1 Mobile
2 Self creating
3 Evolving
4 Inexpensive/Frugal Lifestyle
5 Purposeful
Do you want to be mobile? Are you already mobile but want to put more meaning into your travels.....“contribute” more perhaps, or work on self development or just have more fun because it is shared with others? Want to think about and help create a new order/way of lightweight living based not on greed, and consumption, but rather on community and mobility, and, perhaps, even oneness with the world? Do you feel that this can be accomplished more readily in community rather than alone?
“If you want the good life---a creative community is the place to be.” (Brad Blanton)
Laurie T. shares her personal vision:
I consider "The Quest for Community Caravan to be an expedition in mobile living to create a community of kindred spirits as we navigate the frontier of life on wheels.
What if you are an outlier, relative to the norm? Must you travel as a solitary individual?
We want to emphasize ideas rather than possessions; experiences rather than purchases; experimental openness rather than old fogey conventionality. We will not emphasize routine sightseeing, buying tickets for this or that, going to expensive restaurants and tourist attractions, etc., because we are not on vacation.
Laurie T. shares her personal vision:
I consider "The Quest for Community Caravan to be an expedition in mobile living to create a community of kindred spirits as we navigate the frontier of life on wheels.
It is a call to the free spirited, solo traveler who also enjoys the inspiration, insight and camaraderie experienced when sharing travel with other free spirits.
It is an invitation to wanderers and wayfarers who would feel their life would be enhanced by boldly participating in this ground breaking, transformational experiment in living.
This is an evocative opportunity for a diverse group of wanderers who celebrate and embrace our individual differences to come together to weave a tapestry of experience with the intention of championing one another to live our most inspired lives while sharing a playful, adventurous and meaningful life as we travel engaging with 'The Quest for Community Caravan' as a laboratory for living, loving and learning.
With much appreciation for all who will choose to participate in this compelling quest.
“G”'s thoughts:
Few phrases are as hackneyed, trite, and dishonest as the RV "Dream" or "Adventure." In reality the vast majority of RV'ers are too middle class and conventional for any of that. By and large, mainstream RV'ers are simply portable suburbanites: their lives are centered around comfort, cleanliness, conventionality, status-seeking, and consumption.
What if you are an outlier, relative to the norm? Must you travel as a solitary individual?
The purpose of this project is to build and share a unique mobile culture -- one that isn't found in existing mainstream RV groups. Like Thoreau on his way to Walden Pond, we seek to live "deliberately."
We want to emphasize ideas rather than possessions; experiences rather than purchases; experimental openness rather than old fogey conventionality. We will not emphasize routine sightseeing, buying tickets for this or that, going to expensive restaurants and tourist attractions, etc., because we are not on vacation.
RANDY'S THOUGHTS:
I believe that even when people have captured “THE GOOD LIFE”---security, health, a mate---they are still incomplete without intentional community. The key word is intentional. Community---without intention---is merely a gang—a distraction that (just barely) keeps nothingness (life's real enemy) at bay. A community with intent, however, ( a “mutual admiration society”) can do much better---it can facilitate us becoming who we REALLY are (blossoming).
I believe, with Teilard de Chardin, that “isolation is a dead end”---that---”the self is fulfilled in community”. Most of the good things about me---I absorbed from others---in the assorted communities I lived in for 17 years. Yes, there are up and downsides of association----but a mobile community, with separate rigs, eliminates most of the downsides since we live, essentially, in separate worlds---with warm friendships, hiking companions, discussion partners--- a short walk away----Everyone feeling connected---yet wonderfully free to come and go or leap ahead to the next stop.
I believe there is something incredibly important yet to be discovered/invented/learned about human association. Some forms elevate and others degrade its participants. I hope to be a keen-enough observer to ferret out some of these truths---as well as a joyful collaborator in the self-creating community. I'm pleased to have already interested some large minds, hearts and personalities in this project.
The adventure begins here and now—Yuma, AZ. -- from here, we will slowly drift— East to the Casa Grande area for awhile—then Tucson –then east to New Mexico (you can rendezvous with us at any point along the route) where we will each purchase an annual pass ($225—or less) allowing use of all their 35 parks for no additional charge. Then we begin a slow---summer- long--- temperature-conscious meander among the parks. What happens next is up to us. Inspired minds, hopefully, will shape a community of our dreams.
If you might be interested in joining this expedition --feel free to e-mail me personally at randythepoet@yahoo.com for further details.
Very cool! I suggested this very idea last August on Bob's forum. Glad to see great minds thinking alike and someone finally bringing it to fruition.
ReplyDeleteOmani Okablaya = Lakota for travel freely.
http://www.cheaprvlivingforum.com/post/Tribal-Travels-5460149?highlight=omani+okablaya
Steve
Randy, I wish I could be among the ones who will want in on this! Alas, I have not sold my home yet, so am still stuck here. But, whenever it sells, my intent is to travel around this beautiful country, and especially the southwest..and to meet you! Linda
ReplyDeleteWe did that a few years ago for 5 1/2 months. Wonderful state. Especially enjoyed Clayton Lake, Heron Lake & Eagles Nest. 4th of July at Clayton Lake is a great place to celebrate for a 4 day weekend. We stayed 4 weeks at Heron. Traveled with the Win's & Boondocker's that Trish Master's put together. We will do it again but this year we are heading to BC & Fairbanks. Have a great summer, Randy.
ReplyDeleteHi Randy. Enjoy! I just came from Tierra Amarilla where I stayed for a week on Gayle's ranch. Be sure to say hello to Paul at the Three Ravens. This place is God's country even in the "sloppy" months of March. Everything is starting to turn green and the Elk and Deer have come down out of the hills to graze.
ReplyDeleteI have been following your blog for a while now, Randy. I find your posts insightful, adventurous and fun. I don't have a trailer yet but I might see if I can lease a truck with cabover camper for a month or two and meet up with y'all somewhere along the way. I am totally drawn to this type of community and am only 1 1/2 years away from being able to do this full time...if I can figure out how to swing a mid-fifties retirement. This lifestyle is the one that will make early retirement most possible.
ReplyDeleteOnward!
Susan
Randy, I can see you missed your calling by not being alive during the French Revolution or the early 1800's, when New Harmony was dreamed up. But keep your feet on the ground. Don't expect instant Utopia. Here's a pertinent quote from Herbert Spencer:
ReplyDelete"Paper constitutions raise smiles on the faces of those who have observed their results; and paper social systems similarly affect those who have contemplated the available evidence. How little the men who wrought the French revolution and were chiefly concerned in setting up the new governmental apparatus, dreamt that one of the early actions of this apparatus would be to behead them all!"
Spencer versus the Kodger, continued:
ReplyDelete"Metamorphosis is the universal law...
Thus in social arrangements, as in all other things, change is inevitable. It is foolish to suppose that new institutions set up, will long retain the character given them by those who set them up."
Living in Australia presents a minor problem
ReplyDeleteBut I'm happy to sit back and watch and learn from your efforts
Here is one for you randy, BBC American nomads, on YouTube, enjoy :)
ReplyDeleteNo! :)
ReplyDeleteTried to leave a comment here about an hour ago but it was only on the blog for a few minutes and then it got lost in cyber space. AAAHHHH Aint computers grand. I don't know who "G" is but I would not agree to spend a summer with someone that judgemental and nasty even if I do love some of the other people in the group.
ReplyDelete“G”'s thoughts:
Few phrases are as hackneyed, trite, and dishonest as the RV "Dream" or "Adventure." In reality the vast majority of RV'ers are too middle class and conventional for any of that. By and large, mainstream RV'ers are simply portable suburbanites: their lives are centered around comfort, cleanliness, conventionality, status-seeking, and consumption.
Thirty years ago my parents were "mainstream RV'ers" and I know for a fact they were living their dream. Each of us has our own dream. "G", you do not get to judge anyone's dream, even if they are comfortable and clean.
The idea of travelling with a group of people who share our ideas and goals is a wonderful idea. There are people in this group that I would love to spend more time with but I will not subject myself to any unnecessary stress.
Grammahugababy Cheri and Tony
Adventure is exciting--often risky experience. And "G" is right---that does not describe most motorhoming experience. The majority rarely boondock--preferring to settle snugly into comfortable RV parks. Call it fun if you wish--but it is not risky.
ReplyDeleteOur experiment, however, is risky---because we will dare to intersect personalities. We will risk expressing ourselves to---playing and building community with a dozen strong personalities---savvy individuals. Should be exciting---and risky.
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ReplyDeleteI love this discussion of RISK as I determined -- long ago -- it is the single greatest determinant of mental health = the willingness and ability to take risk. (Observe it in the rider who has six-times WON the Continental Divide Race = pedaling 2,700 miles from Canada to Mexico -- 200,000 vertical feet of climbing -- on a mountain bike with no support team whatsoever if you will.)
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The less risk one is willing and able to embrace, the further one slides down the scale of mental health. It's clear those entombed in their high-end motorhomes crammed in like sardines at some outrageously expensive RV park -- with the edges of their over-sized awnings barely clearing their neighbor's rig -- can't even risk associating with anyone outside their own tidy little socio-economic group of equals. What can be less risky than surrounding yourself with people who think and act exactly as you do? Surely their paranoia enjoys no limit and their dreams must be riddled with fear. They make THINK they're doing something bold, daring and different, but I share the observation they are nothing more than gentrified suburbia . . . gone "mobile" . . . on wheels which rarely turn.
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sail4free
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from G:
ReplyDeleteCheri and Tony, I'll bet you took offense at what I wrote just because I was trying to be brief and concrete, rather than platitudinous. I know perfectly well that the RV demographic has all the positives that go along with middle class values: hard work, sanity, responsibility, and finally, they become the world's best grandparents of the world's cutest grandkids. That should be obvious to everybody.
But as for me "judging" other people's dream: what if I had pumped out the usual RV-industry promotionalism (the "Dream", living the lifestyle, the adventure, the freedom of the open road, ad nauseum). Wouldn't the implicit approval also constitute "judging"?
But in that case I'll bet you wouldn't have taken offense. People preach about "judging" when they really mean "criticizing".
They want everybody to be a silently-assenting conformist and a yes-man for the System. They don't want anybody to have a different opinion or ask troublesome questions. People who want to "make waves" should just keep their mouths shut, they think.
I wish no harm on such people. In fact I offer them the friendly and helpful advice of joining Good Sam, FMCA, or the Escapees and attending one of the mass-jamborees. I hope they don't join Randy's tribe of non-conformists.
joining Good Sam, FMCA, or the Escapees and attending one of the mass-jamborees.
ReplyDeleteHoly crap what a nightmare that would be for me.
This is an interesting experiment. My take on intentional communities has been one of skepticism. My observation on human behavior is that it is always a balancing act of personal freedom and group interaction.
ReplyDeleteWe are herd animals (i.e., tribal), thus our desires for personal interaction and groups. But some of us have much more need for freedom. Many are by nature get-alongs and willingly and happily go with what others want and do what it takes to fit in. All of us need safety unless we lack self-preservation (nuts).
The main problem with most groups is sociopaths. It only takes one charismatic sociopath in a group to turn it into a destructive environment. The destruction is gradual and the taking over for the sociopath's personal benefit is insidious. That's why most intentional communities fall apart. The majority want to be cooperative and let the little things go until they wake up and find that some sociopath has become the monster that makes them unhappy and cornered if not all the way to sick and criminal.
What is interesting about this experiment is that because all members have self-contained and mobile abodes, anyone can just leave if the environment becomes toxic. You aren't trapped by a mortgage and a stationary home that is difficult to sell. And if someone turns out to be a sociopath (and you recognize it - big if), a smaller group can get up and leave for a new camp.
As for the negative comments about G, I would say if G turns you off, then this isn't the community for you, is it? Obviously, G is acceptable to the other members so that tells you that you are not a good fit for THIS group. Doesn't make you or G any less of a valuable person - just different.
I hope you will be forthcoming on how this community is doing and how it deals with the inevitable conflicts and if it doesn't work, discuss frankly why - and if does work, how.
Perhaps those who choose to live their 'nomadic' lifestyle within the confines of an RV park or with people much like themselves are extending as far as they can out of their comfort zone. It may be more of a risk for them to go that far than it is for some of us to strike out into the unknown with no safety net. I have had some wonderful times with RV Type A people who have waved me over for conversation or a beer. We learn from each other and all our lives are enriched. Community can be found everywhere.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know of a community like this in the Gatlinburg, Tennessee area???
ReplyDelete