"Hello everybody"-considering your lifestyle
My name is Greg, I'm a graduate student in Manhattan. I have been throwing money away renting a room the ghetto for 2.5 years. I think an appropriate pick-up/travel trailer set up may be a reasonable ...
Forum Discussion
You never know what you'll find used. Don't limit yourself to travel trailers because sometimes there are great deals on motorhomes, particularly small ones that are very old but in great condition. Last year a friend picked up a very slightly used, 30-year-old, 28-foot Winnebago for $550. Private sale through friendship connections, but an idea of what people might do to get the thing off their property and stop paying taxes on it.
Lots of places you can stop for free, or at low cost, once you get out of densely populated areas. Many small to medium size towns in the rural midwest have RV parks with water and electrical hookups for $10 a night or less (been in parks at $2, $5, and free). Facilities were built for use of visitors (typically 48-72 hour limit, maybe two weeks) or seasonal workers (usually no limit, but full if you show up at the wrong time).
Another option will be found at fairgrounds, empty except during events, although rates tend to be higher, as the market during events supports higher fees.
There are places you can park overnight, like retail stores, municipal lots, truck stops, rest areas in some states, but you can't camp, and you can't settle in as a squatter.
Big cities can be a real problem, a parking spot can be worth $30 to $100 a day, just for a car. You're on Manhattan, you know about that. Same for center, and popular areas, in any city of a couple hundred thousand people or more. Small towns, particularly rural areas, you might be OK to park on the streets. Suburbs, or upscale bedroom communities around urban areas, not so easy. As a homeless person, you are a threat, you either scare them because of your need, or because you've rejected their lifestyle.
You'll have to be concerned about presentation and behavior, because of profiling. Depending on what your rig looks like, how you presnt yourself, you might profile as a drug dealer or meth cook, just two of the "problem groups" widely using old RVs and trying to be low cost, low profile. That's with an old TT or motorhime, living in an old work van gets you an even more dangerous profile.
How minimal can you go? When I was in the service, Viet Nam era, five of the guys I worked with traveled in vans, lived in them while they traveled. Two VW campers, two VW vans self-converted, and a converted Gen 2 Econoline. Any of these guys could carry everything they owned (early 70's, GIs, remember, life had to fit in a duffle bag). They made living comfortable enough that they could get a gal to travel with them for a while. One of them could load up his motorcycle, fit his Triumph Bonneville into the central bay of his VW camper, without leaving any of the living stuff behind.
But that was the era. 1967, everything I owned fit inside a Renault R-8, including my new bride and all of the clothing she thought she needed then. But I had decent pay, started buying stuff, and we never fit into that space again.
Truck and TT, you are thinking pretty big for one person. After about five years of grad school, I was dreaming about schucking it all for what I could strap onto the back of a motorcycle. Even today, alone for the first time in almost 50 years, I think I could pare my lifestyle down to a minivan for a year or two of travel. Or fit it into the cabin of a cruise ship, that's two suitcases.
Lots of places you can stop for free, or at low cost, once you get out of densely populated areas. Many small to medium size towns in the rural midwest have RV parks with water and electrical hookups for $10 a night or less (been in parks at $2, $5, and free). Facilities were built for use of visitors (typically 48-72 hour limit, maybe two weeks) or seasonal workers (usually no limit, but full if you show up at the wrong time).
Another option will be found at fairgrounds, empty except during events, although rates tend to be higher, as the market during events supports higher fees.
There are places you can park overnight, like retail stores, municipal lots, truck stops, rest areas in some states, but you can't camp, and you can't settle in as a squatter.
Big cities can be a real problem, a parking spot can be worth $30 to $100 a day, just for a car. You're on Manhattan, you know about that. Same for center, and popular areas, in any city of a couple hundred thousand people or more. Small towns, particularly rural areas, you might be OK to park on the streets. Suburbs, or upscale bedroom communities around urban areas, not so easy. As a homeless person, you are a threat, you either scare them because of your need, or because you've rejected their lifestyle.
You'll have to be concerned about presentation and behavior, because of profiling. Depending on what your rig looks like, how you presnt yourself, you might profile as a drug dealer or meth cook, just two of the "problem groups" widely using old RVs and trying to be low cost, low profile. That's with an old TT or motorhime, living in an old work van gets you an even more dangerous profile.
How minimal can you go? When I was in the service, Viet Nam era, five of the guys I worked with traveled in vans, lived in them while they traveled. Two VW campers, two VW vans self-converted, and a converted Gen 2 Econoline. Any of these guys could carry everything they owned (early 70's, GIs, remember, life had to fit in a duffle bag). They made living comfortable enough that they could get a gal to travel with them for a while. One of them could load up his motorcycle, fit his Triumph Bonneville into the central bay of his VW camper, without leaving any of the living stuff behind.
But that was the era. 1967, everything I owned fit inside a Renault R-8, including my new bride and all of the clothing she thought she needed then. But I had decent pay, started buying stuff, and we never fit into that space again.
Truck and TT, you are thinking pretty big for one person. After about five years of grad school, I was dreaming about schucking it all for what I could strap onto the back of a motorcycle. Even today, alone for the first time in almost 50 years, I think I could pare my lifestyle down to a minivan for a year or two of travel. Or fit it into the cabin of a cruise ship, that's two suitcases.
