A Traveler and his Cat exploring America.





Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Rubber Tramp Rendezvous


We are at this annual week-long event commonly referred to as the RTR.  It is a gathering of traveling nomads where you learn lots of stuff about living on the road through daily seminars, plus meeting old friends and making new ones all whom share ideas and helpful advice.  Two years ago there were approximately 800 in attendance.  Last year around 1500 and this year's expectation is 3000!

These seminars start at 10 in the morning and should be about an hour long but they drag on well beyond that what with people asking questions which will be covered in the talk if only they'd be patient and wait.  You have to pack a lunch for the morning seminar.


Last year I attended most of them, or at least the ones the topic I was interested in.  
So having done that, this year I can pass on them all (and the crowd) as for the most part they are rehashing the same material.


 The first one is always general information, do's and don'ts and the answering of a bunch a questions.
One day it was all about solar power and batteries.    Another was how to find places where you can stay for free.  Yesterday was about work-camping.  Some people still have to work to live the nomad life so they talk about being campground hosts, seasonal jobs at state and national parks, working at Amazon and even harvest jobs on farms, plus online jobs if you have certain skills.  Today the were sharing gadgets, store-bought or homemade for making camping life easier and more fun.


This was taken from a YouTube video.  A lot of these people live full time in their vans, trailers and RVs and the rest are all here to learn how to escape the rat race and live the life of a nomad.  Funny as it may seem but the vast majority are introverts, loners, those who like the peace and quiet place all by themselves but yet here we all are crammed together for one week out of the year. 


Beans is having none of this and stays inside most of the time.


5 comments:

biebkriebels said...

Funny, that is something we don't know here. It is to overcrowded here to live in a van and not so appriciated. When people like to live like that they mostly leave the country to another , sometimes a bit rural one, like France or Spain.

Shammickite said...

I find this fascinating, that people share their tips and experiences to make living the life of a nomad a bit easier. I would imagine most of the "travellers" are older, having worked for most of their lives, and now have some money saved. But the younger ones would need to earn money to live this nomadic lifestyle.

Billy Blue Eyes said...

Some how I can't blame Beans for saying inside, to many people around

Polly said...

I'm with Beans, but it is good to swap ideas and experiences.

The Furry Gnome said...

How is Bob going to handle 3000!?!?