The hardest part about living the way we do is finding a spot to park. I honestly thought it would be much easier than this. And now as we come close to our first year mark for living this way, I am reflecting on our various places we have parked on and how we are still searching for our fifth place to park for the summer/ potentially getting a pup.
Important question: Does anyone know someone in the Boulder, Eldorado Springs, Niwot, Lyons area looking to make some extra cash for us to park on their land?
Last June we left my then apartment I rented with a college friend and embarked on our adventure travel home lifestyle. And since then, we have lived in a couple different places:
- We moved our travel trailer with us as we went to Salida, CO for a fun fishing, beer festival trip.
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- PROS:
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- We stayed on BLM land for free.
- Vacations are always amazing, am I right?
- Met some pretty amazing people at the BLM lands.
- Incredible sunsets.
- Had a little community of people living the same way we were, which was nice.
- CONS:
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- We had to leave after four days.
- We don’t live down there, so driving back up with our travel trailer was difficult.
- Hitching back up to the truck…. it will always be our arch nemesis.
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Our second place we unhitched, but first actual place we settled down for, we lived up in the mountains near Gold Hill and Sugarloaf Rd. During the summer months you can park for free, as long as you move every 14 days.
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- PROS:
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- Saving rent money! Literally parking your home for free.
- Living somewhere beautiful, quiet, relaxing with hiking adventures at your finger tips
- No wifi, both a pro because it is amazing having no one to answer to
- CONS:
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- Far from town, and for Corbin, who works in Boulder, this was a struggle waking up at 5am and leaving by 5:20am to get down to work.
- Far from town, so when you needed something you had at least a 30+ minute drive to get there. We communicated a lot about who was going to get what food for the night.
- No wifi, a con because Corbin couldn’t get ahold of me when I was at home and he was down at work, made for communicating what’s for dinner a challenge.
- Our third place we settled in for longer term was in Boulder at the most perfect spot. We were off Canyon Rd. right before you head up to Nederland, and right by the Boulder creek. It was this place called Silver Sadle Motel. And we parked in the back with about 10 other RVs, Trailers, Tiny Homes. We were there for four months, August through November before shut down.
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- PROS:
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- The location, literally right where we wanted to be so we could hike anywhere, fish right after work at the creek.
- The price was amazing, $10 a day to park there, so each week we paid $70 cash for the week.
- A cute little community of other tiny home people.
- Close to Pearl St, library, grocery stores.
- Met lots of hilarious old men, especially one who lived out of a boat.
- Super close to the YMCA where we can workout and shower.
- CONS:
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- It ended, the place got bought out by Boulder County. They are demolishing the motel and making new condos there.
- Some sketchy people sometimes, people were in and out so we had to make sure we were always locking up everything.
- The last weekend we were there our neighbor got his boat broken into and had lots of things stolen. 😦
- And finally the spot we have been for the last five months. We are in Erie, Colorado on one of my coworker’s land. She heard our lifestyle through some other teachers and offered for us to park on her land for the same price we paid at our last location ($300 for the month, which comes to $10 a day).
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- PROS:
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- The price, saving money is always, always, always a plus.
- Close to my work, literally a 15 minute drive to my school.
- Quiet, lots of space, and super nice neighbors.
- The view of the whole mountains. We see the white-tipped mountain peaks from our trailer.
- CONS:
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- Far from what we like to do. We have at least a thirty minute drive to get to the mountains to go camping, fishing, all the fun stuff.
- When we are home, we are home. Because we are out in Erie, far from any hoppin’ town we don’t go out very much or don’t do as much as we would like.
- We feel lazy because we stay at home a lot more than we did when we lived other places.
- Far from where we shower/workout at the YMCA.
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And for our fifth place? We are currently looking. I have our craigslist ad out there, hoping for a bite. Think about it…
- PROS:
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- We are completely self-sustaining, so we wouldn’t need anything from our land tenants.
- We keep to ourselves, mostly gone on weekends.
- We would be giving you $300 extra dollars a month without you doing anything!
- We are really low maintenance, we would hardly bother each other at all. Right now we barely see our neighbors and we are no more than 50 ft away from their house.
So as I reflect about our past parking places, I think about all the good times we have had at each one and all the good times about to be had at other locations. The beauty in our lifestyle is the ability to move around to multiple locations. As we get closer to the school year being out, I have the availability to be in the mountains, but my partner doesn’t.
We found a craigslist ad offering a spot to park in exchange for 17hrs/week of gardening/ maintenance on their property. We almost had it! We lost the place to a Navy couple where the husband doesn’t work. But regardless, I always think everything is for a reason, so that wasn’t meant to be.
We are so willing to find a farm land spot to help a family out on their land/ watch their kids/watch their dogs? in exchange for a spot to park our tiny home. I have one more year getting my master’s degree and Corbin is about to start working towards a degree. We have hopes and dreams that keep us going and keep us wanting to life our lifestyle to save money, and save time on our commute to work. We just need a lovely person or family to take us in.
Wild-Free 