It's a crash-course in making contact with strangers, dealing with rejection, knowing how to let go and enjoy the moment and maintaining a positive attitude (especially when you wait for a ride for hours in shitty weather), how to ask for help without being obnoxious, and having faith in the goodness of humanity as a whole.
It's not for everyone, but it definitely was both therapeutic and educational for me, and I still love it as a guy in his thirties.
I never thought of this before, but it kind of makes sense that the van thing isolates whereas the hitchhiking makes friends. One is fundamentally based on independence and solving things on your own. The other is fundamentally based on people acknowledging each other and helping each other out.
Agreed. I think it's worth emphasizing here that it builds up confidence in a very healthy way.
Growing up I was very insecure and (was) thought that building up confidence only had to do with getting a higher self-esteem. And sure, having a low self-esteem is bad for you health. But most ways of trying to improve it backfire. For example, if you think of things you're great at it makes you dependent on feeling that you're great at those things and then that can become a source of insecurity.
Meanwhile, learning to talk to strangers while hitchhiking is all about getting over yourself. A lot of the anxiety comes from the anticipation of being rejected making you feel horrible as if you were and imagining the worst possible ways it could make you feel. Basically, a normally healthy feedback loop to weigh options has become totally unbalanced and makes you suffer for something that neither happened nor has to happen.
More importantly, it suggests you're hyper-focused on yourself and on how others see you. And the irony here is: most people don't, and that's perfectly fine. Or as Melissa Dahl summarized in a title of an Aeon essay[0] about this: "you're simply not that big of a deal, now isn't that a relief?"
I'm sure most of us know this rationally, but feeling it emotionally is a different thing altogether. Well, hitchhiking is a great way to train that world-view. It was for me, at least.
[0] https://aeon.co/ideas/youre-simply-not-that-big-a-deal-now-i...
Today I am not hitchhiking anymore, but I am happy to give a ride to anybody flagging finger. For past three years that happens only once and even those two people were doing it just because of some hitchhiking competition.
(Based on my thankfully limited experience plus https://www.reddit.com/r/hitchhiking/comments/41bbde/hitchhi...)
I'm half-Asian, which I guess is "white enough" to fly under most of the (conscious and subconscious) racist radars out there. OTOH I can get quite a tan and I used to grow a beard years before it was trendy to do so. Pretty much right after 9/11 actually. The Islamophobic associations were definitely real.
I figured out a cheat mode though: wear thick rimmed glasses[0]. I used cheap plastic +.25 reading glasses so they didn't look fake but didn't give me a headache either. It's totally stupid but it made a huge difference. And this was years before the famouse Curb Your Enthusiasm bit[1], which clearly is an example of "it's funny (and sad) because it's true".
[0] https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/z8h21/whats_the_...
I got a tacoma with a tall camper shell.
I tossed a piece of foam in the back, tacked some fabric for decoration, added a hanging lamp, and that's it. I have a pelican case I keep my laptop and some stuff in, but the rest of my crap stays in plastic tubs.
I don't really want to spend time tricking it out, because the point is that I want to be out doing stuff, not fabricating a home.
I've camped out about 10 days so far this year and plan to increase that to 100% by the end of the year.
I just do it because all I want to do at this stage in life is play music and rock climb. I couldn't see doing that if I was trying to go into an upswing on my profession or build a relationship.
The point is to have a place to crash so I can stay on the road with less hassle... it's much nicer to not have to drive home after a gig or to wake up and go climb without a commute or a campsite to worry about.
I also know a lot of folks living in RVs, and I don't think that the sprinter van looks like an improvement over a commercially produced motorhome/ 5th wheel/ trailer.
I guess I should say that my issue is mroe about the DIY-ness of the van-life thing.
I've know a lot of folks in schoolies over the years, and while they can look all instagram fabulous, mostly they are never as nice, light-weight, or well-insulated as even the cheaper commercially available alternatives. It might be just a bad perception on my part, and I think it is possible to do... I just don't see it happening for most of the folks I know who.
I've been deeply interested in going nomadic full time for more than a decade, despite it only recently becoming a thing. Family, job obligations combined with a relatively low cost arrangement for living expenses finds me plunked down firmly.
If my wife and I split, god forbid, you'll find me on the road.
PS: Their are no construction standards for trailers/rv's. Their are built as cheaply as possible. I'd much rather do the van thing if only for the structural integrity.
I'm surprised when I go to unscrew something and find that the screw was actually screwed in straight. I'm dead serious, there aren't a dozen straight screws in the whole thing (well, there are now). Assuming the $WHATEVER even got a screw; I keep forgetting to run to Home Depot for screws for those brackets that are hanging by two wobbly screws.
So, yeah, build quality on RVs is shit. But if you can do your own van, you can redo anything in an RV. And the RV is already plumbed and wired, mostly. You can fix the stuff they missed. :-) Despite my complaints, I've put in far less effort correcting Thor's mistakes than I would into building my own van.
https://www.rvia.org/standards-regulations
If you look you can find RV's that are built to last. The vast majority are built as cheaply as possible though.
As for the "cheap"... yeah, that is true, but I just don't see the DIY people ever getting things as light as the RV manufacturers... and that is a big deal when driving.
Grab a good atlas for a state you want to travel in that has all the roads on it (like Benchmark) and just start looking at it. Find a place that looks interesting and go there. You can find amazing spots that way. Going to places found on "Ten Best" lists or camping magazines are the way to find a beautiful place with way too many people around.
Food costs for me increased, due to less cooking. If you're in an urban area, finding a place to use a portable stove or fire is very difficult.
If you're outside of an urban area, gas/breakdowns are a constant concern.
Parking can be precarious, depending on where you are. Heat can be a problem depending on where you are. It's much easier to heat passively with blankets in the cold than to cool yourself when it's too hot to sleep.
Other notes:
- Vans are often very poorly insulated, both from sound and weather. - The social impact can be crushing.
All in all embracing a mobile hermit lifestyle with the added burden of a giant lumbering structure can be daunting. I think in general ultralite camping is a better option. More flexibility where you stay, and the benefits of having a mobile power source are overstated. Portable gas canisters/solar cells have a better value for the few times when you need mobile electricity.
Absolutely agree to this. I had the liberty to enjoy in Australia and Hawaii and I spent my time creating www.wikinomad.com to help other people find closest bathroom, toilets, van resting spots etc. Noticed that Australia is really well built for this on the east coast.
I'd add considering getting a chain gym membership for regular showers.
AllPowers makes an 85W portable folding solar panel that can power a laptop and smartphone directly. I strongly prefer using solar when available instead of having to idle a noisy stinky gas engine at an extended stay site. Some of the most obnoxious campers are the ones who endlessly run generators, don't be that person.
A decent marine battery is reliable and can carry enough power to run a laptop all day. No need to idle an engine... you can charge it while you're driving. I agree on the generator people. No better way to take the suburbs out to nature.
A marine battery and portable solar panel are not mutually exclusive.
When you've found a sweet spot and have no intention of driving for at least a week, it's less than ideal to repeatedly idle an automobile engine just for charging your battery. Most of the energy is being lost to waste heat, it's a horribly inefficient method and annoying to boot. But sure, charge your batteries off the alternator while you're driving places as well. Everything should get topped up whenever you drive somewhere.
Most state parks I've stayed at around california permit 14-day continuous stays. Enforcement hasn't been especially strict in my experience either unless it's a busy time of year or there's an associated nuisance.
Having access to all the comforts all the time is for the part of your life spent in civilization.
I think it is a great way for long-time "car camping". I don't think it is a good idea to live like that (but everybody is different, of course), but it is definitely interesting.
I have an old truck with a camper shell, and two people actually can fit into it sleeping. I am thinking about going camping in it for 1–2 nights in the summer, without renting cabins and stuff.
A few more things to add:
- Get used to constantly keeping your stuff in order. It takes about 5 minutes to turn your tiny little living area into a mess. And the day after that you are living in a dumpster.
- Don't leave anything visible from outside the vehicle. I mean absolutely nothing can be seen if you look in a window. I have no proof on this one, but nobody stole anything from me or messed with the vehicle while I was away (sometimes for a few days in the backcountry), and I attribute it to not looking like somebody was living in the vehicle and nothing valuable might be inside.
- Make sure your head is pointed uphill when you park and make sure your mattress is comfortable. No sense in getting long term bad sleep.
I toured around for 6 weeks in a van, all down the West Coast, visiting national parks, hiking, sleeping on the beaches, and reading a lot. It was a great time, and required very little equipment, and monetary investment (my buddy had a van already.) And what we did was glorified camping, though the day-to-day I don't see how it'd be much different than a fully custom luxury van.
People should start with a long month-long road trip like this to really get a feel, to understand how you'll provision food, where you'll eat, etc.
I love me a good long road trip, but I'd never move into one as a substitute for a home.
My road trip has been going on 2429 days. Couldn't do it in a van, but a 25 foot Airstream is surprisingly comfortable.
works for 50% of the population? I read a fascinating article recently (can't find it again I'm afraid) where a female UPS driver said her delivery targets were always lower than her male colleagues because she had to go and find a bathroom.
Some people may not really want to, which is fine. They are probably the same ones who would find the lack of showers a deal breaker.
- Buy an older van (or in my case a crew cab pickup with a camper shell).
- Add some storage space and a bed. This can be as simple as a few plastic storage containers and a foam mattress.
- Add an inverter, a marine battery, and if you really want to get fancy a relay to disconnect it from the main system when the vehicle isn't running. No solar panels needed, just let the alternator charge it.
That's it. Spend the rest of the time figuring out how to live with your self without social media.
There are a lot of things you can do to simplify your life, if you don't have to bring your first world standards with you: - Don't use any electronics that need constant power. Don't buy stuff that needs to be refrigerated, but do get fresh fruit and vegetables if you can eat them within a few days of buying.
- Piss in a bottle and figure out how to be near enough to either a bathroom or real wilderness for other situations. It's not that hard with a little planning.
- Shower less often, mostly in campgrounds. You will stink more, but get over yourself.
- Bring a lot of books/ebooks or something interesting to study.
- Walmart parking lots are great places to park and sleep if you are en-route somewhere and just need some rest. They usually allow overnight parking and won't bother you (local ordinances can sometimes cause exceptions).
- Learn how to brush your teeth and wash dishes without using lots of soap and water. You can actually clean and rinse a dirty pan with about a cup of water and a tiny drop of soap.
The western US is great for this since huge areas of the desert states are easy to move around in without much planning or permits.
Don't spend lots of time driving. Get somewhere and actually experience it. Don't plan too hard. Find some stuff you think would be interesting, get to good areas, then relax and explore. Schedules are only opportunities for disappointment and stress. Try spending a whole week without even taking pictures. Learn what is fun for you, not what you think makes your life look interesting.