So, I'm at the point where I can finally get a van and start my build. As usual though, just when I thought all my bases were covered, a few more questions have arisen.
I'm in a unique situation where I have come into a pretty high paying job, that can also afford me the opportunity to permanently work from home. So obviously this means, I could pretty much work from anywhere. The downside to this is, this job is almost constant. I work long hours and long over time almost every day. The work is unfortunately pretty fast paced and constant, and it needs to be done immediately. This puts me in a tough spot. Since this job demands my attention almost constantly, I've come to realize this means I'm going to need to stay parked somewhere for quite a while in some instances, as I wont have time to keep driving between locations. I'll also need a relatively stable internet connection. After reading this forum for over a year, it seems that these 2 issues are pretty much at odds with van dwelling. Mobile internet seems hilariously unreliable, and most places will only let you stay parked for maybe a day max.
So, has anyone else been in a situation like this by chance? I've though about some of the places I could stay for a while, and while they would all work, I cant see them working for as long as I might need without getting a lot of harassment. Public parking seems pretty limited in most places, and since stealth is a pretty important issue, the longer you stay somewhere, the more you will stand out. I understand there's RV parks and such around that you can pay to stay at, and basically stay for however long you wish, but what are the costs involved with this and how many of these places are really around? I'm not averse to paying to stay somewhere, as long as its cheap. If my total costs end up being more or equal to staying somewhere permanent, whats the point? There's the obvious places like Hotels, which would fix both issues, but this seems to defeat the purpose. I have a feeling I'd just end up living in hotels rather than the van most of the time. Again, I wouldn't mind this on occasion, but I'd like to figure out something that would keep me in the van.
A few other places I've considered parking have been a bit more out in the open. For instance, I notice on my way in to work there's these gravel areas that you can pull into off the side of the road. These look like pretty good places, since they don't appear to be owned by anyone, and I do occasionally see people parked there. It seems to me, they're just places to pull off to the side of the road, and aren't used for anything. Has anyone ever straight up camped on the side of the road? I imagine I probably wouldn't be bothered, but you never know. There's too many trigger happy cops out there these days looking to cause trouble. I don't want to be tresspassing, but I've also considered staying around some abandoned facilities, such as old factories/warehouses. I live in the midwest, and there's TONS of these around. But I imagine if I stay there, I'd just be making a huge target for myself for both police and criminals to try and break in at the off chance that I'm seen. So I'm not sure if this is really a good choice/option. Anyone tried this?
As for internet, mobile hotspots are really my only option. I had planned on getting a wifi antenna, but whats the point in being able to detect a ton of connections and not actually be able to connect to any of them? I was in a situation the other day where my car had broken down and I needed to send a message to work to tell them I was going to be late. I was surrounded by about 20-30 available connections, and not a single one of them was actually unsecured. Some I could connect to, but then required a login to actually use the internet. It occurs to me, there's not really such a thing as free wifi anymore. I could crack wifi passwords, and get a connection this way, but the time it takes to do this is variable, and just brings me right back to my first issue which is staying parked. I highly doubt I'll be able to stay parked outside some place for 10 hours while I crack their wifi. This just isn't reasonable. Not to mention if work comes in that I need to do NOW, I cant do it 10 hours later. So really, I'm screwed on that deal. So my question comes down to, does a truly unlimited mobile hotspot even exist? What have your experiences been with getting internet on the road?
I know this is also kind of area-dependent. I had planned on going down to Florida and van dwelling around the Miami area for a while. Originally I wanted to stay around the keys, but after surveying the area on google earth, this doesn't look possible. The islands seem pretty residential, which means I wouldn't be able to park there. Since the islands are incredibly small, and heavily policed, this would make things really impossible. I also found some videos by a youtuber named Howie Roll, who was actually staying on the islands, and it seems like its been really rough for him. Harassment is not something I have time to deal with on a regular basis, and needs to be minimized as much as possible. Stealth is of the utmost importance in my case, and it seems like it might become more of a burden than its worth.
So this is pretty much the situation I'm in at the moment. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I'm in a unique situation where I have come into a pretty high paying job, that can also afford me the opportunity to permanently work from home. So obviously this means, I could pretty much work from anywhere. The downside to this is, this job is almost constant. I work long hours and long over time almost every day. The work is unfortunately pretty fast paced and constant, and it needs to be done immediately. This puts me in a tough spot. Since this job demands my attention almost constantly, I've come to realize this means I'm going to need to stay parked somewhere for quite a while in some instances, as I wont have time to keep driving between locations. I'll also need a relatively stable internet connection. After reading this forum for over a year, it seems that these 2 issues are pretty much at odds with van dwelling. Mobile internet seems hilariously unreliable, and most places will only let you stay parked for maybe a day max.
So, has anyone else been in a situation like this by chance? I've though about some of the places I could stay for a while, and while they would all work, I cant see them working for as long as I might need without getting a lot of harassment. Public parking seems pretty limited in most places, and since stealth is a pretty important issue, the longer you stay somewhere, the more you will stand out. I understand there's RV parks and such around that you can pay to stay at, and basically stay for however long you wish, but what are the costs involved with this and how many of these places are really around? I'm not averse to paying to stay somewhere, as long as its cheap. If my total costs end up being more or equal to staying somewhere permanent, whats the point? There's the obvious places like Hotels, which would fix both issues, but this seems to defeat the purpose. I have a feeling I'd just end up living in hotels rather than the van most of the time. Again, I wouldn't mind this on occasion, but I'd like to figure out something that would keep me in the van.
A few other places I've considered parking have been a bit more out in the open. For instance, I notice on my way in to work there's these gravel areas that you can pull into off the side of the road. These look like pretty good places, since they don't appear to be owned by anyone, and I do occasionally see people parked there. It seems to me, they're just places to pull off to the side of the road, and aren't used for anything. Has anyone ever straight up camped on the side of the road? I imagine I probably wouldn't be bothered, but you never know. There's too many trigger happy cops out there these days looking to cause trouble. I don't want to be tresspassing, but I've also considered staying around some abandoned facilities, such as old factories/warehouses. I live in the midwest, and there's TONS of these around. But I imagine if I stay there, I'd just be making a huge target for myself for both police and criminals to try and break in at the off chance that I'm seen. So I'm not sure if this is really a good choice/option. Anyone tried this?
As for internet, mobile hotspots are really my only option. I had planned on getting a wifi antenna, but whats the point in being able to detect a ton of connections and not actually be able to connect to any of them? I was in a situation the other day where my car had broken down and I needed to send a message to work to tell them I was going to be late. I was surrounded by about 20-30 available connections, and not a single one of them was actually unsecured. Some I could connect to, but then required a login to actually use the internet. It occurs to me, there's not really such a thing as free wifi anymore. I could crack wifi passwords, and get a connection this way, but the time it takes to do this is variable, and just brings me right back to my first issue which is staying parked. I highly doubt I'll be able to stay parked outside some place for 10 hours while I crack their wifi. This just isn't reasonable. Not to mention if work comes in that I need to do NOW, I cant do it 10 hours later. So really, I'm screwed on that deal. So my question comes down to, does a truly unlimited mobile hotspot even exist? What have your experiences been with getting internet on the road?
I know this is also kind of area-dependent. I had planned on going down to Florida and van dwelling around the Miami area for a while. Originally I wanted to stay around the keys, but after surveying the area on google earth, this doesn't look possible. The islands seem pretty residential, which means I wouldn't be able to park there. Since the islands are incredibly small, and heavily policed, this would make things really impossible. I also found some videos by a youtuber named Howie Roll, who was actually staying on the islands, and it seems like its been really rough for him. Harassment is not something I have time to deal with on a regular basis, and needs to be minimized as much as possible. Stealth is of the utmost importance in my case, and it seems like it might become more of a burden than its worth.
So this is pretty much the situation I'm in at the moment. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
