Leaving it all behind?

[BrwBier]

It is a great fantasy, but only that. Unless you can stay some where for $0 a night it is quite expensive. There are only so many campgrounds to be a host at or do part time work for free parking. My house is paid for and the taxes are under $200 a month, it would be hard to camp for that. Realistically only a small portion of us could pull that off, that is living on the fly in a teardrop full time. I know while on vacation it is easy to psych your self into thinking this could work. I say go for it, dream big. What else are dreams for.
Brwbier

[2bits]

It is my fantasy, and my retirement plan and my upcoming reality. As Slow noted, not exactly feasible in a teardrop though, but living in a park surrounding in my "big" trailer is close enough for me, so that is what I am doing...

[Oldragbaggers]

For 30 years Lance and I dreamed of fixing up an old boat and sailing off into the sunset....when the kids are grown, when he retires from the Navy (did that), when he retires from the school system, when the property prices improve, when the grandkids are grown. (You see where I'm going with this.) We did fix up the old boat, actually we fixed up a LOT of old boats, and sailed them and had a wonderful time. But somehow, while waiting for the perfect time to actually sail away, darned if we didn't get older. And sailing got more challanging, and who the heck wants to worry about pirates. (No offense Deryk).

Just recently we took our sights off the islands on the horizon and put them on the rail trails down the road. And the teardrop seems like the most perfect sagwagon imaginable. And we hope to build it and enjoy it for a long time. But live in it full time, no way. Been there, done that on little boats. We do however talk about sailing off into the sunset still, but in a nice RV, when the time is right.

Becky

[pete42]

If you have been a stay at home person all your life like me then I doubt of you will every leave everything and go.

If like my cousin who has been married 5 times and lived all over the western states and some eastern then do as he did buy a small motor home and travel.
that was until the gas prices forced him to stop and like others have said if you can camp free it may work of if you are wealthy.

now a few months during the summer or couple months in Florida during the winter that's my idea of getting away from it all.

pete

[Big Dan]

For me, Traveling and camping is fun becouse I don't get to do it all the time. I don't see it as a life style. Most homeless people wish they had a home. Maybe if I won the LOTTO I would take a few months off and travel every year but at some point I would start to miss my family.(not married,no kids)Parents brothers sister ect. With a teardrop, you can't travel with out money, so you need a job. And if you have a job, you might as well have a house to go home to. I guess thats why most on this thread are calling it a dream. BUT IF I DID WIN THE LOTTO!!!!! I would be a traveling fool. Love to see all of america.The best place on earth

[campmaster-k]

We travel quite a bit. Its good to go and it s good to come home.

[Mukilteo]

A divorce & child support put me in that situation in 89.
Lived in a 1969 - 19 foot Shasta for years.
Bought my Silver Shadow as a gift to my self when I was done paying child support. And for the fact that my ex and I didn't kill each other.
I am more surprised at the amount of junk I have acquired since then.

[Mukilteo]

Oh, most of it seems to be camping related

[Visionsbydarrah]

It has truly amazed me on how much people make decisions based solely on what they have or currently own.
I currently own nothing that I cant live without, with the exception of my kids and my dog Taz but he is family and all.
Let me give you all a little back ground info on me, I’m 45 years old come this Nov. and both of my children are grown and out on there own.
I live in a 1200sqf house ( I know to most of you this is a tiny home. ) that is way to much for just me and Taz, that’s why I am putting it up for sale in the spring. (yes I still have a mortgage on the house for about 15 more years if stay here.)
I’ve always wanted to just hit the road and see this great county of ours, but on my terms.
You know pull into a place find a part time job of some kind ( if there is any to be had. ) and knowing if I didn’t care for where I was at, I could just jump in the Jeep and go.
This my sound like a fantasy to some of you or most of you, but its my dream.
The idea of doing this in a Teardrop is not really what I had envisioned 22 years ago when I fist started my family, but its what I currently own and its paid for. ( and if I have to I can always move up to a bigger trailer of some kind. )
According to my friends I am a minimalists at hart, but it has served me very well over the years of being a signal parent.

But it does saddens me to think we now live in a world where the norm is to own stuff for the sake of owning stuff.

But in any case if I do get to do this someday very soon… and if it doesn’t work out… I know I can always go back to the ideology of owning more is better like the rest of this strange little world we live in.


So the idea of leavening it all behind is a very different story for each and every person.



Pat & Taz.

[pete42]

Pat and Puppy Taz

I think we all acquire stuff as we go through life when I flew I had lots of things that it took to fly least of which was the plane

I then decided I wanted a motorcycle it too required things to ride rain gear when it rained winter gear when it was cold boots helmets

then I decided hey how about a boat

first power boat then sail boat

I found the sail boat to be the cheapest of all my hobbies only time we started the engine was docking and undocking sails were the norm.

then camping tent and it's stuff, pop-up different stuff, travel trailer more stuff.

now I'm plane-less, boat-less, motorcycle-less, only stuff left is tent

soon I hope to have a cargo-trailer and it's stuff.

so here's wishing you well on your dream 45? I'm 69 don't wait time has a way of catching up to you very fast,

don't believe me remember when you could't wait to be 16? that was 29 years ago.


pete

[Visionsbydarrah]

Hey Pete42..
I understand everyone needs things to make life work.
but the people that get me like I said are the people that seem to buy things for the sake of buying them? (with the idea running threw there head I'll use it someday, but for now its on sale.) Maybe they do it to fill some kind of void in there life???????
I only seem to buy things if I have a use for it at the time...

Ok getting way to far off corse here.......LOL

But I do love everyones input so far.... its great to hear or see what or why other people would like to do this...

[2bits]

I think it is a great dream an and attainable dream whether you own stuff or not. I can understand and respect the less is more attitude, but remember there is a middle ground.

I Recently did similar to you, I sold my 1500 sq ft brick home in a subdivision. I had a good mortgage payment, but was still struggling and this was not where I wanted to end up, and I definitely did not want to stay mortgaged until I was retired. So I moved out of the house (it is still for sale) and bought a 900 sq ft mobile home for $8k and refurbished it to my liking and am well on my way to my dream. I have my possessions, but they are not own owned for the sake of owning, I did a "cleansing" of those items when I moved and it felt great to get rid of the fluff. I didn't do a garage sale either, I just gave it all away on the curb. I am lucky enough to have a few family heirlooms though, and I use them in my daily life. My great grandfather was a carpenter and I have a dresser, and a photo cabinet that are very important and sentimental to me. I also have my guitars and amps which I use along with a few other items.

I have furniture, but am not attached to it. My first idea was to get a 5th wheel and live in it on my land while I built my house, but I still had too much non-furniture stuff that I did not want to put into storage. This was ok with me. My possessions do not make me who I am but I still like em. Not to mention the tools and auto parts and project I am working on are alot of fun for me.



So my idea is similar, just not on the nomadic level. I think if you are able to do it, that is great, and I could definitely see myself doing the same thing for a month or two and them coming home, but there is a definite draw to the lifestyle. It reminds me of the mid-life of "Benjamin Button"... experiencing life through experiences!

Rock on!

[Visionsbydarrah]

Thomas, I agree with you whole heartedly!!


It’s just time for a change and for now this sounds like it will take me to the next step of life.
Where ever that may take me for better or for worse.

[Roly Nelson]

The day I turned 62, I retired, stored most of my stuff in a shed I built in my brother-in-law's back yard and the wife and I took off in our 22 ft Lazy Days motorhome. Loved traveling in it for a couple of years, then moved up to a 28 ft Class A motorhome and continued to see the rest of the 46 states we visited. 8 years later, the sweet wife could no longer manage the MH steps, since she broke her back, so we sold it, which began our TD design, build and camping adventures. We had a ball in the MH, saw over 250 of our relatives, highschool, military friends, and stayed in many of their driveways, side yards or pastures.

I do miss the central air, the bathroom, kitchen and a bedroom that you could stand up in. I don't miss the 200 dollar cost to fill the gas tank, the constant awareness that something mechanical could (and did) go wrong, and the expensive campgrounds near many points of interest. I can't imagine trying to live full time in a teardrop, even though I love it so and have over 30,00 miles of TD travel throughout the US. I am content to leave this 4 bedroom house and head on out to a campground whenever I want, always anxious to see some friends "I haven't met yet". Long live TDing.
Roly ~~ waiting for the weather to cool so I can visit Death Valley in the fall.

[pete42]

Hey Pete42..
I understand everyone needs things to make life work.
but the people that get me like I said are the people that seem to buy things for the sake of buying them? (with the idea running threw there head I'll use it someday, but for now its on sale.) Maybe they do it to fill some kind of void in there life???????
I only seem to buy things if I have a use for it at the time...

Ok getting way to far off corse here.......LOL

But I do love everyones input so far.... its great to hear or see what or why other people would like to do this...

You made me remember a guy I worked with he and his wife made well over $100K a year but they had so many bills that at the end of the month they lived on peanut butter jam and bread.
only when the bills became to much for them and they split did each one of them start to live within their means.
buying just to buy isn't how I want to do and I understand where you are coming from
pete