Author: Sam

Categories
Daily Life

Malware and Pandemonium

Last week we had a malware attack on the blog, right during an out-of-signal stint at Mt. Rainier. The resulting pandemonium has wrenched the schedule a bit and induced more stress than we care to admit.The good news is that we have the malware removed. The bad news is that doing so left huge parts of the blog broken. Our content is still here but stuff like the newsletter and other plugins need some work before they will be back online. Blogging will be a little light while we get the rest of this sorted, but we’ll keep it flowing. Instagram remains the best place to remain current with our travels. Follow @currentlywandering for the best images of our travels, and @jesscurren and @telegramsam for daily happenings.

In the meantime, enjoy a beautiful example of balanced rocks. We discovered this on our bike ride around the seawall in Stanley Island, Vancouver BC yesterday, and I was impressed. I’ve seen lots of rock stacks, but most take advantage of naturally flat sides. This stack was constructed of purposefully chosen round-ish rocks, highlighting the perfect balance found by the artist. To capture this image I had to scramble off the seawall path wearing my mountain cycling shoes. The shoes work well, as long as I carefully avoid the cleat when stepping on rocks. I need to watch someone do this someday.

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Categories
Faith

Come Listen to a Prophet’s Voice

General Conference

If you’ve been following us for awhile, you’ve probably worked out that we are Mormons, or more properly, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If you haven’t worked that out yet, Hello! When we talk with others about religion, questions often arise about the difference between what we believe and what mainstream Christianity believes. Before I start, you can be assured that we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, and rely upon his mercy and grace. Though there are significant differences between what we believe and mainstream Christianity, EVERY difference can be attributed back to one basic difference: We believe that God has called prophets on the earth today, in the same way that he called Moses and Noah (and others) in the past.

We believe that God has a prophet on the earth today, teaching us with the same power, authority, and urgency as Moses. What would a prophet of God tell us today, to guide us in our lives? Twice a year, our church holds a worldwide conference, where we all tune in to listen to our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and other leaders speak to us. Oct 4-5, 2014 is our next conference.

Because the Internet is awesome, you can watch the entire conference online live (go here), or video archives later. The entire conference consists of 6 sessions: Two on Saturday, two on Sunday, a special session held for Women and Girls, and a special session held for Men and Boys. (The session for Women and Girls actually happened yesterday, and is already viewable online!)

If you pick one session to watch, choose 10AM Mountain Time, Sunday Morning, October 4th 2014 . The music during that session is always The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and our Prophet will speak then as well. This meeting is the largest meeting we hold as a church, and a great way to sneak a peek into what we believe and the instruction we are given.

It is interesting to note that not all instruction given by a Prophet of God is dramatic. The instruction we need is rarely something like Leave Egypt! or I’m going to build a boat! but instead reminders of instruction already given, and small but important ways for us to follow the Gospel of Christ. In the most recent instruction from our Prophet, he cautioned us to be careful with our finances and debts. What will he tell us this general conference? Tune in and find out!

Also know that we are more than willing to talk about religion and what we believe. If you have questions something you hear in the conference, or about anything really, reach out to us and we’d be happy to talk either publicly or privately. We will answer ANY question, as long as it is sincere. We love discussions, but find arguments to be unpleasant and non-productive.

We are excited for this opportunity t0 listen to our leaders! Although we are unsure of exactly where exactly we will be, we will definitely be making it a priority to listen!

Categories
Airstream Accessories

Airstream Gear: Getting Cranky

Our Airstream has 4 stabilizers that we used when parked to keep it from moving around. Many folks use a power drill and bit to run these up and down, but I prefer to assign that job to my kids, who don’t have enough chores anyway.

This leads us to the crank: stored in our bumper compartment, the crank is what we use each time we move. When we bought the Airstream, the previous owner included a swivel-head crank. Within a few months, the pin connecting the socket to the crank handle broke, and I replaced it.

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As full time travelers, we use our travel gear much more often than normal weekend folks. Tools used a few times a year by a normal traveler get used 50 to 100 times by a full-time traveler. Within a few months, the pin broke on the new crank, and I started getting cranky.

Finding a replacement pin turned out to be an exercise in frustration, as the pin was a custom part that was completely un-findable. I rigged a temporary pin by bending an extra allen wrench into place and holding it in place with some tape.

I ended up replacing the pin with a screw and nut I bought at the hardware store. I bought a 10 pack of each, and simply replaced the pin every 4 to 6 weeks when it broke. That was 10 months ago, and I just used my last screw and bolt.

I’m tired of the constant repair. The crank is otherwise in good shape, but if the stupid pin won’t hold up, it isn’t much use to me. I’ve decided to replace my crank with a non-swivel model, in the hope that fewer moving parts will also require less repair and replacement. The new crank provides less leverage then the old one, but I’ll be happy to deal with that if it remains in working condition longer than a few weeks.

Early reports from the kids (the primary crankers in this operation) indicate probable success. We’ll see how they do long term!

Categories
Tips & Tricks

The Family Adventure Podcast

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Some of our fellow travelers have been busy, and have put together the Family Adventure Podcast. They interview families that have spent significant time traveling with their kids. Many of their travelers have been boat families, sailing around the world for extended periods. They also include RV families, and aim to include all sorts of adventuring.

Listening to these podcast episodes has helped me to realize a few things. First, our adventures are not THAT crazy when held up to a circumnavigation by sailboat over a few years. Slowly traveling by Airstream seems tame by comparison.

Second, I’ve realized that the issues, struggles, and rewards are very similar despite very different methods of travel. Relationships, problem solving, exploring together, and valuable experiences seem to be universal. Similarly, finances seem to always be a topic as families discuss the sacrifices they made and how possible it is to do something amazing without being rich.

I’ve started at the first episode and I’m working my way forward, and I’m loving it! If you are curious about family travel, have questions, or just want to hear the crazy stories, check it out!

Categories
Airstream Accessories

Wake-up Time

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We’ve always kept a clock in the kids bedroom. When Rachel was little, we bought a digital clock and covered the minutes with a piece of black construction paper and some tape. We taught her what a ‘7’ looked like on the clock, and it became a rule that she couldn’t get out of bed till 7. We have maintained this rule, and we love it.

Moving into the Airstream presented a little bit of a challenge. We bought a similar small alarm clock, but it was AC powered. When we spent time boondocking, we rarely have the generator running, as nearly everything in the Airstream runs directly off DC power. For the first 8 months of travel, the kids had no clock, and everybody missed it.

I’m happy to declare that we found the PERFECT clock. It is battery powered and backlit, and always works, no matter where we are. The clock has a low-power backlight and uses sensors to turn off the backlight during the day. We don’t know exactly how long the batteries (2 AA) will last, but it has been a few weeks already with no trouble. We carry plenty of rechargeable batteries and a charger, so swapping the batteries is easy.

The kids no longer wander in at early hours to bug us. They usually just find a book and read till we all get up. Everybody is happy again!