We are quickly approaching our two year anniversary of being on the road, and we have no intention of stopping. We’ll keep traveling and working seasonally around the country, but we’d still like to park occasionally on our own piece of land.
Our plan is to buy a small parcel in Colorado, and another one somewhere in Texas. Still, we’re keeping our options open as far as locations go. On our way to Texas, we stopped in three towns I’ve heard a lot of good things about.
After leaving Slab City, it was a revelation to think that we’d been back in California since November. I couldn’t believe we’d been there for so long. But when you come from a big Mexican family like I do, it takes about that long to make the rounds and see everyone!
We blew through Arizona, because familiarity breeds contempt. I used to live there in the early ’90s, and I don’t know what it is about the Grand Canyon State, but I just don’t like it. Maybe that’s because when my Dad lived in Jerome (about 100 miles north of Phoenix) in the 1930s, he was forced to attend a segregated “Mexicans only” school while my grandfather worked as a miner.
Headed east, we stopped in Douglas, Arizona along the Mexican border. On a whim, we parked our rig at the border crossing and walked into Mexico, just to be able to say we’ve now been to three countries in our rig.
The contrast between the U.S. side and the Mexican side is obvious. On our side, there’s shiny new strip malls and Wallyworld. On their side, just a half mile away, there are potholed streets and zero evidence of building codes.
We walked around, got some great pan dulces and a jugo de pina. Took some photos and felt sorry for some skinny Mexican dogs. Then we turned around, and walked back over. Just. Like. That. Our five dollar Mexican vacation was over in a couple of hours.
Upon our return, I thought about how my family set down U.S. roots in the 1930s. Both sets of my Grandparents hopped the fence before “illegal immigration” was an issue. All they wanted was for their kids to have a better life, and we’ve managed to accomplish that, and then some.
Three generations later, there I was, returning to the Other Side like it was no big deal. That’s America for you.
Wow. The response to Nature’s Why We Love Cats and Dogs is beyond our wildest dreams. Jerry’s website has been smokin’. We typically average about 900 unique visits a day. Yesterday alone we had more than 6,000 visitors!
We can’t thank PBS and WNET enough for sharing Jerry’s story. If you missed it, no worries. You can still watch the full episode online.
We must give a special shout-out to producer Ellen Goosenberg Kent and her crew. Since they first followed us around Santa Fe last March, we’ve wondered what would come of the hours of footage they shot.
Well, Ellen did a simply amazing job telling Jerry’s story! We have now seen it about a dozen times and still cry every time.
We are just astounded to think that our story has touched so many people, in such profound ways. If the response here and on the Nature website is any indication, Ellen is sure to be nominated for another Emmy!
Just a quick reminder: Jerry’s big debut will be on PBS tonight, 2/15 in the NATURE series episode called “Why We Love Cats and Dogs.”
Be sure to tune in at 8:00 p.m. (check your local listings to be sure). You’ll also hear from many other pet owners and various animal behavior experts like the awesome Sarah Wilson.
Among RVers, no other camping area evokes such intense reactions as Slab City. People either love it, or hate it. There is no gray area among this 640 acre dismantled military base near the Salton Sea.
“The movie depicts Slab City as this really cool RV hippie community, where people of all ages hang out – peace, love, happiness, rock and roll, and all that. Well yesterday, we drove two hours to Slab City and nothing could be further from the truth.
Slab City is an RV slum, pure and simple. It’s actually really sad – people living in tents and abandon vehicles. There were even remnants of burned down RVs strewn all over the place. It’s amazing to think that people actually live this way in the US – and it’s only 80 miles from swanky Palm Springs.”
This intrigued me. Liz is a nice person and I like her a lot, but the two of us are quite different. I’m crunchy granola and like to keep things simple, while she’s a high flyin’ New Yorker who’s into manicures,and the glamourous life. Once I saw what she thought of Slab City, I figured if she hated it, I’d probably love it.
I was right.
Slab City: The Last Free Place
Do come here with an open mind if you plan to visit. Many people we know would be completely offended by the post-apocalyptic look of the place.
To come here requires someone who is willing to look beyond the surface, to scratch a little deeper at a situation to learn the real story.
Free camping. It’s a spot of abandoned, state-owned land where hundreds of travelers from all over the world come to stay for free, some permanently, others just to ride out winter. Call us squatters, if you will, since nobody has “official” permission to be here.
Serious Boondocking. There are no facilities whatsoever: no electricity, water, or trash. Nothing. The closest dump station is 8 miles away.
Kinda trashy, in places. Yes, there is some garbage and abandoned RVs around. The state doesn’t care about this spot, and the closest city refuses to clean it up since residents don’t pay to be here. It’s up to campers to be responsible for taking trash to town, and like any neighborhood, some people are better about this than others.
Very Social. There is much to do and see here, including social clubs, a couple of concert stages, a library, an 18 hole golf course, a church, hot springs, and more. We’ve been to two potlucks, and seem to be doing something every night of the week. We’ve never been so active in one location before.
What Slab City Isn’t:
Lawless. Contrary to how the media portrays it, I don’t feel in any more in danger here than I do in most cities. Sure, there are some sketchy looking characters, but if you keep away from them, they’ll most likely keep away from you. The county sheriff makes regular runs through here, and Border Patrol is constantly driving through.
Depressing. There is more creativity here than any tidy suburban neighborhood I’ve been to. Residents have contributed many hours of labor to build free amenities like the golf course (with free equipment!), concert stages, church, or the public shower down near the springs. I’m impressed that people would do so much with so little, in such an unforgiving desert environment. Now if they could only get it together to do something about the trash . . .
Mainstream. It’s as if someone took a sampling of every kind of ethnicity, personality type and mental disorder, and shipped them here. There are international travelers, old folks, musicians, fulltime Rvers, wandering travelers and offroad enthusiasts, all camped out in the same area as drifters, people struggling with addictions, mental illness and/or homelessness. Everyone seems to get along, following a live and let live attitude.
The desert scenery outside Slab City is beautiful, surrounded by a rugged mountain range. On most days, you can look east to the Chocolate Mountains, about 2 miles away, and watch the US Navy spend your tax dollars by practicing bombing runs and playing war games in the air. We took two hour bike rides without seeing another soul.
The other day, Jim went to see Solar Mike, about our solar system. Mike asked Jim “How long are you staying?” Jim replied with “oh, a week or two.” Mike looked at Jim with a knowing look and chuckled… “Yeah, right.”
I think he could tell just by looking at us. The Slab City lifestyle is agreeing with us, and we’re going to find it hard to break camp this week.
There are two kinds of fulltime RVer couples on the road. There are couples where both partners really love the lifestyle, and can’t think of living any other way. Then, there are couples where one partner loves it, and the other was dragged on the bus kicking and screaming. Some couples’ personalities fit perfectly into fulltime RVing, while others try it, then put their RV on the market before summer’s end.
If you happen to be the reluctant RVer, Doreen Orion’s book – Queen of the Road – is perfect for you.
Readers, meet Eric Auckerman, and his fiancee, Julie Ackerman (seriously, Auckerman and Ackerman!). We recently had a great day with them on their boat in Newport Beach, CA. If you’re a regular here, Eric’s name might ring a bell . . .
Jim and Eric used to work together in the Silicon Valley, back in the ’90s. Eric was a high-flying international salesman who led a hectic life bringing in the big bucks. Then one day, he’d had enough (along with what he thought was a heart attack).
He quit his job, flew to Hawaii for a sabbatical, and ended up staying. He bought a local screenprinting business and turned it into a worldwide enterprise. All while maintaining that classic laid-back island lifestyle.
After a few years, he met Julie, a successful business broker from Newport Beach. Eric sold the business, returned to the mainland, and Auckerman and Ackerman now enjoy the best of both worlds; they have a home-office from their beautiful home in Newport and run a successful business brokerage together; all while getting to enjoy a fabulously stylish, laid-back way of life on the Pacific.
It was great to see Eric looking happier with life than he ever has. For if anyone understands the search for the ultimate LiveWorkDream scenario, he does. Congratulations Eric and Julie, we are so glad you found it!
If you’re a blogger, each time you finish writing a post and are about to Publish, you might think to yourself “is anyone actually reading this? Does anyone really care about what I might have to say?”
For more than 18 months Jim and I have used this blog to document and share our crazy full-time RVing sabbatical adventure. We are faithful about checking our visitor statistics and click-thru commissions, but we never felt like we had a good handle on you—our visitors: why you come here, and what you like or don’t like about what we publish.
We’ve often wondered what site features or blog topics we should put more time and effort into, and considered what might we scrap altogether.
To put aside any doubts we had about our work, we published our Reader Survey back in November. We used a WordPress plug-in called CForms II. Many thanks to everyone who submitted a survey.
We were intrigued with what we discovered. Among many of the findings, we learned new things like:
Discovery #1: More people read our blog on a weekly basis than daily.
The Conclusion:Many of you are busy and choose to catch up with our posts all at once, perhaps skipping through them until you find a topic that interests you. Perhaps we should also post no more than say, three posts a week so you don’t feel overwhelmed when you do visit.
Discovery #2: You’re into the way we live.
The top 3 blog categories people like to read about on our site are: “Fulltiming,” “Simple Living” and “RV Technology”
The Conclusion:Our core readers are interested in what it’s like to live a simple life in an RV on a fulltime basis while remaining connected. We are happy knowing that we’ve been writing for the things you want to know more about.
Discovery #3: If you subscribe, you don’t visit often. And vice versa.
Instead of subscribing to our blog in an RSS Reader, and perusing posts directly within that – a Reader is like an electronic newspaper of your own, which gathers up all of the latest work by the blogs and websites that you’ve told it to monitor – most of our audience physically comes back to our site each time they want to read it.
The Conclusion: Wow, we get bookmarked and people actually remember to visit at least once a week. This is a huge compliment. Also, while we didn’t ask your ages, this leads us to believe that the majority of our readers might not have the desire or time to get comfortable with how to use RSS feeds. If this is the case, and you want a quick tutorial on how to use a Reader, let us know and we’ll write about it.
Side Note: Of those readers who replied to our survey, that is! Feedburner stats indicate we have had on average 113 subscribers over the past 30 days. Thirty four readers completed our survey.
Discovery #4: You don’t Digg us.
Based on your feedback, social networking isn’t something you’re doing. Most of you don’t Twitter, and you definitely don’t spend a lot of time using the social bookmarking toolbars at the conclusion of each of our blog posts either. (In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and share with specified people or groups inside certain online “networks.”)
Discovery #5: Most readers find our monthly expense reports to be useful.
The Conclusion: Our readers are curious about what it costs to live the way we do, and are perhaps comparing our spending against theirs. For the foreseeable future, I guess I’m stuck playing beancounter at the end of each month.
The Conclusion:Again, we think that this is a reflection of our readers’ age bracket. It was good to learn this about them, because as more social networking plug-ins become available for us to add to our site, we know that this probably isn’t something we should spend a lot of time implementing.
FYI: The “share” links now include a “print” and “email to a friend” buttons.
Discovery #6: Our closest friends and family don’t care.
Almost none of our friends and family filled out the survey. Some readers who comment frequently opted out as well. The most enthusiastic respondents who enjoy our site, are total strangers who never comment.
The Conclusion: Our friends and family know how boring we really are and don’t buy into that road tripping, freewheelin’ hippie image we have on the web.
Overall …
It seems that you are here for the blog itself, not really for the rest of the website, which includes a storefront and a road trip soundtrack page, if you didn’t already know. The number one reason you tune in is to read about what life on the road is really like, and where the best places in this country are for people with like-minded ways of thinking.
Thanks to the generous readers who gave their time to fill out the survey, we are now confident that for the most part, our writing is on the right track. While some things can be omitted or cleaned up (like not talking about politics, according to a few respondents), you have affirmed that our approach is working well.
And if we are way off base or totally full of crap with this analysis, please let us know with a comment below.
Back when we were in Los Angeles, we were thrilled to be invited by PBS to present the show at the Annual Television Critics Press Tour. This is a twice-yearly event where TV networks showcase their best work of the season. We were on the panel along with with the show’s producer, Ellen Goosenberg Kent, animal behavior expert Sarah Wilson, and PBS executive Bill Grant.
We were clueless about the significance of the TCA event. But then Ellen told us that not every show gets invited to the showcase, and this was the only Nature episode being presented. Later, as we were whisked into the Universal Studios Hilton ballroom with a large stage, gigantic video monitors and about 100 reporters, we got the picture.
Jim’s a natural at public speaking, and was great. As for me, I’ve always dreaded it, and if I didn’t belong toToastmasters once, I would’ve fainted. I did OK though, thanks to our “little Jerry” I held, a three legged stuffed dog that our friends Bob and Marianne Morse gave to him before we left Eureka (that’s Jerry’s collar on it).
The event was over in the blink of an eye, but the results have been encouraging. We’ve so far been interviewed by the TV Guide Channel, a Tribune News Media reporter, and this Tuesday, a San Luis Obispo area talk radio host, Dave Congelton, is interviewing us. Keep an eye out for your local newspapers to review the show.
As we watch this dream unfold, we can’t help but feel blessed for all of the incredible gifts that Jerry bestowed on us. He was such an inspiration, and despite the pain of losing him far too soon, we are comforted in knowing that his story will go on to inspire others all over the world through this show, and of course, his website. Many thanks to producer Ellen and our friend Luke for believing in his story.
On the road again . . . like a band of gypsies we go down the highway.
Ok, I know it’s cliche, but it had to be done.
Just over a month after arriving in L.A., we said tearful goodbyes to the family yesterday, then headed up to Paso Robles to meet Moose’s family, our heroes who showed us that dogs can live great lives on three legs. We wouldn’t be the wandering hoboes we are if it wasn’t for this incredible pack. We had a great visit. More on that later.
Meanwhile, we’re boondocking on classic desert BLM land near Red Rocks State Park. This place is filled with OHVers on weekends, but weekdays are relatively quiet. Friday, we’ll head to Palm Springs to catch Willie Nelson live!
We are huge Willie fans, and have been trying to get to one of his shows for years, but never made it. Finally, our universes will collide this Friday night. I can’t tell you how excited we are about it.
Till then, we’re gonna get re-acclimated with life on the road. We’ll soak up the sun, go on hikes, watch sunsets, and write our guts out here in the desert. I just hope we can view the Inauguration tomorrow morning on the web without getting FAP’d by our satellite provider.
We are quickly approaching our two year anniversary of being on the road, and we have no intention of stopping. We’ll keep traveling and working seasonally around the country, but we’d still like to park occasionally on our own piece of land.
Entries (RSS)
