May 1, 2020

"Joe Rhodes, who’s been on the move in his 'Traipsemobile' camper for 10 years, has made a life of eating in restaurants, drinking in local bars and going to gyms, where he uses the shower."

"'But what’s happened is that those spaces where I was living my life have slowly but surely all shut down,' he said. As the crisis worsened, he fled to a friend’s home in Dallas, where he is now parked in the driveway. He has access to the house, a shower, a meal or bed should he desire, but he feels keenly aware of not wanting to impose on his hosts.... Robert Meinhofer, 49, has been living in a one-bedroom trailer with his wife, Jessica, 42, and their two children since 2015... which is marooned in his in-laws’ driveway in Mount Dora, Fla. 'Once you stop traveling, it turns into a routine and then we’re, "Oh my god, we’re in 26 feet of living space and my daughter is running down the middle of the R.V. and my son is trying to have video calls with his friends," and it just feels like the walls are closing in on you,' she said. Then there’s the added stress of parking a few feet away from relatives who don’t endorse their itinerant life. 'In an R.V. park, everybody’s in the same situation and you understand that you choose to live in a small space,' Mr. Meinhofer said. 'But my in-laws — they have never really approved of our lifestyle, so whenever we go to the house we’re very conscious that it’s not our place.'"

From "Sheltering in Place in an R.V. Is Not as Fun as It Sounds/With parks shut down and utilities harder to come by, drivers of motor homes are finding themselves trapped in the vehicles meant to liberate them" (NYT).

31 comments:

Original Mike said...

"Sheltering in Place in an R.V. Is Not as Fun as It Sounds/With parks shut down and utilities harder to come by, drivers of motor homes are finding themselves trapped in the vehicles meant to liberate them"

When it looked like we might be stranded in New Zealand we quickly went from "There will be challenges, but it might be fun" to the realization that with everything shutting down it might not be fun after all.

ga6 said...

As momma said; you made your bed, now lay in it".

rehajm said...

An R.V. in the age of sheltering in place is called a tiny house.

Carol said...

There is recent book called Nomadland that is all about vandwellers and how they get by. Made it sound kinda fun but they really are living parasitically off us sedentary folk.

They do a lot of the work at Amazon fulfillment centers though.

Birkel said...

Also liberated to live in tiny houses are all those people condemned to death by Governor Cuomo and Mayor Wilhelm.
Even the ones they're lying about:

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/megan-fox/2020/04/30/nyc-funeral-directors-reveal-shocking-inflation-of-covid-19-deaths-n387013

As for the main article, this sort of alternative lifestyle is celebrated by many of the same people who also celebrate mass transit and high density big city living. But the supply chain must be dependable to support these fantasies. And hyper efficiency reduces stability. The McKinsey and Company consultants assume just as much as this RVer. Shortsightedness becomes a real inconvenience.

And that is another example of why power should be dispersed. Centralization kills when things go wrong.

tim maguire said...

That was clear from the beginning--the tiny house movement would be hard hit.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Wonder why he didn't name it the Rhodester?

Tom T. said...

There are a lot of people crammed into small spaces with small children these days. I'm sympathetic, but they're not special.

Freeman Hunt said...

The friends I really feel for right now are the ones in tiny Manhattan apartments with kids. At least the RVs are outside.

LuAnn Zieman said...

Truckers are still trucking. Are the showers and restrooms shut down at truck stops? I realize they can get food curbside some places, but they can't walk through the drive-through at fast food restaurants and semis are too large to drive through. Just a thought.

Mary Beth said...

Not as Fun as It Sounds

It didn't sound fun, especially with children. A few weeks or a month out of the year spent traveling with kids might be nice. All the time, where your children only have you for company? Sounds selfish.

gspencer said...

"Robert Meinhofer, 49, has been living in a one-bedroom trailer with his wife, Jessica, 42, and their two children since 2015"

Sounds an awful lot like Cousin Eddie.

Sebastian said...

"With parks shut down and utilities harder to come by"

All for the sake of pointless Virus Theater. Costs: maximum. Benefits: nil. Thanks, alarmists.

Besides the sports shutdown, when only a single professional athlete in the whole world is known to have suffered any negative effects from WuFlu, the shutting down of parks will come to symbolize The Panic of 2020. Being outside, in the sun, helps to kill a virus. The risk of transmission in parks is minimal. Targeted measures to keep out old and sick people would take care of any actual risks. Instead, with no justification whatsoever, petty tyrants just shut down parks, of all things.

gbarto said...

Here in Silicon Valley, a lot of people live in campers because it's the only place they can afford within 50 miles of work. They shower in gyms. People object to them parking on the street instead of buying land, but beyond that they pay for their gym memberships. It's not like they live off other people's labor.

If you go down El Camino in Palo Alto, there are a ton of campers. Ditto for spots in San Jose and Mountain View. There have even been low-level Googlers who resided in campers in Google parking lots.

The New York Times, naturally, is focused on people who chose RVs as a freeing lifestyle choice. Yet another place where the enlightened class imperils the health and hygiene of people who aren't like them.

Gk1 said...

Reading this I was thinking about all of those people who have those "tiny houses" that have like 250 sq.ft to work with. Imagine being trapped in that 24/7 with no where else to go.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The joy of RV living is: being able to go places, see new things, hike, fish (if you like that..I do), take photos, explore the area, visit restaurants and museums, craft fairs, meet the local people. The experience of RV travel is outside of the RV. Even just sitting under some trees at a roadside park or forest service road. Having a picnic. BBQing. Sitting outside with a nice cool drink and listening to music or the birds.

All that works when the world is free and there are supplies to be had at any time.

Sitting inside your RV, no matter how nice it is, is not the point. You might as well be stuck in a 600 sq foot apartment in NYC.

Right now, these people in the RV and being restricted...they have no reason to BE in an RV.

mikee said...

I'm building residential houses in east Austin. Two blocks away, a dozen homeless men camp under a bridge. My consruction site water bill is larger than at my family home, although the one hose on site is barely ever used during daylight. And I don't have a leak.

The city of Austin is indirectly taxing me to pay for and provide drinking and shower water for a dozen homeless men. RV guy should park under an Austin bridge and shower at nearby work sites. But of course his neighbors might drive off in his home, so take the keys when away for a cleanup.

madAsHell said...

Meinhofer? Is it surprising that he would leach off of relatives??

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

The local Park-n-Ride has become a camp for the seedier RVer with no attempt by law enforcement to fix that. You'd be crazy to use it for a Park-n-Ride now. Another unforseen effect of the lockdowns will be that we've ceded even more of our public spaces to bums and tweakers.

Will Cate said...

"not as fun as it sounds?" Good grief, it sounds awful. Why would anyone think that sounds fun?

Danno said...

Anita Hill was treated shabby? C'mon now. Clarence Thomas was the subject of a "high-tech lynching" in his confirmation hearings, largely orchestrated by Biden.

Tom T. said...

"we've ceded even more of our public spaces to bums and tweakers."

There were activists early on urging that colleges in urban areas should let the homeless move in, as long as there are no students using the dorms. I'm pretty sure those demands were uniformly ignored; colleges recognize that they'd never get the dorms back.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Will Cate "not as fun as it sounds?" Good grief, it sounds awful. Why would anyone think that sounds fun?

Well, not the way that this guy was doing it in a 26 ft ONE bedroom trailer with small children. Yikes.

However, for two mature adults in a nicer RV with some bump outs so you can have room when you are parked, it would be a great deal of fun for a while.... not a permanent life style. I could easily see it for 6 months out of the year. Not forever. But for a while.

Many of the RVs (5th wheels, small motor homes, travel trailers) have all the amenities of home. Hot showers, nice little kitchens with fridge/freezer, microwave, stove, oven. Satellite TV. Stereo system. Heater. Air Conditioning. Water tank and/or park hook up. Generator and/or hook up to park electric. (Heck...our 28 foot 1978 camp trailer has all that) Some larger models even have small washer and dryers. Awnings for shade and weather protection.

Bump outs would be essential to get that larger bedroom at night and/or a bigger living/kitchen area when parked.

Again...fun for a while, but not a permanent life style. I would still want to come to my home base most of the year.

JML said...

I have a 20' RV we bought a few years ago. We use it for camping so far; now that we are both retired, we are planning on a longer cross country trip, but I'm thinking after three weeks, it will be enough. And I agree with all Dust Bunny said. The only time we are inside is for sleeping and bad weather. It has a tiny bathroom - I have only used it a few times. My wife showers in it - I shower outside if I possibly can. We are taking our son to OKC next week. We can find camping in Oklahoma, and I hope Texas State Parks open for overnight camping, otherwise it will just pretty much be an out and back and sleeping in the driveway.

Doug said...

Choice made, price paid.

tim in vermont said...

If an RV doesn’t sound like fun to you, my suggestion is that you don’t buy one.

roger said...

yeah, yeah tell me some more First World Problems

Original Mike said...

Hi, Tim.

jimbino said...

I got to know Europe from Portugal to the Black Sea, Denmark to Greece, overnighting in streets and on beaches with two friends in a VW Kombi with no kitchen and no bath. I can't see doing it with kids or animals, but it was a great life, mostly because we met fellow travelers and mingled with a higher class of people--those who didn't speak only English. I got to know the same places by motorcycle--even better.

I did it again later throughout Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile, overnighting for free in all the capitals and on naturist beaches like Praia do Pinho in Santa Catarina, BR. In those days, our only lifelines to the world were shortwave BBC, Voice of America and Deutsche Welle. No cellphones, no TV, no computer and no Internet. Those were some of the best times of my life, without doubt. The rest of you don't know what you're missing.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Where are the kids being educated? Are they mobile-home schooled?

Bob Loblaw said...

However, for two mature adults in a nicer RV with some bump outs so you can have room when you are parked, it would be a great deal of fun for a while.... not a permanent life style. I could easily see it for 6 months out of the year. Not forever. But for a while.

I worked with a guy who had been an RV fanatic for decades. He and the wife went off to some national park or other every time he had some leave saved up, and since he'd worked for Uncle Sam for nearly 30 years he had a lot of leave. Anyway, as retirement approached the plan was to take a four month trip through the Canada and Alaska, then come back to sell the house, at which point they would live in the RV until they were too feeble to go on.

So he retired and they hit the road. The months pass, and they came back a few weeks early. I discovered he drove the last two days straight, without sleeping, in an effort to get home soonest. There was never another word about selling the house, and last I saw the RV was on blocks.