Simple Living and Simple Travel

If you have an art, craft, or marketable skill that you have access to when you are on the road, you might want to advertise it. It could be a way to pick up some extra money along the way. I Like Vinyl offers vinyl lettering in dozens of fonts, various colors, and numerous sizes. I put the SilverRaven text on the front corner of my camper so folks passing my site can see it. I’ve sold some of my silverwork in campgrounds in this way and have also given some 2-day lessons. Anyway, it might be something that would also work for you. There are two other shots of how I used the lettering on the trailer. All the lettering looks good even though it might not look it in the photos. Couldn’t quite get the lighting right. My letters are teal and 1" and 2" tall. Another idea is to use the lettering to show other campers what you are interested in. Good way to meet people with similar interests. Maybe make it somewhat humorous to break the ice, like, Lost Geocacher. Life i...

I had every intention to spending a couple months driving from AZ to FL and back. Got as far as Hobbs, NM and realized, once again, that this was not my kind of thing. So I’ve just been wandering around southern NM for the past month. Checking out some state parks (something I wouldn’t do in season), hiking, doing quite a bit of silverwork, reading, and generally learning and experiencing what I can. Actually hooked up to electric for a couple of weeks in one of the parks. The first since Nov 1. Sure was a treat to not have the windows all iced up in the mornings. One thing I don’t like about a catalytic heater is the amount of moisture it puts into the air. You know the rim that goes around the Casita on the outside? Well, under the condensation slots in the window frames, there can be ice stalagmites built up two inches high (and yes, I do leave two openings for ventilation during the night). With using a small ceramic heater for those two weeks, there was hardly any problem with co...

The night before I left Ute Lake, it went down to 7 degrees with the wind chill. Nice iced-up windows in the morning. Went out for a run on the trails in the morning, took a hot shower, and rolled away. Half way to Santa Rosa the visibility got pretty bad so I just tucked in behind a sanding truck for the last twenty miles. Stayed really cold all day. The Santa Rosa library had the standard firewall set up so I uploaded the last two postings and checked out a couple forums. Later found out they have wireless. I think I woke everybody up at the state park; it was blowin’ like a banshee so no one was out and there were not any campers staying there. The Cherokee and the casita were a mess from the snow, ice, and sand. Dirty icicles hanging on everything. Loop A at the Rocky Point camping area is kept open for the winter. There are 23 electric sites. Eight sites also have water. There are a few water outlets spread around the campground to fill up jugs. I like this arrangement. If one ...

After the seven month workamper job in Kanab, with only two days a week for dry-camping, I was sure ready to hit the road. Took a slow cruise up route 89 towards the Salt Lake area to visit friends there and in Park City for a couple of weeks. Went out to Antelope Island to see the vets wrap up the bison inoculations. The Lake sure was down. I lived in Salt Lake in the early 80's when we were sandbagging downtown streets and they were building pumps to pump water from the lake out into the west desert. Lucked out with the weather. Also lined up a job for next summer as a primitive campground host up in the Wasatch. Maybe even an opportunity to teach a six-week silversmith class up in Park City prior to this. Not bad. Meandered down route 6 and camped a couple nights up Horse Canyon, south of Page, before heading on to Moab. Moab was fabulous this time of year. I parked at a friend’s house for a few days. The neighbor across the road has horses. Meadow and Onyx have never seen h...

Occasionally one hears a question such as, “With so little with you, how do you fill your time?” or sees a similar question posted on various forums. One also hears it from those who full-time in the standard way and from those who are considering the lifestyle. I have trouble understanding a question like this. Are people so use to being constantly entertained? That they don’t know what to do if there is no TV, movies, restaurants, social gatherings, or whatever? Even when they ‘travel’, they merely follow the status quo&#151visit the popular sights, rack up the miles and drive through as many states as possible. So much for taking the road less traveled. Some say they get bored. How can one ever be bored? I was taught boredom is lack of imagination. Our life is in our own hands, every minute of it&#151do something with it. For some full-timers, having more free time is no big thing. They just continue right on doing what they did with their free time, when they were working...

If considering seasonal work, first decide what type of work you are looking for. workamper.com is a very popular source for finding a job. Their listings are extensive and one also gets a daily email with openings around the country. Other workamper sites have opened in the last few years, such as, workampingjobs.com, workersonwheels.com, and snowbirdsrvtrails.com. Many seasonal businesses are finding out that workampers generally turn out to be reliable employees so the job opportunities cover more than RV parks. One will find workamper jobs listed for resorts, national and state parks, amusement parks, lighthouses, storage facilities, excursion trains, NASCAR tracks, Christmas tree, pumpkin and fireworks lot, traveling circuses and carnivals, summer camps, and private farms and ranches. I used workamper.com to get a stellar job for a summer. I let my membership lapse, however, since I was more interested in primitive campgrounds which are not covered at workamper. I used a...

Well, I've been in Kanab for two months now. Not bad. The workamper job is going well. It's definitely helping me to get back in shape and it's great to talk with so many European guests. The lodge gets a few tour busses in each week and sometimes all 88 rooms are filled. All the signed photographs around the place blew me away. Just about all of the film stars from the '30's to '70's have stayed at the Parry Lodge. I get a daily email from workamper.com listing job openings. This was one: Arizona: Workamper needed for 12 hours weekly light yard maintenance in exchange for full hook-up RV site, at clothing optional property in Tonopah, AZ. Included: telephone, Satellite TV, laundry, electricity, water, sewer & trash. Call: 623-810-0594. Sounds like they might use more sun screen than most. This photo is of looking down onto Kanab from the top of the mesa with the 9,000’ Kaibab plateau in the background. Found some great geocaches in the area...