Ready to Roll!

[Unsettled]

New member who plans to be active on the forum.  I'm doing it.  I've been considering this for a while and I think was born to live in a van.

When I was younger I did stints living in a car, but I never figured out that it could be livable by adding electric/water/air-circulation.  I move on average once or twice a year, and my whole life has been this way since childhood.  I've lived in cars, tents, boats, and a seemingly endless string of cheap rooms.  The past 20 years it's mostly been urban camping, room to room, working ESL in China and SE Asia, living in slums and $5 guesthouses and such.  Dealing with water and electrical issues and all kinds of pauper issues. I've lived my life out of one checked bag and a carry-on for as long as I can remember.  On the one hand it sucks; on the other you get to see the world and be completely cured of materialism.  If it doesn't fit in the bags, I don't need it.  There's not a doubt in my mind that I can handle vanlife.  Mostly I'm just sick of living overseas and just long to be back in the US, as I'm turning 50 and feel like I've gotten too old for this expat sh**.  Also, I want to find some work where I'm paying into social security, cuz I haven't done that for decades, which means I'll be receiving next to squat.  Another decade of work in the US and it might get up to a livable figure... if I'm living in a van.  That's the best retirement plan on my table, and, actually, it sounds great to me. I'm a master of minimalism and frugality, so this just seems like a natural course for my life anyway.

My most recent job pays a beyond livable salary (finally!) but the environment is grating and I've just had enough.  I've managed to squirrel away about 20k USD, more money than I've ever had in my life, and should have substantially more by the time my contract ends.  So I've thought a lot about it, almost endlessly researching it, and decided to buy a small-to-mid-sized van and set it up and do this thing.

 

[RvDreams]

Welcome Unsettled to the CRVL forums! Living in a vehicle sounds like it was made for you and you will fit right in here.

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.

 

[eDJ_]

Welcome to the CRVL Forum 

There is a lot of information here that you may find helpful and plenty of helpful folks too.

Below are links to a couple sites of mine which may be helpful for you.  1) is about fixing up a Van, Utility Trailer, etc to live out of.  Simple build just to start with in decent weather.   2) is a portal of handy info you could use to preview trips while you are in the sticks & bricks or  once you are on the road.  This Covid problem has so much stuff shut down now and makes a lot of those places in the "links list" off the table for now,  but in time things will get back to the way they were before.

All the best in reacclimating to the States.   :thumbsup:

 

[maki2]

Come to Arizona for the winter months. You can be on BLM land near towns with no need to be stealthy. Unless you need to work at a job you commute to what is the point of having to sneak around being stealthy?  Stealth campng is way too lonely, too aggravating and much more risky. It is much nicer to wake up everyday, think what a beautiful morning and to have nice happy people around for neighbors who are liked minded for living the same lifestyle.

 

[Dingfelder]

Hey welcome.

It sounds like you've been through a world of adventures to share with others and, like they say, "You could dine out for a year on those stories." I bet you could provide plenty of story warmth to the campfire warmth others could provide.

If you could bring some of that cooking knowledge from way out east, well -- nothing provides connection between people more than food, maybe a dog if the food is too weird or bad (arrgg!). It's not like most everyone doesn't like Asian food by now, barely second to pizza IF that.

I think you might be working your way into a great life.

Do start looking for used vans immediately though. We are in perilous times and that puts van prices at a premium.  As the second round of virus and business closures seizes up our economy on top of the first, there will be a lot of people kicked out of houses and apartments desperate to do anything but live in the streets, so a quality van, well-prepared for living or not, is probably going to be a premium item for quite some time to come.  Think as long as it takes, but don't meditate for your spirit-opening for too long, because the competition for what used to be something nobody particularly wanted is going to be high for years.