This Week:
- I finally left Denver and headed back into the national forests.
- What it’s like to camp off-grid in the west.
- Why I drove all the way up to northeast Wyoming.
September 2024
| Su | M | T | W | Th | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9/1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 10/1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Where In The World Was I?
- Denver, Colorado
- 🌲 Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado
- 🌲 Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, Wyoming
- Gillette, Wyoming
Metrics From The Week
I’ve been feeling myself slip a little bit in terms of the pressure to maintain consistent bed times lately. I’ve been a consistent “good enough.” I’m not too sure what’s been the biggest driver of change, but I would ideally like to get back to a more prioritized schedule.
Business Progress Update
Lots more UI work and updates this week.
I updated the UI to look cleaner on the Video Explorer page, went to 4 videos wide, updated the search functionality, moved the filters and sorting to popovers, and added display options (shuffling and only showing thumbnails).
I also implemented a basic version of the “similar videos” search. You can click on any video and see similar videos (that outperformed) to that video for both more ideas/title inspirations but also thumbnail ideas. I plan to update the accuracy of this later, but for now it’s a fine start. “Good enough” as they say.
And added a section to each new video idea’s details card that shows similar videos. Similar concept but for the actual new video ideas generated by my software.
Heading North
So coming off of last week’s somewhat embarrassing mixup (taking the wrong motorcycle course), I gave it some thought about what I wanted to do. I did some research and weighed my options. I decided that I did want to finish this through and with an available course coming up, that I could just knock this out quickly.
Then I remembered that I had completed everything I needed to do in Denver, so I didn’t really need to be there anymore. I could camp wherever I wanted, which sparked an idea…
So I began driving north to Fort Collins, CO.
Then into the mountains…
And found a place to camp in the dark.
Back to #VanLife
I woke up to this.
Absolutely unreal.
I heated up some coffee, popped open the laptop, turned on my starlink, and got to work.
I ate lunch sitting outside, got some more work done, then went for a run in the evening.
And then did it all again the next morning.
I quickly realized that this was it.
This was everything that I had been dreaming of. Camped out in the mountains, sun shining, working from my starlink, totally self sufficient. It’s such a freeing feeling and I feel so grateful to be able to experience it.
I think my videos from there were a good depiction of how I felt: I’ve been waiting for this moment for months and THIS is van life | Day 2 back in the forest.
Getting Closer
Two nights later, I drove a bit further up into Wyoming to do the same thing.
Honestly there’s not much else to say, I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves.
It was quite windy out there. I’ve learned that most of Wyoming is very windy, but it was manageable.
Also the rock structures there were so cool! So cool I don’t even know how to describe my thoughts about them. The more that I think about how the heck they got like that the more I get confused 😂
The Final Leg To Gillette, Wyoming
You must be asking, where? Yeah me too 😄
Gillette (population 33,000) in northeast Wyoming was one of a handful of places they run motorcycle courses and the one that was soonest available. So, I just showed up!
I spoke about my experience in my first ~24 hours in Gillette and how it went overly positive in this video: I wasn’t expecting to experience this in Wyoming
This is one of those experiences where I probably would’ve never stopped in this town for more than a pit stop but I get to live here for 2 days!
I’ve never envisioned myself living in a small town, but reminding myself that people actually LIVE here kept shifting my perspective. It was just interesting to think about.
Motorcycle Course… Again
With feeling this time!
I ended up riding (and choosing to ride) the same motorcycle I rode at the last course (Royal Enfield Meteor 350). Most of the course was similar, but I did notice they focused more on low-speed maneuvers than the last one. Nonetheless it was again lots of fun and I passed the skills test at the end!
Only one more step in this…
To be continued…
Thoughts From The Week
Back At It
I already touched on the feeling of getting back into camping, but it has felt amazing to be able to slow down (for the days that I did) and get back into camping.
Minus a couple days of a detour (with this current side-quest), this is exactly what I was envisioning and craving weeks/months ago doing van life in the east. Nothing against the east but MAN the camping is good out here. It’s just different.
Weeks like these are when I realize just how much I have to be grateful for.
Motivation
Getting back into the routine of working out has been more of a mental challenge than I anticipated. Running is fun and fine, but the functional workouts have felt harder to get motivated for compared to going to a gym. I feel a bit deflated because I know building muscle and bulking while camping out here just isn’t going to compare to going to an actual gym multiple times a week.
Just gonna have to make do with what we’ve got.
Competition
This week I finished a big feature for my software, mainly the updates to the Video Explorer page that are pretty close to matching a competitor product that one of my users told me about a couple weeks ago.
I spoke about this in Not sure how to feel being the underdog in this market I’m entering
Seeing that I’ve built basically everything that they have (minus a couple big differences stemming from my current quota allocation) has been an interesting feeling. I feel proud and motivated that I can compete with them in the market (and convert some of their customers), but I also feel this hesitation.
I feel a bit of hesitation because I’ve never really experienced this before. I’ve never experienced real business competition where the market will decide whose product they think is better. While I’m obviously still not there yet, it’s been interesting to think about.
What’s Next?
Probably a lot of driving but hopefully this time with a new little letter on the back of my license.