LaVanne is my overly-cute name for the 2003 GMC Safari that I have been living and traveling in since October. She’s a pretty awesome little home, if I do say so. I love her. Here’s a snapshot:

my van

LaVanne the Van

When she sputtered and stopped running on I-40 outside of Albuquerque on Mother’s Day, my heart sank. “Oh no, oh no, oh no!” was all I could say. I was on my slow, wending way to Northern California and a dream-come-true camp hosting job in the Inyo National Forest, starting in June. The plan was to “workamp” there for the summer and save up an emergency fund in case, you know, shit happens. Only the shit happened before I got the chance.

I know, it’s my own fault

Sure, maybe I shouldn’t have jumped into this adventure without the safety net in place first.. But the road was calling me. And, throwing caution to the wind, I had to go. To hell with all of the preparations and delays, it was time to dive into this life.

Now, while Calvin the Awesome Mechanic works on LaVanne here in Albuquerque, the real work begins. I need to materialize the money to pay him for his mastery. It may be $1000, if all goes well, but it could be more if the engine needs to be replaced and I’ve just been told the engine doesn’t need replacing! That’s what I need to raise in the next week or so. (If there’s any left over, it will go into a special bank account marked, EMERGENCIES ONLY!)

I’ve thought hard about this

I don’t want to ask for donations. I want to offer value for value. With that in mind, I put together this short list of ways you can help that are also win-win type situations.

  • For $2.99, you can buy my Kindle book, Getting Sh*t Done on Amazon.
  • For $25, snag a bundle of GSD (PDF & .mobi files, delivered asap on payment), a pre-order of the follow-up book I’m working on, Getting MORE Sh*t Done, and a Customer Love book to be compiled and edited from posts during Customer Love challenges (remember them?) These two ebooks will be delivered by June 15, 2014.
    Order Now
  • For $75, you’ll get all of the above, plus a year’s subscription to my VIP mailing list following my travels with extras including videos, postcards and chapters of my memoir as I write it (click here for a sample chapter.)
    Order Now
  • For $200, you’ll get everything above, plus a one-hour, private Skype or phone consultation with me on getting your own Kindle book published.
    Order Now

Of course, if you don’t want any of that stuff and just wish to help out with a bit of moolah, that’s awesome too. Choose how much you want to donate here.

All of the bundles include a visit from me and LaVanne next time we are in your town so we can thank you personally. I’m not going to make the visits a premium thing because I don’t care how much you choose to contribute — I just want to meet you. (LaVanne and I will be driving through the U.S. and Canada for the next year or two. I hope to fly to other countries eventually, but I can’t promise when or if that will happen.)

LaVanne and I thank you, and look forward to meeting you soon!

p.s. Please share this page with your friends using one of the social share buttons below. Thanks again!

p.p.s. Yay! We have already raised $[therm_r] of the $1000 goal — WE MADE IT!