Upon leaving what is more than a house, but a home.

[Staying Put]

Again, I sure wish this "General Questions" forum was nearer the top than the bottom because so many don't scroll down this far and may miss some things that apply to all of us no matter what vehicle we may have.<br><br>The adventure and romance of the open road beckons us as we long to shed the burdens of our houses or apartments.&nbsp; Yes, the money we will save, the freedom we will have.&nbsp; But...what if your house has been your home for many years and the memories of your life are wrapped within it?&nbsp; Is it so easy to casually walk or drive away from it then if circumstances are not making you leave?<br><br>I have lived for 22 years in a small mobile home, a trailer, that is now 46 years old.&nbsp; Twenty two years is half of my adult life.&nbsp; My house looks nice on the outside and is neat, clean, and comfortable on the inside, decorated with an unusual and personal touch.&nbsp; It is in a nice mobile home park, just a block from a river yet just a couple of miles from the downtown and from the mall.&nbsp; Yet these are just things that make my house a nice place to live, but did not make it my home.<br><br>What made my house my home are the memories of my daughter, now 22, who grew up living with her mother but spent much time here and mine is the only home that she has known all of her life.&nbsp; From where I type this in my living room I can envision her playing as a toddler, falling asleep in the recliner watching a Lord of the Rings marathon when she was a young teen, holding her cat that I had to keep from a kitten and put to sleep at age 19 last summer.&nbsp; I have a bedroom that still has the Winnie the Pooh decorations stuck to the wall.<br><br>This old trailer is alive with memories that I find myself having become interwoven with it to the point where even writing about this is bringing tears to my eyes.&nbsp; Yet I know I will leave this place one way or another, by choice or by chance, by circumstances beyond my control.&nbsp; Trailers don't last forever and although mine is still solid it probably doesn't have too many more years left in it.&nbsp; Also, I don't own the land and although the lot rent is dirt cheap, $230/month, the mobile home court is on a river with massive apartment complex on one side and a hotel on the other with multi hundred thousand dollar houses on the other side of the river.&nbsp; This was once on the flood plain, but no more.&nbsp; The land is now worth some big bucks and the owner has retired and is letting her kids run the place.&nbsp; One day it's likely they would take the money and run and it would be everybody out and even if my place could move there would be nowhere for it to go.&nbsp; That's what actually got me started a couple of years ago about having an alternative plan, one that would allow me to actually live on my meager retirement funds.&nbsp; That is how I came to vandwelling.<br><br>That is just my story.&nbsp; Anyone who is seriously considering becoming a fulltimer has one.&nbsp; Maybe they're just leaving a house or an apartment or just a place where they keep their stuff.&nbsp; Maybe more, but I'm sure there are lots of different stories and it would be interesting to hear about how others have left behind where they have lived and how hard or easy it may have been.&nbsp; Our choice of abode doesn't define us but it can become a part of us.

 

[dragonflyinthesky]

Thank you for sharing your story, your memories.<BR>Dragonfly

 

[Staying Put]

You are welcome. It's an aspect of fulltiming that I don't really see addressed.The leaving of where you live, perhaps for a long time, is missing the human element and often seems to be treated casually.

 

[Ziggy Moon]

Once Again, I Agree with the General Questions suggestion, Wemble! <img src="/images/boards/smilies/wink.gif" class="emoticon bbc_img"><br><br><br><br>Also, I enjoyed the read.<br><br>

 

[Staying Put]

I'm getting the glitch here again of text being strung down the page a couple of characters wide.&nbsp; I hope it's just me.&nbsp; What I'm seeing is from my #3 post in this thread.<br><br>Ziggy Moon, I've participated in online forums for many years and I've found people most often view the top of a list of forums without scrolling down toward the bottom.&nbsp; Questions that apply to everyone are most often near the top of a forum list so more will see and read them and respond.

 

[Ziggy Moon]

Yep, I see the scrolling text also!

 

[twokniveskatie]

Again- I have noted the requests about changes to the forum. As I said before, we will be undergoing some improvements and upgrades shortly. Please be patient and it will all get done eventually!

 

[Staying Put]

The scrolling text is gone now for me.

 

[twokniveskatie]

Cause I've been fixing it as fast as I can I will be going to sleep soon, so any reoccurences will have to wait til I wake up....

 

[ice_maiden]

Thanks for sharing Wemble. <br>I can see your point of view but there is another perspective to that.<br><br>I left the home where I raised my son, and even though I don't have the house anymore, I still have the memories. Walls and floors don't necessarily make a home... the love inside does.&nbsp; That love and those memories will go where ever you do. If you need a visual reminder... there are always photos.<br><br>The whole point in life should be to be happy where you live... whether that is living in a mobile home park, a house, apartment, in a van, or an RV on land or park. I was happy in my house when my son was there. Once my son was gone it just became a house that was too much for one person. It was a lot to maintain and no reason left to maintain it.&nbsp; My son was off on his own life (as it should be).<br><br>Once I hashed through all of that and came to that conclusion... I started considering the vandwelling lifestyle.&nbsp; I shed the house, bought the van and was setting it up, But catastrophic family events changed my plans (I lost my mother and uncle 4 months apart). &nbsp; After the two years it took to handle the affairs of both those estates, gas prices had gone from around $2.50 to where they are now. I no longer saw vandwelling as a sustainable lifestyle for myself.&nbsp; So I bought and RV and a piece of land.... I could not be happier... the RV is easy to maintain, I take care of the land around the rv... the rest of it takes care of it's self.<br><br>But anyway ... If your position is short lived, think of an obtainable life that will make you happy and strive for that!<br><br><br>NOTE ON FORUM.... I have had that problem of the downward page post.... I have a slow internet connection and found that is was adding some html in front of my post.... my connection was slow enough that I could keep editing till I saw it... then delete it.&nbsp; But it only happen when I tried to copy and past someone's ID so that I could reply directly to them.

 

[Ziggy Moon]

Well spoken, ice_maiden! I agree!<br><br>I think many of us can relate to Wemble's post.

 

[Staying Put]

I've heard it said that what makes each of us unique individuals are our collective memories and experiences.&nbsp; Where I live just happens to be alive with the memories and experiences that have happened to me here.&nbsp; We read here so often of the various vehicles that people obtain for their vandwelling and how they are fixing them up, but I think it is also interesting to know about the places we have left to live a life on the road either full time or part time.&nbsp; For some it may be a cherished home and for others it is just a place, maybe somewhere they just keep their stuff so leaving is no big deal.<br><br>What is now vandwelling is just my plan B for if something goes amiss with where I live which what I now think is most likely is that the mobile home park land get sold off to build apartments or condominiums.&nbsp; The rents here are sky high because it is a college town (although 50% of the housing here is rental) and I don't want to get stuck having to live in a high rise because my income would be so low.<br><br>So I will have a van for just in case.&nbsp; When I retire in a few years I'll be able to use it to snowbird in the winter and escape from up north for those months.&nbsp; That will save me money from having to heat the place.&nbsp; Staying here will allow me to keep my stuff (George Carlin has a great bit about "stuff" and it is so true--my collected stuff from 22 years drives me nuts) here rather than having to rent even a small storage place and that saves money.&nbsp; Then because my income will be so low I will qualify for the Homestead credit which will pay me even more.&nbsp; All of that will likely pay for half a year's lot rent (currently just $230/month) and allow me to keep a good home base.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If it comes to the worst and it's everybody out, then I have a van to live in.<br><br>I had read the book "Dirt Cheap Survival Retreat" by M.D. Creekmore who writes about buying a small piece of "junk" land on which to park a small RV and had considered that.&nbsp; It does seem like a viable alternative in some circumstances, one which could still allow you to travel.&nbsp; But vandwelling seems to have put me on its path and I'm planning on finding where it leads.

 

[coultergeist]

I certainly appreciate your thoughts and feelings.&nbsp; I have had many of the same.&nbsp; I was a soldier for many years, so for me home was not so much a specific place as the place where those I love happened to be at the time.&nbsp; We had many homes.&nbsp; I remember them all and the moments within them.&nbsp; My wife passed away a few years after I left the military.&nbsp; I ended up having to leave the last place we had lived together.&nbsp; It was really, really hard.&nbsp; All of our last memories were in that place.&nbsp; <br><br>I am building out my van now.&nbsp; One way I'm making it home is to include little things in it from the past.&nbsp; One of my very first memories was of my great grandfather.&nbsp; He gave my sister and I little boat to play with in the tub when I was three years old.&nbsp; He passed away not long after.&nbsp; It is my only living memory of him.&nbsp; He was a carpenter and many of his tools and portable tool boxes came to me years later.&nbsp; He had several big mason jars of miscellaneous hardware in them.&nbsp; I used some of the screws and things in my build as a way of connecting with him.&nbsp; <br><br>I've always loved building things.&nbsp; I guess I got that from my great grandfather.&nbsp; I built my youngest son something for every Christmas.&nbsp; One year was a little table and chairs.&nbsp;&nbsp;One year he was really into pirates, so I built him a real treasure chest.&nbsp; Some of the wood that was bought for those projects was used intentionally in the van.&nbsp; <br><br>These are just a few examples.&nbsp; There are many more.&nbsp; As I look around my vehicle, I see the little pieces that spark memories all the time.&nbsp; This is my way of making it just a little bit more like home.

 

[Staying Put]

Well coultergeist, I know that I will leave my home one way or another someday, by choice or by chance, for better or worse.&nbsp; I know I could do it, but it wouldn't be easy.&nbsp; I think that the last time I closed my door to never return that I would just sit on the front steps and have a cry for a few minutes.&nbsp; Then, life goes on.<br><br>I am reminded of the first "Lord of the Rings" movie the "Fellowship of the Ring" after Bilbo had left the one ring behind and was leaving his lifelong home, never to return.&nbsp; He told Gandalf that he had thought of an ending to his book:&nbsp; "And he lived happily ever after... to the end of his days."&nbsp; Then he left, singing "the road goes ever on and on...".&nbsp; He was a vandweller without a van and like him many of us will just be getting on the road and taking a different path.<br><br>I too would take along in my van a few small things from my home and life of many years which would make it seem more homey.&nbsp; Just some things to link a new chapter of my life with the old one.&nbsp; I almost envy the ones who are looking toward vandwelling as an escape from somewhere they lived that had become a burden or was just a place they kept their stuff.

 

[FloridaGuy]

Home is where the heart is.<br><br>wherever you lay your hat is your home.&nbsp;<br><br>Wherever I go, there I am. &nbsp;<br><br>I always consider where I live a home, even if I'm renting. &nbsp;

 

[c_hasbeen]

there was a trailer court in my town that just recently evicted all tenants, they had older mobile homes that no one would allow in a different park, most just packed up their belongings and left.<br>I drove by the other day and it looks like they are getting ready to sell it off for million dollar housess to be built on.<br>it broke my heart to see

 

[FloridaGuy]

That sucks with the trailer park eviction. &nbsp;I read about a mobile home park closing down so they can provide homes for the Native Americans that own the casino. &nbsp;I read that each person gets $10,000 a month for being a tribe member. &nbsp;The evicted people I think at least got $5,000 each so it's better than just being told to go. &nbsp;

 

[Staying Put]

It could happen to my trailer court someday, maybe soon, where the word comes "everybody out" because we are on a nice little river with a huge apartment complex next door with boat slips and expensive homes on the other side of the river.&nbsp; The big bucks would be too much to resist.&nbsp; Lots of senior citizens here on fixed incomes, many having lived here for many years.&nbsp; Where would the go?<br><br>Maybe they could comfort themselves with that quaint saying "Home is where the heart is, wherever you lay your hat is your home".&nbsp; They could have it made into a sampler and put on the wall of their nursing home or high rise.&nbsp; Kind of long for a tattoo, but it could be done.<br><br>No, when you get older (and there's a lot of that going around) a cherished home with all of its memories is not so easily and casually set aside.&nbsp; Maybe it's the home where your kids grew up with the pencil marks on the wall for their heights.&nbsp; Maybe it's a home where you grew up and inherited from a parent.&nbsp; I would think few senior citizens where I live would so blithely or honestly claim that their home is where their heart is because that is likely to be the one they lost and where they lay their hat is where they are forced to go.&nbsp; Life goes on, where I have lived for over 2 decades is my home.&nbsp; If I were to become a fulltime vandweller not by choice my van would be where I live, possibly a nice abode, but I wouldn't really feel it was my home in the sense that this one is.

 

[Bryce]

I lived in a an old trailer house for years. Raised three kids there. I owned the place but it was still just a piece of crap. Walk away and start your new life. Dont be afraid of leaving. Your life may be a little scary at first, everything new is. But living in a van, car, or a tent, in a forest or BLM land is sooo much better.

 

[Stargazer]

Living in the past, on your memories? I tried that. Unless you just like the taste of tears, I don't recommend it.