Dan Clouser - how have less and live more

Dan Clouser gave up everything from the previous 30 years of his life - other than his wife and his dog! - to take up a life on the road, meeting new people, having adventures, speaking and writing and being of service to the communities he travels through. 

Find out how and why he did this and how he has found that letting go of stuff makes a whole lot of room for a more meaningful life to come in.

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Music by Ian Hildebrand

Transcript

Arwen Bardsley: 0:00

Okay, welcome, everyone. Welcome back to another episode and really happy to be here today with another super interesting guest, Dan Clouser. Dan for 30 years ran a not for profit youth sports organization called The Big Vision foundation. It was run it from a 130 acre Sports Complex for baseball and softball. He loved what he did. But in 2019, something changed. And Dan and his wife, Sandy hit the road in an RV with their dog. before they left, they sold all the possessions that they didn't need. This sounds like a massive and strange change to make. But in fact, Dan was returning to a lifestyle long ingrained in him by his hippie mother, Loretta, whilst traveling around the USA, Dan writes, speaks and also hosts a podcast of his own. So I really was interested to have Dan on To find out everything about making that massive change, which I'm sure a lot of people will be interested in. But also, obviously what you're finding and discovering on your journey, Dan. So to start with, I just love people to tell us a bit about themselves about your background, your origins, why this is where you are now. And especially if you don't mind delving a bit more into your childhood, I guess the the growing up with Loretta and how you think that that got ingrained in you that kind of hippie ish lifestyle?

Dan Clouser: 1:48

Yeah, no, I'd love to. Like I said, my wife and I live full time in an RV. Now we've been doing it for just over two years. We absolutely love the lifestyle. And, yeah, it was ingrained in me at a very young age. My mom was very much a free spirit. You know, and she, when she started to she, she traveled the country and an old 1967 Plymouth Valiant, which she had converted into a kind of a makeshift RV, so to speak, she took the back seat out of it, put a mattress in there, and a sheet of plywood and, and just traveled around the country. You know, volunteering at different places, meeting up with, you know, friends and family and meeting all kinds of new people. And my mom and dad were divorced at that time, I was actually living in Pennsylvania with my father when she decided to do that, which, you know, kind of allowed her the freedom to do and I was about 16 years old. And, you know, I remember when she called me to tell me she was doing it, she you know, she just said she had a bunch of friends who had just come back from, you know, trips overseas to Europe, trips to the Caribbean. And they were talking about how beautiful those places were. And it just got her thinking that, you know, we live in a very beautiful country right here in the US. And many times we take it for granted and don't take the time to enjoy it. So she was working a really good job at the time, selling life insurance, and then decided to give it all up and and travel the country. And I was fortunate to do a little leg of that journey with her between my junior and senior year of high school. And, you know, we traveled down the east coast. And now again, I just remember how, you know, there was really no agenda. She traveled a lot of secondary roads, not a lot of interstate highways. We stopped and surprised my one cousin in Virginia in Quantico, he was in the Marines based in Quantico, and no, just stuff like that just stuck with me. And in early 2019, I took a couple of road trips by myself, one from Pennsylvania to Texas and Louisiana. And another one to Orlando, Florida and back to Pennsylvania. And it was kind of like, on those two trips is when it really hit me that I was kind of like this aha moment that, wow, you know what I really, really now understand why mom did what she did. We did a lot of traveling in the organization I ran, but it was always a very regimented schedule. We're off to you know, youth baseball or softball tournament. So it was always we had to be at a restaurant to get the kids fed and then back on the bus by a certain time and get to the complex by a certain time so there's never really any time for me to actually enjoy the journey. And that was one of the things that my mom was a master at was actually enjoying the journey and was on those two trips in 2019, where I probably for the first time in the life since I had done that little stint with her, between my junior and senior year of high school, was able to enjoy the journey. And when I got home, I started writing, I'd already published a book at that point, I was working on adding chapters to my original book. And that's really kind of what sold me because I initially again, it felt like there is a, you know, this voice telling me that it was time for a new chapter. And I wasn't necessarily accepting that because the work that we were doing in our organization was very important work. I mean, we were changing the lives of young people. And, you know, I loved my mom's story, but I always thought that was her story, not necessarily my story. So I wasn't grasping. You know, the willingness to, to turn this page, so to speak, and start this new chapter. But what really kind of got me over the hump was my new newly found inspiration to write. I'd written like I hadn't written in years at that point. So that's really kind of what put me over the edge. I ran it by my wife, she wasn't sold on the idea. Initially, she thought I'd completely lost my mind. And again, she kind of had the same theory like no, that was your mom's story. It was awesome story. We love telling that story. But it's not our story. And then there are some things happening in her professional life. Where doors that we thought were gonna be opening weren't opening. And we just continue to take it as a sign. It's, you know what? Maybe it's time to start a new chapter and, and to do this, and we're both we're both all in at this point, and have no regrets and absolutely love every second of what we're doing.

Arwen Bardsley: 7:01

Wonderful. And so few questions have come out of that for me. So firstly, with your mom's work with the life insurance stuff, was she traveling in her work?

Dan Clouser: 7:16

Not Not a lot. Not a lot. It was all just local house to house stuff. But all within, you know, the county or surrounding counties where we had lived.

Arwen Bardsley: 7:26

Oh, okay. And with your, I think probably people would like to be to have a little bit more understanding about your the organization that you ran, and what that did as well, because that sounds super interesting in itself.

Dan Clouser: 7:44

Yeah, so I had, I had run a nonprofit youth sports organization for 30 years, I'd actually founded the organization when I was 20 years old. So it was my baby. And we, we did some amazing work we had, we always took the philosophy of, you know, teaching leadership skills and life lessons through sports. So it wasn't a win at all cost type of organization, we were always very competitive on the field. You know, won a lot of games won a lot of tournament championships, a lot of league championships, but that was never the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal was always to prepare these kids for life. And, you know, so to kind of put it into perspective, when I started getting this, this urging to turn the chapter. I mean, at that point, I had spent 60% of my years on earth, giving to this organization, and again, it was something I founded, I'd run it. And, you know, it was a very tough decision. And one of the things that's come through us traveling around the country is being able to connect with some of my old players that came through the organization that are scattered throughout the country, and being able to see, you know, a lot of the seeds that we had planted years and years ago now blooming and turning into these incredible young men and women that are doing amazing work and having them tell you that they wouldn't be where they are today, if it wasn't for the time they spent in our organization and the lessons they learned in our organization a lot of times, you know, you sports administrator, you use sports coach, you don't necessarily get to see the those seeds bloom, you know, and you know, you planted them but a lot of times you you often wonder, you know, because again, they go on they live their life and you may not have a chance to connect with them. So that's been an incredible blessing for us to be able to, you know, to see the fruits of that labor for all those years and what they're doing out there in the world today.

Arwen Bardsley: 9:56

Yeah, how amazing so with the organization was How did kids find you?

Dan Clouser: 10:04

There was there's all sorts of ways. I mean, we did a lot of, you know, internet advertising, it was mostly word of mouth is probably the biggest thing. You know, one, one set of parents would talk to another set of parents, and they'd recommend him to come and try out for one of our teams that that was in. Again, I think that's one of the things that we pride ourselves on is that, you know, word of mouth was, again, that reassurance that we were doing something the right way that people were recommending, you know, other parents to send their kids to our organization. And we had a lot of kids that played, you know, from the time they were 10, or 12 years old, up and through their college years in our organization. And I think that, you know, again, was a testament of us doing things the right way to kind of have that longevity. Because, you know, nowadays, new sports, you see kids jumping from one organization to another to another to another. So, you know, that was always something that we were always very proud of

Arwen Bardsley: 11:06

amazing, but your wife didn't work in the business?

Dan Clouser: 11:10

No, she helped out a lot. She helped out a lot. But she, she had a regular job. She was in the oil and gas industry for a while and got got downsized when another company bought her company after she was there for 23 years. And then she was working as a temp employee, and was told that she would be temp to full time. And that was the door that kept not opening for her. When she she was there as a temp employee for two years. And they kept telling her, we're not hiring, we're not hiring. And after a while, I was like, You know what, this is a sign to move on. Let's go ahead and do this.

Arwen Bardsley: 11:52

Yeah, absolutely. And so what did you end up doing with your organization? Did you sell it to someone else?

Dan Clouser: 11:59

So we we ran baseball and softball tournaments, that was our main source of revenue. So that was kind of the main asset that we had that we did actually sell to another organization to an actual for profit organization. And now the organization still exists as a scholarship organization today, so so it is still, you know, still doing some work. Today?

Arwen Bardsley: 12:25

Yep. Yeah. Okay. All right. And what was the first book that you wrote, What was that about?

Dan Clouser: 12:33

It was titled The beauty of a diamond for the eyes of a coach. And it really chronicled my years as a coach and as a youth administrator. And, you know, again, talking about my coaching philosophy, which was, you know, leadership skills and life lessons through games. So, you know, it's a great book for young coaches to get a hold of, and, you know, establish a philosophy and it's not just about wins and losses, and it's actually a book that would probably be good for, you know, just business leaders as well to take into, you know, that same philosophy and that same approach that I took on the field that can definitely carry over into the business world as well.

Arwen Bardsley: 13:14

And what about for athletes? Or, you know, young people who want to get into sport in a big way?

Dan Clouser: 13:22

Yeah, yeah, it would, it would definitely fit them as well. Because again, it talks a lot about there's lessons, you know, the teamwork that you can learn for sports, you know, the learning from failure, you know, resilience, all that sort of stuff that sports will teach you, if you allow it to, you know, you're gonna get knocked down in the world of sports. And, you know, your coaches shouldn't be teaching you that you can get back up and still be successful after get knocked down on the field.

Arwen Bardsley: 13:53

Yeah, yeah. Okay, good. And then, so, had you was the getting into writing? Was that something that came more in your middle age or had you always been a writer

Dan Clouser: 14:10

I have written for as long as I can remember. It's just the way I've been able to easily express myself. I remember even as a young boy, probably 10 11 12 years old. My brother played on the adult soccer team. And I would actually write a weekly newsletter for their soccer team, just out on out on notebook paper, handwritten with a pen. And, you know, I just remember the reaction. It was the players and their wives and girlfriends would kind of pass the newsletter around on the sidelines before and after a game. And the comments, you know, that that they'd make about it just really made me feel good. So I always enjoyed writing. So when I got older, there's always aspirations to write a book. You know, and it was, it was a work in progress. I mean, when I first published it in 2012, it was about a nine year project that it took me to write it. And that was just a lot of the time I was putting into the organization was tough to sit down and, and really be able to write. And then understanding a few years later that it probably wasn't done yet at that point, and, you know, going adding 10 more chapters and and republishing it in 2021. And then, you know, right on the heels of that publishing my second book, The journey, of my mother's son volume one that just came out this past May of 2022. So I think that kind of proves by my point of how inspirational being on the road and traveling was by have been able to actually publish two books in less time than what it took me to do this the first one years ago.

Arwen Bardsley: 15:57

Yeah, absolutely. And do you, are you a journaller, as well? Do you just, you know, write for yourself?

Dan Clouser: 16:06

Yeah, yeah. So I blog, I don't necessarily, there's very few things that I write that I don't then publish. So, you know, I do a blog, which is available on my website. And that, you know, that just talks about our, you know, our travels and places that we've been to, and people that we've met, and just some of the experiences that we've, we've gone through on the road.

Arwen Bardsley: 16:34

And so do you have a publisher for your books? Or are you publishing them yourself?

Dan Clouser: 16:40

Published independently, I did, actually, I did have a publisher. And it really wasn't a great experience. So I have republished independently and at this point, anything in the future, I think I'll just, I'll just independently publish it, there's just a lot of, there's a lot of freedom and independence. I mean, it's, you know, there's work to it as well. But, you know, nowadays publishers aren't doing a whole lot of marketing for you anyway. And, you know, so there's not, at least in my own experience, there hasn't been a huge, huge asset to having a publisher, kind of limiting your freedom a little bit. So I think it kinda equates to like independent music artists as well. You're talking to a lot of music artists today. And they're like, you know, what, we're, we're okay with being independent. Because it's our it's our own creativity, our own artistic, you know, that we're that we're putting out there.

Arwen Bardsley: 17:39

Yeah, absolutely. any art form, I guess, I had another guest a couple of weeks ago, who had she'd self published as well. But she said she went to a self publishing school, or I think, you know, it was an online course, did you do that as well, or you already knew enough about it to not need to go through that?

Dan Clouser: 18:01

I did not. And basically, I may still actually do a self publishing online course for future books, just because I had my manuscripts there already print ready when I kind of pulled them from the publisher and was able to, you know, to convert them back over. But I may because I don't think that you can ever gather enough knowledge with stuff like that. So I have definitely seen a lot of advertisements for different online publishing schools and, and stuff like that. So it's definitely something I'll probably look into, just to be able to gain that knowledge.

Arwen Bardsley: 18:38

Yeah, you're right, you can always learn something from any course that you do, can't you? So you left behind a job? And you know, a bit like, as you said, your baby or business was your baby. How did you manage that? On an emotional level? How did you get yourself through that big change?

Dan Clouser: 19:06

Surprisingly, like when we started selling all of our belongings and stuff, it was almost liberating. The toughest part was just getting my head around walking away from the organization and you know, walking away from that baby and you know, once I once I did that and really kind of had a, an understanding that there that I could do even more meaningful work on the road and what I was doing in the organization, I think is what really, you know, sold me on that but the actual physical process of downsizing and getting rid of stuff. I thought it would have been a lot harder than it was for me, but it really was liberating. You understand at that point, how much just, you know, material things how much you know, crap. We, we accumulate over our lifetime that you use for a short period. And then it just sits and collects dust. And, you know, as we got rid of, you know, a lot of that stuff it was, you know, I keep saying it is liberating it was incredibly liberating and, and freeing to not have to, you know, be bogged down by all this stuff that society says you know, you should you should keep you should consume, you should buy you should buy you should buy. And you know, now our lifestyle is really more about experiences and living in the moment and valuing time that we have with other people and connecting with them.

Arwen Bardsley: 20:38

So did you don't have things in storage, you're back in your hometown now. So you didn't, it wasn't tempting to put a bunch of stuff in storage, did you just get rid of everything?

Dan Clouser: 20:51

we, we have about five little storage bins that are at one daughter's house, which each time we come back actually becomes less and less because there's stuff and most of that, honestly, is family photos and some stuff like that. But we hung on to some clothing that we thought maybe it was changing the seasons, as we're traveling we may need may not need. But each time we go back to her house, you know, we kind of go through a process of No, I think it started out as seven bins and it's down to five now. And each time it kind of kind of shrinks down a little bit because you go back and like you know what, we won't need this anymore. Let's get rid of it. So, but yeah, we don't have a storage ban or anything like that. It's just, you know, literally about five little Rubbermaid Rubbermaid bins that stuff's in right now.

Arwen Bardsley: 21:45

Wow, that's amazing. So what you so you mentioned, you know, that you thought you could do more meaningful work on the road. And that was what helped you get get through giving up your, your, your baby, your organization? What is the work that you're doing on the road? Can you tell us about that?

Dan Clouser: 22:11

Yeah, it's, you know, obviously, the writing blogging and publishing books, podcast, you know, been able to interview some amazing guests, and they're both guests that we've met personally, you know, whether it's through a volunteer project that we're that we're doing, you know, someone else who's living full time in an RV and telling their story, you know, or whether it's a guest that I get through, you know, the way you and I met through through pod match. You know, I just love telling those stories, I think everybody has, has a story to tell. And I think all those stories can be very inspirational. So I really love doing the, you know, the podcast, and, you know, getting feedback from people that they listened to an episode and it made them make a change in their life and that sort of thing. And obviously, you know, speaking as well, you know to speak to a group and have somebody come up to you afterwards and tell you that what you talked about really resonated. And then the other thing that, that we do, in our travels, we do a lot of volunteer work. We volunteer with an organization called a year to volunteer, which is RV centric, volunteer organization that will go to different nonprofit organizations or state parks or county parks, and we'll go in for a two week period and do a project of, you know, whether it's painting things or rebuilding things or, you know, anything that they don't have the, you know, the manpower, the resources to do with their, their normal staff, you know, we'll go in there and generally, it's a group of anywhere from about 16 volunteers to 32 volunteers, depending on the size of the project. And, you know, again, when you're out there working, you know, six, seven hours a day with, with like minded people, you know, it's really rewarding and then seeing, you know, the work that you're doing there, you know, the staff come up to you, and thank you, and you know, how really impactful that work is for for them and then understand that you're going to, you're going to leave and all that work, you know, that you did remains there and the people that community are going to be able to, you know, reap the fruits of your labor that you were just there, you know, working to make improvements to their community.

Arwen Bardsley: 24:37

And so, in that kind of scenario, they provide you somewhere to park the the RV, and is there anything else that you get as a volunteer

Dan Clouser: 24:51

that's pretty much it. You know, there have been some projects where some community groups have come in and, and, you know, brought us meals and some stuff like that. But, you know, there's no guarantee of that, you know, so we're, we're in there playing alone being self sufficient for the two weeks. And if you know, we got a meal or two as a bonus, that's that's just all the better. But yeah, it's it's just, again, it's just incredibly fulfilling work to see the impact that you're making on these communities before, you know, hit the road again.

Arwen Bardsley: 25:25

And if you wanted to, could you effectively drive from one volunteer project to the next and pretty much keep yourself occupied for the whole year?

Dan Clouser: 25:37

We could they they do a project. Generally, though, it's a two week project, and then there's a week or maybe two off in between projects, and then they go to their their next project. So in theory, we could certainly just, you know, tag along for for an entire year and, and, you know, go from project to project as matter of fact, early in 2023, we have three projects lined up that are kind of back to back to back and in February, March and the beginning of April that will just, you know, travel to and we did that, this past spring, as well as two projects were in Lake Charles, Louisiana for two weeks, had a week off and then did another project and Roan mountain, Tennessee. So, so there's definitely that opportunity to just know, caravan around was, was that group from project to project?

Arwen Bardsley: 26:36

And are there other organizations that run the same kind of volunteer projects apart from a year to volunteer?

Dan Clouser: 26:44

Yeah, there are some similar ones. I know, Habitat for Humanity actually has an RV component, we've never done anything through them. So I know, that's definitely out there. But those are really the only two that I know of that are, you know, kind of set up strictly for RVers.

Arwen Bardsley: 27:07

Yeah. Okay. And your speaking engagements, you mentioned that what kind of organizations ask you to speak? And what are they asking you to speak about what's the what are they wanting to get out of it for their audiences.

Dan Clouser: 27:24

So obviously, you know, with having a background in youth sports and youth sports organizations, and talking to coaches and doing like coaching workshops, or, you know, always something that I enjoy doing, you know, outside of that, you know, speaking to business groups or even, you know, talking to people about just the whole less is more concept, are kind of the three, three main topics that they'll talk on to coaching workshops, leadership talks, and then just the, you know, the concept of less is more and being willing to live outside of the societal norms of, of consuming everything that society says we should be consuming.

Arwen Bardsley: 28:12

Can you talk a bit more about that, and I guess, especially, you know, kind of tips for people who aren't necessarily living in an RV or wanting to live in an RV, but just how do we, you know, start being in, in that kind of mindset, more that, that if we did want to, or need to, then we, you know, we're not so attached to our material possessions. And number two, that we don't have, as many of them

Dan Clouser: 28:41

Yeah, I think, you know, it really is, is just, you know, a mindset of understanding that, you know, experiences are more important than things, and, you know, really kind of living in the moment. And being present with those around. You know, as far as my wife and I now live in an RV, we kind of have a rule, when it comes to clothing or something, there's a one in one out rule. So if, if we buy a t shirt or something than a t shirt has to leave the RV, if we buy a sweatshirt, sweatshirt has to leave the RV, so if you almost take that mentality, even if you're not in an RV, where if you're gonna get something new, you get rid of something old. I think it will help you know, just minimize that, you know, consumerism and, you know, really make you realize that, you know, if you stop and think about it, like do I really, I really need this and if I do really need it, what what should I get rid of to, you know, to bring this in as well. So it really is a mind shift to you know, just get out of that constant. You know, consumer mentality that we're no, we're always told from the time we're, we're little on up that we should be out there buying, buying buying.

Arwen Bardsley: 30:08

Yeah, we are it's um, And it's so bad for the planet in the end, isn't it? That's the other big thing about it, you know, really, we need to be consuming less. And you know, it's a tiny percentage of the world's population that consumes the most stuff. And that's people in countries like yours and mine where that's going on. Yeah, yeah, it's a big, it's a big deal. And even just you mentioning, you know, experiences are more important than things. I always like to take that approach now, with when you wanting to give somebody a gift, that you're giving them a gift of an experience. You know, whatever that is, if that's a voucher to go to the movies or whatever with you then. But it's just something where you're doing something together. It doesn't even have to be something that costs any money. But it's about Yeah, like you said, doing something having an experience rather than giving them another thing that they probably don't need. Yeah.

Dan Clouser: 31:24

Yeah, just just the other week, my niece and I, we she lives in Staten Island, New York, and we met her in New Jersey, and we did a 20 mile hike. That was part of a larger event, an event called mammoth March. So they go and put on these long distance hikes. So again, even that, it was just so incredible to be a part of that and to kind of push your, you know, your body to the limit, you know, to do this, and it was a very, you know, very rocky terrain and, and, you know, a lot of, you know, elevation changes and stuff like that. But at the end of it, you know, it was like, No, we did it. No, we did it. We we hiked 20 miles. And, again, just taking in the beauty of everything that was around us as we were, we were doing that. You know, it's it's an experience I'll never forget, you know, for as long as I live for sure.

Arwen Bardsley: 32:29

So it was 20 miles in a day.

Dan Clouser: 32:33

Yeah, yeah, it took us about 11 hours to do it.

Arwen Bardsley: 32:39

And what's mammoth March,

Dan Clouser: 32:42

it's just, it's an organization, they put on these events. They do a 20 mile and a 30 mile hike, they travel around the country, it's almost like, you know, like a 5k event or a marathon type event, but but for, you know, for hiking, and, you know, outdoor enthusiasts. I'm not a runner. So I would never ever do a 5k or, or a half marathon or marathon. I tell people all the time, if you see me running, you better run because there's something bad chasing me. But hiking, I love hiking and walking. And no, so I can do that. So I just kind of stumbled across it on Facebook that they were running these events, and I saw that they were doing one in Jersey, and I knew we'd be we'd be coming back across to that area at that time of the year. And it worked out perfect for us. So yeah, it was it was amazing event there were 1300 people that did the event and that was a combination, I think out of 1300 I think 200 of them did the 30 mile hike and 1100 did the 20 mile hike it was it was really cool again to just you know be in this big group of people and they let you out and groups like five or six to kind of space it out a little bit and and you know just again talking to people who were doing the same things that they you know that you were doing and trying to figure out why they did it why you were doing it what what drove you and and that sort of stuff. So it was it was pretty cool. They had they had rest stations named stations about every five or six miles know where they you'd refill your water bottles and get a protein bar one the one station was making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for us. So it was a really well organised event and I definitely think I'll probably do one again in the future for sure.

Arwen Bardsley: 34:35

Yeah, that sounds cool. I love hiking too. So that's really good to hear about that for next time I'm in the US. So with your you mentioned with your podcast and your blogging your you're telling the stories of the people that you meet. So I guess I'm interested in what inspired you to share those stories, but also, if you've got a couple that you'd like to share with us.

Dan Clouser: 35:06

The inspiration definitely, again came from my mother, when she had passed away, I remember reading about, you know, people she'd met in her journals and stuff like that. And when Sandy and I first started talking about doing this, that was one of the things I'd said to her, I was like, Wouldn't it be cool if mom would have been able to do this, and, you know, the time that we live in now, social media and, and that sort of thing. And be able to share their stories in real time, as opposed to us going through her old journals and stuff after she passed away. And I had done a podcast for our organization, since 2012. And just really enjoyed, again, telling the stories, it was just something that really resonated with me. And no, so as we started, you know, kind of putting our plan together that we're going to start this new chapter, I started talking to the producer of our, our podcasts for the organization. And, you know, told her that it was something I wanted to continue, you know, and started, you know, start a new podcast tell the stories of the people that we met. And, you know, at that time, the only involvement I had in our podcast is actually conducting the interview. So I knew nothing about the editing process, or how it even got to the internet, I just knew that I went into the studio, sat down, did an interview, walked out and got a link three days later. So she, and another friend of mine, who's, who's a podcaster kind of walked me through the back end and, and all that sort of stuff. And, you know, so so off we went. And, you know, as far as just any, you know, in particular story. I mean, there's, there's so many. But, you know, one of the gentlemen that I was fortunate to interview was another one of our fellow volunteers, Oren Fadler. And he's a, he's a retired general contractor from California. He's 80 years old, now, his wife passed away, I want to say two years ago from cancer, and he'll, he'll go out and do like a three month stint of volunteer projects with a year to volunteer where he's not a full time RVer like us, but he'll, he'll go out and do three months or two months, four months, whatever the case is, and work and working with him is such a joy, because I am far from like, a handy guy. And, you know, he'll get me doing things that I never, ever would have envisioned myself doing, on my own. And, you know, like, this last project that we did in Wisconsin was a raptor sanctuary. And we were building, you know, these flight mews, which is basically a glorified bird cage, for know, for an eagle or a falcon or something like that. And, you know, there's stuff that he would, he would show me how to do it, and then, you know, walk away and, you know, there I was, you know, screwing these pieces together. And, you know, he just loves not only doing the work, but teaching others, you know, how to do that work and know, so when I did my podcast with him when he talked about that, that his, his father in law kind of took him under the wing when he was first getting started in construction, and that sort of stuff. And that always stuck with him. And no, was something that he felt, you know, it's time for him to give back and, and, you know, pass on some of that knowledge as well. So, I absolutely love working with him every chance that that we get, whenever they're breaking the group's apart. I'm like, wherever Oren's going, I'm going. So that's probably just one of my one of my favorite stories of many. I mean, there's so many myths out there, that every guest I've had on my show, they've just, they're all inspiring, and they're in their own way. But Oren is one that always is very special to talk about.

Arwen Bardsley: 39:23

So if you've done all that work with him, you must be a little bit handy by now.

Dan Clouser: 39:28

I am I'm definitely handier than I than I was when we started. There's no doubt about it.

Arwen Bardsley: 39:34

And you better tell us what the name of your podcast is, in case people are interested to tune in.

Dan Clouser: 39:40

Yeah, absolutely. It's the journey of my mother's son, same name as my last book and, and, you know, the website and all that sort of stuff. And yeah, and again, that that title is just derived from the fact that this is truly you know, a journey of My mother's son, one that I never thought that I would, I would be on. But to be able to kind of honor her legacy with what we're, what we're doing as well as pretty special.

Arwen Bardsley: 40:11

Yeah. And I love the name, it's beautiful to phrase it like that. So can you so when you're not, you know, doing, you know, you're heading to a specific project or working on a specific project? I guess I'm interested in that, what you mentioned at the start about enjoying the journey and kind of how do you, you know, work out where you're gonna go next? Or how long to stay somewhere? Can you kind of tell us about a typical, I don't know, maybe week or whatever, where you're not, you know, heading to something specific.

Dan Clouser: 40:50

Yeah, so we, we don't plan out very far in advance. Now, we will be back here in Pennsylvania for about a month. But even that we're not 100% Sure what our departure time heading, to warmer weather will be. Or even where we're going for sure, at this point, when we leave here. It'll either be either Texas or Florida, somewhere where, like I said, it will be warmer. But we don't do a whole lot of planning in advance, when when we do know of a spot we're going to be even then, like, the the trip itself. You know, there may be some times where we might not exactly know where we're staying at a certain night, you know, we may just find ourselves in a, you know, a Cracker Barrel parking lot, which is a restaurant chain here in Pennsylvania, it allows RV's to park and stay overnight or, you know, just a rest area or something. Again, we do we travel more interstates and what my mom did for sure. But anytime we can get off an interstate, we will take advantage of that. And, you know, one of the things that's that's best there is kind of those impromptu stops, where we'll be going along and we'll see a an entrance to a state park or when we were up in New York, after that hike, we went from Jersey to New York, and then back down here to Pennsylvania, but we had, you know, we found a state park there then pulled in there and, you know, walk the trails with the dog for, you know, probably two, two and a half hours and came back and ate dinner in the camper. And then, you know, headed down the road. And those have always been our just coolest experiences, just ones that were completely off the radar. You know, you see a sign such and such state park, you know, two miles to the right. And it's like, hey, let's let's take a shot and go in there. We did the same thing last year, driving up into Michigan, we're going along the Ohio border of Lake Erie. And it was getting around sunset and there was this little park off to the right hand side along the shores of Lake Erie and we pulled in there and just got got to see one of the most amazing sunsets we'd you know, we'd seen in a long time. And so we try to keep it as impromptu as we can. You know, but there's definitely times where we, we have reservation somewhere and we know, you know, when we've got to be there and stuff like that. But you know, the times when we can just kind of drive and, you know, figure out where we're going to stay. As you know, as we start getting tired, there seem to be the best moments for sure. So I'd say it's probably a, you know, a 50 50 split of kind of having a route planned out knowing where we're going if we're on our way to a project or, you know, a friend's house or event or something like that. To just kind of, you know, heading in a direction and knowing in a couple of weeks we're going to be at a certain spot but not exactly sure where we'll know where we'll stop on the way

Arwen Bardsley: 44:16

sounds lovely. And is there anything that you don't enjoy about the RV Life

Dan Clouser: 44:28

I don't enjoy when when people tailgate me for some reason, a lot of automobile drivers in the US think that they've got to be like literally five feet behind the bumper of an RV or they feel like they absolutely have to pull out in front of us so that they don't get stuck behind us. But that's probably it. It really is an incredible freeing lifestyle. And obviously the way Gas prices have jumped up that hasn't been. That hasn't been wonderfully accepted. But you just work through it, you know?

Arwen Bardsley: 45:09

Are there any hybrid RVs on the market yet?

Dan Clouser: 45:14

Not yet. Not that I know of anyway.

Arwen Bardsley: 45:17

Okay. And you mentioned your dog, and he, or she, I'm not even sure has an interesting name. Can you tell us about that?

Dan Clouser: 45:27

Yeah. So he is a he, and his name is Youkilis. And for anyone who's not a follower of baseball out there, he's named after the Boston Red Sox old third baseman Kevin Youkilis. So, you know, being a big baseball fan, and the Big Red Sox fan, when we got him as a puppy. That's how he got his name. We call him Youk for short, so there's always always an explanation to people under walking them in a campground or on a trail or something. They're like, Oh, what's his name? And you're like, oh, okay, it's Youkillis. And then he got to go through the whole thing. So we I love when we when we meet somebody who actually is a baseball fan, or like, Oh, Kevin Youkilis, you know, that those are enjoyable moments for me. But most of the time, I know, I'm just gonna have to go through this little three minute explanation of how he got his name.

Arwen Bardsley: 46:22

Yeah, okay. Oh, that's cool. I'm glad I'm not just being a, you know, baseball ignorant. I'm glad there's plenty of the others that you've come across. Because I just wondered with the spelling y o u k, I double l i s and mouse thinking, is it something to do with, you know, if you want him to kill whatever, you know, you know, I mean, I'm sure you wouldn't but. Anyway. Glad we covered that off. So is there anything that you want to tell people about you know, all the the offerings that you have? Just covering off maybe where you we can find your books? I'm assuming your podcast is on all the podcasting platforms? Is it?

Dan Clouser: 47:11

Yeah, yep. Yep. Yeah, podcast, Spotify, Apple, podcast, Google, wherever you find podcasts, you can find it. But easiest way to find anything that I'm doing is just on my website, and I've got two URLs to my website, journey of my mothers son.com, or just, I'll use my name, just Dan clouser.com. They both go to the exact same site. But sometimes people get caught up in journey of my mother's son typing it all out. So you know, easier way to get there is just DanClouser.com. But all the links are there to the podcast, to, you know, if anybody's looking to engage me for a speaking engagement, or know my blogs are there links to the books, are there really anything that you know, you need to know about what we're doing is right there on the website?

Arwen Bardsley: 48:05

And are you on social media? So if people want to follow your journey around the country, they're able to do that?

Dan Clouser: 48:13

Absolutely. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are kind of the three social media spots I hang out the most.

Arwen Bardsley: 48:20

And is that under your name?

Dan Clouser: 48:24

Instagram is DanClouser5. Facebook is just my name, Dan Clouser, or my page, Dan Clouser Author, and then link, LinkedIn is just Dan Clouser as well.

Arwen Bardsley: 48:40

Okay, and maybe Dan, can you just leave us with a few words of I guess, you know, what, what you've, you've learned, what are your biggest learnings that you've had from from taking on this new life? And that, that people who aren't necessarily living that same lifestyle can try and bring into their own lives?

Dan Clouser: 49:07

Yeah, I think again number one, like I said earlier, is just enjoy the moment live in the moment. You know, be present with with those around, you know, understand that, you know, we we truly aren't guaranteed anything except this very moment that we're in. So, you know, cherish that and, you know, understand that life is really more about the experiences than it is about the things So, know, if you're thinking of, you know, going out and buying a new car or a new, whatever, think again, and think about how you might be able to, you know, put that money towards something else and go out and truly experience something. And I love what you said earlier about, you know, when you're getting a gift, you know, get an experience instead and to be able to know, if you're getting your grandkids, you know, a ticket to the movies or something where they can also spend that time with you, I think that's a great way to really, you know, minimize that consumerism and really value. You know, the ability to connect with others, I think, you know, throughout the pandemic, if there's one thing we've learned is that, you know, whether we're introverted or extroverted or whatever our personality type is, we actually do need other people. And that human connection is very important to us.

Arwen Bardsley: 50:32

Yeah, absolutely. That's so true. And thank you so much for saying that and for sharing your story with us. Really interesting to hear that journey that you've been on and that you're continuing to be on. And I really thank you for your time today, Dan.

Dan Clouser: 50:51

I appreciate you having me on the show. It was a lot of fun.