10 Reasons I Want to Live in a Travel Trailer

I've written a few times about how I want to live in a travel trailer. I  remember when this obsession (or disease, as my husband calls it) first set in. I was 18 years old and working at a Ford dealership.

Ford published a small  magazine they would distribute to their dealerships and in it one month was an excerpt from the book "Blue Highways" by William Least Heat-Moon. The author converted a Ford van into a travelling home (no kitchen or bathroom. Yeah, he was single) and set out across the U.S.

He stayed off Interstates and took highways and backroads (routes which appear in blue on maps) and visited small towns and heard the stories from folks with small lives but big hearts. And he wrote about it. It was filled with history, introspection, hope, and the wonder of the human spirit.

I was hooked when I read the excerpt so I checked the book out from the library and read the whole thing. I loved it. I was on a different path in my life at the time, so I couldn't take off and do what he did, but oh, how I wanted to. That book stirred up a wanderlust in me that's been simmering ever since.

But I  won't blather on about my past right now. That's for another yawnfest post. My point is, I have never told you all the reasons why I want to live in a travel trailer. So I made a little list for you.

1.  The hubs and I would have our own accommodations, so friends we want to visit can't say they don't have room. You would be surprised how many of our friends are constantly remodeling their guest rooms. Most have even done it more than once! And it always turns out to be right when we want to come visit them for a couple weeks. Go figure.

It's really too bad that they miss out on our company because, quite frankly, we're charming.

Now if we had a travel trailer, why, we can just pull right on up in front of their house, hook up to their electricity, and us and our 5 dogs will be cozy as bedbugs. Just like when Eddie and Catherine visited the Griswold's for Christmas.

Don't they seem like fun people to have as company? (Source)

Can't imagine why our friends wouldn't want this parked in front of their house. She's a beaut! (Source)

2.  The kids can't move back home.  "Awww, son, you spent all your money on a big screen and computer games and now you can't afford your rent? Wish we could help ya out, but no room, don't-cha-know." 

"Awww, sweetie, you've been off footloose and fancy free in Hawaii and have run out of money while we've paid your cell phone bill and insurance and been taking care of your dog for 8 months, and now you need to stay somewhere while you work a job for a while? Darn. And us in our travel trailer with just one little bedroom. Shoot. Shootie Shoot Shoot. Too bad."

3.  If we don't like our neighbors, we can just up and drive away. Nosy neighbors are the worst. Always peeking out their curtains at your comings and goings and yelling at their husbands to come and watch what you're doing. 

Oh wait...that was Gladys from Bewitched. 

We actually don't know our neighbors very well, but if we did I bet we wouldn't like them and it would be nice if we could just drive on away from them. I'm sure it would be nice for them too. 

4.  No HOA rules to follow. Don't you hate HOAs? They're right up there with nosy neighbors. So we have a weed or 54895215 in the front yard, leave our trash cans on the curb a day or three after trash day, and our dogs bark incessantly a little - what's the big deal? You'd think we were living in freakin' Beverly Hills or something. I'll gladly trade HOA for KOA any day.

5.  I'd have interesting things to blog about. In a travel trailer, we'd be on the move all the time (other than the two or three weeks we'd park in front of our friend's houses). We'd be meeting new people and seeing interesting things and I'd have more exciting things to blog about than the time my Internet died or the things that happen in our bedroom at night or the time I went clothes shopping on Halloween and forgot to wear spanx. So see? You'd benefit too, if only I could live in a travel trailer. Maybe I should put a donation thingy in my sidebar to help the cause. 

6.  We would accumulate less crap because we'd have no place to put it. I buy containers to store crap. Then I buy things to store the containers in that hold the crap. Then I pin pictures of how I wish all my crap looked when it was stored. Then I buy more crap. It's time to admit I have a problem and stop the crapness. Maybe I could write off the trailer as crap addict therapy. I think the Obama plan covers that.

7.  No yard work. These are the three little words I long to hear every day. I force my family to do yard work, but no one in our house really likes doing it. Hence the aforementioned issues in #7 above. In a travel trailer we won't be anywhere long enough for the weeds to grow. And if they do, we can just move.

8.  We would actually be travelling. With a full time job and limited vacation time, we don't get to travel very often. Sure, I can get away and take my annual sister's trip for a few days, or go camping, or get away with the hubby, but we can't go too far or stay too long because we have to come back. If we lived in a travel trailer, guess what? No mortgage or rent to pay! With expenses cut, we could figure out a way to make enough money on the road to sustain us. 

And as Latin philosopher Augustine of Hippo said, "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." I want to read the whole damn book. Or at least the parts of it that I can drive to.

9. A small trailer means a small amount of cleaning. It's just plain science. The amount of cleaning is in direct proportion to the size of the dwelling. I'm tired of dusting and vacuuming and mopping and cleaning bathrooms. If we lived in a travel trailer I could spend my time more meaningfully like browsing Pinterest, playing Sims and making comics hiking and writing and talking with people.

10.  I could have a view with my coffee in the morning. I want to wake up, take my coffee outside, and sip it while looking at a lovely view every day. Mountains, beach, desert...wherever. As long as it's beautiful and changes frequently.

And those are all the reasons I want to live in a travel trailer. Lastly, I leave you with this picture, that my friend Kim, who doesn't blog anymore, but posts amazing pictures on Instagram, sent me via Pinterest:

This is so flippin' cute I can't stand it. (Source)

Trailing behind,
Lori

This post is for Mama Kat's world famous Writer's Workshop, in which (wow, try to say that 5 times fast) I choose the topic "Write a blog post inspired by the word: Travel". If you've never participated in Mama Kat's workshops, you totally should! Just head on over, choose a topic, and link up!