Living, Loving & Learning!

So I’m supposed to fly out to Chicago tomorrow for the Empower Network event, and to celebrate my birthday in Wrigley Field with a bunch of friends.

Being the slacker that I am, I still hadn’t booked a room for my first two nights in town. So I headed to Expedia to try and reserve a room somewhere in the Wrigleyville area. Crap! Looks like there’s not too many options and even a crack shack like the Days Inn is $129 a night. Whatever, I tried to book it anyways. Sold out! Double crap

My next move was to log on to AirBnB.com to see if I could find a room. I’ve never used the service but found out about it from a girl I had been dating recently and she’d been using it to rent out a room in her house. She said it was pretty rad, and so far I have to agree with her.

Their website says this about themselves… “Founded in August of 2008 and based in San Francisco, California, Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world — online or from a mobile phone. Whether an apartment for a night, a castle for a week, or a villa for a month, Airbnb connects people to unique travel experiences, at any price point, in more than 33,000 cities and 192 countries. And with world-class customer service and a growing community of users, Airbnb is the easiest way for people to monetize their extra space and showcase it to an audience of millions.”

To be honest, I didn’t even look at all the options when I logged on. I took one look at the first apartment near Wrigley and clicked the reserve button. And get this… It was only $72 or something, which is half of what a dive motel would of been after taxes.

After a few quick setup steps like uploading my drivers license and connecting my Facebook profile, I was a member and had submitted my payment and request to rent the place for the two days. Within 20 minutes I got an approval for the owner and it’s done! I’ll update how the trip went and how the experience was once I get back.

Cheers,

Jason

PS: I asked my Facebook friends what they thought about AirBNB and they ALL overwhelmingly agree it’s incredible. You can read that post here – - -> https://www.facebook.com/jasonemoffatt/posts/143383219176227

Whether you’re backpacking around the country, or trying to save a few bucks while in town for a seminar, AirBnB appears to be an absolute gem.

PPS: If you’ve tried out AirBnB before, I’d love to hear your experience. Let us know in the comments below. Thanks!

Continue Reading

Thursdays Travels – Finding Paradise In A Costco Parking Lot

Paradise isn’t about where you are at or who you are with. It’s about recognizing the beauty right in front of you, even if it’s in a Costco parking lot in the middle of Lake Elsinore.

Continue Reading

The other day a friend on Facebook asked me about the differences between living in California and Oregon. My response was basically that the states are so large and so diverse that it’s tough to do an accurate assessment of state vs state but city vs city would probably be a bit more appropriate.

Within the thread a friend and colleague of mine Kristin Thompson mentioned a very cool site called “Find Your Spot“.

The site simply asks you a few questions about your ideal living environment and then goes to work with it’s custom algorithm to determine the places that you’d most likely be happy living.

Here’s how it all works (in their own words)…

“FindYourSpot is the best way to discover your perfect hometown… just tell us your ideal and we’ll find the best candidates for you. We don’t have the bias of your Aunt LuLu, we don’t have mounds of useless data for you to sort through, and we don’t have the gall of “best places” lists that tell you what your priorities are. What we do have is the most accurate automated recommendation system and the most pertinent information on the places we recommend. It’s simple, it’s fun, and it works.”

So, I went through the process which took about 5 minutes and here are the top 5 results it spewed out for me.

1. San Luis Obispo – CA (Nice place. I could live here)

2. Ojai – CA (Captured natural spring water here once)

3. Truth or Consequences – NM (Sounds scary)

4. Kahului-Wailuki Maui – HI (Love Maui so much, but this is the worst part of Maui)

5. Mountain Home/Bull Shoals, Arkansas (No idea what to think about this. Maybe I could get a dulcimer and strum on the porch)

To find out where they say your favorite living spot would be visit Find Your Spot at www.findyourspot.com

Cheers,

Jason

PS: So… Where did it say you should live? Let me know in the comments below

.

.

.

Continue Reading

After spending a few days in the Sun Valley portion of Idaho it was time to head west into my home state of Oregon. Oregon’s current state slogan is “We love dreamers”. Maybe Oregon should see the movie Inception?

The landscape of Oregon is very diverse and offers an abundance of outdoor activities. The east part of the state is mostly desert and the west part of the state is covered in dense forest through the Cascade Mountain Range. It’s truly a beautiful place.

Our first stop was in John Day to grab a bite to eat at some run down bar. The old ladies working as waitresses were tired and not exactly happy to see more customers walking through the door. They put on their best smiles and served us well though. After dinner and a Widmer Hefeweizen we parked the RV on the side of the road next to the John Day River. Then we plugged the last DVD of “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” into the laptop and laughed our asses off.

When morning came it was time to see the Painted Hills portion of the John Day Fossil Beds. Before we went into the national monument we decided to grab a bite to eat. As we rolled through Mitchell Oregon we stopped at the Bridge Creek Cafe. The town of Mitchell was a bit scary at first. It was as if

we went back in time 70 years and landed in a mining town with crusty old dudes who never used a razor. I got nothing against beards and being dirty but I was waiting for the banjo music to start playing at any minute.

While eating at the Bridge Creek Cafe we met some bicyclists who were on a crazy mission to the east coast on their bikes. Apparently we were on a popular route for cyclists who like to do the cross country tour via the Lewis & Clark trail. We deemed these two were nuts. Breakfast was good. The banter with the bike guys was even better.

A short time later we had arrived at the Painted Hills portion of The John Day Fossil Beds. The National Park Service has this to say about the Painted Hills… “The Painted Hills Unit contains 3,132 acres of scenic marvels

unique even in the Pacific Northwest. Located 9 miles northwest of Mitchell, and 75 miles east of Bend, the Painted Hills are visited year-round. Outdoor exhibits and a picnic area are also available for visitors here.Most years, the peak of wildflower season in late April to early May is spectacular.

The green of sagebrush offers a pleasant contrast to the reds and golds of the hills.

The yellows, golds, blacks, and reds of the Painted Hills are best seen in the late afternoon. Tones and hue may appear to change from one visit to another, as the claystones differ with ever-changing light and moisture levels. The shapes and colors of the hills are sublime.

From the pictures above you can’t really tell just how beautiful this place is. You can see the entire album of pictures in Oregon on my Facebook page by clicking here.

I totally recommend visiting here if you have a chance.

Since we were in the area I thought Lana and I should visit the old Rajneeshpuram outside of Antelope. Rajneeshpuram was the name of the city where Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (now referred to as Osho)

built a ashram and community of over 5000 followers. Most of the Sannyasin’s dressed in red or orange attire and wore a Mala with Bhagwan’s photo around their neck. There is a lot of controversy about this place and depending who you talk to you’ll likely get a very different story.

The woman whom I got this and many other pictures from assured me it was a magical place full of love and adventure. I’m actually super blessed to have dozens of pictures from back in the day when the ranch was active and vibrant with loving people.

Anyhow, almost all existence of Rajneeshpuram is non visible. The buildings have either been tore down, or are no longer in use. The ranch was bought buy a christian church group and they run summer camps for kids.

A church official stopped us and tried to offer us a tour of the place. Of course she was trying to convert us, but I told her we were only interested in seeing the parts that were associated with the previously existing ashram. She mentioned that lot’s of old Sannyasin’s would come there to remember the good times.

The airport landing strip where Bhagwan used to fly in private jets was still intact as well. I snapped this pic of Lana flying like an eagle while running down the runway. It was good times

despite the fact it took over an hour driving on bumpy and dirty roads to get here in the blistering desert heat.

To get to Rajneeshpuram you have to trek down Big Muddy Road. On this particular day there was no sign of precipitation so there was no mud.

However, there was more dirt than you’d ever want to imagine. Here’s a picture of the back of the RV where the bikes are covered in dust & dirt.

Continue Reading

So I finally got back to San Diego. I’ll finish recapping the rest of the trip later this week but for now I’m just excited to be home. Yesterday we drove all the way from El Paso Texas to La Jolla. I’d be cool with not getting into another car for a few months after all that driving.

So today we had to unpack our stuff and take the RV back to storage. However, there was one big problem. The amount of room I had to park this 38 foot rig was inches on each side. If you thought parallel parking was a bitch, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Amazingly, I backed this baby in with no real troubles. Unreal.

Continue Reading

Before departing Ely Nevada in the morning, we stopped by a local grocery store to stock up on supplies, munchies, beer and duct tape. You never know when you may need some duct tape. A quick fill up of diesel and we were on our way to Sun Valley.

Before getting into Idaho we still had a good stretch of Nevada to get through. At least the northern part of Nevada is a bit prettier than the parts with barren deserts. You can see snow capped mountains and much more greenery along the roads.

However, it appeared that some people had a hard time staying on those roads. Thankfully we were in a desolate area and this diesel tipping over on it’s side didn’t

create a traffic jam. Poor driver. That must of sucked. Driving big rigs is no joke. In fact, I’m baffled that the DMV lets anyone jump into a Class A RV without any type of training. It’s absurd.

Driving a 38 foot diesel pusher should require some type of advanced training and licensing, similar to a motorcycle endorsement. Safety is something I don’t take lightly. Apparently DMV does.

I stuck a Red Hot Chili Peppers CD into the player and kept on trucking north. We were almost to Idaho. I hadn’t been back to Idaho since I was 21 years old and lived in the Nampa/Caldwell area. I was excited to see the place again.

Shortly after crossing the border we entered the Twin Falls area. The first stop was a huge canyon that the famous Evil Kneivel attempted to jump over. After seeing this gaping canyon it’s official that Evil is a certified lunatic. You can see a clip of his attempt to jump the Snake River here.

After snapping a few photos of the canyon, we were back on the road and an hour away from our destination. We were kind of in a hurry because game 7 of the NBA finals between the Lakers and the Celtics was about to start. I was a bit uneasy about the possibility of seeing the game because I had a eerie feeling I left my long cable wire back in San Diego. No cable wire means no NBA finals.

An hour later we arrived at the RV Park in Hailey Idaho. It’s a beautiful spot situated at the back side of Bald Mountain. From our camp spot I could see ski lifts and a few patches of snow. Ahhhhhh how I miss snowboarding.

But that’s not important right now. What’s important is that cable wire so we could watch the basketball game. Arg. No luck. I had left it back in San Diego. By some sort of divine miracle, the camp hostess had a 50 foot cable wire all wrapped up in her office and she offered to let me borrow it before I even asked. Geez, I should of asked her for a psychic reading as well. Smart lady. A few hours later, Lana and I were cursing at the TV when the stupid Lakers won another championship (which I knew was going to happen all along).

Hanging in Sun Valley was pretty special because it was where Lana spent much of her childhood. She hadn’t been back since she moved around the age of 15 or so. Watching her face as she recalled all the buildings, shops and sites was quite amusing. We were happy to be here, especially since the weather was stellar. Not too hot, not too cold. It was just perfect.

Lana was able to meet up with some childhood friends she hadn’t seen in ages. That was fun. We ate at restaurants all over Ketchum, Hailey, and at the Sun Valley lodge. However, I think my favorite part was walking along the Big Wood River. What a name for a river. In fact, I have BIG WOOD as I type this. Hey, it’s the morning time. TMI?

Ever since I heard the name Big Wood I knew I had to shoot some type of inappropriate photo. This is what I came up with. And get this… while I was getting

this picture taken, one of my Facebook friends Brian Williams actually saw me laying on the ground acting a fool. I got a message on Facebook from Brian saying he was actually driving down the highway at the exact same time I was having this picture taken, but didn’t know it was me until he saw the picture on my Facebook profile. Wow! What a small world.

I was able to find some Bolete mushrooms along the Big Wood River and the hiking was amazing.

Oh yeah, the bookstore in Ketchum was awesome as well. The woman working there had on a Osho mala around her neck and we chatted about our next destination being the Rajneeshpuram outside of Antelope Oregon. She was a really nice lady.

In fact, everyone in the Sun Valley area was exceptionally nice. Maybe that’s why so many celebrities and high profile people choose to have vacation homes or live in this area. It truly is a paradise.

You can see a bunch more photos from Idaho in this folder on my Facebook fan page. Just click here for the photos.

Continue Reading

The decision to leave Las Vegas in high winds was a sketchy one. Wind gusts of 30 to 40 miles per hour can really throw the RV for a quick ride into the next lane if you’re not extremely careful. Even being careful, the wind can still chuck you. The best bet when it’s windy like this is to just drive slow. Well, that won’t be a problem starting out because it’s bumper to bumper traffic on the 15 northbound out of Vegas. The radio was reporting a couple wrecks ahead. Bummer.

After a half an hour we were clear of traffic and on our way north along highway 93, The Great Basin Highway. Thankfully, this highway is situated in the middle of mountainous ranges on each side that helped block the fierce and penetrating wind. That was good. Unfortunately, the highway is pretty damn boring. Thank the lord I got that CD player fixed. Lana popped in a country mix with The Randy Rogers Band, Zach Brown Band, Gary Allen and more. In my head I was thinking… “this is gonna be a great trip”.

The weather was still blistering hot while leaving Vegas. Every 50 miles north we drove it seemed to cool down a bit. I was really looking forward to arriving at

Pahrangat Lake to take a quick swim and cool off. No such luck. The lake was pretty much brown in color and didn’t look too appealing.

Apparently we were on the Pahrangat Wildlife Refuge but didn’t really see much wildlife except a few birds, ducks, lizards and bugs. Declining the dip in the water we decided to continue north for cooler weather.

The further north we drove the more boring it got. The road signs did make it interesting though. We were in Alien Country. Yippee! Most of my teenage life I was pretty fascinated with Area 51, aliens and government conspiracy issues. You can thank late night talk radio host Art Bell and his Coast to Coast AM show for that.

We never actually got withing eye sight of Area 51 but the signs sure were

entertaining. I’m not even sure the public can get close enough to see any visual evidence of Area 51. Even if you could, I wouldn’t recommend this place for a family vacation unless you’re a bunch of crazy nut jobs. You can travel here via Google Earth and see for yourself and save some gasoline.

So we kept driving, and driving and driving. As we started making some serious progress north we finally witnessed some greenery coming into view. We barely traveled through the edge of the Humboldt National Forest and then ended up in Ely Nevada. It was getting dark and I was tired of driving. Time to hunker down for the night.

Wikipedia has this to say about Ely… “Ely was founded as a stage coach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. Ely’s mining boom came later than the other towns along US 50, with the discovery of copper in 1906. Though the railroads connecting the First Transcontinental Railroad to the mines in Austin and Eureka have long been removed, the railroad to Ely is preserved as a heritage railway by the Nevada Northern Railway and known as the Ghost Train of Old Ely.[1] [2] As of the 2000 census, the population was 4,041.”

I got us a room at the Jailhouse Motel and Casino. It was a run down old place but the whole town kind of seemed like that. We could of just slept in the RV but after that long drive I just wanted to get out of the rig, get a beer in my belly and watch some boob tube on a motel bed. And by boob tube I don’t mean porn. I watch my porn on my computer, thank you very much.

We grabbed a quick bite at the Hotel Nevada across the street and snapped a bunch

of random silly pictures inside the joint. You know, stuff like me slam dunking a neon basketball sign, getting freaky with a Bison head, making a midget statue grab my nuts. Yep, super mature photos. If you’d like to see those photos, make sure you “LIKE” my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/jasonmoffatt and they’ll be uploaded soon.

The food tasted like a hospital cafeteria but we were starving and didn’t complain. At least it’s hard to mess up a Corona and ice cream. That was still pretty solid.

After dinner, we returned to the room and fell asleep watching reruns of Tosh.0 and Facebooking away.

So I’m curious. Have you ever seen a alien or a UFO? Tell me your story. I’ll tell you mine in the comments tomorrow.

Continue Reading

The RV had been parked for way too long. It was time to create some more adventures before the summer passed me by. But this time I wanted to do something different. Something more fun. Something without so many dudes.

Aha, I got it. I’ll take my new girlfriend on a road trip and then we’ll find out really quick whether or not we can tolerate each other. It’s my idea of “Accelerated Dating”. Shove two people into a RV for an entire month and see if they can still stand each other when it’s all said and done. Sounds like a mighty fine idea.

The RV had been parked over at Campland By The Bay for months. I pay about $200 each month just to have a parking spot for it. Unfortunately there is no power in this parking lot and I had apparently left some light or electronic device on that had totally depleted the battery.

So I rallied the RV for a hour long ride up to Carlsbad with Lana and my buddy Shurtz to surf the South Ponto jetty. I was hoping to get some good waves and to successfully

charge up the house battery. It was Lana’s first time in the RV. She was in San Diego visiting for a week and getting to know me and my crazy life. We were having some pretty fun times, but did not get the battery to charge up. Argggg! Note to self, quit leaving lights on.

Lana flew back to Austin and we had to wait what seemed like an eternity to start our new road trip. 2 weeks seems like 2 years when you first meet someone you really like and want to spend time with them. However, I still needed to make a few repairs to the RV and get things dialed before the trip so the alone time was probably a good thing.

First thing that needed repair was the fridge. For some reason Norcold had issued a recall on the model fridge in my rig. I had gotten word about the potential for the fridge to blow up and burn down my RV if I continued to use it. That sucked. I had to quit using the fridge since I was back on the gulf in Florida which meant no frozen berries in the fridge, and no smoothies. No cold beers either. Lame.

I scheduled a appointment to get the fridge fixed at La Mesa RV and then would be on the road. While dropping off the rig, I decided to have a new CD player installed as well. The existing one really sucked and only played about 10% of the CD’s in my collection. I couldn’t imagine taking another trip listening to only FM Stereo.

With the fridge fixed and new stereo in the dash I left San Diego to meet up with Lana in Las Vegas. It was good to be back on the road again. Good until I tried to turn on the air conditioning once I entered the desert. For some damn reason the fan to the AC and the heat no longer worked. I know it worked when I brought it into La Mesa RV, but now it was hosed.

What timing. AC goes out right when I have to drive through the middle of the desert. I was pretty pissed and agitated. I was hanging onto hope that it was just a disconnected wire that got loose while the new CD player was being installed. Once I was parked and was able to take a look, I found the disconnected wire and made the repair myself.

One thing you’ll notice from reading my adventures or trying to RV yourself is that something goes wrong about every 3 days. It’s inevitable that something will get messed up. The trick is to keep a level head and just get it fixed asap. Thankfully I was able to fix the issue with the fan without any assistance or spending any more money. It was a super hassle though, especially driving through Barstow with no AC. Thanks La Mesa RV.

Once I arrived in Las Vegas I checked in at the Circus Circus KOA campground. It’s basically just a big ole parking lot across the street from Circus Circus but it’s the only RV park that exists along the strip. I believe there is some other park over by the Mandalay Bay, but it’s quite a bit south and not directly on the strip.

The KOA campground charges about $60 a night just to plug in your RV and stay in their concrete paradise. I’m the furthest thing from a cheapskate, but damn that is a lot of coin just to park a rig for a few days. I’d be better off just getting a place at the Bellagio and parking the beast out back. However, I really needed to plug into 50 amp power so I could charge the batteries back up.

So I pulled into town just in time to see the second half of game 6 of the NBA finals. Lana took a cab from the Wet Republic pool and met me on the north end of town. We caught the last half of the game, drank some Coronas and talked shit with some Mexican dudes about how we hated Kobe and stuff. While watching the game, Ted Lily for the Chicago Cubs was in the 9th inning with a perfect game. Then he got rocked and I drank another Corona. Poor Cubs. Poor me for being a Cubs fan.

Anyhow, I digress. Lana and I stayed in Vegas for a couple days to destroy some buffets and screw around in Vegas. And by screw around I mean swim with topless girls in the Bare pool at the Mirage. There’s nothing like $17 drinks and naked titties

all up in your face while the DJ mixes some old school Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul in the sun. Ah… Vegas. The picture you see here is a PG-13 version of the day.

Not everyone goes topless at Bare, but I definitely was. Here’s an interesting tidbit… John and I were the only 2 dudes with hair on our chest at the pool party. What’s up with that? Where have all the Bigfoots and hairy backed brothers gone? For the record, I’m keeping my 70′s chest.

So before we left, we destroyed the MGM breakfast and dinner buffet. Then the next day we devoured the M Resort’s buffet too. I think the M Resort’s buffet may be the best one in Vegas. It’s just unfortunate that it’s located in the middle of nowhere and has about a 30 minute wait just to get through the door.

After stuffing our faces full at the M-Resort we were ready to hit the road and start our long awaited journey. We only faced one problem… 35 mile per hour wind gusts. Wind + RV = NO BUENO!

So I figured we could just stay at the M Resort for one night and hit the road in the morning when the wind was supposed to die down. We attempted to get a room but the front desk alerted me that there was a convention at the hotel and all rooms were over $200. The M Resort is super nice, but not $200 nice. If it were located anywhere remotely close to the heart of Vegas I would of said fine, but I simply refused to pay $200 to stay in the middle of nowhere. $100 would of been fine, but out of principal alone I couldn’t fork over the money. Plus, I was still bitter about the scar on my leg from the last time I stayed at the M Resort. The stupid bed frames were perfectly positioned to damage the hell out of your shins. The desk clerk assured me they fixed those after a ton of complaints and bloody customers.

O well, screw it. Off into the wind we travel. Sun Valley here we come…

Continue Reading

I was just fumbling around in my iPhoto and found this clip of Randy and I riding the New York New York roller coaster in Las Vegas Nevada.

So, I figured I’d slap the thing up on YouTube and publish away. Get this… similar videos like this on You Tube have over a million views and they are not much different than this simple video. I wonder what makes them get so many views?

Crazy!

Well, enjoy riding the coaster vicariously through my Kodak zI8 cam

Peace

J-Mo

Continue Reading

I don’t recommend ordering the #2.

Continue Reading