Thursday, January 8, 2015

Rootless Movies: Without Bound - Perspectives on Mobile Living

There is "....a continuum of people who live in a vehicle." Source: Without Bound: Perspectives on Mobile Living.

I saw reference to this documentary about wheeled "full-timers" over on Good Luck Duck. The film is about mobile dwellers. Well, it's about some mobile dwellers with a certain perspective.



In order of appearance, the full-timers are: 
  • vagabloggers dot com (which provokes a warning from my browser when I attempt to go there)
  • Randy Vinings at Mobile Kodgers
  • Laurie Theodoro
  • arizonaexplorations.com
  • Chris Carrington
  • Steve
  • Cheri


Randy Vinings was inspired by Thoreau's Walden: "Why would you work all of your life so you could have a little bit of freedom at the end of your life, when, if  you could live efficiently, you could invent your own life now?"

Laurie Theodoro also drew inspiration from Thoreau:  "[what is] the essential of things .. what [is] the real marrow of life?" 

I like the documentary in that it shows a viable way of living that many Americans may not know about. It's a way of living I could see myself doing some day. 

Some of the most useful information came toward the end of the film - how much it cost to sustain oneself as a full-timer who lives in a wheeled shelter:
  • Steven at arizonaexplorations.com --> ~ $500 per month
  • Randy at mobilecodgers.blogspot.com --> less than $600 per month
  • Cheri --> $630 per month

But sheesh, there's so much smug talk about the people who "don't get it" - who are prisoners of their stuff or their ball-and-chain houses. Overall, the documentary felt very didactic. A pity.

There's also a MAJOR piece of information that is only alluded to - the cost of  purchasing and outfitting one's wheeled home. There was also silence on another important fact of mobile living - maintenance and repairs of one's vehicle-shelter. The cost of living like a turtle will vary widely, depending not only on the complexity and age of one's rig, but on the DIY abilities you have.

But I'll leave on a positive note from one of the full-timers: "Choose your life." Amen.


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