Tiny Camping

[LarryB.]

After reading this article from the New York Times, I now consider my Casita 17' Spirit Deluxe as nothing short of "palatial".
..

[mary and bob]

Several years ago (Sept. 2007) we met a couple at a car show in Vermont that had 2 kids and another on the way. They had traveled from Argentina to Alaska in a 1928 Graham Paige car, and were still driving it when we saw them in Vermont. They had written a book about their experiences, which I bought and had them autograph for me. The book is Spark Your Dream, by Candelaria & Herman Zapp.

[Jon in AZ]

When I moved from Maryland to Arizona, I camped across the US in my '66 VW Beetle to save money. I built a bed over the passenger side that went from the windshield all the way to the back window (it had low seatbacks). I left Maryland on this date (12/26) in 1983. There was freezing rain from Arkansas to Oklahoma and snow after that. The coldest night was -5*F in Oklahoma. A good winter sleeping bag kept me reasonably warm, but I scraped a lot of ice off the inside of the inside of the glass each morning!

I’m glad the article raised one important issue with a nomadic lifestyle: what to do when you get sick. Most insurance plans are not set up with this lifestyle in mind. It is worth noting that both couples opted for more conventional living arrangements during the pandemic.

[patrick crawford]

what to do when you get sick

i experienced that on a trip from South Carolina to California a couple years ago. rather than ruin your day with all the details i'll summarize by saying i needed minor surgery on my back. i discovered this about the time i arrived in Texas. the issue was very painful (but, not life threatening). the first thing i did was contact a casita friend nearby who was a retired nurse. she was kind enough to hook me up with a doctor in the area. that doc took care of the issue and then told me i needed to change the dressing daily. now, i couldn't reach (or see) the area that needed attention. the doctor's advice was to locate a nurse practitioner wherever i happened to be for the dressing change. little did i know that just about any town had one or more of those. google searches led to to what i needed. i made a very slow but rewarding trip over secondary roads from town to town and managed to do what was needed following his advice. on that trip i learned that quite a few of those small towns had city campgrounds. small, no frills campgrounds that were very inexpensive or free. the only insurance i had was medicare and that took care of all the charges (with but a few copays that were inexpensive). i learned a lot on that trip but, it did make me aware that if my problem had been more serious it could have turned out differently. on the other hand i learned that illness could be dealt with while traveling (even if you travel solo).

p@

[Jon in AZ]

For those of us with conventional private insurance, the issues are greater. For non-emergencies you are typically required to start with your primary care physician. If your primary doctor is doing telemedicine, a long-distance consult may be possible. If not, you’ll be heading home. If a test, procedure, or specialist is needed, that also requires returning home to stay in network. Out of network emergencies are covered, but you have larger copays and no protection against balance billing.

It’s a big deal.