The New Plan

Sometimes things just happen to make you change your lifestyle!

This has been an interesting year, for sure...most of you know that my truck is dying a slow miserable death and it has created a situation that required me to re-think my future and what I wanted to do...quite frankly I have been getting tired of hauling my house around behind me and the stress of towing the trailer all over the mountain west. Additionally the cost at 8 MPG is getting to be a burden.

So now, needing a new truck capable of towing the trailer is almost out of the realm of possibility. So it is time to rethink my life's plan and move forward.

I am very fortunate to be in the RV Park I am in and have great owners who are very happy with the work I have done for them for the last 4 winters. So with that in mind and realizing I am at least stuck here for this summer, while I either find another truck or devise a new plan. The more I thought about it, the decision to create a new plan was the way to go...

The Park owners have been very accommodating here and happy to have me stay and anxious to add some additional duties for the summer to allow me to stay here at virtually no cost to me, and even make a few extra bucks, which is nice. We met and have come to terms for my future. I will continue with my winter duties and we have added some additional projects which will keep me busy and help them year round, or nearly year round, I have told them 10 months. They have honored my request to move the trailer to another site which is between two permanent units which will give me some needed shade and it also has a nice storage shed which I can fix up. The trailer will be parked permanent so no need for a big ass truck to haul it around. I am going to look for a smaller SUV or Jeep to do my running around and traveling, better gas mileage and more comfortable than the big truck.

There is currently a park model trailer in the site which has been stripped and will be hauled away within a few weeks, once that is done, I will clean up the site and move mine over there, then work on getting rid of the truck and find a smaller vehicle. The smaller less expensive to drive vehicle will allow me to travel locally to some spots I want to visit, may head down to AZ and see Sherry Hathaway Lewis and maybe even Greg Lantz...plus Salton Sea, Borego Springs and several other areas within a day or twos drive...Hope to find something with real 4 wheel drive so I can visit some out of the way places and just camp and take pictures.

I can still go North and South - have a bedroom or two in Salt Lake and one in Kalispell for some shorter stays.

Just may make a long trip for two months back to Ohio and our Class Reunion...hitting some nice scenic spots along the way...Devils Tower and Mount Rushmore!

I really like the Jeep Liberty...

A Wrangler may be nice...

In the meantime, I will continue to chase the Milky Way!

Stay tuned for more details as I move and refurbish my new site, have some great plans to make it more comfortable for near year round living...then the new vehicle search! If anyone has a nice smaller 4 wheel drive SUV they want to get rid of let me know.

Capt. Jim - "The Wanderer"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest and Alaska!