The End of Poverty?

Please watch this documentary. Let your heart tell you how important it is.

The more I awaken, the more sure I become that capitalism and the imperialism that results from it, is destroying life in much of the world so a few in the north can live at our obscene level of luxury.

I try to stay away from these types of posts in my blog but sometimes it is just so damn painful to see what is happening as a result of what we are so completely invested in that I can't help but speak out....there is so much information out there and my own travels have shown me so much that it is just not something I am able to continue to not say something about....

This film is one of many that are made by folks very concerned about what is happening.

Watch it and again I say, let your heart tell you of it's importance....

Is this why we are here on the planet?

Peace,
ManyWheels

TorC sunrise.....

I can't resist...grandpa's privilege....

From the Dalai Lama....

• 

  Hatred, jealousy and excessive attachment cause suffering and agitation. I feel compassion can help us overcome these disturbances and let us return to a calm state of mind. Compassion is not just being kind to your friend. That involves attachment because it is based on expectation. Compassion is when you do something good without any expectations – based on realizing that “the other person is also just like me"

Posting finally....

Wow, I have not posted here for a while....I guess I would rather do than write about doing..;^)

I had a wonderful several days around Thanksgiving in San Jose, CA with my wife Kit and her family. Very nice actually, including the "Six Pack" pie challenge which involves a slice of each homemade pie on your plate for dessert...this practice depends on how many pies get baked. and has been increasing by one a year. Interesting experience. Much gratitude expressed by all.....

Home to TorC for the month of December for me. Kit plans a visit in early January and I look forward to that....meanwhile I have to make sure the hot water well still works so I am enjoying a mineral bath just about everyday...mmmmm.

I had a couple nice visits with VanDweller friends recently and am looking forward to the first annual Rubbertramps Rendezvous in the desert outside Quartzite, AZ. in late January....

Any of you Vandwellers who have not heard about it yet....check out our host, Bob W.'s site at cheaprvliving.com to find the particulars.....hope to see you there...we plan a few workshops on various aspects of vandwelling and general topics that vandwellers may find useful.

A plus for me is that a very long time messmate of mine from as long ago as our year at NAS Whidbey in 1963 is going to come down to Quartzite with several of his rocket models and will do some launches...that is always an awe-inspiring event as they can be quite large. I have not seen him since 2002 so that will be fun for me. I only have two friends that I am in contact with from my Navy days and Gary is one...

More later,

See you on the road and remember, as Ram Dass says: "We are all just walking each other home."

ManyWheels

What a journey....

I have been letting Africa soak in before I write an entry but the words are just not coming. It was altogether too amazing for mere words.

For me it was a lifetime dream come true ....a dream of seeing the sun go down over the veld with acacia trees and giraffes in the foreground...the light...so African....so primal and deep in my genes and so welcoming....

It all came true and more.....the wildlife so plentiful and the people so real and vibrant with life.

If it weren't so far away I would like to visit often...maybe even spend part of my year there.

To top it off my president is wildly loved there....in Kenya and Tanzania...his face everywhere including the belt buckle of our host at the spice farm on the island of Zanzabar...so nice to go to a country that loves the US and our president.

Happy trails,

ManyWheels

Africa bound....

I am going to take the next two weeks off from phones, from computers, from radios, televisions and the snews, let someone else do the driving and just let Kenya soak in. So be well all and peace to you and yours.....even Dina is going to DogMed for a break from me....;^)

ManyWheels

Generous Adventures......

As I have mentioned, Kit and I, with our friends Jim and Karen C., are traveling to Kenya and Tanzania next month and we are going with Sally Oberstein, owner of the company "Generous Adventures"....Travel Auctions for a Better World....

I would like to make a plug for her company which is a non-profit organization contributing money to many various good works around the world.

I am not able to put a link on here so just Google 'Generous Adventures Travel Auctions' and it will come right up.

Kit and I are not "tour" type travelers. However this will be the second trip we have made with Sally and her people....the first was a great two week boat trip on the Amazon River in Peru. We had such a good time and it was so well run and kicked back and the people were so enjoyable that we are excited to see Kenya and Tanzania with her.

More to be told later ....but give her website a peek and see what you think..

Peace,

ManyWheels

Oh, New Mexico, how I love you.....

So I made it safely home to good ol' Truth or Consequences....."We're all here because we aren't all there".....what a crazy little place...but so serene and healing.

I got home to waist high weeds in much of the yard and have gotten them pretty well knocked down now and Dina is getting some great exercise on her old haunts.

I think the main thing I am happy about is having a family of friends here that are so welcoming...well, that and the food....;^)

I recently got a email and a call from some very dear old friends from a distant past and I am very happy about that and hopefully Gary, a Navy messmate when we were both stationed at Whidbey NAS in 1963 and a longtime friend, will be meeting me in his van somewhere down here in the southwestern wilds for some good adventures this winter.....maybe he will be interested in making the RubberTramp Rendezvous in Quartzite late January with my vandweller buddies.

Anyway, I am back with my men's meditation group and that will be really helpful to me....one of our guys is going up to Window Rock to live in a hogan for the winter and I would like a chance to go visit him. He is the native brother that put together a sweat ceremony in Window Rock for our meditation group.

Life is good in this moment and I wish you all a great moment as well...

ManyWheels

Time to head south.....

It is getting smokey here in Missoula from some wildfires nearby and in Idaho and Kit is working more and more overtime, so I will go ahead and head south for the winter...

This trip I will leave the CT110 here and haul the trailer with my sidecar rig down to New Mexico so I will have it to ride this winter. Looking forward to that.

I was able to get a great deal on a couple of barely used T-105 Trojan golf cart batteries and I installed them in the Chinookie so I will be able to power my portable oxygen concentrator (POC) the nights I am at altitude and out of range of an electric string or any current bushes..;^) They will give me 225AH of 12 volt current.

I made a tidy job of it by using a plastic bin between the front seats of the van and bringing the wiring up through the floor. Also drilled a couple of vent holes through the floor as the batteries are flooded lead acid type. I used a female marine quality cigar plug with a pigtail and alligator clamps for connecting my POC....I may hard wire it later. I made a wood top for the bin and mounted a cup holder, etc. on it. I left an open area with all weather carpet on it too. It looks nice...and works well.

I will probably snag the 50W solar panel and controller off the bus before I leave and take it to NM too. I will install it with the other 45W panel and that will help until I can afford the BIG GUN solar panel. Mostly I will rely on the Astro alternator to keep up the batteries and see how that works...I may be in the running for a higher output alternator though.

Now we prepare for the trip to Africa....wow, that is so cool!

We leave on September 30th for two weeks. I am so pumped.....Africa has been a dream of mine for my entire life...although in the olden days I thought it might be on a motorbike. Now the thought of Africa on a motorbike just makes me tired...;^) This will be so much easier....I guess this is what it feels like to be an old guy...hmmm, weird.

Peace in your journey through life....

ManyWheels

Interesting thought from a Facebook page....

"ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION is not a new problem...Natives Americans use to call it WHITE PEOPLE."

I wonder how many people I know including my own WASP family had relatives who came here
illegally?

Eckhardt Tolle:

"I was going for a walk near Los Angeles. There was a collapsed
building that had burned down 40 years ago. The roof was gone. Trees
were growing inside the building & it struck me as beautiful,
wonderful to see how form returns to the formless. The city council had
put up a sign which to me was a sacred sutra. The sign said "Danger,
...all structures are unstable.'"To me, that was a holy sign. I said,
'thank you.'"

From the Dalai Lama:

One of the best ways to begin familiarizing ourselves with the virtue of patience is to reflect systematically on its benefits. It is the source of forgiveness. It has no equal in protecting our concern for others, however they behave towards us. When patience is combined with the ability to discriminate between the action and the one who does it, forgiveness arises naturally.

Yahoo.....

I just received my portable oxygen concentrator and it frees me up to travel way more than I would be able to without it. Apparently I am one of the first batch of VA patients to get one....and for that I am very grateful....

Gratefully,
ManyWheels

Nostalgia....my bunk was the top one and we had NO curtains

The best news!

I was just informed that my request to the VA for a portable oxygen concentrator was approved....thanks be to God and a lot of prayers from friends and family as well as a great nurse and doctor at the Missoula VA outpatient clinic. I will now be able to travel more easily and have oxygen wherever I go. What a huge blessing...

ManyWheels

My tour of duty in Key West, FL ....

I was stationed at the Key West Naval Base in 1962 attending the Navy Sonar School. During the time I was there, President Kennedy declared a blockade of shipping to and from Cuba and we were put on alert, standing watch with loaded guns every other day and attending school the next. As you can see in this link to some Key West history, the town was militarized and pretty much cut off from the rest of the country for the time of the crisis.....I had the privilege of standing honor guard duty with the rest of the sailors when we welcomed Pres. Kennedy on his tour of the Naval Station just after the crisis was declared over...spooky times and maybe the closest we have come to a nuclear war on our own soil.
See first comment for link...thanks

with relief,
ManyWheels

My beautiful grandson....

New stuff coming up.....

I have been hanging out in Lolo with Kit for about a month and have enjoyed it thoroughly. Lots of good times with Kit, good eating and some fun weekend camping trips. The last one was to the Big Hole area in Montana. Really nice country and checked out a couple of hot springs. Soaked in the one near Polaris and it was quite nice.

Two very nice camps in Forest Service CG's. The first was free and the second cost $5.00....
I love public lands!

Happy Trails...

ManyWheels

Lolo.....

I am currently in Lolo...spending time with Kit and enjoying the local area. Last weekend we took a drive through Yellowstone Park and saw bison, elk, lots of raptors and water birds and a pair of wolves as we drove out toward West Yellowstone. Two nights of camping and Kit was finally able to give me a tour of the site of her two season stint as a "FredHead" (Fred Harvey employee) at Mammoth Hot Springs Inn. On the way home we had a nice dip in Bozeman Hot Springs...

What an amazing place and so close to Missoula.

I made a visit to the bus and sidecar rig where I have them stored and they are resolutely waiting a duty call which will be a while yet....they weathered the winter just fine although I found that a family of mice took up residence in the bus....not too much damage. Deja-vu from the old GMC bus in Alaska when I came back to a litter of squirrel babies that I took to the local elementary school for the kids to nurse, raise and release back into the wild...comical....

My next move after the 14th of June and a doctor appointment, is to head out in the Chinooky for the coast, perhaps a quick visit with my sons and families and a couple of friends. Then south for a niece's wedding in San Jose, CA.

After the wedding I will head east through Tor C to drop Dina off with a friend and then on to San Antonio, TX for a huge family reunion. Kit will fly down to the wedding and then over to San Antonio and we will be enjoying those things together. Since I have the dog and don't like to fly, I will drive.

After the festivities I will head back west and north to end up back in the Pacific Northwest for the rest of the summer.....

Be well all,

ManyWheels

I love my state.....

As poor as my chosen home state of new Mexico is, we have not had to shut down the highway safety rest areas nor our state parks.

Even though we share a border with Mexico, we haven't started profiling Hispanics. For that I am grateful.

Did I mention that I love this state?

Missions....

These are photos Kit took while we were visiting together in Tucson...a great couple of days out catching some local history and beauty

Onward....and toward Jah....

After leaving the group at Wayne's camp in Pahrump, I visited Death Valley briefly again, then Organ Pipe Cactus Monument and had a camp in Coyote Howls Campground in Why, AZ where a couple of traveling monks live...Steve and Carny Buzz are two very dear friends of mine that I have met along the road and they camp in C.H. C.G. every winter. Neither would like to be called monks but that is how I think of them. Very active participants in their own lives and a pleasure to learn from.

So then to Tucson...

I had a visit with Kit there where she was teaching a dispatch class. We had a great time visiting old missions and re-connecting with each other. I also took a visit to the Pima Air Museum which was very rewarding, especially listening to an old WW II pilot's tales as he reminisced to me.... they were a tough breed...those who came before us.

I headed home to TorC to attend Leroy S.' s funeral. He was a very dear, old friend of mine and a wonderful example of humility in action. I spent some time with the various members of his family and friends that knew him and shared stories of his life...very healing.

I was able to attend to some vehicle upgrades and maintenance as well as yard maintenance at Rancho Cielo Azul...our TorC base camp. Also took care of some doctor stuff and got another 6 month reprieve from worry. I was told I'll see 80 by the PA there...yikes...that is not a little scary!!!

Now I am back in the Vandweller fold at Wayne's camp. Wow, these folks are so awesome! Love in action...total harmony as we live our separate but similar lives and share new tricks, treats and experience....the ego level is pretty low here...in fact so low that my ego has nothing to react to.. ;^) I love it....it really is something that cannot be planned or philosophized about but has to be lived....in the moment...just like life..;^) I will wait a bit and enjoy the days and see if my friend Jon will make it over from TorC and if not, will leave in a few days to continue the trip north...I have been kind of caught in the southwest vortex....

I think if I did not have family up north and want to see them quite badly, I would stay in the southwest regardless of the heat of summer...I do love the desert.... the heat in TorC is really not that bad....

Latcho Drom,
ManyWheels

Organ Pipe Cactus N.M.

Death Valley vista

Desert

Desert Southwest Flowers

Desert Southwest Flowers

Desert Southwest Flowers

Pahrumpus.....

Currently camped with 8 other VanDwellers on the BLM desert overlooking Pahrump, Nevada. A beautiful spot of pristine Desert Tortoise habitat with my vagabond family...and they are awesome. Ranging in age from low 30's to high 60's we are close to the temperature range these days here in the desert.
Friend Paul and I went over to Death Valley last week for a few days and checked out the wildflower bloom although it is a bit late and not as impressive as I was told other years have been.
Still gorgeous and I will load some photos in a while to show them.
I enjoyed my 66th birthday with this family yesterday. Wayne H., "desert chef supreme" made us all a dual crockpot Yankee Pot roast that was good enough to knock your socks off...onions, baby carrots, potatoes and lots of really good juices......mmmmm... then Brian G. one of out new arrivals, baked me a chocolate cake with vanilla icing that went perfectly with the French vanilla ice cream!
Sister Charlene presented me with a beautifully rendered pencil drawing of his nibs that I will have framed when anchored again and keep forever. I don't usually like photos of me (they show me way older and way fatter than I am)...ahem.. but this is a very, very complimentary rendering and well done. In fact I wish I could draw half as good as she can....Thank you sister Charlene...one more member of this amazing mobile family I am so grateful to be a member of.
Chinookie is broken, not terribly but enough so that I have an appointment with Mr. Goodwrench this morning to fix the power steering pump mounting bracket.
Paul and I were able to pull off a nice field fix near the top of Jubilee Pass on our way out of Death Valley. I thank my angels for reminding me to carry an extra serpentine belt and lots of mechanic's wire and tools. And traveling with a good friend to help figure out the threading of the belt with two bogus illustrations. Ah, those pesky engineers!
Be well and keep true to you,
ManyWheels

On the way again....

I am now on my journey west and north for the summer and at the moment am camped with Hoboknitter, grammahuggababy, and swankywheels....or for you not in the Vandweller tribe....Kate, Sherry and Charlene...three awesome vandwelling women.

We are camped in the very green desert 6 miles north of Quartzsite, AZ and it is quiet, peaceful and the dogs run free.

I am so happy that everyone of my tribe-mates I have met are some of the finest people I have ever met.....what a great group of individuals. Their histories are interesting, their inventiveness equals my sidecar community, their fearlessness is contagious, and they totally crack me up...endless laughs....

I have dinked around with vehicles all my life and lived in vehicles on and off for years as those of you who know me can attest to....but a day does not go by that I don't take a tidbit of info, a great idea or concept, a new item, another minimalist idea or a shedding of un-needed ideas and junk...back to my van home after a day of chatting, walking around eyes to the ground to find cool rocks and stuff, and of living.

Soon it sounds like we are all heading up to Pahrump, NV to meet another couple of vandwelling guys and camp in that desert there. I can't speak for anyone else but I am ready for the desert spring flower bloom and will try and catch as much of that as I can....

Pictures will follow in my next blog post..

Latcho Drom.....

ManyWheels

A new phase of the adventure....

Dina and I left TorC Monday afternoon and camped in Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, NM. It was cooold....29 * ....now in Roper Lake State Park, AZ for maybe a couple of nights....I am enjoying it and there are some good walks to take with D.

The sun is out and the skies are clear but they tell me it was 27* this AM so we got a plugin for the stay here.....just a little heat is always nice....showers here and a park hot spring if I can steel my resolve to go take a dip...the wind is bitter and when you get out....hmm, sounds familiar...oh yeah, last time Kit and I camped here we did it and it was tough to enjoy when the wind is blowing.

Mount Graham is big and snowy on it's flanks but I am nice and sun-warmed as I sit and type....nice to have phone and internet connection here.

I left in a bit of a hurry to avoid the blowby from a couple of friends and their painful divorce but am glad I had that as an impetus to boost me along the way. It is only a week or two ahead of when I would have left anyway.

Now I hope to meet up with some of my Vandweller and VanTramp friends along the way as I move west. Move west and north as the time passes. I would love to take a ramble up the Pacific coast since it has been ages since I have been along much of it.

Recently I started the Course In Miracles and it will be a pleasent companion along with my sketch book. If I can ever shut up long enough to do either...jeez I am SO social.

Anyway...I will try and blog more on this trip as well.

Namaste....
Many Wheels

States and Provinces I have visited

Winter rolls on....

I am still in the little casita that is normally Kit's studio but now is serving as my home base for the winter....very cozy and comfy and just the right size for me.

I have also been spending some time in the desert with a friend, Jon B. and the dogs and have found some evidence of earlier nomads. I love it when I get the feeling that we are just another chapter in the great picture....

In the next month I will very likely jump in the van and head out....especially as the sun shines more often here. I am getting itchy feet.

The Chinooky is loaded and locked....all the minor mechanical stuff done...new tailpipe, rewiring done so that everything I use in the van is wired to the house battery, including all interior lites, fog lites, the in-dash stereo, and all cigar lighter plugs. Lots of little farkles.

I would love to come up with the right solar panel and if I have not by the time I get back up to the bus, I will swap the bus panel to the van and make it easy to shift from rig to rig. I just really hate to buy new...I am finding that a lot of my stuff is in the bus and I will transfer it to the van when I get back to it...cruiser ax, 1 gallon propane bottle, etc.

We are making plans for travel to my nieces wedding in San Jose, CA in June and the San Antonio AA International Convention in early July. Wow, lots of driving. I may not get much road time with the sidecar rig again this year. Actually thinking about trailering it back down south so I have it for next winter.

I must say, the more I travel in my Chinookie, the less I want to sleep on the ground in a tent....I may have already made the switch from sidecar touring and just don't know it...;^)

More later,
Latcho Drom
Many Wheels

January 2010

A nice piece of news is that Kit has had a great article published in the February issue of Rider magazine. It is called "Idaho's Top Ten...reasons to ride your motorcycle and sing, that is."

It is available at Barnes and Noble and Hastings, etc. any stores with an intensive magazine selection if you are interested.

Here in TorC, I am getting ready to head out on a southwest van-camp for a spell. I will leave around early February. I am taking my little Honda CT110 along to do some desert riding and so I can get to town and leave the van parked in camp. Dina has mastered riding in the double size milk crate on the bike so I can ride in traffic when needed. Otherwise she runs circles around me as I ride it in the dirt.

I am in pretty good health but always look forward to a reduction in altitude for my breathing issues....

Til later,
Peace,
ManyWheels