A $16 Lesson

by carriesilverhornTravelPosted on 2 Comments

I left Big Bend National Park on April 1st after 5 very long months there. I set out for New Mexico and Carlsbad Caverns. I was so excited to see the caves and get onto my new journey and see all these new places. So excited that I apparently rushed a ton. I literally pushed myself to walk the entire cave in less than 2 hours. I then quickly jumped in the car and hooked up my camper so that I could hurry and get to my next location. In doing so, wrenching my lower back out of place. The extreme fatigue from the severe inclines from Carlsbad Caverns, plus this back injury and the ever lingering tailbone injury….Mama was in pain. For what? To get someplace else 30 mins quicker? Who knows. My next location was the Crystal Forest rest stop next to the entrance of the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. There were two areas you could park an RV. The pull-thru sites that were FREE next to the museum, and the paid sites with electricity only, next to the gift shop. I knew this. I researched this. And for some unknown reason, I decided to pay for my site that night. Maybe because it was my birthday gift to myself. Maybe because I didn’t want to worry about Dobby smothering in the camper all day while I was gone out exploring. Either way, the site I found it on said it was only $10. Well, it was not. It was now $15.98!!! UGH. I could have turned and gone across the street. I could have said no thanks and found another BLM site. I could have gone through the Petrified forest and been on my way in an hour or so. But I handed her my money! Now, I was hell-bent on not spending one penny for RV sites this whole trip. Boondocking all the way. And here I am not paying the $10…but almost $16 for electricity only. It’s like I could not stop myself. Upset with myself a tad, I vowed not to unhook due to my back, and plus check out was at 10 am in the morning, so why bother. My neighbor was walking out to her camper while I was in the midst of perfecting my 32 point backing in skills. She assisted in guiding me into my site. She started talking to me about my camper and the mural. Come to find out she and her husband were from Missouri as well. So we talked quite a bit. She asked if I was going to unhook and I said no, my back was in a bind. She said no problem I can help and she jumped right in and started setting up my camper. Still under this feeling of pressure of time or like I was running late or had to hurry, I reluctantly gave in and helped unhook as well. The next moment I was invited to taco dinner with her, her husband, and two other fellow travelers they met along the way. This was way better than the planned trail mix and smoothie dinner I had in mind for my birthday dinner! I began to soften…relax. We talked about our travels, how we got started and where we have gone and places we have seen. They shared with me some awesome spots that were must-sees and places to stay that were super easy to get in and out of along my route. I also learned, in our conversations, that my neighbor was in stage 4 breast cancer that had moved to her bones. On my way back to the camper she told me that my load leveling system was set up wrong and that tomorrow when I hooked it up again, she would show me how to do it properly. Now I have pulled this camper with this setup for almost a year! WRONG! The next morning, true to her word, she helped me properly hook up my camper. Taking so much pressure off my back axels. The trailer pulled better and was easier to maneuver. There I was whining about my pinched nerve and my false sense of urgency, and here is a stranger, in a dire health condition herself, assisting another stranger, for nothing. She even gave me some canned meat she made from her own cows on her own farm. That lesson, she taught me, had nothing to do with load levelers. That was the bonus lesson. The lesson she taught me was to chill a bit. Enjoy the journey and not hurry to the destination. Relax and take my time. Time to do things right and time to have the proper experiences I need to have. I realized this lesson way after the fact, in true Carrie form, when I was at my next boondocking spot. Surrounded by trees, a small fire going, a slice of pizza, and listening to the wind blow through the treetops and sound like waves crashing. I sat still. I stared at the fire. I took pictures of my private Narnia. I looked up at the stars. I was at total and complete peace. Then is when I realized what my neighbor had taught me. Why I subconsciously choose the paid campground instead of the free one. To learn from her this lesson. Heck of a deal for $16!

H’Itching to Go!

by carriesilverhornworkcampingPosted on One Comment

I started out my traveling journey headed to Wyoming for my very first workcamping gig. Boy was I excited! To get to see mountains, lakes, roaming buffalo, elk, moose, and grizzlies! What an experience. Who could not love that! But then I found myself tired of it all. TIRED OF WYOMING??? How could that possibly be? Moving onto several other locations such as Montana, South Dakota, and Big Bend National Park…I saw the same feelings creep in. A pattern of restlessness when I am in a spot for too long. I fight with this feeling hardcore. Like I should stay, do the work, make the money and ride the wave….but something inside me is itching to go go go. I tend to look for all the ways that the workcamping location is in my favor: i.e. free showers, a gym, discounts on food. Whatever the “perks” that are offered for that location. I even start weighing in on the surrounding area. The landscape is pretty, good trails, and I can ride my bike to work, etc. Ultimately, what always makes me stay either to my commitment date or longer, is the people I work with and get to know. I become very attached to people I have noticed. Love the interaction and socialization that we have. Maybe it is because I travel alone, that this outer socialization is so important to me. I am not sure. But I wondered if others felt this way. So I took a poll on 7 social media groups and these were the findings… Turns out this is a common feeling among travelers. It’s referred to as “Hitch Itch”. (The need to hitch up the camper and go!) Nearly 86% of people polled said that 3 months was the limit to their stay. This seems to be the sweet spot. Great for the worker and beneficial for the employer. Three months gives you ample time to “settle” a bit, get a routine going with scheduled pay periods, and allows you to explore the new area to great lengths. So I am not the only one who feels this way. Whew!!! My next question was to the employers. Do they want to know that there is an inner gypsy limit? Or are positions like these super flexible? The answers were 49/49/2. Some workcamper employers said yes they want to know how long you can reasonably commit to a position so that people don’t just get the “itch” and then leave prematurely. The other portion said people come and go and they are used to it. It is part of the gig. A very small handful said that they would not hire if they knew the worker couldn’t commit to the full time. Get my New eBook out now! Learn how I broke through generational conditioning for the need for stuff to live a life full of adventure with minimal possessions. Therefore, it really comes down to you! Your desires. Your plans. And your willingness to be at a location and what you can reasonably handle. One of the ultimate perks of this lifestyle is the freedom to just pick up and go. If a location or a position does not suit you, you can leave. No 2-week notice. No selling of a house. No contracts. No limits. I have learned now what my ultimate inner limit is and am now listening to the gypsy voice inside of me that alerts me when it is time to go. I feel that honoring that inner voice will bring so much more peace to my travels in the future. With that said….onto the next adventure. Bye Bye Texas! I created a FREE to-do list for all of you travelers out there. Download and save it! Have a FREE journey to-do list on me!

Run away with me

by carriesilverhornUncategorizedPosted on 2 Comments

People sometimes ask what I’m running away from with my travels. I’ve even had a few tell me to stop running away from my problems and to start living life. “Grow up,” they said. I’m not sure why, but there is this perception out there that anyone who travels long term and isn’t interested in settling down or getting a conventional job must be running away from something.They are just trying to “escape life.” They are running away from responsibility, being a grown-up, heartache, problems, etc, etc. Long-term travelers are refusing to be adults. I even had a boss one time say, in reference to a traveling musician, that even her husband knew better and got a real job. While society thinks traveling is something everyone should do at one point, it’s only gap years after college or short vacations that are acceptable. Get it out of your system and come back into the Matrix. Those of us who lead nomadic lifestyles, or who linger just a bit too long somewhere before reaching that final homestretch, are all too often accused of running away. Yes, go travel — but just not for too long the world says. Responsible people don’t just travel forever. We nomads must have awful, miserable lives, or are weird, or have had something traumatic happen to us that we are trying to escape. People assume that we are simply running away from our problems, running away from “the real world.” To all those people, I say – you are right. I am running away. I’m running away from your idea of the “real” world. I’m avoiding your life. Instead, I’m running towards everything — towards the world, exotic places, new people, different cultures, and my own idea of freedom. While there may be exceptions (as there are with everything), most people who become nomads do so because they want to experience the world, not escape problems. We are running away from office life, commutes, and weekend errands, and the corporate 9 to 5. We’re running away from the strict path society has laid out as “normal.” The one that makes us mindless ants marching to and fro. We want to experience every culture, see every mountain, eat weird food, attend crazy festivals, meet new people, and enjoy different holidays around the world. Life is short and we only get to live it once. I want to look back and say I did exciting things and lived life on my own terms, not say I spent my life reading blogs like this during my lunch break while wishing I was doing the same thing. No one dies going “If only I had spent more time in the office!” The accepted path of the “American Dream” is go to college, get a job, get married, buy a house, have your 2.5 children, raise them, and then retire. Only then, after you’ve put in your time, can you enjoy the fruits of your labor. Society boxes you in and restricts your movements to their expectations. And any deviation is considered abnormal and weird. People may want to travel, tell you they envy what you do, and say they wish they could do the same thing. But they never do. Few people must the courage to take the leap, no matter how much their heart pulls them. They are simply fascinated by a lifestyle so outside the norm. Well, I don’t want to be normal. I feel like the reason why people tell us we are running away is that they can’t fathom the fact that we broke the mold and are living outside the norm. To want to break all of society’s conventions, there simply must be something wrong with us. Life is what you make it out to be. Life is yours to create. We are all chained down by the burdens we place upon ourselves, whether they are bills, errands, family, etc. If you really want something, you have to go after it. People who travel the world aren’t running away from life. Just the opposite. Those that break the mold, explore the world, and live on their own terms are running toward true living, in my opinion. We have a degree of freedom a lot of people will never experience. We get to be the captains of our ships. But it is a freedom we chose to have. We looked around and said, “I want something different.” And then we went for it. I’m not running away. I’m running towards MY idea of life and what that new normal looks and feels like.