WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE STEALTH TRAILER?-----NOTHING

I BUILT IT WITH LOVING CARE---POURED MY CREATIVITY INTO IT---lived in it for 5 years and sold it to someone who said they would use it.  But they didn't---it just sat beside his house.
THE GOOD NEWS is that he didn't tamper with it very much--and he is willing to sell it back to me.  I went to see it today.

Hello old friend---I still think you are beautiful---pristine white---light as the feather you are named for.  Do you chat at night with the rig on your right? Tell him where You've been? That you yearn to do it again?  We shall see! We shall see!
I believe in my soul that this elegant, sleek, swift rolling,winged box is more than enough for anyone to live happily in.  Parked on almost any street in America, one can sleep undetected, unnoticed---no external clue betrays it as a mobile home. 

Inside, it is dusty but largely undisturbed. light,  Bed, fridge, table, sink, stove, toilet, holding tanks and mascerator are intact.  Vinyl floor in good condition.  Can you believe I spent 1,825 nights in here? You are looking at a width of 6 ft, a height of 6 ft and a length of 14 feet. The couch, of course makes instantly into a bed 3 ft wide.  The large vents give great natural light. If you look closely, you can see 3 of the 6 windows--now in cloaked mode as vents. Believe it or not, I carried 60 shirts with me in this rig. (I like lots of shirts)

Can you see the forest mural that covered the rear doors? 

I'm not a great cabinet maker---but I cobbled this together---and it served admirably.

The toilet still works--but the seat needs paint.

RANDY RUMINATES:  I called 3 friends (Bush, Glen, Anne) to help stabilize my thinking: Whether to complicate my life by taking it back---or to let this old friend go.  After much thought, I decided to do this: Let my readers see it in hopes that someone out there---wishing to get comfortably and cheaply, and stealthily on the road---might give this super trailer a new adventurous life.  I think the guy will sell it for $3,000 and I estimate an additional thousand will buy the solar panels,  batteries, etc to wake it up electrically.  Someone with a bit of skill and artistic imagination could take it further than I did.  If you are interested write me personally at randythepoet@yahoo.com

To see it during it's 15 minutes of fame: click here: http://cheaprvliving.com/StealthCargoTrailer.html

QUEST FOR COMMUNITY CARAVAN----THE BEGINNING

THE START OF SOMETHING-----WONDERFUL!

Right there---our rigs lined up along this beautiful lake---something wonderful is being conceived.

From my doorway

A flying maching purrs past

Here in this lovely--cost free spot---somewhere near Yuma, AZ---some friends and I are setting in motion the Quest-for-Community caravan.  We posted our separate visions on the previous  blog with an invitation to like-minded individuals to contact us and possibly join us in creating a brand-new type of mobile community for a summer long adventure in the state of New Mexico.

We have been surprised and delighted at the response.----- From around the nation we have received inquiries and applications---from lots of terrific people.  We will select  7 or 8 to join us in creating our new community.  I will post updates on our whereabouts and All others are welcome to visit us wherever we are to see how the community building is going--and put themselves on a stand-by list for unforseen vacancies.

  Here are our agreements thus far:

1. We have no set travel schedule---we will move when serendippity beckons.  Good sense of course suggest that we start low in the state and move higher following pleasant temperatures.

2. Our purpose is to champion one another to live our most inspired lives as we create this intentional community on wheels.

3. We have no Guru or Swami--We are all leaders--- from time to time when our expertise calls us to step forward.    

RANDY PHILOSOPHIZES:  I believe everyone hungers to connect--to be known--and to contribute.

That is what I personally am aiming at.  I think it would be a terrific contribution if this tiny group could demonstrate that the good life people hunger for---is  at hand--almost literally within walking distance.  We just need to live simply enough to clear the space and time to discover ourselves and what we would enjoy contributing.  I wish we could encourage a  million people---who already have enough money to retire---to do so---and open up a million jobs for people beginning their careers. 

ANNOUNCING THE QUEST-FOR-COMMUNITY CARAVAN----INVITATION TO A MEANINGFUL MEANDER

A TRAVEL ADVENTURE IN NEW MEXICO----AN EXPEDITION TO DISCOVER/INVENT/ENJOY--- A NEW KIND OF COMMUNITY---- THAT IS:

1 Mobile

2 Self creating

3 Evolving

4 Inexpensive/Frugal Lifestyle

5 Purposeful

Do you want to be mobile? Are you already mobile but want to put more meaning into your travels.....“contribute” more perhaps, or work on self development or just have more fun because it is shared with others? Want to think about and help create a new order/way of lightweight living based not on greed, and consumption, but rather on community and mobility, and, perhaps, even oneness with the world? Do you feel that this can be accomplished more readily in community rather than alone?

“If you want the good life---a creative community is the place to be.” (Brad Blanton)

Laurie T. shares her personal vision:
I consider "The Quest for Community Caravan to be an expedition in mobile living to create a community of kindred spirits as we navigate the frontier of life on wheels.

It is a call to the free spirited, solo traveler who also enjoys the inspiration, insight and camaraderie experienced when sharing travel with other free spirits.

It is an invitation to wanderers and wayfarers who would feel their life would be enhanced by boldly participating in this ground breaking, transformational experiment in living.

This is an evocative opportunity for a diverse group of wanderers who celebrate and embrace our individual differences to come together to weave a tapestry of experience with the intention of championing one another to live our most inspired lives while sharing a playful, adventurous and meaningful life as we travel engaging with 'The Quest for Community Caravan' as a laboratory for living, loving and learning.

With much appreciation for all who will choose to participate in this compelling quest.

 

“G”'s thoughts:

Few phrases are as hackneyed, trite, and dishonest as the RV "Dream" or "Adventure." In reality the vast majority of RV'ers are too middle class and conventional for any of that. By and large, mainstream RV'ers are simply portable suburbanites: their lives are centered around comfort, cleanliness, conventionality, status-seeking, and consumption.

What if you are an outlier, relative to the norm? Must you travel as a solitary individual?

The purpose of this project is to build and share a unique mobile culture -- one that isn't found in existing mainstream RV groups. Like Thoreau on his way to Walden Pond, we seek to live "deliberately."

We want to emphasize ideas rather than possessions; experiences rather than purchases; experimental openness rather than old fogey conventionality. We will not emphasize routine sightseeing, buying tickets for this or that, going to expensive restaurants and tourist attractions, etc., because we are not on vacation.

RANDY'S  THOUGHTS:

I believe that even when people have captured “THE GOOD LIFE”---security, health, a mate---they are still incomplete without intentional community. The key word is intentional. Community---without intention---is merely a gang—a distraction that (just barely) keeps nothingness (life's real enemy) at bay. A community with intent, however, ( a “mutual admiration society”) can do much better---it can facilitate us becoming who we REALLY are (blossoming).

I believe, with Teilard de Chardin, that “isolation is a dead end”---that---”the self is fulfilled in community”. Most of the good things about me---I absorbed from others---in the assorted communities I lived in for 17 years. Yes, there are up and downsides of association----but a mobile community, with separate rigs, eliminates most of the downsides since we live, essentially, in separate worlds---with warm friendships, hiking companions, discussion partners--- a short walk away----Everyone feeling connected---yet wonderfully free to come and go or leap ahead to the next stop.  

I believe there is something incredibly important yet to be discovered/invented/learned about human association. Some forms elevate and others degrade its participants. I hope to be a keen-enough observer to ferret out some of these truths---as well as a joyful collaborator in the self-creating community. I'm pleased to have already interested some large minds, hearts and personalities in this project.

The adventure begins here and now—Yuma, AZ. -- from here, we will slowly drift— East to the Casa Grande area for awhile—then Tucson –then east to New Mexico (you can rendezvous with us at any point along the route) where we will each purchase an annual pass ($225—or less) allowing use of all their 35 parks for no additional charge. Then we begin a slow---summer- long--- temperature-conscious meander among the parks. What happens next is up to us. Inspired minds, hopefully, will shape a community of our dreams.

If you might be interested in joining this expedition --feel free to e-mail me personally at randythepoet@yahoo.com for further details. 

DOES THIS MAN'S JOURNEY INSPIRE YOU?

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions---perhaps it's because he hears a different drummer!  Let everyone march to the music he hears---however measured or far away" (Thoreau)

Saw this sight near Quartzsite, Az  while I was going in the opposite direction.

By the time I turned around and caught up ---I see that the traveler has had to deal with a formidable problem:  How to get the donkey across this cattle guard.  He's done it but I don't see how.

I wondered if the donkey walked that plank over.  I'm letting the story unfold naturally because the driver is busy.......

Hooking the donkey back up.

I checked out this nearby fence to see if he cut the wire and walked his animal around the cattleguard.  If he did--he then wired it back together.

I didn't ask----it seemed too sensitive a question---after noting his big issue--locked gates. He seemed stressed so I bided my time .

Finally I engaged him---"Need a place to camp"  I asked.  "Yes, he said and I need it soon". I told him of a nice place only a quarter mile away.  He asked about the book signing place in town and I told him it was only five miles away.  He gave me one of the flyers in his pocket telling his story then hurried on to make  camp for the next two days at the place I indicated---waiting out a windstorm. I did not engage him again but googled him and got the essential story. You can too:  Howard West author of Locked Gates or go to twitter.com@lockedgates for his daily blog. He says he needs to sell books to save his ranch called Pilgrim--located 50 miles out from Tonopah, Nv.  Says he has a $4000 balloon note due March 2012. One line in his flyer led me to mentally categorize him: "Help me save the ranch AND A FEW MILLION LIVES AS HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF."

RANDY PHILOSOPHIZES:  While it's unlikely he knows something we all ought to know---I admire his bold advance in the direction of his dreams.  Yes, I'm inspired---here's a living example of someone actually acting---instead of merely fantasizing.  I once met a sincere soul dragging a full-size crucification cross along the interstate to remind us of Christ's suffering---(I thought it funny that he had a wheel on the long beam for easier dragging) and I've met a host of people walking across the nation for a host of worthy causes.

Many are afflicted with GRANDIOSITY---ego on steroids---but nevermind that --they are up and doing---unwilling to lie down and die without having their say.  Now that I think about it--this blog is not a far cry from what this guy is doing. ----And by the way---very soon I will invite some of you to come do a daring thing with me---then neither of us will lie down and die without having our say to the world.