Travels With The Tiny Podcast

With my typical northern migration slightly delayed,I got stuck in the California desert for an extra week during summer and there's a heat wave. The dog part Husky. See the problem? Taking our daily hikes is a balancing act between getting exercise and getting heat stroke. Today, I did something different for the first time.

Music by Kevin MacLeod

I bought my new trailer (a 2008 T@DA) rather unexpectedly, offering the owner a down payment and 30 days to pay the balance. I have to sell The Tiny to buy the T@DA. I panicked a little and listed it for sale right away. The response was way more than I expected and the sale would happen much quicker than I needed it to. I was just about to cancel a family visit in order to stage and show the trailer. That's when I thought: "Wait a minute! What am I doing?"

Music by Kevin MacLeod

You just never know when you life will change. One day I can't imagine parting with The Tiny. And the next day a slightly larger Tiny with hot running water and the potential for a guest bed comes on the market. And boom! It's happening. Can I tow 2 trailers? No, I can't. The Tiny is for sale. You can imagine how this is!

Music by Kevin MacLeod

I pulled into my favorite campsite in my favorite campground, and decided to take my dog for a walk in the forest. It was 2:30 and we had plenty of time. But when we got back to camp with darkness coming on, I realized I'd made a massive mistake. With the nighttime low expected to be 17 degrees, I had to move fast! What a massive hassle!

Music by Kevin MacLeod

If you watch YouTube videos of full-time RVers or van lifers, you eventually see some quit the road after a few years. They have a bunch of adventures, build a following, and then one day put up a video explaining why they've decided to get off the road and settle down. It may be that full-time nomad travel has a natural lifespan. But I've noticed some similarities on why these folks quit the road, often citing their exhaustion. In this episode, I run down each reason and explain how I am working to avoid that exhaustion.

Music by Kevin MacLeod

I never knew what it felt like to travel constantly and to spend every single night in my own bed. What a fantastic combination of factors. New scenes outside my trailer, comforting familiarity inside my trailer. What an interesting and centering lifestyle. Who knew? 

Music by Kevin MacLeod

As much as I love camping for 2 to 3 weeks in one campsite, the process of moving from one campground to the next had become the most stressful part of my life. But after a few years of practice, I've changed both my practice and my attitude. Listen to find out how I did this.

Music by Kevin MacLeod 

Before I set off on this full-time RV journey, I wondered how my mental health would hold up. I thought there was a chance I would get weird or paranoid. But I've been exceptionally healthy. Except for this one night when I wondered if armageddon had arrived.

It's taken me two full years to figure out what I'm doing with my work and self care and dog care and trailer care and travel in this nomad lifestyle. I'm just now starting to look around and sightsee and fully appreciate this beautiful planet and the creatures who live on it.

I took off for full-time nomadic travel in my tiny trailer on June 29, 2017. Why? What happened? How did it come to pass? Listen in while I recount how I came to be a full-time traveler. That's quite a feat for someone who likes to be home all the time. And guess what? I'm home!