not be comfortable, or secure.
That's where a framework around you of others who have blazed the trail for you can be your security shelter in the storm of fear that will surly come. Those are freely available to you. I'm not talking about just words, but actual deeds, providing for you those needs when you need them. All you have to do is except those things offered, food, clothing, shelter and a shoulder to lean on during those times when you are in need. Those times of need may be from a poor choice on your part, no mater! we all make mistakes in judgment. That only means you are human. We all shuffle along each day doing the best we can.
I'm going to send you some pictures of my sanctuary. my refuge. I can not send pictures of how I feel. I can not send a picture of a fleeting sight that makes my heart sing. Nor the comfortableness of curling up and falling asleep without worry about the next hour or day or week. I can not send a picture of silence, fresh air and the taste of sweet water.
All of those things are yours for the taking, just reach out, grasp them. Me and many hundreds of others make you that offer. Come, join us, or we will come to you if you only ask. Money is not needed, only a willingness to try different ways of being alive, and I do mean alive, not just existing. Come out and play, have fun, enjoy the day.
Pictures in a later message. Have to figure out how to do it first. that's going to be fun as well.
Ken

 

[scaredycat72]

I'll have to give your post some thought. First, I think your post was written with thought behind it.
I'm guessing a lot here. It looks like you grew up like so many others did in the later 40's and early 50s' and 60s'. In an urban area. The pressures of the exciting peer pressure of others in your neighborhood plus the fact that adults of the time were busy trying to live the American dream allowed kids to more or less raise themselves.
So here you are way past that time. Way past the time when you could have been preparing for the now. That past time when you were living for today and right now.
Ok, Onward, away from all of that. Shoulda Coulda Woulda ain't gonna cut it.
Stop! You are in your own prison. Afraid of the unknown. Fear is a trap of your own making. New surroundings, New strange people, doing new strange things, new smells, new sights, New sounds, new places far away from what you are used to is scary. None of it will hurt you, just makes you uneasy and fearful, causing you to want to run back to the familiar.
There it is again, "fear". Living a life of fearfulness is not how you want the day to begin or end.
Being thoughtful and adult enough to know that you must have basic needs met such as food, shelter, clothing are a given. Everything else in life is as you choose, such as Where you are, is a choice. There is no way for me or anyone else to tell you that you must have courage. You will have to dig that out from within yourself.
My experience has been that being scared is normal and human nature. Standing up and facing that feeling head on is how we live. Knowing in advance that everything may not be "alright". May not be comfortable, or secure.
That's where a framework around you of others who have blazed the trail for you can be your security shelter in the storm of fear that will surly come. Those are freely available to you. I'm not talking about just words, but actual deeds, providing for you those needs when you need them. All you have to do is except those things offered, food, clothing, shelter and a shoulder to lean on during those times when you are in need. Those times of need may be from a poor choice on your part, no mater! we all make mistakes in judgment. That only means you are human. We all shuffle along each day doing the best we can.
I'm going to send you some pictures of my sanctuary. my refuge. I can not send pictures of how I feel. I can not send a picture of a fleeting sight that makes my heart sing. Nor the comfortableness of curling up and falling asleep without worry about the next hour or day or week. I can not send a picture of silence, fresh air and the taste of sweet water.
All of those things are yours for the taking, just reach out, grasp them. Me and many hundreds of others make you that offer. Come, join us, or we will come to you if you only ask. Money is not needed, only a willingness to try different ways of being alive, and I do mean alive, not just existing. Come out and play, have fun, enjoy the day.
Pictures in a later message. Have to figure out how to do it first. that's going to be fun as well.
Ken

Aah, you're very sweet. Thanks for all the support but I was born in the 80s, I've traveled most of my life, served 5 years in the regular Army, worked as a paralegal, a CPA, and owned a newsletter business. My past has been hella crazy, wild, and chaotic but I wouldn't change any of it. Everybody just isn't meant to stay home and plant daisies. I've moved 15 times in 13 years, drank too much, drugged too much, married too many times, and when all of that finally got old, I bought a house and sat my behind down. Now it's 2 years later and I'm about to hit the road again - this time sober and alone so it's going to be an exciting, scary adventure. You seem like a really cool person with a poet's heart and I wish you only the best in your next adventure too.

 

[wb8vyn]

Aah, you're very sweet. Thanks for all the support but I was born in the 80s, I've traveled most of my life, served 5 years in the regular Army, worked as a paralegal, a CPA, and owned a newsletter business. My past has been hella crazy, wild, and chaotic but I wouldn't change any of it. Everybody just isn't meant to stay home and plant daisies. I've moved 15 times in 13 years, drank too much, drugged too much, married too many times, and when all of that finally got old, I bought a house and sat my behind down. Now it's 2 years later and I'm about to hit the road again - this time sober and alone so it's going to be an exciting, scary adventure. You seem like a really cool person with a poet's heart and I wish you only the best in your next adventure too.

spent 6 years, 6 months, 23 days in the navy, traveled the far east and escaped with no damage and no tattoos. I did the drinking but not drugs, didn't need the extra push to feel excited about things. Of course I chased the girls as most young men did and do, ended up meeting a dream girl, one of 9 sisters and 6 brothers, dated all of the girls, chose the best one, married and after some time found that I was only whole with her. Now Half of me has died. Some times I wonder how my heart keeps on beating. but it does, I'm not a complete person any longer.
I made a wrong judgment about your age. So you are young, probably full of tomorrows to come. I'm old, very old. I guess 83 is old. But today I don't feel old, just getting there --- sort of.
Time and experience has taught me to plan ahead somewhat. That's what I am doing now. I am trying very hard to stop looking backward. As the clock tics, the time is coming soon to ease out into the last chapter of my life. I've decided that there is joy and excitement ahead as there was in those days and years that have passed.
Half of me is going to move ahead, taking the ache in the pit of my stomach with me like my good old friend. I'll just live with it.
A little more to go, shedding the "things" that just take up space, no longer used or needed. It's hard.
Nice things are afoot, I'm learning new, old things I'm going to need to keep this half me healthy and going. I just ate some food. Drank some unhealthy coffee. changed the propane tank on the nose of the trailer, re-lit the hot water heater. It's near zero outside. Nice 70 in here, well 68 but that's fine.
Ya know, one day we will cross paths, at least within 1000 miles, I've decided that this half of me can not be made whole again, so I'm not going to try that dead end road.
Taking stock of what is, not what I wish it were.
My son just came in and talked to me about his sailing adventure to begin this spring and summer. He is going to sail on the water, I'm going to sail on land.
Not that it would be of interest to you but I'm going to build him an auto tiller so he can sail single handed, also weld up the needed hardware to raise and lower his main mast by himself as he goes into the unknown.
As i take off I know that I will never see this place again. everything will be new again. Scary thought.
Ken

 

[wb8vyn]

Well for me, I am a bit of a restless soul. I had a house and didn't like all the repairs and upkeep that goes with it. I hated mowing the grass and I REALLY hated that damn Weed Eater. LOL My wife had MS I knew her days were numbered. Both of my parents died in 2019, 3 months apart, and I realized that my wife probably had a year to a year half left, so I started making plans.

I didn't have any real friends or family were I was living, so I thought I would retire and start making plans for when the wife died. I know it sounds cruel but I needed to face facts.

So I started looking for a small RV, I found a 25' Class C that I liked and bought. My wife had to go to a nursing home soon after that and she stayed there 14 months until she passed away. Meanwhile I was fixing the RV the way I wanted it, and had made a few trips in it to see if I could live in it. At the time I was planning on keeping the house, it was payed for already.

The wife passed away in Nov of 2020, and after the funeral I made a the trip to Quartzsite. Meanwhile most of the US was covered with snow and ice.

When I got back home I found my water pipes had frozen and broken, and is was going to cost $6000 to replace them, I figured what it has cost me for the 2 1/2 months that I was away. And the cost of keeping the house was around $600 a month, figuring Insurance, and utilities. It was crazy to pay that and I wasn't even home!!!

So I sold the house jumped in the RV and moved to Texas. I got a job here driving a School Bus, and was doing good until I passed out riding my bike back from work and broke my arm. I am currently living in my RV at my cousin place, Mooch docking LOLOLOLOL. After I get healed up I will be back on the road again and I have a LOT of places to go and see before I pass from this world.

There was no warning for me, not even a hint that I'd be alone again. One day I was whole and alive, the next I was only half, lost in grief. All I wanted was to be with her.
As I pull out this spring I'll be leaving all that has been, behind. Never going to return to what has been "home". It's just another place to remember. The end, just like when my childhood ended. I became an adult, followed my lust for a family, found it with my honesty intact. I made a promise to love, honor and cherish which I kept.
I'm not going to ask for rescue from what lies ahead. I know that one day, darkness will come to me too. I am not afraid. As my time runs out, I'll embrace it.
I have a tracker on my phone which will alert my son when it stops changing. Mean while adventure will be my goal.
Ken

 

[wb8vyn]

Got off my butt and moved into a van in July 2021. Almost 7 months full time Nomad living. It's still a struggle and a constant adjustment, but I was not going to do what I watched my grandparents and parents do: sit in a chair and wait to die. After being widowed 10-1/2 years ago, getting our sons to independent adulthood and running out of all savings and resources except SS, I started researching Tiny Home living which eventually led me to CheapRVliving.com. Then van life. Once I determined that I could do this, I purchased the best used van that I could and invested everything I could scrape together and the help of my still very young adult sons to get it liveable. I stealth/ urban camped for 6 weeks while the work continued, and hit the road bound for Nevada in late September. I've been learning to live the Nomad life ever since. Now, I am feeling more established and grounded and an beginning to think about heading back to the Midwest, or East/NE for the spring and summer months! Next winter is still undetermined. There are plenty of us retired, or just tired, "old" folks out here living without huge RV's and all the comforts of home! My personal opinion, if you don't want to just sit around being old, quit thinking like an "old" person, and get out there and live!

Working on it. Feeling old from moment to moment, but also found that in my mind I can still think like some one much younger. Just have to be practical about how fast I can walk/run. I still don't like shopping and I don't care if my shirt matches my sox.
I might shave, maybe not.
I have fallen 4 or 5 times over the past few weeks, but I still got up without breaking anything, well my pride maybe. No one saw me so I got away with it. I have taken to wearing long sleeved shirts and a hat so no one can see the bruises till they heal.
Now researching stuff needed to make my tow behind trailer more suitable for long term living. Another thing as you can see, I got this computer (lap top) and am learning how to use it better. Got it hooked to my phone. Ain't this great! In the past I usually wrote letters and mailed them. This IS better and faster as well.
I live at the end of the mail route so the mail lady only comes down here once in a while to being bills and junk mail.
I've been to the bank and had routine stuff paid automatically. No need to send checks each month.
Hired a geek guy at $100 bucks an hour to show me how much of this stuff works. He or she is coming back Monday next for my next lesson. The computer lingo is next up. What different terms are used and what they mean in my language.
So, anyway, It's zero outside. I'm in my trailer right now, Think I'll got take a nap. Hope to run into you one day, well not Run into you but cross paths some time.
Ken

 

[hugemoth]

I own a house that has been paid off for many years but I've always spent much of my time traveling and camping. For about 8 months out of the year you'll find me living in my camper and exploring on my quad. Much easier to do nowadays with cell phone, internet, online banking, etc..

 

[Mysoutherncross]

My story is 180 degrees from yours. I worked as a long haul truck driver all of my working life, so travel was what I did. Married and lived happily with a plan to retire when i got old. The company that i spent the last 19 years with were good to me but in the end I was given a choice of going to an office, pushing paper or retiring at age 79.
So I retired!
Soon after my wife of 57 years had a stroke and died. Plans were underway for her and I to travel. We had all the stuff needed, plenty of money and an open ended plan of travel.
Well after sitting in my chair for over a year waiting to die myself. A neighbor found me sitting on the porch, not moving for two days, called 911. Off to the ER I was taken. I was examined and sent to a shrink. After being pocked full of holes and fed IV's for a while, I found out that I had given up on eating. Only weighed 119 pounds, now up to 130 and gaining steadily. After the shrink suggested that it would be good if I did the plan that my wife and I had cooked up about nomad travel and share the adventure with her in a journal. Here I am. I still have the knot in my stomach but life goes on and on and on.
Since i am 83 years old now, finding some one to share this adventure with is not going to happen. Most women I meet who know how to cook are stuck on their dogs and cats, think I am crazy for moving around as I do, Eating hot dogs and fruit loops. They seem to think kale is a gift from heaven. I find contentment in a sun rise, I do not desire to run after it. I like to watch youngsters run and dig holes with a stick or find a bug to torment. I like to watch fish swim in cool creeks. I like quiet times with no one around so i can talk to myself and my wife with out some one judging me as off my rocker old kook. Ya, i know, Linda (my wife) just told me to shush, what will the neighbors think. Time to go build something. (or not)
Ken

Hi Ken, I too travel alone, am 65 and with a dog. I’m presently in AL. I feel your pain. Would be nice to meet up with likeminded people. I’m headed to Quartzsite tomorrow and still have my pass until April.

 

[Calaverasgrande]

Was living in NYC for the last 7 years. Covid wreaked havoc with my social connections and ability to go out and do pretty much anything.
I'm already a little bit antisocial. You give me a medical reason to avoid people, I'm going to run with it like a dog with a pork chop.
So there I was living in Brooklyn paying Brooklyn rent, Brooklyn grocery prices, Brooklyn utility costs, breathing nasty Brooklyn air.
But not reaping the benefits of living in a mega city. Instead I'm just sitting at home playing music and watching Netflix.
So why not put all the crap in storage and live in a van. Get out of the termite mound and breathe actual air for a while.
I did the math on it. After the initial cost, my monthly expenses are much lower, even after paying for gas, insurance and a data plan.
Have to admit, along the way I was confronted with how crappy my body had gotten after my serious bout with covid.
Just doing the work on converting my Transit had my right arm getting all screwed up with tendonitis. When that started to ease off 3 months later, then my back got screwy. So I have had to slow down my conversion process. Which means my van is only 30% there.
Insulated and house power. But no water, no shore connections for campgrounds. No internal galley yet. And the floor is only 85% covered.
Do I regret it?
Not after the Omicron wave!
All my friends in LA and NYC have caught it. Even my sister who works from home caught it somehow!
I'm out here in Pensacola Beach right now and staying the heck away from anybody, living my life!

 

[AZEnergizer]

I bought my first camper van brand new in 1978 but have always had a house up until a tear ago I don't think I'd ever want to be tied down to a house again but reserve the right to change my mind This is a very good life with a few minor inconveniences such as living in a small space, no garage, picking up packages, mail, health insurance, etc.)