live. work. dream.

Happy Halloween Everybody!

The photos are still up if you missed last year’s hallowed party (Viewer Discretion Advised). This year it’s going to be pretty mellow. But if we do happen to get any camping trick or treaters, we are prepared!

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You never know what lies down the road ahead. While this applies to much of life in general, it is especially important when you’re hungry.

When you don’t know what might be found around the bend, it is impossible to decide on exactly what you want. There might just be something better. There may be nothing at all. Either way, the odds are against you finding what you set your mind on.

We discovered a simple solution that may save you a lot of stress. Don’t get your mind set upon one particular thing, whether that be an old fashioned diner, roadside burger stand, or a family run pizzeria. You probably won’t find it. Instead, decide upon what you don’t want. Rule that out, and something good is bound to come your way.

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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.

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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…

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There’s nothing like a good dose of yard work to reaffirm one’s choice to live a simpler life on the road. But it was the least we could do. After camping out in my sister’s yard for over a week, I figured I could at least mow their lawn to show my appreciation. Besides, René had already provided some pretty good housekeeping a couple times already. It was my turn.

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The last couple of days of driving on New Jersey roads has been some of the most intense driving we’ve ever done.

L.A. traffic has nothing on this place. It’s a lot of narrow roads, fast street-level freeways with cars pulling into and out of driveways, and the most aggressive drivers outside of Manhattan. Jim’s hauling the rig like a seasoned pro, but I just grip the seat and clench my jaw. At least yesterday we got our own escort to get us out of New York.

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Our brother in law, Tim, is a tugboat engineer, and he’s currently living his own live/work dream. He spends half of his time in the engine hull of Tugboat Margot, running cargo up and down East Coast waterways. The other half of the time, he manages his company, NYS Marine Highway Transportation Company, from where he lives in nearby Troy, New York.

We got a tour of Tim’s latest addition to the fleet – Tug Margot – while we were visiting him and Jim’s sister Barb.

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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.

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Down the road from Jim’s sister’s house in Troy, lies Forest Park Cemetery, one of the most haunted cemeteries in the U.S. With it being October and all, and us being the ghoul loving, dia de los muertos revelers that we are, we just had to see this place for ourselves.

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I don’t know if it’s the fall colors coming out in full force, the smell of fires and the chill in the air, or all Tim’s good home cooking and the time we’re spending with family; but recently I’ve been having this yearning to get sedated by turkey.

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