Over a week ago while driving north in Wisconsin through beautiful Burnette County, my wife asked me if I wanted to go overlanding full-time. To say the least I was totally surprised by her question. She surprised me further by saying that she was open to the idea, and wanted us to think seriously about doing it.
It would mean quitting our jobs, selling or renting out our home, selling off most everything we own, putting some items in storage, and hitting the road to see North America while we lived and camped out of a vehicle.
Sounds like a big step to take that would radically change our lives! Are we seriously considering going overlanding full-time?
Yes! And no.
Overlanding: What Is It?
For those of you who may not be familiar with ‘overlanding’, it is basically living out of a vehicle and traveling around car camping. That’s the basics of it.
Overland enthusiasts tend to drive SUVs, trucks, and even vans with four wheel drive capabilities. Overlanding is not about getting to a vacation destination as fast as you can, it’s more about taking your time and seeing the back country. It’s about traveling forest roads, fire lanes, two-tracks, dirt and gravel roads, and yes paved roads too.
Overlanding is not so much about the destination as it is about the journey along the way. It’s about having everything you need to survive while camping out of your vehicle while you travel from place to place.
To get a good idea of what overlanding is and the type of overlanding my wife and I are interested in doing, check out Venture4wd on YouTube. We have been watching Chris and his overlanding adventures for the past couple years now, and is the reason why I started doing mini overland trips last year.
Going Overlanding Full-time?
While I love the idea of being able to overland full-time and seeing all the beautiful back country of North America, it would be a hard life to transition into. I admit I am strongly hesitant to do it, and as such the odds are very low of it happening.
I grew up with the core belief that a person needs a fulltime job, a regular paycheck coming in, health insurance, a good roof over my head, food on the table, money going into savings and other investments… all those things mean ‘security’ and being able to retire. The thought of walking away from all those things scares the crap out of me. My wife less so, she is ready to do it.
One To Three Years On The Road
The initial discussion between my wife and I was this: She as much as I would like to see the countryside of North America. Driving and camping in the mountains, along streams or lakes, boondocking some nights, other nights in established camping sights. Check out small towns and their mom and pop cafes, learn about often overlooked local history, get away from the day to day grind, and a whole lot more.
The talks we have been having evolve around overlanding for at least one year. Depending on how things are looking at that point we would come back home and settle down, or push onward and keep overlanding.
For me, being able to overland full-time for twelve months means having the money to sustain us. It means putting our day to day lives we currently have on hold, doing something vastly different, and if it doesn’t work out being able to come back to the structured life (or one like it) that we are familiar with.
Could We Really Overland Full-time?
If we sold most of the what we have, rented out our home, and cashed in some investments. . . yes, we could overland for perhaps a year. If we could find a way to make money along the way, we could go even longer. I do have some skills that would allow me to work part-time on the road by contracting myself out for web-design and drone flight services.
Perhaps if we were lucky enough a YouTube channel or Patreon Page could also keep us financed, but that would take some time to build up a following.
There is a lot to think about.
But is it going to happen? Not likely. It saddens me to say it, but it is nice to think about and dream.
While it is not likely going to happen, overlanding full-time is still being kicked around.
TD
