December 11, 2024 • 34 mins
In this episode of 'Wherever I Lay My Hat,' the podcast about the concept of home, host Dan welcomes Dan Clouser, a former nonprofit youth sports leader turned full-time RVer, along with his wife Sandy and their golden retriever, Youkilis. Dan discusses their transition to RV life in 2020, spurred by memorable solo road trips in 2019 and inspired by his mother's adventurous spirit. He touches upon the challenges and joys of a nomadic lifestyle, the strong sense of community within the RV world, and the enduring impact of his previous coaching career on his players' lives. Amid tales of travel and connection, the episode explores broader themes of following one's passion, embracing change at any age, and the true meaning of home.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:17 Dan's Journey to RV Living
00:48 The Freedom of RV Life
01:25 Aha Moments and Inspirations
05:13 Challenges and Changes
09:53 Impact of Youth Coaching
26:38 Community and Connections
30:04 Advice for Aspiring Nomads
32:59 Conclusion and Plugs
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Daniel Rock (00:06):
Welcome to wherever I lay my hat, a podcast about
the concept of home.
Today's guest is Dan Klauser.
I hope I've said that correctin, or is it closer Dan
Dan Clouser (00:15):
Clowser, you're right.
Daniel Rock (00:16):
Klauser?
Awesome.
After 30 years of successfullyleading a nonprofit youth sports
organization, Dan and his wifeSandy sold the house and all of
their stuff in August of 2020 tolive full time in an RV
traveling the country with theirgolden retriever Eucalysts.
Working around Dan's, who is theauthor of four books and
counting speaking schedule.
They volunteer at variouslocations, help others and tell
(00:38):
the stories of their travels andthose they meet through
blogging, social media, andpodcasting.
Welcome to the show, Dan.
Dan Clouser (00:44):
Thanks for having me.
Looking forward to it.
Daniel Rock (00:47):
Awesome.
And that's something justtouching on the RV piece.
As I sort of mentioned off air,that's something that, um, my
wife and I have thought aboutquite a bit.
Um, I kind of liked the idea ofthe freedom though, having a 16
month, 16 month year oldprobably puts a little bit of a,
a dampener on that idea, I thinkfor the foreseeable future, but
it's definitely of interest atsome point.
(01:08):
So.
Dan Clouser (01:08):
I highly recommend it when, uh, when you get the
opportunity, I would highlyrecommend to jump on it.
Daniel Rock (01:15):
So I'd love to sort of hear a little bit more about,
um, kind of how you ended upthere.
Give us a little bit of yourbackground and kind of how you
ended up traveling the countryin an RV full time.
Dan Clouser (01:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
So it wasn't something that wasa goal of mine for many years.
You know, if you would havetalked to me, even in 2018, I
would tell you that I wouldprobably, you know, die on one
of the fields of the sportscomplex.
I was running at the time, youknow, because I was passionate
about it.
I loved helping kids.
And just really, really enjoyedwhat I did.
(01:47):
in early 2019, I took two soloroad trips.
one was from Pennsylvania toTexas.
Um, and then when I left Texas,I actually went through
Louisiana and saw some friendsof mine and then back to
Pennsylvania and about twomonths after that, I did the
same thing.
(02:07):
Um, going from Pennsylvania.
Down to Orlando, Florida.
And those two trips was reallythe first time in my life where
I took the time and enjoyed thejourney.
Like I had a specific and timethat I had to be at both those
spots, but I'd left a littleearly to.
You know, to take time.
(02:28):
I saw one of my old players inAtlanta, Georgia on my way to
Orlando.
Um, and then, like I said, Istopped and saw some friends
actually, both when I was inTexas and, uh, when we went,
when I went back throughLouisiana, and I kind of had
this aha moment during those 2trips.
Um, just to back up a littlebit, my mother took an old 1967
(02:53):
Plymouth Valiant, um, took thebackseat out of it, turned it
into a kind of quasi RV back inthe 1980s and traveled all
around the country, um, on herown, at her own pace, um.
You know, again, stopping andworking for a little bit.
If she thought she was runninglow on money or, you know, she
did a lot of volunteer work aswell.
Um, so those two trips, I kindof had this aha moment where it
(03:16):
was like, wow, man, I think Ifinally figured out why mom did
what she did, you know, now thiswas, you know, Almost 15 years
after she'd passed away.
Um, and I thought I had anunderstanding of why she did it,
but those two trips gave me amuch better understanding of why
she did it.
I was also at that time in theprocess of adding 10 chapters to
(03:40):
my first book, which I'doriginally published in 2012
and, uh, I got back from thosetwo trips, I had written like I
hadn't written in a long time.
again, kind of heard this voice,um, you know, speaking to me
saying, you know, it's time toclose this chapter and, and
start a new one.
You want to, you know, use yourgifts of, of writing and, and
(04:03):
speaking to touch even morepeople in what you're teaching,
touching through youth sports.
And initially I completelyrejected that thought because,
you know, the organization I wasrunning, I had founded.
you know, so at that point in mylife, 60 percent of my life, I'd
spent running this organizationand I knew I was touching the
(04:24):
lives of kids and I knew I waschanging the kids lives the
better.
And, you know, like I said, Ithought that was my calling.
I thought that's, you know.
Daniel Rock (04:32):
Okay.
Yep.
Lovely podwalk.
Dan Clouser (05:01):
too late to make a change.
You know, lot of people thinkI'm too old to do this or, you
know, I've been here for solong.
That's really not the case.
You can just, you know, you canmake whatever change you want to
make at any age you want to makeit.
So, I ran the idea past my wife,you know, I said, hey, let's do
it.
What do you think about usselling the house and everything
and getting in an RV and, youknow, traveling around a little
(05:22):
bit like my mom did and, uh, shewas like, you're completely out
of your mind.
This is a terrible idea.
Uh, you know, I don't know whyyou would ever think this was a
good idea.
So I kind of let it, let itsimmer for a little bit.
And she was also going throughsome, some issues at her, uh,
place of employment at the time,uh, where some doors were not
(05:43):
opening them up.
You know, we thought we're goingto be opened up for, she had
been laid off, uh, from acompany in the oil and gas
industry after being there for23 years.
And she was now working in a,another company in the same
field.
Uh, she went on as a temporaryemployee, uh, you the
expectation that you would behired full time after a couple
(06:04):
months, we're now going on 2years.
And every time she had thatconversation about.
okay, when am I going to gethired full time?
It would be derailed somehowsome reason, given why it wasn't
happening and, uh.
1 day after 1 of thoseconversations, she came home and
(06:24):
she said, you know what?
I think this is a sign as well.
I'm in, let's go ahead and dothis.
So we put put everything inmotion at that point.
let my board know my, mynonprofit that at the end of
that year, we're going to bestepping away and figure out an
exit plan and all that sort ofstuff.
uh.
That literally put the wheels inmotion and, uh, you know, here
(06:47):
we are now a little over 4 and ahalf years into it.
loving every second of it.
And I, you know, the, theconcept of your show about, you
know, where you're hanging yourhat, I mean, we're, we're
recording this right now.
I'm, I'm looking out at the Gulfof Mexico and Fort Myers beach,
Florida.
We're, staying in a parking lotand, you know, I can just see
(07:08):
the palm trees and the sunshine,and, you know, this is where we,
we laid our hat, um, tonight.
And when we're done recording,we're going to hit the road and
we'll lay our hat, you know,another two hours, two and a
half hours North of here.
So.
Daniel Rock (07:22):
Yeah, getting closer to me.
I'm up in Birmingham in Alabama,so not far from not that far.
Really.
This is by certainly by Americanstandards.
It's around the corner prettymuch.
Dan Clouser (07:30):
ha ha.
Daniel Rock (07:33):
kind of.
That's a couple of things yousaid in there that I kind of
want to just explore a littlebit with you, which I think is
really interesting.
That whole focusing on thejourney rather than the
destination piece.
It's a really interesting one.
I travel a lot for my day job.
You know, I go all around theworld and the US to go to
conferences and trade shows andthings like that.
(07:55):
And you get that conversation.
Oh, you know, it must beexciting to go to these places.
Like actually, when you go forwork, you don't, you go, if you
go for a conference, you see ahotel, you know, yeah.
You see a conference room orevent center and you might see a
restaurant or bar or two if youknow that and that's literally
it.
You don't see anything of thecity.
You don't appreciate anything ofit.
And it's, it then just becomesthe, it becomes the rut and it
(08:18):
becomes like the, the train thatyou're on and the cycle and all
of that stuff.
But.
One of my, I suppose, guiltypleasures is watching people
like Noel Phillips or Jeb Brooksor Michael Downey on YouTube,
who are the travel bloggers, butI don't blog about the
destinations they go to theirwhole blogs for the most part
are about the journey and thetravel, especially Jeb and Noel.
They very much do that, and thatfascinates me that, you know, I
(08:42):
love watching a bit of a nerdything.
I love watching journeys aboutlike long Amtrak journeys or,
you know, the Trans SiberianExpress, which is all about the
journey, you know, all about.
It's enjoying where you are atthe moment.
Experiencing that journey ratherthan it just being, well, I'm
getting from point A to point Bin the most efficient way.
It's actually some sometimesdoing it in a really inefficient
(09:05):
way is actually the moreexciting piece.
Um, and then the other thing Isort of wanted to touch on is
that never too late piece.
And I think that's a reallyinteresting one.
I think as human beings, we dothat.
We, we restrict ourselves tothis idea that I am now 45 or 50
or, you know, even people inlife, like 30, right?
(09:25):
Okay.
I can't travel anymore.
I have to settle down.
I have to do these things.
And, you know, someone who'slived in three countries and the
last one has been for six,seven, eight months.
Yeah.
No, I'm nearly nine months inthe U S now.
And I did that in my midforties.
Yeah.
Nothing's too late.
You know, life is, you know,this is one of these things you
think people go, you know, I'vedone this and I'm stuck of it.
There's almost no decision thatcan't be undone.
(09:46):
Right.
It's just.
Anything can be.
You can change your mind and goback and do things.
So just kind of want to talk alittle bit again now about kind
of how your journey and whatyou're doing now has changed
your viewpoint of what homemeans to you.
Obviously, you found a lot ofpeace and a lot of, um, purpose
(10:07):
is probably the word rather thanpeace in what you were doing
before in doing the youth youthcoaching or youth facility and
training and sports.
And that would have given you, Isuspect, a sense of grounding
and a sense of place.
Dan Clouser (10:18):
Yeah.
Daniel Rock (10:18):
How has that changed now moving into much
more of a nomadic lifestyle?
Dan Clouser (10:23):
It's uh, I mean, it's.
really changed our perspectivebecause, again, anywhere we are,
we're home.
We're sleeping in our, our ownbed.
Um, just a few weeks ago, Ispoke at a conference up in
Orlando where we actually, youknow, just the way the
conference was set up, we had toactually be in a hotel room.
(10:43):
so the RV was in the parking lotand we were actually, and that,
that was very odd to me to haveto pack a bag and, you know,
walk from the parking lot up tothe room and, you know, stay in
a room.
It was.
It was neat, uh, to an extent,but it was also very different
from what we're used to.
Normally, you know, I mean, thatwas the first time I hadn't
slept in, you know, our own bedand, and who knows how long, you
(11:06):
know?
Um, I think one of the thingsthat's changed perspective is
just really, you know, You know,enjoying the moment where we're
at, we've been blessed, youknow, we've got friends and
family scattered all throughoutthis country.
And, you know, former players ofmine are, you know, all
throughout the country.
(11:26):
So, you know, we've been ableto, um, them at a rate that
certainly wouldn't be able tosee them at, if we were, you
know, still in a brick andmortar home back in
Pennsylvania.
Um, And that really allows usthe opportunity to kind of
cherish those moments.
And, you know, as a formercoach, uh, anytime I have the
(11:50):
opportunity to get together withone of my players, it is just
such an incredible blessingbecause, you know, a lot of
times coaching youth sports is avery thankless job.
You know, most of the phonecalls and emails that you get
are not telling you you're doinga great job.
It's, you know, why is, is Bobbybatting where he's batting or
not playing or why is Susie in?
right field when she should bein, you know, at shortstop or
(12:12):
whatever the case is.
so when you have the opportunityto reconnect with these players,
you know, decades after you'vecoached them and see the impact
they're making in the world andhow they've, you know, become
mothers and fathers and, youknow, husbands and wives is
really very rewarding.
(12:32):
Um, you know, and like I said, Imean, I, I've been blessed that,
you know, I, I loved it.
That first career, you know, soa lot of times people, when they
hear that we did this, they'relike, oh, you must have hated
your job.
You're in a dead end job.
You needed to make a change.
And that was not the case atall.
Like I said, it was actually a.
An internal battle for me tokind of, you know, buy into this
(12:54):
concept, so to speak.
But now that we have, um, youknow, we have no exit plan.
People ask us, you know, likehow long are you guys going to
be doing this?
And it's, you know, as long aswe're healthy, you know, we, you
just don't know.
I mean, we've, know, since we'vestarted this, so many of our
friends who had, you know, plansfor tomorrow and next year and
two years from now have passedor have had a health incident
(13:16):
that, you know, has not allowedthem to, you know, Fulfill those
dreams, so to speak, um, youknow, so for us, it's just
really cherishing the momentthat we're in and take advantage
of it for as long as we, wepossibly can.
So I don't know if I reallyanswered your question there.
If I just kind of rambled alittle bit.
Daniel Rock (13:37):
That's the whole point of this podcast is that
pieces like them.
So no, I think you did.
To be fair, though, I thinkthat's just touching on that
point a little bit more againabout the sports coaching.
I think that's something that isunder looked in that type of
role is it's not.
between elite performancecoaching and youth coaching in
the elite performance coachingis generally just trying to eat
(13:58):
the last difference in that last5 percent of performance out of
someone.
Whereas youth coaching is notjust about the sport, it's about
molding the person and trying tomake them better people, not
just better sports people.
And that in terms, I think, fordo you think that in terms of
your players often gave them asense of home that Was lacking
elsewhere or it doubled down onthose things.
(14:20):
How do you think that impactedfor them?
I know it's hard to talk forother people a little bit, but
Dan Clouser (14:24):
No, I definitely know for a fact that it, that it
impacted them.
And again, because of now beingable to reconnect with them, you
know, and them literally tellingme, you know, if it wasn't for
years I played with you, Iwouldn't be the person I am
today.
You know, um, And just thenumber of, you know, former
(14:45):
players weddings that we've beeninvited to, and I mean, it's
such a huge honor.
You don't really think of it somuch, but, you know, I mean,
that's literally the biggest dayand, you know, most people's
lives is a minute, you know, themoment they're, you know,
exchanging vows with the personthey're wanting to spend the
rest of their lives with.
And for you be invited to be apart of that, um, Yeah.
(15:07):
very much an honor.
So yeah, definitely have beenable to see that in motion that,
you know, cause I, I always didtake a philosophy of, you know,
it was about teaching the lifelessons that were instilled
within the game more so thanwinning and losing and,
Daniel Rock (15:25):
yeah.
Dan Clouser (15:25):
know, we want our fair share of championships.
We, you know, I've coachedplayers that have gone and
played on, you know,professionally, I've got one of
my former players right now isthe assistant general manager
for the Houston Astros.
So, you know, Winning was afocus, but it wasn't the primary
focus.
You know, we were definitely anorganization and I had a
coaching style that.
(15:46):
If you took care of the littlethings throughout the process of
preparing for the game, thewinning would take care of
itself.
So it wasn't, you know, Hey,we've got to do this.
It's like, Hey, if we do thislittle thing and this little
thing, and this little thing,and this little thing, then the
end result should turn out to bea W.
And if it's not, what can welearn?
(16:06):
What, what fell apart in thatprocess that, you know, created
the loss instead of the win andhow do we rectify that for the
next time we take the field?
Daniel Rock (16:16):
And I think this isn't necessary sports podcast,
but this is something very closeto my heart.
I've coached at a reasonablelevel and I've played a lot and
I've been a chairman of a soccerclub in New Zealand and, and
those sorts of things.
And I think that's somethingthat is lacking in non elite
sport.
And I, and by that, I mean evenlike community sport or youth
(16:36):
sport, even high level youthsport.
I would, I would put in thatbracket is that.
If you build the right cultureand the right work ethic and the
right things, the results willcome.
You know, it shouldn't be about.
Okay, we're going to doeverything to win on Saturday.
It should be.
We're doing everything to win.
So that do that.
So we build a team that can winevery Saturday, you know, and I
(16:56):
think it's that.
If you build that culture andpeople buy into, you know, the
philosophy or the processbecause they see the benefit in
it to them and to others, thenthey do it.
Whereas if it's, I'm going topick, you know, this person
who's perhaps toxic to theculture of the organization
every week because they're thebest player and they're not
going to see people, then youlose the rest of the squad or
you lose the rest of the team.
(17:17):
So I think what you said thereand looking after little things.
It's so important in that field.
And that's why you get people toinvite you to your wedding, to
their weddings, right?
Because they've bought into thatphilosophy and it feels like a
safe and unhappy place for them.
Dan Clouser (17:31):
Yeah, and, you know, our recruiting process,
we, we said, oftentimes, weweren't necessarily looking for
the best player.
For our team, we're looking forthe right player for our team.
and, and that's something thattranslates into business, you
know, and into life, and that'sone of the beautiful things
about teaching that philosophyis, you know, at the end of the
day, know, even though I love tosay about, you know, the number
(17:53):
of players that have gone on toplay professionally, or were,
you know, high level collegiateplayers, you know, at the end of
the day, the vast majority ofthe players I coached did not go
on to play professionalbaseball.
And many didn't even go on toplay collegiate baseball.
They were able to use thoselessons that they learned on the
field to become productivemembers of society, and those
(18:15):
are the ones I'm even more proudof the ones who did continue
their career in baseball.
Yes.
Yeah.
Daniel Rock (18:32):
Saban, who obviously a winning coach and
obviously used this clips of himyelling and screaming and doing
all these things.
But actually when you look athis philosophy about how he
treated his players and whenthings weren't good.
It was about the culturebuilding piece, you know, it was
all about, you know, and that'sone of the reasons he doesn't
like he retired, right?
It wasn't just because, youknow, he saw the end, but the
whole and I believe the playersshould be paid for their
(18:54):
performance on a big, you know,if there's hundreds of million
dollars in a sport, the playersshould be getting some of that,
not just a 70, 000 tuition.
Right?
But I think The changes for himaround, you know, the N.
I.
L.
Money and the transfer.
I think it was the transferportal rather than the money.
And I think he's come out andsaid that it was the transfer
portal piece where you know youno longer got the chance to work
(19:17):
with players and you no longergot a chance to build players.
And I think if you look at, youknow, and I don't know how much
you follow college footballliving in Alabama now, it's the
You can't help it.
It's in, it's everywhere.
Um, but there's a 17 year old,um, freshman called Ryan
Williams, wide receiver forAlabama, who's a phenom at 17.
Like he does things as a widereceiver that just years ago we
(19:40):
scheduled 17.
He said one year Alabama, he'slikely to go in the transfer
portal.
And go to a different collegebecause he, he can see the
money.
I have no issue with him takingthe money and the money should
go to players, but it does makeit hard to build that, that
culture and that learning piecewhere you grow young men and
young women into being somethingmore than they could be.
It then becomes an it's takescollege sport into that
(20:02):
transactional professionallevel, which I think is, wasn't
really what it was designed for.
Yep.
Dan Clouser (20:11):
country that we, we never can find the happy medium,
you know, so I'm with you.
I think players should have beengetting paid all along.
I think we took it from, youknow, 0 to, you know, 100, 000
overnight.
We're instead of graduallybuilding it because, you know,
even in youth sports, especiallyin like travel sports, you see,
(20:32):
you know, players move in andthere's no money involved here.
It's just, you know, what they,or their parents may think is
the better opportunity, youknow, one bad season.
You know, now all of a suddenthey want to jump to a team
that, that is, you know, awinning team or, or something
like that.
If they had one losing seasonand that's not really what life
is all about.
Life is again, about workingthrough that and, you know,
(20:54):
building it up.
And that's one of the thingsthat, you know, I'm very proud
of is we, we had a lot ofplayers that came on to, Our
organization at a young age at10, 12 years old and stayed with
us through their senior year ofhigh school.
And again, I think that said alot and that wasn't because we
won championships every year inbetween there.
You know, there were some kidsthat stuck through us through
(21:15):
some lean age groups where, youknow, maybe our, you know, 1 age
group was having a down year.
But they stuck around and thenthey moved up in the next year,
you know, for whatever reasonthat same group of kids with a
couple, you know, changed turnsinto a championship caliber
team, you know, so a lot to belearned again, going back to
(21:38):
that process as opposed to, oh,things aren't good here.
Let's just jump ship becauseagain, that's just not how life
is.
I mean, if, if you think of theworkplace or a marriage, you
know, not every day in amarriage is, you know, fun in
the sun, it's, you know, it'swork.
And if.
you're taught that culture ofnot having that commitment to
(21:58):
work through those difficulttimes, it just makes it so easy
to walk away from anything inyour life at that stage of the
game.
So I do think the transferportal is something that, you
know, hopefully can be addresseddown the road and still allow
the kids to, you know, takeadvantage of some of that money
that the NCAA and the schoolsare
Daniel Rock (22:16):
Yeah.
Dan Clouser (22:16):
raking in by the truckload.
Daniel Rock (22:20):
And it's about, I think you touched on there,
right?
If, if you never learned to faceadversity, you never learned to
work out how to get by whenthings are hard, then at some
point you're going to hit abrick wall in life.
You know, cause.
It's never plain sailing foreveryone, you know?
So I think that's, that's areally good point.
(22:42):
Talking of that and segwaying alittle bit.
Um, what are the challenges?
What were the challenges youfound when moving from a life
that was centralized in a singleplace to the sort of nomadic,
what are the challenges that youfaced?
What's been the difficult bitsabout that journey?
Dan Clouser (23:01):
Um, you know, probably one of the most
difficult things, and it's kindof, you know, good and bad is,
you know, developing.
There is no routine, which isgood, but there are some times
in life where you a routine, youknow, um, there's no, I too host
(23:24):
a podcast.
So there's, times where, youknow, just getting the time to
be in a spot long enough to beable to, to go back and edit and
get stuff ready to release, um,you know, making sure, uh, that,
you know, I'm going to berecording a podcast has good
internet, you know, um, Youknow, like even with this here
(23:48):
as being a guest on a podcast,you know, I I'm running internet
tests and making sure we're,we're going to be at a good spot
when, when I jump on thecomputer with you.
So, you know, from a quoteunquote business angle, that's
probably just the mostchallenging thing.
And, it didn't long to, youknow, develop, you know, what
(24:11):
that routine would be like, I'llgenerally my own show.
I make sure that we're,Recording on Tuesdays.
And then we just schedule our,our travels around a spot where
I know I'm going to be, youknow, at a stable spot with good
internet connection on a Tuesdayto record.
Um, so, you know, that'sprobably been the, the biggest
(24:32):
challenge.
I mean, it's, uh, and it's funnyhow we've, know, our travels
have changed.
Like when we first startedtraveling, I mean, we didn't,
you know, a of times on aWednesday, we didn't know where
we would be on Saturday.
Um,
Daniel Rock (24:49):
Mm hmm.
Yeah,
Dan Clouser (25:01):
where I'm signing and that sort of stuff.
So, but you know, it seems funnywhen I, I tell people, like, we
really, you know, the, the highsare so much greater than the
lows on this journey for us.
Um, and I know, you know, thingsgo wrong at times, you know, an
RV is still, you know, it'sliterally a house on wheels.
(25:22):
So, I mean, things go wrong.
And, you know, we've just beenfortunate enough that when.
you know, when stuff has gonesideways for us, we've been in a
position or in a spot where wecould get it rectified, you
know, rather quickly.
So really just the logistics of,um, you know, being at the spot
where I have to do what I haveto do as far as the podcast and
(25:45):
that sort of stuff.
And, and the work that goes in,you know, again, recording is
the first step of it.
Then everything else you got todo is you well know we get it
actually out on the internet,uh, is a whole nother, Another
kettle of fish.
So there are, you know, thereare times where I may, you know,
I generally release a new showon a Friday, you know, so
there's times where I'mfinishing up editing on Thursday
night.
(26:05):
Um, you know, and part of thatis honestly just my own
procrastination.
Um, and, and part of it is justa travel schedule that it's
like, I, I couldn't carve out anhour or two to, to sit and, you
know, get it knocked out.
Daniel Rock (26:18):
it definitely takes longer to edit these and get
them up than it does to recordthem.
The recording is definitely thequick bit.
Um, what about the real highpoints?
What is it that's made you fallin love with the lifestyle that
you're now living?
That's made you think, right,we're going to keep doing this
as long as we healthfully can.
What's, what are the real keythings there?
Dan Clouser (26:39):
the people we've met, you know, and the people
have been able to reconnectwith, and I touched on it a
little bit with, you know, myplayers and stuff, but you know,
the RV community is such aspecial, special community.
Um, you know, even just a coupleof weeks ago, friends of ours
that are also full time RVersthat we met on a volunteer
project years ago, found out wewere both, you know, in Orlando
(27:02):
at the same time.
So after I'd spoken to thatconference, we went ahead and,
you know, booked two nights atthe campground that they were
at.
And, uh, you know, we hadn'tseen them since, you know, April
when we were on anothervolunteer project with them and,
you know, just having theopportunity to sit and reconnect
with them and, um, you know, allof our other nomad friends and
(27:25):
their journeys.
And, you know, there's timeswhere we'll, we'll decide to go
to a place because one of ourfriends posted.
You know that, Hey, we were atsuch and such place.
It was a great stay or even, youknow, restaurants that they'll,
you know, they'll stop at, youknow, like there's a place out
in California called, you know,Peggy Sue's fifties diner that,
(27:47):
um, you know, friends of ourshad posted how great it was, so
we made, you know, it a pointthat when we were in California
to stop at that, that diner andcheck it out.
And, you know, we loved it.
So, um, that's really the highis just the people and really
understanding that, you know, asas what our, you know, society
(28:09):
may be, you actually just takethe time, sit down, have
conversations with people,you're going to understand that
They're much, much more deeperthan whatever their political
views may be, you know, so I'vegot friends of mine that are on
sides of the spectrum, you know,I consider myself right down the
(28:31):
middle for the most part, and Ithink you find most people are
more to the middle than theyare.
The, the extremes, if you sitdown and have, have that
conversation with them, youknow, so, um, that's probably
been the highest at the end ofthe day, you know, we found out
that we're all human beings andwe really do have the same hopes
(28:52):
and dreams and desires as whatthe vast majority of the rest of
us do.
Yep.
Daniel Rock (29:00):
explore on that I could go to, but I think I'd on
a previous episode, thispodcast, um, that hasn't hit the
air yet, but we'll do beforethis one comes out.
I interviewed, um, a gentlemancalled Dr.
Scott Allen, who does, um, A lotof, he's a doctor that works
with the immigration detentioncenters, and he's done a lot of
work in corrections and stufflike that.
And his thing is both when youget too much stuck in ideology,
(29:23):
you take the humanity out ofeverything.
Everything then becomes anumber, or they become their,
they become their politicalaffiliation, or they become the
bubble or the echo chamber thatthey're in.
And actually, when you break itdown, every human is flawed.
They have their own opinions.
They all want to know things.
And, and.
You know, I find that, you know,because I travel so much work,
you're constantly meeting newpeople.
(29:43):
And there's a lot of people whoI do not agree with on a lot of
things.
Um, but you can still be friendswith them because you can find
that you met it.
Now there's obviously going tobe limits to that, but I think
you're right.
It's, it's fine that humanityand you know, that freedom in,
just being able to talk topeople and listen to other
people's viewpoints andactually, you know, touch on
that sort of things.
Dan Clouser (30:04):
Yeah.
Daniel Rock (30:05):
sort of last real question for you is, you know,
if someone, if someone waslooking to take the plunge and
go down the RV lifestyle or thenomadic lifestyle, what are the
recommendations or what advicewould you give them?
Yeah.
Dan Clouser (30:21):
to get it all figured out before you do it.
Just do it.
So, you know, I tell people allthe time because a lot of times
I think that my wife and I wereRVers our whole lives that we
would do weekend camping andthat, you know, we've had an RV
forever.
But, you know, the truth of thematter is, I never drove an RV
until the day I drove this thingoff a lot, you know, so we were
(30:42):
completely green, you know, um,So, we But there's so many
resources out there betweenYouTube, um, you know, there's,
there's books out there.
Our one daughter did purchase abook for us.
It was, uh, a beginner's guideto living in an RV full time or
something like that.
It was absolutely incredible.
You know, wealth of informationin there that, you know, we are
(31:04):
so glad we read through it aheadof time.
Um, but, and again, go back tothat RV community.
Um, it's so giving, you willfind people to help you out
along the way.
If there's something that, thatstumps you, you know, um, I also
tell people that I am probablythe least mechanically handy
(31:24):
full time RVer in the world, butyet.
You know, we've had times whereour water pump failed on us.
We had to replace it.
We happen to be at a volunteerproject when we when it happened
and the 1 guy already had aspare water pump that he just,
know, it to me and, you know,told me just order 1 on Amazon.
(31:46):
And when it comes in, give methat 1, but this way we can get
you back up and running rightnow.
Uh, they didn't do the repairfor me.
They, they, you know, Stood overmy shoulder and told me how to
do it and showed me how to doit, which again, when we
started, if you would have toldme a couple of years into this
journey, I'd be switching outthe water pump on the RV.
I'd be like, I don't thinkthat's happening.
Um, but again, it's just, it'sthe way the community is to, you
(32:11):
know, really kind of rise up andsupport you.
So, you know, if you're thinkingof doing it.
Do it.
You don't have to have it allfigured out.
Um, you know, we're stillfiguring stuff out along the
way.
Um, and I think that's thebeauty of it and relying on
that, on that community.
I mean, just just being in acampground is a different
culture.
You know, when you're taking awalk, people say hello to you.
They smile at you.
(32:31):
They wave.
when you might be walking down,you know, a city street where
people are trying at all coststo avoid making contact with
you.
God forbid you might say goodmorning.
so it's just, it's a, it's adifferent culture.
So if it's something you're,about, just do it.
Don't worry about all thedetails.
(32:52):
Um, you know, they'll workthemselves out throughout the
journey for sure.
Daniel Rock (32:58):
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
Dan.
It's been awesome to have youon.
Dan Clouser (33:02):
Absolutely.
I
Daniel Rock (33:02):
love you to do a quick plug for your books and
the podcast and your podcast.
And I'll include some details.
Those in the show notes as well.
Dan Clouser (33:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
If people want to, uh, reach outto me, find my podcasts, my
blogs, uh, buy any of my books,um, just go to my website, which
is journey my mothers son.com,or if that's too much of a
mouthful, you can just go to danklauser.com and they both go to
the same site.
So yeah, you can reach out, bookme for speaking engagements, buy
any of my books, check out, uh,any of my past podcasts.
(33:31):
It's all right there on thewebsite, and it'll take you to
all of my socials from there aswell.
If, uh, if people wanna followme on any of the socials.
Daniel Rock (33:38):
And I would include that link in the show notes if
people do find it too much of amouthful.
So make sure they've got that aswell.
And.
Again, thank you so much, Dan,and thank you for listening to
this week's episode of whereverI lay my hat.
As I said before, this is astory about you and the journeys
that you have and yourdefinition of home.
So if you're interested infeaturing on an episode, please
(33:58):
reach out.
Um, you can just email me at Danat wherever I lay my hat.
com.
And again, thank you so much.
And I hope you enjoyed today'sshow.
Welcome to wherever I lay my hat, a podcast about
the concept of home.
Today's guest is Dan Klauser.
I hope I've said that correctin, or is it closer Dan
Dan Clouser (00:15):
Clowser, you're right.
Daniel Rock (00:16):
Klauser?
Awesome.
After 30 years of successfullyleading a nonprofit youth sports
organization, Dan and his wifeSandy sold the house and all of
their stuff in August of 2020 tolive full time in an RV
traveling the country with theirgolden retriever Eucalysts.
Working around Dan's, who is theauthor of four books and
counting speaking schedule.
They volunteer at variouslocations, help others and tell
(00:38):
the stories of their travels andthose they meet through
blogging, social media, andpodcasting.
Welcome to the show, Dan.
Dan Clouser (00:44):
Thanks for having me.
Looking forward to it.
Daniel Rock (00:47):
Awesome.
And that's something justtouching on the RV piece.
As I sort of mentioned off air,that's something that, um, my
wife and I have thought aboutquite a bit.
Um, I kind of liked the idea ofthe freedom though, having a 16
month, 16 month year oldprobably puts a little bit of a,
a dampener on that idea, I thinkfor the foreseeable future, but
it's definitely of interest atsome point.
(01:08):
So.
Dan Clouser (01:08):
I highly recommend it when, uh, when you get the
opportunity, I would highlyrecommend to jump on it.
Daniel Rock (01:15):
So I'd love to sort of hear a little bit more about,
um, kind of how you ended upthere.
Give us a little bit of yourbackground and kind of how you
ended up traveling the countryin an RV full time.
Dan Clouser (01:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
So it wasn't something that wasa goal of mine for many years.
You know, if you would havetalked to me, even in 2018, I
would tell you that I wouldprobably, you know, die on one
of the fields of the sportscomplex.
I was running at the time, youknow, because I was passionate
about it.
I loved helping kids.
And just really, really enjoyedwhat I did.
(01:47):
in early 2019, I took two soloroad trips.
one was from Pennsylvania toTexas.
Um, and then when I left Texas,I actually went through
Louisiana and saw some friendsof mine and then back to
Pennsylvania and about twomonths after that, I did the
same thing.
(02:07):
Um, going from Pennsylvania.
Down to Orlando, Florida.
And those two trips was reallythe first time in my life where
I took the time and enjoyed thejourney.
Like I had a specific and timethat I had to be at both those
spots, but I'd left a littleearly to.
You know, to take time.
(02:28):
I saw one of my old players inAtlanta, Georgia on my way to
Orlando.
Um, and then, like I said, Istopped and saw some friends
actually, both when I was inTexas and, uh, when we went,
when I went back throughLouisiana, and I kind of had
this aha moment during those 2trips.
Um, just to back up a littlebit, my mother took an old 1967
(02:53):
Plymouth Valiant, um, took thebackseat out of it, turned it
into a kind of quasi RV back inthe 1980s and traveled all
around the country, um, on herown, at her own pace, um.
You know, again, stopping andworking for a little bit.
If she thought she was runninglow on money or, you know, she
did a lot of volunteer work aswell.
Um, so those two trips, I kindof had this aha moment where it
(03:16):
was like, wow, man, I think Ifinally figured out why mom did
what she did, you know, now thiswas, you know, Almost 15 years
after she'd passed away.
Um, and I thought I had anunderstanding of why she did it,
but those two trips gave me amuch better understanding of why
she did it.
I was also at that time in theprocess of adding 10 chapters to
(03:40):
my first book, which I'doriginally published in 2012
and, uh, I got back from thosetwo trips, I had written like I
hadn't written in a long time.
again, kind of heard this voice,um, you know, speaking to me
saying, you know, it's time toclose this chapter and, and
start a new one.
You want to, you know, use yourgifts of, of writing and, and
(04:03):
speaking to touch even morepeople in what you're teaching,
touching through youth sports.
And initially I completelyrejected that thought because,
you know, the organization I wasrunning, I had founded.
you know, so at that point in mylife, 60 percent of my life, I'd
spent running this organizationand I knew I was touching the
(04:24):
lives of kids and I knew I waschanging the kids lives the
better.
And, you know, like I said, Ithought that was my calling.
I thought that's, you know.
Daniel Rock (04:32):
Okay.
Yep.
Lovely podwalk.
Dan Clouser (05:01):
too late to make a change.
You know, lot of people thinkI'm too old to do this or, you
know, I've been here for solong.
That's really not the case.
You can just, you know, you canmake whatever change you want to
make at any age you want to makeit.
So, I ran the idea past my wife,you know, I said, hey, let's do
it.
What do you think about usselling the house and everything
and getting in an RV and, youknow, traveling around a little
(05:22):
bit like my mom did and, uh, shewas like, you're completely out
of your mind.
This is a terrible idea.
Uh, you know, I don't know whyyou would ever think this was a
good idea.
So I kind of let it, let itsimmer for a little bit.
And she was also going throughsome, some issues at her, uh,
place of employment at the time,uh, where some doors were not
(05:43):
opening them up.
You know, we thought we're goingto be opened up for, she had
been laid off, uh, from acompany in the oil and gas
industry after being there for23 years.
And she was now working in a,another company in the same
field.
Uh, she went on as a temporaryemployee, uh, you the
expectation that you would behired full time after a couple
(06:04):
months, we're now going on 2years.
And every time she had thatconversation about.
okay, when am I going to gethired full time?
It would be derailed somehowsome reason, given why it wasn't
happening and, uh.
1 day after 1 of thoseconversations, she came home and
(06:24):
she said, you know what?
I think this is a sign as well.
I'm in, let's go ahead and dothis.
So we put put everything inmotion at that point.
let my board know my, mynonprofit that at the end of
that year, we're going to bestepping away and figure out an
exit plan and all that sort ofstuff.
uh.
That literally put the wheels inmotion and, uh, you know, here
(06:47):
we are now a little over 4 and ahalf years into it.
loving every second of it.
And I, you know, the, theconcept of your show about, you
know, where you're hanging yourhat, I mean, we're, we're
recording this right now.
I'm, I'm looking out at the Gulfof Mexico and Fort Myers beach,
Florida.
We're, staying in a parking lotand, you know, I can just see
(07:08):
the palm trees and the sunshine,and, you know, this is where we,
we laid our hat, um, tonight.
And when we're done recording,we're going to hit the road and
we'll lay our hat, you know,another two hours, two and a
half hours North of here.
So.
Daniel Rock (07:22):
Yeah, getting closer to me.
I'm up in Birmingham in Alabama,so not far from not that far.
Really.
This is by certainly by Americanstandards.
It's around the corner prettymuch.
Dan Clouser (07:30):
ha ha.
Daniel Rock (07:33):
kind of.
That's a couple of things yousaid in there that I kind of
want to just explore a littlebit with you, which I think is
really interesting.
That whole focusing on thejourney rather than the
destination piece.
It's a really interesting one.
I travel a lot for my day job.
You know, I go all around theworld and the US to go to
conferences and trade shows andthings like that.
(07:55):
And you get that conversation.
Oh, you know, it must beexciting to go to these places.
Like actually, when you go forwork, you don't, you go, if you
go for a conference, you see ahotel, you know, yeah.
You see a conference room orevent center and you might see a
restaurant or bar or two if youknow that and that's literally
it.
You don't see anything of thecity.
You don't appreciate anything ofit.
And it's, it then just becomesthe, it becomes the rut and it
(08:18):
becomes like the, the train thatyou're on and the cycle and all
of that stuff.
But.
One of my, I suppose, guiltypleasures is watching people
like Noel Phillips or Jeb Brooksor Michael Downey on YouTube,
who are the travel bloggers, butI don't blog about the
destinations they go to theirwhole blogs for the most part
are about the journey and thetravel, especially Jeb and Noel.
They very much do that, and thatfascinates me that, you know, I
(08:42):
love watching a bit of a nerdything.
I love watching journeys aboutlike long Amtrak journeys or,
you know, the Trans SiberianExpress, which is all about the
journey, you know, all about.
It's enjoying where you are atthe moment.
Experiencing that journey ratherthan it just being, well, I'm
getting from point A to point Bin the most efficient way.
It's actually some sometimesdoing it in a really inefficient
(09:05):
way is actually the moreexciting piece.
Um, and then the other thing Isort of wanted to touch on is
that never too late piece.
And I think that's a reallyinteresting one.
I think as human beings, we dothat.
We, we restrict ourselves tothis idea that I am now 45 or 50
or, you know, even people inlife, like 30, right?
(09:25):
Okay.
I can't travel anymore.
I have to settle down.
I have to do these things.
And, you know, someone who'slived in three countries and the
last one has been for six,seven, eight months.
Yeah.
No, I'm nearly nine months inthe U S now.
And I did that in my midforties.
Yeah.
Nothing's too late.
You know, life is, you know,this is one of these things you
think people go, you know, I'vedone this and I'm stuck of it.
There's almost no decision thatcan't be undone.
(09:46):
Right.
It's just.
Anything can be.
You can change your mind and goback and do things.
So just kind of want to talk alittle bit again now about kind
of how your journey and whatyou're doing now has changed
your viewpoint of what homemeans to you.
Obviously, you found a lot ofpeace and a lot of, um, purpose
(10:07):
is probably the word rather thanpeace in what you were doing
before in doing the youth youthcoaching or youth facility and
training and sports.
And that would have given you, Isuspect, a sense of grounding
and a sense of place.
Dan Clouser (10:18):
Yeah.
Daniel Rock (10:18):
How has that changed now moving into much
more of a nomadic lifestyle?
Dan Clouser (10:23):
It's uh, I mean, it's.
really changed our perspectivebecause, again, anywhere we are,
we're home.
We're sleeping in our, our ownbed.
Um, just a few weeks ago, Ispoke at a conference up in
Orlando where we actually, youknow, just the way the
conference was set up, we had toactually be in a hotel room.
(10:43):
so the RV was in the parking lotand we were actually, and that,
that was very odd to me to haveto pack a bag and, you know,
walk from the parking lot up tothe room and, you know, stay in
a room.
It was.
It was neat, uh, to an extent,but it was also very different
from what we're used to.
Normally, you know, I mean, thatwas the first time I hadn't
slept in, you know, our own bedand, and who knows how long, you
(11:06):
know?
Um, I think one of the thingsthat's changed perspective is
just really, you know, You know,enjoying the moment where we're
at, we've been blessed, youknow, we've got friends and
family scattered all throughoutthis country.
And, you know, former players ofmine are, you know, all
throughout the country.
(11:26):
So, you know, we've been ableto, um, them at a rate that
certainly wouldn't be able tosee them at, if we were, you
know, still in a brick andmortar home back in
Pennsylvania.
Um, And that really allows usthe opportunity to kind of
cherish those moments.
And, you know, as a formercoach, uh, anytime I have the
(11:50):
opportunity to get together withone of my players, it is just
such an incredible blessingbecause, you know, a lot of
times coaching youth sports is avery thankless job.
You know, most of the phonecalls and emails that you get
are not telling you you're doinga great job.
It's, you know, why is, is Bobbybatting where he's batting or
not playing or why is Susie in?
right field when she should bein, you know, at shortstop or
(12:12):
whatever the case is.
so when you have the opportunityto reconnect with these players,
you know, decades after you'vecoached them and see the impact
they're making in the world andhow they've, you know, become
mothers and fathers and, youknow, husbands and wives is
really very rewarding.
(12:32):
Um, you know, and like I said, Imean, I, I've been blessed that,
you know, I, I loved it.
That first career, you know, soa lot of times people, when they
hear that we did this, they'relike, oh, you must have hated
your job.
You're in a dead end job.
You needed to make a change.
And that was not the case atall.
Like I said, it was actually a.
An internal battle for me tokind of, you know, buy into this
(12:54):
concept, so to speak.
But now that we have, um, youknow, we have no exit plan.
People ask us, you know, likehow long are you guys going to
be doing this?
And it's, you know, as long aswe're healthy, you know, we, you
just don't know.
I mean, we've, know, since we'vestarted this, so many of our
friends who had, you know, plansfor tomorrow and next year and
two years from now have passedor have had a health incident
(13:16):
that, you know, has not allowedthem to, you know, Fulfill those
dreams, so to speak, um, youknow, so for us, it's just
really cherishing the momentthat we're in and take advantage
of it for as long as we, wepossibly can.
So I don't know if I reallyanswered your question there.
If I just kind of rambled alittle bit.
Daniel Rock (13:37):
That's the whole point of this podcast is that
pieces like them.
So no, I think you did.
To be fair, though, I thinkthat's just touching on that
point a little bit more againabout the sports coaching.
I think that's something that isunder looked in that type of
role is it's not.
between elite performancecoaching and youth coaching in
the elite performance coachingis generally just trying to eat
(13:58):
the last difference in that last5 percent of performance out of
someone.
Whereas youth coaching is notjust about the sport, it's about
molding the person and trying tomake them better people, not
just better sports people.
And that in terms, I think, fordo you think that in terms of
your players often gave them asense of home that Was lacking
elsewhere or it doubled down onthose things.
(14:20):
How do you think that impactedfor them?
I know it's hard to talk forother people a little bit, but
Dan Clouser (14:24):
No, I definitely know for a fact that it, that it
impacted them.
And again, because of now beingable to reconnect with them, you
know, and them literally tellingme, you know, if it wasn't for
years I played with you, Iwouldn't be the person I am
today.
You know, um, And just thenumber of, you know, former
(14:45):
players weddings that we've beeninvited to, and I mean, it's
such a huge honor.
You don't really think of it somuch, but, you know, I mean,
that's literally the biggest dayand, you know, most people's
lives is a minute, you know, themoment they're, you know,
exchanging vows with the personthey're wanting to spend the
rest of their lives with.
And for you be invited to be apart of that, um, Yeah.
(15:07):
very much an honor.
So yeah, definitely have beenable to see that in motion that,
you know, cause I, I always didtake a philosophy of, you know,
it was about teaching the lifelessons that were instilled
within the game more so thanwinning and losing and,
Daniel Rock (15:25):
yeah.
Dan Clouser (15:25):
know, we want our fair share of championships.
We, you know, I've coachedplayers that have gone and
played on, you know,professionally, I've got one of
my former players right now isthe assistant general manager
for the Houston Astros.
So, you know, Winning was afocus, but it wasn't the primary
focus.
You know, we were definitely anorganization and I had a
coaching style that.
(15:46):
If you took care of the littlethings throughout the process of
preparing for the game, thewinning would take care of
itself.
So it wasn't, you know, Hey,we've got to do this.
It's like, Hey, if we do thislittle thing and this little
thing, and this little thing,and this little thing, then the
end result should turn out to bea W.
And if it's not, what can welearn?
(16:06):
What, what fell apart in thatprocess that, you know, created
the loss instead of the win andhow do we rectify that for the
next time we take the field?
Daniel Rock (16:16):
And I think this isn't necessary sports podcast,
but this is something very closeto my heart.
I've coached at a reasonablelevel and I've played a lot and
I've been a chairman of a soccerclub in New Zealand and, and
those sorts of things.
And I think that's somethingthat is lacking in non elite
sport.
And I, and by that, I mean evenlike community sport or youth
(16:36):
sport, even high level youthsport.
I would, I would put in thatbracket is that.
If you build the right cultureand the right work ethic and the
right things, the results willcome.
You know, it shouldn't be about.
Okay, we're going to doeverything to win on Saturday.
It should be.
We're doing everything to win.
So that do that.
So we build a team that can winevery Saturday, you know, and I
(16:56):
think it's that.
If you build that culture andpeople buy into, you know, the
philosophy or the processbecause they see the benefit in
it to them and to others, thenthey do it.
Whereas if it's, I'm going topick, you know, this person
who's perhaps toxic to theculture of the organization
every week because they're thebest player and they're not
going to see people, then youlose the rest of the squad or
you lose the rest of the team.
(17:17):
So I think what you said thereand looking after little things.
It's so important in that field.
And that's why you get people toinvite you to your wedding, to
their weddings, right?
Because they've bought into thatphilosophy and it feels like a
safe and unhappy place for them.
Dan Clouser (17:31):
Yeah, and, you know, our recruiting process,
we, we said, oftentimes, weweren't necessarily looking for
the best player.
For our team, we're looking forthe right player for our team.
and, and that's something thattranslates into business, you
know, and into life, and that'sone of the beautiful things
about teaching that philosophyis, you know, at the end of the
day, know, even though I love tosay about, you know, the number
(17:53):
of players that have gone on toplay professionally, or were,
you know, high level collegiateplayers, you know, at the end of
the day, the vast majority ofthe players I coached did not go
on to play professionalbaseball.
And many didn't even go on toplay collegiate baseball.
They were able to use thoselessons that they learned on the
field to become productivemembers of society, and those
(18:15):
are the ones I'm even more proudof the ones who did continue
their career in baseball.
Yes.
Yeah.
Daniel Rock (18:32):
Saban, who obviously a winning coach and
obviously used this clips of himyelling and screaming and doing
all these things.
But actually when you look athis philosophy about how he
treated his players and whenthings weren't good.
It was about the culturebuilding piece, you know, it was
all about, you know, and that'sone of the reasons he doesn't
like he retired, right?
It wasn't just because, youknow, he saw the end, but the
whole and I believe the playersshould be paid for their
(18:54):
performance on a big, you know,if there's hundreds of million
dollars in a sport, the playersshould be getting some of that,
not just a 70, 000 tuition.
Right?
But I think The changes for himaround, you know, the N.
I.
L.
Money and the transfer.
I think it was the transferportal rather than the money.
And I think he's come out andsaid that it was the transfer
portal piece where you know youno longer got the chance to work
(19:17):
with players and you no longergot a chance to build players.
And I think if you look at, youknow, and I don't know how much
you follow college footballliving in Alabama now, it's the
You can't help it.
It's in, it's everywhere.
Um, but there's a 17 year old,um, freshman called Ryan
Williams, wide receiver forAlabama, who's a phenom at 17.
Like he does things as a widereceiver that just years ago we
(19:40):
scheduled 17.
He said one year Alabama, he'slikely to go in the transfer
portal.
And go to a different collegebecause he, he can see the
money.
I have no issue with him takingthe money and the money should
go to players, but it does makeit hard to build that, that
culture and that learning piecewhere you grow young men and
young women into being somethingmore than they could be.
It then becomes an it's takescollege sport into that
(20:02):
transactional professionallevel, which I think is, wasn't
really what it was designed for.
Yep.
Dan Clouser (20:11):
country that we, we never can find the happy medium,
you know, so I'm with you.
I think players should have beengetting paid all along.
I think we took it from, youknow, 0 to, you know, 100, 000
overnight.
We're instead of graduallybuilding it because, you know,
even in youth sports, especiallyin like travel sports, you see,
(20:32):
you know, players move in andthere's no money involved here.
It's just, you know, what they,or their parents may think is
the better opportunity, youknow, one bad season.
You know, now all of a suddenthey want to jump to a team
that, that is, you know, awinning team or, or something
like that.
If they had one losing seasonand that's not really what life
is all about.
Life is again, about workingthrough that and, you know,
(20:54):
building it up.
And that's one of the thingsthat, you know, I'm very proud
of is we, we had a lot ofplayers that came on to, Our
organization at a young age at10, 12 years old and stayed with
us through their senior year ofhigh school.
And again, I think that said alot and that wasn't because we
won championships every year inbetween there.
You know, there were some kidsthat stuck through us through
(21:15):
some lean age groups where, youknow, maybe our, you know, 1 age
group was having a down year.
But they stuck around and thenthey moved up in the next year,
you know, for whatever reasonthat same group of kids with a
couple, you know, changed turnsinto a championship caliber
team, you know, so a lot to belearned again, going back to
(21:38):
that process as opposed to, oh,things aren't good here.
Let's just jump ship becauseagain, that's just not how life
is.
I mean, if, if you think of theworkplace or a marriage, you
know, not every day in amarriage is, you know, fun in
the sun, it's, you know, it'swork.
And if.
you're taught that culture ofnot having that commitment to
(21:58):
work through those difficulttimes, it just makes it so easy
to walk away from anything inyour life at that stage of the
game.
So I do think the transferportal is something that, you
know, hopefully can be addresseddown the road and still allow
the kids to, you know, takeadvantage of some of that money
that the NCAA and the schoolsare
Daniel Rock (22:16):
Yeah.
Dan Clouser (22:16):
raking in by the truckload.
Daniel Rock (22:20):
And it's about, I think you touched on there,
right?
If, if you never learned to faceadversity, you never learned to
work out how to get by whenthings are hard, then at some
point you're going to hit abrick wall in life.
You know, cause.
It's never plain sailing foreveryone, you know?
So I think that's, that's areally good point.
(22:42):
Talking of that and segwaying alittle bit.
Um, what are the challenges?
What were the challenges youfound when moving from a life
that was centralized in a singleplace to the sort of nomadic,
what are the challenges that youfaced?
What's been the difficult bitsabout that journey?
Dan Clouser (23:01):
Um, you know, probably one of the most
difficult things, and it's kindof, you know, good and bad is,
you know, developing.
There is no routine, which isgood, but there are some times
in life where you a routine, youknow, um, there's no, I too host
(23:24):
a podcast.
So there's, times where, youknow, just getting the time to
be in a spot long enough to beable to, to go back and edit and
get stuff ready to release, um,you know, making sure, uh, that,
you know, I'm going to berecording a podcast has good
internet, you know, um, Youknow, like even with this here
(23:48):
as being a guest on a podcast,you know, I I'm running internet
tests and making sure we're,we're going to be at a good spot
when, when I jump on thecomputer with you.
So, you know, from a quoteunquote business angle, that's
probably just the mostchallenging thing.
And, it didn't long to, youknow, develop, you know, what
(24:11):
that routine would be like, I'llgenerally my own show.
I make sure that we're,Recording on Tuesdays.
And then we just schedule our,our travels around a spot where
I know I'm going to be, youknow, at a stable spot with good
internet connection on a Tuesdayto record.
Um, so, you know, that'sprobably been the, the biggest
(24:32):
challenge.
I mean, it's, uh, and it's funnyhow we've, know, our travels
have changed.
Like when we first startedtraveling, I mean, we didn't,
you know, a of times on aWednesday, we didn't know where
we would be on Saturday.
Um,
Daniel Rock (24:49):
Mm hmm.
Yeah,
Dan Clouser (25:01):
where I'm signing and that sort of stuff.
So, but you know, it seems funnywhen I, I tell people, like, we
really, you know, the, the highsare so much greater than the
lows on this journey for us.
Um, and I know, you know, thingsgo wrong at times, you know, an
RV is still, you know, it'sliterally a house on wheels.
(25:22):
So, I mean, things go wrong.
And, you know, we've just beenfortunate enough that when.
you know, when stuff has gonesideways for us, we've been in a
position or in a spot where wecould get it rectified, you
know, rather quickly.
So really just the logistics of,um, you know, being at the spot
where I have to do what I haveto do as far as the podcast and
(25:45):
that sort of stuff.
And, and the work that goes in,you know, again, recording is
the first step of it.
Then everything else you got todo is you well know we get it
actually out on the internet,uh, is a whole nother, Another
kettle of fish.
So there are, you know, thereare times where I may, you know,
I generally release a new showon a Friday, you know, so
there's times where I'mfinishing up editing on Thursday
night.
(26:05):
Um, you know, and part of thatis honestly just my own
procrastination.
Um, and, and part of it is justa travel schedule that it's
like, I, I couldn't carve out anhour or two to, to sit and, you
know, get it knocked out.
Daniel Rock (26:18):
it definitely takes longer to edit these and get
them up than it does to recordthem.
The recording is definitely thequick bit.
Um, what about the real highpoints?
What is it that's made you fallin love with the lifestyle that
you're now living?
That's made you think, right,we're going to keep doing this
as long as we healthfully can.
What's, what are the real keythings there?
Dan Clouser (26:39):
the people we've met, you know, and the people
have been able to reconnectwith, and I touched on it a
little bit with, you know, myplayers and stuff, but you know,
the RV community is such aspecial, special community.
Um, you know, even just a coupleof weeks ago, friends of ours
that are also full time RVersthat we met on a volunteer
project years ago, found out wewere both, you know, in Orlando
(27:02):
at the same time.
So after I'd spoken to thatconference, we went ahead and,
you know, booked two nights atthe campground that they were
at.
And, uh, you know, we hadn'tseen them since, you know, April
when we were on anothervolunteer project with them and,
you know, just having theopportunity to sit and reconnect
with them and, um, you know, allof our other nomad friends and
(27:25):
their journeys.
And, you know, there's timeswhere we'll, we'll decide to go
to a place because one of ourfriends posted.
You know that, Hey, we were atsuch and such place.
It was a great stay or even, youknow, restaurants that they'll,
you know, they'll stop at, youknow, like there's a place out
in California called, you know,Peggy Sue's fifties diner that,
(27:47):
um, you know, friends of ourshad posted how great it was, so
we made, you know, it a pointthat when we were in California
to stop at that, that diner andcheck it out.
And, you know, we loved it.
So, um, that's really the highis just the people and really
understanding that, you know, asas what our, you know, society
(28:09):
may be, you actually just takethe time, sit down, have
conversations with people,you're going to understand that
They're much, much more deeperthan whatever their political
views may be, you know, so I'vegot friends of mine that are on
sides of the spectrum, you know,I consider myself right down the
(28:31):
middle for the most part, and Ithink you find most people are
more to the middle than theyare.
The, the extremes, if you sitdown and have, have that
conversation with them, youknow, so, um, that's probably
been the highest at the end ofthe day, you know, we found out
that we're all human beings andwe really do have the same hopes
(28:52):
and dreams and desires as whatthe vast majority of the rest of
us do.
Yep.
Daniel Rock (29:00):
explore on that I could go to, but I think I'd on
a previous episode, thispodcast, um, that hasn't hit the
air yet, but we'll do beforethis one comes out.
I interviewed, um, a gentlemancalled Dr.
Scott Allen, who does, um, A lotof, he's a doctor that works
with the immigration detentioncenters, and he's done a lot of
work in corrections and stufflike that.
And his thing is both when youget too much stuck in ideology,
(29:23):
you take the humanity out ofeverything.
Everything then becomes anumber, or they become their,
they become their politicalaffiliation, or they become the
bubble or the echo chamber thatthey're in.
And actually, when you break itdown, every human is flawed.
They have their own opinions.
They all want to know things.
And, and.
You know, I find that, you know,because I travel so much work,
you're constantly meeting newpeople.
(29:43):
And there's a lot of people whoI do not agree with on a lot of
things.
Um, but you can still be friendswith them because you can find
that you met it.
Now there's obviously going tobe limits to that, but I think
you're right.
It's, it's fine that humanityand you know, that freedom in,
just being able to talk topeople and listen to other
people's viewpoints andactually, you know, touch on
that sort of things.
Dan Clouser (30:04):
Yeah.
Daniel Rock (30:05):
sort of last real question for you is, you know,
if someone, if someone waslooking to take the plunge and
go down the RV lifestyle or thenomadic lifestyle, what are the
recommendations or what advicewould you give them?
Yeah.
Dan Clouser (30:21):
to get it all figured out before you do it.
Just do it.
So, you know, I tell people allthe time because a lot of times
I think that my wife and I wereRVers our whole lives that we
would do weekend camping andthat, you know, we've had an RV
forever.
But, you know, the truth of thematter is, I never drove an RV
until the day I drove this thingoff a lot, you know, so we were
(30:42):
completely green, you know, um,So, we But there's so many
resources out there betweenYouTube, um, you know, there's,
there's books out there.
Our one daughter did purchase abook for us.
It was, uh, a beginner's guideto living in an RV full time or
something like that.
It was absolutely incredible.
You know, wealth of informationin there that, you know, we are
(31:04):
so glad we read through it aheadof time.
Um, but, and again, go back tothat RV community.
Um, it's so giving, you willfind people to help you out
along the way.
If there's something that, thatstumps you, you know, um, I also
tell people that I am probablythe least mechanically handy
(31:24):
full time RVer in the world, butyet.
You know, we've had times whereour water pump failed on us.
We had to replace it.
We happen to be at a volunteerproject when we when it happened
and the 1 guy already had aspare water pump that he just,
know, it to me and, you know,told me just order 1 on Amazon.
(31:46):
And when it comes in, give methat 1, but this way we can get
you back up and running rightnow.
Uh, they didn't do the repairfor me.
They, they, you know, Stood overmy shoulder and told me how to
do it and showed me how to doit, which again, when we
started, if you would have toldme a couple of years into this
journey, I'd be switching outthe water pump on the RV.
I'd be like, I don't thinkthat's happening.
Um, but again, it's just, it'sthe way the community is to, you
(32:11):
know, really kind of rise up andsupport you.
So, you know, if you're thinkingof doing it.
Do it.
You don't have to have it allfigured out.
Um, you know, we're stillfiguring stuff out along the
way.
Um, and I think that's thebeauty of it and relying on
that, on that community.
I mean, just just being in acampground is a different
culture.
You know, when you're taking awalk, people say hello to you.
They smile at you.
(32:31):
They wave.
when you might be walking down,you know, a city street where
people are trying at all coststo avoid making contact with
you.
God forbid you might say goodmorning.
so it's just, it's a, it's adifferent culture.
So if it's something you're,about, just do it.
Don't worry about all thedetails.
(32:52):
Um, you know, they'll workthemselves out throughout the
journey for sure.
Daniel Rock (32:58):
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
Dan.
It's been awesome to have youon.
Dan Clouser (33:02):
Absolutely.
I
Daniel Rock (33:02):
love you to do a quick plug for your books and
the podcast and your podcast.
And I'll include some details.
Those in the show notes as well.
Dan Clouser (33:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
If people want to, uh, reach outto me, find my podcasts, my
blogs, uh, buy any of my books,um, just go to my website, which
is journey my mothers son.com,or if that's too much of a
mouthful, you can just go to danklauser.com and they both go to
the same site.
So yeah, you can reach out, bookme for speaking engagements, buy
any of my books, check out, uh,any of my past podcasts.
(33:31):
It's all right there on thewebsite, and it'll take you to
all of my socials from there aswell.
If, uh, if people wanna followme on any of the socials.
Daniel Rock (33:38):
And I would include that link in the show notes if
people do find it too much of amouthful.
So make sure they've got that aswell.
And.
Again, thank you so much, Dan,and thank you for listening to
this week's episode of whereverI lay my hat.
As I said before, this is astory about you and the journeys
that you have and yourdefinition of home.
So if you're interested infeaturing on an episode, please
(33:58):
reach out.
Um, you can just email me at Danat wherever I lay my hat.
com.
And again, thank you so much.
And I hope you enjoyed today'sshow.
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