Did you leave CA only to realize there is no place like home and came back? (for sale, campgrounds)

[YellowHorse]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

YellowHorse, I like your status! Yeah, I can relate to what you are saying. My wife has the majority of her family in San Diego. So Monterey was as far north as she wanted to move. However before making this decision we were very close to moving to Portland. I mean we were looking at houses and at various companies I could work at there. Unfortunately it wasn't to be. So we have continued to visit/vacation in the PNW. Ah well, the things we do for love and family.

I can't imagine living in Kern County while dreaming about the PNW. When you enter that almost tropcial rainforest like region it is so refreshing. By contrast it must be really hot and dry in Kern this time of the year. Is there any chance of at least getting to a greener, cooler part of CA? Hopefully one day you will get your turn. Any chance his mom could move along with you guys? My mom tends to follow us where ever we move to.

Derek

Yes, the things we do for our loved ones, lol.

I really suffer this time of year. I have never been able to handle hot weather, a trait I inherited from my father (and two of my kids seem to have inherited as well). We're all very susceptible to heat exhaustion and I have to stay inside a cooled area during the very long, hot summers. I can only handle outdoor activities during the cooler mornings and evenings, really claustrophobic for a free spirited, outdoorsy gal like me .

I have told hubby over the years, if we have to stay in California, could we please move to somewhere more temperate/less hot. I've pointed out places nearby to his parents, Springville and other towns up in the Sierras (within a hour drive of his parents house), but the commute to any work is always an issue (at the time he was a high school teacher). We have lived in Tehachapi, but finding work within a short commute was impossible and a job offer put us back in the San Joaquin valley for awhile as hubby has always refused to be more than a half hour away from his work (and prefers living no more than 15-20 min away).

I suggested the coastal areas, but the only places he could find work were in areas of very high cost of living and it wasn't possible to start out with a family in those areas (we were told stories by the local teachers of one promising job offer that they started living out of their cars and eventually could only be able to afford a roommate situation) and in looking at the cost of rent on a two bed apartment was astronomical.

I suggested northern California, coastal or inland, as he did go to college up there at Humbolt, and I do love many areas up there, looking very much like home, but it seems it is just a little too far away for his mother's taste as a permanent move (she also prevented him from going to Madison Wisconsin state university, even though he was accepted with a grant).

Bringing mom isn't an option. Hubby's father is rooted here and his mom isn't going to leave her hubby, lol. And almost all of my hubby's siblings (eight of them in all) are within a few hours drive of parents. She keeps very tight strings on her kids, lol. Don't get me wrong, I love her, she's a wonderful person, I just wish she'd loosen her reins a bit.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

nullgeo, that sounds like a really cool rig. I may eventually have to get somthing like this for our family. I find it interesting that while you own a number of properties you enjoy being more mobile vs. stationary living in one of those properties. That kind of simplified life sounds appealing.

Derek

It is certainly is simple -- like my mind these days
Bonus: I bought the truck in fairly good condition and running order for $1500 ... it was just filthy inside after having a second career as a carpet layer's van. Clean up, new glow plugs, some [used] tires, a couple new slider windows -- plus my "residential" equipment ... I'd guess I'm in to it for roughly $4000 now? Not more.

I have to work on myself not to feel too smug when driving past unwieldy 30' and 40', $100,000 rigs.

[leonard]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

It is certainly is simple -- like my mind these days
Bonus: I bought the truck in fairly good condition and running order for $1500 ... it was just filthy inside after having a second career as a carpet layer's van. Clean up, new glow plugs, some [used] tires, a couple new slider windows -- plus my "residential" equipment ... I'd guess I'm in to it for roughly $4000 now? Not more.

I have to work on myself not to feel too smug when driving past unwieldy 30' and 40', $100,000 rigs.

Sounds really neat.

[Twinkle Toes]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

I traveled and camped for many years in vans ... actually started when I was a sprout and my father bought one of the first VW Micro-buses to land on U.S. shores ... we camped as a family of six, plus dog, from one end of the country to another. 36hp, climbed the Rockies in 1st and 2nd gear Prior to the VW bus we camped out of a four-door 1948 Dodge sedan with a roof rack ... Dad later built a small luggage trailer to go with. Camping back then, in the 50's, didn't require reservations even at Yellowstone (!). It was also real primitive: tents, hammocks, and campfire cooking, and Coleman ice chests, bathing in mountain streams (brrrrr! but invigorating fun!). By the time I was 13, I had been to 43 states and half the Canadian provinces.

Recently I gave my mini-van to one son -- 265,000 miles and still going strong. I had created a custom interior for myself and large dog. When wife and her two dogs came with, we carried a tent. But I lived in the mini-van for months on end. Traveled one year from Puget Sound to Nova Scotia, with many stops between, 9,000 miles. As I said, I had removed the interior and built bunk and stove and stowage, small catalytic heater, wash basin ... happy as a clam at high tide. Turned the passenger front seat around on its base and called it my Bark-O-Lounger for the copilot dog and as a lounge chair at camp for me if it was cold or rainy out.

Now I have an old Air Force tarmac van with a short 10' long, stand up box body. My conversion is again stealth. Looks like a plumber's or carpenter's van with a couple of extra windows (dark tinted) and a side-slider door, and double barn doors in back which I throw open at parks and seashores for panorama living. . The exterior is okay but not shiny. So it doesn't attract any attention one way or another. I now literally live full time in this van, even on home properties -- I am just a full-time camper. Second wife is younger by quite a bit, and still has teaching and artistic projects of her own, plus our grandkids to hang with. So she lives in one of my little cabin homes and spends part of winter with me aboard the boat in Hawaii, and I spend all summer on the property with her in the Sound. Spring and fall she joins me catch as catch can for camping and we have plenty of room for all inside the box truck.

Overall, the box van is remarkable ... it is only a total of 18.5 feet nose to tail, so same length as a standard family van. It is about 9" or 10"wider in back. Diesel. Stand up (barely) in back. Everybody who looks inside says "Whoa! -- cool!" I built it myself Mini-oven, two-burner stove (I'm moving up in the world), mini-sink, water purifier, vented catalytic heater. Full-sized bunk, plus side bunk for the dogs. But no real modern systems like the RV crowd spend their hard earned $ on. Use a bucket for a head. Did make a shower though. I have a dog-bath outdoor gas water instant-heater and an extendable hose. I rigged it inside the van ... where you step in I cut away a square of flooring and set in a 30" x 30" plastic tray with a drain in the middle. I rig a shower curtain from the ceiling and use the retractable shower hose to the heater. Propane heat, naturally. Slicker than cat slobber in a bait bucket. Mostly though, the shower pan is just an entry with towel for wet shoes and paws to wipe off.

Can't beat it with a stick ... and still small enough to wheel around town easily in traffic and unobtrusively. It is my only vehicle. Not just a camper.

You and my older son would SO get along!!! He's all about living in a "Unimog" or a trash truck converted into a home on wheels or large military vehicles converted into homes on wheels. I have to admit, at first I just thought he was crazy and had "pie in the sky" dreams and that his ideas were "out there". But, the more he's checking these things out and making plans to get something at auction and convert it himself, the less crazy it sounds, and in fact, I gotta admit ... it sounds kinda cool and exciting! Not sure I, personally, would want to live in one - make it my "residence" - but a lot of these things are pretty nice and people take a lot of pride in the work they've put into them. I wouldn't mind taking camping trips in one of these things - they look like a lot of fun!

[Curmudgeon]

If I was single...

Look! Small Space Living...In a Garbage Truck | Apartment Therapy

[415_s2k]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

If I was single...

Look! Small Space Living...In a Garbage Truck | Apartment Therapy

That thing isn't a converted garbage truck - it's made by a German company called Unicat that builds hardcore, luxurious expedition vehicles on 4x4 truck platforms: UNICAT® - going there is half the fun

That particular one is a MAN 4x4. They also use Mercedes-Benz Unimogs, Mitsubishi Fuso, International CXT, etc. They run from $150k to 1mil and beyond.

[nullgeo]

Heh ... Unimog's? ... converted garbage trucks?
I'm into my old box van for $4000 including conversion ...
happy as a clam at high tide ...
full-timer ...

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

Heh ... Unimog's? ... converted garbage trucks?
I'm into my old box van for $4000 including conversion ...
happy as a clam at high tide ...
full-timer ...

Woah, that thing looks crazy cool. Although it probably costs more than most homes or boats = arm & leg + kidney. I like your do it yourself version better. Any chance of seeing a little picture of that baby? Or maybe a similar vehicle the way it started out? Just something to tease us with? lol

Derek

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

Woah, that thing looks crazy cool. Although it probably costs more than most homes or boats = arm & leg + kidney. I like your do it yourself version better. Any chance of seeing a little picture of that baby? Or maybe a similar vehicle the way it started out? Just something to tease us with? lol

Derek

You know, I pondered sharing earlier today after seeing the pictures of the converted "garbage truck" that isn't a garbage truck. I have a few shots of my rig and would be willing to show one or two of my simplistic interior lifestyle ... I would have to ponder more whether to show the exterior. But the real rub is I don't know how to post photos of my own ... I understand that I need to create some kind of Photobucket account or something like that ... I will look into it. I actually think I may have set one up a long time ago and just never played with using it.

I also have some shots of my mini-van before I "donated" it to my son ... even though it wasn't stand up, and was quite a bit smaller inside, I actually miss tooling around in it. If I hit the Lotto I'll buy another used mini and have two ... I'm such a big spender

One of my guiding philosophies is that I am not trying to replicate a miniature version of the American lifestyle. If I wanted that, I'd just live in a house with furniture and appliances. I actually enjoy hauling my water in jugs -- etc.

[BVitamin]

How many nautical miles has this thread drifted?