Sixth Anniversary and Beyond

I had to make sure that the posts would continue, while we would be on our road trip, so I pre-published. I arranging to have automatic posts while we were gone. I neglected to pre-post recognition of six years of publication of TheFreeRangeNaturist.org., which occurred during the middle of June. We are now back in Tucson, after seven weeks of travel and I have access to my familiar tools, so:

HAPPY 6^th BIRTHDAY!!!

Here’s to the coming 7^th year of publication!

 

This is a good time to let you all know what’s in the future for The Free Range Naturist. I have now content to last into 2022. I have several articles in the works and a thought or two might pop up. We have some trips in mind this Fall/Winter. But mostly, our trip has provided us with several stories, which will probably keep me busy.  Now, they are just on paper as notes and photos are in files. I’ll have to set the trip reports as beginning rough drafts and sort out a couple of thousand photos. It will be a challenge to keep it fresh enough in my memory, before final attention is given each piece.

I was told, that I should number each story about our trip as a chapter, like a book. It will appear as a series called “Naked across America.”

Naked across America is exactly what we did. This website has been from the beginning, a how to and encouragement for others to get out and practice naturism in a free range manner.  We figure that most of us can somehow do similar to what we demonstrate.

There has always been an Arizona/Southwestern-centric expression of this “how to.” Part of our trip was to expand free ranging nudity to other environments, legal jurisdictions, across this vast and varied land. It works in Arizona, how about other places? What could be learned? What obstructions might there be for others living elsewhere?

We had other goals in mind.  For one, we wanted to see how inexpensive, but comfortable, we could be crossing the United States. We decided to use DF’s small Honda at what turned out to be over 30 miles to the gallon. I figured around 5000 miles, but ultimately 7000 was traveled. Also, DF retired and we were able to have an open ended flexible schedule, that could change on whim, or need. We were attempting to see how a sustained, or spontaneous trip might be done on our discretionary funds alone.

We had several friends to visit and planned to spend a good amount of time hiking, or backpacking. We both prefer stars and fresh air, opposed to feeling cooped up in stuffy hotels.

Splitting the expenses and eating healthy food, generally kept us out of restaurants. With that in mind, we mapped out Trader Joe’s and Sprouts across the country to keep things simple. We discovered Aldi’s and found fresh food opportunities as we came upon them. Actually, oops, I gained weight.

All that we needed had to be packed into a small Honda in an organization that would be effective, practical and stuck to. We knew that two people moving around the pieces of a complex puzzle could be a disaster and a cloud of irritation. We organized priorities and scaled down and stuck to the plan.

To make it all fit and function, I bought a ½ sized guitar. We had a filing box that was called, “the kitchen.” The back seat passenger side was a section with a cooler and supplies. We had a gas stove and a TV table to use as counter space. Comfortable sleeping pads and tent were placed at easier access, to be ready to create camp, or pack up and leave. The less used whole ultra-light backpacking set up was placed deeper in the trunk. Each of many little items had their practical place. We had electronic equipment and charging options.

We of course minimized our clothing, intending to not wear any, unless we had to. We each received a space for a flight sized bag, figuring about six weeks, or so.   Basics started with beach towels draped across the seats to sit on. A sundress and kilt were kept fairly close at hand as we drove along.   When traveling, generally, we just got covered for gas, or some necessary stops. I hadn’t been “back east” in several decades and New England summers were a mystery to us. We didn’t know where, or when we would end up after our basic planned stops.

Still, we had no definitive idea what we might need for weather, or visiting people and other textile impositions. We had our ultralight down jackets and several camping layers, if it got cold. We had some outfits to dress up a little. We had our shorts and tourist clothing to hang out with our more textile minded friends along the way. As usual, we set out to find spots where the weather suits our lack of clothing. Half of the clothes that I brought weren’t used at all, or only once. As the stories pop out, you will read about how our packing worked out.

We pictured a hippie vagabond freewheeling adventure to celebrate our new life, sort of “Easy Rider” in a Honda, naked. It is near something that neither of us had undertaken since youth, decades ago. We wanted spiritual experiences and contemplation of this change of life. We wanted to mentally integrate, to discover and stimulate the memories of our roots.

I expected to be stunned by the lush green, trees and abundant water of “back east” after a 35 year absence. I was.

We had a few goals and some planning done, a list of friends and relatives, some of whch we hadn’t seen for decades. We had some places to visit, but also we were open to new discoveries. We had some information on hiking and camping. We were prepared for about anything. DF retired about ten days before our departure, so our schedule was open ended, a wonderfully liberated sense of self. Leaving determined to be nude, put a resolve to our abandon and adventurous attitude.

By the time that we left, we didn’t really understand rain anymore. In Arizona, it comes and goes every so often for a day or so, but generally a few hours. All of that east coast green is caused by lots of rain, days of rain, long rains.  Eventually, we got chased out of several areas by rain. That was maybe for the best. We might still be back there having a great time, had that “bad” fortune not changed our course a few times.

There are many wonderful people in our lives; some of these were people that we had only known previously online. We made new friends. We quickly grew to appreciate and love some exceptional…folks. We are so very fortunate.

The result of plans cut short and redirected, this “Naked Across America” will share a wide variety of experiences. Our nude adventure story will be flavored and sometimes hijacked by the Americana that entertains travelers of all types. Many of our readers are from around the world. I hope that I will give a wholly different look at this vast and diverse country.

 

I’ll bring you to my continuing search for an exceptional chili relleno, white sand dunes, a UFO, a UFO town, the muddy Mississippi, the jungles of Ohio, The Great Lakes, and historical explorations, World Naked Hiking Day in Vermont, Skinny-dip ponds and waterfalls, nude resorts, traditional naturist’s places, back to the land organic farming, Colorado Rocky Mountain high, hot springs and much more.

I’ll do my best to keep the flow going, but I am returning to lots of work. I’ve somehow become the chairman of the Tucson Family Sweat Alliance, a spiritual sweat community that promotes naturism. A new sauna and garden is to be constructed at my home for TFSA. On the “to do” list, I still have my new house that I’ll continue to remodel. The next step is to set up the studio apartment for a clothing optional AirB&B and enclose the porch in conjunction with that use. There is of course, more of what has become my life filling my time, too.

Still, I hope to publish on a regular basis. I will be presenting fun tales for you, and getting off to a few new more local trips to report on. We need to get out of town into nature as often as possible. With DF’s new schedule, we can do that more.

One more thing, I frequent the “forum section” at what is called FreeRangeNaturism.com.  I’d like to invite everyone to participate in the forum with me. We can converse and the site is filled with huge amounts of helpful free range naturist information.

Once again, “Here’s to our seventh year!”

Jbee and DF