RV'ing and the Art of Minimalism

The RV (recreational vehicle) Industry is experiencing rapid growth. As an avid RV'er, I see first-hand, the swelling numbers of RV's on the roads, in parks, in the forests, at the beach and deserts; they're everywhere!

And then there's the RV'ers we don't see; the "stealth" RV's. These are primarily cargo vans that are being bought and converted to RV's. For the most part, this is a very fast growing community of people that are van dwellers; folks that live in their small homes on wheels and travel the country.

Most are retired and single, but there are some who continue to work using Craig's List in the various cities across the country to find odd jobs, handy man jobs, etc. There are also "workkamper" jobs available where one can get a seasonal job working with fruit and vegetables, working as hosts and maintenance workers for RV parks, State and National Parks. Even Amazon hires seasonal workers and most of these, even Amazon (the last I heard), provides RV parking including electricity, water, sewer, etc. Some of these folks continue working a regular job by telecommuting.

There is nothing like traveling this great country in a van and earning a living at the same time from the beach, mountains or desert.

As an avid RV'er, I see all this. When I retired, I wanted an RV. I did my research and bought what I thought I needed (wanted), a big motor home. As a solo traveler, I found out after 3-4 trips that this was not what I wanted or needed. This home on wheels was getting around 9 miles per gallon and it was too big for one person. I was very limited as to where I could park it. I was limited as to its capabilities to go boondocking. I was basically limited to parking in an expensive RV park. I sold the motor home and purchased a van and had it converted to a smaller RV. I've been traveling the country now in my "stealth" van for over 2 years and am loving every minute of it. I can park my van anywhere a car can park, if I get tired and want to take a nap, I can pull over and basically park anyplace and have no fear of being bothered because I'm so stealthy.

This smaller RV also caused me to significantly downsize. That turned out to be a great blessing in disguise. I was carrying around too much unnecessary stuff. I've learned that being a minimalist is good.

Source: Most of the photos in this blog are provided courtesy of pixabay.com.

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