Pirate John's "Independence, Texas USA"

This thread is quiet.

How about a rider-friendly place for RVers, tiny home folks, and wandering riders?

I am thinking something like this near a Texas border town:

I think you're on to something...

Have one of these places for summer, one for winter, along with a delivery service between the two for the towed homes. Long-term, reliable, predictable clients would be great.

And a clubhouse with big screen TV, pool table, pinball....

And a big common garage space.

And! And!

I like the attractive RV park posted by PirateJohn -- would definitely not mind living in a place like that. I'd like to have covered and secure storage for my car / bike / tools, though. Throw a gate on the front of the carport, and a shed behind it, and I'd be good.

Reading more into the converted airstreams, I think it could work for me (I'm planning on living full-time in whatever I get). I'm thinking my best option is to buy some land and either build a small house and garage, or get a metal barn (30'x40') and a converted airstream. I've got some ideas floating around regarding what I'd build.

Not sure if this one was already posted, but here's a cool old garage conversion: http://tinyhousetalk.com/garage-converted-to-a-modern-small-house/

It started life as a garage in France. Now it's a nice, modern home. What the pictures don't show, is that the front is a large, wooden, sliding door. The whole thing closes up into a neat little wooden box. I'd do the patio in something like paver stones, instead of wood, to give you a place to park; but overall, I like the design. I've been playing around with the "sleeping loft over top of a small bathroom" idea for a while, seeing how it can be worked into small designs to save space.



EDIT: Looked up the example given by PirateJohn. It's done by a company in Portland called "Ideabox". They do actually have small storage alongside the carport (so there goes the tool storage problem). Nice little places. The problem with that community, along with most others like it, is that it's 55+.

Why can't a 20-something, single guy want to live in a small trailer community?

Oh yes! I have seen some very nice parks, and some that had the "party people" in attendance.

I can think of two parks that were large enough to have both the trailer park folks and the folks in hundred thousand RVs and to keep them somewhat segregated at that.




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One has to have dreams, and to pursue those dreams. I am going to take a look at some property tomorrow with the idea of doing something like this.

This will be in a Texas border town so that takes care of the summer location. Another rider was shooting the breeze with me but he said that he had property in Arizona. My thoughts were that we needed to have some sort of association so that folks could go from one location to the other. Details pending, of course

Anyway, seriously, if this location works for this project it should be a perfect gateway for riders going into Mexico. Not interested in Mexico? Cool, because there are plenty of paved and dirt Texas roads nearby.

I hadn't planned on a clubhouse but a friend with resort property in the mountains of TN (light bulb going off - maybe that's our summer connection!) told me that a club house is vital for such a project.

And secure storage for bikes, other vehicles, tools is very much a part of what I have in mind.

Your comments about having vehicles to move trailers is interesting. I just bought a Nissan UD truck that should be a good restoration project. It's a Class 5 truck - an F350, by comparison, is a Class 3. It's unique because it has a factory sleeper compartment. My deal with the owner involves enough spares to complete a second truck. I had never thought about getting back into truckin' but we should have the capacity to move pretty fair sized housing units if needed.




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The 55 thing seems to be a zoning issue in parts of Texas. No one seems to want a trailer park, but they are more tolerant of retirement communities. There must be several hundred in the general McAllen-Brownsville area.

When I suggested that I wanted to have an RV park the realtor stuttered. I have since seen some photos of the area and thought WTF - what I want to do should be much nicer than what is currently there

Anyway ... I am thinking that we can skirt some of the commercial and legal aspects if we organize an LLC or perhaps a non-profit.

And just FYI I will say it again - SECURE STORAGE OF BIKES AND TOOLS, AND AVAILABILITY OF WORKSHOPS will be a key to any project that I get involved in. That mirrors my interests too.

I am recovering from having the ex- girlfriend hire some people to steal about half of my tools, spare parts, and so forth and that will never happen again.


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I've had semi-serious thoughts of setting up a compound for (mobile) tiny home dwellers. One barrier to entry to the mobile tiny home lifestyle is the expense of a truck capable of towing the home, which only gets used a few times a year. I think the option of "hiring out" the transpo would have some appeal.

I no longer live in my bus. I fell in love and now live in a house with a garage and a sweet woman or else I'd be all over something like this. (But I still have my bus in case she smartens up and kicks me out.)

I am not going to say a word about relationships except to say that the gal who was so enthusiastic about buying a K1200LT, and going riding and RVing is the same one that had a change of heart and who stole everything including my 30 year old racing bicycles.

So my advice is to keep the bus and keep your options open Amigo



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A question for y'all:

I don't want to hijack this thread, and don't want to run afoul of any ADVRider rules.

What would be the best way to publicly discuss this sort of rider colony, or whatever you want to call it?

Take it to FB?

Start a new thread on ADVRider?

Other thoughts?


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Sounds good Adam!

Just FYI I see that you are in Northern Florida. I was in Jacksonville for 15 years and loved it, but had a sense that I needed to move and go somewhere different. The economic turndown in 2008 gave me the perfect reason to break my ties and to move.

If anyone wants to follow me at Facebook I think that if you do a search for PirateJohn that you will find me. If not, drop me a PM and I'll give y'all my full name.

Jeezus effin' christ that is cold. :huh hope karma catches up..

I am in St. Augustine. Currently handle insurance claims for an aviation carrier. I'll look for you over on FB.

Facebook group seems like a good idea. I'd love to contribute. Depending on work, I'll either still be in Arizona (Phoenix-area, or possibly up in Flagstaff), or up in Colorado in the next couple years. The possibility of a move has me put off from buying land just yet.

I'm thinking the best route would be to set up an LLC. Run it like a "members only" RV park. Charge dues that cover maintenance / utilities. Offer commercial-grade towing for larger units. A couple concrete pads with hookups, and a good sized communal barn/garage for parts and tool storage.

And, I've got hookups for metal roofing, and pre-manufactured metal buildings.

I hear you re: Relationships. When they're good, they're oh-so-good; but when they go bad...

Sounds good!

I have some ideas as to how folks can make some $$$. Some entrepreneurial things and this location is on the edge of the Eagle Ford Shale field so that will help folks with appropriate job skills.

And I said this in a discussion somewhere - I have no heirs (knocking on wood) and don't want to spend my entire life to getting this off the ground. I want to ride my motorcycles a good chunk of the year, probably get a Jeep and explore when my riding days are done, and am thinking that would be the lifestyle that most of us would want.

Is there anyone adamantly opposed to FB that is seriously interested? Because it no one objects I'll probably set up a FB group later today or tomorrow.

I think I have matched the location on Google Earth to the realtor's map. It looks like there are trees (not a small consideration in the Texas desert) and most of the available lots are anywhere from a few hundred feet to 3/4 of a mile down what appear to be dirt roads. Around here those roads can vary greatly in quality but it's no place to bring your new Mercedes unless you plan to take it through the car wash.

I would think that if you're far enough out, nobody would really care what you put up. As long as they can't see it, and it doesn't cause problems, it's fine.

Another big problem might be utilities. You'd probably need 30-40A service for each pad. Separate meters, and everybody pays their own bills? Figure out how to meter each pad privately, and settle up in cash?

Septic will be an issue, too. Those that do composting toilets would need to keep them tidy, and you'd have to figure out disposal. Or, if not, you'd have to put in a septic system that's capable of handling all the units.

Before you know it, this compound costs some real money.

That's like people buying property in Big Bend. The prices are very attractive until you discover that it's impractical or impossible to get electricity at any price.

Also, in rural Texas water is a real issue, and right now there is a multi-year drought in many places. I know otherwise civil people who talk about showering once a week. The old girl's whose place that I am staying at has a creek behind her place but she captures water and stores it in big plastic tanks (common out here) when the creek it dry. She has designed her own pump system and series of valves and is understandably fond of it.

But with all of that said there are some work arounds.

I have been working in the oil patches, using diesel generators and big portable water tanks. And a big poo tank on a trailer. It's been a good learning experience to say the least.

With all of that said the property that I hope to see tomorrow is supposed to have electricity and I suspect that water is pretty close because it's really not that far out of town. There seem to be some businesses relatively close by.

Border life is pretty wide open. If we can't get what we want near The Big Town there is another town about 20 miles away that may not even be on a paved road and probably doesn't have more than a half dozen people in town that speak English. My suspicions are that the building inspector has been there for some time.

Seriously, looking into modular dwellings vs. park model trailers vs. other RVs it's pretty obvious that the rules get stretched in a lot of places. I want to keep things on the up and up but what the heck - everything will be portable.

I have spent lots of time on boats and in third world countries. There are always workarounds if the zoning allows it. I spent many fine years in the Bahamas as a 12v man and collecting rainwater. We also saw some of this when riding through S. Africa last year. Usually the poop is the hardest thing to get figured out.

Set up a Facebook page to discuss the specifics of the border-area project. I think that you can find it at https://www.facebook.com/TheOldPiratesAndMotorcyclistsRetirementHome