American Serengeti by Dan Flores looks at the “charismatic fauna” of the Great Plains (pronghorn, bison, grizzly, wolves, coyotes, horse).
In the last chapter he contrasts what the plains were (an American serengeti) to what they are now (“un-country”).
What startled me was how industrial it is, it’s just that the industry is farming.
ETA and I’ll add that book to my list.
Mine had it way back when I got it in Nov of 2011. It was useful then but has decreasing utility in the age of ubiquitous phone hotspots. That said, $10 per month for unlimited data is handy. And, it allowed me to get a $19.99 Wyze cam and use it as a el-cheapo dash cam.
Dallas, yes. Denton, not so much.
You gotta live 'em every day.
My mom and her husband did this for about 15 years after they both retired. Did a small trailer over the summers for a couple of years before they set out full-time. Spent summers in the Pacific NW…even drove up to Alaska, and BACK! Winters in Texas and down into Mexico quite a bit. Over to FL to see me a few times. They loved it and did it all the way up until my stepfather got sick and passed in his late 70’s. They had a fifth wheel with a F-250 extended cab. When my mom settled, she was able to sell the trailer and truck for enough to make a hefty down payment on a condo. The truck was almost 12 years old. The trailer about the same.
Good to know, thanks. My loose plan sounds similar, being to follow the mild weather with occasional visits to the sun and snow.
Travel a lot for work. MCI is god awful. F the guy who designed that shithole
Any new news on the future van life?
He’s trying to find the right river to live down by.
A lot depends on what my employer does once we are cleared to return to the office. I’ve tabled this until I know better whether full-time remote working is an option.
A custom van has about a 2-year lead time. I haven’t yet found a company with whom I am ready to put down a deposit (which fully refundable up to the point they actually start work on designing my buildout). Hopefully I’ll find a good candidate soon.
It’s difficult because the technology, particularly around the pivotal issues of power and water management, is improving rapidly and constantly. So picking a builder based on where they are now doesn’t mean they’ll be up-to-date in two years’ time. The placeholder deposits aren’t prohibitive, but the lost time would be.
A day drunk guy in one of those roared backwards in reverse, jumped the curb, crossed the wide side yard, and blasted a large hole in my NW Hills house. If you want to knock down a wall, a Ford Econoline van is for you.
Also handy for when you piddy a fool.
Tradesman. 1974 I think it was. We bought it for $600. We had a couch in the back but no Scooby snacks. The thing ended up being put out to pasture in York, Pennsylvania, after the axle snapped in two on the interstate one snowy night. One of the wheels pirouetted off and was hit by a passing car, sending it flying into oncoming traffic. I didn’t see that happen because I was driving and had my hands full trying to keep the van upright and on the road. The next day I discovered that there is a pretty significant drop on that side of the road and had we gone off the road, well, that would have been sub-optimal. We had to cancel a string of gigs in Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and other similar hotspots. Anyway, it’s a miracle there were no injuries to anyone due to that fiasco. And in case you’ve ever wondered what driving on only the front two wheels does to a vehicle’s performance, I can tell you it’s not great.
I had a rear wheel come off once. It was quite bizarre looking to my left to see my wheel, now freed of its shackles, accelerating past me. Luckily, it hit a bump and bounced up and over a fence into a backyard, rather than speed off down the street to crash into who knows what.
It was a little embarrassing having to go up to the house in question to ask them if I could please have my wheel back.
Don’t tell me. It was that MG, wasn’t it?
I thought MGs were extraordinarily reliable? Was I wrong?
Close. It was the green Triumph Spitfire. Loved that car.
Sadly, both Triumph and MG ended up being part of the nationalized British Leyland, who mismanaged both marques (along with a few others) into oblivion.
More than you could ever know.
