Rene

Navigator, CFO and Content Queen — Leading the LiveWorkDream Team along the path less traveled.

Just Call Me Lisa Simpson: Saving the World a Can at a Time

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Recyclng program Lake City COFor as long as I can remember, recycling has been a way of life for me. Growing up on the left coast, I can’t remember a time when I threw cans or bottles in the trash. So imagine my surprise when we left our little Northern California cocoon, and got a reality check by seeing how the rest of the country approaches the recycling issue — or rather, avoids it altogether.

During our early days on the road, I kept getting annoyed at the number of RV parks that lacked recycling facilities. About the only places that did offer any kind of recycling were national parks, which only take aluminum cans. It killed me to toss recyclables, but in our little 5th wheel, I felt we didn’t have a choice.

For a while I considered being as green as my RVing friend Sara, and carrying around our recyclables and compost matter until we found a collection point. But honestly, I’m not that gutsy, and unwilling to put up with storing this stuff in our shower where she does. Also, with our big ol’ dog Jerry along, I don’t want our RV smelling any funkier than I think it does. I had to pick my battles, and into the trash went our recyclables.

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How Remote Is Too Remote, for Workamping, or Just Living?

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Lake Fork Gunnison River Vickers RanchFind us a boondocking spot in beautiful country in the middle of nowhere, and we’re all over it. When we started looking for a summer workamping gig, we wanted a job in remote, mountain location. There were a couple of forest service jobs we could’ve taken, but we ended up here at Vickers because 1) it paid more, and 2) it offered us the chance to see if we’re resort owner material.

But the one thing we didn’t really consider, were the foodie sacrifices we’d have to make to live and work in a really remote mountain town with a year-round population of 500 people.

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Today’s Diversion: An anonymous Post for Blogshare III

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Today is Blogshare III, courtesy of the talented R at And You Know What Else. What’s a Blog Share?

A blog share is what happens when a fellow blogger writes something for someone else?s blog, completely anonymously. So someone will write something that gets published on our site, and I’ll write something that gets published on someone else?s blog. Get it?

Why am I doing it? Because it?s a chance for me to write something that I don?t want to discuss or confess here. It?s fun! If you?re a blogger, you should try it some time.

Here’s a list of the participants, and below the list is the beautifully written anonymous post.

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June Road Trip Expenses and The Economy: What, Me Worry?

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Giant Puppet in Truth or Conesquences FiestaJune numbers are in, and it was a cheap month thanks to our summer workamping gig. Check out our RV Road Trip Budget Expense Report for June 2008 You’ll see in the “Fuel” line item, that we went over budget. But those costs were actually from May, when we had to go to Salt Lake City to get our Motosat dish worked on.

We haven’t spent one single dime on fuel since we got to Lake City. We arrived with a half tank, and we’re trying to see how long we can make it last before we have to drive 55 miles one way, to Gunnison, the nearest town where we can do some real stocking up. Diesel fuel here is $5.01/gallon.

I’ve Got More Faith in My Mattress than The Stock Market

Meanwhile, we listen to NPR’s economy report every day, and just cringe. And today, when I reconciled our retirement funds statements, I wanted to cry. What little money we do have tied up in mutual funds has been whallopped. At this rate, we’re going to be working to support ourselves till the day we drop dead. Jim thinks I should stop looking at our statements for a while.

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Understanding the Locals by Bicycling Through America

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Crazy cyclist on Red Mountain Pass near Ouray Colorado

On my criteria list for the ideal place to live and work: Must be bike friendly.

Bicycling has been a way of life for me since 1992, when I moved to San Francisco, got a bike and rode in the second Critical Mass ride, ever.

But trust me, I’m not a trendy gearhead. My antique 1992 Trek 7000 mountain bike is an unstylish hardtail, with an old Girvin Flex Stem, a precursor to modern suspension. But from San Francisco to Florida, Old Blue has repeatedly gotten me from Point A to Point B, and it’s all I need.

So whenever we arrive in a new place, I like to go for bike rides to get a feel for the area. When you ride, you can quickly judge not just the safety of the roads, but the attitude of the locals.

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Our Radical Sabbatical: The Real Work Begins

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Road Trip Stops at Capitol Reef National ParkThe idea of taking a long break first occurred to us in 2006, when some mindless channel surfing led us to the TV show, Radical Sabbatical. Each 30 minute segment would tell the story of someone who had suddenly woken up to realize they hated their career, life was passing them by, and they needed a change, fast.

While reality shows are generally crap, watching how these people worked to make their dreams happen provided much of the inspiration we needed to get moving on our own dreams (well, that, and Jerry’s illness).

Neither Jim nor I had ever taken an extended break. In my 20s, my friends went backpacking around Europe after college, but I had student loans to pay, so I took the first dumb job that I could get. By the mid 90s, I was handing over my paycheck to student loans and credit card debt. And as for Jim, well, he’s always been too responsible to slack off.

Now that we had paid some dues in life, we became giddy at the thought of reverting to slackerdom. But the more we thought about it, we knew we couldn’t just split without some kind of goal in mind.

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The Best Small Towns According to Fellow Road Tripper Kim

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South Park Colorado Chamber of CommerceI’d like to share a list that was recently emailed to me by fellow RV traveler, Kim She kindly sent it from somewhere in the Yukon territory of Canada last week.

She and her husband Sam left their home in Louisiana last June, and have been touring around the U.S., criss-crossing much of the same territory that Jim and I have. Read about their travels on their blog.

Kim and I share a lot of things in common, as you can tell by her list of favorite towns. See how she’s picked many of the same places / regions that we have, for many of the same reasons? But she’s also introduced me to some new ones that I’d like to check out, like Rodeo, New Mexico.

Here is Kim’s list of the best small towns in North America that she’s been to, so far. Thanks Kim.

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Live Work Dream: Our List of Small, Liveable Western Towns.

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Arkansas River Valley Colorado After a year on the road, it seems clear to us that if and when we settle down, it will be somewhere in the West.

We gave the Midwest and East Coast a chance, and even fell in love with a few places, like Wisconsin, and Vermont. But ultimately, there’s just too many people crammed into the Eastern states. And in the Midwest, the mountains aren’t nearly tall enough for us. Many places we spent time in were beautiful, and quaint, but all along, I couldn’t help but drawing comparisons to my favorite places in the Western states. Nowhere else could measure up.

When we first hit the road, I didn’t want to consider Colorado as a future home, because I knew I would love it, but that real estate is expensive, and there were better deals to be had throughout the rest of the country.

But, the old adage “You get what you pay for” is so true. While you can get 100 acres with a home for less than $200k in the Midwest . . . it’s the Midwest. The people are the nicest, but the land is flat, the area is homogeneous, and the scenery just can’t compare to the kind of western mountain landscapes that take your breath away.

With this in mind, I’m willing to admit that I love the familiarity of the west, and would consider buying something in these parts. For now, here’s a list of places we want to investigate in depth.

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Living Free in a Van Down by the River

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Florida Traffic SceneThis just in: every minute you spend sitting in traffic to get to a job you hate, one more young adult decides to quit the rat race, sell everything, and hit the road.

Ok, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration. But the longer we’re on the road, the more we keep meeting crazy kids our age who are also fed up with running on the treadmill of job/home/stuff/debt.

Hitek Homeless Hits the Road
Take for instance, Johnny and Jenn, aka Hitek Homeless. We met this couple online last year, while their escape plans were coming to fruition. They bought a killer Arctic Fox truck bed camper and a diesel dualie, sold their stuff, and finally hit the road a few months ago. Recently, Truck Camper Magazine interviewed them about their decision to fulltime.

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Maybe We’ll Rethink That Earthship Home Idea After All

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We came across this earthen home near Pagosa Springs, Colorado. It’s under construction. We were so thrilled when we saw see a “For Sale” sign on the property. We thought “Hey, maybe it’s a sign! Is it meant to be?” When we stopped to talk to the closest neighbor, he gave us the scoop. The home is for sale because “Wild Bill” as he’s known …

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