“Travel is never a matter of money, but of courage.”
– Paulo Coelho

Roger Brown looks like the Santa Claus who rides a Harley-Davidson and has been on a diet. He is white haired, white bearded and jolly, and he likes to party. He is incredibly friendly and sincere in his words. I’ve been acquainted with Roger for several years. Believe it or not, he is a good friend of my daughter, Megan and her husband Jon. I first met him at the baby shower we hosted when Meg was pregnant with grandson, Lucian now 7. We had a huge turn out with most of her coworkers from Target, of which Roger and his wife, Sharon were in attendance.

Roger and Sharon are from Missouri- pronouncing the “i” as an “ah” and this endeared them to me, as this is correct pronunciation if you’re from there. I was born in Branson, and it is my second hometown, if such a thing exists. Roger was actually born in Indiana, but you wouldn’t know it from the accent- he sounds Ozarkian. He ended up in MO after being drafted in the Army in 1971. He was an ENT specialist and phlebotomy technician near St Louis, where he remained for the next 37 years. He met Sharon during this time, and they married at a little chapel in Harrison Arkansas December 21, 1991.

Right- Megan would share Missouri stories with Roger and recount their favorite places in the area. This led to a sweet friendship. Roger has stayed with us, in our pasture, the last few years during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. He has become a fulltime traveler/RVer travelling exclusively over the last 15 months. Megan thought it would be a good idea to sit down and compare modes of travel and living a simple life with him.

Roger and Sharon first became interested in full time RV living after a vacation stay in South Dakota around 2010. They were headed for Yellowstone and stopped in Deadwood as they were fans of the show, by the same name. They were taken especially with Custer State Park (I can see why, it’s my favorite place in SoDak).

After retiring from Toyota, they travelled in a diesel pusher, bus for 2 years. Sharon hated it, Roger loved it. Roger was disappointed but took the opportunity to suggest a move to South Dakota as they had been completely smitten with the area. Surprisingly, despite concerns about the winters, she agreed. They bought a mobile home near Black Hawk, which meant they remained debt free. Roger decided to take a part time job to supplement his retirement and went to work for Target, working the 0400-0900 shift. He said he became fast friends with “the kids” as the older guys only wanted to talk about politics and serious stuff.

Unfortunately, in December 2018 Sharon was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She passed away in November 2019 after a brave battle with surgery and chemotherapy. Their daughter had been living with them while she was ill and after her death eventually went back to MO.

After Sharon’s death, Roger retired again. This time, he decided he would travel. He put his home on the market with a former Target co-worker who was now selling real estate. He was able to accept a cash offer and buy his travel trailer, a 24-foot Forest River Greywolf toy hauler, that carries his Hog and is easily pulled by his pickup. The first destination: Missouri, to see his other daughter. From there he’s been to Las Vegas, Death Valley, Colorado and up the West Coast.

Roger hasn’t set out to stay in campgrounds with a long list of amenities, although he does do that on occasion. He is really in it for the experience. He is seeing the country and soaking it all in. Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome (merged sites in 2021, offering somewhat different experiences) are his go to app’s. Harvest Hosts is an app that lists various small businesses, farms, orchards, wineries, breweries, etc that allow an RVer to park for a night on the condition of making some kind of purchase. So far, he has utilized Harvest Hosts 14 times. Some of the more memorable experiences are staying on an alpaca farm, olive oil farm, wineries and a buffalo ranch. He has a picture of him holding a baby alpaca that is adorable! He also assisted in pruning at the winery and purchased fresh olive oil, sold in a tin can.

He has used Boondockers Welcome 9 times and been more than pleased with that service as well. Like HH, Boondockers Welcome is an app that shows people willing to allow an RV to park for a night or two. The hosts get a free membership in return. In this case, though, it is private people with a driveway or pasture, etc, not a business. They sometimes request $10-15 for electricity or sometimes just a donation. He says he has met some “good people” this way. He once was approached by a woman who saw his SD license plates who asked, “real or fake”. She was obviously aware that many full timers will acquire a residence in SD after a 1-night stay. This is due in part to no state income tax. He said his response to this was, “this time real, next time fake.” He also points out that he will remain registered to vote in SD but will only participate in National elections and if selected for jury duty, will be excused as a full-time traveler. He uses America’s Mailbox for mail service as well as occasionally receiving mail sent “general delivery” to wherever he may be at the time.

Besides BW and HH, Roger spends about 50% of time boondocking in dispersed camping sites in the National Forest. He says he has obtained maps from local ranger stations and uses Google Maps for his navigation, only getting lost once when his mode of transportation somehow switched to bicycle. When I hear him talk about his sites and navigation, my mind goes to anchorages, marinas and AquaMaps or Navionics. Roger also said that for $10 he can get a day pass at a KOA for use of shower, grabage and tank dumping and filling with water, like a dingy landing fee at a marina or yacht club.

Roger says his all-time favorite bike ride is Big Sur. This also happens to be where I stepped into the ocean for the first time. His speaking so fondly brought back memories of elation to taste the freezing sea water for the first time. That was the start of something life changing for me. He says that Hwy 1 is “beautiful and gorgeous”. He spent one week in Joshua Tree National Park for $12/night.

Roger is considering getting a host gig. He was recruited in Oregon, but the timing wasn’t right. He really enjoyed the sand dunes there, though, so he may reconsider. There is a FB group for work camping that he’s been looking at. Other locations or destinations on his list are Quartz Side, AZ where he can get a back country permit for $180 for 7 months. Free water and dump site included. Sequoia, Yosemite, Volcano NP and Crater Lake are also on the list for the coming year.

We recently bought an older (of course) pickup box camper for our old horse hauling Ford since there aren’t horses around anymore. We call it the FOBB (Flight of the Bumble Bee as we tend to not sit still long). We took several local camping trips over the summer but were really interested in Roger’s way of camping and living. There are similarities in cruising on a sailboat, to living on the road. We plan to spend more time heading down the highway when on shore leave and were grateful for Roger’s insight and experience.

We haven’t spent much time at all on the West Coast, and the PNW is especially appealing to us, so those tidbits are extra appreciated. We have thrown the idea around of making a road trip to Alaska sometime in the next year or so. Who wants to talk to us about that?

Other recommendations from Roger are:

“Leave Only Footprints” by Conor Knighton This is a book on the National Parks and he found it humerous.

He also enjoys John Two Hawks who is a vocalist and flute player.

Until next time-

Slainte’