My attention span is about as long as a mosquito on crack these days, so I spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos instead of streaming shows. As you know, this can lead to weird rabbit holes where suddenly things linked by the great and powerful algorithm start popping up in your feed and your curiosity takes over.
Anyway, I used to live on a sailboat with my platonic life partner (PLP) and we wanted to sail around the world but couldn’t afford to leave port. I still watch a few sailing channels though and that brought me to the saga of van-lifers who give advice, do DIY demos and show how they manage to live in their vehicles – some in cities without getting caught and fined or potentially towed – and those who live in rural areas and national parks. They are young and old and everything in between. And while it looks fun and adventurous to be able to drive anywhere on the road and have everything you need, it’s basically a glorification of poverty.
And there’s a growing number of van life YouTubers – mostly women – who have posted about the dangers of being on the street or parked or basically anywhere there’s a man nearby who might try to break into your vehicle or harass you just for existing. There’s definitely an element of danger, whether you’re in a station wagon/hatchback/SUV or a converted box truck or van. There’s the risk of being discovered or not finding a safe place to sleep. Add to that the need for a restroom and you have another layer of complication – because not every store has public restrooms, so unless you’re parking at Walmart every night (which has its own risks), you better hope fast food fits in the budget or you have a gym chain membership for showers.
There are definitely young people who are having adventures, but there are also older people who are spending their retirement traveling from place to place, taking seasonal jobs to live off social security – and the car is all they can afford. That’s not adventure, that’s poverty.
There are middle-aged people who work full-time and live in their cars because they can’t afford their student loans and rent, only the car payment and insurance. These are people below the RV limit, generally not “snowbirds” unless they work seasonally – and it’s a strange mix of people and ideas that shows up in the channels and videos I’ve seen.
People with crazy political or social ideas, idealistic young people looking for adventure, DIYers building vehicles for people who want to try out the lifestyle – storytellers and advice-givers, all mixed together. But I can’t get away from what I see here – namely people who are “alternatively housed” and putting on a brave face.
And sometimes I think about what I would need for that – an inverter to charge my BIPAP battery daily, along with my laptop and blogging gear, plus personal items and of course my two cats. And I think I could probably do it if I had to – I have an extended cabin, so that’s the “room”, and I use plastic tubs in the bed of the truck for storage. But I also have a yurt, so it might be easier to set that up in a national park for a few weeks at a time.
So am I just seeing my own experience and projecting it onto other people? I keep seeing these videos saying van life is hard and it breaks my heart because some people can’t afford permanent housing. But if it weren’t for my mom and my aunt, I would try. What about you?
