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

Don’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.

The 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!

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.

ehow.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.

• 1 Stephen King’s Number One Faaayuuuun… 4 comments, September 2007
• 2 On a Budget? Build Your Own RV! 12 comments, October 2007
• 3 Our Fussy Magic Chef RV Oven 35 comments, February 2008
• 4 Build Your Own Travel Trailer, Cheap! 3 comments, January 2008
• 5 Calculate Satellite Settings with Dishpointer 20 comments, January 2008

Where 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.

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!

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

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.

First 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…

To 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…

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?

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!

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

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

Save on more maps and travel gifts with these new promotions from maps.com:

• Receive 15% OFF all orders over $100 at Maps.com! Use code NOV15 at checkout. Expires November 30
• 10% Off all orders at Maps.com! Use promotion code FALLPROMO upon checkout to receive your discount
• Use code 15GLOBE for 15% off our popular Stellanova 5″ Illuminated Globe at Maps.com
• Use code 15WORLD for 15% off New World Century Map

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.

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.

One 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?