Here we are, on the first part of our nomadic journey, in Orem Utah. A place that is now sadly on everyone’s map. We are staying 2 miles from the University and without the internet we would never have known. Tomorrow, we move on west, carrying positive energy about our journey and the world opening up around us.
Coming from leafy green England the landscape around Salt Lake City is magnificent. We have been looking out of our bedroom window to this view every morning. It is majestic and reminds me of Table Mountain in Cape Town. We are headed into Oregon via Idaho and there will be scenery! For the road trip we have a Chrysler Pacifica. It has more switches knobs and functions that I may master over the next month, and it has more space than we have luggage which is saying something.
Packing up and clearing out our home in the New Forest was a cathartic experience. Every item that we left behind, and there were many, carried a memory. Parting is such sweet sorrow…I can tell you all about that! We left on the first part of our journey, up to Cockermouth on the coast just south of Lancaster (well where would you start?!) with 4 enormous suitcases. It didn’t take us long to realise that a nomadic lifestyle does not require a lot of heavy stuff to lug about, especially when we got to Provo airport, just south of Orem, to discover they had no luggage trolleys and no taxis!
So now we are down to two suitcases and two carry ons; much more manageable. It reminds me of the rules for packing when I did the Long Way Round in 2009 (London to New York via Mongolia and Siberia on a motorbike). Make a list, halve it and then halve it again.
After two weeks in Orem at an extraordinary Body Electronics retreat (I will write about this separately at a later date) we got into our Chrysler Pacifica, which has a button for everything and can carry more luggage than you would know what to do with, and set off for our destination in Ashland Oregon, where Bambaji is teaching at a seminar. Everything in America is vast. A medium coffee is big enough to float an aircraft carrier, the cars are like trucks and the Mack trucks are like…Mack trucks…vast! A visit to Costco was my definition of hell. About the size of Wembley stadium and everything comes in sizes that will last to the end of time or the sell by date which will come a lot quicker.
And then there is the scenery. We started in Utah, into Idaho and then into Oregon. It’s not just beautiful its vast; this is the wide country. Mountains, canyons, waterfalls, prairie. And the roads. We have yet to hit a pothole. How’s your experience in the UK? They drive on the right, and they drive very well. You stop at stop signs and take it in turns to proceed. Not a hint of aggressive driving. Of course we are out West, I remember riding a motorbike through New York which is a different experience altogether.
Not only no potholes out here, but the road marking, signs and traffic lights all make driving a pleasure. The distances are another example of vastness. Today the sat nav said turn right on I56 and continue for 295 miles! This is a two-lane highway! The people are a pleasure too. Eager to help and fascinated by the English accent. Ask where the salt is in a supermarket they will take you right to the spot where you will find a dozen different varieties. Same for everything else, grocery shopping could take all day! I may have been ever so slightly pushy in navigating Bambaji towards the check out where another example of vast hits you in the wallet!
We are staying for a few days in Bend Oregon. Away from downtown it is delightfully sleepy and quiet. The Wi-Fi password is “smell the pines” and sitting in the hot tub you can do just that. Golden silence.
Talking of gold…you knew I’d get around to it eventually! It seems Wall Street & Co are slowly waking up to the reality that the dollar is slowly losing its hegemonic status. At the beginning of 2025 the dollar index (DXY) reached 110. Today it is at 97 and is goi ng much lower. In 2008 at the height of the GFC it was at 70. That’s not a prediction but its headed that way.
On the other side of Europe, China, Russia and India, along with the other BRICS and most of Asia de-dollarisation is centre stage. Debt is being converted from dollar loans, mainly to renminbi. Do the Chinese have the dollars. Of course they do they are the largest creditor nation. On top of that more and more commodity trades (NB oil) are structured in local currencies with net settlement in gold. The oil market is magnitudes larger that the gold supply hence the inexorable rise in the gold price.
There will be some volatility along the way, with gold hovering around $3600, especially in the miners, where the gains so far look spectacular, but have only just started to get going. Pull backs are inevitable, but unlikely to go far or last too long. Got gold?
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