LIVING THE DREAM

2006 0527 YUKON, CANADA Black Jack basking in the glow of a cool spring day

A synopsis of Life on the Road as a Full-Timer

Camp: YELLOWSTONE RIVER, MONTANA

250623 Monday / Summer

Day: 7,305; Vets 22: 3,828 / 160,710​

​Howdy Sunshine!  Hello America!

It’s time again to grab yourself a cup of joe and saddle up to the campfire, and listen to another tale as told to the Whispering Wind. Get comfortable and stay awhile, and imagine, if you will, the playing of the Native American flute in the background as you read.

"WE NEVER SAW YOU COMING"

~Craig Edevold​

In 2010 while inside the Camp-Inn factory Craig Edevold and I were talking when it was told to me, "We never saw you coming." "You're gonna have to elaborate on that Craig." "When Cary and I set out to design these campers we never imagined anyone ever living in one." I broke out in laughter, "No. I don't imagine that you did."

On this day twenty years ago a thirty plus year old childhood dream reached fruition. In time The Dream would give birth to an odyssey---The Odyssey. What began as a six month experiment has stood the test of time, 240 months after its commencement the fable Dream and the stoic Odyssey are celebrating a major milestone as an unconventional life continues to march on through the modern age.

As a child The Dream was imagined as an intimate relationship with life outside city limits, to include---but not limited to---ALASKA! As a member of the military the fragility of life was made all too clear. As a young man I saw the importance of living in the moment and restrain from planning beyond the next sunset unless others were involved.

It is a life few can comprehend nor have the courage to experience let alone try. Most have surrendered their lives to the dictator their personal possessions have become. The majority are not even aware they worked their entire life away to simply turn the reins of the lives over the very materialism their blood, sweat, and tears paid for. If it weren't so dire it would be comical.

Yes, I had a career. I had two of them a matter of fact. A military career that spanned 42 years. The heart felt obligated to repay a debt owed to the forefathers who fought and died for this land. As a child, my freedoms were not taken lightly. As a teenager, it was decided the day would come when I'd have to repay a debt to all of those who fought bravely for the new land. Not just Americans but the Indians, the British, the Spanish, the Mexicans, and all the other nations who had boots on the ground putting their lives on the line for a chance at freedom. I owed it to all of them to do my part in letting freedom ring and to keep on ringing.

There was also the Scouting career spanning 27-years. As a volunteer for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) I saw an opportunity to give back to the community; I loved my Scouting experience as a youth. I also saw an opportunity to be a positive role model for kids, something that was nonexistent in the household I was raised in. There was also the opportunity to learn from more experienced outdoorsman and to put that knowledge to use through The Dream.

Both of these careers led to the performance of being and doing, not the collecting of material wealth that falsely leads one into believing they have something of value to show for their lives. I was shown as a teenager that materialism will NEVER fill the void in the center of the chest where love, truth, joy, and happiness should be occupying space. This has resulted in being a life long minimalist. I never forgot those lessons and held on to them dearly throughout live.

Those two careers and the life that supported them open the eyes to possibility; much was learned and the foundation was set and then built upon to turn living off the grid from a realistic concept into one of reality.

Reality: To reach this milestone a half-million miles have rolled beneath the tires of two Jeep Wranglers and three Camp-Inn 550s; traveling the highways, byways, scenic byways, and dirt roads into the backcountry has led to the exploration of 49 states, 46 national parks, 6 Canadian provinces, and countless platforms governed by the National Parks Service, the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, as well as an unknown tally of state lands. The company I've kept has been exemplary: God, Soul, Angels, Body, Mother Earth (all that entails earth, wind, rain, and fire), Mother Nature (all that walks, crawls, hops, slithers, swims, flies, and is rooted), as well as the memory of Furball (R.I.P.) and Black Jack (R.I.P.) former co-pilot.

Perhaps the Crème de la crème was the love of a woman in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Though she is no longer in this world she left an indelible mark upon the heart.

Life alone in the woods doesn't afford much opportunity to build friendships, so friends have been sparse and acquaintances abundant (just because people can be friendly doesn't equate to friendship) and family non-communicative.

The nostalgic sound of AM radio adorns the airways when Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God, an uncommon dialogue trilogy doesn't already command that space.

And should I grow old and feeble and can no longer live the nomadic life I'll build myself a one room log cabin then live out the dream Leo Tolstoy had for himself:​

"A quiet secluded life in the country with the possibility of being useful to people whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to having it done to them; the work which one hopes may be of some use; the rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor such is my idea of happiness."

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That's it from the road. Until next time...​

Walk in Beauty,

Rev. BEAR

(a.k.a. Sasquatch...because not everyone believes I'm real)

One happy camper still living his dream 

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." ~Mark Twain. 

PRIORITIES: "A century from now it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, or how much money I had in the bank... But one hundred years from now the world may be a better place, because I was important in the life of a child(ren)." ~Forest Witcraft