Living in a taco.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/living-full-time-in-a-toyota-tacoma?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

I enjoy reading these articles, I wish they did follow-ups to see how he is doing now and what he might have changed or improved to his rig.

 

https://www.andrewfitts.com/writing

 

Sweet, thanks!
This Dude (Andy) is definitely enjoying life.

 

Looks so uncomfortable for a long term setup.

Honestly, I don't know how people can do this sort of thing full time. I'd get sick of it in under a month flat.

To each his own though!

 

It's not for the sleeping accommodations, it's for getting out in the world and seeing/doing things. Giving up material possessions for experiences. Life is all about experiences.

I totally get it. If I had figured it out earlier in life, I might do the same. Now, I'm looking for ways I can save for retirement and get those experiences. I'm not doing too bad, but it could be better.

 

He's not living IN that Tacoma, he's living OUT of it. Big difference.

 

Nicely put.

His mentality reminds me of a guy I met in Istanbul when I was in my 20s on a “backpack around the world until my meager savings run out” trip. The guy had been a successful computer programmer in the Netherlands until one day when he looked at the main doorjamb in his home and realized he could blink and ten years would be gone, and he’d still be looking at that same room the same way. He broke up with his girlfriend, sold his house, and the journey began. That mindset and unmoored lifestyle isn’t for everyone or even most, and it requires confidence and a sense of financial security and risk. But I think your 20s is a great time to do radical stuff, especially if your future might include marriage, children, and other things that lock you down to a certain locale.

Then again, I know starving OG artist-hippie types that were living out of their Toyotas like this for decades (more humble camper shell builds, though), and it sounds like it might get old after you start hitting the double digits.

 

I did something fairly similar last summer. Divorced, plenty of savings... didn’t want to buy another house without seeing the world first. So I kicked my comfy federal gig, bought a brand new Taco, loaded up the dog and cruised the USA. The trip began & ended in Anchorage Alaska, grand total 27,000 miles and 4 months out on the road... and let me tell ya the driver’s seat on the Tacoma really wears on your ass!! Haha

From the onset it was a soul searching trip - and though I didn’t get what i’d expected, i got more than i could have asked for. For a short while I convoyed down the cali coast with another taco owner on a soul searching journey of his own. Small world out there, for how big it is.

For many reasons I ended the journey and came back home. But i’ll never forget those experiences, and I’m a better man than i was.

I went through some cargo revisions of my own, eventually settling on a rooftop tent, various bins, water gas and cooler under the tonneau, and the floorboards more or less full with detritus - And my copilot Max taking up the back seat.

Less is absolutely more in such a small vehicle.