I’m going to try really hard to keep this page active and up-to-date. However, I am controlled by a master who is cold hearted and requires constant dedicated obedience. I never thought I would get into this kind of a relationship. But somehow in my old age and living alone I have reduced myself to being somebody else’s slave. And he is a sneaky little devil. Forcing me to even do things that I wouldn’t normally do. I feel so dirty sometimes. I hope you know that I’m talking about Akela. That cute little face and that nonstop wagging tail. He forces me to go on long walks through the woods and on different muddy trails. He makes me take mud and slobber covered sticks and throw them, and balls. He’s a mean nasty taskmaster. And then after the long walk when I have chores to do like laundry and cleaning he only wants his dinner right then. He barks, and then he sits up straight with a big smile and wags his tail and I don’t have any courage to say no.

And recently we have been going on walks and he finds these great big logs and hits me with them. He carries them in his mouth and runs towards me and then if I don’t grab them he hits me in the legs with them. And then if I do grab them all he wants to do is play tug-of-war. If I get them away then he barks at me until I throw it. And then the whole game starts over again. It’s very tiring! I just want to sit home and eat candy and plan my computer. I don’t need all this exercise and decent dinner food. He’s a slave driver. I think I’m going to have to get him a puppy. Or maybe a cat. I would not have to worry about taking a cat camping. But cats live forever. So I guess I don’t want that.  Hmm…. puppy!?!?

So anyways, he forced me to go camping  last weekend during a very cold weekend in the  Pisgah National forest.

But because it’s a dead-end road without any signage or indications of the campsites I figured it would be empty. And when we first got there around 11 o’clock in the morning there was one little Subaru camper at one campsite. So we had our choice of about 4 other ones really good ones, and we picked one we thought was the best. As we were just finishing setting up some pickup trucks and  SUVs passed us going down the road. Usually they go down the road, hit the barricade, turn around and go back out. But this time nobody ever came back out. So after the first 3 had gone down and not come back for a while, I started counting. And I counted 11 vehicles go down the road and not come back. So we finally decided to walk down the road to the barricade and see what was going on. So Akela and I went down about a half-mile past where we were camped and there were 15 trucks and SUV’s parked along the road in a fairly large size campsite. And there were no less than 20 little tiny backpacker tents set up all over the campsite. There was at least one guy running a chainsaw, and I think I heard a generator over in the back. And I saw 2 people splitting firewood next to a large pile of firewood already. It appears that they were preparing for many nights at this campsite. They seem too busy to notice me and Akela, and I didn’t want to stop and interrupt their chores. I’m just going to assume that it was a large Boy Scout troop reunion for Boy Scouts from the 80s. Because they all looked over 40 years old. And being that they were all in these little tents, backpacker tents, I felt bad that they were going to be camped out at 22°F all night long.

But, Akela and I did take a long walk up the road past where they were camped. The road did go up fairly steeply and so the video I did has a lot of heavy breathing in it. I’m sorry about that, I haven’t figured out how to stop it. Breathing that is. It seems that either I or Akela are always breathing in a heavy pant. But as we hiked up the road we met an older couple coming down the road who had hiked up before us. Apparently they had driven by us as I was just leveling the Aliner. Because they knew who I was and where I was camped, and they knew the area really well. They were the ones who explained to me that the road been closed for over 5 years. And also told us that since the road has been closed all this time and it was a really good  forest road, that it has been heavily used by mountain bikers and gravel bike riders. I realized that would explain why there seems to be a single track path up the middle of the road. We may have to come back here with my bike. The road followed a nice little trout stream that had lots the waterfalls and little deep holes and pools for fish to hide in and rest.

So that’s what we did this first week in February. It’s funny how it’s cold for 2 or 3 days and then it’s 50- 60°F  for 2 or 3 days. We’re heading out to the northwest corner of Georgia on February 19th and I hope it’s one of those warmer 3 days. Though we will take plenty of equipment to be very comfortable despite the weather, and a little snow would really make the trip awesome. But I don’t want to drive the 5 1/2 to 6 hours in crummy weather. Especially since we are driving up and over and through the mountains.

Well not much else to explain what’s been going on. We been hiking locally and working on our plan for next year. Trying to save money at the moment and pay off a few debts. We’ve been looking at alternative travel trailers in case we need to go harvest hosting or dispersed camping words crowded. Right now Akela and I generally use the same bathroom if were dispersed camping. But if it’s crowded dispersed camping I’m not sure I can get away with that as well as he could. And I’m not too keen on “the bucket bathroom” that many people use in small trailers and vans. So I’m looking at small lightweight trailers that have real bathrooms and showers. But I love my Aliner, so that’s not going anywhere. But the hunt is on because it’s fun to shop and research other modes of comfort and living.

Thanks for stopping by, we have to get the bed.
Stay safe, stay healthy. We hope to see on the road

Rick and Akela
GoingNoWhereFast