Latest Project

Ok, the task at hand is to have electricity on the bus. For those of you who don't have your electrician's license, let me give you the simple explanation of my dilemma. On a Motorhome electricity can be supplied by AC current (like your house) and DC current (like your car). I am currently using AC current powered by my generator to provide me with air conditioning. I want to take that same AC power and be able to use it to provide electricity to some wall outlets I am going to install. That means that whenever the generator is running I can plug something up and use it like laptop, microwave, vacuum cleaner, power tools. As I mentioned before the generator can get pretty pricey when used extensively not to mention that there is some noise pollution that others around me might not appreciate.
So after I am fully equipped to take fully advantage of my generator my bigger quest will be to get my DC system going. This will be my bread and butter of electricity when on the road. Basically, I will use power stored in Deep Cycle batteries (like car batteries but can be drained more and recharged). I will start off with two of these batteries, each providing 125 amp hrs when full. I will then hook up a nifty little device called an inverter that converts the battery power from DC to AC so I can plug in all my cool stuff and have lights. The interesting part is going to be how to charge those batteries. If I lived in a traditional house I would just plug a battery charger in the wall and hook it up to the batteries until fully charged. I have to be more creative now. I can use the alternator of my bus when I am driving to provide a charge to the batteries. I hook up a battery isolator that allows me charge starting battery (bus battery) and my house batteries (deep cycle battery) That is good, as long as I am driving somewhere. Not so good to run the diesel engine just to charge the batteries. I can plug a battery charger in whenever I am running generator and charge the batteries that way. Or I can do it my ideal way, which is a combination of both of those plus Solar power. In the context of living like I want Solar power is sweet, free, consistent power. They charge my batteries during the day and I deplete them at night. There will have to be some wattage monitoring on my part so I don't kill the batteries every night. But it isn't like I will be Tivo'ing Days of our Lives. I just need a little light and power for basic essentials. I won't be able to run the Air Conditioning off of the batteries, but with cooler months on the way and my ability in the future to drive up into the Colorado mountains for cooler temps I am not as worried about Air Conditioning.
So there, in a nutshell, is my current endeavor. After electricity comes plumbing, and after plumbing comes hitting the road. Plumbing will be easier than electricity but needs to be logistically thought out more.
Here are some photos of wiring for AC current off of generator that I started working on last night. Nothing sexy to you maybe, but a thing of beauty to me.

Pets

I think it is worth noting that pets have added unplanned challenges to the bus conversion. I am traveling with my dog and two cats. I have to accommodate them constantly. It seems every little thing I do has to be done with pet planning in mind. Even now as I sit in the library, my furry friends are on the bus in the afternoon heat. Although I have it well insulated, much better than a typical car (even more than most RV's) but not so good as a house. All window are tinted and have drapes on the inside. Walls have 2 inches of foamboard insulation. Roof is painted with reflective white elastometric paint. Floor has a half inch foam board, then half inch subfloor then carpet or linoleum. The small space still heats up quickly. Think about how long it takes your car to get hot on a summer afternoon after you turn off the air conditioner. My bus takes about 15 minutes. I need to be able to circulate a breeze in there without losing my animals or possessions. It is too expensive to run the generator all day (about a gallon of gas an hour), so this past week I became a master screen builder. Well, 'master' may be a bit generous... but the screens are holding up and don't look too bad either. I had to custom fit the long back window that flips up, the side emergency door and the front door. The front door has only a bottom half screen that my clever cats (think of the penguins from the cartoon Madagascar) have learned to get around and over. I close and lock front door when I leave the bus. So now I can spend a little time indoors working on my blog, finding out how to build a better bus, search out the best deals in town... instead of running in, checking email and running out. I'm back in Greenville and the weather is wonderful. While I was in Columbia, it was so hot that if I left the animals for 15 minutes they were all panting (bad sign when cats are panting).
The heat isn't the only problem area. The very fact that my critters are independent like me makes them want to go out and explore at every stop we make. This is rarely a good idea for them as truck stops, rest areas, parking lots and other high traffic areas are not pet friendly. Every time I leave I have to make sure none of them is lurking around the corner ready to make a mad dash the second I crack open the front door. This also goes for my re-entry onto the bus. This is one of the things I have learned the hard way. I have lost both cats during this trip. Miss Priss (not a sissy name, just one that reflects her delusional impression of self grandeur and her mistaken idea that her every wish be catered to) hopped off the bus in a Bi-Lo parking lot in Greenville but I went back there the next evening and she came strolling up with the 'what took you so long' attitude. Oscar jumped ship at the same Bi-Lo, and being a simpler thinking beast, it took me two evenings of going back, walking around the parking lot calling his name until he ran out from underneath the shed next to a Wings restaurant. I don't know if he was expressing his thanks for coming back or if he was complaining about camping outdoors for two nights but he was sending out meow's like a kid trying to get a parent's attention. Mom, mom, mom, mom...meow, meow, meow, meow. I use Nala, my black lab to help keep things in order. She is protector of the cats and playmate, but strangely she likes no other cats. I mean she Really doesn't like them. It is the only time I have to worry that she will run off /or cross a road without my permission is when another cat is visible. I don't like to walk Nala on a leash, the only times I do are when she has lost her ever loving mind to hyper activity, when walking around other people who may have an irrational fear of all dogs (parks), and high risk or legally required areas.
The cats are verbal when they want food, Nala just gives me the look, that unfortunately I confuse sometimes with the I gotta pee look.
Other idiosyncrasies of pet travel: When I drive Nala insists on sitting on the front step, next to the window of the front door. Only once have I forgotten to latch the door before taken off. At the first left hand turn the door starts to open...thank God for my Matrix like reflexes. I think it scared me more than her.
The cats usually find a comfortable place to chill (which I use the term comfortable loosely, as no ride is truly comfortable, like riding a roller coaster isn't comfortable). But every once in a while they will engage in cat wailing, hair raising, skin crawling simulated mating. I suppose it is to provide me with the same comfort my driving is giving them. They are both fixed and they have never done this before but have done it 4 times now, and only while I am driving. I solve the problem by sending Nala back there by suggesting there are foreign cats onboard and they are hassling our family cats. She dutifully zooms back there calms things down and comes back with the 'I took care of it' look and resumes her spot at the bottom of the steps by the door.
All the pictures I have of my road mates are spontaneous, none are posed. I have missed many a good shot before I learned to keep my camera in my pocket at all times.
I truly enjoy traveling with my pets. I have worries ahead that I don't face now. If I am out camping in some remote area where I don't have to keep the animals out of traffic what new dangers do I have to look out for? Bears, coyotes, foxes, scorpions, lost/trapped pet. I have all the animals trained to come when I call. The cats have a special 'no fooling' call that I use only in emergencies, they have been rewarded with their favorite culinary delight - pure tuna juice.

Walmart People Watching
Substitute Bus Driver


Watching a rain storm together out the back window

I ready to go when you are. (or Why is my water bowl holding the windshield?)

Perceptions

I have found it interesting all the different kinds of feedback I get from people about my bus conversion plans. Only a handful of people seriously think this is a cool idea and seem genuinely envious. Most people are skeptical to say the least. And it seems the closer they are to me the more vocal they are about their doubts. It no longer bothers me...in fact it illustrates the very reason why I am doing this. Not a single person who tries to share their negative viewpoints have the type of lives I want. It seems that they are passing along the same negative attitude that kept them from chasing their dreams. The people I look up to, that are universally icons of success, were not following conventional wisdom. They broke from the beaten path and made their own way. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mother Theresa, Richard Branson, Bono, Edmund Hillary, Crocodile Hunter to name a few. For most of my life I fell into the trap of following the advice of the mediocre masses. The ones that said go to college, get a job, get married and have kids. That was the extent of their wisdom. They knew nothing else, nor did they care to know anymore. I am not built that way. I have an itch that needs scratching. I crave adventure, excitement. Creature comforts are nice, but not a high priority for me. I finally am truly getting to know myself and I want to take a full measure of the man I am. How much can I survive? How much can I learn? How much does the world have to teach me?
This is not a criticism of people who aren't like me. It is an epiphany of why people are not supportive of things like what I am doing. What if Bill Gate's friends in college said 'don't drop out of college and go into something unknown like computers. It might not even catch on." What if Mother Theresa's peers said don't help the poor in India, you might catch leprosy or get killed, or you won't make a difference. So many people have excellent hindsight and can see what a good idea something is after the fact. But I have realized that fear is a powerful force in most people's lives. Just about everybody I have ever talked with has some form of repressed dream that they never let manifest. And they are armed with reasons (excuses) for not pursuing them. Granted some things are legitimate concerns that could make things more difficult. If I had a family this may be considerabley more difficult...or it might not be. Having a partner to help and discuss ideas and offer general support would be priceless. That is why most people Fulltime with a spouse.
Material wealth is not a goal of mine but I could see it be a byproduct. If I were to do something I loved (ie adventure travel, etc) then I would be successful and money may follow. But again the richest people in the world aren't working because they need the money, they do it because they love it. The mediocre people are playing the lottery thinking that the money will make them happy. I heard once, imagine that you had $200 million, what would you do during the day. How would you fill you days? This defines what you love.
My definition of success is happiness with my life. I only need enough money to get by. I don't need more to impress anyone or buy things I don't need. I need enough to gas up the bus, feed me and the pets, and a little bit for maintenance, improvements and repairs of the bus. Yes, if I had $200 million life would be easier, but I don't necessarily crave easier. I crave the challenge. I would still keep the same bus I have now, maybe buy all the dream accessories I want (Solar panels, diesel generator, big refrigerator). But I don't really dream of those things, I am too busy figuring out my next step. And that gives me purpose. Once the bus is road worthy I don't want to go parking in RV parks all the time, maybe once a week. The rest of the time I want to be boondocking off the beaten path in national parks, or where ever I am.
I feel like although I don't have many of the things that made my previous life convenient that I am not in any way suffering. In fact, I am more self satisfied with my accomplishments thus far than anything else I have done before. This is truly me and my goal. Everything else...college, jobs...have been at the coaxing of others and was their wish for me. But that is a little too generic for me.
I like the random people I meet in my limited travels so far. I have found my bus is very approachable (vs the million dollar rock star bus). Countless girls in a Walmart parking lot stop and ask about it, truckers at rest areas stop me and spent half an hour talking about my bus and their similar dreams of doing a conversion. I will start asking them if they mind me taking their photo to put on my blog. I enjoy these sometimes random visits.
Then there are the people who have gone the extra mile that helped me incredibly. Stacey and Andre Burger, Bronson, Grandma, and Heather who all gave me a place to park so I could get work done on my bus. And they all provided me with the sweet lifeline of an extension cord to their electricity. Their kindness is appreciated deeply.
Charles Bordner who employed me to tile his bathrooms when I needed a job. A job site where I could bring my dog, do my laundry, take a shower and get on the internet. Elizabeth Hanner and Britt McGregor who helped me out in countless ways from letting me borrow a trailer to get supplies from home depot, to odd jobs to make a little extra money, to giving me food from their pantry that they weren't going to use.
Not too surprising is the random acts of kindness from strangers. Todd, the guy who fixed my clutch; Brian who bought my jeep and in the meantime provided a place for me to park the bus, John, the owner of a small business in Mauldin who allowed me to stay behind his business with electricity and access to water and Wifi. Greg, the guy in Mauldin who had done a school bus conversion himself and provided me with tons of insight and just plain great conversation. He also took me to run errands a couple of times and even bought me lunch (and he gave me what seemed like 5 lbs of his tasty boiled peanuts that he sold at local race tracks). The guy I forget his name, that stopped by and talked then went home and brought me a couple of RV parts manuals so I could see what is out there for the RV market.
My brother Mark, for the great pair of brand new gym shoes. I had held off buying some because they were a definite necessity although they were mighty close to being on the must have list.
My neighbor, who out of the blue on the day before I moved out gave me so much cool stuff I can't even list it all. 3 wet suits, plumbing supplies, electric supplies, tools, coolers, rock climbing gear. A treasure trove perfect for my adventure.
I have become very grateful for the simplest of gestures and gifts. In fact for every setback I encounter, there is an equal or greater help out there from someone. Today I realized my fuel line is dry rotted in a spot to the point that fuel is actually leaking through the side of the hose. It is a very slow leak, with a drop of diesel falling every 2 minutes. Definitely needs fixin'. But something good will happen soon, it always does. The fuel line thing seems like a simple fix. The tough part is disconnecting the line from the gas tank without all the fuel draining onto the ground. I will research online to find a fix. I also need to find about 6ft of 13/32 fuel line. I'm thinking autozone.
Here are some photos that I have of people from my journey so far.

The Burger Clan:



Random Girl in Walmart parking lot:

Bus Mechanic:
Final thoughts on perceptions:
As I am typing this in the coffee shop, there is a couple of girls who sat down at a large round table (think big round table at cracker barrel) where a guy was already seated. Evidently the girls are having a bible study. The guy makes a comment about 15 minutes later because he can't help but overhear their conversation. Nothing too much, but he mentioned he was nostic, which is clearly different from what the girls believe. The girls are curious about this strange new belief. Then another man at another table comes over and joins the conversation. Basically, the new guy (in his 50's) is coming to actively debate the original guy's beliefs. The Original guy (about 30) is nice, polite and knows he is being ambushed. He doesn't want to debate but engages in conversation to explain his point of view. The young girls ( maybe all of 18) don't engage, but listen to the older gentleman quoting Josh McDowell and other mainstream christian writers. Then the older gentleman takes the tactic that he wants to pray, and he proceeds to pray for this poor misquided soul. I almost feel the need to go over and defend the the nostic guy, not because I agree with him, but because I believe a person should not be accosted, judged and subjected to fools like the uninvited guy. But the nostic is very calm, very cool, very polite and has handled the guy nicely.
I do NOT like evangelical christianity, it is intrusive, self important, and closed minded. To me this is Christianity in its bastard form. There are no other topics that people can have in a coffee shop where people feel the need to get up and interrupt a conversation to tell someone they are wrong. It is basically rude and self righteous. I think it is a particular problem here in the bible belt of the southeast. I want the free exchange of ideas and the mutual respect of people to not agree. I personally find someone of a different belief interesting to talk with, I don't have a need to change their beliefs.
One of my hero's, Mother Theresa, preached through her actions of love, kindness and caring not by telling people they were wrong. She didn't try to convert but if asked didn't hesitate to share her beliefs.
Politics being the other hot button topic. I find an amazing lack of respect in dialogue pertaining to religion and politics. I find it hard to understand why people grasp to what they know and don't even want to hear what others think, lest they might learn something new. Perhaps their purpose is to give me a chance to work on my own patience issues. I need alot of work.

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.