You've been thinking about getting away for awhile now. Your in a situation that's not working for you. your not happy, job sucks, and every dime you make is spent right after you get paid; rent, car payment, insurance and so on. Then on top of all that, your in a relationship that has turned toxic and has been going that way for awhile. You feel walled in and trapped. I'm here to tell you that you have a way out. You can get away and you can be free.
So, you've been hearing about people living the van life, RV life, being snowbirds, traveling around. You've been watching YouTube videos about van life. You think all that is so cool. Well, you can do it too, and you can do it a lot easier than you think. I'm also here to tell you that it's not for everybody, and it's not all glamour and Instagram picture photo perfect every day. But, I'll tell you this, being free and the master of your own destiny sure does make up for a rainy day stuck in your vehicle.
But, there's a problem; you like watching all the videos, you like talking about it, you think about it all the time, But, and here's another but; you worry about what everybody will think, you keep making excuses to yourself that you can't. You know what; only your own fear is holding you back. Nothing or nobody else is holding you back from living a more wholesome and happy life than your own fear.
I just want you to know if your someone that's in a situation that you don't see any light at the end of the tunnel. What I mean is, if you are in a bad relationship; you know the kind of relationship I'm talking about. The kind that starts out good and gradually gets worse over time. It's the same with a go nowhere crappy dead end job. Your stuck in the rat race, you realize one day that your life is nothing but, go to work, come home from work, eat something, watch the same thing on TV, news or whatever, then you go to bed, you get back up, get ready to go to that crappy dead end job, and the process repeats itself. Day after day, week after week, month after month. Then before you know it, it turns into years. After all that time you think to yourself, where did all the time go, I'm still nothing more than a wage slave. I get treated like a nobody at my job and then when I come home I'm treated like a punching bag by a loser of a partner.
It's your life, you have power over it, no one else is your master, only you have control over your own destiny. What I'm going to do is layout a step by step plan for you to start taking control of your life and your destiny. What I want to do first is outline the plan, for now we'll refer to it in code and name our plan Just like military and intelligence agencies do. for example, Operation Rolling Thunder or Operation Crossfire Hurricane, for the simple fact of it is your going to have to keep this endeavor secret. Your going to have to keep your plans secret from your partner. Because the fact of the matter is if your partner is like most guys their going to have a hard time accepting you leaving them. You can't even tell your own relatives. As the old saying goes, "Loose Lips - Sink Ships" because more than likely he's on a friendly basis with most of your relatives and friends. So to be on the safe side you got to keep your plans as covert as possible.
Keep on living your life as usual, keep going to your job as usual, don't get overly chatty about vehicle dwelling and traveling around your partner, friends, and family. Remember secrecy is golden. The next thing your going to do is put together a list of everything you own, personal belongings, assets, property and so on because your going to sell most of your personal belongings. What you don't sell you can donate and or rent a small storage unit, or if you have a friend or relative that you can trust. You can ask them if they would let you store some personal stuff with them. This all needs to be done little at a time as to not arouse suspicion. That list you made of all your personal belongings now needs to be destroyed, because by now you should have it memorized. Burn it or flush it, you sure don't want it found. Because by now you should have it memorized.
All the while your plan is coming into fruition, you should be putting away some money. Like it or not your going to need money to do this. Your going to be needing money for gas and food on the road, because your going to need to get several states away. The farther away from your home base the less likely your going to be pursued by a clingy overbearing partner. Start with small amounts five bucks here ten bucks there. Find yourself a secret hiding place for this cash, and also you can go online and open a checking account and savings account in your name only and have the account set for paperless electronic mail, you know for all the correspondence it has such as monthly statements and such. That way all your covert banking information will be sent to your email address.
There is lots of online advice about how much emergency savings and expense money you need to have. I've seen recommendations of up to three thousand dollars or more for an emergency fund. But really you don't need that much. In reality if it's just you and you have no debts and all you need to do is pay vehicle insurance, buy gas and food. You are on track to kick this pig, hit the road, live your life on your terms. So basically your looking at saving anywhere between six hundred and a thousand bucks in ready cash that you have saved from squirreling away five and ten bucks here and there. Actually you'll be surprised at how it can and quickly will add up. Next if your like most people, you have a Car, SUV or Minivan. Whichever type of vehicle you have will work for you, it's just that some have advantages and disadvantages. You can check out my blog post; Living In A Vehicle, Car, Van, or SUV.
Getting your money situation under control is easy. Before you open up that new covert bank account, you'll need to get in addition to your regular email address that everybody knows is to get yourself another email address and use a really good and long password, and keep that email address totally secret. That email address will be used for your secret bank account. Memorize the user name and password for your new email address and don't add it as an account to your phone as it could arouse suspicion and unnecessary questions from your partner. Ok, now as your getting your ducks in a row one by one. Your building up that savings account by selling small amounts of personal possessions at a time. Your ready cash reserve is slowly building up. Zero hour is approaching, but let me keep reminding you, your not out of the woods yet. You still got a few more loose ends to tie up before the journey of a lifetime begins.
Now let's talk about your vehicle. You want to make sure your vehicle is in the best condition possible. Make sure all the fluids are topped off. Go have the brakes and tires checked. Have the engine tuned up if it needs it. Most vehicles these days are pretty reliable anyway, but stay on top of regular recommended maintenance. Whichever type of vehicle you have, put together a plan on what your going to do to be able to sleep and just generally live in it will be and look like. You can find lots of videos on YouTube on how to do simple builds in your Car, SUV, or Minivan. Don't let it stress you out, it's going to be a lot easier than you think to build a sleeping bunk in your car. Your going to need to get good restful sleep, it's something that's really needed because when you start this adventure you're going to be under some stress because you're totally changing your life and your going to be taking yourself out of your known comfort zone.
With your vehicle and money issues covered, and hopefully you are still exercising due diligence. I know your going to get tired of me reminding you but you've came this far and you still need to keep up the act of secrecy and doing everything you can to make it look like everything's normal. At this stage in planning you don't want to arouse any suspicion and get caught. Next we're going to cover social media do's and don'ts, internet and WiFi.
When it comes to social media most people have Facebook and Twitter. What I advise doing is to wait till you have started your adventure before closing out your social media accounts and starting up new accounts. Just as soon as you start this journey then you need to turn off your location on your phone and when it comes to your social media accounts you will need to go dark. What I mean by that is to just don't post anything PERIOD! You don't want to give away your location and be tracked. WiFi is going to be easy, there are lots of options you have to get WiFi. Walmart has good WiFi as do public library's, major restaurant chains, truck stops, large hospitals, I think you get the picture.
Now, let's talk about your cell phone. Your cell phone is your lifeline, it contains all your communication needs, phone, text, internet, navigation. Basically in today's world your phone is your world and it is also your window to the world. Before you hit the road unless you already do, you need to get used to using the screen lock option. this is just one more safeguard option you have to ward against your being found out. Like I mentioned before, turn off the location option. Now one more thing about your phone. Whoever your carrier is you need to go into one of their stores and have your number changed. Then what your going to do is, go to Walmart or Dollar General and get a cheap burner phone and only use it for calling family and friends. Oh and BTW you need to keep the location option turned off on it also. The reason is you'll be able to ditch the burner and get another burner because, you're partner will find out and will be calling you. You need to keep zero contact with them.
Ok now, let's talk about your partner whether they be you husband of boyfriend, are not going to take this very well. Just keep remembering and saying to yourself. I've been pushed around, used, lied too, treated like crap, and I'm not going to take it anymore, I have the power and this stops now. Right up front, I want you to know that these type of guys won't go down without a fight. Now when it comes to another man confronting them their all big talk, but when it comes down to the wire, their nothing but cowards. This is what you can expect from most of them, although, not all of them, if your lucky and he turns out to be just a blowhard, then the probability of you being followed is low.
In most cases you can expect this to happen usually in this order. He's going to start ringing your phone, don't answer let it go to voicemail, your going to get dozens of text messages, your Facebook messenger is going to blow up with text messages. Every message he sends is going to be all about him, Why are you doing this to me. All your going to hear is sad why me bull crap, I thought we had something together. Then your family is going to hear from him, it's going to be the same crap, why is she doing this, I can't understand rhetoric. At the same time he's going to be calling all your friends and even your work, spouting off all the same bull crap, and wow is he going to be surprised that you don't work there anymore. Just keep saying to yourself, I'm strong, it's my life, I have the power. He's even going to call the police and report you missing, yes, mister bad boy will call the law on you and could possibly try to have you charged with something, but don't worry about it. Legally the burden of proof is on the accuser, so be sure and don't leave with anything he can use against you.
I just wanted for you to understand that these are things you can expect, and to get you thinking about it.
One thing I want to bring up and make you aware of is, The Art of Deception. You don't have to be a grand master of it but it will come in handy to throw anyone off your trail.
Whatever part of the country your in, your going to want to go where is unexpected. If its known you like Florida then you need to leave brochures and papers around about certain parts of Florida, But your not going there. For instance, in summer all the southern United States is hot and the southeast U.S. is humid along with hot. If you go in summer, you want to go to the high elevations in Colorado. Because your going to be living in your car, hot and humid is only going to make you miserable. Keep this in mind, for every 1000 feet in elevation the temperature drops 3 degrees. So at 10,000 feet elevation in Leadville Colorado in summer will average 65 to 70 degrees while in the south temps will be in the 90's.
You should be close if not ready to pull the trigger on this adventure. Let's go through a list of things that need to be done and things that should have already been done.
Absolute secrecy is a must.
Plan your plan and stick with it.
Take your time and be patient.
Get your money situation taken care of.
Gather up important documents, your vehicle title, birth cert, etc.
Kill all social media accounts.
Change your phone number.
Switch everything possible to electronic delivery, bank accounts, etc.
Get a new email address.
Get a burner phone and stay in contact with trusted relatives and friends, keep location option on phone turned off.
Keep gas tank full close to departure date.
Remember the art of deception.
Leave brochures and papers laying around about somewhere like the Florida Keys or Nova Scotia.
Plan your plan and stick with it.
Take your time and be patient.
Get your money situation taken care of.
Gather up important documents, your vehicle title, birth cert, etc.
Kill all social media accounts.
Change your phone number.
Switch everything possible to electronic delivery, bank accounts, etc.
Get a new email address.
Get a burner phone and stay in contact with trusted relatives and friends, keep location option on phone turned off.
Keep gas tank full close to departure date.
Remember the art of deception.
Leave brochures and papers laying around about somewhere like the Florida Keys or Nova Scotia.
When and if you feel like the time has come and your ready, you have everything squared away, pull the trigger and go for it.
Just wait now for an opportune time for the getaway. for example, He's at work is great, that means you'll have more than enough time. If he's one of those that don't work, just wait for him to be hanging with a buddy, gone fishing or something like that.
Go ahead and put the key in the switch and go. You have the rest of your life in front of you.
Now that you've got a good distance away, find a WiFi and go to Cheap RV Living website and scroll through, you'll find lots of groups that you might like to get involved in. You'll need the companionship and you'll be able to make new and interesting friends.
Remember don't worry about what other people think
I wish you the best of luck.
Just Go For It, A Life Of Travel Adventure Awaits!
~Chaz~
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