On Truck Campers and Camper Shells

I kind of despise truck campers and RVs, all the particle board and soft stuff. Kind of like houses with their vinyl siding and asphalt roofs and a thousand fancy appliances, those hideous floral patterns and whatever the TV says was stylish this year or in 1980. When I find myself looking at real estate, the only real listings that are marginally interesting to me are semi-rundown hunting camps and off-grid cabins. Finding any of those marginally close to city with sufficient acreage is basically impossible.

I like the simplicity and truthfulness of camper shells and raw truck beds. I am much of a sleeping in the bed, on alseeping pads and old sleeping bags kind of guy, being able to remove and clean stuff. I really like simplicity, a rawness to life. But the cold has gotten tougher on my feet, especially as I’ve gotten later into my forties. Those diesel heaters have gotten less expensive and more popular, but I do probably need more battery capacity then I have now – going to stay with Lead Acid batteries at LiFe doesn’t charge or work as well below freezing. Old and simple is often beautiful with technology. Yeah, I’m a Linux user and write my own shell scripts to automate things.

Everyone tells me I should settle down, buy a house with all those internet televisions and one of those fancy fuel efficent, modern cars – you know the Honda and Kias with the remote start and adaptive cruise control and heated seats and TV screen dashboards. But I so despise the plastic and technology. I much prefer simple mechanical speedometers, key ignition you turn, halogen headlights, 5W30 oil, a heater you adjust with a knob and headlights you manually switch on. And I like to travel, spend my weekends in wilderness, smoking pot and riding trail on my bike, floating down rivers.