Rene M. Agredano

As a full-time traveler and writer, publishing companies often send me books to review and publicize on our blog, LiveWorkDream, and other travel lifestyle communities we belong to, like NuRVers.com.

Queen of the Road – by Doreen Orion

The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own

There are two kinds of fulltime RVer couples on the road. There are couples where both partners really love the lifestyle, and can’t think of living any other way. Then, there are couples where one partner loves it, and the other was dragged on the bus kicking and screaming. Some couples’ personalities fit perfectly into fulltime RVing, while others try it, then put their RV on the market before summer’s end.

If you happen to be the reluctant RVer, Doreen Orion’s book – Queen of the Road – is perfect for you.

“Barebones Camping”? In a Prevost?

Doreen’s book is a humorous, insightful look at how she, the reluctant fulltime RVing partner, handled living on the road for a year with her mellow, outdoorsy husband Tim, two cats, and a poodle in a 340 square foot custom Prevost bus. She writes:

“Bus? Well..I tried to convince myself (really I did) that my living on one was a natural fit. Although I love the idea of travel, in practice I don’t particularly like doing it; the closets are never big enough and there’s always the risk of ending up on a hotel’s first floor, which smacks way too much of camping for me. I loathe camping. In fact, my idea of “roughing it” is to stay at the Holiday Inn.”

For anyone who’s reluctant to go fulltiming, Doreen has some advice for you. In an email interview, she says:

“If I can do it, anyone can. I was a VERY reluctant road trip partner. In fact, when Tim first came home and announced he wanted to “chuck it all” and travel the country in a converted bus for a year, I gave this profound and potentially life-altering decision all the the thoughtful consideration it deserved.

‘Why can’t you be like a normal husband in a midlife crisis and have an affair or buy a Corvette?’ I demanded.”

Spoiled and Well Taken Care of

It’s hard to believe that someone like Doreen would even take a trip like this. The self-proclaimed spoiled Jewish “Princess from the Island of Long,” writes about her favorite hobbies; lounging at home in designer track suits, building up her shoe collection, and avoiding any kind of housework:

“I have always been smug in my position as role model for my friends. They marvel at how I get Tim to do:

1) all the cleaning (by existing the house in horribly wrinkled clothes)

2) all the laundry (by washing everything together, so his favorite baseball shirt turned pink);

3) all the dishes (by being incapable of stacking the dishwasher in an energy-efficient manner).”

Despite her aversion to leaving, a little voice in her head knew her husband was right about why they should go on the road; they weren’t getting any younger, and as two DINKs with established careers, nothing was holding them back from making a change like this. She agrees to go, but her social circle of like-minded women wasn’t exactly encouraging:

“Once we announced we were doing the “bus thing,” as we came to call it, my friends started viewing me with disgust. They insisted I’d let them down. As their husbands eyed mine with envy and tried to get him to divulge his secret recipe for spousal capitulation, the wives shunned me as if the decision to chuck everything and live in a glorified tin can was a symptom of some contagious insanity.”

“What Am I Afraid Of?”
As a professional psychiatrist, Doreen writes a book that is less a book about fulltime Rving, and more a memoir about adapting to life on the road. While her narrative covers their entire route, Queen Doreen makes reading about it more fun than the usual travelogue.

She paints vivid, funny pictures of her husband’s calm, rational demeanor, and writes humorous analyses of her own thoughts and fears about being on the road … especially as the fretful passenger during their first days on the bus:

“On the slightest downhill, I’d try to mind-meld with Tim, to get him to put on the engine brake, my foot stomping on air. At every turn, I’d clutch the seat, anticipating a rollover. At every dip in the road, I’d hold my breath, listening for the sound of bending steel, a portend of our imminent, albeit mercifully swift, midsectioning.”

What was I afraid of? I kept asking myself. The answer was always the same: careening off the road amidst the sound of our belongings crashing.”

Doreen gradually comes to grips with her fears, and her attitudes about “the bus thing” start changing too. Despite all of the things she felt she gave up to do this trip, sees unexpected positive changes in her life, and her relationship with Tim:

“After the sun set, we’d cook . . . er, thaw dinner. Then sit inside our home and talk. It didn’t matter what we talked about . . . feeling close and laughing with one another. Spending time this way, without any of the distractions I used to consider essential (TV, going out to fancy restaurants, wearing high-end clothes) made me start questioning just how essential they were.”

As their year goes on, Doreen isn’t the only one who’s benefiting from fulltiming. Her cats, Morty and Shula, used to fight constantly, but on the road, they called a truce and learned to coexist. And Miles the poodle, in true dog fashion, embraces the quality time while showing his humans what’s really important in life. In our interview, Doreen said:

“I joke that everyone on the bus changed – except Miles, our standard poodle, since of course, he was perfect to begin with. Our cats, Morty and Shula, hated each other and fought every day of their lives prior to our trip. But, on the bus, living in 340 square feet, they seem to have adopted a “do or die” attitude, and while there were certainly never any adorable cat snuggle moments, they did manage to come to a sort of truce. Really, if they could get along, anyone can.

As for Miles, it just became even more apparent on the road that he was all about simple pleasures: It was enough in life to have a bowl of food and a small, quiet place to himself, surrounded by people who loved him. Why ask for anything more?”

Do It Now
Most younger fulltimers are on the road because they understand why it’s so important to go on adventures like this while they are younger and more able to do so. Many have watched too many older friends fall into the trap of working for retirement, instead of living life in the now. Doreen’s husband, Tim, understood this, but it took her a few months on the road to concur.

“I didn’t want to do the trip because my life was comfortable, yet on the road, I learned that “comfort” isn’t necessarily all it’s cracked up to be.

When we’re younger and just starting out, we’re constantly stimulated and challenged, whether by school or a new career. Then, at some point, after we’re settled into our lives and careers and we’re where we want to be, we have a chance to breathe, and many of us wonder, “Is this all there is? Is this what I worked so hard for?

She added, “Tim and I were certainly guilty of . . . spending more time supporting a lifestyle than with each other.

All the adventures on the road (and misadventures – fire, armed robbery and finding ourselves in a nudist RV park to name a few), put a certain spark back in my life I didn’t even realize was missing.”

For the reluctant road trippers out there, Doreen says “Go for it! Don’t wait: There is never a “good” time to do it. Just do it, keep an open mind and heart (yes, I know I’m one to talk), and see what happens.”

Funny, and Practical Too!
Queen of the Road is always funny, insightful, and gives some good information about great places to see around North America. Plus, Doreen’s inventive martini recipes at the beginning of every chapter are sure to get you in the mood to sit in a comfy chair and keep on reading.

“Every chapter of the book starts with a martini recipe which commemorates whatever disaster we had on the road,” she says. “One of my favorites includes Midori, which is a very versatile – and tasty – liqueur:

Hurlatini

• 1 part rum
• 2 parts Midori
• 1 splash pineapple juice
• 1 splash sweet ‘n’ sour
• 1 white-knuckled squeeze of lime

Pound martini shaker against emergency exit until window breaks or ingredients sufficiently mixed for tasty self-medication.

For more cocktail recipes, listen to Doreen’s Podcast #6, on the podcast page of her website.

Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own
Other books by Doreen Orion

To read the entire first chapter of Queen of the Road, check out fabulous reviews the book has been getting, to see pictures and videos of the trip or to contact Doreen to call in to book clubs, visit her at QueenoftheRoadTheBook.com

During our travels across North America, we toured several technology-themed tourist attractions, which I documented in my regular guest column printed in the Eureka Times Standard Newspaper. This one appeared in the 07/03/08 edition.

Consider a Technology Tour for Your Next Vacation

The next time you start dreaming of a vacation, consider coming to New Mexico. Incredible landscapes aside, this state is a great place for technology and science aficionados to visit. From observatories, to military technology development, to the world’s first private spaceport, New Mexico offers something for the geek in all of us.

We were lucky enough to be here in April, one of the best months for technology buffs to visit. For one day only, propeller heads can walk amongst the low-level radioactive earth on the Trinity Test Site (home of the world’s first atomic bomb test), and on the same day, tour the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array, each located just one hour apart.

Trinity Test Site

Every living thing on earth has been affected by the world’s first nuclear explosion, which took place on July 16, 1945. On that day, a 19 kiloton nuclear explosion occurred, and pushed humanity into the atomic age. The Trinity Test Site is located on the White Sands Missile Range, in a 51,500 acre area that’s off-limits to the public for all but two days each year, in April and October. On those days, atomic tourists can set foot on ground zero and learn about the event though interpretive displays and live demos. There’s even a Fat Man bomb casing display to capture your Kodak moment.

As we walked onto the grounds, our biggest misconception about the area was shattered; the ground did not melt and turn to glass underneath the heat of the bomb, as we always thought. Rather, when the bomb exploded, the sand below was drawn up into the heat of the fireball, and then rained down on earth in a liquid form. The liquid solidified into tiny bits and turned into chunks of a glassy green, rocky substance later called “trinitite.”

Although it’s slightly radioactive, experts on the White Sands Missile Range website claims that trinitite is safe to handle for limited amounts of time. Did we pick it up? You betcha! It was too tempting, especially after learning that bananas emit about as much radiation as that glassy substance!

Very Large Array

After washing our hands thoroughly, we headed 50 miles west for a tour of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s “Very Large Array (VLA),” site of the 27 giant satellite dishes made famous by the Carl Sagan fiction novel, “Contact,” and later made into a movie starring Jodie Foster. In the movie, Jodie Foster plays a scientist at the VLA, who is on the verge of making alien contact from Vega, a distant star in the galaxy.

Our tour was led by a VLA project director and astronomer. As she walked our group over to one of the 230 ton antennas, she explained that while the movie “Contact” was filmed there, the VLA has nothing to do with alien research or SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). The VLA’s sole purpose is scientific stellar and galactic research.

The VLA is funded by the National Science Foundation, and operates under an “Open Skies Policy,” making it open for use by astronomers, free of charge. Astronomers from around the world compete for use of the VLA with proposals judged on scientific merit. Winners are allowed use of the facility and its staff for four-month observation periods.

The VLA became operational in 1980. Each of the 27 antennas is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter, and can withstand winds of up to 200 MPH.

According to their website, “the VLA is an interferometer; this means that it operates by multiplying the data from each pair of telescopes together to form interference patterns. The structure of those interference patterns, and how they change with time as the earth rotates, reflect the structure of radio sources on the sky: we can take these patterns and use a mathematical technique called the Fourier transform to make maps.”

The VLA can be operated in four different configurations, creatively named A, B, C, and D. These differ by the distance between the 27 individual antennas. Two large transporters ride on a double rail system to move the antennas into place and connect them to the network.

The resolution of the VLA is set by the size of the array. At the highest frequency (43 Ghz), the largest configuration will give a resolution of 0.04 arcseconds: sufficient to see a golf ball held by a friend 100 miles away. Management and control applications are written in Java and can be operated using a web browser.

If you have even the slightest interest in astronomy, visiting the VLA is worth the drive. But if you can’t get out to the southwest for your next vacation, you can still visit a world-renowned array, practically in your own backyard. The world’s largest SETI extraterrestrial research station is located just 75 miles east of Redding, in Hat Creek. Learn more at www.seti.org/ata.

Jim Nelson and Rene Agredano are on the road visiting small towns in North America and documenting their travels at LiveWorkDream.com. They have been active Redwood Technology Consortium members since 1998, and past Board members.

As part of our fulltime RVing lifestyle, my husband and I occasionally take on “workamping” positions, in which we trade a minimal amount of hours for a paid RV space. The following article discusses how to find workamping employment while living as a fulltime RVer on the road.

Did you ever wonder how campground hosts get jobs in places like Yellowstone, or along Lake Champlain? Chances are, they heard about it through the Workamper Association. They’ve been around for over 20 years, and their Workamper News is the best way to hear about adventurous job openings for everything from being an interpretive guide, to running trains for traveling carnivals!

Keep reading to see our movie with interviews from employers exhibiting at the 2008 Workamper conference we attended in Lakeland, FL.

For less than $40 a year, you can subscribe to Workamper and receive daily email updates about openings in North America, and sometimes beyond. Joining was one of the best investments we’ve made. We found our animal rescue gig through it, as well as our upcoming summer gig at a dude ranch, and our fall gig in a wildlife reserve, both in Colorado.

The second best investment was going to the Workamper conference in Lakeland, Florida last week. Each year, the group hosts an expo in Florida and Arizona. For just $3.50, you can attend great seminars, talk to veteran workampers, and meet prospective employers. We had a blast learning about opportunities we never knew existed. If you haven’t hit the road yet, I highly recommend attending a Workamper Expo. It will open your eyes up to the range of possibilities for making a living on the road.

The following feature article I wrote resulted in a coverage in the October 2007 edition of RV Life Magazine. Subsequent press efforts of mine also resulted in this RV Life follow up story from May 2008.

Married couple sells business and house to travel the U.S. with their three legged dog. Working from the road, they provide resources for fulltime RVers at their LiveWorkDream.com blog.

For many people, taking a year long sabbatical during the height of their working days seems like an impossible thing to do. There’s bills to pay, mouths to feed, homes to pay for. The American work ethic teaches us that extended time off is something that’s supposed to be done after retiring. But one young couple wants to prove to others that no time is better than the present to take a long break and evaluate one’s career and life.

Deciding to Hit the Road

For the past 10 years, most people would think that Jim Nelson and Rene Agredano were living a dream life. They lived and worked out of their 1906 historic home in coastal Eureka, California, running a successful internet-based marketing communications and graphics solutions business with clients based all over the U.S. They lived in a stunningly beautiful region of the country, were contributing members of their community, and along with their 3-legged dog Jerry as CFO (Chief Fun Officer), life was good for many years.

But little signs started appearing in their lives, signals from the universe that told them they were just a bit too comfortable, and maybe it was time to shake things up a little. In between 12 hour work days and weekend excursions that were too brief, they began encountering certain people who had gone against the status quo and taken the risk to get more adventure out of life. And while the pair thought what these people did was extraordinary, they kept on working grueling hours, with the goal of getting their business ready to put on the market, “eventually.” By the time Jim turned 40 and Rene 37 they were burnt out on their industry and yearning for a change. The couple talked about doing something different with their lives, but running a business left little time for pondering the colors of their parachutes.

Then, in November 2006, Jerry was diagnosed with bone cancer, and had to have a leg amputated. As with many people who encounter serious illness in their lives, the couple’s priorities shifted. “Eventually” became now, and time with Jerry became precious. With a bleak outlook for their furry child, the time was now to find out what they wanted to do with their lives, and where they wanted to do it.

“Neither one of us have really seen much of the country, or taken any real time off. We started working while in college, and never stopped. Even though we are nowhere near retirement age, both of us felt like if we didn’t take some time to really find our calling, life would just pass us by,” Jim says.

Beating the Odds: Small Business and Home Both Sell in 6 Months

Betting against the vet’s prognosis that Jerry wouldn’t live past 3 months, Rene and Jim shifted into overdrive, prepping the business for sale, and marketing it, all while still trying to keep it profitable. Against all odds that their small enterprise would even sell, the couple closed escrow on both the business and their house, just 6 months after they began their campaign.

To lighten the load and storage bill, they got rid of most of their possessions and put the sentimental essentials in storage. With the sales proceeds, the couple was able to budget for a year long sabbatical and purchase a Dodge Ram 2500 diesel pickup along with a new 24′ Arctic Fox 5th wheel trailer.

“I never saw myself as the type of person to drive a gas guzzling monster truck,” says Rene. “But when we decided to get a diesel, I felt much better about owning one, knowing that we could run biodiesel or in it if we wanted to.”

“And as for getting an RV,” added Jim,”we didn’t know the first thing about rigs, or the lifestyle. We really put ourselves up for the challenge of not only figuring out how to sell our own business and closing it, but also getting up to speed on our new home on wheels.”

Always the entrepreneurs, they knew the trip wasn’t going to be just about “finding themselves,” says Rene. “After all, if we wanted to do this and be smart about it, the time off had to be structured a combination business venture as well as a personal journey.”

LiveWorkDream.com: Preparing and Sharing Information

The began their blog “LiveWorkDream.com” not just as a way to document their journey, but as a road trip tool for other RVers to learn from and share ideas, and find their own ideal live / work scenario. He also launched a second advertising sponsored website, www.tripawds.com, to help other dog guardians learn about canine cancer and treatment options.

In preparation for their sabbatical, Rene drafted a comprehensive road trip budget based on 3 years worth of their financial data, as well as that from other RVer’s experiences while fulltiming. They bought a Motosat Internet Satellite system to provide high speed internet while on the road. And now, as of August, the couple reached a milestone … two months on the road as full time RVers.

An “Open Source” Adventure

The couple is staying connected to busines and family with mobile internet technology, and filling up their truck with biodiesel, whenever possible. They like to refer to this trip as an “Open Source Trip,” meaning that they are publishing everything about the trip to assist others in decisionmaking and planning for their own sabbatatical. Thanks to their Motosat Internet connection, they are able to keep the content fresh and interesting.

Their blog entertains readers with stories about their trip’s adventures and misadventures, and what life is like while on the road.

In addition, LiveWorkDream.com contains downloadable resources such as budget templates, RVing checklists, and links to RV lifestyle and life path planning resources. New information, videos and tips can be found on the site almost every day. They even have a “Soundtrack” page, complete with lyrics to classic road trip names and links to radio stations that have stuck on the couple’s dial during their travels across the country.

“I can’t imagine doing this trip without being connected to the world through our satellite internet and our blog,” says Agredano. “I’m not a big geek or anything, but having internet access at all times is such a part of my life, and now that we are on this trip, it’s critical for finding the best towns for us to research and places to stay, as well as paying our bills, of course,” she said.

Time Off: Not Limited to Slackers or Seniors

The sabbatical is also a good way for this young couple to get a feel for money management during their retirement years. Because there is no money coming in, but money constantly going out, managing their “spending plan” budget is critical.

Some people think this couple is crazy for taking time off when they could be working and socking money away for retirement many years from now. But nobody has a guarantee that they’ll even reach retirement age-you never know what can happen to your health, Jim says.

“We really want to get out there and show others that they don’t have to wait until they’re 65 to get out and live this kind of adventure,” says Jim. “Things like this should be done when people are young enough to really get out and enjoy things. We hope we can take the fear out of doing something like this, so that more people will allow themselves to take time off to recharge their batteries.

“If more people did this,” Rene adds, “we’d have happier adults, and this country might be a better place for it.”

Answering Life’s Big Questions

The couple has budgeted for one year on the road, and by the end of that time, they will need to make some big decisions. Will they continue Rving and work camp? Will they have found a great new town they want to live in? What kind of business will they buy? They hope that these answers can be found as they travel across America in their RV with their three-legged dog.

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Rene Agredano and Jim Nelson are owners of Agreda Communications, publishers of www.LiveWorkDream.com; where they work to find the dream life, and www.Tripawds.com; because it’s better to hop on three legs than limp on four.