How I spend my days

I get this question all the time. And the answer depends on where I am. Right now my primary goal is to get the bus up to snuff to fulltime in it. I have been fulltiming in it since mid April but depending on my circumstances I may be actively working on it in a variety of ways.
For Example, at Bronson's where I was for a month my main goal was to get rid of excess stuff by selling it. I needed the space and I needed the cash for the clutch repair. In between that I was sanding my jeep down, putting bondo on dents, sanding bondo down, prepping for painting, primed the jeep, painted the jeep, polished clear coat. All this so I could sell the jeep. I got very little done in the way of improvement on the bus. Not because I didn't want to but because I could not unload all my stuff into a business parking lot to work on it. Plus all extra money went to mechanic to fix clutch. Plus buy food for me and pets. I enjoyed working on the jeep and I think I did a good job on it.

First pics are of the jeep where I stripped it of all paint. I did this part before heading out on bus.
These are some pics of work getting done at Bronson's. Rain is the enemy to a vehicle that is stripped to bare metal. I was dodging rain and sanding surface rust off the jeep constantly.
Primed Jeep- I half wish I would have just thrown clear coat on this primer job and gone with it but I had already bought the $180 metallic Green non-refundable paint.

I then wet sanded with 400 grit wet/dry paper until the primer shined!

Then I used Bronson's paint gun when he was home feeling under the weather. He learned he could trust me and let me use his shop. I started at midnight and didn't finish the paint job and clear coats until 6am. Before I even began painting I had spent about 6 hours prepping jeep to be painted by taping up everything I didn't want paint on.



Then after clear coat cured for 24 hours I had to sand out minor imperfections. What the 600 grit did to my jeep nearly stopped my heart. But I had full confidence that polishing would bring back the original luster.
After initially polishing only a few swirl marks are left that the finishing compound will take out.
I think some people might the impression that life on the road is easy or worse that I expect it to be easy. Far from it. I work harder and longer than I have ever in my life. Life's uncertainty's are more pronounced. But I have never been happier. I know that whatever obstacle comes my way I will find a way to overcome it.

Sometimes before I go to bed I decompress by watching a movie on my laptop. But that is testing the limits of the laptop battery, so the movie needs to be under 2 hrs in order for me to enjoy the movie to the ending.

Today is a typical "not able to work on the bus" day. I did fabricate a screen for my fold up rear window. That took me 3 hours. I had calculated it would only take me an hour. Therein lies my biggest problem. I conceptually understand what needs to be done and calculate based on that. What I still need to figure in is the real world application of doing something I have never done before in my life. That means tripling my original estimates. I sold my portable DVD player on craigslist. I am currently at a coffee house to check emails and update my blog. I also shop for good deals on craigslist for items I need for the bus. My next major improvement will be electrical. I need solar panels and deep cycle batteries to store the power. Then I will work on plumbing. I need to install a toliet, shower, sink and tanks to accompany them. Then at that point I will be road ready. For those of you who keep asking my timeline, well it isn't always up to me. I am trying to sell my trailer now to get more money for new improvements. And get my bus registered in Columbia (while I am here). In a perfect world I would be leaving for my ramblings in a week. but I have been hoping for that for months and something always comes up. It took a month to sell my jeep, the guy gave me $500 deposit and then took a month to get me rest of the balance. Not the way I would have scripted it but nobody's life sticks to the script. But I adapt and make the most of any situation I am in. And life is never, ever boring for me.