San Juan Mountains, Colorado | June 4, 2026
Up late, slept late. I was particularly in the zone yesterday. About 8am to 6:30pm and then another four hours in the evening. There are so many little things that arise as my operation expands and new ideas keep popping up. I’ve learned to execute on ideas as soon as possible. If I save them for another sitting something is lost. Often the whole thing gets lost. So I act right away. It’s endless.
There’s something different about how I’m working now. I’m working with love. Joy, even. I keep coming back to this from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet:
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
I’ve thought of this quote countless times over the years. It applied to me. I got to a place a few years ago where I could only work with distaste. I didn’t take alms from anybody, but I did have to set down my tools and listen for a while. I had to make some monumental changes, like turning an aircraft carrier around. It took years. But the aircraft carrier has turned around and is sailing now.
I kept working on the educational game format yesterday. Made one about the San Juan Mountains and one about solar panels, in addition to the ones already made. The format is refining and I’ll be making a lot of these. I learn a lot from making them. I also created an interview format for the site yesterday. I’m having the AI interview me. It opens up something different. I’ll be doing a lot of those as well.
Mainly yesterday I worked on Hi-Fi Lonesome videos. Posted two, working on the third today. I have a method now that I think is working well, simple and repeatable. I also made a decision to consolidate all music onto one YouTube channel going forward. That simplifies a lot and reduces confusion. There’s a lot of activity over here. More on all of it soon.
One more night here. Tomorrow we drive the Million Dollar Highway to Ouray. I need to get some drone footage of Silverton before we roll out, and I want to capture the van on the Million Dollar Highway itself. I’m told it’s one of the most dangerous roads in the country and I have a larger vehicle. I think I’ll have Shannon scout ahead for pulloffs so I know where I can land the drone.
We have a couple of campsites picked out in the Ouray area. That’ll probably be our last stop before Telluride. I’m looking forward to going back to the hot springs in Ridgway. That place is among my favorites.
My friend in Telluride has a second property with a yurt he keeps offering me. That’s sounding pretty good. If that works out, or if I find another suitable spot, I’d like to drop anchor in that area for a month.
I was fully engaged yesterday and didn’t make it up to the lake, five miles on a steep rough trail. If I get enough done early today I’ll ride up there. It sounds pretty special and today is my last chance.
I’ve been eating well. Now that I have the freezer I’m working more vegetables into the rotation. My tacos have an assortment of peppers in them now. Onions are coming soon. Baby steps.
Last night I did something I probably won’t do again. Six deer were right by the campsite and I put the drone up to get some footage. They scattered and I followed them briefly. They’re beautiful creatures. I got the footage and let them be. It was a one-off. If I post it I’m sure I’ll hear from some righteous folks about what I did wrong.
Van life has a rhythm and part of that rhythm is supplies. Right now it’s high tide. I love high tide. I also appreciate low tide. Both play their role. I can feel that it’s good for me to experience both. I imagine it’s a version of what our ancestors felt before the grocery store existed, the scarcity and then the abundance after a hunt. That rhythm has largely been removed from modern life. Experiencing it helps me feel connected. To being alive. To my Creator.
Roads dispatches appear on layng.com/roads after a short delay.