RVs, campers, vans, bug out vehicles, nomadic life, evacuations

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”   Mark Twain

www.cheaprvliving.com

We see campgrounds with their rows of RVs, their rumbling generators, their whining air conditioners, and their neat little canopies.  On occasion, we see them venturing into national forests, and they don’t look any different.  Even “boon docking”, they often are noisy affairs spotted from miles away, with television, microwaves, air conditioning, heaters, refrigerator, and all the other comforts of home.  Is that camping really?

Obviously, to them, it is.  But many of the people in these RVs actually live full time in them.  In researching vehicles that people have modified and turned into their homes, I was amazed at the immense variety and surprising compactness of some of these homes on wheels, as well as the features their owners have packed into them.

But what is camping?  Is camping about a mobile home or about making your home anywhere you can?  Is it only when we are doing it for fun, or does it include when we give up the idea of a fixed address and become nomads in a land that frowns on nomadic people?

The USA does frown on nomadic life styles, as does most of the civilized world.  They LIKE us to have a fixed address, to know exactly where we get our mail and fix our meals and lay our heads to sleep.  Society prefers to have all of its members chained to the routine of utility bills, mortgages or rent, mail service, telephone service, and jobs.  So what happens when we break those chains and become nomads?

It’s tough.  Very tough.  Either a friend or family member needs to provide a mailing address for you, or you have to hire a mail service to collect  your mail and periodically forward it for you.  If you receive a pension check that cannot be direct-deposited, that can be a real pain if you are truly nomadic over a very large area.  If you are forced to find work to support yourself, that’s nerve wracking, and there is the additional problem of needing a bank if you can’t deal strictly in cash (almost impossible these days.)

Many people assume that nomads are running away from something.  That isn’t true.  Sometimes, it is nothing more than a desire to see and experience new places, and modern society makes that an expensive prospect if you are going to follow societal norms.  When you jump the fence and take off into the wild blue yonder of the nomad’s life, you need to be prepared.  How can you start?

Research, of course!  Figure out how much money you need per month, and how you will get it.  How will you travel?  How will you sleep?  Where will you be?  What will you do with your time?

While a bicycle and a tent is really cheap, it completely eliminates a lot of urban/suburban stealth camping.  The reality is, if you set that tent up in a city park, you are apt to find yourself arrested, and that won’t be a good day.  Most jobs are going to be most easily found in that same environment that prohibits just camping out, and RV parks often do not want tents in their midst, eliminating a less-expensive temporary home option.  You need a stealthier camper than a tent, and one that can be secure as well.  That means a motor vehicle, complete with registration and insurance and maintenance, another addition to the outgoing money you will need.

Motorhomes, while a nice neat package that allows you to comfortably move around, along with their detachable sisters, the camp trailer, are not particularly stealthy.  You will be noticed parking in the ‘burbs.  You will get hassled to move on in the city.  Vans, delivery trucks, cars, etc. are far less noticeable, and won’t attract as much attention.  Many of these can be modified to make quite comfortable homes according to Cheap RV Living.  RV Net has a thread about converting a van as well.  Searching the internet can bring you some interesting ideas, even if they aren’t always going to have ALL of the directions or a workable plan.  With ideas, you can come up with your own unique plan.  Another blog with some interesting threads is Stealth Survival.   Another interesting forum with discusions is Survivalist Boards.

Moving back towards straight camping without the survivalist overtones,  we have Van Dwelling Wanderer’s blog.  Lots of forums will have threads on van campers and full time living in them (and other campers too).  These can give you a heads up on problems, as well as offer ideas and other links to check out.  Many of them offer free membership, allowing you to post questions and comments yourself too. Don’t automatically discard ideas from European forums and blogs-it’s much more common for Europeans than Americans to simply convert a van, as gas prices are very high there, and American RVs with their less than 10 miles per gallon mileage is a formidable cost there.  Great ideas about features and conversions can be found there too.

Sometimes, our partners may be a huge obstacle to the idea of dropping out and going nomad.  It isn’t going to work if they are not agreeable to trying it.  If they agree, it still might not work.  Not everyone is cut out to be a nomad.  There is another truth in that not everyone who THINKS they are nomadic in nature is really destined to long term nomadic living, let alone lifetime nomadic living.  In truth, many people are nomads not by a conscious choice, but by the circumstances of their life, and they wander in search of…something.  Some are nomadic for relatively short term periods of time-a year or two, exploring their world, and then returning to normal stationary life with only occasional road trips to satisfy their wanderlust. 

Face it, genetically, almost all Americans descend from ancestors bitten by the wanderlust bug. That’s how they were to become pioneers and colonists often, and sometimes they were fleeing something, sometimes they were seeking something.  I suppose, in a way, I’m that way too.  Once upon a time, I packed up my kids and moved to Minnesota for about 18 months before returning to the Southwest for a variety of reasons.  Years later, I packed up what would fit in a Nissan pickup and moved from Arizona to New Orleans, and for no particular reason.  I thought about relocating to NE Texas after Katrina, and I thought of moving somewhere else too, but in the end, elected to return to New Orleans, at least for a while.  It’s been almost five years since the “while” started.  Is the wanderlust flowing through my veins again?  Will I wake up one morning and say, I’m packing up to move to ____? 

Maybe that’s where my fascination with the idea of nomadic living, at least temporarily, starts.  I don’t know where I would want to move to.  Of course, I knew very little about New Orleans when I chose this location in 2003 either.  Yep, next month, I’ll have lived here for 7 years.   Will I get the 7 year itch?

Of course, my life has changed in 7 years.  GM & I have been officially engaged for 2 years now, and as my partner, he has input in the decision too.  He hates the cold, I hate the heat.  There are also economic influences-we need jobs in whatever location we would choose to live, and to live nomadically, we would still need jobs to pay for the things that we have to have-like transportation, that roof over our heads, and even food to eat. We also have more animals than I had when I arrived here-instead of just Red Dog, there is also Sissy, Cali (cat) and Smokey Robinson (cat.)  Living in a van with 4 animals could be very difficult, even on the short term side.

The van as a home is also a reality in the event of a hurricane evacuation.  Evacuations are not an “unusual” event on the Gulf Coast, and in New Orleans, it’s really no joke.  Being so low and surrounded by water here, it is foolish to NOT evacuate.  But, at the same time, evacuations are expensive, and obviously after Katrina, we all know it might be a lot longer than the previous 3 day rule.  Even with Gustav, I was out of the city for 6 days.  Being able to comfortably cope in the van greatly reduces expenses, but in the South, the heat is unbearable in it without the engine running to power the a/c.  Even tents, which we have several of, are unbearably hot during the day even with fans running when power is available.  How can the cats cope with that?  Red Dog had heat stroke as a young dog, and her tolerance of heat is also not good.  Without cold water to cool her down, she is quickly suffering.

It doesn’t take long to realize that there would have to be some serious modifications of the van to turn it into even a temporary home as long as we are in the South and it’s summertime (storm season!)  Essentially, we would need access to shore power, and some kind of an a/c unit to cool the van and keep it tolerable, or a lightweight towable (tow capacity on the mini-van is only 200o lbs.) that could be equipped with an a/c.  That’s getting expensive, so I start thinking about alternatives.

The simplest and least expensive solution would be the purchase of the smallest a/c window unit on the market, which is about 5000 btus. Home Depot lists one at about $100, and it weighs in at 40 lbs.  For the passenger window, a wooden frame would have to be constructed that would clamp to the door’s frame with the window fully rolled down, to allow the a/c unit to be supported in this window when parked.  Stealthy? Hell no, but inexpensive and any a/c unit requires shore power or a generator, neither of which is “stealthy”.  Inside, everything would be removed and placed in the tent, since we’d obviously have rented a site in a campground to power this monster.  During the day, litter box and cats would have the freedom to move around the van, dogs would be able to come in and cool off, we could use the rear seat as a sofa and even work on small tables for our laptops.  Cooking would have to be done outside, and bathroom issues dealt with by the campground’s facilities.  With a bike rack, we could have our bicycles along, allowing us to make short trips to the store, etc.  without having to remove the a/c unit and then reinstall it upon our return.  Adding a small dorm sized refrigerator would also allow us to avoid the need-ice issue, even if we needed to place the refrigerator in the tent to keep floor space free.  At night, when we need to sleep, the cats could be relegated to a crate either located on a seat in front or in the tent.  The dogs, due to their inability to get along, have to be kept separate, and Red Dog has serious separation anxiety if she’s forced to go to another area without being able to see/hear me.  Added in with her ability to destroy crates, it would be impossible to simply crate her in the tent, and that means Sissy would be the one sleeping in the tent in a crate, unless it turns out her crate would fit on the rear seat (I know its too large for a front seat.)  Red would find enough space somewhere, she’s good about that, and GM & I would sleep on a bed on the floor of the van.  As it is a mini-van, that requires sleeping sort of diagonally in order to stretch out when the doors are closed.   (The floor space is roughly 4×5′.)  Even so, that a/c unit would allow us to sleep even on hot muggy nights.

Right now, all I have is a 12 volt oscillating fan, and while it can be run for several hours without draining the battery, I’d worry about running it all night, and it helps…but it’s still HOT and sticky.  Leaving windows open is like a neon sign inviting mosquitos to come dine too.  So, it’s still hot, sticky, and stuffy.  (GM swears I’m a fan, internet, and a/c addict too!) Making some screens to attach via magnets might help with the mosquitos and allow breezes for more moderate (and boondocking) temperatures.  The van’s windows are tinted, but there isn’t much for privacy, so figuring out a way to increase privacy without a lot of hassle would also be nice. The logical solution would be to figure out how to mount curtains with magnets or hook & loop tape, especially the front window which is a huge heat gain as well.  Something with insulating properties would be a great addition when parked! 

As for cold, that is rarely encountered except on leisure trips, and we have that down pat.  We haven’t slept in the van, but Sissy usually does.  Her crate is covered with a thick wool blanket, she has her bed and a microfleece blanket, as well as her own microfleece coat.  In addition, we tuck one or two chemical hand warmers under her bed, and they consistently radiate heat all night, keeping her snug and happy.  Red has gotten so that the cold bothers her too now that she is getting older, and she has her own fleece coat, and typically sleeps on our bed. On truly cold nights, she will crawl alongside me, allowing me to put the blanket over her (and share her heat too!) and she helps ME stay warm by sleeping on the opposite side from GM.  A few times, she has crawled between us, which has usually produced more laughter than anything, before she gives up and seeks a better spot.  She has learned that we have heated bricks at our feet, so to sleep between our feet or on top of the bricks means extra warmth, esp if the “extra” blanket is tossed over her. 

I also know, from previous vans, that if we are in it and the weather turns bitterly cold, we can actually heat it with nothing more than a candle.  That does require care, and normally, we would not sleep during the candle’s burning, but rather warm up the van, put out the candle, and go back to sleep.  A can of jelled alcohol or an alcohol burner can serve the same purpose.  Just remember to use care to not poison yourself with carbon monoxide while trying to stay warm!

So many thoughts…and sometimes, it all boils down to why am I feeling this antsy, anticipating, edgy feeling?  Is it intuition or paranoia?  Do I just have gypsy blood flowing in my veins?  Who knows…but time will tell.