IF You Ever Considered Full-Timing

[ZachO]

Originally Posted by Raspy

Zach,

We ordered a new Black Series HQ19 in June. We'll have it at the end of August. My Oliver sold last week. The next chapter begins!

That's great. I saw one of those in Moab this spring. Looked pretty nice. You'll have all the macho jeep guys flocking everywhere you go But that's cool.

[ZachO]

I think a good point has been made a few times. Those who can afford to probably all still have a home base somewhere. It is really nice to come home. Most people who are truly floating without a home base did it as much for financial reasons as anything.

Otherwise it feels like someone would be doing it more for "bragging rights", just to say they're doing it, than for real practical reasons.

Personally the perfect setup for me would be some property, somewhere between 3 and, oh...100 acres . I'd have a pole barn or some sort of garage-like structure big enough to pull the camper into, with a small loft apartment or something like that. A place to store some gear, and "come home" to, and so when I come back to the community where my friends and everything are, I have my own space, and a place to clear out of the camper, deep clean, do repairs and projects.

Not being tied down to a house or piece of land is probably more a philosophical decision to cut tethers than a practical one. In the east the taoists are always referring (through translation) to "house-holders". You can go the spiritual path, or the house-holder path. This refers to much more than simply owning a house, but it's a good descriptor of a life choice. Now they aren't mutually exclusive, necessarily, but in all practical and also non-spiritual purposes, having the responsibility of a home limits things. For most people, it's a good thing. Limiting choices and forcing some level of responsibility is a very, very good thing. But there's also something that comes from not being tied down in any way, if you're inherently a responsible enough person to take advantage of it and not be ruined by it.

I think about this a lot. If I do buy that property, well now I need to make a certain amount of money to pay the mortgage. Now I'm choosing a job more based on money than what I really want to do (not that the two can't meet). It sets a whole cascade of life choices into motion, all based on needing to afford that land. Not necessarily anything wrong with that, but I want it to be a conscious decision if I do go that way.

[Donna D.]

Every piece of property or 'home' comes with a price. And I'm not just talking about the mortgage, even if fully owned. You can't just leave for months on end. Someone has to be available to 'tend' the property occasionally. Grass needs to be mowed, even native grass and weeds... fire season? You can shut off water to the 'property' to protect it during hard freezes, but who's going to check snow load? And on and on.

[patrick crawford]

i'm another of those who appreciate having a home base. i tend to take long trips lasting 3-4 months. of course i had visions of full timing when i first started seriously wandering. then came the reality check (for me). i appreciate the amenities provided by my paid for home in the county with no homerowners association looking over my shoulder. it's still a place that my kids think of as "home" and it's great when they visit with the grands. there's a small shop and a semi enclosed carport. that space comes in handy when i return home with a headful of "necessary" mods. for me this is the best of both worlds. and yes, as i approach my three quarters of a century on this big blue ball i'm realizing that my wandering ticket has an expiration date...

p@

[johnlochbuie]

We did it for 8 years we had lost our house when the economy was so bad they closed the warehouse in Denver and my wife's company decided to outsource to the Philippines and Denver was becoming high tech so I saw an ad for workamping so we decided to try it. We had some good experience and bad but my wife had a stroke in 2012 so we tried hosting at forest service campgrounds but decided we needed a permanent place so now have a house in North Carolina we had a 16 foot Casita but sold it for a bigger trailer the Casita was just to small.

[CreativityCaravan]

We are about to leave NJ for an epic adventure in our Hunter Compact II. We have a mobile creative arts business already, which takes us away from home to destinations both near and far and we've decided to see if we can make a go of it for a while untethered. We are "between homes" as someone else here mentioned, so not planning to stay on the road full-time forever, but leaving without a destination or a deadline.

We've completed several large-scale community arts projects over the past 5 years that had us on the road for several months at a time, but took the plunge and sold our house to look for a new town that feels like home to both of us.

We are currently deep into the purging and packing portion you are asking about. We are using Marie Kondo's rule of thumb to decide what we keep (we will have a small storage unit until we decide where are next "permanent" home will be located), what we take on the road with us, and what we donate, sell, or give away. Does it bring you joy? We've found that so many of our things can be given away or sold when we ask ourselves this question. The harder bits are more sentimental items, childhood items, letters, notebooks, etc. and for those pieces we ask ourselves a slightly morbid but important question: If I die would anyone understand the context/meaning of this and would it be important to them? This one is trickier because you can't possibly know what would be meaningful to a loved one, but we try to put ourselves in their shoes and imagine having to sort through things and make decisions themselves. Sometimes we photograph items to keep a record of them, but then get rid of the actual item itself. Sometimes just telling the story of the item again and recognizing it is in the past and can't be recaptured is all we need to let go.

It's becoming quite addictive to let go and shed the past that no longer serves us. There is quite a bit of freedom in that. And this whole journey is about a certain kind of freedom that many folks can't or won't allow themselves to experience so it feels important to sink into it and enjoy it! We feel lighter already!

We'll be heading out of NJ on August 25! We keep a public blog on our website if anyone is interested in following along The Creativity Caravan. This site has been an excellent source of information for us, even if we are mostly readers and don't post much! Thanks to everyone for sharing their invaluable information.

[richardr]

We have a house that our kids rent. We spent a couple of months there each year parked in the driveway. Normally during Christmas and in the summer. This is a mixed blessing. Our son-in-law does a very good job with maintenance and repairs, but each time we come home there are things I feel need doing or would have done differently.


On the road we spent 12 to 14 weeks a year volunteering for Habitat for Humanity in their Care-a-Vanner program. Affiliates provide a place to park a person's RV for a couple of weeks in exchange for working on the houses they are building. I've learned a lot about home building, it's good exercise, fun and we have met some great new friends. A web site lists the sites, information about them and allows a person to sign up. If you are interested, google Care-a-Vanners.

[currinh]

We, my wife and I, are full time in an Escape '19. Been on the road just about 1 year so far.


Good: No longer worry about the house when on extended vacation & no yard work or other repairs on returning.


Bad: I really miss my shop.


We decided to move to a single story house. Didn't like what was available locally, houses or land, so looked further. Decided to settle about 1000 miles away. Thinking of selling everything and moving it dawned on us we might as well full time for a few (3-5) years between houses. We're retired so no obstacles that way. And we're old enough to think "we better do this before we're too old or sick to do it".


Gotchas: If married make sure you both want to go full time. Also, plan an out like have the funds to buy a house, when you decided to (or have to) settle.


Out journal at Hugh Currin - Main, thread Escpaed-Doodles.


My two cents worth.


Hugh