Have you ever considered becoming a wanderer?

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I was thinking, what would I do if my parents lost their house (not that they will, or are even headed there), and I was thinking well I'd just buy a camper van and live out of it and wander around doing odd jobs for food. For some reason, the wandering life appeals to autistics-parents of autistic kids frequently whine about how their kid is wandering away, breaking out windows and wandering down the street, etc.

I really think that Chris McCandless, the young man who adopted the "tramp life" and wandered to Alaska where he died, was an aspie. There's a whole tramp subculture out there of people who just wander around begging for food. The "noble vagabond" shows up again and again in American pop culture-the good hearted mystery man who swoops into a town and changes everybody's life for the better then vanishes-so I think a lot of people have that dream.

In Europe, gypsies were looked down upon, before the Nazis wiped them all out, but here in the US whole gypsy subcultures have sprung up among those not ethnically Romani. The 60s was very much a gypsy culture, right down to the colorful fabric and posters. The hippies' hero was Che Guevara, who gave up a life of luxury to drive a motorcycle around Latin America freeing the oppressed. Both Guevara and McCandless have roots in Leo Tolstoy, who gave up his wealth to be a wanderer. I think the ultimate root is none other than Jesus Christ himself, the wandering hermit preacher who touches lives everywhere he goes. That's just Western culture-going further back you have Buddha, who became a wanderer and renounced his noble position in search of greater truth, and it's possible that there may be some connection between Buddhist myths and Jesus.

Has a wanderer's life ever appealed to you? A book that American literary critics consider one of the greatest American works is a celebration of the hobo culture of the Depression-Jack Kerouac's On The Road. Along with the celebration of material wealth, America has always had a fascination for the man who refuses the siren call of the suburbs, who wanders yet is not lost.

I often think about leaving it all behind, and getting an old bus, and travel around B.C. the Yukon and Alaska, I am sick of being tied down in one place. I do have my class one drivers but only have limited experience trucking, only about 20000 km in the past year, so I really like to be on the road, any time I get the opportunity.

I am plonking my ass down in one nearly optimal area as soon as I can.

Sad how backwards that is, hippies making a hero of a man who murdered hundreds or thousands of people who just disagreed with their communist dictator. And somewhow these hippies have this idea that communism is some peace love dove woodstock concert or something.... Yeah, complete with gulags and death squads for anyone who disagrees. Che Guevara was a cold blooded killer. Making Che Guevara a "hero for the oppressed" is like giving Hitler a Nobel Peace Prize.

Last edited by snake321 on 27 Sep 2008, 10:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Che Guevara is more of an idol of left wing radicals, I don't think hippies had any interest in that murdering bastard

I have only once seriously considered this, about ten years ago. I cannot remember where I was, but I had stepped out into the parking lot for a smoke and had the overwhelming urge to just walk...with no regard for my family, nothing. I took this as a signal I might need some help...not good thoughts for a young mom to be having. I have also had fantasies about being locked up in jail. I think the real appeal to these types of thoughts is the freedom of responsiblity.

But hey, really, if we all become bums, then who will be left to beg food from?

i've lived in 5 different places in the last 5 years.


honestly, i'm not a fan of it.

I 'followed my nose' for years although I would not exaclty call it wandering. I was a chef and in that industry it is really easy to get up and move. the reason I am here in Australia is because I got pissed of in London one day and decided to move I was here 5 weeks later (helped that I have dual nationality NZ and UK), once here I spent 14 years moving around the country and overseas. spent a couple of years at sea as a ships cook, I am now in a relationship and self employed both killers to the ability to wander

What is a wanderer in your opinion? Someone who just relocates very often and moves from place to place? Or someone who really is homeless, begs people for sleeping at their place a few nights, begs for food etc?

In case of the latter: I would never ever consider that, unless for a few days as an adventurous holiday or so, but definitely not as a lifestyle. Oh god no.

In case you see wandering as just leaving your native place behind and start moving around: I considered it all my life and actually started to live that life. I have lived in 5 countries ever since leaving my native country behind. I dont regret it, I love the life as a traveller. But I believe this is not what you meant, as travellers and wanderers are different things. I may move a lot and always look across the border when I am feeling like going somewhere new, but I rent a flat everywhere, buy my own food and pay my bills with a job in whatever country I live in. So you cannot call that wandering I guess? But I have emigrated 5x in 4 years now and I do love that, so if I can do some more crossborder moves then I will be pleased to do so, settled life interests me less and less while growing older. There is a big and beautiful world out there, but I do prefer to just emigrate and have a job everywhere, rather than sleep in parks and beg for food.

I have thought of it many times.

I don't like being in one place for too long.

Yes.

Often. But, having done it for real on a couple of occasions I have come to the conclusion that in order to do it for very long you have to be either desperate, unable to do/handle anything else, or psychologically strong/relatively insensitive/committed to doing it for some powerful reason, ( as in the mythological example of Buddha) .

It would probably help to be a man aswell, because a lone woman ( or even two together) traveller/wanderer, sleeping rough and hitching, gets a lot of pressure/hassle/sexual suggestions, even when she hasn't washed properly in days/weeks .

But I will never regret doing it. Out of the three "wanderings", the 5 weeks that I spent, ( with another woman ), entirely without money, hitching, and begging, and sleeping rough were the most unforgettable. I was blown away by the vast and kind generosity of some people, and by the feeling of sleeping outside face to the sky night after night, by the experience of hunger, ( and every crumb mattered when did get something), by the gratitude I felt for a hedge of early blackberries, and the total despair I felt after more than 24 hours with nothing to eat, ( this was before I ever did any exclusion dieting and I was used to two or three meals a day).

I will never forget raiding bins in motorway-service-stations in holiday season, the amazing amounts of food, and the little girl who seeing me looking through bins brought over some bread, after which car after car stopped and people handed out fresh picnic food. We had so much we couldn't eat it all that day. I actually wrote a list of everything, aswell as what I found in the bins there and at other services, because it was such an impressive collection!!

Another time we were invited by some people we hitched a lift with to a huge 14 of July ( Bastille day) party in an old chateau in the country. There was blue champagne and fireworks, endless food, and music, and rooms for the night. When we woke up in the morning we heard the organisers, sober now, discussing whether they would have to call the police to get these potential squatters ( us) out!! It hadn't even occurred to us to abuse their astonishing hospitality.

And sitting in a big Paris train-station people-watching, ( as usual; there isn't much else to do when you have no money or shelter) a pickpocket gave us a packet of cigarettes and some money to "go away" ( keep off his pitch) ! Even after just 5 weeks ( it was on the way back), money felt like a strange and alien thing. And being inside a house again was also totally weird.

I did something similar years later, but with a tiny amount of money, and it didn't feel the same. The sensation of having no money, and being directly dependent on others for my food, for those few weeks at least, was curiously intoxicating, though the first time I ever begged, at a food stall, after a day of no food, was terrifying. I don't think that I would have dared do it, nor scavenging off restaurant tables and from bins, if I hadn't done it a little with a group of wanderers I had met and hung out with a year before when travelling on a shoestring, and if I had not been completely penniless.

And landscape changes its meaning. Where can you sit down for "free"? Where can you be, without money. It is surprising how many places become out of bounds.

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The nazis did not wipe out all the gypsies; I saw their camps when traveling in Europe, and they are still looked down upon. They work a lot of the agricultural harvests, moving from place to place with the seasons.

You made some good points about freedom on the road. I personally collect too many possessions (books, cooking tools, etc) and I like to garden, so my preference is to settle. But for each their own!

Last edited by monty on 28 Sep 2008, 12:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

That has become the case for me. I would have to be able to keep a place on somewhere to put everything, and to come back to. And I have a 9 year old son.

If I had enough money to do it safely and comfortably, ( peaceful hotel rooms etc ), I would love to travel the world for months every year, ( new places every week!! ), but I don't think that that is quite the same as wandering.

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Great story, ouinon. You should write a book. I read a book a few months ago by a young girl who lived for years under the platforms of Grand Central Station. I found it quite interesting how she was able to express the normalcy which becomes associated with that lifestyle after some time. She went through outreach programs to 'learn' how to live in society and found herself feeling out of place in a home, longing for her old ways. Very good read...I must say.

Let me say that I lived a semi-vagabond life for a while. In 1998 my rent went up by 15%, and I could no longer afford it on my disability payments. I was also worried about Y2K. I was complaining to my grandfather, and he said "why don't you buy a travel trailer and live out back here?" (He owned a couple acres.) I had dreamed of it for a while, so I did. My mom bought me a 20 year old trailer, and I put it on his land, and lived in it. It eventually fell apart, so I moved into a downtown motel that I subsequently got booted out of after another tenant started a fight with me over some minor issue. So I bought another trailer and moved back on grandpa's land. I lived there until my parents completed their house in 2005.

I've lately been seriously considering buying some land in the desert, and drilling a well, and living in a mobile home off solar power and a propane generator for cloudy days, and growing much of my own food, and simply being a hermit/semi-wanderer. I grew up in the suburbs, and have lived in cities, and that life no longer appeals to me. I am convinced that the next few years will be extremely rough in America due to the economic crisis, and it will help to have grown your own food to use for barter once the dollar collapses. I am starting a business that runs on the internet, so I will have an independent source of income.