BOB WELLS SPEAKS! A Unique Conversation with the Nomad GOAT @CheapRVliving At My Off-Grid Oasis

foreign [Applause] let's go see Bob this morning good morning Bob how you doing man ah it's cool you got your starlink on the top I don't know about that rig is so cool it's a thirsty boy let's go inside you wanna go inside all right let's go you want to go see Sierra where's those here at oh boy come here guys oh who is that I've got such good b-roll of Cody running around this morning [Music] in today's video what I've got is uh Bob Wells came to visit he and his team were here for three days last week and it was so great to hang out with them they are the coolest people and it's just fun to talk about Nomad living off-grid living also doing YouTube you know stuff like that and and the rat race and so the last day that they were here Bob and I sat on my porch and just just had a real nice casual conversation so I want to share that with y'all this morning so I hope you enjoy this nice little chat and uh thank you for tuning in Cody I I wanted to offer hope to people in this really dark time and then in 2016 uh I knew I realized by then that YouTube was the way you could communicate the most well to the most people and I have always thought of myself in the Hope providing business and I I what I want everybody to do is live their is live their life on the way they see fit because it's a happier society and we all benefit from that absolutely so I just think a bunch of miserable individuals is not a good Society no I was curious with your Channel you know you you do such a great job of providing people with all this knowledge and some you're almost like a a just like a the best teacher for nomad living and was that your intention initially or did you just like talking to people or or what was the motivation to inspire some of these people well the big why is that I fell so deeply in love with it that I first time I lived in a van was in 1995. it was so cool yeah that's cool when I there was uh no one living on the streets of their Vans back then when I was started and I at first I hated it I I was forced into it uh and then but within six months I loved it and and my whole attitude towards life and I still had to be in the corporate world I couldn't I had kids oh so I couldn't just walk away I had to support my family what were you doing in the corporate world oh well it was in the corporate world it was a rat race I call it the rat race okay uh I I look at Amazon I'm like yeah those both of them they're not good yeah those are both bad even if you win the rat race yeah you're still a rat so that's not something to be proud of right and so um you know I work for Safeway grocery stores I'd worked in a grocery store all my life I see and uh it paid well as Union clerk had good benefits it took care of my family really well so I was I did it all my life and uh I couldn't get out even after I divorced I couldn't get out because I had to be near my kids I had to support them so I was forced by the divorce I couldn't afford two households so I was forced to live in a in a van on the streets and uh after like six months I fell in love with it it became I it just became a real source of joy but every day every day I went to work and I worked with all these guys and none of them liked their job anymore than I did yeah it was still a rap race to them and they were rats in the race some were winning some were losing but they were still rats and so I wanted to do tell people you don't have to live like a rat and while I had a family I stayed and worked there until I retired and had a had a pension and when my last son turned 18 I left I got out of the Rat Race and left uh because I take care of my kids and when he at 18 he he can take care of himself he went off to college and you know he was an adult then right yeah and so then I was free I quit my job I could retire and that same year I retired and left and didn't have worked in the rat race since but I worked with all these guys and so I I wanted to tell everyone get out of the Rat Race you don't have to live that miserable life it was just an urge and I went online and found a Yahoo group this was uh 2000 five I started my website in 2005. and I went on blind and found a Yahoo group called van dwellers this was this was early internet this was 2005 and so it was pretty early internet and all these people it was had a couple it had like five six thousand members and they all asked the same exact questions they all asked the same questions because they came on and they were interested and they wanted to do it so I thought well what I'll do is I've tried to answer all the questions and so I thought I'll start the website and I'll put all the answers on the website and then when they went online they could I could just send them to my website I have a web page for that go look at it that's all I wanted to help them learn and then as they got into it they could add ask deeper more meaningful questions so I started the website and I had it going it's still going today cheap rvliving.com and uh and then in 2008 when the economy collapsed I was flooded with uh with peoples who had just been fired who had had lost their apartment were now living with their family their family just lost their job they were all having going to have to move they would they would Google how do you live cheap how do you live in your car because they were going to be living in their car and at the end I was the only one there in 2008 and so they flooded my website and it exploded I got all these because my my email all the time was on my website and they would email me and I'd I just knew I had to get this word out I had hope in a dark hopeless time and I remember those times I remember that reception today it was bad it was bitter it turned off overnight everybody's like what happened right one day the economy was just going gangbusters everybody's spending money like there was no tomorrow yeah the next day it was all over and they were on the streets and a lot of people have never come back I talked to a lot of guys at that time who were in their 50s they'd been in the company for 10 20 years uh and they were out they were gone and uh afterwards when things started to come back they were in their 50s and nobody was hiring people in their 50s absolutely ageism is a real thought there's a real thing in corporate I saw that in the sales environment where I was and I was like they phased everybody up by about 40 45. absolutely they want to get a new young guy pay them half as much he's got more energy and he doesn't have your knowledge and experience but he can almost keep up and he'll learn and eventually have you know 10 20 really productive years yeah and then they get rid of him too yeah yeah totally it's just a cog in the wheel yesterday yeah and I have always thought of myself in the Hope providing business to inspire them that they can do it and then to teach them how I look at it I look at what you've done it's like extremely valuable thing for Humanity because as we've talked about both on camera and off the corporate world and the grind is just that it's a grind it's okay and it wears most people down right and I think it takes away a lot of motivation in life too and it steals dreams and it makes you live a life that you feel you get kind of boiled down to really basic vanilla living and that's what I felt you know and so the the the good that you do through your channel I mean you've shown so many people all these different all these different folks that are doing it different ways so there's something for everybody on there and somebody can find something go yeah I can do that I love I love it when you do something out of a passion and then it and then you start to you can make a living from it and you and you didn't that was that wasn't your intention same same with this like you know with what I was doing on my channel I just like going out and camping and when I got Sierra when I saw the Joy on her face when we get on hiking trails I'm like we're doing this every day because it brought so much joy to my life to see her so happy right and then we got out and started started meeting people and met other Nomads who had such an interesting perspective on the perspectives on life you know I noticed like this is after you know 2008 and I had been trying to put my life back together and obviously we're in 2015 when I hit the road but it seemed like that that hangover from 2008 just held for years for so many people oh yeah and it's still haven't recovery yeah it's hungover the the economy for so long and when I went out in 2015 the thing I noticed the most is the people that were out full time all they wanted was just an opportunity to be happy yes that's that it wasn't like hey I want to inherit a billion dollars I want to live at the big house on the hill I just want to have a good day you know and I want to have it without the corporate grind and I don't want that toxic environment in my life and I just I I once I once I identified that I clung onto that and I was like this is my Saving Grace and it brought me back you know maybe believe in people again because I did not I was not a fan of humanity when I hit the road I had gone through so much with the prescription pills and corporate life wasn't going well once I was deemed unemployed my my income just went in the toilet and things were a struggle and then I got back out on the road and I was like there are good people you know you get away from the news cycle and you get away from the hustle and bustle society and get out nature and most Everyone's an awesome person but you know with your channel it's just I just look at that I have so much respect for what you've done and your dedication to it you know you've been doing it for a long time and you still have that same solid message of get out there and live your life on your terms yeah something I learned I a thought that occurred to me a long time ago is a thought that I hold on to and cherish and that was the idea of the Titanic you know when they when the Titanic ship had sank of course went down uh it had it had only half as many lifeboats as it needed but so half the people were gonna die no matter what because the water was so cold and with the when they went the boats down it was such a chaos that a lot of the boats left they could hold like 60 70 people and a lot of them left with five or ten people yeah and um and then the the there was always a ship's crew member on the boat because they had to man the boat and they would say let's go back we're going to go back we can't leave these people in the water and the people in the boat would Mutiny and say no they'll swamp us and we'll all die kind of a valid point yeah but they would say that and and they would they would threaten him we will kill you and throw you over we will not go back now that's that's all documented stories yeah so that what eventually in the dark they all met and they transferred them in and the boats boat to boat the empty boats got together and became full boats and then those guys went back but they were all dead by them I think they recovered one person out oh yeah I I remember reading about that they recorded one person yeah and he was like well he was like almost Frozen all the way through I think that one guy did recover but yeah it was so it took so long for them to gather together get all transferred come back so I the idea occurred to me and I I have over the years people have written me so many times uh told me in person stop telling people they're gonna swamp the boat we don't want more people out here yes I learned about it from you but that's all no more right I get that they got in the boat we're safe and they didn't want anybody else in and so my I needed an answer to those people and the Titanic that's a great analogy it is I the Titanic's going down I believe with all my heart the Titanic's going down people are already in the water I've got like I've got a fleet of light bulbs I want to get as many people in that Lifeboat and that that visual image is what motivates me every day and you're right I mean they I get it on mine too hey I love what you do I'm doing a two but don't you need to stop promoting it I'm like no this is for everybody this is a blueprint for anybody who wants to get out of that no yeah I can't claim my happiness you can't claim your happiness at the expense of someone else absolutely that's a great mindset I don't know I I never thought I'd like it like I did I mean I I thought for a year my God I left it was like a long road trip that first year yeah but then to actually live on it and settle into it there's there's a rhythm you get into that's Indescribable and I haven't found it in any other any other activities that I've done or ways of living even backpacking is not the same the truck campaign for me you know I get out in these areas with Sierra in the middle of nowhere and I know you do the same with your rig and with Cody and you have those special moments where like you know the eagle flies by or the deer runs past and you're the only person that's seeing that right then and I I look at those moments I I think those are the most special moments and as a way of slowing life down and really putting things under perspective you know it's important to to stay connected to who you are because I lost who I was in the corporate world I I became a robot for 19 years especially the last part of it when I was on pills it was horrible and I'll never go back to that and I'm glad I'm glad that happened because that that showed me what I don't want in life and all this stuff out here the more I learn about people living off grid and the neat ways they do it and everybody does it a little bit different it's just exciting and it's like engaged living you know you're living you're actually living you're not just making it through a day well one of the key things that I've discovered is that although we're all you know I'm I consider myself very much an introvert I I go and hide I try to get away from people but even the most introverted of us the most who needs to be the most in the back country wants to connect yep you want to talk about your new life you want to share your new life you want to help new people uh and so I one of the things I wanted to do right away was to start a way of connecting with other people so I told you I joined the Yahoo group my first group Meetup was in a Yahoo group so we all go online we'd be on this uh it's a forum and uh we'd say well I live in all the first one I went to was in Ohio and in Ohio they have a bunch of uh utility land that the utilities have to offer Recreation on so they're free that's cool it is really cool and so uh they said we're going to meet on this Campground it's free uh beautiful come and join us history cover actually recovered land it was a coal mine they recovered it and they have to use it for recreation that's awesome it is cool uh yeah it's a I think it's a big electric utility where it might be the coal mine I don't know at any rate we went there and there were like eight of us 10 of us and it was so great to meet these people who love just what you loved and you felt this connection and bond and you shared and you learned and uh ever since then I knew that I really wanted to provide a means of connection so in 2011 I started the RTR rubber trap rendezvous and the first one had 45 people the next one had 90 the next one had one had a couple hundred and it's grown ever since but it's that place where we all come together and I started a forum my own Forum because by then Yahoo had wasn't as big I started my own forearm people could come and join the Forum meet friends make connections we all need that yeah and you find it I don't I'm sure you'll testify to this too you find deeper more connection more friends uh as a nomad than you ever had in your old life 100 yeah it's it's a it's a bond and an understanding of a different way of living that you can't describe to someone else that doesn't know it or doesn't live it because people ask me what's it like I'm like yeah yeah just go do it yeah okay it's like me trying to explain a haircut over the phone you're not going to get it no you know so it'll taste the chicken yeah yeah yeah exactly it tastes like chicken and you know you're right about that that connection back there because I I pushed it really far by like my third year I wasn't talking to people very much and I started to realize I'm like I need more connection with people right and that's when I started to reach out to The Nomad friends that were you know in four by four trucks and we could all do trips together and stuff like that and man that was just what I needed and then now I've got a wonderful group of friends they're all Nomads or most of them or you know at least part time and we have great stories and good places where we go and we all have that perspective from being on the road which is something that I'm so thankful for right and the travel too to know of all these wonderful places that are still not discovered there's still a million places out there where people can go with no one so I encourage people to get out there and just you know live life on their terms [Music] perfect [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: Off-Grid Backcountry Adventures

Views: 20,462

Keywords: off, grid, homestead, arizona, diy, build, cabin, atv, polaris, sportsman, winter, camp, hot, tent, overland, toyota, tacoma, dog, travel with

Id: HWVRckyv9Uc

Length: 21min 30sec (1290 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 17 2023