Wagonteamster – Bob Skelding
And the horses: Bob, Bill, and Doc
Date Visited: A couple times!
UPDATE: I visited Bob in 2010 and as time marches on, things change. Bob is no longer “on the road.” He has settled into living in one place. He is, however, one of my main inspirations for “vanlife” or continuing as a full-time nomad. Although the main focus of my posts are the roadside attractions, occasional you get to meet OUTSTANDING people along the way. Bob Skelding was on of those people.
Both visits mentioned below took place in Texas, a long time ago…
You’ll notice there is no specific location associated with this blog entry. That’s because Bob, the horses and wagon are traveling the United States. So, by the time I post, they’ve moved!!! And, not because they’re outlaws either!
I started out on a Tuesday in March 2010 with a great hour spent with Bob and his team. You can find out more information at his website. It’s a great site that I have been following for about a year and Bob is part of my reason for wanting to travel full-time. Although his “RV” has only three “horsepower.”
This is a great and personable guy making his way across the United States, meeting people and making friends. His journeys are much more personal than mine. I find odd and unusual “things” to write about and photograph. Bob is actually making real connections. And he’s good at it. The section of his site that deals with this 3rd leg of his trip is here. Bob was kind enough to mention my visit on his site!
This is Bob giving the “brush off” to one of the horses. I’m sorry Bob, I am only able to distinguish Doc ’cause he’s a different color!!! If you want to comment here and clear up the confusion as to whether this is Bob or Bill.
This photo shows an early morning at the wagonteamster camp. That’s Doc in the photo. B.O.B. and Bill are behind the rig. I had the good fortune of a conversation with Bob as he prepared for the day.
The other photo is one of the horses, but I’m not smart enough to remember which!!!
Bob has also written a book about his journeys so far. He actually autographed one for me… LOOK OUT eBay if you get rich and famous Bob!!!! (Just Kidding) I haven’t started it yet, but I’ll go out on a limb, based on my meeting and recommend it. You can find out more on Bob’s website.
All in all, it was great start to a Tuesday morning!!! Thanks for the hospitality Bob!!!
One of the great good fortunes of having no real set agenda is that you can make time, alter routes, change things up to suit your fancy. When I first visited Bob and the team, it was early morning and everyone was getting ready to get on the road for the day. It was a great visit, but I decided to stop by again on my way back west for an additional visit. In my first post, I mentioned that Bob has written a book about his travels, but that I had not read it. Now, I’m about 1/2 way through it and HIGHLY recommend it. What a great book about life on the road!
This second stopover turned out to be a great decision. This time I caught up to Bob at the end of the day, after the horses had been turned out into their temporary pasture. Bob and I had time to chat, discuss and even better, he had some visitors to his place.
Bob has a bit more time “on the road” than I do. He pointed out that the BEST things on the road are the people. He’s so right. The visitors in these photos are pretty indicative of the welcome I’ve gotten while on the road. Speaking with people at and about the sites I visit make the visits so much better. Bob gets some extra help from the horses which have far better personalities than I do!!!
It really doesn’t get any better than this!
All of this brought to you by Bob Skelding, aka Wagonteamster!
The story of “CapOnAMap” is detailed on the “About CapOnAMap & Me” page, but the origins started right here with Bob Skelding. Truthfully, I don’t remember if he gave me the cap on my first visit with him or the second, but the better story takes place on the second visit, so we’ll just go with that.
Our visit was in the area of Texas known as “Needmore.” Bob and I were sitting in his wagon, drinking a beer (or maybe two or three) and discussing whatever things we discussed and the local area came up for discussion. I didn’t realize that Texas had “cotton country,” but, apparently they do, and the area qualifies! In cotton country, cotton processing businesses are required and thanks to Eli Whitney, there are plenty of “cotton gins!”
And so the cap that was given to me by Bob carries the name of such a local business, “Needmore Gin.”
It was later in the trip that I threw the cap down on a dresser, on top of a Rand McNally road atlas, and CapOnAMap was born!
As always, THANK YOU for the visit. I welcome and appreciate comments (at the bottom of every page/post) and/or EMAILS. Please feel free to SUBSCRIBE (free or voluntary donation) to this site. If you enjoyed your visit, learned anything, or feel like helping the site out a little, I would love it if you shared our site with friends and family. If you don’t like this site ***GASP*** then you should spam your enemies with it LOL. Hey, any traffic helps! You can also DONATE to keep this dream alive. I always give 50% of all (net) donations and (net) profits from any source to charity as my way of giving thanks and sharing my good fortune.
Thanks again!
Joe
