I want to live in an RV while traveling around the United States, while publishing more books and photos so that I can support myself. I have been working on this goal for about 7 years, but I keep getting waylaid by obstacles. I used to think it would be great to do it full time and year round. Now I want to live in Arizona from October to June and go north during the hot months. I want to be a snowbird!
Inspiration for this wild idea
I took a long road trip by myself in 2009. I drove to Ohio from Arizona, and took 10 days to get there instead of the usual rushed 3 or 4. (It’s 2000 miles). I spent 2 days at a conference, took state highways most of the way, and went to one or two botanical gardens each day. I took thousands of photographs and put them up on stock photo websites to sell. I made back some of the cost of the trip with stock photo sales. The things I didn’t enjoy about the trip was hauling my stuff in and out of hotels every day, and having to eat at restaurants too often. Though most of the hotels were nice, a few were very dodgy. I’ve made several rushed trips back and forth to Ohio, and I’m still wishing I had an RV to travel, eat and sleep in. The last two trips I left my car out in the sun for a day before unpacking it for fear of bedbugs.
Role models for this dream.
My bass teacher at The Ohio State University, Theron McClure, traveled around the country with his wife in an RV after he retired in the 1980s. Here’s a link to a book by Andy Kohn. http://www.isbstore.com/the-collected-writings-of-theron-mcclure-by-andrew-kohn.html
Some time ago I discovered Linda Claire Puig and Natalie Sisson (The Suitcase Entrepreneur), two ladies who make a good living while traveling.
There are several online forums about RVs. Here are two forums with great information about living in an RV: the very active IRV2 Forum, and the somewhat active RV.net Forum.
I don’t want to wait until I retire to travel.