Occupation of Independence

 Am I really going to type a post on my phone, now that my laptop died in a town where it will be hard to ship a new one in? Maybe I should just turn this into a photo blog.  After all, most ...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/05/when-laptop-crashes-in-small-town.html

Every year I become more interested in how animals 'make a living' in a land that is nothing but rock, aridity, bark, and pine needles.  There are lots of rodents to eat -- maybe that keeps the ...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/05/survival-in-rural-area-repairing-van.html

It is pretty easy to get tired of hearing talking heads on You Tube discussing world events, even if you respect and appreciate the talking heads.  I wish I could pull a video clip into this blo...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/05/a-fresh-new-world-events-channel.html

I get tires from Walmart, not just for the low price, but because a traveler likes to get tires rotated and flats fixed for free, so the tire store needs the geographical reach of your travel hab...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/05/you-can-still-get-flat-fixed-for-free.html

What a luxury it is to look at wide open spaces, covered by green grass or herbaceous plants!  Locally there aren't too many woody-stemmed plants such as sagebrush.  My little dog can run wild...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/05/a-small-dog-on-big-land.html

In the early days of the internet, blogs were the modern equivalent of the morning newspaper.  But ever since You Tube got big, the internet has become the television set.   The smartphone c...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/05/is-writing-obsolete.html

How often do you still use pen and paper?  I was down to one last application: my grocery list.  I have left a (5" x 8") note pad in grocery carts all over the western states.  Finally, I coul...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-end-of-pen-and-paper.html

Lately I have been thinking how nice luxury is, to a camper.  Of course "luxury" means different things to different people.  Perhaps you can size up different lifestyles quickly just by looki...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/04/luxuries-are-important-to-camper.html

It was gratifying to cross the Snake River in the afternoon, just upriver of Hell's Canyon.  That is where the Oregon Trail pulled away from the Snake River after following it for a couple hundr...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-elasticity-of-appreciation.html

 Some local people talked to me at camp, the other day.  I wish this kind of thing happened more often.   One fellow had an electric car that he talked about quite a bit.   I was camped o...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/04/how-to-help-adventure-survive.html

Are the best RVs the most boring RVs?  I tend to think so.  It is advantageous to own a rather ordinary machine that everybody knows how to work on and needs replacement parts that are easy to ...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/04/repairing-van-doors.html

Normally dust devils are mere curiosities.  On this warm spring day east of Reno NV,  I can see four dust devils at the same time.  The largest one is 50 feet in diameter.  One blew past my ...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/04/dodging-dust-devils-of-transportation.html

There is nothing in this old world of ours that beats chilly morning air, dry, sunny, and calm.  But wait!  There is something better: add basin-and-range scenery with snowy mountain tops and s...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/04/basin-and-range.html

People on You Tube are raising the alarm about the unexplained disappearance of a unique traveler, named Hobo Shoestring.  He travels across North America by hopping freight trains.  Somebody e...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/04/hobo-shoestring-one-of-civilizations.html

Caitlin Johnstone's writing on the slaughter of Palestinians by Israelis has been relentless and impressive.  If there were a Pulitzer Prize for alternative-media, she deserves it.  Anybody int...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/03/hope-about-american-evangelicals.html

This is the first time I have ever camped in the midst of small groups of "wild" horses, if that is what they are.  I haven't seen any of them mooch goodies from campers, as burros will.  But t...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/03/horses-circumnavigate-globe.html

On a mountain bike ride the other day I had to stop and admire an unusual canyon.  It did have vertical walls about 100 feet high.  But what made it visually impressive was the unusual width of...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/03/caught-in-stream-of-human-events.html

The campsite was a bit too close to the road, but I put up with it because traffic was light and nobody was camped in this part of southern Nevada.  But, when two van/car nomads showed up in the...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/03/playing-hand-you-are-dealt-in-desert.html

Most people expect a Biden and Trump rematch this November.  One way to look at this is to back off from the partisan arguments and look at the big picture.  How could America have come to such...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/03/getting-flushed-down-drain-might-not-be.html

It is easier to get interested in where you are camped if you can visualize motion.  High winds in Nevada certainly got that ball rolling, yesterday.  It was cold, too.  What little moisture t...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/03/horizontal-gravity-aint-all-bad.html

 Perhaps my last post was less gracious than it could have been towards the state of Arizona.  Allow me to make amends. I woke up Sunday morning, still just barely in the state of Arizona, an...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/03/beating-system-regarding-time-changes.html

One of the great under-rated pleasures outdoors is a broken and stormy sky.  I experienced that yesterday as I fled Arizona.  Other things worked OK: gasoline prices weren't so bad, and I had...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/03/success-for-winter-traveler.html

It is easy to get nervous as we near the spring solstice.  But this is the time of year when a camper has the greatest opportunity to improve their life.  Extend.  Extend the bug-free season, ...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/03/it-is-easy-to-get-nervous-as-we-near.html

Recently I have gotten interested in food preservation.  The higher costs of food and transportation have to be fought, somehow.  This is especially true for somebody who has to drive over mile...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/03/better-food-preservation.html

 If your news-intake is limited to the legacy media, you might not yet have heard of a young Air Force guy named Aaron Bushnell burning himself in protest in front of the Israeli embassy.  He d...

https://occupation-of-independence.blogspot.com/2024/02/he-was-probably-anti-semite.html