A Rally Car Race in the Colorado Mountains

RANGELY, COLORADO – The land is so dry here… and the cars stir up so much dust… the whole mountain looked like it was on fire…

Greetings from Rangely Camper Park…

My family and I are a modern nomad family. We have no house or home. We just drift from town to town, country to country, sleeping wherever, homeschooling our kids wherever, and living out of a suitcase.

We’ve traveled all around the world this way, but with COVID lockdowns and quarantines everywhere now, we’re taking the opportunity to explore “backroad” America.

We drive by day and camp by night… either in designated campgrounds or on the properties of the kind strangers we meet along the way. “Backroad” America, it seems, is still largely free of lockdowns and quarantines…

The options for camping in “backroad” America are almost limitless.

There are national parks, state parks, city parks, private campgrounds, RV resorts, Walmart parking lots, Cracker Barrel parking lots, and town fairgrounds. You can also camp on public lands, especially out West. (This is what’s known as “primitive camping” without water, electricity, or toilets.)

Personally, we like city parks the most.

They’re safe, cheap, and laid back. They have water, hot showers, and electricity, and often they have playgrounds and picnic pavilions, too. Plus they’re usually only a few hundred yards from Main Street, so we can get food, ice, and gas easily.

Today, we’re in a small town called Rangely. It’s in the far northwestern corner of Colorado, near the Utah and Wyoming state lines.

Rangely is a hub for off-road motorsports like motocross and 4×4 tours.

This weekend there was a national rally car event here. They weren’t allowing spectators due to COVID, but we were still able to find a spot to watch…

We’ve set up camp in the town park for $20 a night. There’s water, shade, electricity, and hot showers. If we want cell phone service, we can drive to the top of the hill at one end of town.

Tomorrow, we pack up and drive north. When I write to you tomorrow, we’ll be in Wyoming…

– Tom Dyson

P.S. We watch movies in the evenings in our camper. Recently, we’ve been watching vintage movies… like Swiss Family Robinson, Around the World in 80 Days, and Huckleberry Finn. The kids love them. Our favorite vintage movie so far has been The Princess Bride.

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Readers are happy with Tom’s gold recommendations…

Reader comment: I love hearing about your travels with your family. Such a wonderful adventure for all of you. I’m a subscriber to Tom’s Portfolio. In your upcoming quarterly update to members, it would be really helpful if you could clarify whether all of the positions in the portfolio are still actionable. And if so, whether a particular buy up to price is recommended. I’m really pleased with the overall performance so far. Thank you!

Reader comment: Tom and family. Your writings are great, and your style is perfect. Look forward to each day’s adventure as if I’m there with you. Too old to consider it now, but sure enjoy life on the road with you and the family.

Thanks to your early info, I moved money into a gold IRA where it can sit ’til that magic moment in time. Enjoy the trip. It will provide those kids memories for a lifetime. May the good Lord watch over you.

Meanwhile, others chime in on the Dysons’ travels – including their recent experience with Canyonland, Utah’s “Martian” landscape and incredible star gazing…

Reader comment: Tom, don’t forget to tell the kids that Mars has a canyon (Mariner Valley) that is eight times as long as the Grand Canyon, and 2-3 miles deep. Mars also has a volcano that is three times the height of Mt. Everest.

Reader comment: If you like Canyonlands, you’re going to love Zion and Bryce. Higher elevations demand good hydration so be careful in Zion, which is about 11,000 feet at the top. If you can, try to find the road that starts just south of the entry to Zion and take it north to Cedar City. It’s a road through open range but passable so that Zion to Cedar City will probably take three to four hours. No gas or facilities along the way.

Truly, some of the most amazing and unique scenery in the West. From Cedar City, take a short drive up to Cedar Breaks National Monument, which is even higher than Bryce. It’s some incredible territory. Stay healthy and don’t believe the MDs who told you that COVID-19 is overhyped. If they were in a hot zone, treating the problems with patients dying by the hour, they’d have a different perspective. Enjoy your once-in-a-lifetime trip and the roads less traveled.

Reader comment: As an astronomer buff, I agree the stars are amazing. It would be great if you were there when the Leonid showers are active, where you could see scads of shooting stars an hour. Many city folks never get to see them in all their splendor. You will really relish your drive through Canada and the Yukon territories to Alaska. When you get there – hopefully, in the later fall – you will get to witness the most magnificent aurora borealis shows in the northern hemisphere. I envy you.

Reader comment: I love hearing about your travels across America. I found myself longing for it before your journey within it started. The pictures of the land and the people you meet give me nostalgia for a feeling I had a long time ago, but didn’t realize I had when I was living it.

My surroundings in the LA area are a dark and growing gnaw, both conscious and unconscious. When I read a number of people’s whines about your family not wearing masks, I realized the pictures of all your faces and the faces you’re meeting, surrounded by beautiful nature, had a deeper contextual meaning for me that was previously inarticulable.

Reader comment: Tom, I still enjoy your travel blog but wish you’d go back to kid/family videos! It’s more entertaining watching the whole clan in action. Congrats for not buying into the mask hoax. They are useless and dangerous to the kids’ health and dental hygiene. Let the sheeple cower behind their “protective” masks, while you folks breathe fresh air and enjoy the beauty all around you.

Reader comment: Your travels have been fun to watch, and we are learning, too, from watching you guys! There was a reader comment that struck me: “I agree, some Americans are open and friendly, but with record gun sales, a lot are not.” Maybe that is a statement that can be taken more than one way, but lots of open and friendly people are buying guns for self-protection. The “bad guys” already have their guns.

Keep up the good work! I hope the website work doesn’t take too much away from your time during the days of learning and exploring.

Reader comment: Greetings, Dyson family. I have greatly enjoyed living vicariously through you and seeing the country through your penmanship. It seems that your reader base is likely a very common thinking and behaving class of people. This makes it great for you as a traveler visiting homes. How interesting would it be to have a sort of community where one could take travels and have a common group of folks to visit and visit one’s homes and hearths. Something to think about.

I’m so excited for Penny and her newfound health. If you don’t mind me saying, I have noticed a difference in her pictures since the raisin-ectomy. It seems that it was giving her some minor facial nerve paralysis and that has since healed. I am so grateful for the doctor who found it. Carry on, good man!

Reader comment: Your recent Postcards remind me of the time our family drove, towing our pop-up tent trailer, from Houston, Texas, to Edmonton, Canada. We, our two children, and family dog traveled through Yellowstone and Glacier parks. On the Canadian side, Glacier changes names to Waterton Lakes National Park. Both are spectacular.

On the return trip, we had a harrowing experience. Just inside the U.S. border, we set up camp on a wide open plain. That night, a storm blew in with ferocious winds. We thought the trailer was about to blow over. I’ll never forget holding and bracing the center post till the wind subsided. It seemed like hours. That center post was never the same after that fateful night. Lesson learned about choosing a secure campsite!

Finally, others wonder about the rise in RV sales… give their take on the rise in residential real estate prices… and suggest the Dyson family explore poetry…

Reader comment: Tom, just curious what your take is on the headlines of record sales of RVs this year. This seemed like a no-brainer as travel is restricted. But I keep seeing in your Postcards that you seem to be mostly alone everywhere you stay. That doesn’t seem to make any sense.

Tom’s response: RVs need electricity, water, and a dump station. We often stay at campgrounds that don’t offer these hookups and that’s why they’re empty. I bet RV resorts and RV parks are still fairly busy. Also, there aren’t many Canadians and other cross-border RVers this year. That probably makes a difference.

Reader comment: Just wondering, as big a railroad fan as you are, I haven’t seen you guys on any of the great scenic trains that are out there, like the “Durango and Silverton.” A couple of places not to miss: Golden Spike National Historical Park and the California State Railroad museum in Sacramento, California. Love your Postcards, keep living the dream.

Tom’s response: The Durango and Silverton railroad wasn’t running due to COVID. The Toltec and Cumbres Railroad was only running half its normal distance (and still charging $105 per person for the round trip.)

Reader comment: In response to one reader question about the rise in home prices and who is buying all these homes: The housing demand is “easy” to explain. Yes, there is 20% unemployment, but that means 80% are employed and likely around half of them do not own a house (the average first-time U.S. homeowner age was 32 in 2018, and it’s closer to 45 in urban areas).

So COVID – driving people crazy in small urban apartments – and ultra-low interest rates are spiking demand in many real estate markets. The downturn, if it comes, will be late Q1 or early Q2 2021, when hoarded Paycheck Protection Program money inside of companies runs out and layoffs skyrocket again. But more helicopter money could stave off this prediction.

Reader comment: If you can get your hands on a copy of any of Robert Service’s poetry books – such as The Spell of the Yukon – ahead of time, you will thoroughly enjoy them (as will your family). He was ranked the 36th most-popular poet ever. And your family is living the life of The Men That Don’t Fit In. You will read tales such as The Cremation of Sam McGee and The Spell of the Yukon and The World’s All Right, a particular favorite.

Poetry is so often overlooked in children’s early getting on in life, but it can have profound long-term memories, especially if you read them around a campfire at night. When you’re long gone, they will treasure your adventures and stories that you have shared – so much more than material wealth. I have more money now than I ever did and yet the happiest times, in retrospect, were when I had very little and truly tasted life like you’re doing now.

Tom’s note: Thanks to everyone who wrote in! Your messages keep us going. As always, please keep writing us at [email protected].