Freedom in a Can: Adventures with Hamlet

Ironically, we're posting this from a McDonald's in Woodruff, South Carolina, wher e the wifi comes free with the crappy coffee.  Before we left Boone, some friends expressed concern about what we would be able to cook/eat in our camper.  So, we thought we’d assure everyone that we are eating just fine – better in fact.  We love to eat and we love to cook.  Rather than simply shoving food in our faces as we run out the door to the next thing, eating is now a daily event.  We usually have the time and take the time to have fun with it.  In our working lives we had moments of inspiration and creativity, and now it has become one of the joys of the expedition. Eating good, creative, whole food on a self-induced, tight budget is challenging, but not impossible.  Admittingly, we take every possible opportunity to stop at Trader Joe’s and stock up on some extra special treats at amazing prices while taking advantage of every 2 for 1 deal we see.  W...

Getting out of the day-to-day routine that had been a constant in our lives for the past 13 years was easy, but establishing a reasonable pace after having sprinted to the finish line to get outta Boone by September 3 rd has proven to be a bit more difficult.  Unfortunately, the world does not slow down even though you may want it to.  We were reminded of that every time we got behind the wheel in the northeastern U.S.  After driving in places like Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, and New York, we have a few choice words for you people…slow the fuck down already!  Is 10 seconds of your time not worth the life of a stranger?  Where on Earth did these people learn how to drive?  Shari is convinced that most people took a crash course (pun intended) with the Wii School of Driving.  Just for the record, passing a 35-foot vehicle on the right on a single-lane highway on-ramp is not only illegal, it is highly unsafe.  And pulling out in front o...

We have always thought that everyone should spend some part of their working, adult life in food service.  As a waiter, host(ess), bartender, back line-cook, you simultaneously get to experience the best and worst that American society can (pardon the pun) dish out.  You can learn volumes in one week about our society, how people respond to “the help,” and, if you pay attention, how disconnected our society is from the production of the very thing that sustains it.  After spending 2 weeks working at Rippling Waters Organic Farm in Standish, ME, we’d like to add farm work to the list of job experiences everyone should have.  Rippling Waters grows just about every vegetable imaginable, including 7 different types of kale and 4 different types of chard.  Who knew?  These whole-food oriented vegetarians were pretty darn happy as farm fresh food comes free (say that 10 times fast) with your hard work. Without meaning to sound too proud, we are no ...