We’ve landed in Lake City Colorado for our summer workamping gig at Vickers Ranch.

It’s insanely beautiful here in the San Juans, but we’re an hour from the nearest place to do any real grocery shopping. Since we only get one, maybe two days a week off, neither one of us want to spend precious off-time on long-distance domestic duties.

Until last year, Lake City had just one small grocery store, known by locals as “The Food Museum” because the inventory is too close to their expiration dates for comfort.

Last year, a great little health food store opened up but with sporadic produce at best, we couldn’t rely on it for regular grocery store trips.

This year we are thrilled to see a second health food store is opening up with a huge choice of produce! Woohoo! We met the owners today and they’ve promised us regular deliveries of kale, lettuce and greens.

This new store, and the UPS truck, are going to be our lifeline while we work here all summer.

Thus, today we being our 2013 Shop Local in Lake City Challenge. We’re going to see if we can live off the provisions in a small mountain town without ever going to the big town. With a health food store, liquor store and post office, what else do you need?

We have not even left yet to return to our favorite workamping job back at the ranch for the summer, and we’re already talking about getting back to Texas next winter. So, I’ve finally uploaded this video of Kristyn Harris singing a fun rendition of ”Been Everywhere” – in true Texas fashion.

If you spend much time in Texas, see how many town names you recognize in this version of the Hank Snow classic. If you like this, you may also enjoy the Rick Moranis lyrics in his satirical adaptation, I Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.

We were fortunate enough to catch Kristyn on camera at the 2012 Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine, where the cowgirls clearly stole the show. Hopefully by the time we return, I’ll have updated our Cowboy Poetry Playlist with more videos from our last visit! For more home movies of local music from all around the country, check out the Musicamericana playlist on our Videos page.

All of my most memorable live music from our past six years on the road, has been in Small Town, USA. A few highlights include seeing Virgina governors jam with the Jug Busters at the Floyd Country Store, the Grassmatics performing Deep Ellum Blues upon request at Artz Ribs in Austin, Michael Martin Murphy (of Wildfire fame) up close and personal in Lake City, and of course every trip we’ve taken back to Luckenbach, Texas. OK, Austin isn’t exactly a small town, but Artz is sure a small venue!

Where have you seen great local music in America?

Please leave a comment to share your favorite musical memories from the road. And check out the Motornomadics Music page for more travel-inspired tunes!

Pummeled. That’s the only way to describe this very unexpected Rocky Mountain blizzard that’s bombarded us since returning to Jerry’s Acres for a few weeks.

This photo was taken yesterday. There’s even more snow now that’s covered up the trees you see here. Another 2′ is supposed to fall today.

I am so over this. I’ve never experienced snowfall like this in my life, and hope that I never do again. Yes, I’m a sissy. I want my flip flops and cold beer, waaaah! Life is too short to shovel snow. It’s a great workout but I’d rather go for a run in warm weather.

About the only thing that makes this weather disaster fun is our newest neighbor.

Say hello to Rocky!

For the record, I still consider us full-time RVers, considering we only spent a couple months at Jerry’s Acres last year. It looks like we’ll only be here a few weeks this time, before we head to our favorite workamping job again back at the ranch. Barely enough time to reflect upon some of the most memorable highlights from the past 11 months on the road.

Click photos to view them larger, or check out our road trip galleries for more pictures. For details about all our stops this year, see our full-time RVing travel map.

A Couple New Favorite Sites

When we first left last May, we found free boondocking at Turquoise Lake near Leadville, CO. It was only free because the campground had not yet opened for the season, and there was still snow on the ground. But it was still fun roller blading at 10,000′ along the paved roads.

Thousands of miles later, near the end of this year’s journey, we discovered a new all-time favorite place where we will definitely be heading again. Goosenecks State Park near Bluff, Utah is simply amazing – remote, quiet, dark at night, with absolutely nothing to do but get some work done or go for a run and soak in the magical beauty – just the way we like it!

We decided not to park to close to the edge since we could let Wyatt run wild here. Luckily we met a fellow traveler who encouraged to look a bit further down the road from the busy parking area where it seemed lots of RVers stopped for just one night. We spent a week and are already looking forward to staying much longer next time.

Attractions and Special Events

Speaking of dizzying drop-offs, a more recent highlight from the past year was our recent Jeeping adventure with Kev, the founder of Nü RVers.

After stopping at the famed location where Thelma and Louise drove off the cliff, we proceeded to climb the most harrowing trail up out of Canyonlands National Park. I’m just thankful I wasn’t driving!

The first attraction we went out of our way to see this year was about nine months earlier before we even left Colorado. The Sand Creek Masacre National Historic Site sits off highway 96 in Eastern Colorado.

Other sacred sites where it felt like we were treading on hallowed ground were the Civil War battlefields in Virginia that we visited.

Fredericksburg, Virgina was also memorable because that is where we gave our keynote talk at the Greyhounds Rock Take A Bite Out of Canine Cancer conference. It’s the whole reason we headed East this year, to share our story about Jerry and help attendees learn How To Be More Dog.

Speaking of hallowed ground, another highlight was the spooky hay ride and haunted house at Stony Creek RV Resort in West Virgina. I’m not sure what was scarier though, the abandoned old house decked out for Halloween or the way the campground burned all the leaves in a pile that snaked through all the sites.

Another memorable event was meeting up with a couple of my sisters in Georgia. We don’t get to the East Coast often, so I was happy when one flew down from New York when we visited the other near Atlanta. No big sightseeing to report, it was great just to hang out and catch up with each other. Next stop: Luckenbach, Texas!

A year on the road just wouldn’t be the same without our annual pilgrimage to the center of the universe in the Texas hill country. We didn’t get stuck in Luckenbach this time, but we did enjoy a couple nights of cold beer and good music by the Doug Moreland Trio and others while boondocking in the cold.

Weather Report from the Road

Speaking of cold. Another memorable night was the coldest night we ever spent roadside boondocking.

From the ice on the road and the frost on our breath (inside the rig) the next morning, we realized why they named this tiny Texas town Sierra Blanco. As far as weather goes, I must mention Hurricane Sandy. Normally we high-tail it in the other direction when tornadoes or other major weather systems are in our path. But with our conference date in Virginia, we sat this one out about 100 miles south of where Sandy came ashore.

And speaking of sandy, one more memorable weather event this year was the three-day sandstorm that drove us away from Borrego Springs, back to the Slabs earlier than we wanted. But enough about the weather, let’s talk about some food!

Best Food and Drink on the Road

Rene and I rarely go out. Whenever we do, we make it special, or for a special event. One memorable outing was to the dive bar in Festus, MO where we had to toast Spoonie, since that’s where he was from. But this place was a highlight only for it’s smoke and cheap, bad drinks. Kris would approve.

One of the culinary highlights of the year was just a couple days prior at the renowned Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ in Kansas City. This place is a must visit for any meat lover. We lucked out and got there in between the lunch and dinner rushes. The line is usually out the door at this small gas station, and it was starting to form as we were finishing our meal.

The most memorable meal of the year had to be at Herby K’s, in Shrieveport, LA. This 77 year old icon of cajun cooking was just what we were looking for as we approached the Louisiana border and realized we hadn’t yet had any creole food. Disregard any reviews you may read about this being in a “bad” part of town. While the neighborhood has clearly seen better times, long ago, the clientele that kept pouring in as we left were obviously well to-do and knew that the best food is often found in a discreet little hole in the wall.

The Year in Summary

For most of the past year, we seemed to be traveling on somebody else’s clock. Much of it was spent preparing for our first public speaking engagement, and then we had to deal with Wyatt and spent far too long at Rainbow’s End. After that we made a B-line for a belated holiday visit with la familia. Once back on the road again, we were on our own time. We’ve enjoyed the last month or so as we worked our way back to the mountains.

We got back just in time to be greeted by a Moose and a major snow storm headed our way. But not until after the most harrowing drive ever, over Vail Pass, in the wet snow, after dark. Not fun, but better than the alternative of driving over the next morning with the risk of it being iced over, or closed.

It’s good to be “home” – wherever we park it.

What has been the highlight of your journey recently?

The 2013 Slab City snowbird season seemed quieter this year. We arrived later than usual, but overall there was less activity and fewer crazy incidents like we’ve seen in the past (like trailer fires and ambulance rescues). Here are a few observations we made during last week’s stay.

Fewer Snowbirds

It looked to us as if fewer seasonal campers called the Slabs home. A young hitchhiking traveler confirmed this when he told me that less of his hippie cohorts found their way to the Slabs. Apparently the Global Rainbow Gathering in Mexico lured a lot of the regular campers away. When I spoke with the owner of the SoCo gas station, he said a lot of the snowbirds he’s gotten to know also skipped out. I asked why he thought they didn’t make it, he said “Gas prices probably.”

More Permanent Residents

More long-term, hand-built structures are popping up all over the Slabs. From outside patios built alongside de-wheeled trailers to more solid A-frame buildings like this, it seems like more people with the means to invest in custom housing are laying down roots.

A whole new generation of Slab City kids is being raised without indoor pluming, behind razor-wire fences that warn curious observers to back off.

Is this recession fallout or a desire to get back to the basics? It’s hard to tell.

A Thriving Entrepreneurial Spirit

As you approach the Slabs, one of the first sights you’ll encounter is this thriving welding shop set up next to a large, not-so-temporary encampment.

Following in the footsteps of Solar Mike, off-the-grid businesses like these seem to be popping up all over the neighborhood.

Off-grid capitalism is alive and thriving as the Slabs economy seems to be growing. You’ve gotta love the lack of bureaucracy it takes to open up shop here.

These new businesses have a more professional look to them than the usual hippie artisans that we’ve seen in the past. It’s great to see more people taking charge of their economic situation by coming up with creative ways to make money.

Always In Flux

No matter what people say about the Slabs, each yearly visit reveals new endeavors that blossom among the heaps of rubbish left behind by less ambitious residents. The Slabs is always changing, we never get bored of coming here. Hopefully next year we can spend more time to really take it all in.