Work | Live Work Dream | RVing Lifestyle Design Blog

Giving the NextGEN WordPress Gallery a Shot

December 2, 2007November 25, 2007 by Jim

We’ve been looking for a great image manager to replace the current gallery solution provided by our host, so I checked out Christophe’s travel blog. Chris informed me that the NextGEN photo gallery plugin has improved since I last gave it a try. Indeed it has.

Let’s take it for a test run here. If it works out to everyone’s delight, you may be seeing some major changes to our roadtripping fulltimer photo gallery. Hopefully the NextGEN photo gallery, albums, and slideshow integration will help us save time and improve this blog. Please let us know what you think.

Our new and improved road trip soundtrack.

September 4, 2023November 21, 2007 by Jim

A while back, one of our readers declared that the RVer’s National Anthem should be Hank Snow’s I’ve Been Everywhere. While some of you may think this is a Johnny Cash original, it’s not.

“I’ve been everywhere, man
I’ve been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I’ve breathed the mountain air, man
Of travel I’ve had my share, man
I’ve been everywhere“

Well, I finally got around to adding this to our cross country road trip soundtrack of travel tunes. While I was at it, I put some elbow grease into the page and added an interactive slideshow of CDs available from Amazon that include the songs we’ve added to our list. This way we’ll be able to update our soundtrack easier and more often.

Workamping at Safe Harbor Animal Farm in North Carolina

December 10, 2012November 21, 2007 by Rene

Fulltime RVers can try Workamping to stretch their budget and learn the ropes of RV campground management.

A Dog Lover’s Live Work Dream: New York Boarding Kennel for Sale

November 19, 2007 by Rene

Buy a home based dog kennel boarding business in rural Saugerties Woodstock area of Upstate New York.

Power your RV with wind energy.

May 9, 2008November 17, 2007 by Jim

A while ago, my sister Mariclair sent me a link to this manual for a Telescoping RV Tower. Rich, who together with M.C. runs O’Connell Solar – and designed our own RV’s solar energy system – had just spent three days at Southwest Windpower and thought it would be cool fodder for the blog. Cool indeed.

I looked into it further and discovered the tower is designed for using the Air X Marine small wind turbine with an RV.

Then when we were getting a tour of Tugboat Margot from my brother in law Tim back in Troy, NY, I noticed an Air X mounted on a boat docked nearby and filmed it in action.

While this particular tower mount wouldn’t work with our rig without some serious modification, seeing the wind generator do its job got me thinking…

Amazon finally got their groove on.

September 4, 2023November 16, 2007 by Jim

After driving for thousands of miles over the past few months, I have to say that one of the most vital accessories we purchased for this cross-country road trip has to be our iPod. We got a used 40GB iPod on eBay that has a good dent in it, but it was a deal!

I spent many a late night transferring most of our CD collection onto it before we left, and it was time well spent. I only wish I had copied all of our CDs.

While you can always find classic rock somewhere on the dial, much of this country has really, really bad radio. That’s why I was happy to find out that Amazon is finally offering MP3 downloads!

Workamper Situation Wanted: Two Fulltime RVers, Ready and Able!

November 11, 2007November 9, 2007 by Rene

When we started fulltiming, we knew that we wanted to look for a “Workamper” arrangement. Workamping is generally a situation where a person or couple gets to assist in campground or RV park duties, hosting, etc., in exchange for a great campsite where they can park their rig. The work can be as challenging as one wants; from 12 hours a week greeting visitors, to being full time and working on a construction or maintenance team. Along with perks like free propane, hookups or laundry room access, sometimes an hourly wage or stipend is also included.

Since our schedule is wide open for the next year, we have begun our Workamper campaign. Here is our resume that we are sending to prospective employers:

Live Work Dream Expenses October 2007

September 14, 2015November 3, 2007 by Rene

A summary of our RV road trip budget living expenses for the month of October 2007

Wanna see something really scary?

September 22, 2020October 31, 2007 by Jim

Jim and Rene spend a quiet Halloween in a Virginia State Park campground compared to previous hallowed parties.

Where is my ubiquity?

October 30, 2007 by Jim

Considering everything we can do with all the connectivity and communications technology of today, what’s really amazing is what we cannot. What happened to the last mile? Granted, escape is a great benefit of getting away. But one cannot expect to get away indefinitely unless totally self sufficient. Especially, if working from home means traveling full time. And why not? There is so much to see.

In other words, we must work, from the road. The biggest challenge of which is being connected. All the time. The defacto work week for the typical commuter is two days off, in a row, if you’re lucky. For those of us who commute from one line of sight to our satelite to the next, being cut off unexpectedly is a daily threat.

Entire idyllic communities like Humboldt county live in constant fear of losing their connection to the world. And they have high capacity fiber to the region. Well, one strand at least. My string is invisible and can be cut by any number of branches, including one.

The DeFazios – A 67 Year Partnership

October 30, 2007October 29, 2007 by Rene

For over 10 years, Jim and I have lived and worked out of a home office. Our last place was a 100-year old Victorian in Eureka, CA, with two separate flats; one for home, one for work. We were like old timey shopkeepers, living above the business. Now we live and work out of our 200 sq. ft. trailer. People often asked us, “Don’t you guys drive each other nuts? How do you stand it?”

That was easy. The perks of never having to get a real job and doing a freeway commute every day, always outweighed the challenge of putting up with each other’s idiosyncrasies on a daily basis.

While in Troy, New York, we met another married business couple. Only they have a really, really long history together. And a special secret to getting along…

Batteries do go bad.

October 23, 2007 by Jim

I’ve been mulling over a draft for a post about our custom RV solar power system for months, ever since we left the prime solar energy country of the southwest. It has just been working so well for us that we haven’t really had to think about it much. Then our batteries crapped out on us.

For the past few months, we have spending about half of our nights in state and national park campgrounds, without hookups. And we have easily been able to go eight hours or more without using our Honda 2000i generator to charge the batteries. Or longer if we had good exposure to the sun.

Life as a Campground Owner; Never Underestimate the Entertainment Factor

October 12, 2007 by Rene

Come September, scenes like this put a wide smile on campground owner’s faces.

We have often considered buying a campground when this trip is over. So whenever we can find an owner who has time to chat about what it’s like to run one, we love to listen and hear about what it’s really like. When we arrived at one resort in Maine, it was a quiet weekday, and the owner was happy to share some advice about the realities of running a campground.

Blogging for Fun and Profit

May 10, 2012October 10, 2007 by Jim

RTC Logo Wearing my RTC Tech Beat column contributor hat for the Redwood Technology Consortium, I recently wrote this article about what we’re doing to monetize the various blogs we publish. It appeared this morning in the Eureka Times Standard.

There’s no place like home.

October 9, 2007 by Jim

Perhaps that’s a good thing. But perhaps the reason we like Vermont so much, is that it reminds us of the last place we called home. After spending ten years in Humboldt County, CA, we were ready for a change. But finding a small town near abundant natural beauty with an open minded population of young creative individuals has been a challenge. Until we visited the Green Mountain State, that is.