Priced out

[RoamingKat]

Well….after a few years in one place…the RV park has been sold.   The new owners stated that they will plan to raise the monthly cost by about $90.   Plus add a premium charge for wider sites…probably about $45-65.      All that makes this place unaffordable without spending from savings.

After checking around … it is apparent to me that investors are buying RV parks as the next thing.   First people were priced out of housing.  Many moved to Trailer Parks.   Then investor bought those up and jacked up the price.   I have been reading that many people are up getting into cheap used RVs to live….so the next step……..

So, if I go back to a nomad lifestyle I will have to basically give up on my current doctors.   That is the toughest part of leaving.   Checking around the area…I find that there aren’t any places that are cheap enough any more.

So…tell me everyone.   Are you still moving constantly?  Where do you go to escape the summer?  Are places you boondock still easy access in the high country?    When I left Ehrenberg the places to get water and dump trash has just closed up.    The places in Colorado I used to go had become too expensive even 5 years ago.  

What are people doing?    Have you mostly gone back to sticks and bricks somehow?    What is your usual yearly cycle these days?

[rvpopeye]

Try fairgrounds. (Last year my site went from $90 to $130 a week (likely going up again this year , new manager) still cheap for uptah camp . )

I agree rock and a hard place .
Feds jacking the price on LTVAs too. Still affordable though .
The nat park senior pass went from $10 to $80. And you can't even drive there at a lot of them anymore , just park the rig somewhere else and get shuttle bussed in .
New Mexico has a fairly cheap state park camping pass (? IIRC~ a couple Benjamin's ?) good for a full year.
Wally's is putting up the no overnight signs...

So what else ?
Workcamping , trade a few hours for a FHU site ? (Not all deals are the same investigate thoroughly before signing up)
Forest Service and BLM have similar openings too , usually by contract bid.
Nat Park concessionaires do workamping (but more likely full time there)

Parking lot musical chairs sux but still doable.

Endless road trip is an ever increasing possibility. Keeping an eye on gas $$$ though .

Moving in with bigfoot out in the wilderness might work. ?
Until somebody bulldozes a road and puts in condos ....arrrrrgh.

Maybe we need a real YARCamp ? (The Weirdo Village Resort ?) Somewhere ~77* year round I think , ocean beaches or maybe some mid high off-grid desert land .
OMG , I think I just described Gilligan's Island ! we'll be needin' a ferry ship ! Hmmmm writing that one down...

Well , enough of that for now , gotta go back out and shovel the white shit again.
"Well , I shovel it left and shovel it right . Look out ya f in' dummy , I'm sliding through that light. .........."

[rvpopeye]

This might be helpful.
.

[Scott7022]

It’s been in the cards a long time with mobile homes that aren’t really Mobile being the first to fall. From a purely protectionist point of view follow the money. If it ends at a Blackrock then its like the current pig slaughter grift going round. So it will continue. Much easier to fleece a sheep than a bear.

Compounded by youtube warriors screaming off grid, tax free, better than sticks and bricks. Blah blah blah. People see themselves paying more for goods and services and get angry at the people lacking the great propaganda machine. Trained, conditioned, manipulated to not see the reality!! So…. it’s seasonal van dwellers using services they don’t pay for. I encountered this. I needed to renew a simple prescription as a water spill took out a month of medication. Nothing narcotic, or abusable, cheap simple heart rate med. Keeps my rate out of the danger zones when I get excited or pissed off. Went to a clinic, fully expecting to pay the per use Doctor write me a script fee. Something I’ve down around the world, for countries that require scripts over and over for medication that is simple and effective and been used a long time. I got a lecture from the doctor about Canadians with free healthcare expecting the same in America. Fully 10 minutes, while he wrote out the prescription. I said nothing took my script dropped a fifty on his desk and said: “better to argue why you need fifty bucks to renew a prescription I’ve been taking for ten years without so much as a single health question.” Not a political point but a procedural one. The separation of people and ideology along every metric is what hurts us as a society of humans.

Perhaps I see it more as a Nomad, traveling the world. Perhaps I am aware of how different it is outside of the USA, being a Nomad. Again I am not trying to create a political argument on this almost silent forum. Just shift perception and perspective. Two wonderful words often incorrectly used as synonymous. Perception is what you see and perspective is the angle, rose tinted glasses, above below, ideology you view it from.
We both see and agree that van dwelling is getting harder. Depending on your perspective will dictate your response. From the societal OUR response. It is not a simple world yet I have had arguments with good friends who provided an oversimplified answer, reason, solution because it was less painful than the real perspective they were in. I call it magical thinking. Since 2019 it has cost me a few close friends.

Property will continue to go up in value. Profit is not likely to be eliminated as a metric of success. So managed park fees and BLM will continue to grow. People expect wages to grow so…? The push to make dirty van dwellers an issue is an easy one. Strange people living in parking lots. Using city services and costing taxpayers money for policing and cleaning is an easy argument to make at the municipal level. Doesn’t have to be reality. It just has to fit the perception of people from a controlled or manipulated perspective.

So what can we do? Connect with people, as I did embarrassing the doctor so he does a reality check. Now I am by nature a violent asshole but I try to make the best impression I can by checking myself to just asshole. Others, with more patience and politeness like Doug can be more diplomatic. I get to live kind and polite vicariously through him and I am sure on a few frustrating occasions he has vicariously fantasies about how Scott would have handled that.

So my perception of this issue is that it will get worse as Vanguard and Blackrock compete with others for the low hanging fruit to fleece. This is corporate not political. One is much worse than the other. If being near doctors is a concern perhaps look for a security gig at a lumber yard. Usually they are off in some industries corner of the town or city. Being out of the way they are prone to parking and petting or drinking and probably all three. Fire is the major concern. So a simple flashlight cop with a cell phone is the only interdiction required. Yard walk after shift for sparks or smoke and then two more on either side of midnight.

This world is changing. Rapidly and more rapidly than in the past. I facilitated a discussion group last week between two Ukrainian soldiers and three Russian soldiers along with six dodgers/deserters, three from each side, with one Georgian volunteer/mercenary fighting for Ukraine, here in Georgia. The emotions were pretty raw and the discussion very dynamic. But the goal of the discussion was “Understanding the Conflict and Resolving the issues pushing it forward. It had been scheduled for 90 minutes. It went three hours. Perception and Perspective played a huge role. Loads of common ground were uncovered. Many tear-filled stories were shared and the audience of 90 university students walked away with a much better understanding of the horror unfolding and the rapidly changing environment us hairless snow monkeys find themselves.

Just for clarification I didn’t toss these people together and say; “Go” I am working with a group providing PTSD counseling for free to anyone affected by conflict. An internally funded not for profit, and have been working with these individuals in groups and one on ones for several weeks. They agreed to the format and open spectator as a group.

I wish we would have had the funds to record it in hindsight. But then with my luck had we been recording the outcome would have been different. Lol.


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[rvpopeye]

Not politics WO 2 , observations of the realities of our society !
Homeless and dwellers are lumped together as the cause of all problems..Continuously pushed to the margin lands but now pushed again to ???? NIMBY
Modern day lepers. ? No , it's gotten worse . At least the lepers got colonies !

Altered reality. It used to be just about drugs and alcohol...
A rejection of society...of course natural progression would warp it to a social control tool dontchyaknow.
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"
Guess that was our warning .

On another note. hmmmmmm
That program you mentioned sounds interesting.
Were they all friends after the experience ?

Good to have you back. uh , you ARE back , right ?

[RoamingKat]

Well, I am thinking that I will have to give up van life. If I must live somewhere away from the medical service I need (growing old ain’t for sissies) then now is the best time. It would be several months to get back to this point with all new doctors….somehow existing medical records don’t mean much to a new doc…got to repeat all of it. (Probably for the revenue).

I have been a vandweller by choice all these years. But I see that choice become less tenable year over year. I keep hoping that some people somewhere have figured it out and are in a stable situation that I could follow. I honestly thought I had found it. You guys don’t give me hope that it is happening.

So…the lesson to be learned from this situation…..NEVER put your money into a property if your name isn’t on the title. The back story here is that this park was owned by the “club”… turns out that it was all a lie. For years the owners took money from everyone to help the “club”, while pocketing the money themselves. They even sold “lifetime membership in the club” with 50% off monthly park costs as one of the benefits. Needless to say, the club never actually existed. The new owners aren’t going to care one bit about the fraud run on all of us. The local District Attorney’s office doesn’t see the political value in going after this fraud because there are so few of us….not a big enough splash for the effort.

Never put money into a property until your name appears on the title.

[rvpopeye]

Talk about a good situation going bad !   Turning into a theme lately...
Hopefully something more affordable turns up so you can stay in the rig and somewhat near the medicals. 
Getting all the doctors on the same page and actually getting things done sure can be a circus . I do know that !   
Those thoughts are on my mind too . 
Life can get in your way . You work so hard to get this far , it's hard to even think of a plan B .   
Stix-n-brix  , hang up the keys ?  ahhhh , sounds horrible ! .  
Not giving up yet and don't ever want to but making up a plan B or at least a possibilities list , isn't wasted time .   

Whatever happens . Don't you go disappearin' on us !   that seems to be a theme lately too....

[Scott7022]

First they need ro let me llll


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[Scott7022]

Sorry drunk posting first they need to let me back into the country then fix van issue so it can drive out then return. Then…?


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[Kyz]

A bit of land to park on, put a tiny building or two on? That is what I envision down the road a ways...