There is no shortage of interesting characters in the little desert town where I live, and in this week’s videos, I featured one of the best: Better Call Paul.

Paul is the guy you call when you’re in a jam on the edge of Death Valley — flat tire, dead battery, stuck in the mud … Paul will get you back on the road. Locals also hit him up for car repairs, heavy lifting … or for snakes in the house (we didn’t know him well enough yet when we had our own snake incident)! 

Last week, Paul offered to take me out to see the damage wrought by the summer monsoons to CA highway 127, which has been closed for almost three months, causing massive inconvenience for the locals — and basically killing tourist traffic. 

Hwy 127 is totally busted!

127 is the most direct route from the Los Angeles area to eastern Death Valley, so the road closure has really done a number on local hotels and restaurants. I was curious to see for myself just how badly damaged this road could possibly be … so I took Paul up on his offer, and he came over to pick me up in his very unique 4×4.

The Tacombover

Paul calls his rig the “Tacombover” — because it’s a Toyota Tacoma pickup that was rolled twice by previous owners! But thanks to his mechanical genius, and the help of a local fabricator, Paul got her up and running and outfitted for any kind of crazy desert off-road adventure you can think of! She may not be purty to look at … but she’s got it where it counts.

I had a blast blazing through the desert to check out the busted highway with Paul — we saw firsthand how completely obliterated the road was, and the daunting amount of work facing the Caltrans workers who are trying to rebuild it. It was a sobering reminder of the power of water in the desert — when that much rain comes down, the parched, sun-baked ground can’t absorb it, so it goes rushing down the path of least resistance, taking out everything in its path. Yikes!

Paul’s YouTube channel logo

Paul is also involved in a local gold mining operation called the Mojave Mining Company, and said he’d take me out to see their mining operation sometime in the coming weeks. I’ve never seen a real life small-scale gold mining operation up close before, and it should be very interesting — so stay tuned for that!

In the meantime … hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving, and that you availed yourself of my Black Friday specials! If you’re signed up for my newsletter, you already knew that all my merch was 30% off today. And guess what? The 25% off sale on my gummies goes all weekend — so you still have 2 days to take advantage of that.

Last year’s calendar

Next up … I have to shoot my 2024 calendar. Check back here soon to find out how you can get one of those for your man cave — or lady loft!