Stealth camping, the Vanabode way is something we considered when we first started planning for our lifestyle of a never-ending roadtrip.

 

But, then our Big Foot pickup camper miraculously landed in our laps and we forgot about the Vanabode … but not really.

Now, after nearly two years of traveling around the country in our Big Foot pickup camper, we are seriously considering it again.

Actually, it’s more than just a consideration …

it’s our quest.

 

 

Let me describe what stealth camping the Vanabode way is.  You live and travel and camp in a white utility van that has been revamped inside to be your living quarters.

Now, of course, all kinds of questions come up immediately about what kinds of revisions do you make, what do you do for a bathroom, a shower, a kitchen, storage, etc.?

All of those questions are explicitly and ingeniously answered in the book which you can pick up here or by clicking on the pic over on the right sidebar of this post.

The Vanabode book will answer all your “how” questions, plus give you so many ideas for saving money on travel, even if you don’t choose to live in a Chevy van.

Plus, if you have an ounce of the travel bug in you … if you love roadtrips … you’ll love the book.  Just watch this and you’ll understand:

Here’s exactly why we are ready for the Naked Hippies Roadtrip to begin stealth camping the Vanabode way.

We’ve never wanted a huge RV because of the stress it would cause maneuvering a huge Greyhound sized vehicle through a city, or pulling a fifth wheel behind our pick up camper.  Our pickup camper has been the perfect size for us … but,

it’s still is hard to maneuver through city traffic and parking isn’t always so accessible.

For instance, when we stayed at a hotel in Los Angeles last summer for a business event, the management had to open their back gate to let us into the parking lot because their front entrance was too low.

Found a great solution from this experience! The second time we went to Los Angeles, we totally changed our arrangements to attend the event.  We parked the camper in the LA airport parking lot, took the shuttle to the airport (free), took the hotel shuttle to the event (free) and had the fun of watching the planes take off almost right over our heads!  Total camping fee for the weekend event was $18.  

We’ve stayed overnight in Walmart parking lots, at truck stops, casinos and even rest stops when a campground wasn’t readily available, or when we just got too tired to go another mile.

Some of these places have no problem with overnight RV parking, but more and more have added restrictions against RV overnight parking.

See why a white Chevy van would be able to park anywhere?  It doesn’t scream RV!

One of our favorite places to visit is Ocean Beach, California.  The first few times we were there, we were able to park our pickup camper on any city street as long as we paid attention to the early morning street cleaning schedule.  We always found a parking space a block or two from the beach and loved it, of course!

On our last visit there, an irate resident whose house faces the ocean came knocking on our door one afternoon, after we had spent the first night parked there.  He informed us there was a new San Diego County ordinance passed several months prior that prohibited any RVs on city streets.  It was his strong suggestion that we move or be fined $200.

Again, a white Chevy van would not raise any red flags.  We could go back to Ocean Beach without any worries of fines.

I’m sure by now, you have begun to understand that our experiences of RV fulltime living are not like most others.

We do our best to avoid the RV parks where asphalt has replaced grass and RVs are lined up like houses in a suburban development.

We don’t hunker down in one place for the winter season like the thousands of Snowbirds that head to Yuma.  We get restless to get the wheels rolling so we can see more of this great country.

We live simply to the point that towing anything is just out of the question.  So, wherever we need to go, or want to go,  the Big Foot Camper must go.

We’ve experienced enough restrictions over the past couple of years to make us realize that many people think RVs only belong in a RV park or campground.

The Naked Hippies are ready to start stealth camping.  We’ve already been implementing some of the suggestions from the book.  Now it’s just a matter of finding the perfect white van for us and fixing up the inside.

So, now begins another great adventure … the unfolding of our next dream which has caught us a little by surprise and stirred up quite a bit of excitement.

You know what happens when your dream becomes reality? Another dream is born, ready to evolve and unfold.

Our dream of living fulltime on a never-ending roadtrip came true and in 2014, we traveled over 20,000 miles through 18 states.

And now … we’re going undercover!  We are ready to experience the same kind of adventures Jason Odom and his wife Kelly recently had on their eighteen week road trip along the East Coast … stealth camping the Vanabode way!

We don’t know when it will happen or how it will all fall into place.
We do know that once a dream takes root, the people, places and things to make it  a reality are already available.

Stay tuned!   This is going to be a great Naked Hippies adventure as we start planning for stealth camping the Vanabode way!

 

 

 

 

Trisha
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P.S.  This quote from Jason Odom, creator and author of Vanabode just sums it all up for us.  This is why we are living on the never-ending roadtrip:

“We have all wasted the romance because we thought we could buy with money from a travel agency what only extended periods of time can give us. We all stumble into that terrible day at some point, when we realize we have so few days left to do the things we dream about, having wasted so much time on nothing.” Jason Odom

P.P.S. Grab a copy of our free ebook “We Did It – You Can Too” which tells the whole story of how the Big Foot pickup camper landed in our laps!!  Click the pic in the upper left corner.