Life, what a ride for a dime!

February 16, 2024 / Rich / Leave a comment

This blog was originally started as a living record of our life and travels for our children to follow along as we moved around the United States. In hindsight my problem with WordPress changing format’s years ago as outlined in my final post, had more to do with my unwillingness to change my life then it had to do with WordPress format. If I could have recognized this back than I could have saved myself a lot of pain and misery. The one thing that I have proven to myself is that when I take control of my life and run around acting like I know everything, shooting from the hip when making decisions, that destruction is not far behind. You’ll see as the story unfolds it was almost total destruction!

So what is the blog now?

Well that’s complicated, but I suppose it comes down to having a place my kids can go to learn about their father after I’m gone, should they every want too. When I hung out with the ” friends of Bill W.” they taught me I can only keep what I have by giving it away. This is the story of one man’s journey from birth to nomadic recluse.

Disclaimer;

This is my story and I’m sharing it, if something helps you that’s great, if it does not help than discard it. The only education and degrees I have are from the school of hard knocks. They were not an accredited place of education, although I think they should be. In the story I am just telling the story the way I lived it and I hold no ill feelings or hatred for the people in the story including myself, we’re just people trying to figure out the mystery at is life.

About the author

I have come believe that I was created in the image of my Creator. If I surrender my will and my life to the care of my Creator as I understand him, my life gets a lot better.

I have come to believe every human being can operate out of good behavior or bad behavior the choice is ours.

I have come to believe that the cornerstones for a solid relationship with anyone is Honesty, Trust, and Communication. without these a relationship will collapse.

I have learned to search for what I don’t know instead of relaying on my own understanding.

I have come to believe that life is nothing more than a series of choices and the better we know ourselves the better we can make choices that make us happy.

Finally I have come to believe that we are all influenced initially by Genetics, environment, and life experiences, until we reach an age of accountability we have very little control over our influences.

Thanks for stopping bye and look for the next post ” What it was like”

Lets spend our time with a positive attitude searching for opportunity like a child searches for hidden treasure.

Beautiful day at the Grand Canyon.

September 6, 2020 / Rich / 1 Comment

We needed a day just to be amazed by nature. Hope you enjoy. This will likely be our last post with WordPress this new update is just a pain in ass. Hay WordPress if it isn’t broken don’t fix it!!!!!!!!!!

Forgiveness is the key to the shackles that bind us.

August 28, 2020 / Rich / Leave a comment

Once there was a life that suffered greatly at the hands of other lives. This suffering caused the life to make friends with resentment, who introduced the life to hatred and as they all continued down the path this life was on they notice that the life was getting sick not just in body but in mind as well. Concerned for this life, resentment and hatred introduced the life to sedation and bid farewell to the life. Sedation told the life that as long as you always have me by your side you will still suffer greatly you just won’t care that your suffering, and down the path they went. After many, many days and nights on this path it was clear that the life was sick again and much sicker than any other sickness the life had every experienced. Sedation reached out to his friend fear knowing that sedation could not cure the sickness at had over taken the life. Soon fear and the life realized that they needed to seek shelter from all the suffering , somewhere far away from all other lives.They believed the suffering would end. As the seasons came and went the friendship between fear and the life deepened, they would become inseparable. After many seasons of isolation a stranger appeared in the shelter and the life confronted this stranger through the eye’s of fear and with all the hatred the life had been taught. This stranger told the life, my name is forgiveness and I mean you no harm. The life said I’ve been told that before and it always leads to great suffering. Forgiveness asked if they could talk awhile? The life and fear reluctantly said yes. Forgiveness went on to say I am easy to understand, hard to follow, and misunderstood. The life said tell me more. Forgiveness continued to say that the sickness that is in your body and mind is due to the hatred you were taught by resentment. You have to become willing to forgive those lives that have caused your great suffering. The life responded, why should I give the gift of forgiveness to those lives that have caused me such great suffering? Forgiveness replied, your questions is why I’m so hard to follow and usually misunderstood. Explain said the life. Forgiving those other lives is not for their benefit it’s for yours. Forgiveness is the only cure for the hatred that makes your mind and body so sick. Forgiveness told the life that the path of forgiveness will take a lot of practice, it doesn’t required fear to go with you and down the path you will find peace and freedom. Fear didn’t like what forgiveness had told the life and said don’t believe forgiveness for if you do you will experience the greatest suffering every. The life was silently sitting, pondering all that had been said. Finally the life broke the silence by saying I will change to the path of forgiveness. Forgiveness told the life I will send progress to walk this path with you. Progress will teach, comfort, and guide you to peace and freedom. Over time fear disappeared, progress and the life became best friends and the closer they got to peace and freedom the more suffering started to disappeared. The life realized that the path of forgiveness was not prefect and in fact the aura of peace and freedom would cause other lives to attack the life. But the life was better prepare to deal with the attacks and the suffering was far less than the life had felt on the path of resentment.

Every Coin has two sides. Post by Rich

August 26, 2020 / Rich / 4 Comments

Back in May of this year when we were all living two weeks at a time I did a post asking the RV community to support RV parks so we all would have safe places to park if we needed. The closer we got to Portland OR and the more people started to move around greed started showing up. Most of the RV parks in the Portland area don’t offer monthly rates during summer months. They offer weekly rates that equal roughly $1500.00 a month which is about triple our budget for rent. We found a place named Aurora Acres in Aurora, OR that still had monthly rates around $500.00 and it was prefect to make home base for exploring. Aurora Acres could only put us up until 08/01/2020 so we had to start planning our trip out of Oregon. We decide to head to Williams AZ and along the way everything went pretty smooth with the RV parks, they were staffed with nice friendly people until we got to Williams AZ.

Never in 5 years of full timing Have we every been treated so poorly by a Good Sam rated 9 campground or any campground for that matter.

We arrived at Canyon Motel and RV park in Williams AZ where we had been quoted $1275.00 for 53 days. At check in I was told the stay was going to be $2550.00 and the error was my fault because I don’t know how to make reservations. The options I was given was to take my deposit and leave or stay 1 month at $1275.00, tried from the road I decided to stay. The site they put us in was gravel and weeds with a bad water leak on the water spigot. The day they came by to fix the water leak we were gone and our water was off. When we got back at 9:30pm and turned on the water it sprayed out of the water hose like a shower head. once again when I talk to the manager it was my fault my hose was defective. Later the owner of the park came by to tell I had to leave because I wasn’t there. I informed him that I was paid thru 09/07/20, I had not broken any laws, park rules, and I’m not going anywhere. When the police arrived the officer told that Arizona has a law on the books that states; a property owner can evict anyone at anytime for any reason or no reason and they do not have refund any unused rent. He also told me I had 1 hour to clear the property or I was going to jail. We loaded up and left but we had nowhere to go.

The real heroes in Williams, AZ

Canyon Gateway RV Park; a women named Madison who didn’t have site open that night but called all the campgrounds in the local area to find us a spot for the night and than the next day we could come and stay as long has we wanted up to 09/03/20. We didn’t ask her to do that she jumped into action after hearing what just happened to us. Your awesome Madison!!!!!

Railside RV Ranch the women who runs Railside was able to give a site for month at a better rate than Canyon Motel and RV for the second month we needed. She came to our rescue again when we needed to change in and out dates because of the eviction. Your awesome thank you !!!!!

Please, if your in Williams, AZ give these folks a try you won’t be disappointed!

Just curious. Post Rich

August 19, 2020 / Rich / 4 Comments

Is Health and safety a personal or presidential responsibility?

Please leave a comment either personal or presidential/

Thank you

August 15, 2020

August 12, 2020 / Rich / 2 Comments

Welcome to the new folks who started following our travels. When we started this blog back in 2017 we wanted our friends and family to know what we were doing and where we were. The other reason was we wanted a journal of our travels to live forever online so our kids, grand-kids, and great grand-kids can read about our travels and see the places we’ve been. We hope that the writing and images will inspire you to go see places for yourself.

August 15, 2020 is the 5th anniversary of being on the road full-time. When we started this journey neither Darla or I had any measurable experience in RVing and we didn’t own an RV. When Darla found our rig on craigslist in AZ we didn’t even have a truck but we ‘re looking at 5th wheels go figure. Darla found this 2005 Keystone Cougar on craigslist, it turned out that we liked the trailer and the seller was also selling a 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 diesel so we bought the package.

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She’s been a good rig we’ve gone coast to coast with her and she’s never let us down. Now it’s time for an upgrade we need more storage in the bedroom and we want a true four seasons so we’ve been looking at 2016 Cougars we also like the 2016 Grand Design Reflection 337 rls.

Full-time RVers VS Nomads.

I think now we see ourselves more as nomads instead of full-time RVer. We move around the country looking for opportunity. Sometimes the opportunity is to spend time with friends and family. Sometimes it’s for workamping opportunities. We’ve found in our new lifestyle that sitting around to much makes the body hurt and we can trade labor for money to support our travels and even to upgrade the 5’er.

A couple of years ago we started our own online business IdealPhotoArt.com where we can post our travel photo and you can put them on coffee cups, framed art, tote bags just about anything you want to put an image. This year we switched platforms and now we’re so excited to be with Fine Arts America. I’m in the process of uploading 10k travel images. If you have a special place you wish you had on a t-shirt or coffee mug and you never captured an image of it, Than email us at idealphotoart.com@gmail.com give us the info to search our catalog for it or if we’re close we’ll go capture it for you.

IdealPhotoArt_Finalrev1

Walk down memory lane.

Thank you for stopping bye.

Photos taken an hour berfore Sunset at Duck Creek Utah.

Butch Cassidy lived in this home from age 14 to age 18 in Southern Utah.

After a three mile hike this was the reward.

Bryce Canyon N.P.

Tennessee

West Virgina

Maine

Maine

Niagara Falls NY

Glacier N.P. MT

Glacier N.P. MT

Welcome to Williams AZ.

August 11, 2020 / Rich / 3 Comments

Well our luck ran out in Oregon. We couldn’t s fine anywhere to park so we had to go. We decided to go to Williams AZ to get our kicks on route 66 for a couple of months until it cools down enough for us to go to our winter park. Our first outing was trying to find a place to walk Chill’n that has water and a place we can let him off the leash. We went to a place called Buckskinner Park it had water but no place for Chill’n to get off leash.

Image captured at Buckskinner Park, Williams, AZ

The next place was Cataract Lake Park. Again, nice but not right.

Image captured at Cataract Lake Park, Williams, AZ

The quest continues. Thanks for stopping bye.

The Oregon Coast.

July 26, 2020 / Rich / 3 Comments

We took a drive over to Lincoln City and as far south as Newport to beat the heat.

Image captured on the Oregon Coast.

We were doing a scenic drive and we stopped at a view point and down below was what seemed to be a baby whale. It never fully surfaced so I took some shots you be the judge.

Image captured on the Oregon Coast.

We stopped at a beach down around Newport so Chill’n could get his paws in the water and a little walk in.

Image captured on the Oregon Coast.

Thanks for visiting.

Battery 245 at Fort Stevens State Park.

July 25, 2020 / Rich / Leave a comment

This was an active military installation from the civil war days until the end of WWII. Chill’n enjoyed the soft grass.

Image captured at Fort Stevens State Park in Hammond, Oregon

Shipwreck at Fort Stevens State Park.

July 23, 2020 / Rich / Leave a comment

We wanted to check out the Northern Oregon Coast so we headed out to Astoria, Oregon. On the way back we stopped at Fort Stevens State Park and met up with one of our neighbors from Arizona and they showed us around.