What a difference a year makes. From last summer’s gentle river running trails at Camp Covid in Oregon, to San Juan Mountains trail running in Colorado, the two outdoorsy experiences couldn’t be more different. It’s fun capturing them on video (which tends to make us look more like “real runners” than we really are!).

And the winner is . . . 

Jim’s always been Mister Video. Long before iMovie, he geeked out on complex desktop video editing software that laypeople like me couldn’t touch. I always had to ask him to make our videos. But thanks to iPhone and iMovie, not anymore! In fact, these days I’m making even more movies than he does, just for the fun of it. Last week, we ran into an issue with our videos, though.

He was working on a San Juan Mountains trail running video — which I didn’t know until I was done with mine! Today’s blog post is the result of each of our efforts. Same scenery, but two completely different feels. Do I really expect you to watch both? Hah! If you had that much time on your hands I would worry about you.

So, for your viewing pleasure, here are both of our clips. Choose one, choose both, choose none. Your choice! Like one more than the other? Go ahead, lay it on us. We know we’re not winning any Oscars for them.

Jim’s Cannibal Plateau Trail Run iPhone Memories Video

This clip was made by Jim’s iPhone AI program known as “Memories.” Just a few keystrokes and wah-lah, the app churns out a Memories clip. Jim picked the music. Ah, the drama!

Next up, Rene’s San Juan Mountains Trail Running Fools Video

Made on my phone with iMovie, this video uses the same footage Jim did. The result is the kind of thing he used to spend hours doing. It didn’t take long for me to put it together, maybe an hour, tops. I’m a videographer now!

Over the years we’ve captured many of our full-time RVing travel experiences on video and dumped them into our LiveWorkDream YouTube Channel. It’s amazing to see how far the technology has come since we hit the road. If we had all the time in the world, we would go back and remake those videos with their raw footage so we have better resolution videos. But then, without a doubt, some new technology would quickly replace that, so why bother?

Instead of trying to “see” our full-time RV life and other crazy adventures from a screen, we prefer to experience as much of them as we can with own eyes and ears. Many of our best times on the road have minimal video and photo clips (clearly, our San Juan Mountains trail running jaunt isn’t one of them). But for the most part if you look in our YouTube channel, you won’t find us with glorified full-time RVing “YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS!” teasers. OK, except for the Alcan Highway Eats Trailers video that people seem to enjoy.

We make videos for fun. We don’t do them to capture more eyeballs and fans. No, we’ve got zero time for that kind of BS in our world. Life is meant to be lived in the flesh, not with an electronic shield that’s always between us and the experience. 

Now put your phone away and go have fun, dammit.