Travels both Past and Future

I have recently turned 40 and my life is a mess. I have traveled far and wide as a soldier, an Archaeologist, and a Primatologist. I will use this blog to talk about future plans and to relive some of the glories of the past. As of this writing, I intend to make my life fully mobile. That is to say it is my intention to purchase an older 5th wheel recreational vehicle and live in it instead of renting an apartment or a house. This is a move that makes sense to me on many levels, though I must admit I am alone in this. My mother thinks it’s a terrible idea and that I will be unhappy and lonely. She is probably right. It seems that the notion of being fully mobile is not a new or unpopular one. I had heard of people doing this in the past but had never really considered it for myself until recently. A couple of years ago I went to a yard sale where the house was wide open and the kindly couple said," Go on in, everything is for sale." They had a large RV in the driveway and were leaving the sedentary life behind for a life of adventure on the road for their retirement. I had heard this same story over the years but had never actually met someone doing it.

 Ideal 5th Wheel

     If nothing else, the math supports the idea. I can rent a small apartment for $800 a month including the bills. That is a conservative rent estimate. That is $9600 a year with no equity to show for it. Or I can pick up a decent sized used 30' 5th Wheel trailer for about $3000, renovation that I will do myself for approximately $2000 more and an RV site with hook ups is about $350 a month at any given RV Park. So that is $4200 for a year of park space rental. So the first year works out to roughly $9200 and I have something to show for it at the end of the year. The next year I have saved $5400 dollars and so on. Seems like a financially sound idea to me.
     What about the stigma of living in a trailer? Honestly, I don't give a crap. I am recently divorced from a woman I love very much and have no intention of ever going through another marriage again in my life unless she wants me back someday. So impressing the ladies is not really a concern. Besides, it’s not living in a mobile home in a trailer park, its living in an RV at a camp ground. The park I have picked out to start this little venture in has a pretty little lake that is stocked with fish. I will remodel the RV to suit my tastes, hard wood floors and an up to date stylish look that will increase the value of my 5th wheel. The idea being that I can then trade up or sell it for more than I have into it in order to get into a bigger one and so on until I really have something of value. The ultimate goal is to live on a big sailboat with an RV in storage. This seems a lofty goal to some but I figure with the money I’ll be saving by living frugally and not just pissing it away on rent this becomes an attainable goal indeed.
     Fully mobile and on the move, that is what I am shooting for, and I have decided to chronicle that endeavor here in blog format that my readers might share in the experience. Maybe benefit from the mistakes I am sure to make, offer suggestions to make my life easier, and who knows, maybe even meet up with me on the road somewhere. Yes my life is a disaster right now but I have a feeling that this plan may just help me to get it back together a bit.

UPDATE: As for my detractors, of which there seem to be many, understand that (in the spirit of Eddie Izzard) I will not be a weird trailer park guy, more... an executive camper of style. 

Here is an article about one of my first travels as an archaeologist to the wonderful country of Belize:  http://factoidz.com/belize-a-backpackers-paradise-part-1-the-cayes/