My Micro-Camper/Skateboarding Misadventure Articles

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My Micro-Camper/Skateboarding Misadventure Articles

Postby BudStratford » Tue Apr 17, 2018 8:35 pm

Back in January 2017, I recieved a promotion at Concrete Wave Magazine to the position of Executive Editor. That basically put me in charge of running the day-to-day of the magazine, answering directly to the publisher.

As I was settling into my new position, my boss asked me what I would like to write about for the upcoming year? Having just secured an upper-management position where I would be editing and mentoring our current roster of writers, I was a little surprised... maybe even taken slightly aback... that he actually expected me to continue writing, myself. It was on his recommendation that I ended up hitting the road, and traveling around the southwest- a recommendation that was much more akin to a standing order, directly from The Bossman himself.

At the time, I was 45 years aged. My heydays of skateboard-touring were long and far behind me, or so I believed at least. My knees forced me to live in a perpetual state of pain, and my back and hips weren't that far behind on the self-destruction hit-list. Everything hurt like hell, and all I really wanted to do was to take a good, long, relaxing nap. The last thing I wanted to do, was to go kill myself some more, playing skateboards at my advanced age. Let alone, doing so while tackling the rigors of traveling America's highways and biways.

I really wasn't in much of a place to argue the point, but I sure could try to slither my way out of my newfound responsibilities as best as I could. It was at that point that I hit upon a a few fun inspirations that would guide the rest of my summer... and ultimately, light my path forward well into the following years.

The first inspiration was my micro-camper, a neat little toy that I had designed and built for myself a few years back for my frequent snowboarding expeditions. Turns out, as I discovered much later, my little micro-camper also handily excels at spring, summer, and fall camping. Who woulda think it...? It was my newfound joy and love for boondock camping in the faraway boonies... aided by the fact that my camper looks, stealthily enough, much more like a cargo trailer than your typical camper... that made me realize that my bosses orders might not end up being the displeasure-inducing drag that they had seemed at first listen.

The second, third, and fourth serindipitious discoveries were a trio of handy websites that I stumbled upon while nerding out and avoiding real work one day: Free Campsites, Roadside America, and Atlas Obscura. The utility of the first one is fairly obvious, I would hope, while the other two appeal to my innate nerdiness, and my boundless love of... and my endless enthusiasm for collecting... randomly intriguing (yet otherwise, completely useless) bits of entertaining information. It was these website discoveries that made my summer tour migration from a hesitant, reluctant, stubborn, and obstinate rebel, to an enthusiastic and energetic participant, happen. I no longer lusted to stay home, hit the hay, and edit my life away. Suddenly, I couldn't wait to wander the road again!

Of course, I would still have to skate (much to my knees' disapproving dissatisfication) from time to time along the way. But after my skating was done for the day, I still had nerdiness and peaceful camping solitude to look forward to! Ahhhh! Perfect...!

It's now almost a year and a half later. I am now working on my own independent skateboarding website called Everything Skateboarding (www.everythingskateboarding.com). This month, we will finally be publishing and posting the entire series of Concrete Wave Magazine articles about my skateboarding/traveling/micro-camping misadventures. Yes, a few were published by Concrete wave last year, while many more sat in my "To Do" pile until recently. They will finally be presented as they were intended: as a complete series that spans the entire year of troublemaking and high adventuring. Here's the first of the previously published articles, below:

http://everythingskateboarding.com/summ ... e-arizona/

And the first of the unpublished originals:

http://everythingskateboarding.com/summ ... stratford/

I'm posting this here for the tnttt community because, one, I thought y'all might appreciate reading some fun stories from a fellow trailer-toter. Secondly, I'd like to thank the tnttt community for all their guidance and inspiration over the years. I've attended a lot of events that were posted on these here forums, and met a ton of great people along the way. Thanks, everybody! Hope you enjoy the reads...!
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BudStratford
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