One thing nearly all of the vloggers I've watched over the years have in common, aside from being photogenic (which I am NOT) and being willing to open up their lives to public scrutiny, is the ability to make even mundane things appear somewhat glamorous, thereby enticing viewers to live vicariously through their videos.
I know that's an over-simplification, but I already tend to write at length in a 30-second soundbyte world.
There are families on the road, couples out exploring, and singles who have opted to live out of a van or camper or motorhome. A few do take the time to discuss things like health insurance, and the need to have a domicile for registering your vehicles and getting your mail, but very few people have actually solved some of the problems I have encountered so they haven't helped me all that much.
Most of the YouTube Vloggers who have large followings are coming into the lifestyle from positions of plenty. I have lost track of the number of people I've encountered in Facebook Groups, on Blogs, and on YouTube who are out of touch with the fact that not everybody lives in an RV because they want to exit the rat race and see the world.
Not everybody can say they walked away from a lucrative job, sold the house, bought a $300K motor home and are living off their savings because they made such smart investments. If you spend too much time watching YouTube videos of RV Vloggers, however, you can easily come to the conclusion that there are no poor people living the RV Lifestyle.
I find this rather ironic because just like the Tiny House movement has been monetized to the max, so has the idea of living the RV Lifestyle. Poor people have been living in travel trailers and tiny houses for a long, long time, but now all of a sudden, it's sexy to live in an RV and travel, and it's a badge of honor to pay as much for a tiny house as for a large one elsewhere.
In real life, most of the RVers I've met have been working at places like Amazon not for the thrill, but because they need the money and once you get hired into Camperforce that first time, it's fairly easy to return season after season. There's a lot to be said for the knowledge that you can always go to Amazon if your other plans don't pan out.
If I have a point, and honestly, I'm not really sure I do beyond my premise that I don't think I'm ever going to do a youtube channel about my RV travels, it's that youtube is not an accurate reflection of the real world any more than reality TV is actually real. Real is often boring, mundane, and dreary. Real is often hard, sad, and confusing. Real is not rewarded unless it can be slanted in such a way as to become entertainment.
So ... when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping ... on Amazon, of course. Here's the obligatory Amazon shopping link to get you started. I just like this image a lot. It makes me think of my little sister, who loves horses the way I love chocolate and peanut butter. The image is called "Band of Thunder" and this product is a tree free journal. Long ago when Squidoo was alive and well, I had an entire page that was dedicated to items with this particular painting. I always thought it somewhat unreal how many people decorated their homes and especially bathrooms with these horses.
Thanks for reading!
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