van living saved my life

[American Nomad Patriot]

Camm- My first TT was 16ft Biggest Small P.O.S. that should have never left the pasture I pulled it out of. But my first trip in it I was parked @ and RV park next to a guy in a Huge 40ft Cardinal 5th Wheel TT. And everyone in the park no matter the size or condition treated me with respect,kindness, and were non-judgemental as I did them. Maybe I'm lucky..but I haven't met but one crappy camper person on the road. So basically...for me personally..."I don't give a chit about the rig..it's all about the person." ;-)

[Roadtripp]

I have a experience with vans, RVs, buses, trailers, but haven’t driven them as much as I’d like. After buying and fixing them I did not have much funds left to actually go anywhere. Poor planner I guess but getting wiser. Managed a couple years on the road with a van recently and those first years on the road where hard. Far from relaxing. But I got a taste and want more as it was good introduction to full timing. I have a much clearer picture of what I want for a vehicle and want to achieve. I hope and pray for a few years to relax and simply enjoy being Nomadic and alive. And see the good side of human nature. Have seen the other side and it was not so peachy. My goal is to sow good tidings and goodwill. Put my best foot forward then get the heck out of Dodge if others are not lol. I stopped at the RTR and left after 20 minutes. Something did not feel right for myself and I trust my senses. So perk up and keep plugging folks. Hope your Fall season is going good and as well as can be.

[RoamerRV428]

I hear ya Camm.
I read the judgment against other's all the time over there LOL
but for me when one poster basically told me I had no right to comment on a situation I could barely not understand cause I owned an rv with a sink, shower, toilet and refrig and more luxuries that I shouldn't even bother trying to give any comment. That irked me cause even with an rv and some other stuff someone else might not have in their unit they travel, I also boondock a ton. I conserve. I use public facilities. Sometimes we don't use all of our stuff in the rv but of course the judgement was swift. You got this and that therefore you can't make an informed statement. That just gets under my skin.

People just get one or 2 experiences in personal life then they make a blanket judgement general call on all of it from there on out. Can't leave open any thoughts about how other's easily could be different than their perceptions but I guess that is the way of the world Ain't gonna change. Stuck in the muds over there on that site I am now leaving that site mostly cause I like it a ton better over here LOL Don't get me wrong tho, there are a few great people on that other site and I enjoy their info and kindness. Just some are so BLECK I can't take it anymore HAHA Its all a good thing.

[rvpopeye]

I have seen that mindset many times during my life out on the road , and working in campgrounds , and the many RVing forums I have participated in.
Often the "complait-ant" has very little experience themselves and then insist they know better cuz they have "all the proper knowledge" (well , they read about it , some even did it for a season.....) !!

My mom has a "saying" 'bout "them"
"Sexual Intellectuals" =Fukkin' Know It Alls don't know squat !

I doubt that attitude ever exists in anything YARC.

YARC You , if you don't think so too.....

[RoamerRV428]

YARC You.....love that and one day I will say that out loud to someone and watch their expression of WTH does that mean HAHA and I ain't gonna tell them. Let them stew!


You said it Popeye.


Older I get the more tiresome I get of snarky. Very judgemental. Very narrow-minded and close-minded. You see it more and more. I am letting it go more now ya know. I was tight like that in my own little bubble, but now I let things go more open, more free to be yourself, free to do what suits you, what makes you happy.....what makes me happy ain't the only way to live life I learned HAHA So the more of it I read in posts etc. the more disillusioned I get and just want to walk from it. So I do.

whatever tho, it is all good and ya can't change a leopards spots.

Thumbs up to your Momma!!!

[Roadtripp]

Make other people largely irrelevant is what my landlord seems to do pretty successfully. He is a wizard at it. Me, I’m still the apprentice. Human nature follows humans wherever they go. I’m concerned with so many people taking to the boondocks and camping areas. Thank goodness the West is big. See what happens. 
 I’m attracted to serendipidity. Planning hasn’t been very fruitful. The fruit seems to happen from the unexpected. 
  I was feeling pretty discouraged and grumpy when it got dark and cold again but am accepting it more. Though feeling depressed I’m not heading South. Too many pots on the wet firewood fire again. Changing horses midstream can be be tricky also. 
 May have to buy a one-way ticket to Hawaii soon and park the RV project for the Winter. But still a chance to drive South. 
 Happy camping

[Scott7022]

I had a great childhood. Dad a WW2 vet was perhaps a little heavy handed at times, but at those times I was a real jerk too. So perhaps it was warranted. I don't have any victim badges on display or to pull out my back pocket. I was raised well, worked, did my service, went into LE and did another 25 there. Bad choices and baggage, sure. The thing is everyone has a choice. Carry them or leave them behind. If you're screwed up at 20 perhaps you can blame others. At 40 it's all you baby!

When I was a little grunt, I got stationed at a remote ski resort, in the summer, to help teach orienteering and bush survival. It was just after the Falklands engagement. We had a guest instructor from England. Never found out if he was SAS at the time. Years later it turned out our intuition was correct. Great man and was very fond of calling us "Retards". While I know that is an offensive term today. Back then it was not so... many things.

Anyway what he'd forgotten about bushcraft and survival was more than any of us specialists had learned. The posting was two months and I learned so much from this guy. His favourite saying was: "Anyone asshole can be uncomfortable in the field. Let's not be assholes!"

Comfort for him was a long carved ebony SPORK utensil with a paracord lanyard. A ammo pouch with tea, biscuits, and chocolate, and a knife. He would dive in and taste test all our in field creations and brew a cup while watching us complete whatever task he had directed us to preform. He was comfortable.

The idea of comfort is a very personal thing. Some need a connected cab to living area to feel safe while others can sleep in a Grizz Burrito in the middle of nowhere. Some need heat and hot water and others a sleeping bag and metal canteen beside the fire. I get the other places nose up atttitude toward many ideas of comfort. It is like you ain't quite white enough, or have had enough set backs in life to earn the right into the club. Perhaps it is a way to separate the Bob brand from the vanlife brand or overlanders or... not sure. But that is the thing with clicks,clubs,gangs,and the like. You need to be more like everyone else to fit.

I get there is a comfort level to that and to that end the other place is great for those that like that type of thing and need to read and be supported by a like mindset. And not be dragged off topic by alternative voices. It is all about comfort levels. As individual as the people having them. Saying someone doesn't have the right to speak because they have a Class A is like not listening to the fireman telling you to run because he isn't a cop or your parent.

This is for me an alternative lifestyle and one that removes me from the idea of class, position,power,hamster wheels of ridiculously skewed consumerism. It is an idea that we are free to be as we wish to be. Able to accept help, or decline it: offer it or just sit back and watch the sparks. A lifestyle of self sufficiency without the trappings of what the Nanny Nation tells you ya all need to be successful. Personally I have a couple of quirky things that I need to be comfortable, not survive, but be comfortable. They will be in my rig because I don't want to be an asshole.

[Queen]

Well said.

I always see the circles, circles of inclusion and exclusion, they exist in every facet of our lives, it seems to be a very human response to help create a comfort zone. The tribe must have “rules” for membership.

[RoamerRV428]

yup -- personal comfort bubble space is required by all. too bad many of the nasty opinions and ignorance just seem to float out of that bubble

[ukenukem]

Uke. How long did u say until you can get a van and haul butt?  If it’s a job that keeps you do it online and go. Times awasting

Max about 2.5 years but technically I could leave whenever I wish. The longer I stay the more I save plus the Mrs is a year behind me and there's healthcare to factor in.

I appreciate the "push" but what I do is hands-on all the way. With the internet there are fewer remote research positions. Anyway, I would rather do something else, today has been frustrating already helping the digitally inept. Sometimes they just want someone else to do everything for them and we cannot (and I will not) do that.

Youz just gotts to enter yer own personal info, ya dig?