21 Years in a 1973 Dodge Van

Stunning photographs! Are there a lot of those ruined sites around there?

 

Could you live without the company of your dogs. What role do they play in your lifestyle?

Do you plan on traveling out of the desert some time soon?

 

Thanks.

Yes...they're all over the place...you just have to know where to look. It has been estimated that more people lived in the Verde Valley 800-1200 years ago than do now. The Verde River and Oak Creek supported a lot of life over the years.

 

Nah...no way. I've always had dogs and probably always will. They keep me sane and are really good friends.

Not in the foreseeable future. No "out-of-desert" trips are planned.

 

TwoDogs:

I just wanted to say that your website and photographs are awesome.

Are you still making jewelry?

Thanks for all of your helpful information here and for sharing the beauty you see around you in the desert with the rest of us.

 

Thanks desert girl.I need to update the website 'cause there are more pics behind the scenes than there are showing on the site. It's just a matter of writing the html to create new pages.

I'm still dabbling in the jewelry biz. Still have a bunch of opals left. Just getting a bit lazy though. It's just about time to head South a hundred or so miles and do some Winter prospecting. The rattlesnakes will be snoozing soon.

 

TwoDogs:

I've contacted you via your website information regarding your jewelry along with a few other questions I had.

Thanks for your reply.

 

Desert girl, I emailed you back.

 

Hi, I'm VanPacker and I'm new here. I enjoyed the thread and I hope TwoDogs comes back soon. I am so envious of TwoDogs ability to have his dream for over twenty years now. I'm decades too late.

I've been living out of my Dodge Ram van for the past six months as part of a year and a half long downsizing exercise. I've been my own biggest obstacle because I'm still so caught up in the material world and enjoy a willingness to get caught up in friends's dramas. But I'm working on it. I'm lucky to be able to work as a software engineer from anywhere, and I have a broadband card for my laptop to help with that. But the whole business requires me to continue to be "of the world" when I'd rather be completely free. And, I'm working on it.

 

sounds interesting really....
im on the other side of the planet....
im from the middle east and would really love to live in a van and travel the world....

PEACE

 

Moving back into my truck soon, used to sleep under a shitty bed cap I found on the side of the road, upgraded to 60 dollar slide in camper. got that gold bug too, mostly sluice up in northern cali.

 

I don't post here often but just finished reading all 24 pages. Not a lifestyle for me though. I do live in the country, and when I lived in Texas, lived way out in the country on 15 acres surrounded by thousands of acres of cattle land at the end of a country road. I really loved that, watching the sunsets and the birds and animals every evening. Would still be there had my fiance not passed away a couple of weeks ago, but live now again where I did before in a country town in Florida.

My cousin does live a somewhat similar lifestyle as yours. He has a camper [gets about 5 or 6 miles a gallon] and a small motorcycle that can be put on a rack in the back to travel around to save gas. He teaches snowboarding in the winer and surfing in the summer [sometimes in California or in New Jersey]. He used to be a pro surfer. He likes the fact he can stay in the camper all summer long near the ocean. In New Jersey, he does stay at his dads [my uncles] home when teaching in that area.

I stumbled across this video earlier today. Maybe some people will read your posts and learn a few things about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3OFWYb4GWk&feature=user

 

captain cullulite, very good video. Thanks for sharing that with us.

I think it's a real rewarding way to live ...the video kinda makes it out to be bad or unforunite...I don't think that!

 

My dogs played an evil trick on me. I was inside the van with the tunes cranked and didn't hear the bulldozer coming down the road until it was near the van. I hopped out after it passed by to see where the dogs were and this is what I saw:



Cruel dogs!!!

 

lol.. Thats a great caption..

 

Lmao The Horror Oh Nosss !!

 

LMAO! TwoDogs. Nice to see dogs with a sense of humor

I have kind of a weird question for you. I'm thinking of doing the same thing (as well as taking your advice about the 1 ton and not 1/2). My plan would be to build a similar platform for a bed so that I can have storage at the front and the back. What size bed did you use? Twin? Full? I've thought about a Full size so that I can stretch out, but in the interest of space in the van it seems like a twin would be smarter. Any Ideas?

 

My bed is just slightly smaller than a double. It's pretty cramped with two people and two dogs but just fine for two people or one person and two dogs. My mattress is foam filled and I had to open the cover and cut down the foam 'cause the mattress was longer than 6 feet.

 

Hey Amigo,

Hope you got a holiday dinner waiting on you somewhere.

Peace,


x

 

I want to write a novel about you. lol