Working the dream life for 17+ years.
Living the dream full-time RVing nomadic lifestyle working as location independent entrepreneurs.
Jim raves about his manly Stanley classic bottle Thermos and refers to lyrics for the thermos song sung by Steve Martin in The Jerk … I’m picking out a Thermos for you …
OK. Life must go on I suppose, as lonely as it is without Jerry …
But enough about my hay stories. By now, I’m sure you’re as tired of the hayin’ as I was when we finished. How ’bout some fishing?
This isn’t exactly timely anymore, but consider it my summer fishing report for Lake City, Colorado – from the Vickers Ranch fish ponds, to their upper ranch mountain lakes, to the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River.
A fun time was had. No gear was broken. And a few fish were caught. But not too many.
How we found the courage to say goodbye to our 10 year old canine cancer hero, Jerry, on our RV road trip.
While sitting in the Dodge dealer today in Jackson, WY, as they did over $2k in repair work on our truck brakes, I realized that I’ve finally discovered a couple of real downsides to living the fulltime RVer lifestyle.
Fulltimer Downside #1: when you pull into a town with out-of-state plates, and tell the local auto shop that you’re having vehicle trouble, who do you trust? You gotta wonder; Is that service guy really drooling? Are those actual dollar signs in his eyes?
From Florida to Wyoming, three different shops have looked at our truck, to find out the cause of a loud, chirping sound coming from the wheels. One wanted to charge us $700 for what they claim was the real problem (we said “no way.”). We paid another shop $75 to determine we had dirty brakes.
But the sound keeps getting louder, and we have some steep mountain passes to tackle on the way to the Pacific Coast. So today, we took it to a third shop.
The problem, Shop #3 said, is that our entire brake system is blown to hell. We are left wondering: why didn’t the other shops see this? The service guy said that’s because they didn’t tear the break system apart to investigate. We have to go on faith that he’s not a scheister. Jim saw our parts lying on the floor, next to good ones from another truck, and verified that ours looked blown. The caliper seals were all indeed shot. And the rotors had a deep blue tinge to them – discoloration indicating they had been cooked pretty hard.
So what would you do, dear reader? Take your vehicle to another no-name shop in town, and pay another $60 estimate fee? Or run away, hoping the dealer was lying while praying for the best on those seven percent downhill grades?
We were recently asked to review the new Library of America book, American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau. Edited by Bill McKibben, this anthology covers environmental writing from Walden Pond to global warming.
It sounds like a great read, and we’re honored to review it. But that might not be very soon since we’re on the road again. We’ll have the book forwarded as soon as we have a steady address for a while, or we’ll pick it up at Thanksgiving.
Until then, check out this overview from the publisher and see what major publications have to say about American Earth …
Jim reviews safe haying practices learned while workamping as a ranch hand at Vickers ranch for hay season.
Enjoy a slideshow of pictures from workamping at Vickers guest ranch in Lake City, CO
We can’t over emphasize how fortunate we feel to have hooked up with the Vickers family here in Lake City. The work is hard, but their generosity and kindness more than makes up for even the longest days here on the ranch.
Recently, Larry and Paulette Vickers took us all to the “The Lone Cowboy Concert,” a BBQ dinner and show with cowboy poet and singer Michael Martin Murphey.
Well, if you’re not into cowboy music, you might not know who this legend is. But if you’re old enough to remember the classic ’70s hit “Wildfire,” then your ears have been graced by his music.
If you’re not of a certain age, then do yourself a favor and get to know him. He is incredibly talented and puts on an entertaining, intimate show. Here’s just a sample of Murphey’s heartland cowboy songs …
Read on to check out the video of his amazing opening act, and see what Jim had to say Michael.
A day in the life of a young fulltime RVer on a road trip sabbatical.
Autumn comes early in Lake City, CO with cool weather and the end of summer before Labor Day.
Walking into a real estate office and meeting a new agent is akin to sitting your butt down in a dentist’s chair. It’s just gonna suck, whether you’re there for a root canal or just a cleaning.
Unfortunately, dealing with certain kinds of professionals that can rip your teeth out, make you bleed, and rob you blind, just seems like an evil fact of life.*
During our travels we’ve seen tons of great properaty listings, but we’ve never walked into a real estate office to learn more. Recently though, we got up the nerve to do just that, after learning that our neighbor’s daughter works for a Lake City broker. Thinking, “how bad could it be if we have an in with a local?” we went in.
We heard there was a 40 acre property just north of town, for sale at $200k, an unheard of price here. When we got to the office, we learned the property was actually listed at $299k, which is way over our cash-only budget, but still closer to it than anything we’ve seen for that many acres of western Colorado mountain property, with water rights.
We asked the agent if we could see it anyways (not mentioning that only a winning lotto ticket would give us a chance to buy it).
“Oh sorry, you’d have to cross private property, only I can take you there,” he said.
A quick geology lesson from Jim explains the Leaverite rock formations found in the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Colorado.
Young couple on RV road trip sabbatical leads unusual workamping life in the Southwest Colorado wilderness.
Here’s to the roofers, framers, and ditch diggers who think they have it harder than those who sit in front of a computer for a living.
They may be right. I know because I now have experience working in both worlds.
Having toiled at a desk, driving a mouse for most of my working life, I’ve had a chance this summer to live the life of a laborer, driving everything from nails to a backhoe.
For years, as a busy desk-bound graphic designer, I often wished I was outside just digging a ditch or something. Now, workamping on a busy guest ranch has taught me to be careful what you wish for. And given me cause to reflect on the intricacies of my life on the job, whether it be behind a desk or under a truck.
I overheard this Texan tell an Aggie joke about a couple guys framing up a building.
One reaches into his bag, looks at the nail he pulled out and throws it over his shoulder. He pulls out the next nail, looks at it and pounds it into the wall. He continues to do this until the other guy asks, “Why you throwin’ out half the nails?”
First guy replies; “They’re pointing in the wrong direction!”
“Dummy,” he says, “Save ’em for the other side of the house!”
It got me thinking to the workamping I’ve been doing this summer.
