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OK, I’ll admit it.

I’m a sweaty guy.

I tend to perspire more than adequately during my morning runs (especially when we’re hanging out in the desert, like now) but apparently I do not have Hyperhidrosis – neither Axilary, nor Palmar, and I am happy to report no signs of Erythrophobia!

While Rene may disagree, I feel I also have my Bromhidrosis under control.

When you’re working out it hot weather, please remember to rehydrate, especially if you sweat excessively.

And if you do, understand the facts and get yourself on the path to stop Hyperhydrosis by learning the basics. This infographic will help. Click the image to view it at full size.

Via: Bye Bye Excessive Armpit Sweat

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Go ahead, give it a try. Smile.

Arun looking happy at the T or C FiestaFeeling upset? You may be surprised at just how good a smile will make you feel.

You might even be more surprised how contagious it is. In fact clinical studies have proven that smiling improves relaxation.

But smile at the wrong people, and they’ll wonder what you’re up to. I feel for these folks.

Going for an early morning run through industrial areas of Los Angeles, I would make it a point to smile and greet everyone I encountered. The majority of these people would just look at me funny. Some would scowl, others would grunt, and oftentimes someone would literally be quite startled. But every time, the eyes would quickly be divereted, if any eye contact was made at all. And while I did get a few responses en español, it wasn’t a language barrier thing. Take for instance the one older Asian gentleman walking briskly who replied with a big grin and resounding, albeit thickly accented, Good Morning!

More recently, as I was running along Mission Bay in San Diego, many people out for their morning stroll would reply with a smile or at least a nod. But still, the majority would still appear a bit taken aback.

Is it big city shitty life that makes one so jaded? I believe it has more to do with lifestyle. Take the old Asian guy. He was healthy, happy, and he knew it. The hungover lookin’ gangsta type at a bus stop appeared to be none of the above.

I realized something after comparing these runs over the past few weeks. Those who were up early and walking or riding bikes because they needed to be were not very happy campers. Those out enjoying the morning air because they wanted to be seemed much happier.

Where in this wonderful world of ours have you been where you noticed people to be exceptionally happy? Or rude for that matter?

I would have to say everyone we’ve ever met at Vickers Ranch has always worn a smile. And Luckenbach must be one of the happiest places in the universe. It is the center after all, according to Hondo.

Hondo Crouch Moon Shadow Sign in Luckenbach Texas Bar

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Have you received the nifty animated report from those stats helper monkeys at WordPress? No? You may need the Jetpack plugin.

Navaho Rocket Jetpack Port Canaveral, FLDon’t care to install yet another bloated plugin package? Use Jetpack Lite like we’re doing on our new and improved Team Agreda blog.

But this isn’t about plugins, or jets, it’s about what we’ve been up to here at LiveWorkDream.com over the past year – at least according to WordPress.

Here’s what their algorithms had to say about our blog in 2011…

Some Crunchy Numbers

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 160,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 7 days for that many people to see it.

In 2011, there were 59 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 633 posts.

Stephen King's House in Bangor Maine on his BirthdayThe busiest day of the year was September 28th with 1,418 views. The most popular post that day was Stephen King’s Number One Faaayuuuun… Interesting, considering the post is four years old. And that date was a week after Mr. King’s birthday, but while we originally published that post a couple days after our visit on his birthday, we didn’t mention Stephen King’s birthday at all. Must just be some good SEO juice regarding Stephen King’s birthday there – either that, or something creepy is going on behind the scenes… bwaaaaahaaaaahaaaa! 8O

Sorry, there I go digressing once again.

How did they find us?

The top referring sites in 2011 were:

hitchitch.com
Many thanks to the crew over at Hitch Itch! It is a great site for finding RV Travel Adventures and Journals, and it continues to drive traffic here daily.

dishpointer.com
Dishpointer has come a long way since we originally wrote about this cool satellite finder iPhone app.

thebayfieldbunch.com
Kudos to our friends Kelly and Al for clearly sending some readers our way

livingthecheaplife.net
We bet most visitors from this site find our blog after reading Living the Cheap Life in an RV, or because they found the popular video and resources we posted about How To Build Your Own RV Video.

troubleshooting magic chef rv ovenehow.com
eHow has referenced many Live Work Dream RVing articles, the most popular of which are likely our tips for Troubleshooting the Norcold N821 RV Refrigerator, and Our Fussy Magic Chef RV Oven.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for stephen king house gate, slab city, wawa, build your own travel trailer, and dishpointer.

How did you find us?

What did everyone read?

It only makes sense that those referring links all relate to our most popular posts of the year. While many of our most popular posts were written before 2011, these are the posts that got the most views last year, followed by their activity and original post date.

Long Loney Texas RoadWhere did y’all come from?

We assume many of our readers are on the road, or hope to be someday soon. Most visitors came from The United States. Canada & Portugal were not far behind.

If you are reading this from afar, please leave a comment and let us know what brought you here.

Looking back, and going forward.

Does any one thing we wrote about here last year strike you as particularly memorable? Rene recalls the lively discussion inspired by her post titled Free Camping and Assassinations, Your Tax Dollars at Work. And for whatever it’s worth, my post about Paying Your Emotional Allowance will always ring true with me.

Anza Borrego Dry Lakebed Desert Road Sign

We shall continue working the dream life from our mobile headquarters of Team Agreda this year, and look forward to another summer at Vickers Ranch, and a return to the Right Coast next winter. We hope you will follow along and are enjoying your own life’s adventures. For more about the nuts and bolts of how we make a living on the road, be sure check out our new and improved home-based business blog and stay tuned for the launch of our new e-book about how to earn an income anywhere!

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Before any one corrects me, let’s get one thing straight. The correct spelling is Alferd.

Alferd Packer Masacre Site Lake City, CO

At the foot of Slumgullion Pass just south of Lake City, Colorado is a small patch of dirt with a few white crosses. This final resting place for five hearty souls is often missed by tourists burning up brakes coming down one of Colorado’s steepest mountain passes.

Slumgullion Pass 9% Grade Lake City ColoradoFirst a little history about Colorado’s favorite Cannibal. You can read all about the life of Alferd Packer elsewhere, so I’ll just provide a synopsis…

In January of 1874 he met Chief Ouray of the Uncompahgre band (Ute tribe) who recommended he and his party postpone their gold prospecting expedition from Gunnison to Breckenridge until the following spring.

He should have heeded Ouray’s advice, or better yet, those in his party should have. After encountering dangerous weather as they had been warned, the party became lost and ran out of provisions.

Packer? Party of five…

Alferd G. Cannibal Grill Lake City, COTo make a long story short, Packer survived by helping himself to the others. And unlike the Donners, this was no party. After a number of trials following the gruesome discovery, Packer claimed he returned from scouting one day to find Shannon Bell roasting and feasting on human flesh. Alledging that Bell rushed him with a hatchet, Packer shot and killed him in self defense, insisting the man had gone mad and murdered all the others.

Neither the Judge nor his jury believed him.

“You man eating son of a … There was seven democrats in Hinsdale County and you ate five of them.”

— Saloon keeper Larry Dolan following Alferd Packer’s first trial.

Now, about that spelling.

You will find Alfred Griner Packer’s given name on both the man’s birth certificate and gravestone. But that’s it. Everywhere else he is referred to as Alferd, including the tattoo on his arm where the artist misspelled his name. Legend has it that is when he adopted the name Aferd, so I’m sticking to it. Get it? Sticking? Tattoo… :-P

Where is the latest roadside attraction you visited where you learned a little history lesson? Or, what places have you been that you insist are just spelt wrong?

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The friendly folks over at Fulltime Families are in the holiday spirit and want to spread the cheer. They have a special gift for anyone traveling with kids.

FtF has created 24 easy, fun, economical Advent Activities to help families make holiday memories as they countdown to Christmas.

Get your Free 2011 FtF Advent Calendar Here!

Supporting your fulltime RV adventures and aspirations

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Keeping with that full-timing families theme, here’s a fun way to keep traveling kids entertained in the rig during long driving days!

Unites States Map Puzzle

Use Maps.com Coupon Code 15PUZZLE for 15% off the DinosMaps USA 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle at Maps.com

This colorful informative United States map puzzle is made especially for children. Heavily illustrated with fun pictures, icons and descriptive text, this puzzle can keep children entertained for hours.

The illustrations depict where mountain ranges, deserts, seas, etc. are located and what types of animals can be found in each region of the USA. Not only is this puzzle fun to build and fun to look at, but it is educational as well. Adults and children of all ages (designed for ages 7 and up) will enjoy the fun nature of this one-of-a-kind and unique puzzle of the United States.

New Maps.com Coupon Codes and Promotions

The World's Largest Map Store!Save on more maps and travel gifts with these new promotions from maps.com:

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No matter what you think about the Occupy Wall Street campaign, ya just gotta love it when people jump on a bandwagon without any idea of where it’s headed, or more importantly, where it is coming from.

Oxymoronic Occupy Bible Wall Street Movement Sign

See our Scary Americana Gallery for more fun photos.

Even if they lack a cohesive message, those who are occupying Wall Street and a growing number of locations throughout the country are doing so with a common purpose. They disagree with the establishment they are protesting. So what exactly are people saying by placing an “Occupy Your Bible” sign in their front yard? I don’t even think they know.

Aborted Baby Memorial New Braunfels, TexasOne thing I enjoy about traveling the back roads of America is discovering all the micro-cultures and political climates that make this country the beautiful melting pot it is.

Where have you enjoyed visiting where you may not have necessarily agreed with the general consensus of the local population in terms of politics or religion?

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Before we hit the road this season, we were listening to the Puzzler on Car Talk and I was proud to answer it quickly for once.

It had to do with palindromic numbers, which I wrote about when our odometer reached 77,777. That was a while ago, we recently reached another mileage milestone when we joined the 100,000 mile club in our trusty ol’ Dodge.

But back to that Puzzler, I’ll try to summarize how it went…

A guy gets in his car one morning and notices his odometer reading is a palindromic number.  When he arrives at work just across town a few minutes later, the odometer is showing another palindromic number. How far did he drive?

As a refresher, this any number that reads the same forward and back, like this…

Palindromic Mileage Puzzler Answer

Watching a digital odometer isn’t nearly as fun as watching 100,000 miles roll over the old way, but we were in a rather unremarkable area of Arkansas when it happened anyway.

How many miles have you put on your rig and where were you when you hit a memorable milestone?

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Our Good Sam RV Emergency Roadside Assistance service saved us when we locked our keys in the truck before we had the chance to unhitch in the parking lot of an RV shop where we were getting service done a few months ago. Sigh, long story.

And it certainly would have come in handy if the recent flat we got had happened anywhere other than at the Flying J while fueling up.

Suffice it to say, we will be renewing our RV ERA when the time comes, and we highly recommend it to any other traveler. But there are many other reasons to join the Good Sam Club, including these savings and promotions they recently announced!

New members can receive $30 in FREE Camping when they join the Good Sam Club through October 31 only!

Join the Good Sam Club!

Act now to receive an extra 2 months of coverage FREE when you sign up for Emergency Roadside Assistance now through November 15.

RV Emergency Road Service

The NEW 2012 Trailer Life Directory is a long time favorite among RVers. Since these essential guides usually sell out before it even hits the stands, now is the time to order yours and get it by the end of the year!

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We first started this blog as a marketing tool to sell our home based graphics business back in 2007, promoting it as the dream live/work opportunity.

After hitting the road, we started blogging about our adventures, reviewing campgrounds, and searching for the best biscuits and gravy.

For nearly three years, LiveWorkDream was our full-time RVing sabbatical blog as we searched for the perfect mountain property to call our summer home.

As seasonal snowbirds, the blog became a place to write about both our life in the mountains and the trials and tribulations of RVing.

After listening to Tim Ferriss, I realized he had coined the term I was looking for to label the new focus of our ramblings here at LiveWorkDream.com: Lifestyle Design.

After all, this is what we’ve been doing all along – creating our own reality, taking charge of our destiny, designing our own lifestyle.

In line with our new business venture, going forward we will share our lifestyle choices and the strategies we implement to stay on our path to total wellness and financial freedom. Please stick around and enjoy the ride.

This isn’t to say we won’t keep looking for tasty biscuits, or sharing any RV mishaps that we may encounter. But we’ll also review health and wellness products, and share our methods of making money on the road so others can do the same. What exactly would you like to hear about from us?

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