But after blogging for a year maybe I should take a minute to explain how I got into the full time RV racket. My working years were spent in a large, decaying, industrial empire in the midwest. I was sick of looking forward to the next "right-sizing." And then there would be another...
There had to be something better than this. My reading, in the evening, took a classical bent. I discovered the story of Epictetus, a slave in ancient Rome, who had an indirect connection to the emperor Nero, if I remember right. He bought his own freedom as slaves sometimes did then. He then went on to found his own school of Stoic philosophy.
Why didn't you hear about people buying their freedom in our day? Oh that's right, we're already free. Yea, right. It seemed outrageous that after 2000 years of "progress" we should be more enslaved than ever. There is no worse form of slavery than a false freedom that no one questions.
This inspired me to scrimp and save as Epictetus did. When I had enough to quit I wasn't thinking of being an RVer at all. It's just that that seemed the best way to experience decent weather most of the year and to live frugally. I started off as a seasonal RV snowbird, living in two nice RV parks.
But the sedentary, elderly culture of long-termer RV parks is depressing. Dozens of rules! If you have a dog, he won't have much of a life in an RV park.
Then I discovered boondocking out West as a way to enjoy high quality camping and to save a little money, if you're careful about it. I worry that newbees might think "free" camping will save them a lot of money. It won't, since what you save at the RV park is shifted to gasoline, wear-and-tear, solar panels, batteries, generators, etc.
Thus I never rhapsodized about an "RV Dream", not because I'm anti-romantic, but because the "Dream" is so fraught with stereotypes and cliches. I groan when I see the term in magazines or blogs, and usually skip over them. Maybe that is unfair, since I did have a dream--the dream of a slave dead for two thousand years.
