Homeless by choice

Has anyone decided to become homeless out of there own free will? Maybe spent a year or two just hitchhiking or travelling some other cheap way? Any backpackers here? I'm thinking about doing this in a year or two and would like to hear others experiences.

i once met a man in a restrom, who claimed to be a bum for 3 years living on a train, he called it "the best years of his life". he had a finger missing, and seemed to be very drunk. hes my idol, i think im gonna be a bum for a little while at some point

Good old urban jungle. I spent a couple days chilling riding around with some car jacking crackheads in Bankhead, GA(where T.I is from). It was really stupid putting myself in such a situation seeing how I am white and it was my friend who was driving his car. Somehow the crackhead conned my friend into letting him drive the car. Eventually the crackhead started getting really desperate for some crack so he kept trying to find ways to make us get out of the car. I told him I'm not going anywhere and that I know exactliy what he's trying to do. He went into a fit of rage and turned around like he was going to punch me. Good thing I had a tire wrench in my hand under the seat. This really got my adrenaline rushing and angered me greatly. I swung the tire wrench in his face and told him that if he tried anything remotely similar I'd fucking kill him. He was surprised I even had a tire wrench and and was confused about what he should do. He was even more confused when I gave him the wrench(there was no way he could hit me from the front). Anyways after he stopped viewing us as easy targets we had some very interesting conversations. Pretty sad what 15 years of crack use can do to a bright individual.

Not all bums are crackheads. Some do it as a source of income(like crackheads but in more legitimate ways). It's easy to make over $200 in a day if you know how to push people's buttons. Some do it for the lifestyle. I may do it one day for the experience also.

If your looking for a good way to travel look into trains. Train hopping I hear is a great way to get around the country.

Train Hopping is really really dangerous... Hitchhiking is much safer. I'd love to learn how to hope trains but I'd need an experienced guide first

From what I've gathered and I'm no expert so don't take my word for it. If it's a really long chain of carts the last cart(caboose or whatever) will be going fairly slow. I've tried catching up to one a couple months ago out of curiosity and it didn't take very much effort. But yeah don't try to grab on from the side or anything I don't think that is safe at all.

I met a young guy trying to kick his drug problem in NA who has the wanderlust. He says it always gets to him at about 90 days clean; he wants to fuck everything, and hitch hike across the country like he used to. He says he usually ends a trip with much more money than he started with. Once, he left atlanta with 20 bucks, and worked his way to california cleaning rigs for truckers, and relying on nice old ladies for food and money. He said theres nothing more liberating than having nothing on you aside from your pack, if that. I'm inclined to believe him; sounds like a great way to see the country.

nothing to lose everything to gain

sounds very liberating indeed

Read "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakuar. It's a fun read dealing with this very subject.

I'm a nomad, but not a hardcore one by any means. There is something very very liberating about selling or giving away all your stuff and just hopping a bus or train or plane somewhere. I've done it a number of times.

The only people I don't suggest do this are people who are trying to run away from something. You can't run away from yourself, and you can't run away from bad karma.

Trains are THE BEST way to travel! If you don't want to ride the rails or jump in a boxcar, in some countries (not the USA), you can buy a "standing ticket" for no seat very cheaply, and spread out your sarong on some empty patch of floor. Later, if there are empty seats, you can bargain with the conductor for an upgrade.

I'm planning on travelling in the near future, India for the main part......But i'm not going to sell all my possessions and just go, though believe me, I have seriously considered this at times.....No, i'm just saving before I go, then seeing how long 3 grand will last, though if i ran out of money i suppose i could try finding work for a bit.....Who knows.
I might consider this lifestyle of just saving then going travelling again constantly for a number of years to be honest, to me it sounds the ONLY way to really live.....It sounds about the most liberating thing you can do. It's certainly completely changed one of my best friends in very positive ways.
There is a whole world outside of our tiny insignificant '9-5' worlds. The real world. I'd very much like to experience as much of it as possible before I die. That's my ambition.

Phactor: Might be worth talking to ebeneezer since he's been travelling (India I think).

I think you should defiantely do it mate.

I once spoke to a homeless person who told me he had decide to make this his lifestyle, as he was sick of the bullshit and standards that society placed on people. A strong stance if you ask me...

Maybe oneday it all just becomes to much...

shals :D

I have a friend that lived in south central philly for 3 months, homeless, by choice. She said it completely changed her perspective on humanity and life overall. she then recomended that I try it.

shal, what you said reminds me of another thing I was going to say: the fringes of society are often populated by a very intelligent crowd, who are above the system, know so, and are often reminded of why they don't need it. For some of them, a station in life that's lowly by most people's standards is a great cover for privacy. Fewer people bother you or even notice you in the first place.

I love the fact that in the movie Bruce Almighty, God was a janitor. I don't buy the whole one omnipowerful god thing, but if I were a superhuman being walking among us with extraordinary powers, I'd even wonder if a janitor was too high profile.

I think I believe in divine insanity. I think there are some people who most physicians would consider mentally disabled, but who actually have access to a higher view of the real picture than most of us, accidentally due to their handicap. That's probably not the majority of insane people, but these types are very real.

^ I watched Bruce almighty last night

Anyways, I have backpacked Europe before and its quite easy to disappear for months and relatively cheap also. I had a blast and a half, just buy a Euro-Pass and let the summer unwind, I was there for Phish Euro tour 95 or 96 I forget.

I have been homeless (by dope fiend choice) in Chicago and lived day to day having more good times, Chicago is a hard city for the homeless as there is not a big undercurrent of drifters as the dopee/drug scenes are rather not in the right places. In NYC there seems to be a much bigger group of homeless kids, I chalk it up to how the heroin trade works there as it is available in 'better neighborhoods' there was a whole underground network of street kids there tattooed up with 'Low-Life' tatoo's on there wrists above and below a trashcan.

In the winter they either shelter it or flop house hotel it or crashpads. The smarter ones pick up and move on. This one chick I met would do a big loop of the USA. NYC in the summer/fall, Mexico in the winter, Seattle in the spring, and back, they followed the nice weather and the good drugs. Funny thing is after I met this girl I was watching a MSNBC special concerning homeless dopefiends in Seattle and low and behold who pops up on the screen.

I have a few other friends that do ride trains I haven't seen them since last summer and I will probably see them again soon, every year they have a big meet-up for trainhoppers, I wish I could remember the name of the event last year it was in Wisconsin, all nomadic travelers for the msot part. It happens in mid-summer and usually coincides with summer tours. That would be a good place to jump on the wagon and ride into the sunset.

I like to travel alot I used to just use it for geographical kicks but we all know that wont work if you dont want it to. I have lived in Colorado, California, New Hampshire/Vermont, Florida, NYC, and my favorite Chicago. I havent worked anywhere I have lived. Get out there and have fun while you still can...

Ive yet to live on a commune although I was tempted when in Vermont but I already had a swell place up there so I wasnt to pushed to do it, but I probably will one day. What about the Farm, in Tennessee is that still running or did it shut down with the raids/killings(?) last year.

It would be pretty easy to chart a nice course thru the country hitting up events thru your travels, that way more ppl are around and doing the same thing.

Rainbow Gatherings, Phish Dead tours, Train meet-ups, drug travelers, blues/jazz fests, etc. etc.

Forgot to mention, when I was about 15/16, me and my mates used to hang around with the tramps under the car park....They'd buy us our alcohol from the shops, and in return we'd buy there gas for them to huff, or share our fags and a bit of the booze with them....
One of them claimed to have a university degree in chemistry, but decided to become homeless out of choice because he just didn't want to be part of the system anymore, and he says he has never regretted his decision, and he wouldn't have it any other way.......He was actually one of the smartest people i've ever met, and although he had pretty much nothing, he seemed very very happy.
It just takes so much guts and self-confidence to do something like this, like dicthing all your material possessions, or going to travel around......A lot of people I thought I could trust have tried talking me out of going travelling and are against me going and wont offer me support or anything.....Call me a dreamer for wanting to live my life differently and out of the comformist life of working 9-5 , living for the weekends, and getting tied down by morgages , credit cards , pension schemes etc etc.......fools!

Sure, there are people who choose to live the nomadic lifestyle (this does not include privileged white kids whose parents are a phone call away in case they need money/bail). The people I'm referring to are hobos. They even have a convention every year! See www.hobo.com.

i will do this later on in life. i wanna learn to tag trains and ride through the country meeting other taggers and spraying with them.

when i do it, though, ill have my i.d. and ebit card just in case. ill vow to only use it in emergency. im just not secure enough to "give it all up".

Funny that I came upon this post. Reading all the responses to this thread, although not a hobo, I've lived and accepted a long time ago, I never have been, nor will I ever fit or conform to the convenient mold and become a corporate robot. I always felt very much the outsider and honestly never have been able to relate to most of the so called normies of 9-5 lifestyle. For security, my folks urged that I "get with a large company" so that I can work for them for the next 30 or 25 years or so. When I was out of high school, I can say up through my late 20's I honestly tried, but the fact is it just wasn't/ isn't for me.

All my life, I've been searching for something, although not exactly sure what I wanted, I've always felt from a very young age what I didn't want. Aside from being involuntarily homeless, I look back and realise that I start to get restless working at a place more than 2 yrs. I get restless and start to feel stagnant, pick up and move on. Although, as I said earlier, not a train hopper, it's been my life pattern to not know exactly where I'm goin or what I'm gonna do. Time after time, I've made choices or decisions on impulse, living different places, traveling on a shoe string budget on a whim with Kathy one day and wind up with Joe getting a ride across the state or even at the last minute on a flight to anywhere, not previously planned.

I guess I'm a free spirit. I travel light, don't have credit cards, have a paid for junk car by choice. and get by on very little money. (For 5 years got by on $500/mo working my odd jobs of any type and any hrs.) I did love the feeling of riding across the state on my motorcycles years ago, feeling the wind against my face, and camping out on the side of the road or some park somewhere for the night. I guess there's no particular point to this post, other than to say coming across it made me consciencely realise I'm a drifter. Thankyou for posting this. It makes me feel better knowing there's others that are perhaps not quite the conformist corporate type either. I could just never really relate to that type of "normie" standard crowd. Thanks again for this thread.

I flipped out and lived in a tent for a couple of months, I had a good time, ran out of money and I didn't really care, always found somewhere nice to sleep. I'd recommend it. I did also go crazy but that happened before I started off on my travels.

thanks for the replies guys