Category Archives: Why Micromobility
People are Actually Doing This
One of the biggest things that I gained from peering over the GoRVing Reddit is that real people actually live like this. We knew that micromobility drew the attention of a lot of retirees, families on vacations, and enthusiasts dreaming of giving up their normal lives in search of a life free of burden- on the road.
What we were hoping to find were real people that were doing this full-time. People that were living, working, and succeeding at this lifestyle on the road. Reddit gave some preliminary exposure to a few different types of people doing it.
The Watsons
http://live.watsonswander.com/
On the front page of GoRVer’s Jeremy and I found a post leading to another blog called WatsonsWander. It’s the blog of Tim and Amanda Watson, a couple in their 30’s who live full time on the road and have been since June, 2012.
Suited up in their 25′ Airstream, they have simultaneously traveled the country and earned a living over the course of their 1035 days, (and counting), on the road. They find it interesting that so many people are always asking them questions as to why they chose this lifestyle, and they really only have one answer: why not? Their sense of adventure and the enjoyment that they got from it was too big for their small town. So, because their types of work allowed it, (Tim-a web developer, and Amanda a writer of online travel articles), took off. They seem to have it fairly figured out. They face a lot of problems, but they attest to the fact that they can live like this because of the strength of their relationship.
They are huge advocates of the lifestyle and could never turn back to a conventional one. They have installed solar on their roof and have blogged the improvements of their Airstream over time.
Pippi Peterson
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRTQUJWAFkzsxNbFriAZnYA
Pippi is a young woman who lives and works fully on the road. She took a chance on living fully in an RV but took the chance. She wasn’t financially capable of owning her own house or apartment so she bought a used vehicle, she owns her own home, (mobile). Her bills, (in total), are less than $500 a month. I have not found a full explanation as to how she affords this but I am speculating that she funds her travels on blogging, her YouTube Channel (which has over 1.2 million followers), and she belly dances on the side. Her video that explains briefly how she lives like this Workcamping, or working in exchange of utilities, rent, or even goods like propane. She is also a web-designer and a graphic designer but seems to freelance. Pippie also recommends trying to be an extra in films, software developing, or creating an app to support yourself.
Some comments to her videos explain that many people will do book keeping, copy writing, investing, or phone counseling on the road.
Despite the variability in work; The freedom is the biggest appeal to her. This seems to be why young people try to live these laid-back lifestyles- the freedom to do whatever, go wherever, live whenever, be whoever.
Is it my ignorance of those daring to be different that sees some skepticism in her success with living like this?
Varied Families on the Road
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/quitting-life-to-hit-the-road-in-an-rv-111822306057.html
- Emily and Mark Fagan
- Older couple (Emily 54 | Mark 60)
- Kids had grown, yearning to give up everything for a life on the road.
- They have been on the road for 8 years.
- “Travel in Their Blood”
- The Kellogg Family
- Family of 14. 14. 14. Two Parents, 12 Kids, and a dog. 14 + Dog.
- Kids ranging from 2-21 (home schooled)
- Dan (Father) Software Developer.
- Becky Schade (30)
- Works 3-month seasonal retail jobs in National Parks
- Dates on the Road.
- Hated 9-5, wanted to live full time on the road.
- Kristin and Jason Snow
- 32 year olds, 3 dogs.
- Kristin-Boondock Marketing- an online digital marketing company.
- Jason- Works for WordPress.
- They like Route 66.
Can recent college grads live like this too?
Varying Pro’s and Con’s
Everyone seems eager to share their take on pro’s and con’s of mobile living. Here are a few different viewpoints:
Tim and Amanda Watson (http://www.watsonswander.com/who/)
- Pros:
- Ease of maneuverability
- Ability to visit many places where larger trailers and motorhomes can’t go
- Living together in a small space & spending virtually all of our time together has made us realize the strength of our relationship
- Easy and quick to clean a house that is under 200 sq. ft.
- Lack of space means we are forced to adopt a minimalist lifestyle
- Cons:
- Very little room for indoor entertaining
- No personal space – nothing is private
- A small mess quickly makes the trailer feel like a disaster zone
- Lack of space means we have to be selective when it comes to those creative projects that we both love so much
RealDealVillarreal commenting on a GoRVer’s post
http://www.reddit.com/r/GoRVing/comments/31dkc3/living_in_an_rvtravel_trailer/
- Pros:
- Cheap living.
- I also like that it’s not a hotel room,
- and after you live in your RV for a couple weeks, it starts to feel like home and more comfortable/personal than the alternatives while traveling.
- It also has a few cool things that my house didn’t have,
- like a sound system with inside and outdoor speakers.
- Cons:
- By far, the worst aspect is the increased maintenance over what you would expect with a conventional home.
- You need to know a bit about plumbing and electrical, because you will eventually have to fix something;
- RVs are not really built for full-time living, so things will wear out faster.
- You also have more on your plate as far as upkeep-
- “Do I need to go get propane filled today?”
- “How’s the level of the gray tank?” etc.
- The physically smaller space can also take some getting used to, but it’s not terrible.
Pippi Peterson- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1EIdQN5rq0
http://thervnomads.com/2014/06/20/the-pros-and-cons-of-full-time-rving/ An abbreviated list.
- Pros
- Travel
- Personal Growth
- Less stress, lack of routine
- Simplicity
- Easy Clean-Up
- Cons
- Smell
- Maintenance
- Crowded
- Clutter comes easily
- Big average generational gap
GoRVing
Exploring Modern RVer’s Through Reddit:
We have looked at a few forums over the course of the semester and have found a lot of information about who inhabits these Micromobile dwellers. Most of these bloggers and posting people have been out of the age group that we’re looking to really understand. The other day I decided to look towards where younger generations post about literally whatever crap they want to: Reddit. For a site that has sub-Reddits of information ranging from the thoughts people have in the shower, “Shower Thoughts”, to pictures of big rocks, “Megalith Porn”, to cooking, animals, current events, and yes- even RV users.
After typing in RV and Reddit to Google, I found the sub-Reddit called GoRVing. The description of the page in the side bar reads: A Reddit dedicated to anyone interested in RVing. From road trips, advice, or buying and selling; please come share your experience or take some advice.
What I found here were a collection of advice-givers, advice-seekers, story-tellers, monthly discussion topics, and most interestingly- countless jumping off points for discussion. I’ll sift through a bit of the findings here and spring into some more detail in other posts:
- A new word and a new definition
- Overlanding: The self-reliant travel to remote destinations where the journey is the principle goal.
- http://www.reddit.com/r/overlanding
- Focuses more on individual trips, route selection, mapping, budgeting.
- http://www.reddit.com/r/overlanding
- Overlanding: The self-reliant travel to remote destinations where the journey is the principle goal.
- People are extremely passionate about their vehicles/dwellings
- People asking for help on parts to restore their ’77 Titan’s
- People asking for advice on anything
- From waste needs, to advice on leaks, to bragging about their DIY’s.
- People asking for help on parts to restore their ’77 Titan’s
- People literally quitting their life and tackling a full-time mobile lifestyle
- People trying to translate a digital community into a physical one.
- Many posts looking to meet up with fellow RVer’s on the road.
- Many Resources for finding a campsite.
- A help resource, accessible from a mobile device- anywhere.
- People looking to buy, sell, upgrade, or show off their new unit.
- People love to tell stories.
The biggest thing that I got out of this jumping off point was this:
I think that we have been trying to figure out how people live like this, and why people live like this- but there is no right answers, only good ideas. Although people are actually doing this, actually succeeding at living like this, no one has figured it out perfectly yet. The answers to the problems people face and the advice that people seek will constantly change, just like the landscape around the users. Mobile problems for micromobile users.
Forces Driving (micro)Mobility
San Francisco, Washington D.C., New York- the cities that recent college graduates have historically flocked to following graduation. Today, these cities still have fresh grads coming year after year but not as exclusively- there are rising competitors in the market. Those competitors include San Diego, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Portland, Buffalo, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and the fastest growing population of recent grads in the city of Denver, Colorado according to the October 20, 2014 New York Time’s Article, “Where Young College Graduates are Choosing to Live.”
On March 8th of 1987, The New York Times published an article entitled, “Where Young People Choose to Live”. Focusing solely on the wants and needs of young people choosing to live in New York City, the article discussed what they were really looking for an apartment. These ideal concerns included having a rent less than half of their salary, their own bedroom, safety, and generally comfort. Others would rather spend money on travel and entertainment over the quality of their apartment. All of these concerns we can find applicable to a micromobile user- one seeking comfort, the ability to travel, general safety, and affordability.
But what can we take away from the patterns of where people are living, why they are living there, and what they are looking for when discussing this topic of micromobility?
We may arguably be able to dwindle all of these considerations down to a single overarching force: the economy.
In this country, is the common labor trend determined by if people tend to follow jobs? Or do jobs follow people? It used to be that people would hear of a prosperous city, those in the likes of New York, San Francisco, or DC, and move their in search of new opportunity-so people used to follow jobs more. As mentioned above, that is not necessarily the case anymore and it appears that jobs are following people. A December 10, 2013 New York Times article, “Why are Americans Staying Put?”, explains this to be as a result of a less mobile workforce that has developed in this country.
There are fewer hubs of economic prosperity and more outlets.
The cost of living is relatively similar across the board.
And we are finding our cities to become less and less specialized, with related industries being found in almost every major metropolitan area.
People have less of a need to move today and the trend is shifting towards jobs following people. If people used to pick up and move towards work, then the age of the internet can largely be blamed for the decline of this pattern because it more or less ensures job security. Today, a person can seek specific jobs and get hired before they even pack a box up. It increases the quality of a move guaranteeing purpose and setting one up for success.
These concepts make me question as to why people would want to be more mobile, or have the ability to be more mobile, if the workforce is becoming less and less mobile? These articles are expressing that the internet is a major cause of this but I wonder if it is also a major effect of this.
We have had many discussions in our study pertaining to how people are able to live a micromobile lifestyle full time- mentally, physiologically, but specifically financially. Of course most of these full-timers are retired, or static in a park or community- but what about those who aren’t? Those that are younger, fresh out of college, starting a family, or those who truly prefer a nomadic lifestyle. We have begun to understand why these people would want this but we question as to how they can afford it. To me I feel like the internet is one of the only solutions. Although it is causing the American workforce to be less mobile, I feel as it is one of the biggest factors allowing people to live a life of mobility- working from any location at any time. If jobs are following people, then they should be able to follow a mobile person.
We have an inborn rootlessness with “economic mobility and geographic mobility being closely linked for much of our American History.” (Why Are Americans Staying Put?). All of these trends discussed above make sense with the exception of the recent one, where people have been less likely to move. We finally live in a world where our rootlessness can work cohesively with our economic ambitions, and young people are the ones that can realize that.
In today’s age we have the ability to move if we want to, work in a way that we want to, and take it on the road if we want to. (within reason of course).
—-
Land Rover and Airstream, Joint Arctic Circle Testing
Land Rover, the most popular vehicle to tow Airstream trailers in England, is doing its Arctic Circle testing a bit differently than the average car company. As a joint test, Land Rover towed a modified 27 foot-long Airstream camper behind its Range Rover Sport Hybrid. The test apparently went very well and both vehicle and trailer performed flawlessly given the treacherous conditions of the Arctic.
Click the link for the full story and more information.
http://www.autoblog.com/2015/03/22/airstream-land-rover-arctic-circle-testing/#image-20
“Where was the magic in these little boxes…
…Part of it lay in their very miniaturization, in what may be called the doll house effect.
Any small copy of a familiar object has a fascination all its own: models of ships and trains and cars and airplanes, museum dioramas, toy soldiers, architects’ models, midgets, babies, Statue of Liberty replicas, shrunken heads.
Small may or may not be beautiful but it is always and inherently interesting.”
-Galloping Bungalows | David A. Thornburg | pg. 80
A Sense of Community
“Many RVers – I daresay most – are members of consumption communities. They don’t think of themselves this way, and certainly this is not what we usually think of as community but it is. In many ways an RV affiliation group is both more modern and more ancient than what most of us think of as a community.”
-Twitchell, Winnebago Nation, pg. 61
As previously stated, people have participated in micromobile lifestyles for different reasons throughout history. Some participated out of necessity, some as a form of elitist vacationing, and some simply as an activity of leisure.
But what of the permanent micromobile settlers? The ones who gather, who live alongside each other in their dwellings, who delegatepractical day-to-day policies together, all the while in some form of a micromobile establishment or another. These people have not assimilated by random- they are all seeking the same thing; a sense of community.
When we hear the word community, or at least when I do, we often think of it in the context of a town. One bounded by defined boundaries, perhaps focused around local government(s), where people live along side each other forming relationships and contributing to society.
Now it may be difficult at first to pair the idea of community with the idea of micromobility. When attempting to do this, stereotypical thoughts of a trailer park and the types of things and people associated with trailer parks may come to mind. But micromobile communities are so much more than the false notions society has of them. Micromobile communities are founded around the same principles that static communities are founded.
A community is defined by a group of people living in the same place, having characteristics in common, and a relationship to others formed by sharing goals and interests. The parameters of a community are not strictly defined by static bounds-in a sense they can be placeless.
There are many different types of micromobile communities, some of which are actually placeless.
This type of community comes in the form of a gathering, a temporary one bringing a wide spanning network, (a community of sorts), together in one place to celebrate, and well, gather. These rallies such as the Newmar Kountry Klub in Essex Junction or those of the Escapees organization are a point and place for the similar micromobile users annually. Many make the pilgrimage to these temporary establishments because they contain groups of people having characteristics in common, share interests, and have formed relationships based off of their similar lifestyles.
It is interesting to see how these micromobile communities are formed, static, temporary, or placeless. Some are formed by similarities of religion like the Jews on Wheels, Yehudim Al Galgalim. Some formed through sexual identity or gender like gay and lesbian club, Rainbow RV. And some are even formed solely off of the type of dwelling that you own, brand, make, model, or living preference.
Many of these communities are founded on certain principles and as they grow and flourish they proceed to change over time. A peculiarly interesting example of a flourishing micromobile community is found in the likes of Lazydays in Tampa Florida. At first glance the establishment seems comparable to that of the Stepford Wives of RV campgrounds. In fact, the tag line on their website reads, “You’ve got to see this place to believe it”, with large text boasting of how they are the World’s Largest RV Dealership with the Nation’s Largest Selection of RV brands. They are so confident in what they are selling that they offer a promotion where they fly patrons down to their Florida location and they drive their new rig home.
Now this seems odd to mention in a post concerning community but that is also what Lazydays is; a structured community offering incentives for change and growth, luxury to those who want it, and space for people to live. Within the community, there is an obscure system set in place that both divides the patrons into two types of customers, to put it simply; customers that want to have it all and customers that are happy with just enough. To become a customer that wants to have it all you must be willing to participate in a system of exchanges and upgrades of units to maintain a spot along the uppers. The uppers get a nicer clubhouse with a nicer bar with nicer free drinks and tend to have nicer units. Now this is the most simply stated way of describing Lazydays. They are not just selling their products, they are selling themselves.
The Lazydays model is one being replicated throughout the country. Twichell refers to the establishment as an RV Mecca and a Magic Kingdom of sorts. What is to draw from these varying types of micromobile community establishments is that they do not fall under the lens of the preconceived stereotypical trailer park. These communities mean something to people, they chose this lifestyle for a reason, they chose to affiliate in some way or another with a particular community, and they make these choices consciously.
This preliminary investigation gained insight into a reason people choose a micromobile lifestyle- for a sense of community. This does not however; answer the entire question of why micromobility?
Westward Ho the Wagon
Micromobility is a strange concept on the outside. It is a peculiar idea to be traveling with your possessions, essentials, family, and friends surrounding you at all times. Many see it is a casual weekend escape, one to just grab the kids and go. Many however; fulfill a full time micromobile lifestyle. From the outside, coming from a static and grounded lifestyle, this does not seem like a societal norm, but after a brief exploration into the roots of micromobile living this concept begins to become more clear.
James B. Twitchell explored the roots of micromobility among other related topics in his boo, Winnebago Nation, the RV in American Culture. Twitchell claims that there are a few reasons why this notion of movement and living started:
- It all started with the covered wagon, the idea of moving the American settlement westward, towards the frontier.
- It was a wistful idea, developed first by poets of the English Romantic. “wealthy Victorians refashioned the decorated wagon as a moveable bedroom.” Idea’s of camping for fun and caravanning spawned from the English elite.
- “The Spirit that set easterners casting off to the west has not been quenched in their western descendants”
- Movement is nature and staying one place is not.
It is interesting these thoughts because they relate to different people at different times in history. At first the original mobile vehicle, the covered wagon, was necessary to transport lives across the country.
Then this notion became widely popular with the upper class. Once lower classes moved from the suburb countryside into the city the wealthy began to find escaping to the country side with all of their comforts of home to be a romantic idea.
For a long time this concept of temporary micromobile living, with all of the amenities while vacationing stuck within the upper classes.
Many products, modifications, and reinvented ideas altered how various members of society were able to view and partake in instances of micromobility over the course of the last century.
This page will attempt to divulge exemplary moments in the history of micromobility and to gain an understanding as to how and why people choose a life of micromobility today.
Why Micromobility?
“Urbanism and architecture tend to reflect in their design processes the increasingly mobile condition of our societies. Our contemporary culture is shifting from the static paradigm of structure, central to the processes of constructing meaning, to that of mobility.”
-Sense Formations | Farjadi Architects, pg. 146