This looks promising. A couple from Sarasota, Florida named Markus and Angela are planning to sell their worldly possessions, buy a used van, live in it, and blog about it. They are currently shopping for the van.
LinkThis was inspired (in part) by the 4 Hour Workweek, where Tim Ferris talks about living a totally mobile lifestyle. Well, we love America and before setting out abroad we want to have a base and find the best city to live in that we could make our permanent home.
...
The rough plan as of now is:
- Sell most of our crap. Store the rest.
- Find, buy, steal, or otherwise get a van.
- Pimp out said van with a custom bed, office, LCD tv, etc.
- Get a high speed internet connection
- Get laptops, photo, and video gear to document this crazy thing.
- Figure out what to take along for survival
- Go!
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You don't suppose that these people have ever seen Albert Brooks' movie, Lost in America (http://imdb.com/title/tt0089504/), do you?
step five, it gets stolen?
Reminds me of Extreme Telecommuting:
http://www.officeodyssey.com/
They drove across the country in a van and even spent some time traveling in Europe.
I don't think they're doing it any more, but it's still fun to read about all their adventures...
Big deal.
I've been white water rafting in Montana and Colorado, and in both places, the rafting guides do the same exact thing. They live in their vans, and literally, down by the river.
Our rafting guide from my recent trip to CO told us how they get to use the church bathroom on Mon and Wed for showers. And they also get a warm meal those two days. Otherwise, they go to the laundromat and shower there (but pay for it). But she said most don't shower that often, even on free shower days.
Counting all the different rafting companies in the area, she said there are like 300 guides all together who live in their vans (or cars) in a sort of camp site. They have tons of dogs.
She does have a laptop with Wifi and because there is a small airport nearby (with free Wifi access), she is able to take online college classes.
oh so meta. how lame! living in a van down by the river doesn't mean you get laptops! how about a polaroid camera and a notebook? bunch of posers.
Living in a van, down by the river
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQVr6f6FL5Y
A couple in Portland did something similar, but now they are traveling all over the world.
A friend of mine managed to do that and not even write a blog about it!
Living in a van by the river was a Chris Farley SNL sketch awhile back.
The picture!! It is a Corvan! So cool:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Corvairvan.jpg
Wow, it's time for Monk magazine again, only 15 years later!
Wow, what a great new idea. Uhhh, I think the old folks call this going 'full time' in the RV. I'll bet you can even read their experiences online at alt.rv, or similar sites.
Sweet! They're probably run into my grandparents and my aunt and uncle and the thousands of other people who do this.
Thousands of people do this near Phoenix, AZ, camping on public lands. They are called "snowbirds" because they only stay for winter, avoiding the snow back home. They don't blog about it because there aren't any internet connections out there.
Well this post immediately caught my eye not only because I would love to try the nomadic lifestyle, but also because I took the photo they used. Unfortunately they did not honor my creative commons Attribution license, or the flickr community guidlines to link back to the original photo.
The van in question is not actually a Corvan as dculberson suggests, but a Russian UAZ (Ulyanovsky Avtomobilny Zavod http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAZ ) which I photographed this spring in a field in Iceland. Original is at
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/206/509655058_7027e4509f_o.jpg
My wife and I have been nomads since January 2003. I carry a satellite dish (which gives me a 1M/256K connection) that I setup where ever we are.
To date we've been house-sitting our way around Australia, but we're currently saving up for a caravan to continue our adventure.
I've not blogged about it because I didn't really think it was a story worth telling.
This summer our family is taking "The Great American Roadtrip" traveling cross country in our 2002 Volkswagen Eurovan Camper. We left Bay Area on July 15th. It's day 59, in Hershey, PA, planning to be in D.C. this weekend for the March on Washington. Were photoblogging on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/eurovancation/sets/72157600646626729/
hey I live in Sarasota too. I lived in NYC for many years and went to UCLA. So right there I've lived in the two biggest cities in America. For my job I have traveled all over this country and if SRQ is not the best place to live in the US, its second.
Buy your van and park it by Bayfront Park, you won't go wrong.
Did any of you who complained about this being a boring story wonder whether the comment you wrote was interesting?
I think it's cool they want to undertake this expedition, but they have a lot to learn about life on the road. It should be good for them.
Living in a van is all fun and games until you drive yo home into a ditch
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5689283,00.html
I've already taken many of these steps, stopping in NYC to drop off some last items before hitting the road. But I ditched the high-tech direction and am minimizing distractions so that I can really enjoy the trip The best part of road tripping is meeting so many diverse people.
If you see a Tan Westfalia with a bike on the back, offer me a shower!!!
LIVING IN A CAMPER KICKS ASS!!!
Hmmmm.
1. Soooooo. Showering infrequently: blog post!
2. Dietary restrictions: no beans plez!
3. Do they think they're going to make money with this? Now keep in mind that I've been wrong before but I really don't see much of a counter-culture going on right now that would support this.
4. When I was a kid having people living out of a vehicle meant that they were vagrants.
Nothing beats nomadic life in America!
This is an awsome lifestyle choice. I've been doing it for the past 4 months and am having a blast. I have tons of pointers and tips that can make your trip more enjoyable. I have my adventures and blog on myspace (Seanocr) if your interested.
PS: I highly recommend the minivan (I have a bunk bed setup in mine ^_^)
"Pimped-out" van with LCD TV? Wireless Internet connection? Laptops? I see they're really roughing it. :)
Having grown up living on yachts, I like this approach to living. There are both easy and hard ways of doing it. I have set up a blog to help people take the easy way. http://nomadichome.blogspot.com