A couple weeks before my birthday
I saw a video online of the Idle Bus
Theory couple I just had this really
cute video of them traveling around for
four years and they're little Westfalia 
and named sunshine I think and it was a
really well-done video and halfway
through that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to live in a van.
And this was something even though
they were a couple I was like friggin I
can buy a van and live in it by myself
When I get a job I'm really good at saving
what I get there was times like three
jobs two jobs and just working all hours
especially my family moved to North
Dakota after I turned 18 and there was
nothing else to do in that town besides have a job
so I would just work like 55-60 hours a week between all my jobs they have
I would save up all my money
because I was staying with them and then hit the road or
by a plane ticket remember where I went
when I was in Alaska I had a job
and I when I was in Hawaii I had a job to  support
between one and three jobs I'd saved up
that much money. The cake decorating job
paid me the most $15 an hour to ice
cakes. I didn't go to college because my
parents didn't have any you know some
families they save up money for their
children to go to college or put them
through college - my parents didn't have
that we also made too much money for me
to get anything on the FAFSA I didn't
know what I wanted to go to college for
so narrowing down scholarships seemed
like really overwhelming and as a senior
in high school my mom was just like what
do you want to get out of it
what why what's the purpose of going to
college you're gonna spend a bunch of
money and then what? I just want to
travel mostly. She was like just come with us to
North Dakota save up money and decide
what you want to do later to do it's
hard being on the road I'm not gonna say
it's that's fricking bikini shots and
cute boyfriends it's not this is
difficult living in a house and working
a nine-to-five
it's just what do you want to deal with
what do you want the stability or do you
want the freedom to go on the road I
learned that I like the freedom I want
that freedom to be antsy and to move and
go and find friends or go to old friends
I am seeing people that I haven't seen in two
years super-awesome.... or
go to someone's house and be stable for
a little bit it's just the freedom to
express myself is very available and
also to like fixing my own rig fixing my
own problems times whereas I think if I  was
staying with my parents are staying with
their family I wouldn't have that
opportunity as much but the last two
months of just being solely on the road
it's been between 500 and 600 dollars
for food and gas and like getting
laundry done in showers so just the
basic needs
5 to 600 dollars, gas and food being the
majority of it I was spending less than
that I would be very stationary I would
be doing the 14-day limit at two
different locations in one month so
that'd be like the one or two tanks of
gas and food wise I wouldn't want to
spend any less than I already do per
week probably around $60 $50 to $60. $200 is realistic it can be more
usually is more. The van itself was
$3,000 I had to replace the windshield
when I got out on the road the build-out
was probably a couple hundred dollars
I've had a few things thanks
throughout the years recently I had the
radiator redone and had some parts
replaced so it's probably somewhere
around $1,500 on top of the 3,000 it's
about $4500 have gone
into the van maybe more not buying as
much stuff and not as much as a consumer
as it was before I wasn't I am not
buying clothes every month or every
couple weeks I'm not getting little
knickknacks I'm
getting food and gas. I don't watch TV you
don't see many commercials my time is
entirely my own and I don't feel often
controlled by things outside of it like
a job like TV
I don't think this lifestyle is for everyone
it's it's looked at online I
was like beautiful and you're always
gonna be surfing and hiking and rock
climbing and anything to have a
beautiful boyfriend or girlfriend and
sunsets every day it's just so cute and
fun because that's what social media is
for to give us the highlights of my life
but the reality of it is your going to be peeing in a 
bottle pooping in a bucket or digging a
hole. In all sorts of weather either
trapped in your rig or just trapped in
general because you camped so far back that a
rainstorm came in washed out the road
you got to hang out for a bit. It's not
for everyone just because if you like
structure if you like you knowing what's
gonna happen every day today that's it's
that's not what this lifestyle is about. It's about movement
creativity unless you
have a lot of money they have a really
nice rig that has lots of water on board
Otherwise you're a baby wiping hobo. If
have a bigger rig that you have to park
it takes you know a day to set up a day
to take down and there's so many things
that you have to do just to camp with it
that's super frustrating where as I could
pick up and leave right now in about ten
minutes
give me ten minutes on the clock and I
could be driving out of here unless
you're into long stays and like 14 days
in the same spot and you love that you
want to do that
every single month yeah feel free bigger
with more conveniences and enough water
on board that 14 days isn't a big deal
here you can choose to go be by yourself
whenever and you can go choose to be
with any number of friends once you
connect to the community you have like
50 to 100 people at your at your
fingertips to like go and I just asked
if they what they're doing what they're
up to and if that'd be cool and it's not
even that you would necessarily go hang
out with them just like oh you're in a
cool place I want to go there too. People in the 9 to 5 job if they like what they do they're
extremely lucky but otherwise they're
just waiting for that two weeks of
vacation all year long. I'm extremely
young in comparison to our community I'm
20 40 years younger than the majority of
people out here there's like less than a
handful that I've met in their 20s that
aren't even doing it full-time
some we're just hanging out for the
weekend because they have jobs elsewhere
then there's maybe a few handfuls in their 30s yeah the rest is 40s and up
there are still a ton of women out here.
this is a huge thing it's just it
happens it's going to happen if you're
already lonely in your house you're not
going to come out on the road and not be
lonely, you are out here on your own so
yes when you do find community it's
amazing and it helps you stay sane in
some ways and how you find them is for
me everybody communicates that I see is
through Facebook they
but groups things a ton of people online
that have not made it out on the road
yet but they are so ingrained in our
Facebook groups they're well-known
they're excited to get out and they're
just aware of what is out here a lot of
people want to go to the rubber tramp
rendezvous or the van builds and those
are great places to make friends
everybody there wants to make friends
it's it's just a given you don't show up
there and like everybody's off on their
own like the whole purpose of going to
an event is to make friends so I would
definitely start there if you're gonna
make it on the road you just have to
have a really good knack of
resourcefulness with the tools at hand
with who you know and who you can
contact and you never have a lack of
resources if you're in need all you have
to ask is one person will spread like
wildfire you need help and on Facebook
you get everybody's opinion people I
don't even know are trying to help me
and that's really awesome here as a
whole person don't come out here
thinking all your problems will be
solved just by being out here if you
have problems that need to be solved you
will be able to give them a lot more
attention but don't come out here
thinking that this community can solve
everything for you we can offer
friendship we can offer advice and
expertise in a lot of different fields
but we are just people wanting a
different lifestyle of freedom
simplicity it's we're not very needy we
try not to be we try to be respectful of
others and their space and what they
want so I'm a parent at the vortex and
it's a beautiful view there's lots of
people in here
you don't like camping alone I'm sure
you'll find people that are willing to
camp near you often but it's but there's
needs to be that balance of respect yeah
I'd say the energy is here is good here
because it's so beautiful but time
that's super awesome so you can always
can't near people so nice yeah like
living in a rig first of all that you'd
be comfortable with that building
treehouse or clubhouse I'm going and
hanging out them in the backyard has
it's a little kid vibe to it cuz you're
in a small space I do think weekend
trips if we invest a lot of time money
and effort into it make sure you like it
and then figure out how you're gonna
sustain your expenses while on the road
whether it be by savings until you get
your next job or you have a digital
nomad or you're a part-timer you do six
months and then go back to figuring out
those things first before you're like
planning what wallpaper you're going to
use in your band whatever you know it's
good for anybody anywhere to have an
emergency fund and someone once said
that it's like your expenses for six
months it's how much should be in your
emergency fund for me that's about would
be about the same amount of money is a
need arise sherry again that's kind of
good where my bases and if I get below
that I'm like getting a job ASAP because
I don't want to be on my last dollar
several miles away from people in places
that could help me out is there is a
fine line between a hobo and homeless
you don't want to come out here thinking
that it's just gonna all work out
it's it's not just magically happen
having a good amount of money that you
can live off of and that's different for
every person an emergency fund a way to
make money maybe you have social
security or pensions or the
ability things like that that you're
gonna get that's great to go off of if
you don't have those things to figure
out what you're gonna do it's a
lifestyle change it's not like a
solution it's not a problem solver you
went from living at home having a job
and now you're gonna be living with four
rubber wheels you still need the job you
still need the money side of it I
decided to wear my onesie
