To RV, or not RV...

As I continue to ponder ways to extricate myself from this house and the recently noxious ashtray-like state of  Colorado, I have again been considering the possibility of living full time for a few months to a year in an RV of some kind.  This seems a better alternative to complete voluntary homelessness, which I envision as a series of short-term rentals off Craigslist or perhaps in cheap guesthouses SOB (south of the border).  If you are reading this and are a relative or old friend I have overlooked with an enormous house and dusty unused space (and driveway or curb space if I ever decide to get that RV) and would like for me to come and hang out at your place for a while you may contact me.  I'd contact you, but can't think of anybody this sounds like...

One the better high-end small U.S. RVs

After so many failed attempts to find a location and circumstances that inspire enough confidence and optimism to actually buy another house, I don't know any more what the best alternatives are.  I'm tired of the chores and expenses of home ownership in general, and especially in ill-fitting suburbia.  Do-it-yourself maintenance is getting really old, and hiring someone who will prove to be competent and affordable for any task is a big challenge.  At times it's like being an unpaid custodian and gardener - and the house seems of less value because living here is not in support of some meaningful activity.  Renting anywhere sucks these days and makes no financial sense - with zero percent interest persistent in the land, one can no longer take equity from a house sale and pay rent out of the interest on the deposited cash.  Vacancy rates are near zero, and rents are high and increasing, because of all the displaced foreclosure people and others who simply can't afford ownership - even with record-low rate lending.  Perhaps one day I will again enjoy owning and caring for a place in a more compatible location, but it seems that perhaps a respite might be in order, while other possibilities are explored.

A more modest but still expensive smaller RV

A cursory look at the RV possibilities has not been encouraging.  First of all, while in the rest of the civilized western world (you know, where they all have always enjoyed universal comprehensive  single payer health care with no hint of partisan controversy - but that's a subject for another post) there are many small, tasteful, well designed and engineered, higher mileage RV's.  In the U.S. market, on the other hand, they are (by my standards) mostly hideous, bloated, unimpressively designed and engineered gas guzzlers.  When I go to look at them at a dealer, or view ads online, I have to wonder who they are designed for and and marketed to.  Is the American market really limited to low-class idiots who think it's appropriate to fill a mass market RV with nightmarish combinations of beveled etched glass, garrishly patterned crushed velvet upholstery, plush carpet, flocked  wallpaper, ornate wood moldings, 'granite' countertops, and baroque light fixtures or even chandeliers?  The common faux luxury and trailer-trash version of imagined elegance are an embarrassment, and an insult to the sensibilities of anyone who values functionality and good design.  Really, who needs to imagine they are luxuriating in the Palace of Versailles while they are tethered to the KOA campround for the night?  There is an old oxidized fiberglass RV in my neighborhood recently branded 'Chateau'.  Really?  Wikipedia told me a chateau was "a manor house, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a country house of nobility or gentry".  Is this what the vehicle owner fancies himself to be engaged in while he sits within on his little camper closet potty in some forlorn RV park?  


There are a few U.S. or Canadian vehicles that a notch or two better than the usual rolling drek, but they usually offer much fancier pretentious amenities than I would  need or want, and the prices new are higher than a house in Vallejo, CA.  We have found one small customizer who does the kind of work and produces the kind of van I would like to own - but these vehicles are also quite expensive.

Then again, living here with no apparent prospects for a fulfilling life has an immeasurably high cost...

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