More Neighbours (Not Good)

I was looking forward to a much less packed parking lot in my Western Home, this weekend.

You see, there is an annual large: festival/county fair/rodeo in the city that I live that takes place in July each year. It is quite a draw and the whole city gets swept up in it. 

I have noticed that in past years, my Western Home looks like it is an evacuee camp from some fictitious natural disaster.

There are always lots and lots of RV’s all over the place. So much so, that last weekend I was relegated to a side parking lot. 

Again, such is life and that is the way things go in this lifestyle. You take what space you can get, as nothing is ever yours. Nothing that you don’t cart with you, anyways.

This weekend, with the festival now gone, I figured that things would die down in my Western Home. Yet they haven’t, not by as much as I had expected.

What’s even worse is the fact that I am starting to recognize more and more people and RV units. Some of which have just never moved since last weekend (and weeks before).

I have seen people living out of their vans (some on road trips doing so) and yes, a few living out of their cars. To me, this is not a happy sight. 

I never wanted to be part of a growing trend. I have said it before that nobody should ever have to do what I am doing (living in my RV full time) in order to get ahead.

Yet, even that statement is not correct, I am not trying to get ahead, I am trying to get my head above water, in fact fighting to get back up to zero.

These people are all obviously doing the same thing, as there are very few, if any who would choose to do this lifestyle just for the “fun” of it.

Sure, some people RV for fun or for retirement, but they have cash and winter in Arizona or somewhere else in the southern states. 

I am talking about people who have little other choice but to abandon the traditional housing of a fixed address and live out of a vehicle (RV or otherwise) just to survive and perhaps, someday, get back up to zero. 

I do not see this “Urban Nomad” trend as a good and happy metric of the economy. Yet, like the rest of the “traditional homeless” this population is ignored and “seen, but not seen.”

I see them, I notice them, as I am one of them and I can guess with some level of certainly that they, like me, are out here due to fiscal and debt issues, not drugs or other addiction issues.

I have said it again, and I will say it again, the current divide between the cost of living and wages of the average person is not sustainable. 

More will come and join us in this lifestyle and it will not be out of desire, yet out of a way to survive. 

All while governments ignore the trends and metrics shoving people out of housing and into the streets, literally.

We, “Urban Nomads” are the canary in the coal mine, yet our warnings will not be heeded until the coal mine blows up. 

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!