Well, It's Been A Year.

Congratulations Loree! Your year long journey has been fruitful as the images on your site are truly lovely and inspiring! -W

WOW Loree! WOW!!! What an amazing adventure you have been on! Your photographs are beautiful and I imagine just the tip of the iceberg. Thank you for sharing!

I just wish you would make a book of your wonderful images, and the stories you tell in your blog, Loree. It's so awesome, interesting, beautiful...!
Good luck on your journey further on!!
- Gabriele

Fantastic that the dream has come true for you :o)

Already? Wow seems like just yesterday. When does your How To: hit the press?

Wonderful, Loree! Your work is fantastic. What a journey.....as I sit here tied to a work computer I'm just a tiny big jealous!

Loree, gorgeous work and inspiring story. I love it!


Dan Turner
Dan Turner's Seven Keys to Selling Art Online

Inspiring experience! Thanks for sharing it :)!

That was a lovely read, & your captures from this last year's adventure are just amazing.

I'm really happy for you that you took that chance , not a road (or off road) that too many are willing to travel. I admire your guts.

You live my dream... :) Amazing!

Your photos are so beautiful, Loree!

Congratulations for being brave enough to take the Journey.

Spectacular!! Two years ago my wife and I both decided to change our lives and begin selling off our possessions. After accumulating over 500,000 miles on various Harley's since '89 I even decided to rid myself of my newest one :)) A week ago I even sold a rare muscle-car I completed in 2007. Thought it may upset me, but was quite happy to exchange the Plymouth (and most recent H-D) for large sums of cash. Sold an attic full of household furnishings as well, all that's left is the house :))

Thought of the RV, not out of my mind just yet....but for sure home ownership is not an option and ecstatic about downsizing!

Yours is a great story!! Continued safe and exciting journeys :))

Loree,

Congrats! What did you lean and what would you change, other than camera stuff?

Thomas,

Take a look at these. This is/was my plan, late 80's, 35-40' and pull a small 4x4 behind and still have money left from your Plymouth sale!!!

http://www.vintagebirds.com/

Hemi Cuda???

Rich

Your work is gorgeous!! Please keep posting to your blog, it's an inspiration for the rest of us that can't quit the job yet!

Thanks so much for the compliments and good wishes everyone. I don't really feel "brave," but maybe a wee bit crazy. ;-)

Gabriele - If I made a book, there would be so many pages you wouldn't be able to lift it. LOL That's why I have the blog. Much lighter.

Thomas - I felt such an unexpected relief when I got rid of all my "stuff." And still, whenever something gets in my way for a while and doesn't get used, out it goes.

Rich - I've learned more about RV maintenance and repair than I ever wanted to know! However, I can't think of anything I would change.

Loree,

One year already, that went fast for all of us......what is next for you? Are you continuing this lifestyle or giving something else a try. In my humble opinion, after looking at your 'work' you are a superb photographer.......you can consider yourself a winner BUT in the long run we are the winners! Beatifully done, beautiful photos.... Congratulations to you. I send you a cyber anniversary cake!

Mary Ellen - my plan is to keep going until I either can't anymore, or don't want to. I don't see either in the near future, but who knows? For now, I'm making my way back to the west coast before the snow flies here in the rocky mountains. I'm thinking I want to spend some time this winter communing with the redwoods....

Lynn - No worries, I plan to keep posting. My blog is my connection to the rest of the world. Although sometimes I'm off the grid without internet, so I don't post on a regular schedule. I know, bad for SEO. Oh well.

And thank you both for your kind words.

I just subscribed to your blog, Loree - I'm looking forward to following your future adventures and seeing your amazing photographs.

Just WOW. You are an inspiration, and a fantastic way for the rest of us to live vicariously. Congratulations on your milestone.

Loree,

Your work stands out. Not everyone can follow that dream. To one year. And to many more.

Dave

Loree,

Nice blog and layout! Is this Wordpress?

Rich

Thank you Lindley for your support. And thanks to you Valerie and David. Yes, to many more. :-)

Rich - Thank you, and yes, it's Wordpress.

Loree,

What would happen if you traveled Ireland or the UK for a year and took pics? Maybe not this year or next, but somewhere on your calendar.

Germans, Irish, English in that order are the largest minorities in the US. Going by people that claim as mutts to be mainly one of those ethnic backgrounds.

I first think of the Irish market in the US.

Dave

Rich,

It is wordpress.com for blogging.

Websites are set up using wordpress.org

Google likes the website builder WP.org better than any other website builder. It is much easier for the bots
to run through WP.org sites.

WP.com blogging sites are not nearly as automonous. They present extremely well but are less freestanding and therefore less functional.

WP.com you pay for generally, I believe, but WP.org you never pay for at all. Instead you pay for hosting elsewhere. WPcom can host as well,
but is not cheap.

Dave

Even better to host it yerself, you can monetize it.

Congrats Loree, what fun! I am chartreuse with envy!

David - I think you have your Wordpress's mixed up. Wordpress.org is the "social media" site of Wordpress. You set up a page there, somewhat like setting up a fanpage on facebook. They run the site, they determine the url's, they make the rules. My site is hosted on Bluehost. I pay for hosting and I own my domain name. I can use any platform I like to set up my site. I chose Wordpress because it is easy for me to configure and customize. I started with a theme and customized it to my liking, but I could use different software or even build my own if I had the desire and skills to do so.

Susan - I may change my mind in the future, but for now I have no interest in monetizing. My main goals are to share my stories and possibly sell some prints. The idea of cluttering up the site with ads so I can make a nickle whenever someone clicks one just isn't appealing to me at this point.

David - I still have a very long list of places I want to visit in the western U.S. Then there's the other side of the Mississippi. Unless someone built a bridge across the Atlantic while I was out shooting in the woods, getting a motor home to Europe might be kind of tricky. LOL

Loree, I kept ads off the LongLocks Boutique for many years. When I finally decided I was working too hard and to monetize it, I easily made 25% of my income from ads. Now it's practically the only way I make money from the site since I stopped marketing my hair jewelry designs altogether and just do work mostly for my Collectors Club members, though it's much less than I used to. Then again, it's ad money I'm earning for doing absolutely nuttin'. My traffic is a fraction of what it once was, mebbe 1800 uniques a day if I'm lucky. I still can't bring myself to pull the plug tho, it's been such a major part of my life for soooooo many years.

Congrats Loree. Best wishes for your sophomore year.

Loree,

Your website builder was from WP.org as you are describing it. Can I ask did you pay for the theme?

WP.com is a blogging site. Paid.

Dave

My bad. I'm the one who had my Wordpress's mixed up, lol. I paid for a theme to start with, then I found the one I'm using and it was a free theme. So, I bought one and ended up not using it.

Your theme the free one is a very strong choice. I am not very familair with WP.com, but as .com is the blog and you have used a .org blogging theme
you managed something I too thought of early on.

I am not a blogger. I can not write well enough. So my theme works very well for me. Images and a menu. No comments.

I have paid for a few plugins I only used temporarily. Often the paid .org stuff is not good for anyone but the actually inventor of the plugin.

Dave

Quote:

"Thomas, Take a look at these. This is/was my plan, late 80's, 35-40' and pull a small 4x4 behind and still have money left from your Plymouth sale!!! http://www.vintagebirds.com/
Hemi Cuda??? "

Rich,
No the Plymouth is a # matching '70 Duster 340 fastback coupe. Original FY1 Lemon Twist. 3.55:1 sure grip, full rallye instruments, rallye wheels etc.. 100% numbers match car fully restored. I did as well as I could (net profit) if I transported to Arizona for auction :)) The cars value was pushed up it has quite a resume of National Musclecar show wins. I certainly WISH I had sold a '70 Hemi 'Cuda :)))))

Thomas,

Boy, sounds great! In my car shows, see a LOT of HEMI's, but few Dusters,

Rich

p.s. I have some nice shots of Dodge/Plymouths here:

http://fineartamerica.com/controlpanel/updateartworkgallery.html?artworkgalleryid=512538