Tag Archives: travel

Boondocking

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If you’re properly prepared and have the right approach, it’s a surprisingly affordable way to travel in the southwest and beyond.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I got a request from one of my YouTube subscribers for more information about boondocking in an RV. This is a topic near and dear to me, as I spend a good portion of every winter camping for free on public land in Arizona and California. It’s a nice, inexpensive way to enjoy nature and solitude. Kind of like having your own mobile Walden Pond.

Boondocking Defined

Boondocking — at least the way I see it — is camping without any RV hookups or conveniences. Although this is usually done in parking lots (think Walmart) or on public land, you can be boondocking in a campground if that campground has no services. It basically means relying on your own equipment for power, water, sanitation (toilet), and food storage/prep. It usually refers to staying in a vehicle or RV, although I suppose you can do it with a tent, too. (I’ve already had enough tent camping in my life, so I won’t address that here.)

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A YouTube Channel Post

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I share a short post on my YouTube channel.

About Buy Me a Coffee

If you haven’t heard of this service, Buy Me a Coffee is an easy way for folks to contribute to the efforts of their favorite creators. I signed up years ago and, over the years have gotten a reasonable number of contributions. Occasionally, I’d go to my account and sweep the balance into my savings account. Easy peasy.

Then, for reasons I don’t understand, Buy Me a Coffee got a third party credit card company involved, Stripe. I had to jump through hoops to set up a Stripe account and provide a lot more personal information than I wanted to in order to get my money. (I don’t see why they need a photo of my driver’s license to give me $46.) So I decided to stop using them and, instead, set up a Buy Me a Coffee item on my Square account. This way when folks make a contribution, Square takes its fee and just puts the rest in my bank account. Very easy and no need for a third party intervention.

Unfortunately, a bunch of those old Buy Me a Coffee links were still out there and that’s what my latest contributor used. So I spent this morning squashing every link in my blogs. I still need to go through all of my YouTube video descriptions. I’ll wait until I know I’ve squashed all the links before doing a final sweep and closing my Buy Me a Coffee account.

It never ceases to amaze me how many organizations need to get a piece of the action every time a creator is receives money for work.

This morning, I got a notification that a YouTube channel subscriber had contributed $25 to my publishing efforts via Buy Me a Coffee. His accompanying message to me told me a bunch of things that he liked and wanted to see.

I Need Motivation

Getting positive feedback — yes, with money, although that didn’t really matter as much — reminded me that I usually don’t just sit on my ass and watch the clock hands spin my life away. I’m usually working on creative projects like my blog or YouTube channel content or the book I started writing about my Great Loop adventure. Or making jewelry in my studio (or mobile studio).

But lately I’ve been feeling kind of meh — I think world events and the fall of the United States’ democracy have something to do with that but won’t discuss it here — and have been spending entirely too much time on social media (Mastodon), doing word and number puzzles (even I think 8 sudokus a day is extreme), and watching YouTube videos. It was only over the past two days that I decided to practice using my drone and exploring livestreaming from it that I’ve been making better use of my time.

And that’s what prompted my latest supporter, who watched the livestream, to contribute and speak up. So that’s all good.

It also got me motivated to check out new comments on my personal YouTube channel and respond to them. And to write a post letting subscribers know I was still alive and what my plans were for the next few months. Here’s that post.

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New Mexico Explorations

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I take about two weeks to explore southwestern New Mexico.

I’ve been going south for the winter ever since I moved to Washington State in 2013. (Before that, when I lived in Arizona, I went north for the summer starting in 2008.) I usually spend most of my time in Arizona, although there’s a hot spring in California that I like. And, of course, in the winters of 2022/23 and 2023/24, I was on my boat in the southeastern US, spending an awful lot of time in Florida. (You can learn more about that in the My Great Loop Adventure blog where I’ve written quite a bit about that trip.)

The Backstory for My Trip to New Mexico

Last year, I came dangerously close to buying a 5-acre piece of land southeast of Tucson, AZ. It was partially developed with a driveway, a building pad, and a well and was close to electricity for an easy hookup. And views! Although they weren’t as good as my current views, I certainly could have lived with them.

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This Year’s Long Drive South

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I prepare for my annual southern migration, this time with a purpose.

I go south every year for the winter. Although I love my home and I’d like nothing more than to be able to spend the winter here in comfort — writing at my desk, making jewelry in my studio, editing video at my computer, and maybe even hitting the cross-country ski trails around Mazama and Winthrop — I find the short daylight hours and dreary weather depressing. It starts as soon as we change the clocks — I’m firmly in the DST year-round camp — and by the first of December, when Shadow Time starts, I’m going nuts with SAD. The only solution is to go south, so that’s what I do. I pack up my camper and drive to Arizona, where I have some friends and favorite campsites, and California, to hit my favorite hot spring.

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American Airlines Misadventures

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I experience a grueling travel day thanks to automated systems and basic ineptitude at American Airlines.

I’ll try to make this short, mostly because I’m exhausted and don’t want to spend too much time writing about it. But it was such a crazy experience that I want to record it for posterity.

The Backstory

I just finished a two week delivery/training boat captain gig in Florida. The owner of the boat, a 2024 Beneteau Antares 11, needed to move the boat from Niceville on the Florida panhandle to Jacksonville on the northeastern Florida coast, a distance of more than 800 nautical miles. John had zero boating experience and his insurance company required an experienced training captain on board. John found me through my YouTube Great Loop videos. We had 2 weeks to do the trip and we managed with a day to spare.

There’s a lot more to this story, but I’ll cover the highlights in my Great Loop blog. All I can say is that I don’t know how people can live with the heat and humidity in Florida in August.

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