I’ve never been west of the Mississippi on my own, so I’m kinda nervous about finding places to go. I’m first going to be heading to Las Vegas for a friend’s wedding at Thanksgiving, so I’ll be staying in an RV park. That’s nervous-making all by itself, because I imagine it’s in the city and I haven’t even backed up my trailer by myself yet. I’m still just starting to renovate it as it gets warm enough outside to stand to be out in it with no heat for a few hours at a time.
I know I’ll get some practice on my way out there, but it all feels so overwhelming right now. One of the ways I’m trying to keep it from becoming too scary is watching all the videos from full-time nomads that I can find. There’s a guy, Bob Wells, who runs a channel called Cheap RV Living, and he seems super knowledgeable, so I’ve been watching a lot of his vids. It’s kinda funny, because he doesn’t even live in an RV, he’s a vanlife guy. But he interviews tons of nomads who live in all sorts of different vehicles and they aren’t all full-timers, though most are.
Anyway, he asks really good questions (even though he tends to go off on very long tangents) of his interviewees, and they’re things I want to know the answers to, so I really learn a LOT from this guy. He posted recently on his YouTube channel a couple of maps of the western states. There are all kinds of X marks on them, showing where he has camped. I wonder if he shows them all, or is kind of cagey like metal detectorists are about their favorite spots, and only shows the ones he doesn’t mind sharing. Either way, there are a LOT of them on these maps, so it’s not like there’s some shortage of places you can camp.
My only issues right now are that I will be pulling a travel trailer that’s probably a bit too heavy for my Jeep to tow properly (but you start with what you got), which makes me scared to take it up to the elevations he talks about, once the desert gets too hot. My other issue is that I’m not sure I’d be able to navigate to the same places he can with his van. My rig will be longer and heavier and not as maneuverable. Plus right now, I have a generator but no solar, so I’ll be mostly using my Thousand Trails pass to stay in full hookup sites as much as I can.
Anyway, I’m showing Bob’s maps here, so you get some idea where full-timers hang out over the seasons. I’m not sure right now where all I’m gonna go, but I do intend to come home to Pennsylvania and driveway surf with friends for the summer. Not sure how long that arrangement will work out, but gonna give it a try.
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