Photo-of-the-Week #239 The Badlands of South Dakota, September, 2010

Here is just one of the many vistas of this unique landscape. This is in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. It's one more example of the awesome scenery, topography and geology that makes up the United States.

I drove through Badlands National Park the first time in late September of 2010 when I drove to Rapid City to finalize my change of residence and domicile to South Dakota and obtain my South Dakota drivers license. This is the fifth state I've held a drivers license from and had voting privileges. . . READ MORE

Photo-of-the-Week #231 One Instant In Time, Sparta, North Carolina, August, 2011

That's all it takes to change the course of your life. Just one Instant in time. In this particular instant, actually, a couple nights before I took this photo, I was driving this car. I finally found this particular car and bought it less than a year before in September of 2010. I had already acquired my South Dakota license plates and left as soon as I put them on the car for Rapid City, South Dakota to complete my official residence change and obtain my South Dakota drivers license. This car was destined to be the “toad” (RV slang for the car towed behind a motor home) for the motor home I was shopping for. And, in one instant all my plans changed.

Yes, you're looking at a totaled 2002 Ford Focus that had the low mileage, the exact door, seating and cargo configuration, the five-speed manual transmission, the engine and other features I specifically wanted. It even had a satellite radio receiver installed. It took me two months to find this particular car. I downsized from my 1996 Cadillac Seville STS, one of my favorite cars of all time. I had 256,000 miles on the old Caddy. I bought it with 104,000 miles on the odometer. The Focus was about 8 years old when I bought it and only had a few thousand miles over 50,000 on the odometer. Then . . . READ MORE

Photos-of-the-Week #230 Fish n Chips – Mmmmm! Coos Bay, Oregon, May 2015

I'm not going to deny it, I love food! As a matter of course, since I live a simple, minimal and frugal lifestyle by choice, I enjoy a simple menu with foods I can easily keep and prepare in or outside My McVansion. BUT, I will splurge from time to time when the occasion calls for it. And this occasion called for it.

This order of fish and chips was so good, I almost forgot to stop and take a picture. Those two large pieces in the back of the tray are the remains of several large pieces of deliciously breaded and fried, hand cut fish. I believe she told me they used halibut. The cole slaw was homemade and very fresh. The tartar sauce is also homemade. Unfortunately, as seems to have become the standard, . . . SEE AND READ MORE

Photos-of-the-Week #229 A Touch of London Town in the Desert, Lake Havasu City, Arizona, April 2015

So, here we are at the London Bridge. Yes! That London. But, No! Not in Merry Old England.

It was in the early 60's when this little wide spot in the Arizona desert across the Colorado River from California became a small town and the site of a unique undertaking. The historic London Bridge from the British city by the same name was purchased from the City of London. It was painstakingly disassembled and each component carefully numbered and shipped to the U.S. . . READ MORE

Product Review: Comfort Zone Model CZ442WM Ceramic Heater

So, winter is approaching. It was a very hot summer in many regions of the country this year. The prediction is it will be followed by a very cold winter. Are you prepared? Even those people who lived in a fixed residential housing situation like a detached house, townhouse, condominium, apartment or loft may find that it might be nice to have a little supplemental heat in the areas of the home you are occupying during various times of the day.

Then there are those people who choose to live an alternative lifestyle in a converted van, school bus, utility trailer or any of a variety of commercially manufactured RV's. Some of you may have chosen some form of “tiny house” or possibly a yurt. There are a variety of ways to heat any of these options ranging from wood, pellets or coal to passive or active solar heating.

I've tried several ways of heating the limited space in My McVansion, my tiny house on wheels built into a high top conversion van. Here's a unit I found that I'm extremely pleased with. The fact that it's form factor takes up minimal space in my tiny 50 square feet of living space is also important to me. What amazes me is that watt for watt, this little heater delivers better than other larger heaters have in my particular case.

Report: Dorm Style 110 VAC Compressor Refrigerators for Van/RV Use

There are always questions about what kind of cooler or refrigerator to use in vans or small RV's. While it's not necessarily a controversial issue, the topic always garners lots of thoughts from the proponents, the skeptics and the critics of each method. This report is not meant to cause controversy nor should it inspire proponents, skeptics or critics to necessarily support, question of refute my findings. I'm simply going to tell it like it is from my perspective and experience.

Inverter Reports: Thor TH400 and Bestek MRI10011

I have been buying and using all kinds of equipment, accessories and devices for my personal use in technology and in equipping my van, aka My McVansion, as an on the road, mobile tiny house. I've generally researched the items before making my purchases and, so far, I've made, what I would say are, excellent choices. It's time for me to share these items with you.

I have purchased two inverters for my van as seen in this photo. The inverters are mounted on a piece of plywood that covers my 8D8A 245 AH, sealed gel cell house battery. They are located in the storage area under my bunk. Both inverters came from Amazon after researching for best value and reliability.

2015 Trek #1 - California, Here I Come, #2 Georgetown, Kentucky & Cherokee Village, Arkansas

I left Huntington, West Virginia Tuesday morning, December 9, 2014, after a pleasant breakfast with Patrick Grace and a tour of his current office and book storage space in downtown Huntington.

My next stop was in Georgetown, Kentucky to meet up with another vandweller (part-time) currently, Dan Cordray. Dan has been a reader and commenter on this blog for some time, so we've had a relationship, but hadn't met before. Dan lives out in the country side not far from the Toyota assembly plant where he works as an automation programmer. . . READ MORE

Photo-of-the-Week #188 - The GRAND Canyon, Arizona, June 2010

Yes, indeed! It is a grand canyon. There is nothing special about this particular photo except I took it on my first (and so far) only excursion to the Grand Canyon. It's not an award winner and really not much more than the all too typical gratuitous photo of the giant chasm, but it's meaningful to me, because I took it, of course. . . READ MORE

Pimping - Oops, Make That - Primping and Prepping My McVansion For The Next Major Trek.

Well, as the old saying goes (from Robert Burns poem), "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." And that's true of my plans to be on the road heading west by October 1st. I had a project from a very long-term and very good client come in about 2 months later than it was supposed to. So, while I could have managed the project on the road, I was dealing with at least one new vendor and that made me a bit more wary.

During parts of the summer and the fall, especially during this two month delay in my departure, I've been getting little things done on the van, making a few changes and modifications and so on. It's like having a house and a vehicle. There's always something that needs to be done. The only difference here is that the house and the vehicle are one and the same. And, as I had some extra time, I'm doing some of the projects I planned for a little further down the road. . . READ MORE

Photo-of-the-Week #181 - The World IS Flat, San Antonio, Texas, October 2014

From my vantage point in the Grand Hyatt Hotel it appears that the world is truly flat, at least for as far as the eye can see to the horizon. I can't gauge the distance to the horizon, but my best guess on this very clear morning is that it's probably 75 miles to maybe 100 miles, or more, away. With the sun was behind me and being pretty early in the morning, I'd say this photo is looking in a westerly direction. . . READ MORE

(Sorry I didn't get this link up earlier - travel weekend and catching up caused it to slip my mind. It was ready to post on Sunday, I was just returning from San Antonio and I've been playing catch up ever since. But the actual full post has been up since Sunday. It's just this link that I didn't get posted.)

Photo-of-the-Week #180 - My 6th and Final Home in Clifton, New Jersey, September 2013

These two photos are of the last home my parents owned in my hometown of Clifton, New Jersey. Unfortunately, this house harbors only negative feelings for me. It was and forever will be, the last place I lived in my hometown and New Jersey. I will never return to live in any part of New Jersey. It was in this house that my father died at 42 and when I was 21. It was in this house that my family and I lived under the same roof for the last time. I was the only member of the family who continued to live in the house from the day of my father's death until eight months later when I moved to Syracuse, New York and left New Jersey. . . READ MORE

Photo-of-the-Week #179 Just Another Sunset, Ocean Pond, Osceola National Forest, Florida, February 2014

So, here we are at sunset, just before the golden disk disappears behind the horizon. This series begins several minutes before sunset and several minutes after. But, this one just seemed to stand out for this week's choice. The location is the campground on Ocean Pond in the Osceola National Forest in north central Florida and the time was the end of February of this year, 2014. . . READ MORE

Photos-of-the-Week - Martie's Hot Dog Stand, Keyser, West Virginia, September 2014

Here are some more photos from my Great Hotdog Caper. You already know that one of the Top 10 hotdog places in the U.S., as ranked by Public Television, is Rutt's Hut in my hometown of Clifton, New Jersey.

Well, here is another hometown place. It's Martie's Hot Dog Stand in Keyser, West Virginia. Keyser is my eastern base camp and I've passed Martie's many times as I've driven down the once thriving, now decrepit Main Street of Keyser. Like so many places in Americana, time and the economy have passed Keyser by. . . READ MORE

Photo-of-the-Week #176 Chequaga Falls, Montour Fall, New York, July 2014

Here is, yet, another natural discovery I made. No, I don't mean I actually found something that no one else had discovered before. In fact the beautiful display of nature is actually in the middle of a residential neighborhood in the little town (population around 1,800) of Montour Falls, New York. There is, apparently, no Montour Falls, just Chequaga Falls (also misspelled Shequaga). . . READ MORE

Photo-of-the-Week - Contrast in Americana - The Old And The New, North East, Pennsylvania, July 2014

This photo op jumped out at me as I was crossing from northwestern New York State into northwestern Pennsylvania on a recent trek. North East is actually the name of the township in northwestern Pennsylvania. Is that clear? Maybe as clear as mud, huh?

The contrast was so stark as I passed this sight that I turned around and went back to capture this photo. There stood an old Dairy Queen soft-serve ice cream stand back to back with a modern Circle K convenience store. . . READ MORE

Breakfast Fit For A King - King Of The Mountain, That Is

A short while back I received an email invitation from fellow Vandweller, Dave Campbell. Dave is based in Virginia, a little bit south of Washington, DC. Dan is not retired or a full-time vandweller, but he's looking forward to a time in the foreseeable future when he'll be in a position to make the change from his current full-time employed lifestyle to one where he has more control over his life.

As I said, Dave emailed me an invitation to join him at the ten acres of lush forested, mountain top land for a get together and first time meeting. The ten acres are Dan's answer to leaving the congestion, complication and maddening crowds of the U.S. Capital and the region surrounding it. . . READ MORE

Photo-of-the-Week #173 Padre Island On An Overcast Day, Near Corpus Christi, Texas, September 2003

Just another day at the beach. This is a somewhat lonely section of the Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi, Texas. There is something about an overcast day on the beach - with a lonely seagull. The weathered pilings just add to the starkness of this setting. . . READ MORE

Photo-of-the-Week #172 The Great Hotdog Caper: Heid's of Liverpool, Liverpool, New York, June 2014

I know there are some readers out there who are saying - "Does he know how unhealthy hotdogs are?" Yep! I do. I have a long time friend who is a retired dietician. She practiced her profession for some 30 or 40 years. She never let an opportunity pass when we were gathered at a group picnic to make her pronouncement that hotdogs were "tubes of death." We respected her and loved her, but on this issue we humored her and went right ahead and scarfed down those "tubes of death" slathered in mustard, catsup, pickle relish, sauerkraut, minced onions, chili and melted cheese. Nary a one of us gave it a second thought - other than, perhaps, indulging in this delicacy might shorten our individual life spans by a minute or five. It was worth the sacrifice.

So, here we have a place appropriately named, Heid's of Liverpool in Liverpool, New York, a suburb of Syracuse, across from Onondaga Lake. . . READ MORE

Photo-of-the-Week #170 - Little Sodus Bay, Fair Haven, New York, June 2014

As I stopped My McVansion and took this picture I could visualize a scrawny, pimply-faced, 15 year old boy enjoying one of the thrills of his life. That thrill was skimming across the surface of this bay at about 30 miles per hours on water skis, towed behind a sleek tow boat. That scrawny 15 year old boy was, yours truly, ME! . . . READ MORE