Find us a boondocking spot in beautiful country in the middle of nowhere, and we’re all over it. When we started looking for a summer workamping gig, we wanted a job in remote, mountain location. There were a couple of forest service jobs we could’ve taken, but we ended up here at Vickers because 1) it paid more, and 2) it offered us the chance to see if we’re resort owner material.
But the one thing we didn’t really consider, were the foodie sacrifices we’d have to make to live and work in a really remote mountain town with a year-round population of 500 people.
Amarillo In August isn’t so much about the Author’s first book, as it is about the book signing tour he embarked on throughout the Southwest to offload the cases of books his publishers dumped in his lap, almost literally. But it does hint about Rattlesnake Lawyer just enough to tease any legal thriller buff. Smart marketing. Something Miller should have thought of before publishing his first book. A book that cost him his public defender job and nearly got him disbarred.
The day before we were set to arrive at Vickers Ranch to settle in for our summer workamping jobs, our Datastorm F2 satellite internet dish stopped working. It refused to lock onto our satellite (91W).
We’ve experienced intermittent trouble and lengthy searches before getting online in the past. But this time it wouldn’t lock on at all. The dish went up, stopped at every bird in the sky attempting to identify the signal, only to continue searching. After calling MotoSat for help – and sending them a few photos of what we assumed was the problem – they determined that an “in house” repair was required to fix the issue.
With our online lifestyle, there was no way we could make it a week – let alone through the summer – without a serious hack job, and a way to find our satellite. So, we took a 900 mile round-trip detour to Salt Lake City for a factory repair at their headquarters.
The only other option was to remove the entire dish mount ourselves, get it off our roof somehow, and find a freight company to get it from Creede, CO to Salt Lake City for the repair. Not to mention re-installation. It was quicker and cheaper to just drive it there. And the trip turned out to be fun. Or at least interesting.
Bookmark this post and set aside time to watch this entire End of Suburbia program about peak oil with people close to you. Pending or not, crisis or melarkey, what’s most important is to listen to and realize who is saying the enlightening if not disturbing things in this documentary. Read Matthew Simmons’ Twilight in the Desert book for more oil industry insight.
Click the bottom middle icon at the bottom right of the YouTube player to view at full screen. Better yet, get the End of Suburbia DVD and show it to everyone you know. Or give them a copy to pass along. Or email them this page link so they can watch it right here.
On my criteria list for the ideal place to live and work: Must be bike friendly.
Bicycling has been a way of life for me since 1992, when I moved to San Francisco, got a bike and rode in the second Critical Mass ride, ever.
But trust me, I’m not a trendy gearhead. My antique 1992 Trek 7000 mountain bike is an unstylish hardtail, with an old Girvin Flex Stem, a precursor to modern suspension. But from San Francisco to Florida, Old Blue has repeatedly gotten me from Point A to Point B, and it’s all I need.
So whenever we arrive in a new place, I like to go for bike rides to get a feel for the area. When you ride, you can quickly judge not just the safety of the roads, but the attitude of the locals.
The idea of taking a long break first occurred to us in 2006, when some mindless channel surfing led us to the TV show, Radical Sabbatical. Each 30 minute segment would tell the story of someone who had suddenly woken up to realize they hated their career, life was passing them by, and they needed a change, fast.
While reality shows are generally crap, watching how these people worked to make their dreams happen provided much of the inspiration we needed to get moving on our own dreams (well, that, and Jerry’s illness).
Neither Jim nor I had ever taken an extended break. In my 20s, my friends went backpacking around Europe after college, but I had student loans to pay, so I took the first dumb job that I could get. By the mid 90s, I was handing over my paycheck to student loans and credit card debt. And as for Jim, well, he’s always been too responsible to slack off.
Now that we had paid some dues in life, we became giddy at the thought of reverting to slackerdom. But the more we thought about it, we knew we couldn’t just split without some kind of goal in mind.
Did we happen to mention that this blog is now officially one year old? (Hold the applause.)
It’s been over a year actually, considering we started it as a marketing tool to sell the graphics company we built up for ten years. We slowly turned it into a travel blog once we hit the road, so there is no firm anniversary date.
With that said, I hereby present my state of the blog address, with analysis, on the one year anniversary of launching our full time RVing sabbatical road trip adventure travel lifestyle change property search community escape tribute blog.
I’d like to share a list that was recently emailed to me by fellow RV traveler, Kim She kindly sent it from somewhere in the Yukon territory of Canada last week.
She and her husband Sam left their home in Louisiana last June, and have been touring around the U.S., criss-crossing much of the same territory that Jim and I have. Read about their travels on their blog.
Kim and I share a lot of things in common, as you can tell by her list of favorite towns. See how she’s picked many of the same places / regions that we have, for many of the same reasons? But she’s also introduced me to some new ones that I’d like to check out, like Rodeo, New Mexico.
Here is Kim’s list of the best small towns in North America that she’s been to, so far. Thanks Kim.
After a year on the road, it seems clear to us that if and when we settle down, it will be somewhere in the West.
We gave the Midwest and East Coast a chance, and even fell in love with a few places, like Wisconsin, and Vermont. But ultimately, there’s just too many people crammed into the Eastern states. And in the Midwest, the mountains aren’t nearly tall enough for us. Many places we spent time in were beautiful, and quaint, but all along, I couldn’t help but drawing comparisons to my favorite places in the Western states. Nowhere else could measure up.
When we first hit the road, I didn’t want to consider Colorado as a future home, because I knew I would love it, but that real estate is expensive, and there were better deals to be had throughout the rest of the country.
But, the old adage “You get what you pay for” is so true. While you can get 100 acres with a home for less than $200k in the Midwest . . . it’s the Midwest. The people are the nicest, but the land is flat, the area is homogeneous, and the scenery just can’t compare to the kind of western mountain landscapes that take your breath away.
With this in mind, I’m willing to admit that I love the familiarity of the west, and would consider buying something in these parts. For now, here’s a list of places we want to investigate in depth.
Find us a boondocking spot in beautiful country in the middle of nowhere, and we’re all over it. When we started looking for a summer workamping gig, we wanted a job in remote, mountain location. There were a couple of forest service jobs we could’ve taken, but we ended up here at Vickers because 1) it paid more, and 2) it offered us the chance to see if we’re resort owner material.
by Jonathan Miller, author of 
– the book about which this book is about.
book for more oil industry insight.
and show it to everyone you know. Or give them a copy to pass along. Or email 
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