It isn't always sexy

Not everything I do can involve fire or cutting wood or braving the cold. He-man stuff...the kind of stuff that causes chest hair to sprout out of the top of my shirt. Sometimes I have to be domestic. Cooking, Cleaning and Sewing. Yeah, I sew. I got my start when I repaired the soft top on my Jeep. I used extra strong nylon thread and a big ol' needle. That's kind of cool sewing. Tonight I used my sewing skills to make some curtains. Previously my curtains have been old drapes cut to fit windows with tattered edges where I cut them with the scissors. I've decided I am going to upgrade my curtain standard. Not more ratty curtain edges. I finally made curtains for the back windows and I wanted the edges to look better than previous projects. I'm not going to say I did a spectacular job but it did turn out more rustic than Frankenstein. I did it all by hand and it took 3 hours. The hardest part was threading that blasted needle. Tomorrow I am will tackle the back side windows with matching curtains.

Wedding Week

Finally able to blog again after a busy week preparing for my brother's wedding this past weekend. I arrived here in Nashville Jan 17th. I did about a dozen loads of laundry the first couple of days, washed the bus (a 3hour event itself), cleaned up and put stuff out for my short stay in front of my brother's house. It is truly a luxury to have stable, level parking, electrical hookups, easy bathroom access, and blazing fast WiFi. My brother Keith and his now new wife, Bethany gave me a goldmine of what they deemed 'junk' electronics that I could unload on craigslist. I will also find a job to earn a little money for the next leg of my travel. Nashville has all kinds of cool opportunities so I am optimistic about finding something that is right up my alley.

I have posted many pics on facebook from my brother's wedding but I will include a few here for followers here.

The bus parked in front of my brothers house
Me and my niece, Abigail, in front of aquarium
Me and my niece, Emily at Wedding Rehearsals
My brother's, Mark and Keith (Keith, on the right, is the one who got married)
Bethany and Keith (Bride and Groom) reviewing details with Al (who married them).
Wedding stumble causes major knee injury, Keith and Bethany come out to offer assistance minutes before exchanging vows.
Then the professionals come take over...
Kissing at the Reception
Heading off to hotel and then Tahiti for two weeks


Then it is time for me to loosen up that night with Keith's roommate and some of his friends.
Before we head out, Jenni soaks her cell phone with water. Time to whip out hairdryer for another non-hair related purpose.

Amy (coincidently she graduated from the same high school I did) and Jason (my brother's roommate) catch up.
Amy has great style
Keith 'Shack' Shackleford and Alexis strike a pose

Leaving Greenville

The two weeks prior to leaving Greenville have been hectic. Two days before I was to leave I got some R&R time with a few friends at Britt McGregor's house. We sat around the fire pit, had a few drinks and shared stories. The perfect low key night with friends. Britt and I went out downtown on my very last night in town. Great finale to over 12 years in Greenville.

Stacey, Pat, Me, Britt
Fireside chat- Elizabeth, Britt, Pat, Stacey, Me

Elizabeth captivated by master storyteller Stacey Burger
My dog, Nala and Britt's dog, Banks
I woke up to rainy weather Saturday morning and hit the road for Nashville. I split the trip into two parts to practice overnighting in an unfamiliar town. I chose Chattanooga for my layover, because it had gotten dark and the bus was running on fumes. Driving the bus at night, on unfamiliar, mountainous roads, in the rain, at highway speeds required too much attention to be fun. I parked in the Cracker Barrel parking lot.
It was still raining when I woke up Sunday morning and continued to Nashville.

This sign means keep both hands on the wheel and eyes on the road and don't pretend to be Ansel Adams with the camera.
Bundled up cause there is no working heat on the bus and I have to leave window cracked so windows don't fog up.

Ice on canyon walls in foggy mountain pass

Temporary stereo system- Iphone stabilized by smelly sock

I stole a play from the Nascar playbook and practiced the super safe art of drafting behind big rigs in order to increase gas mileage.

I arrived safely. And I am hooked into my brother's electricity and his electic space heater keeps the bus very warm. Weather feels downright balmy. Lows are in the high 40's. This week I will be getting ready for Keith's wedding. Last night we went to dinner and played poker with his guy friends. Good time. Gotta run and get my suit altered and cleaned to get kerosene smell out of it.

Thawed out

I held off posting this segment because every time I looked at the pics I experienced vivid flashbacks. It felt like my core temperature would drop, my body would shiver so violently that I wasn't able to type, and I would curl up into the fetal position making noises very similar to a hurt squirrel. Now I can look at the pics without putting on an extra coat.
Actually, I just held off posting cause the photos just aren't that exciting. But an excellent illustration of my coldest night on the bus.
It was a Saturday night, a little over a week ago. I have increasingly become better acclimated to the cold over the past couple of months. Good thing, because the temperatures have taken a nosedive in the past few weeks. The lowest known temperature I had previously been in was around 19 degrees. On this Saturday night, I am sure it had to hit single digits. I ran the Kerosene heater all night and slept comfortably under my thick stack of blankets/sleeping bags. The next morning was really cold.
Remember the condensation issue I had been bellyaching about the past couple of weeks. It turned into an icing issue!

This picture shows the rear window (the one right next to my bed). It has the cellophane insulation over the window and held in place at the bottom with duct tape. You can see the ice start as soon as the cellophane comes in contact with the metal wall. Window is obviously insulated but the metal shell, not so much.

The pic below shows further beneath the window, where condensation has started to flow but became frozen. I crammed my sweater in a crevice to help keep the cold at bay.

This is my frosty toilet. So inviting.
Nala staying warm. The window from above pics is behind the curtain.

I was only mildly uncomfortable. I have gotten use to dealing with the cold. I am surprised that ice formed on the inside, especially with heater going. I will need to address the issue because that will be an insulating issue in the summer as well. The winter weather shows me weak spots in my insulation.

Fun with Fire

On my last trip to Spartanburg, I cleaned off the remaining stuff off the property, burning what I could. All metal and concrete will have to be hauled off by Jason. I only considered this mild work since having a bonfire and torches is so enjoyable for me.
Burning off the last remnants of stuff I will not be taking with me.

Then I drizzled a little motor oil marinade on the pile
I found a hard hat on the property, and as someone who firmly believes safety should be somewhere on my top 3 priority list, I used the construction helmet during torch lighting.

Attempting to light oil torch
Lighting Diesel torch
Successful ignition
The Diesel torch made a better tiki torch.


Conclusion: Oil torch outperforms Diesel torch in longevity and 'warding off wild animals' swing tests. Diesel torch lights quicker.

See video below for Oil torch demo.




The next day, I had to make another fire, this time I was burning some items that may or may not be 'appropriate' to burn. One item gave me a big surprise. When it caught fire, it started creating the blackest, thickest smoke I have ever seen. And the fire literally roared. It looked like the base of the smoke was flammable and the fire was burning the smoke. And the fire stretched out dangerously far from the pit. It burned inside the smoke a good 5 ft at least. I jumped back and pulled out my camera and took a couple of pics.

My smoke signal to local fire towers.
I put no more of that stuff on the fire.

Random Pics

Leah, do not read this post. The 'S' word is pictured below.


I was doing some raking for a friend and came across two separate nests of baby snakes. Here are two of them from one nest. You are looking at their white underbellies because they were under the leaves and they got rolled by the rake.


This one was discovered upright.And then he tried to head off... and I cut his head off (in the photo only, not real life)
I spent Christmas holidays with Pam, Heather and Heather's girls. We went to afternoon Christmas service at her church. That night, after the kids went to bed, we broke out the adult beverages before putting the Wii 'Rock Band' together. And then of course, testing it for a few hours to make sure it worked.
Heather had some champagne called 'Bitch Bubbly'...you can't hide class.

Pam, with her Christmas Margarita.
Here are some of the pets I shared Christmas with. They are all sleeping on the couch I will eventually crash on for the night. The dog on the back is way too big to play cat.

I was clearly in the house of animal lovers. Not shown, my lab Nala, a chihuahua, 3 more cats and a hermit crab.

Surviving the cold

Ok, it has gotten colder. And there is a big difference from 29 degrees down to 20 degrees. My heater barely warms up the bus. It is just too much surface area that is contact with the exterior. The heater is not designed to heat up this much space with such bitter cold only 6 inches away, and that is the extent of my thickest insulation in the walls under the windows. Me saying my bus is weather proof because I have been comfortable when temperature drops to 30 is like saying it is waterproof because it keeps the rain out. But if I drove it into a lake I am sure I would find it weak spots.
I am not complaining, I am just surprised at the difference. Instead of condensation I have frost on the inside of my windshield that forms about 2 hours after the sun goes down. I scrape the frost off, condensation appears and immediately freezes. So I have a new battle. As with most things prevention goes a long ways. I leave a the side window cracked if I plan on driving it again after the sun goes down. During the day, I find that if I park the bus with the windshield towards the sun that condensation will not form. I am just adapting to cards I am being dealt and look forward to learning new 'tricks' to make condensation maintenance more efficient.
A nice surprise is that even when I turn off the heater before I go to sleep, my multitude of blankets, comforter, sleeping back keeps me nicely warm. Getting up in the morning is tougher. The cold freezes the water in my pet's water bowl. My flooring consists of metal bus floor, covered by 1/2in foam board, covered with 1/2in plywood, covered with linoleum. Not much insulation there. And all 4 sides of my bus are exposed to the wind and cold, unlike a house which has either earth or crawl space to keep the most crispy cold at bay. Same idea with an attic.
I suppose when I camp in 0 degree weather I will have some new revelations.

I am heading back to Spartanburg this week to pack up and clean up the area. I plan on having lots of new pics when I return.

New Year's Eve and the C-C-Cold

It's cold. The forecast looks identical for the next 10 days. Highs around 40, Lows around 20. Knowing it will be this cold for so long is disheartening. I knew it would be cold some, but in my pampered fixed home dwelling life before it seemed South Carolina only had a few truly cold days in the middle of unseasonably warm temperatures. I am much closer to the outdoors now. I will suck it up and make the best of it, but the initial shock literally can take your breath away.
Finding outdoor work is unlikely and if I do succeed I have numbing coldness to look forward to. My mind sometimes likes to insulate me from harsh truths until my body delivers the message.

Last night was warm enough, although the heater only heated the back 1/3 of the bus comfortably. It wasn't too bad. Taking Nala out for her walks was the toughest part. That and I don't like being holed up on the bus. Winter time is always blah here. No snow for winter activities, but also no snow for hazardous driving and metal corroding salt. I turned off the heater before going to sleep and to my surprise the bus wasn't any colder than the coldest time before. I could clearly see my breath but my extremeties hadn't frozen. My pets were snuggled around me (actually Miss Priss slept on my hip, perhaps to take advantage of the scientific principle that heat rises). I run the heater for an hour to thaw things out and make my breath disappear. Run over to Burger King to use their bathroom facilities. Then head out to the Pelham rd library, where I currently am. I am sitting in one of the cozy padded pleather arm chairs by the windows. The beautiful, condensation free, double-paned windows. I can still feel some cold, especially if I put the back of my hand within a couple of inches of them.

I spent a great New Year's eve with my friend Donna, her family and friends. I parked the bus in their driveway taking up virtually every square inch that it offered. They allowed me to plug an extension cord in so I could have power to recharge batteries and have light. I was fed beef from cows that must have been fed choice grain by personal servants. It was cooked as a roast but was more tender and delicious than filet mignon. When I departed they even sent some along with me. I dined on Heavenly beef and garlic butter Pasta Roni last night, with a cherry coke chaser. Then I snacked to my belly's content on holiday colored peanut M&M's. Life is good.
I enjoyed the company...The frenchman, Nicolas (pronounced like Ricola) provided interesting stories in his strong French accent. He reminded me of a masculine Pepe Lepew. But that is because I don't receive enough culture in my diet and childhood references are the best I have now. I met Jack Bacot and his wife, Karen. Jack is the editor of a local magazine and I wish I could have talked to him more. He did point me in the direction of 'On the Road' with Jack Kerouac, a book I have heard mentioned many times before about a guy who writes of his travels across the country. Jack B. told me how Jack K. had written these stories on one long continuous roll of paper and submitted it that way to be published. It makes me feel lazy to just blog. But I have made peace with that guilt.

They are dimming the lights here, so I need to wrap up. I have to go move the bus to a new parking location and prepare for the cold. I will start photographing things again soon.