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 ...