Path to van dwelling?

[KASibson]

My latest has been adopting more of a plant based diet.  This has led me to various you tubers and one couple in particular who live in an RV. 

Conor and Brittany and their adorable RV named Winnie?
(If it's not, you should check them out.  Search "Conor and Brittany", they have good individual channels too.)

 

[michele0203]

Yes, they're the ones!!!

 

[ganchan]

I am gravitating toward vandwelling because:

1. As a freelancer who earns his living entirely online, I don't have to be tethered to any one place. It's a huge fringe benefit of this career path that I'm currently taking ZERO advantage of.

2. At mid-life I'm disappointed about all the parts of the U.S. I've never seen or experienced.

3. I like coming up with innovative alternatives to Standard Operating Procedure.

4. I think I'm just a frustrated nomad at heart. Routine drives me nuts, and so does staying in any one place for too long.

I'm going to do several extended trips over the next year or so. If I like what I've found, I'll let the apartment lease expire, maybe move a few things to a small storage unit in case I ever want them, and then off I go.

 

[eDJ_]

My journey into Van Dwelling or at least the interest in full time Van Dwelling started early in my school days.   I got an old Ford Van and fixed up a carpeted floor, a bed, and a kitchenette.  (see the top website in my signature line below).   It was for recreation actually.  I would go with girl friends to concerts on a Friday night and then off to a State Park for some camping in the outdoors.  I later found a deal on an old fiberglass motorboat and could then do some camping, boating, and fishing.  I became adept to it and dreamed of a time I could do this for more than just week ends.

Later after I was working in my field I had acquired a better Van and fixed it up similarly,  but I'd gotten rid of he boat by then and found an economy car to tow behind it so I could go Job hunting for opportunities in my field of Design.  

This was when I became aware of how single people are treated in the Corporate Hierarchy.  The Married ones I worked with didn't want to take short term assignments at other divisions of the Corporation.  So they were always point at me...."send him, he's single" (or second class to them cause I wasn't married).    This was when I began to devise a strategy to make that misfortune and my Van pay off. 

I had found a couple of books by Victor Papanek and James Hennessey titled, "Nomadic Furniture #1 & #2".
So I pondered the way the traveling Rides at the County Fairs operated, where they could be packed up in a few hours after the close of the Fair and be gone by daylight.   I studied the Nomadic Furniture books closely to see how I could use the ideas in them.   Then built some of the stuff in them.  One of the biggest hassles in moving is a bed mattress & box springs, and my work around for that was an Air Bed which a small vacuum cleaner that could be used to inflate as well could work well with.  Then I found boxes and containers where my collection could be packed up in a well organized fashion.

I had a tow bar for the car and figured my immediate stuff could be packed in it. (bed,  kitchen gear, bathroom gear so I could set up quickly on arrival at a new place and leave the Van packed with the other
items for later.   Next morning I could take the car to work and get things started.  On coming home afterwards,  I could begin unpacking the Van and getting everything arranged and unpacked and set up. So the next day the Van would be available for work details.

So like the traveling Carnival Rides I could move fast and be ready to go again within a few hours. 

For this "skill set" I had talked to the Executive Officers and explained to them that if I were to always be called on to take these "crap jobs" that I should be getting the raises and advances the married guys thought they were so entitled to simply because they were married.   It took some negotiating and a friend calling from another company inquiring of me (to make it look like they were trying to hire me away from them)  to bring them around to realizing just how valuable I was to them.  So they relented.  I got what I wanted with the caveat that someone at the other end would have a decent place waiting for me when I arrived....and I would be notified of a move at mid week so I could get packed up and ready to hit the road and be there ready to work by the following Monday morning.   They were even generous enough to provide expenses for all of this...and deal with my Landlords to handle the rent deposits/leases.  (telling them I had been sent out of state to another division) 

Thus I could handle and succeed as a Corporate Nomad who could float between assignments. 

It was a great learning experience for me and I found some of the older Exec's even admiring my rig and it's versatility.  Perhaps even envying what I was doing a bit.    But it was paying off for me and that was enough. 

Since those days I've lived in the sticks and bricks, helped look after some older family members, survived the }}} GREAT RECESSION {{{ and am now working on angles to make a years living in 6 months so that I can flip my home on the River and get my Van rig on the road.  Perhaps even Expatriate in time. 

I have the Van to accomplish the first step ready.   I know what to do so there is no fears.   My website (bottom one below)  is in place to use for once I hit the road,  and I'll be ready to travel in my free times until I can full time altogether. 

In past years I've inherited a bunch of "stuff" and what I find when I want to sell some of it off is an older family member saying, "Oh, you can't sell that....it was your  (insert realative of choice LOL)".   But that is becoming less of an issue now.  Much of this is over some vacant property.  You know...you own something that the taxes on it each year could buy something needed and you wonder if you'll ever reclaim the value of the property and all the taxes you've paid on it to date.   But you put up with because of family.  Again
that will be resolving itself in time and I'll find a creative way to dispose of it and get my money out of it by hook or crook.    

So that's how I come by my EXPERIENCE with Van travel/life.  From recreation to beating a system that was out to beat me........and sharing my story for the benefit of those new to this way of life.

Nomadic Furniture #1 & #2

https://www.amazon.com/Nomadic-Furniture-Victor-Papanek/dp/039470228X

 

[slynne]

I am so happy to have found this forum. I never realized that there were so many like minded people. Also, I think reading the threads is helping me avoid mistakes and I am learning so much!!!

I've only started feeling trapped in my job recently but I still generally like the work and the people I work with. I hope they will let me do my job from the road because although I have skills that are pretty general (IT stuff), the temporary and freelance work doesn't come with health insurance but it is helpful knowing that there are options just in case. The job I had before this one was awful. It really was abusive and it took me way longer than it should have for me to get out. It is funny how a situation like that can sap your confidence. Recognizing that you have to get out is the first step though and it sounds like you have taken that one at least.

Anyhooo, the way I have been dealing with friends and family who think I am crazy is to just tell them to calm down. Right now, all I am doing is getting rid of stuff and saving money so if I change my mind in six months, all that will have happened is that I will have purged a bunch of things from my life that needed to go and I will have saved up some money and gotten out of debt. I figure that once I actually take concrete steps, such as buying the van and selling the house, I will just prove them wrong by living well. I had to laugh though because my mother told me that she wouldn't let me sleep in my van in her driveway because she didn't want the neighbors to think that she wouldn't let me live in the house! She lives out in the country and knows all of her neighbors well. I know them well too so I told her that I would tell them all that she begged me to stay in the house but I refused. LOL

 

[Stephen]

I have always loved to travel. Now that the wife and I are both retired, our home is sold and we have a base partially built we are looking frantically for our escape pod. It's hard to be reasonable and wait for the right rig. I just wish we could make it to RTR! [emoji20]


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[steamjam1]

My path to van dwelling was waking up one morning, looking around, saying "F-THIS", then 15 minutes of thinking about living in a van, cracked open a beer, watched a Youtube video or two on the subject, and then going out to buy a van to get started. Turned in my 30 days notice that day on my house when I got home from buying a van, and I keep thinking about how Cortez burned his ships when he got to the new world to keep his men "motivated".. (Although historically, its in dispute if he really did that.)

What happened next was 20 days of the most intense, steepest learning curve ever in my life.

 

[becida]

I have always loved to travel.  Now that the wife and I are both retired, our home is sold and we have a base partially built we are looking frantically for our escape pod. It's hard to be reasonable and wait for the right rig. I just wish we could make it to RTR! [emoji20]


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Have a car? Have a tent? It's been done like that, just drive out & do it... when it's over drive back to where ever it is that you're at now & finish doing whatever it is you're doing.
Just a thought...