“A million Americans live full-time in RVs, according to the RV Industry Association. Some have to do it because they can’t afford other options, but many do it by choice.”
Q: Would you consider living full time in a RV …. now, or some other point in time (i.e., after retirement)?
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Me?
Absolutely. It’s a very very close 2nd to my #1 choice (a little log cabin with a great view somewhere in the Appalachians). We
It fits my minimalism. I don’t need but a handful of jeans, shirts, couple pair of shoes, etc. Not having shit is not a hardship to me. I think it would immensly enjoyable to travel everywhere in North America … stay a few months, a year, or whatever, and when tired of that place, go to another place.
I would visit every TBPer who would have me. I’d milk cows for Hardscrabble, cut off Bunny Nuts for Meg, kill a bear for Francis, worship Odin naked in the woods with RiNS, share my best beaner food recipes with EC, fart in GCP’s church, fireproof Hollywood Rob’s home, park in Admin’s driveway for two weeks every Christmas just to piss him off …. and so very much more ….
It certainly seems like it’s worth trying out. And if it doesn’t work out, what’s the worse that can happen? I’d just sell the RV and move to Plan B … that log cabin thingy.
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When Robert and Jessica Meinhofer told friends they were moving into an RV in 2015, most thought they were crazy.
The questions poured in: How could they go from living in a 2,000-square-foot home to living in a 250-square-foot trailer? What would they do with their stuff? What would their children, ages 6 and 9, do for school? Was this a midlife crisis? The hardest people to convince were Jessica’s parents, who grew up in an impoverished Latino neighborhood in the Bronx and worked hard so their daughter could have a better life. They couldn’t understand why the couple wanted to live like migrant laborers.
The Meinhofers are doing this by choice, not financial desperation. They are part of a movement of people ditching “sticks and bricks” homes that have long embodied the American Dream and embracing a life of travel, minimal belongings and working when they want.
“We’re a family of four redefining what the American Dream means. It’s happiness, not a four-bedroom house with a two-car garage,” said Robert Meinhofer, who is 45.
The Meinhofers and a dozen others who spoke with The Washington Post about this modern nomadic lifestyle said living in 200 to 400 square feet has improved their marriages and made them happier, even if they’re earning less. There’s no official term for this lifestyle, but most refer to themselves as “full-time RVers,” “digital nomads” or “workampers.”
Most modern nomads need jobs to fund their travels. Jessica Meinhofer works remotely as a government contractor, simply logging in from the RV. Others pick up “gig work” cleaning campsites, harvesting on farms or in vineyards, or filling in as security guards. People learn about gigs by word of mouth, on Workamper News or Facebook groups like one for Workampers with more than 30,000 members. Big companies such as Amazon and J.C. Penney even have programs specifically recruiting RVers to help at warehouses during the peak holiday season.
A million Americans live full-time in RVs, according to the RV Industry Association. Some have to do it because they can’t afford other options, but many do it by choice. Last year was a record for RV sales, according to the data firm Statistical Surveys. More than 10.5 million households own at least one RV, a jump from 2005 when 7.5 million households had RVs, according to RVIA.
Interest in “RVing” — either full time or on weekends — appears to be picking up, especially among young couples. Half of new sales are going to Americans under 45, and purchases by people of color are rising, RVIA found in its 2016 surveys, a change from the 20th century, when white retirees dominated campsites.
Below, four families — with members ranging in age from 2 to 84 — share their experience of life on the road.
© William DeShazer/For The Washington Post Penni Brink, left, and Chip Litchfield pose for a portrait outside of their RV at the I-24 Campground in Smyrna, Tenn., on Sept. 20. Both are working their second year with the seasonal Amazon CamperForce as they travel…
Penni Brink (62) and Chip Litchfield (59) have a “Welcome to Margaritaville” sign outside their RV and the kind of easygoing spirit that immediately draws you in. The couple met in the late 1980s when they were working in the same business complex in Vermont, but Chip was married to someone else at the time. Their paths crossed again a few years ago at a craft fair and as their relationship blossomed, Chip suggested they travel in an RV. Penni was apprehensive at first.
Current location: Tennessee.
Vehicle: 2004 Tiffin Phaeton (They bought it used for $67,000).
“I made it clear I needed a big fridge in the RV because I like to cook,” Penni said. “And I needed more than a tiny little bathroom.”
Chip took Penni to a used RV lot just to “check it out” in 2015, but they ended up buying a 395-square foot camper they call “Daisy.” They say they love this lifestyle now and have no plans to return to a typical home. Penni is selling her condo in Montpelier because they don’t think they’ll need it anymore. They track how many states they have been to on a map on the side of their RV. The current tally is 25.
“Our goal is to be able to travel and work at the places we travel to so we can stay in areas long enough to get to know a place and see America,” Chip said. “There is so much work out there for us, and we don’t have to make a lot of money.”
Penni hung a “less is more” sign in the RV and has become an expert at cooking on a stove top that’s about a third the size of a typical range. She used to run a small business in Vermont making drapes, blinds and other home decor and still does some work for clients in the RV. She sets up a folding card table for her sewing machine and sends Chip outside to clean the vehicle so she can have more space.
As they travel, they often pick up jobs to earn money since they don’t want to tap their modest retirement savings, which they dipped into to buy the RV. Right now, they are working in the Amazon CamperForce program that hires about 700 people for warehouse jobs and pays their campsite fees. It’s hard labor — they often go to bed rubbing each other’s feet — but the money they earn from September to Dec. 23 is enough to allow them to take the winter and spring off. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
“Being able to travel in my 60s and see all the things I missed in my younger years is the best part of this lifestyle,” Penni said.
© Meinhofer family/ Robert and Jessica Meinhofer and their two children in front of the RV. (Courtesy of the Meinhofer family).
Robert Meinhofer (45) and Jessica Meinhofer (40) have been living in their RV for three years and don’t have any plans to return to their old life in suburbia.
Current location: Georgia. (Last year they traveled from Maine to Florida for six months).
Vehicle: 2016 Forest River Grey Wolf 26DBH Travel Trailer. (They bought it for $22,000 and tow it behind a truck).
As they started having kids, Robert and Jessica wanted more time with them than a typical day job would allow. They watched a YouTube video of a family that traveled the country in an RV and thought, why not us?
“We both had full-time jobs. We were doing the 9 to 5 grind. We had the house, but it just didn’t fit us quite right. We were just working, working working,” Jessica said. “We were longing for freedom.”
When Robert was offered a job in Atlanta working for an airline, they didn’t think they had enough money to buy a “proper house” for their two kids, their dog and their cats. So they decided to take the plunge on the RV lifestyle. Jessica convinced her company to let her work remotely so she could home-school their children and work in the RV anywhere in America. Robert works four days at the airline and then gets four days off, which he spends with his family in the RV.
Jessica warns it’s not all fun on the road. “Instead of mowing the lawn, we do maintenance on the RV. Things don’t last as long as they do in a house. The level of chores is about the same,” she said, adding that they have to go to the laundromat now. “But it gives us the freedom to be by the beach one day, a mountain the next or a lake. It’s made all the difference for us.”
The Meinhofers have met a lot of families with kids on the road, but they haven’t encountered many other Latinos. They think there’s a perception in some communities of color that doing this means you are destitute. They are trying to inspire others to join them with their YouTube channel, Exploring the Local Life, which has become so popular it is making them money.
© William DeShazer/For The Washington Post Joyce Ann Seid, left, poses for a portrait with her husband, Steve, 77, outside of their RV at the I-24 Campground in Smyrna. They bought their first RV in 2001 and started living full-time on the road in 2010. (William DeShazer for…
Joyce Ann Seid (84) and Steven Seid (77) bought their first RV in 2001 to travel on weekends to see the grandkids and visit casinos and parks. By 2010, they moved into the RV full-time. “We rented our house and wound up getting a bigger RV and then we wound up living in it because we liked it so much,” Steven said. “If we don’t like our neighbors, we just pack up and leave.”
Current location: Wichita
Vehicle: 2012 Tiffin Allegro RED Diesel. (They paid $150,000 at an RV show in 2014).
The couple drive around the country in the warm months and spend the winter in Arizona where they own a lot in a gated RV community.
Steven wanted to go on the road for years, but Joyce said she wouldn’t do it unless he made her a home office where she could write a book. Steven gutted the little room in the RV that had a bunk bed and turned it into an office for Joyce that even has a sliding door. Together they remodeled much of the interior, adding sunflowers, a reminder of Joyce’s home state of Kansas, and their RV has a washer and dryer.
They mostly live off their retirement money, but they pick up various jobs to help pay for vehicle insurance and RV repairs. Steven worked several years in the Amazon CamperForce program, priding himself on being one of the oldest in the warehouse.
“We’re old people, but we hate being retired. We like working,” Steven said.
Joyce, a retired professor, jokes that her husband is earning her “Bingo money.” She’s played — and won — plenty of games in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma and is quick to point out there is free parking, even for RVs, at many casinos.
The Seids say they love it on the road. When Joyce had a stroke two years ago, friends in the campsite pitched in immediately to help and they were able to get to a hospital quickly.
“This is a great life. We meet the nicest people,” Steven said.
© William DeShazer/For The Washington Post Richard Booher, 58, of Dade City, Fla. poses for a portrait with his five children outside of their camper at I-24 Campground in Smyrna. Booher is working with the seasonal Amazon CamperForce program. (William DeShazer for…
Richard Booher (58) and Miranda Booher were debating doing the “small home” lifestyle when a friend advised them, “you don’t want a small home, you want an RV.” They had never even been in an RV before, but they bought a Hitchhiker in 2016 that attaches to their pickup truck and took their family — five kids and a 10-year-old dog — on the road.
Current location: Tennessee.
Vehicle: 1999 NuWa Hitchhiker Premier (Bought for $10,000).
“It’s been awesome,” Richard said as he watched his 5-year-old son Teddy bike around the campsite waving at new neighbors. Later the kids, ranging from 2 to 10, went to the campsite pool and quickly made friends with other families.
The Boohers wanted to show their kids more of America and get closer as a family. Accumulating stuff stopped mattering to them. Instead, they wanted to accumulate experiences. Miranda teaches the kids and is a coach for a Christian organization called Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) that helps bring moms of young children together for support and fellowship. The Boohers get plugged into a church wherever they go and find lots of activities for the kids between church and the campsites. Teddy and Amy, 7, are eager to show off the Macarena dance skills they picked up at a recent kids party at a campsite.
Richard is working at with the Amazon CamperForce program for the second year. He’ll be at the warehouse from September to December. It’s very different from his career in IT, but the income allows the family to live this nomadic lifestyle. He earned $11.50 an hour at a fulfillment center in Murfreesboro, Tenn., which went to $15 an hour in November.
When the job ends on Christmas Eve, the family heads to Dade City, Fla., to be near old friends for a few weeks before figuring out their next steps. Earlier this year, Richard had a job offer to work at an Amazon return center in Kentucky, so they headed there for a few months.
“The kids have so many friends everywhere we go,” Richard said. “You can definitely do this with kids.”
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Stucky, I have the same attitude as you, ie a rural location or RV, but the RV in my case would be a 42 foot or larger sailboat. A boat such as this is just an RV on the water for all intent and purpose. The RV (sailboat) option would avoid nearly all taxes and give me the choice of any coastal area in the world to drop the anchor. Multi-million dollar views anytime I wish and no land bound costs.
I have been following these guys for years. They and all of their friends live on a 50 foot sailboat.
They earn more than enough in youboob views to keep on going.
Keep in mind that these things require constant maintenance and can have short structural lifespans.
So, plan for the ongoing maintenance expense and periodic replacement.
If not, plan on things going badly.
You are correct.
I am using “RV” in a generic sense …. like, aspirin. I’ve seen them made first hand in the factory. They really are fragile pieces of shit.
I would never purchase a true RV. I’m talking about a bus … a REAL bus … with engines meant to go damn near a million miles, a bus that must keep 50 or more passengers safe. i.e., heavy duty brakes, great suspension, and sheet metal that’s not paper thin.
Of course, they are much more expensive. You get what you pay for. I could never afford a new one, but I’ve seen some sweet deals (at least the pics were nice) on the internet … there are entire web sites dedicated to RV living.
45 foot. 168k actual miles. $119k
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https://www.rvt.com/Prevost-Marathon-XLV-MIDENTRY-1997-Phoenix-AZ-ID8438078-UX296076
That’s a pretty nice one for a ’97. You should see the new ones! More expensive than a 2000sf new house!
Here’s a 63 foot steel trawler offered at $650,000.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Steel+Oasis&client=firefox-b-1&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjo8PWNi9zeAhVLAqwKHc8mB_YQsAR6BAgEEAE&biw=1193&bih=616
We lived in a 24 ft trailer for 3 months in the summer 2017. It takes a bit of getting used to. If I could pick my RV with no limits on price, I would do it in a heartbeat.
Boat is a better, sturdier platform and you can anchor offshore at no cost. Better scenery too than a Walmart parking lot or KOA campground. Capital cost is going to be higher than a travel trailer per foot unless you are talking an Airstream which are expensive but in the same neighborhood as a deluxe bus. Sailboats are more cramped but don’t use much fuel at all. A little propane for cooking and heating and for when there is no wind is about it.
A dinghy and an electric bike for shore excursions completes your travel needs and no highway patrol or copfucks to hassle you when you are on the move.
I am curious if you actually know how to sail Unit.
50 foot swells and a little ice on the road are not the same thing.
After sailing from Hawaii to Palmyra Island, Kiribati …… (Tuvalu, Soloman Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, Pitcairn, Galapagos and every other shithole island – not in that order) ending up in fucking freezing San Francisco-get me off this fucking cork.
Don’t use much fuel- wait until you’re in the doldrums for a week in MOFN (middle of fucking nowhere) and decide to fire up your little 75hp motor to try and escape and find out your fuel will last a day and a half when you are 500 miles from shore.
It is 80% boredom and terror and starvation.
I did meet a beautiful girl in Samoa, she told me she was a princess and invited me home.
Her father the ‘King’ served hot dogs and rice before we went to play bingo.
On the upside, I might have a son who is a ‘Prince’ in Samoa…
I would not live in either. I prefer going on 6 mile walks without leaving my property.
I also like my fresh tomatoes and arugula.
worship Odin naked in the woods with RiNS
lol Great! Now the secret is out…
Well now you done it Stuchenmeister. My little trucker buddy beebs is gonna lose all respect for me…
Funny thing is I just came here to check out what is up on TBP from a website pitching campers.
My wife and I have been taking about doing this for past couple years. I can’t see living in one full time for the rest of days but would seriously consider going on the road trip for a year or so around El Norte before the Zombie Apocalypse occurs. After reading that bit from Scrabble the other day it might be time to giddy up..It sure would be cool. I am like some of those people in article and can do my job remotely.. CAD only needs a computer and a sporadic interweb connection. Yeah I would need a plasma table or a printer if it where drawing related but that too is just mouse click and fedex away.. so here is a question..
How much is a custom sign like this worth?
In all seriousness though, when the fit hits the shan, the last place I would want to be is on the road an unwieldy camper situation dodging dead deer and roving bands of dindus. My suggestion would be to do both.
Get the RV and the cabin in the Appalachians…
To answer your question, RiNS… between $250 and 500 depending on weight and finish. One of my clients here in the PNW just purchased very similar style (nice work there, btw). They had one made of the company logo for each of four operating companies.
Da P
Thks Da P! Wife thinks we should buy small table and go into business.. not sure.. Likely not a good time to be starting a small business. This whole debt ponzi scheme is just asking to fall…
Might just stick to buying RV and running nekked in da woods!
Not a bad time to go into business as long as you don’t take on any debt to do it. If you like doing it anyway, a second stream of income from it might be nice.
Da P
Easier to grow arugula and tomatoes than sell shit nobody needs from a $5000 piece of machinery. When TSHTF a 1/4 acre is better than a CAD and plasma table and Fedex certainly won’t be delivering tomatoes or stylish curly shit.
Living in Walmart parking lots and Amazon warehouse tent cities- what the fuck are you people smoking?
I tend to agree with that assessment Jimmy. Which is likely why I will ride this out and retire to my Parent’s back forty when the shit hits the fan…
“worship Odin naked in the woods with RiNS”
i always thought hell was being cast into fire & brimstone–
who says god doesn’t have a sense of humor?
Rin, do as a side gig and see where it takes you.The extra bucks can be more preps when the ponzi scheme does fall,and,at that point probably only signs you would sell would be no trespassing death heads ect.,but still,you would be working!
Death heads as a side gig. I’m kinda liking that idea.. Odin would certainly appreciate somthing like that….
RINS, I agree with you last statement, I will build a small 2 bedroom house on five aces in the middle of nowhere (2 hours to nearest big city) and pull a 25ft trailer to travel the USA. (With appropriate self defense tools)
I have actively pursued a little of this recently. Not as a forever home, but as a method to escape Rins’ dindues and avoid the fascists at the airports. All of the issues raised by commenters are valid concerns. None of these things look as good as they do when they spend all day every day in a garage. Very quickly your lovely road cabin will take on the patina of a 1969 hippie bus. But it can be done. Many are doing it but I suspect that while this article tries to focus on people who want to live this way, the vast majority are forced to live this way because they do not have any alternative.
I think you’re right, Hollywood Rob. I’ve watch several YouTube channels of people living in vans in the U.K. and it’s because they have no other choice. The videos are interesting though, because some put in wood burning stoves, some use diesel heaters, some put in solar panels. They do all kinds of neat things.
I know people who have done it so they could travel more. But its not for me.
Meinhofer my ass, those look like migrants. They also look like me and the sexy mulatah (not mulatoe) in younger years. I don’t have many beaner recipes to share, Stuck. You can park the rig in the empty lot across the street. I just hope the neighbors can tolerate you stepping out of the RV nekkid to take your morning piss.
I suspect Mexican food has been influenced by the Maximilian and Carlotta era. Only people who eat escargot would promote making a meal of menudo. But we can thank the French occupation for sweet bread and mariachis. I read that Frenchy also has a habit of expressing emotions in song. That would explain the highly emotive nature of Mexican songs, they always sing about lost love, the one that got away, the cheater. I always thought it was something they shared with country music.
Couple of thoughts: There are a lot of roads and bridges that will not handle a bus’s weight or length. Many are the ones leading up to that dream cabin in the mountains. Another consideration is gridlock on the interstates which is where you will spend most of your travel time. Hard to detour around anything in a bus. Just sayin’. Did the cabin thing (3 mile to the mailbox)when I was able. Not for the old or faint of heart. That said, Go for it while you can.
I’d muck it up for all, cuz the month I sold my house, bought an RV and hit the road, Iran would sink a ship to block the Straight of Hormuz, and gas would go to $10 / gallon.
Stuck…If that is what you want to do? You just have to do it. I wanted to live and travel in an RV 45 years ago. Then married,kids ect. Never did it. So then the dream became a little cabin in the woods. After the wife moved on to greener pastures. I got that little cabin. I just did it!!!! There is also something called a worker camper. These are people who live in RV’s They sign up to work the season Usually Summer. Then when the campground closes.They move on to another campground in another part of the country. I have met people who have done this for years.
Stucky is taking care of his elderly mother so he can’t just move right now.
I live retired on the rural homestead/farm already but have thought of getting a mid sized decent RV as well, but it would be multi purposed and not used to live full time in, unless forced:
1. Use for brief vacations
2. Keep on the farm for overflow lodging for family reunions
3. Keep on the farm for overflow lodging for the 4th Turning SHTF
4. Keep on the farm for Mad Mark’s plan B during 4th Turning SHTF
Soon after the eventual pop of the Everything Bubble they should be dirt cheap for a small amount of PMs.
When I retired a little over 8 years ago I thought about the rustic cabin or sailing lifestyle. I was only 58, in good health and had the money too. Even had health insurance paid for by my employer. But a man has to know his limitations and health insurance doesn’t do you much good if you are 100 miles from a hospital or somewhere in the Caribbean Sea.
There is a crisis in America right now for people in rural America. Their hospitals are closing so the further out you go the worse it gets. If you want to go the full rustic or cruising route I’d advise you to be married to a doctor or at least a good RN. You’ll be on your own.
Sounds awesome. My family and I planned on doing this about 15yrs ago. Sold nearly everything and decided at the last minute that people across the country did not want to hear me constantly fighting with my oldest son. He was (and is a pain). We could do it now with only 4 kids but we now have a minimal-est life on a small farm with no bills. P.S. If I had a nickle for every time I thought about hopping a freight train, well…
I have an RV, and spend a few weeks a year travelling in it. But my pets mean that the time must be limited. My cousin and his wife spent the first many years of their retirement living in an RV. They saw every state save for Hawaii. They loved it, but failing health finally forced them out of that way of life. I would not have a problem doing it, but there are reasons I cannot, not the least of which is my pets, and I luvs me some serious creature comforts that RVs just cannot provide.
Blm in the winter, Maine the other months.
Live on a cut over wood lot in a traila’, have a pond, a long driveway off a dirt road with kids nearby in Maine.
When I get fed up with the cold, head to AZ, visit friends along the way. Another favorite child lives in Apache Junction, AZ.
Made some really good friends, met a guy in Yuma I used to party with 3,000+ miles away at Crawlege, Universkity of Maine.
Living the dream. What I have wanted to do since a teenager in the military.
Keep it simple, big campers of any type suck.
Dogs are as good as a firearm, bear spray is good.
Dodge Ram Cummins diesel 12 valve, million mile motor. Old Airstreams are the best. But cargo trailers haul Sportsters.
Sounds great. BUT you need to be reasonably healthy, mechanically handy, and be able to deal with the ever increasing traffic and stupid drivers. The thought of spending the night in a Wally parking lot does nothing for me. Of course that little cabin with a great view, crackling fire and the two blondes I live with (my wife and Yellow Lab) sounds real appealing!
London, Ontario is a great place to live but a shitty place to visit, since there’s nothing to do here, but if you’re near here on your hypothetical RV travels, you’re most welcome to park in our driveway and drain your waste into the sewer on the road in front of our house. You can wash yourself in our pool and have a few beers with me while our dog growls at you.
This is our retirement plan, which baring a new ice age, will be in the next five years.
Sell everything, purchase a Super C motor home, tow a jeep to explore.
There is work camping available. Most work campers work Fri-Sat-Sun and take the rest of the week off to enjoy the park you are staying in.
Or hang your own shingle, I could charge people a couple hundred a day to hike out and photograph the bucket list shots while the non photographer spouse takes the kids to the water park or something.
Think of all the national parks you work three days and visit on the slower days at your pace.
Most parks will give you a free stay, and some will pay you as well, it’s not much but free is not so bad either as most parks are in the $45-65 per night cost if you want power and water hook ups, sewer is a big plus.
Been a RV camper my whole life. I have a Ford 250 diesel that we use to pull a 30′ fifth wheel, which is not a bad rig but the motor homes are built for lots of miles where the tow behind campers get beat to death.
I didn’t realize RV camp grounds were that expensive.
For what it’s worth…
My wife and I are campers. We have a small popup camper we enjoy going camping in 6-7 times a year. What we found was we love camping, but HATE campgrounds. Most typical campgrounds are cramped and loaded with kids, barking dogs and lots of noise.
We now try as hard as possible to camp in what are called ‘primitive’ or ‘dispersed’ campgrounds. There usually is no electricity or other amenities at primitive sites, but there is more space between you and your neighbor, and ‘usually’ less noise. Depending where you go, sometimes you will be the only camper at a primitive site. That, to me, is what camping should be.
But if you’re wanting to full time in a huge bus type RV, I don’t see allot of leeway in campgrounds. You’re most likely going to have to stay in a place that has electric, water etc…
Be prepared, It will be culture shock if you never have been to a campground before.
Buses are too expensive and you have to hire ground crew ramp agents from the local airport just to park the damn things (kidding, sort of).
Same thing with “Class A” breadboxes.
As for myself, personally, I’ll go with with a gently pre-owned “Class B” (van chassis) and, specifically, Roadtrek.
Like this:
These little gems have everything that a “Class A” does, except the space. But what’s cool, is they have a 3ft wide aisle and a lowered floor so you can stand up at full height. This is why they don’t have to put the ugly banana-roof up top.
It looks like a regular van so it doesn’t draw a lot of attention, you can get into some more remote spots with them and still turn- around. On mine, I’d retrofit a custom posi rear end (i.e. limited-slip differential) for traction.
They’d get 15-18 highway MPG and a little less in town but way better than a “Class A”. In fact, I would make mine my daily driver.
Two people could live in one comfortably but they’ll sleep up to 4, and I think even 6 is possible with some floor plans.
If only we weren’t living at the end of America. A little more time would have been nice…
You are welcome to park by our pond anytime, as I’ve told you.
I know several folks who live in their RV at least part of the year, while they travel around the country. My old friend RichBob (who names their kid Richard Robert?) got tired of returning home to find his home burglarized… so he said Fuck it… sold his house and he and his wife travel full time.
I happen to have an electrical hookup for a camper/RV we used when the Mennonites were living in the stilt house building this place for us. Come on by and see me sometime.
An RV is a money pit
I think the depreciation is the big killer. It almost seems like one should either live in it full time, or buy it cheap, use it for a season and sell it quick. After 20 years, the prices fall off a cliff, but many still have low miles/little use.
My wife and I retired at 47 and have been full-time RV’ers for seven years now. We travel with two 60 lb retrivers. All four of us love it. We camp for free on various types of public lands and operate on solar. We’ve plugged into the grid three times over that period. Of course, we also have a lot of forest land in North Idaho. You never know when travelling in an RV will become too regulated, too expensive, or too dangerous in the future!
We spent 20 years of vacations chartering sailboats around the world. After that, we knew living in an RV would be no problem. It’s just a matter of personal preference. At this point in our lives, we just enjoy the mountains/forests/deserts more than the oceans/seas/bays.
Interesting. The last 8 or 9 months I have watched a lot of videos on Youtube made by people who live in RVs. It has its draws, I will admit. I would consider doing it for a few months if I were working in another town or traveling in order to work. In that case it would probably be cheaper than renting a hotel or apartment. I would more likely consider pulling a travel trailer or fifth wheel for the convenience of being able to bring my truck and my house with me wherever I go. If I go to Wal-Mart (I don’t, but if I did) I wouldn’t want to have to drag my house there or to the grocery store or to the post office. That would be stupid. That’s why a fifth wheel would be a better choice. But the idea of living permanently in an RV or travel trailer does not appeal to me. From the videos I have seen on Youtube there are some nice younger people who do this and for them I can see its advantages. I applaud them and hope they have many, many happy adventures. Many of the people I have seen on Youtube who do this, however, seem just a little skeevy, if you know what I mean, even the couples and it just smells a little too much of living like a stinking gypsy to be appealing to any but the degenerate. I know some fukkin baby-boomers and old ladies of both sexes are going to get mad about this but I really don’t give a shit. Please don’t bore me with your comments.
If you really don’t give a shit why would fear being bored by comments..
The flea market circuit is definitely something to consider if one wants to try a lifestyle on the road. B If signmaking is your thing, there is money to be made. Having been in the business helping parents build and run a flea market,I have seen lots of different people. Half million dollar vehicles pulling a trailer, to pickups and vans with tables, some promoting businesses back home, others enjoying life on the road. North in summer to warm places in winter. Travel is a business expense! Self employed, life on the road. Craftsman pick up orders. Collectors expand clientele list. Think about it you find a menagerie of all kinds of stuff. If you have a specialty item, you can put an ad in the paper, and let people know where you will be set up. We had people from all over, all nationalities, Rodeo’s car shows, dog shows, firearms, these are all different circuits, but they all have some vendors. Do you think the government hasn’t been trying to get all the taxes due from these people. I have made big bucks at flea markets just fixing chips in windshields. Way better than day labor. Life on the road brings freedom never known. It might not be for everyone, but there is money to be made.
Did the RV thing for 4 years. Had a Foretravel. Wound up with a permanent position in a nice off the beaten path campground on a large lake in East Texas.
We sold the Foretravel and bought a diesel pickup and toy hauler. Lots more room. Yes, to afford and enjoy the RV lifestyle you need to be self reliant and have some skills. It can be done on a meager budget if you can fix your own equipment. And there’s lots of work for people with skills and scheduling flexibility. Cash work… no 1099’s
RV living is a really good fit for a prepper from my experience.
Thanks Stucky, enjoyed this one.
I read that 10,000 people a day turn 65 in the US. Between health insurance and rising property taxes, it sure is an appealing option for many of us to ditch the burbs & head out.
We already have a 40 acre partly self sufficient homestead in NW Arizona, and life is good here ( a little hot in the summer.) Plenty of room for all the TBP visitors though. One of the owners in our area rents out spots on their land on Airbnb.
C’mon down, coffee’s on…
The wife and I are starting to transition to RV lifestyle, bought our rig a year ago and a jeep to tow behind. We plan to ease into the lifestyle by taking short local trips before heading out on longer 1 to 3 month trips. If after those trips we are comfortable going all in we will. So far so good.
By the way that Prevost bus you posted the picture of probably sold for $1 mil plus new. Good taste.
I’m a bit claustrophobic, so I don’t think this would be right for me. If I lost my house for some reason, I would just purchase a piece of land and maybe live in an RV or something similar. At least I would have the wide-open spaces around me. I could cook over a fire and even camp outside if I wanted to.
You know, after looking over this article again, it sounds like one of those disguised advertisements made up to look like a news story, in this case, for the Amazon CamperForce program. Newspapers and news programs do this all the time. The story is a cover to advertise something.