• Life Advice & Visual Arts Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    🌌 Share Your Dreams! 🌌
    📸 15 Years of Photo Contests 📸
  • LAVA Moderator: Shinji Ikari

Homeless by choice

Hitching a ride

This thread has just become really important to me. I started writing my reply until I realised that it would be more appropriate as a journal entry, but I'd still like any advice available.

Journal entry

Does anyone have any hints/tips to hitching a ride, what to look for/avoid with potential rides, etc.?
 
I lived like this about 10 years ago. It wasn't intentional, it just happened. Started partying, and living, and didn't stop. I went from one friends to anothers, and we traveled from one party to another. You meet someone everywhere you go, and find connections for the next destination. It was the best time of my life. If it weren't for my children, I would still be doing it. I think it also does wonders for your sense of security, even though you would think just the opposite. I was always taken care of and never lacked anything I needed, yet I never held a job or my own home. Wanderlust is the perfect definition for how I feel, all the time. You just get suffocated, and feel like you are literally dying inside when life remains the same on a daily basis. Some people just need adventure.

I am getting ready to tell my parents they need to take the kids for a few weeks so I can put a few things on my back and hop on a plane. I never got to backpack through antoher country, and I regret it. I spent some time in south america, ecuador, and loved hanging out at the cafes with the backpackers. I had my son with me, and this was a structured trip, though long...Anyway, if you are young and only have yourself to take care of, I highly recommend it.

I just had to edit to add more. This may be cheesy, but it really is such a spiritual experience. And I am also reminded of buddha dropping out of his safe life, christ wandered with no definite place to lay his head at night....maybe you nomads will be the next big religion :D ;)
 
Last edited:
Hitman-- Do not display racist behavoir and do not insult people in my forum.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
[DD's edit-- Please do not feed the troll]

And to be on topic, being homeless, in some sense of it, sounds very appealing to me at times in my life. But more so living the Walden Pond kind of life, or the really simple life in Arcata, with nothing except food, guitar and the beach....ahhhh, life would be so much rewarding I think. And less stressful for sure.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I am not homeless nor would I become homeless by choice, but I knwo this lady and her son and his wife were homeless by choice. They had money and his mom even said she would by him a house. He still didn't want it.... at least at the time he didn't. Last I heard he finally decided to get a house.
 
phactor said:
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.
Click to expand...

I knew someone who did...voices in his head told him to do so. he told me it was fun....he left with no money at all and ended up at a free festival miles from home where he could drink for free.

i wish u good luck :)
 
I'd love to do something like that, just kind of travel the country doing whatever with whoever.

I'm not the kind of person who could see herself living the whole 9-5 thing. To me it just seems a bit mundane and ultimately pointless.

Wanna live, dammit! So in a few years, who knows...?
 
that's always been my fall-back plan if things don't work out :)

I'm far too deep now to jump ship though, and I'm sure my family would hire an assassin to hunt me down and kill me. But as it is I can't see myself making even $10/hour in my life, after all this damn Uni education, nor do I really want any part of typical suburban, married, family, monetary life.
I don't think I could survive on the road though, if I don't eat a whole lot each day I risk losing what little weight I have left. And how I could live without music is beyond me.
 
Ok this thread really got me thinking after I posted, and I was already having that intense boredom setting in daydreaming about selling everything and my family moving to some third world country where we could live cheaply and explore the country every weekend.

Anyway, I have decided I found the next best thing. Hi tech homeless....my husband has the option of taking some contract positions doing what he did in the army, bomb disposal...basically like the guys over in Iraq getting killed, the contractors. But not there, there is no way. Hubby wouldn't leave us for any amount of time, and it isnt' worth losing him. But they have an opening right now in Hawaii for 10k a month. And there, we could take the family, safe enough. That is a lot of money. It is only a yr long contract, so then we would need to find another. But it shouldn't be difficult since as long as I have known him and his buddies, they are always discussing one or two good ones. This would be so ideal for me. We could keep our home here and rent it out, so we always have someplace to go, and it shouldn't be too hard to get back into a career doing what he is now, most likely with the same company.

Anyway, I thought I would share since it goes with this. Homeless doens't have to mean penniless and no clean sheets at night. Those of you with the intense wanderlust but realistic expectations for yourself and family can get creative and do it other ways.

*runs off to check rental prices in oahu*=D

also, with no experience, you can look into something like truck driving. (yeah, i know, redneck...so what!) pays well, and you can go all over.

Also, I used to sell timeshare. A lot of my friends would rotate companies every few months, going someplace new, mexico, domestic locals, carribean islands....it pays very well, and no experience is necessary in sales. start with a domestic location, and be a consistent producer and you can go anywhere you want. Just ideas :\
 
Last edited:
I did the homeless backpacker thing for a while last year. Our first time out a buddy and I hitched from Chicago to Taos, New Mexico, then up to Eugene, Oregon and finally down to Eureka California. We had a great time and mainly hitch hiked, although a lot of the time we spent hiking. We took full backpacking gear including camp stoves, tents, water purifiers, etc. The second time we went from Ely Nevada to Las Vegas and then to Berkely California. That was a lot of fun, met a lot of great people and learned a lot about staying safe on the road. I would be glad to elaborate if you want. I have a lot of useful information, and if you are looking into train hopping I have the crew change manual. Cheers
 
Liberating?

I worked as a social worker with homeless people for 7 years. Myself and the other social workers I worked with came to see homelessness as prison except instead of being locked in, you are locked out. It's a very hard, very dangerous life. Once your in it, it's hard to get out. I would run sensetization excercises on the streets on NYC and ATL where I'd take a group of volunteers out on the street for a 24-48 hour period just to see what it's like and what it takes to survive. Trust me. Life on the streets is harsh. You lose something of yourself while on the streets... sanity being one of those things. I'd highly recommend you volunteer at a soup kitchen, or shelter a few times before hitting the road.
 
What an interesting thread! I'm sure that wandering is something that I absolutely must do soon, once I can get some money together. I've no long-term commitments at all (no college, uni, job, girl, house) so I can pretty much pack up and leave somewhere when I want to.

blahblahblah: what advice can you give me on travelling by motorbike? you say you've done this before and I'd love to be cruising around like in Easy Rider. I'm thinking of how easy it is to sleep in a camp site or something if need be? Learning to ride a bike has been on my to-do list for a while (like many other things) and I think i've got as good a reason as any to get it done soon.

What are peoples oppinions on travelling solo? I think this is almost a certainty for me right now, and probably best as I don't have to compromise :)
 
Depending on how you are traveling, solo can be great! If you plan on hitching around or riding trains I would highly reccomend going with at least one other person. You can get in some sticky situations if you aren't careful. As far as riding around on a motorcycle, it can be great too. The only thing with that, you have to have gas money or camp site money. Although, if you are reasourceful enough you can always make a quick buck. Some good idea's are flying a sign (Traveling, Broke, and Hungry always worked well) or begging or even freestyle rapping. The last requires two people though, one for the beatbox, one for the rapping. Are you in the USA? If so, I know some great routes depending on what you are looking for. There are some that are great for scenery, others are good for certain recreational activities. Cheers...
 
Myself and the other social workers I worked with came to see homelessness as prison except instead of being locked in, you are locked out.
Click to expand...

I think you probably dealt with a different type of homelessness. The alcoholics, scitzophrenics, etc... There is actually a huge subculture of people who hike/ride around out of their own choice. It definitely is quite dangerous but not quite the same as what you are speaking of. I too have spent about 4 days homeless in downtown Chicago. It is not fun, probably one of the scariest, most stressful things I have ever been through. But it is comepletely different being homeless out on the open road. Even smaller towns like Santa Fe aren't so bad if you know what you are doing. Cheers.
 
Gonna bump this...

So obviously I never really traveled yet (except for touring but that really isn't the same). I decided to go back and finish school first (only 1 and 1/2 years left) which is going great. I'm gaining alot of confidence now that will probably serve me once I do start to travel.

I would eventually like to do some backpacking in India,Thailand etc.. alot of Europeans seem to do this but not too many Americans and also some more stuff around the states.

When I wrote that message I doubt I'd have been able to pull it off but now I know I could.

Anyone else have anything to contribute?
 
I do a lot of traveling. the only thing different than what I do is I don't associate it with bumming. you're traveling, and you'd be surprised at the many ways you can fill your wallet w/o the depravity of pan handling.

but yeah, since someone could use this advice - it's amazing how easy it is to get quick cash at gas stations. go to older women, slightly primp looking and explain to them your sob story on how your girlfriend's an alcoholic so therefore she kicked you out so therefore you need gas money ASAP. you'd be surprised to how many people will throw you some bones this way.
 
Blue_Lava said:
Liberating?

I worked as a social worker with homeless people for 7 years. Myself and the other social workers I worked with came to see homelessness as prison except instead of being locked in, you are locked out. It's a very hard, very dangerous life. Once your in it, it's hard to get out. I would run sensetization excercises on the streets on NYC and ATL where I'd take a group of volunteers out on the street for a 24-48 hour period just to see what it's like and what it takes to survive. Trust me. Life on the streets is harsh. You lose something of yourself while on the streets... sanity being one of those things. I'd highly recommend you volunteer at a soup kitchen, or shelter a few times before hitting the road.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't it be fiar to say that sanity is one of the things youi generally lose before you become homeless, rather than afterward. I can't find the reference, but isn't it something like 7 in ten homeless people have preexisting psychological conditions?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top