For Brother Tom
I never met Brother Tom. I only became acquainted with him by watching one of the many interviews Bob Wells does with nomads on his YouTube channel Cheap RV Living. Tom was unique in that he was black. There are not all that many black people living the nomadic lifestyle on the road. Tom appeared to be in his forties in age. What even more intrigued me about Tom was Bob asked him how many vehicles he had owned in his lifetime. He answered Bob saying around one hundred and forty some vehicles. He had them all listed on a legal-size notepad he held in his hand. Few of the people Bob would interview would have their own YouTube channel. I have only subscribed to two of those interviewees and Tom was one.
I don’t recall what type of vehicle Tom had at the time of the interview a couple years ago; most likely just a passenger car he was camping out of. Tom would pick up these automobiles through eBay, Craigslist, the classifieds or online auction sites. With the auction sites many times he never knew what he was getting in regards as to what condition the vehicle was. He would pick up the cars, trucks, what have you on the cheap for only a few hundred dollars most of the time. There would always be something needing fixing and Tom was quite knowledgeable in auto mechanics. He could do most anything including replacing entire engines. He would keep the vehicle for awhile then sell it at profit or trade for something else. This is how he made a living such as it was. He never seemed to have much in the way of money or really anything for that matter but always seemed to get by.
After that interview Tom’s YouTube channel gained well over a thousand new subscribers. Tom was good about putting out a new video every two or three days. They were usually short, ten minutes in length, give or take. The main subject of most of his videos was dealing with whatever was wrong with the current vehicle he had at the time. It was always something− the engine needed work, there was a water leak, a fuel leak, the brakes needed replacing, the transmission slipped, it wouldn’t start, it ran badly if it did start or he’d be broken down alongside the road or maybe had run out of gas because the gas gauge didn’t work. It was always something. Whatever the case may be Tom was most always positive and in good spirits about his current predicament sometimes even laughing about it. I would watch these videos thinking about whatever it was with some issue or problem I might be dealing with, it could always be worse and Tom showed me that.
During the year of 2021 Tom finally was able to get his dream camper van−a Road Trek. He picked it up through a private party seller at a good deal and best of all it was in great shape needing no work. Tom was thrilled, absolutely giddy with his new home on wheels. Tom lived in the Maryland area. He had big plans for travelling wanting to return to the desert of Arizona for the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous during the winter where Bob Wells had discovered him a couple years earlier. Not even a week had passed in his new-to-him Road Trek when someone had passed him on the road, cut him off and slammed on the brakes. Tom swerved to avoid rear ending the idiot running off the road into a ditch. The impact severely bent the front end A-frame and part of the chassis itself. The damage was more that could possibly be repaired. Tom was devastated with the loss of his Road Trek. Tom had the worst luck of anyone I ever knew. He never seemed to be the same after that event. Shortly thereafter his health began declining, not to say it was the best to begin what with eating mostly fast food cuisine. He eventually had kidney failure and would need weekly dialysis. Sometimes he missed his dialysis appointment because his vehicle had failed him. Every once in awhile when a new video came up it would be from Tom’s bed in a hospital. There he would be lying in bed with tubes and wires attached to him. He would start the video in his usual manner “What’s happening y’all?” Then the next video he’d be out of the hospital back in his car, van, truck camper trying to get along yet happy as always.
Then one day a video showed up; it was only a few minutes in length. The image was dark. You couldn’t see anything. You could only hear Tom’s voice. “What’s happening y’all? Well I’m in the hospital again as you can see, or maybe not since it is in the middle of the night…..”
A week or so passed by and I realized there had been no videos from Brother Tom on my automatic feed. I checked his channel. The same dark short video was there as the most recent. I read the comments below. Tom had passed away. I was stunned. He had a cardiac arrest while in the hospital. The doctors jump-started him back to life. This happened twice. The third time he never came back. I was saddened. I felt I lost a good friend; a friend I had never even met.
Weeks passed by and the loss of Tom’s videos still hung with me. I truly missed him.
As I worked on my journal throughout the year for this eBook I had a title in mind from the beginning. But my plans for the year didn’t really go the way I imagined. I had to come up with a new title. I thought of Tom. Tom hinted to a new title. His YouTube Channel was named: Brother Tom’s Misguided Adventures. And so I used part of his title in honor of Brother Tom. His channel is still on YouTube.
and for South Park Steve
I “met” Steve through an RV traveler’s website, RVillage. There one would exchange information, ideas, adventures and photos with like-minded RVers. There are numerous forums at this site and one was Cats on the Road. There I would occasionally post photos of Beans doing Beans things. This is how we connected. Steve admired Beans calling her his “hero”. He had an adopted cat named Smokey he wished he could train to wear a harness and go for walks on a leash like Beans did. His other cat Tesla he pretty much was sure would never tolerate RV life. I exchanged ideas and tips with Steve at times. He lived in Breckenridge, Colorado working at a high-end RV resort in a meeting/event planner, tour operator and realtor capacity. He was frustrated having to work when he longed to be out there on the road like so many he saw everyday come through the resort. So, he lived vicariously through all he followed on the RVillage site. Winters kept him confined to the work desk but he always tried to get away for a few weeks in the summer months in his travel trailer with his “Kamper Kitty”. It was in the first week of December I realized I hadn’t seen any activity on the website from Steve in a long time. Shortly thereafter another member posted they learned Steve had passed away on November 26 from COVID. He had a preexisting lung condition that compromised his ability to fight the virus. I was shocked. Steve was only in his fifties and died long before he could live his dream.