The view outside my window is often amazing - like this, taken in North Myrtle Beach earlier this summer. I got up, walked the dog, then drove down to the beach. Along the way I stopped to take a photo of the outgoing tide from a bridge and this is what I found. Moments like these make all the hassles worth while.

Librarians, who are helpful and friendly; store clerks, strangers, the people who email me or comment on this blog - those are all the good things about life in a van. Days I can spend on a beach, or having lunch with a new client also make it worthwhile.

This week I’ve spent curled up in the van warm and comfortable, listening to the rain. After day three it started to get old, and colder. Last night, warm enough so I could sit in a t-shirt and flannel pajamas on the bed in the van until almost midnight, I listened to the wind whistling around the corners and cracks in the van. The wind was hard enough to make the van rock with each gust of rain. It was like being on a mountain ridge in a tent, only a lot drier and more comfortable. I thought about the homeless who are living in boxes on the street, or crowding into shelters and having to sleep in wet shoes and clothes so no one steals them while they sleep. A van is a luxury - especially this time around. Since 2006 I’ve insulated it (it was bare metal and a plywood floor before, now it’s got 4 inches of styrofoam insulation on the walls, 2 inches on the floor, a real bed, chest of drawers and storage, a stove, and a floor. It’s more like an RV than a stripped out cargo van with a cot and curtains at the window.

The majority of the homeless in America live under highway overpasses, or in alleys, tunnels, wherever they can find shelter. Is the man exposed to the elements any more homeless than the man who finds a box, or a shed, or a storage unit? Is the man who spends the day on the beach building sandcastles before rolling up in a beach towel among the dunes and a view like this “less homeless” than the one who huddles in a cold alley?

How much of “homeless” is attitude, quality of life and quality of our surroundings? I have a friend who has no view from his apartment window. He sees the building next door and the parking lot - overlooking the dumpster. He thinks the view my van window is better, but not worth the trade-off.

So the conversation is, what is your trade-off? Are you willing to settle for a 9-5 job, security, consistency and sameness with a week or two a year for a “vacation,” over risk, travel, adventure and the highs and lows of life on the road? What if you didn’t have a choice? What if you went in to work tomorrow and were handed a box and told you had 15 minutes to get your stuff together and leave the building, that you were being laid off? What would you do? Where would you go? What would the view outside your window be then?

I’ve received a lot of emails from women who have lived or are living, in their trucks, cars and vans. Like me, most of them saw the lifestyle as one of a free spirit before they hit 40 or 50….and then suddenly they too felt homeless.

The economy is changing. We’re in a “false bubble” right now, but expect unemployment and a depression to set in that will rival the depression of the 30’s in the coming decades. We will not get out of this depression in my lifetime, or maybe yours. So what will you do? How will you prepare? Are you safe? Do you have a window? What’s your view of?