Sidlaghatta Seven Sycamores Ranch offers farm stay

The drive up and down California’s San Joaquin Valley can be tedious, but consider a stop along the way in Visalia. Seven Sycamores Ranch is offering a kind of bed-and-breakfast experience on a real farm.

Agri-tourism is what they call it – the blending of tourism with California’s vast farmlands and orchards to offer city folk an up-close view of how an orange, for example, gets from the tree to your dining room table. With its location just outside of Visalia, Seven Sycamores is in a good location to break up that long drive between the cities of Northern and Southern California.

Bob McKellar is the host of Seven Sycamores and something of a visionary in the realm of agri-tourism. A few years back when he was just 75 years old, McKellar decided it was time to find ways to market some of his orange crop outside the usual packing shed channels that tend to eat up a grower’s profits. He joined a national organization and found that, in some places, farmers had started “CSA’s” – community supported agriculture programs – that cut out some middlemen and brought fruit straight to the consumer. Today, McKellar sells a sizable portion of his crop by packaging hundreds of fruit baskets delivered regularly to local customers.

Then McKellar got to thinking about the growers in other parts of the country who were hosting weddings on their property and, in his first year, booked 30 weddings on his picturesque grounds.

The piece de resistance is that McKellar now offers visitors overnight stays in an authentic farmhouse – a kind of bed and breakfast experience except that McKellar lives down the road and not in the house, and the breakfast comes in the form of fresh groceries that guests cook up themselves. If the three-bedroom farmhouse is too big, guests can opt for an economy-sized bunkhouse nearby. Both come complete with hens and baby chicks wandering the grounds, as well as roosters who offer guests wake-up calls for no extra charge.

McKellar’s mother lived in the house for many decades until 2002 when she passed away. There are family photos still in the house, which makes it feel like a home, not a vacation rental. One guest used the guestbook to complain about all the family photos, but McKellar has no intention of taking the photos down. We thought they simply added to the charm of our stay.

The accommodations are comfortable, even for a large family. A big living room and old-fashioned porch area provide comfortable spots to unwind, while the kitchen has everything you need to cook up your own farm-style meals. As part of your stay, the Seven Sycamores will ask you what you like for breakfast and then have your refrigerator stocked upon your arrival.

McKellar family history is everywhere you look on the grounds. One example would be the observation tower – a replica of the real thing that was used to watch for Japanese bombers if they attempted to attack L.A. by flying in over the San Joaquin Valley. McKellar’s family and neighbors took turns watching in two-hour shifts for two full years.

If that’s not enough for you, consider that McKellar also puts on his tour guide hat and personally escorts his guests through his 200 acres of orange trees where visitors will learn the differences between navel and Valencia oranges, the best ways to plant them, water them, harvest them and darn near enough info that guests could start growing oranges on their own.

Still not content, McKellar has begun hosting what he calls a Spring Farm Fest, which opens his acreage up to local families to come out and play carnival games, including a one-of-a-kind orange tree maze where families can find their way along roped pathways through a giant puzzle and collect proof along the way they completed the entire maze. If you’ve ever watched Survivor, it’s a game that is just as intricate as one of that TV show’s reward challenges.

As it turns out, the Visalia area has quite a few farm-related attractions for visitors. It’s a bustling city with more than 400,000 residents within the marketing area. A lot of the homes are rural and, of course, farmland and orchards stretch for as far as the eye can see.

We stopped by Wiebe Farms in Reedley, where manager Richard Sawatzky carries on the family tradition that started with his father-in-law, Louise Wiebe, who launched the operation back in 1956. The first crop of nectarines was produced in 1959 and today this family-run business grows 500 acres of nectarines, peaches and plums, about 50 different varieties of fruit altogether. Tour buses bring tourists by a special barn where they’re shown a professionally produced video outlining the Wiebe Farms history and then taken on an open flatbed trailer to see the trees and learn more about fruit production.

A big part of the Wiebe Farms tour nowadays is an olive oil tasting. Wiebe recently purchased the rights to produce Bari Olive Oil and they are setting aside acreage now to grow olives. But before you just drop by Wiebe Farms, be sure and call them (559-638-6861) as tours are not available every day.

Another stop in the general area was Luke’s Almond Acres where Ed Esajian manages a Country Store that sells almonds he produces as well as a wide variety of fruit and nut products. Esajian also has been known to take a few minutes and talk to visitors about how the almonds are produced. Our advice: Stock up on the chocolate-covered almonds.

A great place to stop is Bravo Farms Cheese Factory — you can’t miss it along the 99 freeway in Travers. The place is packed with visitors who find a treasure trove of gifts and food products and can watch cheese being made. We spent a couple of minutes with owner Jonathan Van Ryn, who took us down below the cheese factory to the refrigerated cellar where there is a room full of shelves stacked with blocks of cheese that are still aging. Bravo Farms now is breaking into the Costco chain where you can buy their award-wining Silver Mountain cloth-bound cheddar cheese.

You can’t miss Bravo Farms as your traveling along the freeway – it started out in the 50’s as a roadside fruit stand and now Van Ryn has come in and expanded the operation to include a gift shop, burger joint, ice cream shop and convenience store. Bravo cheese actually has been produced since the 70’s by a local dairy farm, but the current cheese factory was built as a partnership between Van Ryn and the original Bravo owner.

It all goes to show there’s more than meets the eye as you make the tedious drive up and down the San Joaquin Valley. Next time take a slight detour into Visalia where California’s agriculture produces more than just fruit and vegetables.

AT A GLANCE

WHERE: Visalia is about a three-hour drive north from Los Angeles and agricultural attractions are scattered among several small towns in the general area. Seven Sycamores Ranch is about eight miles northeast of Visalia in Ivanhoe.

WHAT: The Seven Sycamores Ranch and other Visalia-area attractions offer a unique educational opportunity to learn more about California’s agriculture – especially helpful to city kids who don’t know where many of their foods come from.

WHEN: Anytime of the year. The Seven Sycamores’ Spring Farm Fest promises to be a fun event each year, while they also are considering some sort of fall event. Call ahead for exact dates.

WHY: Number one, it’s good to see firsthand how farms and orchards operate, but this also is a great way to break up the long drive between Northern and Southern California. It also should be noted that Visalia is the gateway to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, each a relatively short drive east.

HOW: Check with the Visalia Convention and Visitors Bureau for a list of local attractions (559-334-0141 or www.visitvisalia.org). For more information on the Seven Sycamores Ranch, phone 877-777-3536 or visit www.sevensycamores.com.

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http://sargeantstudios.net/?page_id=120 The guide to wild plants for backpakers

Why learn about wild plants just to go backpacking? Of course it is interesting for some of us, but beyond that, a little knowledge of plants can save your life. This isn’t just about the edible ones. Food is actually a low priority in most wilderness emergencies. However, there are many other important uses for the plants out there.

Useful Wild Plants

Cattails: The cattail is one of the most useful wild plants in the wilderness. Swampy or wet areas throughout the northern hemisphere have cattail plants, and once you identified them, you’ll never forget them. While they have five edible parts, cattails are much more than food plants. Their long flat leaves have been used for centuries to make baskets and food-serving trays. You can weave them into mats for sleeping on, and even make crude clothing out of them.

The “fluff” of the cattail seed head that makes it one of the first wild plants you should learn about. The old fluffy seed heads often cling to the tops of the stalks year-round. Put a spark to these and it they can burst into flame. This can be a life-saver if you don’t have matches. Stuff your jacket full of cattail fluff and you’ll turn it into a winter coat, possibly saving you from the number one killer in the wilderness: hypothermia.

Some have also reported using cattail as an insect repellent. Just keep a smudgy fire going by burning the seed fluff. This may not be any more effective than any smoky fire would be, but it’s so simple to collect and burn cattail fluff that it is worth remembering.

Yuccas: Sword-like leaves with sharply pointed ends make these easy plants to recognize. Few plants can be used so easily to make rope or twine. In the California desert I peeled yucca leaves into strips and braided them into a rope in a matter of thirty minutes. With two men pulling hard on either end, we couldn’t break it. This is one of the better plants for making ropes as well as finer string (separate out the finest fibers).

Yucca can also provide needle and thread for emergency repairs. Cut the tip of a yucca leaf from the inside, an inch down and about halfway through. Bend it back, and you’ll be able to peel some fibers out of the leaf, which stay attached to the “needle” or tip of the leaf. I’ve pulled out two-foot long strands of fibers this way, and sewn up clothing with them.

Milkweeds: Several parts are edible with proper preparation, and some people apply the white sap to warts to get rid of them. The really useful part of the milkweed, however, is the seed fluff. It is even more flammable than cattail fluff, so you can use it for starting fires from sparks.

It is a great insulater, too, even looking something like goose down. Fill bread bags with milkweed down and these “mittens” will keep your hands very warm. Insert your hands and tie the bags around your wrist or tuck it into your sleeves.

Some other useful wild plants? The bark the white birch tree burns better than paper, even when wet. Pop sap blisters on fir trees (young ones) and you can use the sap as an antiseptic dressing for small cuts. Smear the juice from crushed wild garlic and onion on yourself as an insect repellent. There are endless ways to use wild plants, so why not learn and practice a few?

a camping vacation

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The guide to wild plants for backpakers

Why learn about wild plants just to go backpacking? Of course it is interesting for some of us, but beyond that, a little knowledge of plants can save your life. This isn’t just about the edible ones. Food is actually a low priority in most wilderness emergencies. However, there are many other important uses for the plants out there.

Useful Wild Plants

Cattails: The cattail is one of the most useful wild plants in the wilderness. Swampy or wet areas throughout the northern hemisphere have cattail plants, and once you identified them, you’ll never forget them. While they have five edible parts, cattails are much more than food plants. Their long flat leaves have been used for centuries to make baskets and food-serving trays. You can weave them into mats for sleeping on, and even make crude clothing out of them.

The “fluff” of the cattail seed head that makes it one of the first wild plants you should learn about. The old fluffy seed heads often cling to the tops of the stalks year-round. Put a spark to these and it they can burst into flame. This can be a life-saver if you don’t have matches. Stuff your jacket full of cattail fluff and you’ll turn it into a winter coat, possibly saving you from the number one killer in the wilderness: hypothermia.

Some have also reported using cattail as an insect repellent. Just keep a smudgy fire going by burning the seed fluff. This may not be any more effective than any smoky fire would be, but it’s so simple to collect and burn cattail fluff that it is worth remembering.

Yuccas: Sword-like leaves with sharply pointed ends make these easy plants to recognize. Few plants can be used so easily to make rope or twine. In the California desert I peeled yucca leaves into strips and braided them into a rope in a matter of thirty minutes. With two men pulling hard on either end, we couldn’t break it. This is one of the better plants for making ropes as well as finer string (separate out the finest fibers).

Yucca can also provide needle and thread for emergency repairs. Cut the tip of a yucca leaf from the inside, an inch down and about halfway through. Bend it back, and you’ll be able to peel some fibers out of the leaf, which stay attached to the “needle” or tip of the leaf. I’ve pulled out two-foot long strands of fibers this way, and sewn up clothing with them.

Milkweeds: Several parts are edible with proper preparation, and some people apply the white sap to warts to get rid of them. The really useful part of the milkweed, however, is the seed fluff. It is even more flammable than cattail fluff, so you can use it for starting fires from sparks.

It is a great insulater, too, even looking something like goose down. Fill bread bags with milkweed down and these “mittens” will keep your hands very warm. Insert your hands and tie the bags around your wrist or tuck it into your sleeves.

Some other useful wild plants? The bark the white birch tree burns better than paper, even when wet. Pop sap blisters on fir trees (young ones) and you can use the sap as an antiseptic dressing for small cuts. Smear the juice from crushed wild garlic and onion on yourself as an insect repellent. There are endless ways to use wild plants, so why not learn and practice a few?

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A Wheelchair Friendly World

There is a new accessible travel website called wheelchairtravleing.com aimed at giving you the tools needed to plan your next vacation or day tip. The team at wheelchairtraveling.com is in continuous search to find wheelchair friendly destinations. Based in Northern California, wheelchairtraveling.com has tons of wheelchair traveling guides for California and the West Coast in general. However, traveling whenever possible, wheelchairtraveling.com has already been to Maine, Boston, Chicago and Berlin, Germany.

Wheelchairtraveling.com wants to take the guessing out of planning your next accessible trip. Nothing is more frustrating when you have spent a lot time and money making all the arrangements only to arrive and find accessible features that are not accessible at all! Some companies cut corners when it comes to fulfilling the ADA quota at the cost of their wheelchair bound guests. This is usually the case when no wheelchair user is consulted. This is why wheelchairtraveling.com wants to provide you with tons of photos and information to help you decided if a destination is right for you. For instance, most paraplegics would not want to have to roll over cobble stones for any extended period of time; however, a quadriplegic is not phased by such a barrier, but no automatic door is a different story. Furthermore, the variance in how roll-in showers are setup is also important to any wheelchair traveler as well as if the hotel also has bench. Is this bench built into the wall or detached? Knowing such details a head of time will allow you to plan more accurately and have a better idea on what to expect.

In addition to information and photos on hotels, condos, villas, etc. that are wheelchair friendly, wheelchairtraveling.com also wants to give you activity ideas on how you can spend your day. If you cannot access the majority of businesses in the area then perhaps you would rather travel to a different location. Or maybe you count on using public transportation but do not find out until arrival that very few stations have elevator access from the ticket booth to the loading platform. Perhaps there is a discount for disabled travelers, like Boston’s T Subway. No matter the case, traveling is a more pleasurable experience if you can anticipate what your physical needs require.

Through the wheelchairtraveling.com website is geared towards people in wheelchairs, it is also a great resource for all kinds of travelers with a physical handicapped, inducing walkers, scooters, and arm crutches. Traveling should be an experience to cherish without sacrificing physical discomfort and convenience. Access the world with a little help from wheelchairtraveling.com.

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More Than Disneyland

There is more to California than its theme parks and celebrity culture. Sure it’s fun to drive around and see the houses where Lucille Ball and Charlie Chaplin used to live. It’s exciting to wander in and out of the same stores that your favorite actors shop in or know that you could run into Charlie Sheen at a Whole Foods. But the true fun of California is all of the little out of the way places that you won’t find in most of the guide books.

Fans of independent stores will love shopping for music in Amoeba. Amoeba began in 1990 as a retaliation against the corporate conglomerates that were quickly buying up all of the independent music sellers and replacing them with top 40 chain music shops. Amoeba, unlike its corporately backed competitors, sells new and used music in every format. Yes, you will find original vinyl here. You’ll also find iPods. The original store opened in Berkeley and was quickly followed by a San Francisco and a Hollywood location. If you’re tired of shopping at Sam Goody, you will find a musical Oasis in the California independent music seller: Amoeba.

Orphan Andy’s is quite possibly the best hamburger joint in California and it is located in the Castro district of San Francisco. This is a twenty four hour diner and yes, you will have to wait for a table—even at two in the morning! Be careful, the apartments upstairs frequently have parties and party goers are not careful about where they spill their drinks or flick their used cigarette butts. Orphan Andy’s, in addition to it’s fantastic food, has affordable prices—broke college students can eat here without having to worry about whether or not they’ll be able to afford the bus fare home.

The Egyptian theater isn’t exactly off the beaten path: It’s right on Hollywood Blvd. It is, however, a California classic. It was once one of the most famous theaters in California and was famous for its glitzy movie premieres. Then it went through a period of being “just another theater.” Luckily, it recently went through a restoration and transition period and now it is back to its “old days” glory. It shows older movies and there isn’t a bad seat in the house! You can’t go to California (especially Los Angeles) without partaking of a little bit of Hollywood history!

California also has plenty of natural beauty as well—its mountains and coastline are the envy of everywhere. East Coast residents will readily tell you that the Atlantic Ocean just isn’t as magnificent as the Pacific Ocean. For those who love to hike or bike ride or camp, there are plenty of great places to do just that—the redwoods up north and the surfing beaches down south—California has it all!

This blog entry is sounding a little bit like a love letter to California, and there are already television commercials that do that. The truth is, no matter what the hype: California is worth exploring. Everyone should take a California vacation at least once.

For more information on California, visit http://www.californiamicroblog.com and http://www.microblogcalifornia.com.

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Are You Interested In Trucking?

Let me start off by saying that I love my job. The life that I lead is meant for me. I do what I do for many reasons, but the most important one is that I love what I do! So if this sounds like I am complaining, I am not, this is just the way it is.

To me there is nothing better than a full moon night, with some heat lightning off in the distance on a road that is all to myself. On a night like this I will sit back and listen to the rhythm of the tires on the road, solve a few problems in my mind, write a song, and really just enjoy what I do. To me this is why I drive a truck, and nothing more! Sound romantic? I guess it does, but there is a lot more to it than this. .
My average time out on the road is six weeks. When I do come home, I will take a week off and then go back out again. Now not all drivers drive this way, some are home once a week. The common practice is to be out about three weeks and then come home for a couple of days. The industry standard is that you get one day off for each week out on the road. A workweek consists of seventy hours. There is no overtime, and once you figure in all the hours that you don’t get paid for, or manage to hide, your average workweek is more like ninety to one hundred hours a week! This is just working time, but remember you don’t get to go home every night, you get to eat, sleep, and be trucking! The hours are long and very irregular. One day you will be trucking through the day, the next the night. You may deliver at 3:00AM or 10:00 PM. There is no such thing as a set schedule when you are a cross-country truck driver.

A lot of people think that we put freight in the trailer and go, we have a nice trip across country and deliver our goods. Well, the reality is that all pickups and deliveries are by appointments that we as drivers don’t set. There have been times where I have gone from LA to North Carolina in 42 hours. That leaves no time for sleep, and before you ask – NO I do not take drugs to stay awake!!! I drink a lot of coffee, smoke too much and take 15-minute power naps to keep going! Not all trips are like that, but if you are not getting as many miles in as you can, and you are not keeping your dispatcher happy, you are not going to make a living. If you sit down and figure out what you make with the hours involved, you make less then minimum wage! That is not to say that I don’t make good money, I do. But time worked that is not paid, plus the time spent away from home brings your average way down.

This is not a vacation; I have seen all 48 states of the continental USA, every province of Canada, The Northern Territories, Alaska, and the Border of Mexico, all through the windshield of a truck. I have seen a lot. However, I very rarely get to go sightseeing. Try pulling an 18 wheeler into a national park, and see what you are told, or try taking a truck into downtown and find a show to park at, in most cases it ain’t going to happen. Unless you have friends that are willing to come pick you up, most of your time off is spent in your truck at a truck stop, or terminal. Even personal time out on the road is limited. You would think that we could drop our trailer and take the truck only to get around. Well, in today’s trucking you are now tracked by satellite, every move you make is recorded, and your dispatcher can tell where you are at right down to the block number. This is not as much of a problem if you own your own truck, however as an owner-operator you have to report every mile the truck runs to the government for road tax reasons, so you really don’t want to go running around to much!

Most of America thinks that their products come from the storeroom in the back of the store; they don’t think any farther then that. If you can think of one thing that is not delivered by a truck driver please let me know, but I doubt that you can. At some point a piece of everything ends up on a truck, and people like me are there to get it where it needs to go. Birthdays and holidays are nothing when you drive a truck. In 1997 I spent Christmas day driving through Utah and Colorado, and Christmas dinner was at a truck stop. The morning after Christmas I delivered my load, the receiver asked where I lived; I told him, he said “Gee, too bad you were not home for Christmas, but we really needed this product for an after Christmas sale.” So there you go, they need it, your life is put on hold. I did get home on New Years, and that was when I got to celebrate my Christmas. This is not something that is uncommon, its more common then anything.

Being out on the highway is normally the best part about this job. Once the freight is on the trailer, and you have made your way out of the city into open country, you can relax and enjoy what you do. Then there are times when you have to fight just to keep rolling. Last November I got caught up in a Midwest winter storm. I only had 10,000 lbs. in the trailer (I can haul 47,000 lbs.) After spending a good part of the night fighting snow and ice, trying my best to keep the trailer behind me, I decided to call it a night. After about 4 hours of sleep I got back up and pointed west. The winds had picked up. Blowing out of the north at about 70mph. I played Hell trying to keep the truck on the road. About 40 miles from Cedar Rapids, Iowa the wind gusts where close to 100mph, with a 70mph steady. There where 4 of us running together for some moral support if nothing else. As we all came around a sweeping corner to the right, a gust hit us all hard. The truck in front of me was blown over, the two trucks behind me where blown over, I went up on 9 wheels and came back down on all 18 just in time to swerve and miss the truck that was in front of me. I pulled over and made sure everybody was OK, and called the cops, then made my way to the next truck stop. I called my dispatcher and told him what had happened and that I was shutting down. I sat for 13 hours until the wind died enough to go again. The customer had begged me to try and make it on time, or their assembly line would come to a stop. It is hard to make up 13 hours of driving time, and all I will admit to is that I made my appointment time with 5 minutes to spare! This is one of many stories that can be told about fighting and beating the elements. The other trucks that I was running with were not so lucky! There have also been times when I wasn’t so lucky myself, one night a drunk driver caused me to roll my truck. I was lucky in the sense that I am here to tell you about it, and I should not have been!

You would think that shippers and receivers would be glad to see you. Not true! In most cases you are treated like shit! If you happen to be at a grocery warehouse you will end up unloading your own load, taking it off of the pallets that it was shipped on, and putting it on theirs according to the way they want it stacked. Then you will pallet jack it down an aisle where they will count and put it away. Ask for a bathroom, you are not allowed to use it, ask for a phone, again you are not allowed to use it. The only thing you are allowed to do there is work for them. If you are 5 minutes late for an appointment, you are told to come back the next day. If you are on time, you will end up waiting for a couple of hours just to get a door to back into. If you are more than 30 minutes early, you are not allowed on the property. You are nothing more than cheap labor! Again this is more common than not, and the whole time you are there you have to keep a smile on your face and put up with it.

You are also a target for a lot of states. You are a great revenue source. If you get a ticket you are not likely to come back and fight it, so you are most likely to get a bogus ticket. Tickets for truck drivers are 3 times as much as for other drivers. The average speeding ticket starts around 0.00 and they go up from there. If you happen to be in California, they start at around 00.00. Truck scales in some states can be the same way. That is not to say that there are not nice cops out there. I have gotten out of more tickets then I would care to admit.

Should you still decide that you want to drive a truck, truck-driving schools are about the only way to learn. There was a time when the only way you could learn was from another driver, and to be honest with you, I wish it where still that way. However, trucking companies will not hire inexperienced drivers unless they have some kind of school behind them. I don’t recommend schools, I have never had to deal with them, only their product, and in most cases I do not get close enough to find out where they went to school. So let me instead give you some suggestions. You can not learn what you need to know in a week, two weeks, or even three weeks. The longer you are in school, the better. Look for a school that gives you as much driving time as they do book time. The book knowledge is great to know, but a book does not drive a truck, and in most cases the writer of the book never has either. Once you have completed school, and get hired on with a company you will end up with a trainer for a month or so. After that you are on your own. At that point I recommend that you open up your eyes and shut your mouth. When you don’t know something, admit it; then ask. If you think it is a stupid question, ask anyhow. If the driver you asked thinks it a stupid question, ask another driver. If you cant back up a trailer very good, have somebody spot you. I was watching a driver who was new try to back into a very tight dock at a Safeway Warehouse in Portland. After almost an hour at it, he still was not backed into the dock. I asked him if he would like me to put it in there for him. His Answer “I have to learn sometime, might as well be now.” Great Answer; I spotted him to make sure he wouldn’t hit anything, and he eventually got it in the dock. In the winter never drive above your comfort zone. If other drivers are passing you, let them pass. They either know what they are doing, or will end up in a ditch. If the drivers on the CB are telling you to go faster, and the only reason they give you is that they need to go, shut off the CB. When you are in a truck stop, there is always some story being told. As I said, shut up and listen. Don’t tell your own, you will look like a fool. I have been at this game for 22 years. The stories stay the same, only the people telling them change. There are some good lessons in those stories, but there is a lot of crap as well. You need a good ear to sort it out. I can’t know it all. I learn something new all the time; I’m just not as stupid as I once was.

You can play the part of a truck driver really easy – get a chain drive wallet, some cowboy boots, western shirts, and a big buckle that says Peterbilt or something like that, and a cowboy hat or ball cap. But to be a truck driver is a lot different then what you see in the movies. It is hard work that takes a lot of commitment, with very little respect.

Why do I drive a truck? It was a dream. Why do I stay with it? I love what I do! Do I recommend it? Hmmm, I would have to talk to you to find out what makes you tick. It takes a special breed of person to be out here. Part Nomad, part Gypsy, and mostly Loner. You have way too much time to think, so you need to be comfortable with your thoughts. You have very little time to do, so again you need to be comfortable with your thoughts. What I do out on the road is not a game, nor is it a big adventure. What I do is my life, my highway, and most of all, my Dream! I drive for no other reason then that!

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