We all know the truth, yet how many of us avoid seeing it?

Our lives go by too fast, and one day we’re left wondering, “what happened?” All those cool things we dreamed of when we were younger got put on the “someday” list while we we were being “responsible” workers or entrepreneurs, attempting to carve out a reputation (hopefully good), keep our heads above water and stash some money away for that “someday” when we were going to get to do what we really wanted to do.

The trouble with that scenario, as many of you know, is that someday usually arrives when we’re far too old and decrepit, or dead, to enjoy it.

I’m not knocking those pursuits. Hey, if you want to be the fat man in the BMW, that’s your prerogative. But Jim and I always wanted so much more than a status symbol with a balance due.

From 2001 to 2006, a series of events led Jim and I to chuck it all and say “screw it” to the conventional life we were leading. Those events, though tragic and hopeless at the time, turned out to be blessings in disguise.

Because although we thought we had carved out a life that was adventurous, when we finally added up how much time we spent at our desks, versus living life with Jerry doing cool stuff in the woods, work always won.

Even as entrepreneurs, we were robbing ourselves of the very freedom that being self-employed was supposed to bring to us!

Once Jerry got sick, we knew time was of the essence. It was our chance to spend the last of our days together, living a life without routines or obligations or bills. With dogged pursuit and prayers to the universe, we made it happen. It was probably the first time we realized that all things truly are possible, if you truly want it bad enough.

Live Your Dreams, Work Less

Which leads me to the whole point of this post; right now we are listening to a life-changing book by Tim Ferris, called “The 4-Hour Workweek.”

• If you have ever considered shedding your current lifestyle for one that you know will bring you true spiritual happiness, this book is for you.
• If you’re in dire need of a real income, you can’t afford not to get this book.
• If you have ever wanted to live an adventurous life instead of toiling away in your cubicle, this book is for you.
• If you want to know how to keep your life on track without letting things like Facebook, television and the pursuit of money suck the life out of you, you must read this book.

I”m not getting paid to write this, Tim Ferris never even sent me a review copy. I was told about this book by fellow adventure traveler, Sam, who urged Jim and I to check it out. I had always heard about it but the title put me off; it sounded like a cheesy get-rich-quick self-help book. But Sam’s a smart guy, and he’s got a good life with Kim, on the road and at their rancho in New Mexico, so I decided to get the download, and now I can’t stop thinking about it. Thanks Sam!

“Whether you’re an overworked employee or an entrepreneur trapped in your own business, The 4-Hour Workweek is the compass for a new and revolutionary world.

Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan—there is no need to wait and every reason not to.

Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, high-end world travel, monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.”

We are only into the first hour, but already we’re digging it. Everything Ferris says, we can relate to; we’ve already made the move to live a life that brings us real inner happiness, so we nod in agreement with everything he says, laughing and raising our fists going “Yeah!”

Where we are finding The 4-Hour Workweek more applicable to our lives is in how Ferris demonstrates how to be more efficient at making money, while pursuing the adventures that we want. That’s where Jim and I need the help (especially when it comes to making money!).

Stop shouldding all over yourself. Soon you’ll be dead, or close to it. Will you be able to look at your life and feel content, knowing that your dreams were fulfilled to your heart’s desire?

Or will you have spent the best part of your years as the fat man in the BMW, sitting in traffic, wishing you could be somewhere else?

Thankfully, summer’s not over, but I’m already thinking about what to pack when we hit the road in Fall. As we enter our third year of living in the RV during winter, I believe I’ve got a better grasp of what kind of outdoor clothing to pack.

We’ll be on the road during what are technically the coldest months of the year, but as snowbirds, we’ll try to stay one step ahead of the nasty weather that haunts most of North America from fall to spring.

Unlike snowbirds who just say in one place, Jim and I tend to go off the beaten path to isolated areas with few people and spectacular scenery.

The price we pay for these adventures is that we need to be pack the right type of clothing for our roaming lifestyle, without sacrificing important space for booze and technology.

Here’s what gear will go in the RV this season:

Jim’s outdoor clothing list

• 1 pair La Fuma hiking shoes
• 1 pair Asics running shoes
• 1 pair Nike slip on shower shoes
• 1 Marmot rain jacket / windbreaker
• 1 pair Columbia snow pants
• 1 Button down wool shirt-jac
• 3 pairs of sweats
• 1 set polypropylene long underwear
• Socks: hiking, wool, running, liners
• 1 sweatshirt
• 1 fleece vest
• 1 pair hiking gaiters
• 1 pair convertible hiking pants with zip-off legs
• 3 pairs shorts
• 2 running outfits
• 1 pair bike shorts
• 1 pair swim trunks

Rene’s outdoor clothing list

• 1 pair North Face hiking boots
• 1 pair Nike running shoes
• 1 pair Mizuna running shoes
• 1 pair Teva sandals
• 1 North Face rain jacket / windbreaker
• 1 pair Moonstone rain / snow pants
• 1 zip up fleece sweatshirt
• 3 pairs sweats
• 1 pair polypropylene long underwear
• 1 pair leggings
• Socks: hiking, wool, running, liners
• 1 zip up sweatshirt hoodie
• 1 casual fleece sweatshirt
• 1 pair hiking gaiters
• 1 pair convertible hiking pants with zip-off legs
• 2 pairs jeans
• 3 pairs shorts
• 2 running outfits
• 1 pair bike shorts
• 1 swimsuit

This list isn’t comprehensive but it’s the bulk of of what we build our wardrobe around.

Obviously, we don’t go to too many places that require dressy attire, but we do carry one set of nice clothes for each of us. Last year I made the mistake of thinking I would need lots of clothes while working for Satan, so I took far too much clothing.

Now that I know I’m not cut out to punch a clock anywhere again, I’ll leave the work clothes at home and save that space for something more important; two buck Chuck and Trader Joe’s eats.

In 2007 when we started dreaming about a new place to live, we had grandiose ideas of becoming micro-farmers and living off the land. But then we actually worked on a farm, and scratched that idea. Once we realized that farmers don’t take vacations (ever), we decided that small scale gardening was  more our speed.

As we started looking for property, having space to garden was important. But as reality hit and we saw the disparity between what we could afford versus what we wanted, garden space took a back seat to finding a solid roof over our heads, running water and electricity. Once we found Jerry’s Acres, we thought we had it it all.

Until reality came knocking . . . again. Or rather, the chipmunks, rabbits and deer showed up.

And boy, are they hungry.

I spent fifty bucks on our first garden this year, and this is what I got. Mangled Swiss Chard that some rodent was kind enough to leave behind for me.

Jim helped me put my plants inside of a dog kennel that the previous owners left behind. Thinking this was enough to keep the deer out, I started planting my crops. I kept it simple, and stuck with chard, lettuce, and a couple of herbs planted in recycled containers.

Silly me. I was actually able to grow vegetables at 8,400 feet elevation, and the dog run kept the deer out. But I didn’t consider that chipmunks could fit inside that chain link. And before the chard leaves really had a chance to grow, chipmunks were feasting on my garden every day.

I’ve since raised the plants up off the ground and covered my lettuce beds with chicken wire. So far, the plants seem to be doing better.

I’m hoping we’ll have edible greens by late August. At that point, Fall will be in the air, and it’ll be nearly time to go again. But at least we’ll reap the benefits of our investment.

Next year, we won’t mess around. We’ll spend the money to build a cold frame garden, and I’ll get our hydroponics setup going again. If we’re really lucky, we’ll able to feast more than once next summer.

That is, unless the bears find a way to get inside.

Earlier in that day of the Texas flash flood that nearly swept our trailer away a few months ago, we watched the odometer in our truck turn 77,777 miles. While that evening was full of excitement, normally such an event would be a big deal.

Well, at least for me.

On long stretches of highway, what I used to consider numerical anagrams are always something I look forward to. Then I learned at Google University that the proper term for such a sequence of digits is a palindromic number. These are numbers that read the same forward and back. And when the mileage gets up there like it has on our Dodge, it’s fun to figure out the next palindrome we’ll reach in our travels.

OK. It’s  no exciting, rip roaring, click you heels kinda fun. But it does give a long haul driver something to think about for a few miles. Like what would be the next palindromic number in sequence in our example here? Hint, we passed that over a thousand miles ago.

The first few are easy. Not including single digit numbers, they begin with 11, 22, 33, 44… etc. The fun, however, doesn’t really begin until you get to much larger numbers, like 101,101 for instance. Maybe we’ll hit that one during our next season on the road down south.

I signed up for NüRVers because it has to be the best social networking portal for fulltime RVers who break the stereotypical fulltimer mold. But then again, it must be the only one too. Aside from RVblogz, that is.

We have social sites for every segment of society. René is into her tweets and Facebook. Jerry lives on at Twitter, Dogster and ZooToo. I just keep my LinkedIn profile fresh.

If I have my way, I’ll never have to use my connections to land a job working for somebody else ever again. But LinkedIn is one social business network that makes a nice little safety net, if I ever had to dust of my résumé that is.

Its also a great way to keep in touch with old coworkers and colleagues. And I get a kick out of updating my status with things like “gone fishing” or “Heading South for the Winter” while others talk about provisioning servers or recontextualizing some brand paradigm to maximize market penetration.

Done that thanks. I’ll take my mobile lifestyle and workamping anyday. That’s why I started the LinkedIn Workampers Group. I also stumbled upon the RV Enthusiasts LinkedIn Group. If you’re LinkedIn, check ‘em out. You won’t find me on Facebook.

Forgive me if I rant for a moment, but it’s been a while, and I need to get this off my chest. There’s something about this whole mess in the Gulf that really upsets me every time I hear about it – which is every time I turn on the radio. It’s times like this I’m thankful we have no television!

No, I’m not talking about the economy down south that’s heading even further south. I’m not talking about soiled birds and destroyed estuaries, nor the rising cost of Gulf shrimp. I’m talking about a matter of semantics.

Yes, all of the above is truly upsetting, but it’s what everyone is calling the cause that really turns my stomach.

Call it a disaster, call it a calamity, call it a gaping whole in the earth’s crust. Call it human error with dire circumstances or call it the beginning of the end of the world, but please… stop calling it an oil spill.

A “spill” implies something finite. The Exxon Valdez running aground caused an oil spill. And while that was – for lack of a better term – a lot of oil, it was an amount limited to what the ship could hold. As much damage as that did, it was manageable. What we have in the Gulf now is not a spill. It is a veritable infinite amount of oil gushing from the ocean floor with no stopping it in sight.

Calling the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe a spill seriously downplays its ramifications. Consequences of which we will not know the true nature for years to come. Thank you. We now return to our regular programming now in progress.

[steps off soapbox]