Sorting Out the Future As I Go...

... life goes on whether we go with it or not... so... just take what comes and do the best with it...

Kind of a last minute thing, I've contracted out my October with the sugar outfit up in Montana again. That job will carry me into the winter well. And those funds will be sorely needed if I'm to keep this "back to horse" goal moving...

Till then, I'll be pulling out of here shortly, now that the latest repairs are done and the first steps of the tribulation of separation have been taken. My current need, to ride along with the beet harvest is to get this book I've been laboring on completed and published. Excuses don't pay the bills and feed my scrawny butt. Time to quit with that and just get it done.

My camera has not seen near as much use lately... The first three are actually from my phone on a lil' unexpected walk I took yesterday...

 

Truck went in the shop Tuesday for several hundred bucks worth of shocks, steering dampers and alignments to correct the tire scrubbing that started to get bad in the last few hundred miles...

Then Friday...

The truck in the past couple months has started getting a lot "warmer" pulling grades. When I got back from Missouri and took that time up to Steamboat it was getting warmer yet. Close inspection revealed a pretty good bug load down in the radiator.

So...  figured to just blow 'em out at the car wash...

Bad choice... turns out, that carwash wand had the power to fold over all the radiator fins it got too close to... That carelessness cost me a few hundred dollars for a new radiator... Maybe.

Buuut first... I dropped the truck off first thing yesterday, thinking it would only be a couple hours that I could kill at a coffee shop and/or people watching... wrong... they'd need it all day.

Since I'd not lined up a ride that left me with that unexpected walk I mentioned. Yep... a 7 1/2 mile stroll!  Dodging trains, trucks and liquor bottles. Seem like somebody does some pretty heavy drinking along those tracks. Every two steps there was one of those lil' "Shooter" bottles of some variety... just my luck of course - they were all empty! :-/

Google maps claimed I should get it done in two and a half hours... took me two hours and forty minutes to hoof it... what a wimp!

But then... when I found a ride back in the afternoon I got informed that the radiator I'd got put in back in 2010 was the wrong one! That was for a gas engine... not my diesel. It was maybe 1/3 less "Thick" so with less fluid and cooling surface... which is a wonder it worked as well as it did for a hundred thousand miles!

But on the way back to the Lakota I captured those three pics above. ;) so all's good.

Those below are just what's been passing by around me in the past few weeks...

He'd been running around and wading in along the shallow bank of this big pond... then came running down that lil' point behind him and jumped high... thinking he'd land in water six inches deep... only to find that there was a hole 'bout six FEET deep right there... he learned to swim right quick.

Talk about "keeping on"... This Plane is something on the order of 70 years+ ... and still flying... Circled over me several times... Makes a guy wonder what action it might have seen... and about the men that flew her...

... Which tends to dwarf our own sorry problems in comparison...

I'll head to that little patch of Arizona dirt I did a deal on in November; as soon as the beet harvest is done... and start putting a winter horse camp together...

That's how it's all laid out just now anyway.

Brian

Just Sloggin' Along...

Bleh... sometimes the trail is rough and rocky...

When we left Montana it seemed like we'd worked to be set up pretty fine for the winter. With another week of work done at Phoenix International Raceway... Things were lookin' a lot less "up against it".

Well... that's what a guy gets for thinkin'...

This and that just came along quick and nasty and put us behind where we were when we pulled into Sydney for our month of hard labor. Drained that pot as fast as we'd filled it.

Sure, without that month we'd a been sitting with our feet nailed to the ground holding a bucket full of hamburger with a big ugly Grizz licking it's chops three feet away... and some damned tree lovin' monkey hollering that we'd best not hurt him!

Just 'cuz that's a true enough thing... doesn't make getting sucker punched any more comfortable.

So...

Here in the desert by myself for the past couple of weeks I've been trying to catch up on work that I, to be honest, have been finding excuses to not get done for too long.

The past few days, with good signal and the reality that frugality isn't the only thing you need... I've been hard at work rebuilding more of my main site. Knocked out 20 pages or so in that time. It's just amazing how much work and how long that rebuild is taking though.

With something well over 300 pages... and every one having to be rebuilt because of SBI's program upgrade, as well as google's never ending dance with it's system... it's a hellacious piece of work to get whittled out.

... and that doesn't even count the necessary rebuild for the same reasons on the Bike site... that I have to get after as well.

You'd think google's business plan is to make it as difficult as possible... for the webmasters that in the end, produce just about every nickle that it makes. Makes me grumpy.

Buuuuut... what with Obama's fine hangin' over my head, declining income from google (largely 'cause of my jacked up pages I'm hoping) It got to jabbin' me hard enough to get off the dime and dive into the work required.

I'll be caching the fiver in Wickenburg in a couple days and bobtailing the worn out ol' truck to Colorado for the coming Holiday... assuming that the lil bit in my pocket doesn't get me only part way to the front range. ;) It's likely to be a slow trip trying to squeeze all the mileage out of a gallon of diesel that's possible.

Along with the holiday we'll be trying to work out some ideas for the future... simple truth is... changes have to be made...

I just can't keep up with the work I need to do for subsistence as well as the wear and tear on the rig... the way things are... with income down a LOT, and everything in the world seeming to be climbing a pretty steep slope... the next year is gonna see some remodeling of "ways". Requirement of reality.

The trick is in finding the balance between the necessities of subsistence and the absolute requirements of the Spirit.

Simply it is what it is.

So... it's back to the keyboard for me
Brian

Sometimes Thanksgiving... Takes Some Effort -or- Broken Transmissions Test Your Metal

It's hard to not get down sometimes. It's hard to keep on keepin' on when it seems like every step you take you get hit with that startling punch in the guts.

And then... you take another step and... WHAM... the hits just keep on comin'.

Laying there you look up and think... why the hell bother. Why not just lay here and watch the clouds float by and say to hell with it...

Buuuuuut... after layin' there for a bit you start thinkin'. Yeah I know I should quit that crap... it's only ever got me a belly ache and in trouble... but it's an addiction I just can't shake...

So there I am... layin' in the ditch, starin' up at the sky... wonderin' what to do about a blown transmission... and I get to thinkin': "Self? You got bruises and scars, dents and dislocated parts... your teeth are bad and your attitude worse. This sucks mightily... But... BUT... two months ago the money wasn't in the bank to make the fix. So even if this consumes the last of that...the worst is... you're only back where you were... before you got to where you're at."

The old saw is true; There's others that have it worse... so Cowboy Up and ride boy.

There's Some are in the hospital with grievous illness. Some have lost their son's or lovers in a sorry, hopeless struggle in a useless pit beyond redemption... others have lost homes, jobs, friends and hope. My lil' difficulty don't measure up to theirs.

So... one more time... pick up my marbles... Cowboy Up, and get on down the road.

*** Made what was planned to be a quick run to Cottonwood for a meal with friends from the Nascar race... and rustling some jugs of water at the cemetery...

The trip had already started off a bit lame, literally, when the truck wouldn't start. The Montana electrical gremlin has returned... but with the help of the generator, the battery charger I got in Sydney and hadn't had to use, and enough cords to reach the truck where it was parked... I got the thing fired up after a bit.

Ran on to town. Did our visiting, enjoyed the light meal with them and then rolled in the dark to the cemetery for our water... wrong holiday for that ain't it? It's ok... the water tastes a lil' odd...  but we've never found anything floating in it... so all's well...

Then... we turned for home and ran out to Camp Verde, caught the interstate and ran up the ramp... headed south for Dugas.

Had made but a few miles when there was an odd... metalic sort of a sound and the tach suddenly zoomed nearly a thousand RPM... though the truck was slowin' down...

"That's odd" I thought. I disengaged the speed control and went to manual throtttle... ZOOM went the tach... After checking the stick and knowing the thing was in gear I'm thinking... "Damn... the clutch just let go!"

Well, I kicked her into neutral and looking up ahead I calculated that what with rolling along a slight down hill, I should be able to mexican overdrive it to where Hwy 169 cut off toward Prescott. Figured off the main road on the off ramp would be the best place to wait for a tow truck.

I hadn't yet come to a stop and I was already wondering; "How are we gonna get back to the rig, way out there in the high desert... once they haul the Dodge off?"

Pulled to a stop a ways back from the stop sign. As is my habit... before surrendering to defeat I kinda gave it a quick once over. I ran it through the gears. Well Damn! It weren't the clutch. 1st gear fine! 2nd gear, 3rd gear, even 4th gear rolled the truck. Hadn't crapped the clutch. But 5th gear for sure and for certain had snapped and cratered.

So... with the flashers flashin' and down to four out of five gears... I rolled the wounded Ol' Dodge back to camp. I'll tell you what... 50 mph on an Arizona Interstate is just a lil' bit of a risky proposition. Though I'll bet that diamond plate bed behind me would be less the worse for wear than them in their thin skinned sedans who wiggled on past in such an all fired hurry.

The next couple days will be spent figurin' out how to consume the last of the benefit we got from stackin' beets and haulin' NASCAR butts.

Easy come... easy go... Between The IRS, Tire shops, Battery barns and now... Tranny fixin's... we'll be back to the normal situation of eatin' this month... what we made last month. That's ok... didn't have a couple of months expenses in the bank long enough to get used to it.

Just Another Day of Duckin' and Runnin'
Brian

Leather and Nascar in the Arizona Desert

Though we always get here to PIR for her to start her chores on Sunday... I don't start until Wednesday. So... today I go to work as a pro-fesh-unal Nascar Driver...

... or... more lately... Tram Host... 'cause I have a tendency to want to just run over the illiterate bozos that can't read the NO PEDESTRIANS PERMITTED ON THE TRAMWAY signs...

I figure I can just use the same argument cagers use when they run down an Ol' boy on a motorcycle with their Buick... "Why Officer! He came out of nowhere! I never saw him!"...

So... what to do 'tween Sunday and Wednesday?

How about continue to march on the Leather Craft revival, now that the Beet harvest is done... The "Mystery Meet" up in Glacier that is still cloaked in legalese secrecy... and while I wait on the start up of my chores here?

Collected a few more bits and pieces here... collected a fresh piece of leather from Leather Factory while we were in Denver... and the first Journal is truly starting to take shape...

 I cut the leather for the cover on Monday... and doodled and schemed on what I wanted to do for the tooling design...

*Custom Journal in the Making*

Then I mocked up a test fit to see how it was all coming together as well as working at getting my leather carving muscles working again... It's starting to feel pretty good... been too long since I worked a piece of leather. I've determined that it was a mistake, to leave it behind.

So... knowing that it's never too late... I'm going back and picking it up again... Hoping that it will contribute eventually to the pantry...

*Tooling leather in the sunshine*

I sat out in the sun, amongst the rigs in the lot here at PIR and tooled up the cover for this first of my custom journals...

I've realized a couple of things; One, I need new glasses! ;) and Two... Leather Craft is a perishable skill... it takes a bit to warm all the muscle memories back up when they've been left dormant for a while... but still... they come back quick... So all is good.

With the leather drying from tooling... I went to town to pick up a couple more bits to shape into a tool I'll need... For some more work on the book block, the shaping of the spine etc... I need what's called a "Lying Press"...

I'm laminating up a couple pieces of Poplar... to be used with some decent Irwin Quick Clamps to serve that job...

*Lying Press under Construction*

This tool building keeps up... and I'm gonna need either a bigger trailer... or a base camp to put it all ;)

The trams are calling and I must go...
Brian

Breakin' in Easy at the Beet Harvest...

"OK here's the deal... the tub comes down the conveyor like that one... you grab it, pull out its tag, check it for rocks, pull it on here, don't get caught in that chain, make sure it's clear, read the weight here, Don't CLIMB on ANYTHING! read the weight there, check it here, write it on there, throw it over there if it's wrong, shove it to the end, DON'T CLIMB on ANYTHING! stick the ticket in this, every third one, make sure it's straight! wait till it gets HERE then PUSH THAT BUTTON! grab the empty tub hang it on the chain, oops! you put it on back'ards! pull another tub... Hurry! Here comes four more!... go! Go! GO!"

"HUH? Where's the tub? I count what and put it where? Climb up on where? I didn't hear you! over all the machinery!" ;)

Inside the "Lab" the gals are wrappin', blenderizing, filtering and weighing and who knows what else to them poor sliced diced and beat up sugar beets.

Clear down at the other end of the line, on past the washer and dryer :) is where the bags of test beets come in. A nice shiny spot that looks kinda like what you'd expect a southern grease monkeys 75 year old backwoods auto repair shop to look like... if he's sittin' barefoot on a bench with a beer in one hand, a chunk of grass hangin' out of his mouth, no shirt and his other hand in his coveralls...

Yes sir... don't think "Brewery tour" when you think sugar beet factories. No stainless steel or polished copper vats here. Dust, noise and hub bub.

So... for a guy that's been pretty much keeping to the quieter and more serene parts of the west the past 37 months or so... it's a mite of an eye opener! but then... not so far different than the majority of his life...

Though... that "lab" is a lot quieter than a 105 mm. Howitzer! About like a set of corrals when you're sortin' off calves and ever'body's bawlin' for their mommas.

I guess you could describe the doin's as a bit of an organized cluster F... andango. ;) It's one of those deals where, when you only do something for a short while once a year... it takes a bit to get back in the rhythm... Especially when you're startin' off the first night with a crew that's never danced to that tune before!

Ended up the night at the far end loading the beets, where they come in for testing, into the tubs going up the conveyor to the washer for a bath. I think I'll push for that job in the future. It's a lot quieter out there!

... and a fella can actually see the sky... guess I'm gonna have to keep on paying my taxes right... just bein' inside that building with no windows to see out... tells me prison isn't a place I'd do well. ;)

So... this week, whatever work they've got for us will be there in the "Lab"... we'll orientate for the stacking yard at the end of the week and then next it's pilin' beets. Oh Yes... an Orgy of anticipation!

and why am I doin' this? ... um... tires, batteries, windshields and debt... pieces and parts...

...To Keep it Keepin' On...
Brian

Wading Into an Unsure and Hectic Future...

We've chosen to pull out a day earlier than originally planned. It's only 200 miles and a bit to Sydney, "but since we aren't sure where we are and don't know where we're goin'... there's no use bein' late."

We'll leave late and stop early somewhere around the Fort Peck Dam. That'll leave us a pretty short run tomorrow so that we can get in with plenty of time to find out where we need to be, get our paperwork filled out and... GULP... be ready to work come Monday morning.

Not knowing where we'll truly be or what the situation there is... I've no way of knowing what my ability to "Connect" will be... so that's just another unknown... soon to be discovered.

I'm hopeful that the weather that has mostly been gentle with us all season will continue to smile. We've mostly managed to avoid the rains and fogs along the coast, the fires through the mountains and all the tribulations our folks down home have endured the past several days.

Now, with 12 hour days standing in a piling station of some sort coming up... I'd just as soon have the good weather hold. Truth be known they can't operate in bad weather so it's not so much that, but that if bad weather arrives it will hold up the works and we HAVE to leave for our Phoenix gig by midweek the last week of October...

So... if the three week harvest gets drug out much... things could get a mite tight...

In amongst all that... I'm working on the final edits and text work so I can Publish the newest Novel sometime in Early October...

I finished the cover for that story yesterday... and appropriately, since much of the story takes place there... the photograph that is the foundation of the cover is looking north toward the western side of the Bob Marshall wilderness from a position on the SW corner of the Scapegoat Wilderness east of Seeley Lake, Montana.

... and there's an announcement to be made! In preparation for the release of book #2 of the Ben Jensen series...

I have rolled the prices for my first two novels, A Matter of Honor and A Pair of Second Chances, each the starters for their series, back to FREE at Smashwords.

That Price should be reflected at other retailers in the near future including Amazon as the change circulates up through the distribution chain.

This is a permanent change. If you've been waiting to try one of the series... you'll never get a better price! ;) So if you know somebody whose got a liking for Westerns (Honor) or more modern Mystery/suspense (Pair) pass the word on that they can get a good book for a pretty fair price!

So... I'd better get back to my journal making, manuscript editing, rig loading and tourista imitations... if I'm gonna git where I'm a goin'!

Life for a lazy man is truly getting difficult! ;)
Brian

Across the Wide Missouri to Malta

We left Hungry Horse bound for Sydney Montana with just under two weeks to get there and no real "plan" on route or stops... just go where it feels right.

The first possibility was a short haul to a spot on the southeast border of Glacier... but as we approached that... the little voice just whispered; "Keep Rolling" ... and so I did.

We ended up asphalt boondocking at the Great Falls Wally World resort after a few stops for some supplies and a software program I needed to replace so I can get this next Novel published...

The next morning found us bound for the Missouri River above Lewistown. There's a BLM camp there on the river right beside hwy 191... it's only real drawback was zero signal...

The Missouri is quite a change from the rivers and lakes of western Montana and Idaho. There you look down into crystal water... the Missouri? If it would stop flowing I believe you could plant corn in it.

With all the muddy water running lazily down that stream the other day... and knowing how long it's been flowin'... it' a wonder there's any of Montana that hasn't already been carried down to the gulf!

*The Missouri Breaks*

*The Missouri River ~ Keel Boat Highway of the Mountain Men*

Just a mile up the highway and four or five back in along the river is an area of the Charles Russle Wildlife Refuge that the elk use this time of year for their annual amorous pursuits. We fought skeeters the size of beagles that were so thick four tourists were hauled off in ambulances from blood loss...

while I tried to capture some photographs...

This here isn't like down in Rocky Mountain National Park... these guys pretty much hung back in the timber along the river and made capturing a portrait kind of iffy...

Any other time I'd have just laid up for a couple of days... but we were expecting contact from our future beet picking employers...

... so I thought we should move on in the morning to get back into a service area...

... That and with a 1000 year storm tearing up our home country in Colorado and threatening family and Friends, I just wasn't willing to be out of contact more than overnight.

So on we rolled and found signal just a bit south of Malta... and a $3 a day park on the edge of this lil' Montana Burg.

*Malta, Montana community Park*

Not a bad spot... even if it is so badly crowded as you can see...

Even had some neighbors for a few hours...

 Some folks were hauling some mares and colts from somewhere to somewhere else...

Part of the park is the local fairgrounds/Rodeo arena setup.

They pulled in here to give the horses a break from the road and move around on ground that wasn't moving around under them!

 This is starting to be an issue... One I hadn't expected...

Horses...

I'd moved "away" from them the last few years in that old life... with life having got a hold of parts of me I never should have allowed...

Now... more and more... I find a longing for the feel of a horse under me again...

I'm telling you... it's a difficult thing to be a split personality with so many of the personalities totally ignorant of the existence of all the others!

Well, in amongst all of that, Contact got made with the Beet Pickers... and when they heard how close we were they said; "Well come on over and we'll put you to work!" sooooo... next Monday we'll be goin' to work 'bout a week earlier than we'd thought... which won't do any damage to the poke at all.

While sitting here I've put together the first signature block of the first Journal in my Leather Shop restart effort...

*Signatures being stitched*

*Completed Signature Block*

Now all I have to do is find the leather to carver the cover... not an easy task in these small towns it seems...

So... with that lil' project suspended for lack of materials... I went to work carving on the Cover for my Newest Novel, to take a break from editing... and can't decided which one I prefer...

Since I'm straddling the fence of indecision... and wearing a hole in a sensitive spot on my new wranglers...

... I'll probably take most of the day off and go check out the Charles Russell Memorial... and maybe Fort Peck Dam...

That'll help the aches of Cowboyin' nostalgia I'm sure!

Oh lordy... I wonder if I'll ever learn to NOT stir the pot?

Till that joyous day... I guess I'll just keep on ridin' out the storms as they come up...

Saddling Up another day

~ Brian

Sunrises, Life and Sunsets

The days start off with the sunrises... end with the sunsets, and are filled with the Montana Sky and living life in between...

Sunrise over Hungry Horse... It's quiet sitting down on the shoreline as the sun cracks the sky of a new day. The ducks swim past, the air is still, sweet scented and calm...

*Hungry Horse Reservoir at Sunrise*

Then you work all day... at whatever you work at... Last week, I spent much of a day building a Stitching Frame for sewing together the signatures of journals and albums...

google has gone the way of microsoft...

Its size and economic power has led it to believe it can do whatever it wishes.

It sees no need to have any regard for its publishers, maintaining integrity, respect or consideration.

It has fully adopted the philosophy of; "It's not personal, it's business." Well... yeah, it IS personal.

That has made it an unpleasant, uncomfortable and risky outfit to have as a business partner...

So... the trail I'll be following is to wean myself from that association over the coming year. Restoring my custom leather shop will be a major focus for the coming months... It's going to be a difficult task, all things considered... but realizing shutting it down in the first place was a great mistake was the hardest part! ;)

Restoring that Shop, in combination with my writing, is where I'll be investing my energies... to provide my subsistence into the future...

Back in the present... At the end of the day, the Montana sun makes it's big show departing for the night...

*Sunset over Hungry Horse Dam*

The sun sometimes lights up the skeletons of the fire killed trees... it's almost as if the fires that consumed them are still raging...

Late in the day we headed for Glacier National Park... As we left we spied a pair of Osprey with their brood taking an evening meal in their nest on the bank of the reservoir...

Look six trees to the right of the nest... you'll see either Mom or Dad sitting about half way down the left side of the trunk... 'fore I zoomed in...

Up at Glacier... they've already shut down the majority of their camps. The season is rapidly slowing down...

But the show is just getting into high gear as fall comes on in the high country and starts it's run south...

Sunset over Lake McDonald in Glacier... to start off the Fall...

*End of day approaches at Lake McDonald*

The sun paints its fiery reminder in Glacier as well... that the ability of man to interfere is fleeting... the power of the land to take back what belongs to it... cannot be resisted.

It's a busy fall and winter I've got planned out... gonna be a task to keep it all focused! ;)

Remaining Yet Under the Wide Montana Sky
Brian

Carving the Sharp Corners Off The Way...

As you move along in this journey you'll find that there are, here and there, some sharp points on the "furniture" of this life. They jab you in the butt when you're not looking close. The painful pokes will catch you as you try to slip by. So on occasion, like the tips of the horns of a bull on the ranch... you need to cut off a few of those sharp corners that poke out at you.

Probably the biggest worry for folks wanting to chuck it all and hit the road, after they've churned through all the concerns of; can they live in a small space, motor house or drag along trailer, bears, two legged vermin and getting stuck on a too narrow road...

... is how could I produce my living?

For those in the early years that have no savings or retirement setup and are simply looking for a better way to live; and for those late in the game like me, that for one reason or another any effort to set anything by met with the unmerciful WHUMP! of hitting the ground hard with ZEE ROH success... it seems like an insurmountable obstacle.

This is the biggie. THIS is the one that shut's 'em down cold because MONEY, the root of all evil, has been so ingrained into their thinking as the Master of their future.

I've ranted and railed for years to not let it be so... but all that ranting and railing hasn't changed reality... not for you... not for me.

Reality #1 - You have to take care of "business". Reality #2 - "Where there's a will, there's a way. It IS an obstacle, but there are no Insurmountable Obstacles.

While I believe it's a mistake to allow MONEY to rule your day and your life, the unavoidable reality in this world is that MONEY is here to stay as a huge part of it. IF you ignore it... that Grizzly isn't going to just eat the pic nic lunch off your table... he's gonna rip your doors off the hinges and eat your liver.

I talked of this on my bike site the other day... in stark terms, a line from the movie Gettysburg came to me as a shining light that illuminated the importance of all this and how it applies. How it is, in a way... a LIFE and DEATH sort of issue.

... because if we DON'T address it... our lives can easily become a grey and dreary walking death.

On the bike site I wrote;

 "General Lee was speaking to General Longstreet before the worst of the battle;

"Soldiering has one great trap; To be a good soldier you must love the army. But to be a good officer you must be willing to order the death of the thing you love.

My comment that grew out of that is; "To wander... you must love the road. To sustain your wandering life, you must often push away from and leave behind the thing you love."

I know lots of people watch me. Many have written telling me that they stepped off with me as their inspiration. That if busted, broke, hard up against penniless Me could do it... they could too.

That's been a frightening thing at times. That if they crash and burn am I responsible?

This past summer has been a good one. We've eased through some wonderful country and made many new road friends. It's been a great gypsy summer. It's also been a gut wrenching eye opener at the same time. We remain, on the road after all the breakdowns and failures of the past three years and more...  yet the writing, for me, is on the wall.

I would be a fool to not see it. The truck and rig are aging rapidly. The repairs are coming with higher tabs and greater frequency... Our ability to absorb them into the "budget" is exhausted while a couple more are swelling up and will require action in the very near future. Income due to many reasons is down significantly... while our greatest ongoing expense, fuel, remains high and seemingly climbing.

a rope, a rubber band... a man's temper... a budget; all can only be stretched so far.  At some point, if you don't deal with what's stretching it... that rubber band is gonna snap!

It would seem to many that there are but two choices; 1. Keep on till the bumper slams into the immovable wall... or ... 2. Leave the road.

I am hoping and planning based on a third option... repeating what I wrote above; "To wander... you must love the road. To sustain your wandering life, you must often push away from and leave behind the thing you love."

"Plans" to me are just rough outs to give me a reference point to measure against and keep me from spinning my wheels in circles.

I read once where a man traveled a road and came to a fork. To the left was a narrow two lane. To the right a four lane highway. He chose the highway. In a time the road narrowed from four lanes to two. Further along it turned into a dirt road, and then was reduced to a two track. Eventually it became a rough and narrow path that fought him every step.

The lesson was; Don't be afraid to turn back to the last fork in the road and try the other way...

The plan that's taking shape in my head is to go back to the fork... and try the "Other" way.

For these years I've pretty much put all my eggs in the single basket. That being my writing.

While that writing has contributed a critical part of the load, it has not grown as I'd hoped. In concentrating on it, to the degree that I did, I abandoned skills and crafts that had carried me before. It is my intention to go back and rekindle those skills and crafts, and shape them into a living part of wherever my future path shall take me.

While I have no intention of Leaving the Road as in waving good bye never to be seen again... I expect my future to be very different than my past. However, "those steps cannot be seen. If they were there to be seen and followed, that is a path someone else made. It is not my own. My steps have not yet been made." (most of a quote from somewhere... picked up along the way)

What I can see is a fuzzy cloud of many miles, homes and friends and an always restless curiosity.

Living and Learning
Brian

I Don't Know Why...

Maybe it's only a natural acceleration.

I love the writing creation of a story. The characters become "real" in my head. I see their faces and hear their voices as they struggle. I don't invent their words and reactions, they speak them to me.

It's akin to a movie reel spinning behind my eyes. All I have to do is write down a description of the scene.  I swear I can smell the dust, feel the breeze, the gunfire, their breathing, the look in their eyes...

I suspect that some might judge me worthy of commitment to a pro-feshun-uhl insti-too-shun. :)

"He needs to get locked up! The man is seeing things and hearing voices!"

What I don't understand, and maybe it's that natural acceleration, but, the first half of a story always seems to take the longest. Sometimes the light for the movie reel runs low and things slow down...

But then as things start coming together, like a freight train running out of control down a mountain... it all just starts flying along. From working hard for two thousand word days... the reel starts spinning at a speed my fingers can't keep up on the keyboard. When I look down, four thousand have appeared in less time than those other pair of thousands took!

I started Shadow on the Mountain in earnest, if I remember correctly, last November or December. That momentum I speak of shaped near 20,000 words in about the past ten days to finish the book. If my mathematical abilities are anywhere close to what my idea is, that's a little more than 1/5th of the book in 'bout 1/10th of the time of the other 4/5ths...

... or... I'm just stringin' a bunch of words together to tell ya'll it's done and heading into...

... where the WORK begins. :)

Which I am hard at!
Brian

From Top Dollar Scenery in Free Camps and Rollin' Homes that Have Gone Debt Free...

... to another Gift Camp from the State of Oregon, it's been a good week.

We stayed in Bullards Beach for five full days... Most of which rained. :) Which was OK since it allowed me the excuse I needed to sit inside doing... Cover your Ears!... work!

I been doggin' it too long and really been buckling down to get the site rebuilds done. While doing that I've been studying and researching and signing up and getting approved by a variety of affiliate sponsors.

The idea being that as I get the rebuild a bit further along you'll start seeing the links for camping equipment, clothing to have you dressed to the nines out in the woods, and there's even an outfit where you can get your best travel shots or whatever photography you do printed into high quality canvas prints for display.

As always, it's my intention to keep those low key and out of your way so you can find the info you want... and those links will just be there for you if and when you want 'em. Of course the deal with affiliate sponsors is that when you do utilize that vendor, I get a small piece of the pie for sending them the customer.

That leaves me the responsibility of only presenting quality companies to serve your needs. I'm looking forward to working with 'em! and lining up a place where you can have some confidence you'll find a reliable company.

So... that's a little bit more coming to the sites over the next few weeks... assuming I don't fall off the wagon and go completely back to the lazy drifter I've been for a bit! :)

In between rain showers we were able to get out and around a few times and collect up some memories and views of the place.

*The grass covered Dune at Bullards Beach*

I was pretty impressed with the paint and the dun below.They stood quiet facing into the wind while the A-Rab above dinked around all goosey in the breeze. I have to admit, the sand was pretty stinging, but those two below showed how a good mount should do it. ;)

I always wanted to ride on the beach... There's just no room beside the Raider to carry a saddle on the truck... and I'm pretty sure loading a horse in the fiver is a non-starter!

Even if the wind is blowin'... come back over the dunes off the beach and you're quickly sheltered by the trees and shrubs that fill the park and add plenty to the feel and privacy of the place. Even though there might be gobs of people close by, I didn't get that claustrophobic sensation I often get in such camps.

*View of the Draw Bridge from Bullards Beach*

We made the short run up to Coos Bay from camp for a moh-mentous OH-Kay-shun last Tuesday. The rig that was supposed to have got cleared by the sale of the house three years back, and didn't but you already know that story... finally got cleared according to the original 12 year plan. We made the final payment!

As hard as we've used it, the last year has been a horse race to see which would come first, the end of the debt or the end of the rig. She's road weary sure and certain. But now, as of Tuesday, our home on the highway is free and clear. Hopefully she'll hold up for a few more miles of at least repairable wandering! HooYa!

Coos Bay is an interesting place. If you only see the bit that lays along Hwy 101 you'd take it to be a worn, kinda shabby place. That would be a mistaken first impression. You have to turn west and climb the ridge away from the highway, and a whole other personality is gonna open up to you. Don't trust first impressions.

One thing I'm really taken with in Oregon is the attention they give to Vets. Ever'where you look there's plaques and memorials. It makes an old soldier feel kinda good, and grateful.

We're cheapin' out as much as we can this month in our continuing effort to catch back up after last months fun in Lincoln. ;) so when the Free Five day limit on our New Oregon Special Access pass for Vets rang the bell... we bumped a few miles north to just below Florence.

We're now settled in another state park to finish out this months allotment of ten free days at Jessie M. Honeyman state park.

Now... me being an inveterate boondocker and all... hmmm... that sounds a lot like a spineless cheapskate if you think about it! :) anyway... whichever I am... it's a bit of a surprise how nice these state parks are in Oregon. I expect the fact that I'm getting them as a gift to Disabled Vets has a hell of a lot to do with my change of heart!

But I'll tell you... being able to walk over to the shower house that's hidden in the trees just behind our camp... and stand under a hot shower till my silky soft lil' kiester is wrinkled like a prune from all that hot water is pure luxury... to a fella accustomed to bein' stingy with water and waste tank space!

Combine that with the scenery 'round about and like I was concerned the other day... these camps could be my ruination!

*Bridge at Coos Bay*

They don't build bridges the way they used to. It's a shame. The bridge at Coos Bay is a thing of beauty

Who decided that they should stop building bridges and public works that are beautiful anyway? I mean, If we're going to spend billions rebuilding the failing infrastructure of the country... why don't we follow some of the lessons of the past and QUIT with the nasty, ugly slabs of concrete?

Send the bridge architects on a trip to Oregon and Washington... and remind them how something utilitarian can still be a work of art that makes you smile and remember when you cross it...

Can you remember the last bridge you crossed? Did IT make you think; Wow, that is awesome! ???

We're running into one lil' burp in the road... the 4th of July... Since planning and reservations and such are not something I function well around ... We've got no place locked down to take us through the fourth.

Our "Cheap" stay here runs out the morning of the first. We could stay on I guess, but then the price jumps to $25 bucks a day or so... which for us is a budget buster... that is... if we had a budget left to BE busted. :)

This year the 4th comes earlier in the week... and there's NO reservations to be had at this late date... Soooo... what we're shootin' to do is be ready to roll, bright and early on the 1st... and try to scoot into a non-reservable site, just another bump north, to hog until the holiday passes!

Part of this biker cowboy master minded plan is to leave a six pack sitting out on the steps the next few nights... tucked into the back of one of those live traps, with one bottle popped open allowing its sweet scent to waft back into the forest... with any luck I'll catch that lil' Murphy pest and leave that merry mutant chained to the flagpole when we leave! Ha!

But then... like I said... me and plans...

Anyhoo... if you're comin' to the Pacific North West... find a way to take your time. Get out of your rig and walk on the beach... stroll through the tall timber... and be glad that you were able to be here.

Mountain High ~ Low on the Coast
Brian