One of the best parts about going on the road is having your eyes opened up to the realities that exist beyond your own little corner of the world. So when it came to New Orleans, it was one thing for me to hear secondhand reports about the state of affairs in the city from the comforts of my home. But to walk through the rubble that remains, to talk to those who are trying to piece their community back together, was another thing altogether. This is why we travel.
Dream
Living the dream full-time RVing nomadic lifestyle working as location independent entrepreneurs.
Our time down on the bayou
For our visit to New Orleans, we boondocked on the BioLiberty compound down on Bayou Liberty in Slidell, Louisiana.
This is where our old Humboldt friend Gordon Soderberg now calls home.
Living full-time in his RV, he has established quite an impressive green enterprise with the help of a local dentist who owns the property.
Flux and Skinny Chef: Two Artists, Living and Creating On the Road and in New Orleans
As I previously mentioned, artists are flocking to New Orleans. My new artist friend, Skinny Chef (aka Mary Kate), likened the city to a blank slate, a place where great art is rising from the ashes of Katrina. We met Skinny Chef and her partner Flux Rostrum, down on the Bio Liberty compound in Slidell. They are moving to NOLA, to further her art, and expand Flux’s mobile broadcasting studio’s capabilities.
New Orleans: Live Music and Great Art without the Attitude
I started out this trip behaving like a spoiled little West Coast snot, like a character out of that famous New Yorker drawing that shows a map of the U.S., with the Left Coast and the East Coast, and nothing in the middle. How wrong that is, and what an ignorant turd I was for falling for it.
The middle of this country has the nicest, most down to earth people we’ve met, and some of the most creative. And since arriving in the South, we’ve witnessed more talent, and met more artistic individuals here than anywhere else. Maybe it’s because they’re at arm’s reach here, whereas on the coasts, the artists and musicians I’ve met have gigantic egos, stick to their own kind and don’t make an effort to blend in with the masses, unless it’s to try to make a buck.
From Farmers to Fulltimers: Another Young Couple Hits the Road in their RV
Younger fulltimers are workamping in parks across America while seeing the country in their RV
From The Redwoods to the Bayou, Now In NOLA
Friday, we pointed ourselves westward, right into New Orleans (NOLA), where we’ve met up with an old friend from Humboldt, Mr. Gordon Soderberg. As one of the founding members of the Redwood Technology Consortium, Gordon is one of the reasons why we fled San Francisco in ’98 and moved up to the sticks. He was a geek like us, and we figured if he could make a living in the trees, so could we. In 2005, Gordon left Humboldt to join the Veterans For Peace wagon train that was supporting Cindy Sheehan, and found himself in NOLA two days after Katrina, to help with the rescue, cleanup, and now, grassroots rebuilding efforts (because the government hasn’t done crap. More later).
The Conclusion: Making a Living as Organic Farmers
What we learned as Workampers while living on the oranic farm at White Rabbit Acres, Vero Beach, Florida.
One Good Thing About Florida: The Atlantic
Swimming in the Atlantic ocean is one good thing about Fort Lauderdale and Florida.
Itchy Feet, Take Me West
It’s five a.m. and I woke up because my feet are itchy. Not because I have athletes foot or anything. No, it’s just that I’m too excited to get on the road again. After almost two months of living on the farm, we are packed up, hitched up, and ready for more of the unknown. We don’t really want to leave, especially in the middle of the season, but we have to, in order to complete our circle of the U.S. by June.
Dive Bars and Road Food Restaurants in Old Florida
There’s a lot of talk here about how “Old Florida” is disappearing. Kitschy roadside attractions are being paved over for gated homes along golf courses, and old timey family diners are being squeezed out by Chick Fil A and Olive Garden. It’s like this in a lot of the country, as Americans allow national chains to destroy the very things that make our hometowns unique.
We get a kick out of finding new, divey places to check out. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve found two great places that are sadly, a dying breed: Archie’s Seabreeze on Hutchinson Island, and Mrs. B’s in Vero Beach, off I-95.
We didn’t find them on our own; our online friend Chelsea told us about Archies, and the locals we met at Earl’s told us about Mrs. Bs.
Attend a Workamper Expo and Support Your Fulltimer Lifestyle
By attending the Workamper Expo in Lakeland Florida we learned so much about the workamper lifestyle, finding a job, and making a living while on the road. Includes video interviews of workamper employers.
The hard way to make tropical drinks…
Video of Jim shows the hard way to husk a coconut with Harry Nilsson singing Put the Lime in the Coconut
Snowbirds: Prepare for a Florida Freeze!
When we lived just blocks away from the boardwalk in Old Town Eureka, we would enjoy the summer concert series when we could stroll along the waterfront listening to live music in the cool evening breeze. If it wasn’t raining.
Here in Florida, these type of concerts go on year-round. We attended one the week before Christmas at the Vero Beach Library. I wore shorts.
A couple weeks later, on New Year’s Eve, we had the air conditioner blasting during dinner. We were getting pretty heated. Literally! Just a few nights later, we had to run the heater and get out the wool blanket.
A Vegetarian Sees Life and Death on the Farm
A vegetarian fulltime RVer gets used to life and death while work camping on an organic farm in Vero Beach, Florida.
New Year’s Eve at Earl’s
It’s that time of year when everyone asks, “What did you do for New Year’s Eve.” 🙄
I’ve never quite understood what the big deal is about this one night a year when everyone can get away with getting liquored up. In fact, you’re supposed to. But I just consider it amateur night. I don’t need a reason to get drunk.
If you ask me, every day is New Year’s. In fact it was Saturday, January 5th one year ago tonight, as I write this. But never mind me. I’ll tell you what we did anyway. We got liquored up.