Look Out, Here Come the Localvores


Montello WI Amish FarmAbout 4 states ago, I whined about how I was stunned find out that people in North Dakota didn’t have fresh local lettuce all year long. Silly, spoiled native Californian. Getting out and into the real U.S. has opened my eyes.

As a lacto-ovo vegetarian since 1989, I always tried to live by the creed “Eat / Buy / Act Locally.” And when living in California, abiding by it was easy. I never gave much thought to those organic hearts of Romaine I’d buy in December. Even though I was paying as much as $3.00 a bunch, the lettuce was organic, and it was “local” because it grew in my own state, so it didn’t travel that far. During summer, as I bought salad greens at the Farmer’s Market each week, I was mentally adding up my bonus karma points. Score! How much more local and hippy dippy could I get? My, did I feel righteous at the checkout line!

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Catching up on home cooked food

Rudy’s DinerGood home cooking continues to be found as we put the Midwest behind us. To celebrate paying off our trailer at a US Bank branch in Sheboygan, WI and to put a couple persistent hangovers at ease after way too many with the Schwabenlanders, we stopped in Brillion, WI for fuel and decided to grab lunch somewhere.

There was Mom’s Place Family Restaurant in a plain building with laundromat next door. And there was an authentic looking roadside diner with Rudy’s written in neon and a sidewalk sign promoting the daily special of Roast Chicken. The choice was simple.

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Living the Good Life in Belgium, Wisconsin

Belgium, Wisconsin, Horse PropertyWisconsin has turned out to be a favorite state, and by the time we arrived in Belgium WI, about 40 minutes north of Milwaukee, lakeside, we thought, “hey, we could really live here.” The area is gorgeous. Rolling hillsides and farmland, quaint towns, roadside farmer’s markets, trees, and quiet county roads winding through the countryside.

My brother-in-law grew up in this old farming community (pop. 2000), and almost all 9 of his siblings, and parents, still live in the area today. Sherry, my brother-in-law’s sister, and her husband Dave generously let us set up our rig on their property. They have an incredible block of land out in the countryside, 40-acres that have been in the family for years, complete with horses, a pond, a garden, beautiful landscaping that the two have done all themselves, and trails in a forested area. It’s the perfect example of what Jim and I are looking for when we land somewhere.

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Remember Sunshine Valley

Sunshine Valley CampgroundWe’ve been thinking of various new business ideas for ourselves when we complete this journey. If at that time I am still interested in starting an RV park, somebody please remind me about Sunshine Valley.

On our corn-stealing morning run when staying near Eau Claire, WI we just had to check out the campground down the road from its dilapidated sign. The first thing we noticed was the For Sale sign at the edge of the property. Then we noticed the “Closed” sign at the campground entrance. Then we noticed how much work someone had put into this little campground and how long it had been since anyone had obviously even parked a tent there, not to mention an RV.

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Long live the urban refugee. Damn the urban refugee.

I have to share this New York Times article I just got from the Redwood Technology Consortium mailing list about location-neutral rural transplants since it focuses on urban refugees transplanting themselves to Steamboat Springs, CO – in Routt County where we really enjoyed our stay at Seedhouse Campground. We were considered urban refugees ourselves when we moved from San Francisco to rural Eureka, CA ten …

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Tracking the Twilight Honker

The Twilight HonkerIn campgrounds across the nation, at dusk when the light is just right, if one listens carefully, the chirp of the Twilight Honker can be heard announcing nightfall and the paranoia of fellow campers. With a scientific name like Honkalarmus Paranoiac, one can imagine frail little birds taking flight at the slightest hint of danger. The truth is, these annoying beasts are the result of discourteous, mistrustful campers everywhere.

It is inevitable that you will hear someone setting their car alarm as night falls in any campground. What’s funny is to hear the next few car alarms being set by others who heard the call. What’s not so funny is when someone sets off their alarm disrupting the relative peace and quiet of evenings and mornings in the great outdoors.

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storm sign

Tornado Warning Lullaby

  As a child, I was terribly frightened by the movie the Wizard of Oz. It wasn’t the witch, the trees, or even the monkeys. The idea of a tornado coming and tearing up my house and carrying me away from the comforts of my home and family was really quite traumatizing. 😥 With age and a little therapy, I’ve been mostly able to overcome …

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Ideal Live/Work Retreat Available in Amador City, CA; What a Deal!

Part of our mission with this site is to help others find their ideal live / work situation, and we think that a home renovated by our good friends Mark and Kathy Johnson, of Jackson CA, is perfect for those looking to escape the rat race. This historic Arts and Crafts home is in pretty Amador City, CA. We saw it when we visited them …

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Our Short List of Liveable Communities

We have now traveled more than halfway across the country. Some people say we’re going way too fast. But wait — hold on, there is a method to our madness. Not too long ago, we decided to haul butt through states that we knew that we probably wouldn’t end up living in, and hurry up to get to places that might better meet our relocation criteria. During the first visit, we’ll spend four or five days in an area. Then, if we feel it’s a contender, we’ll return for ideally at least a month, once we’ve traveled the U.S.

With this in mind, here are the top contenders for us, based on what we’ve seen so far. We plan on revisiting the following areas next year:

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The Amish Have Got it Right

Amish in Wisconsin; BakeryTravel to the Upper Midwest, and once you get off the interstate, you’ll find long, winding county roads that can take you through miles of gorgeous farmland and forests without ever seeing more than a few other vehicles. Traffic? Stoplights? Nope. Just plenty of cows, corn and water.

Last Friday, we’re cruising along on Wisconsin’s backroads, going from our campsite at Harstad County Park, (about 20 miles south of Eau Claire) , up to Chippewa Falls to go on a Leinenkuegel Beer brewery tour and check out the towns. We’re driving along, and spot a “Farm Fresh Eggs: $1” hand painted sign outside of a homestead. I had to stop; what a deal! Then, as we approach Cadott, (whose claim to fame is that the town’s exactly halfway between the North Pole and the Equator), Jim spots another sign: “Bake Sale Ahead.” Below that, it says “Scratch and Dent Corner Store.” Our two favorite things; sweets, and bargains!

We pull over. Out back, goats and chickens roamed the grounds. We swung open the squeaky screen door, and realized that an Amish family runs the store. Neither one of us were expecting it; we’d never met an Amish person, and the closest we’d ever been to anything Amish is when Jim used to bake Amish Friendship Bread every week. Both of us wrongly assumed that most Amish lived in Pennsylvania. Turns out that in this area of Wisconsin, there is a large, Amish community.

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Please report any technical difficulties.

this week’s outdoor officeI’ve just finished upgrading this blog to the latest version of WordPress (v. 2.2.2). So if you were encountering any odd issues while reading Sunday night, that’s why. Coincidentally, Google seems to be having trouble right now with the satellite imagery for all Google Maps – not just our site.

If you ever experience any other unexpected glitches while enjoying this site, please post a comment here or send us an email through the contact form on our About page. Thank you for your support.

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We’ve still got a lot to learn…

don’t eat the feed corn… not about this full-time RVing lifestyle, we seem to be getting that down pretty good. But René thinks she wants to be a farmer, and this morning we discovered that we can’t even tell a field of sweet corn from feed corn.

On our morning run down the rural county roads near our home (this week) at Harstad Park, we couldn’t help but be tempted by all the corn in the fields alongside the road, just ripe for the picking. What we got serves us right for taking two and dashing home.

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Beware the Bean Juice!

beanwater biohazardAnother quick tip, before I forget … though I don’t know how I could. They say the sense of smell is the strongest trigger for recollection.

The biggest stink we ever smelled coming out of our RV holding tanks was not from the black water. Our kitchen grey water tank started expressing itself with a very pungent sulfur smell when we were staying at Lindenwood City Park back in Fargo, ND.

The lower campground had recently been re-opened after major flooding from the Red River, and a couple fellow campers said they wouldn’t be surprised if it was the water so we left it at that. When we dumped the tanks, however, we knew it had to be something more.

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Never run out of propane again.

Here’s another quick tip for RVers with dual LP tanks for their rig. This was another little chore from my RV maintenance day back in Duluth. I wrote the word “use” on a small piece of magnetic sheeting to help us remember which tank we’ve been running off of since we like to use one tank up completely and keep the other one full as …

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