The Nomadic Life

[Too Tall]

"The rear cabin was reconfigured to incorporate ...snip... a Eureka central vacuuming system" -- Because a clean RV makes for a happy nomad...

That was a nice touch.

[Tamu8104]

Not exactly the same but I bought an FJ Cruiser for an overland build recently. If all goes well ma expand to an overland trailer as well. Still tent but RTT are much nicer than on the ground. If I can figure out a decent shower setup, heading out for a while away from the internet with the MTB sounds nice.

[Too Tall]

Not exactly the same but I bought an FJ Cruiser for an overland build recently. If all goes well ma expand to an overland trailer as well. Still tent but RTT are much nicer than on the ground. If I can figure out a decent shower setup, heading out for a while away from the internet with the MTB sounds nice.

Exactly right. I like the direction you are going. Basically, drop the trailer and use the truck to get into trouble. Return home for a good rest.
I've seen a few schemes for portable hot showers. You might want to do some digging on the RV Forums. This Zodi caught my eye because it is simple and not a huge commitment: LIMITED Time Zodi Products | Exciting Zodi packages | Zodi.com

[NYCfixie]

As my wife and I get closer to early retirement every day, she has said she would live the nomadic lifestyle (we are both from bif families and have relatives all over the country) only if she gets a Beyonce Bus:

Ultra Coach - Gallery

[Too Tall]

As my wife and I get closer to early retirement every day, she has said she would live the nomadic lifestyle (we are both from bif families and have relatives all over the country) only if she gets a Beyonce Bus:

Ultra Coach - Gallery

Don't eff around do you? I'm of the mind that I'll keep messing around with the Airstream until I'm too crippled to unhitch it than I'll buy Willie Nelson's old tour bus and Cheech & Chong my way into the sunset.

That's my story.

[Saab2000]

Don't eff around do you? I'm of the mind that I'll keep messing around with the Airstream until I'm too crippled to unhitch it than I'll buy Willie Nelson's old tour bus and Cheech & Chong my way into the sunset.

That's my story.

I can absolutely see myself Airsteaming this nomad lifestyle one day. Not quite yet, but someday. I often find myself perusing the Airstream website.

Alternatively, finding a place where I can go every year and spend a month or more riding might not suck either.

How often do you change locales? And how often do you get home? Where do you store the Airstream?

[Too Tall]

I can absolutely see myself Airsteaming this nomad lifestyle one day. Not quite yet, but someday. I often find myself perusing the Airstream website.

Alternatively, finding a place where I can go every year and spend a month or more riding might not suck either.

How often do you change locales? And how often do you get home? Where do you store the Airstream?

We park it in our driveway. Once Mrs. Too Tall breaks her work habit we'll have a better plan for what this looks like. For now we have have found two very good locations with outstanding bike riding and nice people :) We tend to be "off season" vacationers thus traipsing around the USA in the Airstream does not have the same appeal as staying at our favorite campsites, riding bikes and staring into space. We'll stick to that script until or if we get bored of amazing quiet surroundings or the locals get bored with us ;) Than we get the Willy Nelson tour bus.

[rwsaunders]

Last Summer I was seated on a red eye cross country flight next to a gent from Chicago who through conversation, told me that he had commissioned one of these pups several months earlier...see link. He was about two years from retirement and he was going to keep it at a base in Florida and cruise the country from there. He was showing me build progress photos and I thought that he dropped a number on me like $500K in the conversation. I had been through several cancelled flights that day and it had been a long night so I just went with the conversation about the RV, which was way over my head. Very interesting fellow though and very nice to talk with.

Anyway, when we arrived at the gate, a woman with a clipboard met him at the end of the jetway and he insisted that I join him for breakfast at the Admiral's Club, as he knew that I had one more extended flight before I would arrive home. We were then carted off by the young lady where I enjoyed American Airline's finest oatmeal, bacon and coffee. Sometimes it's fun hanging with royalty.

Zephyr | Tiffin Motorhomes

[Too Tall]

Very cool RW. Those motorcoach owners must have a way to get into town once the coach is parked right? The best "toad" (term for any POS car towed behind the coach) I've ever seen was a clapped out Porsche Boxster. We have met a bunch of folks who are full time or nearly full time in these giant palaces on wheels. Gotta say they are pretty d@mn happy wandering the USA in search of quiet spaces. One could do worse.

[NYCfixie]

Don't eff around do you? I'm of the mind that I'll keep messing around with the Airstream until I'm too crippled to unhitch it than I'll buy Willie Nelson's old tour bus and Cheech & Chong my way into the sunset.

That's my story.

Didn't say we could afford it ... (or are willing to spend that much on a depreciating asset).

When I man-splained that $1,000,000 will get us the Beyonce Bus or maybe a small 1 bedroom or larger studio apartment in Manhattan, suddenly the bus did not sound that good anymore.

With states updating laws, the Cheech and Chong thing might actually work out for you. Colorado, Massachusetts...

[froze]

I too been pondering what I'm going to do about a long dream of cycling across America. My original dream and goal was to do the TransAm Westward which takes 4 months to do, and then the year after that trip do the Southern Tier which takes about 2 months to do, but her fibromyalgia condition has worsened over the years and to leave her for more than week would be a burden on her, so more than likely I'll have to look at this a different way. After much discussion over the last year with my wife we decided, unless things get worse for her, that we could utilize the travel trailer we have and then we could drive a short distance someplace duplicating the Adventure Cycling route to a large degree with a few detours to see things off the path, park and camp, then I would take the bike out for one or two, maybe three nights out, and circle back to the trailer, and go a little further and do the same thing and repeat all across the nation.

Then we thought about selling the trailer and buying an RV but decided that seemed impractical because for one I need a truck for my rental business, for two even if I bought an RV I would need a small car to tow around so my wife, or I, could buzz around and see stuff, so why tow a car when I can tow a trailer and disconnect the truck and use it to buzz around in? And since we have no vision of living a nomadic life in an RV for years on end like some retirees do, I kind of think just utilizing what we have seems more practical. Maybe some of you have thoughts on this we could ponder over.

[froze]

I too been pondering what I'm going to do about a long dream of cycling across America. My original dream and goal was to do the TransAm Westward which takes 4 months to do, and then the year after that trip do the Southern Tier which takes about 2 months to do, but her fibromyalgia condition has worsened over the years and to leave her for more than week would be a burden on her, so more than likely I'll have to look at this a different way. After much discussion over the last year with my wife we decided, unless things get worse for her, that we could utilize the travel trailer we have and then we could drive a short distance someplace duplicating the Adventure Cycling route to a large degree with a few detours to see things off the path, park and camp, then I would take the bike out for one or two, maybe three nights out, and circle back to the trailer, and go a little further and do the same thing and repeat all across the nation.

Then we thought about selling the trailer and buying an RV but decided that seemed impractical because for one I need a truck for my rental business, for two even if I bought an RV I would need a small car to tow around so my wife, or I, could buzz around and see stuff, so why tow a car when I can tow a trailer and disconnect the truck and use it to buzz around in? And since we have no vision of living a nomadic life in an RV for years on end like some retirees do, I kind of think just utilizing what we have seems more practical. Maybe some of you have thoughts on this we could ponder over.

I know some of you are debating buying new equipment, there are pros and cons to that. The pro is if you will be living in for 20 years then a new one is the way to go; but the con is most people wanting to do the nomadic thing change their minds after a few years, now you have a RV or trailer that lost 35% of it's new purchase cost in just 5 years, and 60% in 10 years with a big 18% jump from 9 to the 10 year mark, and the more high end the unit is the quicker it depreciates; it's far better to buy a used unit and get a large chunk of that depreciation out of the way, in fact you lose 20% just as you drive it off the lot! And since a lot of people who buy these things don't use them as long as they thought they would, you can find units with very low mileage on them fairly easily with an internet search. Of course if you buy used you have to make sure there's been no water damage and to have the roof thoroughly checked to see if it needs replacing or repaired; the roof issue is a huge annoyance with trailers and RV's. Our trailer is now 14 years old and I had the roof checked and other than recaulking some areas it was good to go which the dealer said is unusual, usually a new roof is in order by now.

[Too Tall]

I too been pondering what I'm going to do about a long dream of cycling across America. My original dream and goal was to do the TransAm Westward which takes 4 months to do, and then the year after that trip do the Southern Tier which takes about 2 months to do, but her fibromyalgia condition has worsened over the years and to leave her for more than week would be a burden on her, so more than likely I'll have to look at this a different way. After much discussion over the last year with my wife we decided, unless things get worse for her, that we could utilize the travel trailer we have and then we could drive a short distance someplace duplicating the Adventure Cycling route to a large degree with a few detours to see things off the path, park and camp, then I would take the bike out for one or two, maybe three nights out, and circle back to the trailer, and go a little further and do the same thing and repeat all across the nation.

Then we thought about selling the trailer and buying an RV but decided that seemed impractical because for one I need a truck for my rental business, for two even if I bought an RV I would need a small car to tow around so my wife, or I, could buzz around and see stuff, so why tow a car when I can tow a trailer and disconnect the truck and use it to buzz around in? And since we have no vision of living a nomadic life in an RV for years on end like some retirees do, I kind of think just utilizing what we have seems more practical. Maybe some of you have thoughts on this we could ponder over.

Gotcha. Ponder the notion if a few or more RV/Trailers were to tackle a Trans-Contiential or a Divide trip or a simple Eastern Parkways Navigation (Natchez Trace / Blue Ridge Parkway) . Suppose everyone worked out a schedule for driving and riding? It would be a really cool adventure for all involved including folks who just drove. Finding interesting places to camp each night and/or take a few days at various places.

Logistics are dog simple, I've done this sort of thing for many years. The difficult part is gathering enough committed souls in partnership to make it happen.

That's why we are talking my friend :)

[froze]

Gotcha. Ponder the notion if a few or more RV/Trailers were to tackle a Trans-Contiential or a Divide trip or a simple Eastern Parkways Navigation (Natchez Trace / Blue Ridge Parkway) . Suppose everyone worked out a schedule for driving and riding? It would be a really cool adventure for all involved including folks who just drove. Finding interesting places to camp each night and/or take a few days at various places.

Logistics are dog simple, I've done this sort of thing for many years. The difficult part is gathering enough committed souls in partnership to make it happen.

That's why we are talking my friend :)

My wife is a not a good driver, and driving truck with a trailer would be a daunting task for her, and you can forget about her backing it up to park it in some campsite, so I would have to drive the truck/trailer.

That's why at this time it makes more sense for us to have me drive out to a location, set up camp, and I go off for a day, two, or three on the bike. She would have the dog, there to protect her and keep her company, but every camp place I've ever been to have been real safe except for ones in California for some reason, maybe their close proximity to big cities? But our dogs we had back then made real sure no strangers enter the campsite while I was gone fishing. I heard a couple of stories were bum looking men tried to go into our campsite while my wife and children where there and dogs let them know that it wasn't a good idea for them to be there! I always made sure I got larger intimidating looking dogs that weren't afraid of people, and so far over the past 40 years of having dogs I hit on 100% success, probably a lot of luck in that, but dogs seem to know that women and children need protecting, and once they become your "pack" they do get very protective.

[PaMtbRider]

I like the idea of a caravan of cyclists moving across the country in RVs. My wife is not going to drive our van while towing the trailer, plus she is also going to want to ride. I'm not comfortable driving someone else's rig, and I wouldn't trust anyone to drive ours in anything less than an emergency situation. For us, to have this work, it would be move every few days to a new place, ride from there for a few days and than move on.

[Too Tall]

I like the idea of a caravan of cyclists moving across the country in RVs. My wife is not going to drive our van while towing the trailer, plus she is also going to want to ride. I'm not comfortable driving someone else's rig, and I wouldn't trust anyone to drive ours in anything less than an emergency situation. For us, to have this work, it would be move every few days to a new place, ride from there for a few days and than move on.

We could do that :) FWIIW I did contact a National Org. in charge of Airstream Caravans. We are scheduled to have a conference call and talk turkey. I'll report back. Thanks for the comments gents, the issues are real.

[rwsaunders]

TT...thought of you when I read this article...

RVs, trailers gain ground with millennials

[Too Tall]

TT...thought of you when I read this article...

RVs, trailers gain ground with millennials

Ahhh that explains it. I'm one of "those" people. Sigh.

We had no clue this was becoming even more popular of late. There are some caveats you might disagree with, don't talk about politics or religion and always have guest chairs available. Yeah yeah I know, it's pretty rough ;)

[bigbill]

I'm dredging this up again. I've been thinking about buying a used trailer (2-4 years old) and doing some weekend trips to try things out. I've got a good tow vehicle and I live out west so I have lots of year round opportunities. I also live in a snowbird area so low mile used trailers pop up all the time. I'd like an Airstream but carrying bikes presents a degree of difficulty. I could put a hitch rack on the back of the trailer but the inside of my Expedition isn't much use for bikes. The alternative is a toy hauler which won't be as opulent but typically has stuff like solar panels outside LED's, and a generator. I could finish out the inside as I see fit and still carry 2-3 bikes/wheels/tools. As long as I have a bathroom with a shower, at least two burners, microwave, fridge, and oven, I can work around most other things. I don't necessarily want to get off the grid, I'd prefer hookups, but it would be nice to go to Moab out on BLM land for a few days at a time.

[AngryScientist]

but the inside of my Expedition isn't much use for bikes.

Haha Bill! I know you're from TX dude, but i believe the expedition is THE largest SUV you can buy! people carry a couple bikes in a honda fit (just sayin...).

seriously though, you're definitely overthinking the "carrying bikes" bit. work out the trailer that is the size and design you like and you'll find a place to put a bike or two when you travel, especially if you're travelling solo. there is always the roof.