Rubbertramp couple dreaming of decentralized homestead

[Wytukay]

My name is Colby. I am from Chattanooga TN and still have family and resources there. I've been traveling with my wife and our little dachshund Callie in a converted work van since 2019. Overall traveling has been extremely beneficial for us but not without difficulties. Since 2019 we have basically made a big spiral around the country from the heartland out. For the past three seasons we have worked the sugar beet harvest in ND and once in MI. Lame as it may sound the beet harvest is one of our favorite places we go each year. We always meet cool people and enjoy seeing old friends there. The best thing is the organic sense of community that comes with people all living in the same campground and working together for a month or more (or less occasionally). The money is pretty great too especially when you're used to working much harder for less.

I play guitar (all different styles but I tend towards jam/jazz/blues) and my wife Jenn paints and knits and makes beautiful things. Although we tend towards isolation in wilderness areas we are always looking to surround ourselves with more positive influences (primarily good-hearted travelers interested in making positive contributions with their time on earth).

We are currently preparing to leave Chattanooga after a long couple months with family for the holidays. We are headed to the SW with plans to see friends at slabs and in Quartzite. Last year we went to Mexico for the second time and ended up befriending a family and staying with them for a couple months. We are heading back to northern Baja sometime this winter to see our friends and more of Mexico.
We are outdoorsy people and love gardening and permaculture and this is what we miss most when traveling where we are limited to a little foraging. We would also like to eat more vital foods that we raise ourselves and do our part to cultivate alternatives to consumer-supermarket culture. Another thing I miss on the road is access to my books. We travel with a crate of books but I have a small but very useful library sitting in cardboard boxes at my mom's that I always miss at some point. We have been dreaming of having a place to call home. A place to grow food and plants and to store books and musical instruments. We are dreaming of a home for ourselves and our friends and fellow travelers. It would be amazing to have homes like this around the country stocked with books and musical instruments quality food and people. We dream of always coming home whether to the East, West, South or North. It looks like we're not the only ones with this dream. Let's collaborate

 

[Matt Derrick]

Welcome to StP! That sounds great about Mexico; while I've heard vaguely good things about baja over the years, I have only recently started looking into visiting myself and it looks pretty awesome. I'm still working this winter, but I plan to visit hopefully winter '22. I'd love to hear your opinions on it.

I feel like there's going to be a lot more people living the vanlife lifestyle over the next few years, and a common thread I see a lot of the time is the desire to have a place where people can come and go regularly and hang out with like-minded folks. I have a thread here describing my idea for a punk-rock RV park that would fill such a niche, but we're still looking for ideal locations and trying to figure out a way to raise the money for it.

also yes, it seems beet harvest is pretty popular now, especially with the vanlife/RV crowd. i've never been to it myself, but i remember back in the day when it was mostly dirty kid traveler/hobo types that were working those jobs.

 

[rusty]

Welcome to StP! That sounds great about Mexico; while I've heard vaguely good things about baja over the years, I have only recently started looking into visiting myself and it looks pretty awesome. I'm still working this winter, but I plan to visit hopefully winter '22. I'd love to hear your opinions on it.

I feel like there's going to be a lot more people living the vanlife lifestyle over the next few years, and a common thread I see a lot of the time is the desire to have a place where people can come and go regularly and hang out with like-minded folks. I have a thread here describing my idea for a punk-rock RV park that would fill such a niche, but we're still looking for ideal locations and trying to figure out a way to raise the money for it.

also yes, it seems beet harvest is pretty popular now, especially with the vanlife/RV crowd. i've never been to it myself, but i remember back in the day when it was mostly dirty kid traveler/hobo types that were working those jobs.

raise money eh?

 

[Wytukay]

Welcome to StP! That sounds great about Mexico; while I've heard vaguely good things about baja over the years, I have only recently started looking into visiting myself and it looks pretty awesome. I'm still working this winter, but I plan to visit hopefully winter '22. I'd love to hear your opinions on it.

I feel like there's going to be a lot more people living the vanlife lifestyle over the next few years, and a common thread I see a lot of the time is the desire to have a place where people can come and go regularly and hang out with like-minded folks. I have a thread here describing my idea for a punk-rock RV park that would fill such a niche, but we're still looking for ideal locations and trying to figure out a way to raise the money for it.

also yes, it seems beet harvest is pretty popular now, especially with the vanlife/RV crowd. i've never been to it myself, but i remember back in the day when it was mostly dirty kid traveler/hobo types that were working those jobs.

Thanks for the welcome and thank you for everything you do with this site. This is a wonderful and unique resource. If I feel motivated sometime I would like to add a post or two about my experiences in Mexico. There seems to be more curiosity and speculation than substantial information on Mexico in the forums. I have hardly scratched the surface of Baja (never even been south of Ensenada) but I have crossed the border numerous times at different crossings and have had the honor of being more or less adopted into a Mexican family. It's been wonderful and I couldn't ask for a better way to learn Spanish as well as some of the customs and culture of Mexico. Speaking Spanish is certainly not necessary for travel in Mexico, but I can't imagine branching far outside the typical tourist experience without it. However ymmv as I'm not the most cavalier. How's your Spanish? Do you plan on going all the way to Cabo?

Since I started traveling and making so many new connections I have realized how crazy it is to go it alone in the sense of trying to do everything for yourself by yourself (food, shelter, creativity, etc). Pooling resources makes so much more sense and is far more doable but not without its own difficulties. After a life of people telling me that I'm too isolated and insular it is only in the past couple years that I have begun to feel the truth of this. I recognize how important human interaction is for wellbeing. Still I tend to isolate and get stuck in a cycle of anxiety and depression that further isolates. Meeting more like minded people on the road has been so beneficial but I still haven't completely broken my cycles of unhealthy isolation. This has become very clear to me in the past few months and given me a strong desire to make changes by building the kind of community that I long for.

I was very excited to see your post about the punk rock RV park. Where are things at this point? Are you still considering the broad range of locations or has that been narrowed down further? The location needs to be near enough to town so I imagine zoning laws will likely be a major limiting factor. Are you focused more on buying land or buying land with an existing structure? I have thought a bit about this as well and I am well aware of how quickly the costs add up when developing land or building anything. Do you have a list of the essential spaces (indoor and outdoor) and amenities for the ideal location? Please fill me in on any new details not contained in that post that your willing to share and know that my wife and I are happy to contribute in any way we can. We are hard workers and service oriented people.

It's too bad there aren't as many dirty kids, hippies, and hobos at the beet harvest these days. My first harvest in ND was just after rainbow nationals in MN so there was a solid contingent of that sort of traveler. That first year a train kid told me how the vibe had changed from his first harvest the year before when he said "everyone had face tats, and it was all good." I think express employment who does the hiring has raised the bar for required accommodations (maybe at the behest of local authorities). Our van had to have a number of things to meet the standards of a class B motorhome. I've seen more than one person stay in a tent but they seem to frown on that more each year. The reality is though that they need more people. Every year they are short staffed and will hire anyone who shows up no matter what your living in. No background check. No drug test. No problems. That said the spirit of the harvest is still carried by the afore mentioned ilk of traveler. We keep it real and the vibes are so great. There are few other places where such a diversity of travelers mingle in such a way. I would recommend the beet harvest to anyone.