Life must go on… Moving cross country part two.

It’s so hard, but, life must go on. There will never be another day that I won’t miss my precious angel.

 

I’ve told  the story of moving cross country in a bus, well now it’s time for part 2. After landing in Ca. and settling in, it didn’t take long to get homesick for New England and think we had made a mistake moving west. So, being people of action, we sold our house, bought another bus (Joy Bus) from the Claremont church of Christ. A yellow 1963 dodge bus with smiley faces all down the side. I gutted it out and as usual, got ready to head out with my gypsy caravan.

This time, I had a crew cab dodge 4 wheel drive pickup with the 33 roadster hooked to the rear on a towbar. (I swear I put more miles towing that car than driving it), and a Honda motorcycle in the bed of the truck. We had bought a new S-10 pickup and we hooked a U haul trailer to the rear of it. Now, we had the same problem I had the first trip. 3 vehicles and only 2 of us. No problem, a guy I knew said he was a trucker and he’d drive the bus if I’d fly him home. Sounded like a plan. Headed out and was feeling good as the desert went flying by. That didn’t last too long. Old Tony comes on the cb and say’s we need to stop for some food. Ok,no big deal. After a food break, we hit the road again. Now, you’ve got to understand, there was a storm blowing from west to east and we were running ahead of it. We hadn’t driven more than a couple of hours when over the cb comes Tony. We’ve got to stop for the night he say’s, I’m a little tired. Ok, we pull off the interstate and catch a few zzzz’s. early the next morning, we hit the road and now, I want to make some time. sure enough, less than an hour into driving the old cb starts blaring . Tony thinks we should stop and get breakfast. This time however, I ignore him and press on. We made good time and were across AZ. and NM. and into Texas before I decide to stop and let him eat. After food, back on the road. You must understand, I’m a point A to point B kind of guy when traveling. That and I saw the storm was gaining on us. Things went along pretty smoothly across Texas and it wasn’t until I was between Dallas and Fort Worth that disaster struck. I was tooling along pulling the old 33 roadster when suddenly, I felt a jerk on the hitch. looking in the mirror, I saw that the rearend had broken it’s welds (it was welded solid for drag racing) and was dragging behind the car hooked only by the emergency brake cables. Luckily there was an exit right there, so I shot up the off ramp and pulled into a shell gas station. the convoy followed and we all stood there examining the situation. No big deal, I opened the back of the bus and pulled out the floor jack, 2 jack stands, and my cutting torches. Rolled the rear back under the car and got ready to gas weld it back in place. About this time, the pimply faced pump jockey strolls over and say’s “you can’t work on that right there because you’re sitting on top of the fuel tank lids”. I just lit the torch and told him that he’d better run then because I wasn’t going anywhere. Took maybe 15 minutes to re-weld the rear into place. I had just finished when Tony came over and told me that he couldn’t take the stress and was going home. Ha… some trucker. I told him I hope you don’t think I’m flying you home from here. No, he said he’d already called a cab to take him to the bus station. So, a cab came, and he jumped in. About this time, the wife comes out of the convenience store and see’s Tony driving away in the cab. Now I’ve got a problem. 3 rigs, 2 drivers. So I told the wife, “would you like to live here in Dallas because we’re kind of stranded”. Needless to say, she saw no humor in this.

I saw a motel across the lot from the station, so, I drove the bus over, then the truck with roadster while wife drove the S-10 over. Sitting in the motel trying to decide what to do. Finally, I call my friend George in Vermont. Hey George have you ever flown. George no, why. Well get yourself to the airport there’s a ticket waiting for you. Ok say’s George without a moments hesitation. That people is why I consider him my friend.(and there are very few people I call friend. Now,I had to rush over to the airport and purchase a ticket. No problem, flight arrives at 2:30. I’m sitting there when the flight arrives, watching all the smiling faces departing, but, no George. Damn, I figure he missed the flight. Check at the desk, they tell me another flight comes in at 4:00. So I wait and sure enough, he comes smiling George. Did you miss the plane I asked. No he said. When I got to the check in I found if I took the later flight I could save you 40 bucks. A friend for sure.

Now with 3 drivers we can hit the road again. Unfortunately, the storm we were ahead of of caught up with us and now we’re driving in blinding rain storms with howling cross winds. Needless to say I had some choice words for Tony.  We made it into Arkansas and it was interesting to say the least seeing all the houses under water with people sitting on roofs. It was somewhere on I-30 that the dodge truck backfired and quit running. Coasted to the shoulder. Being familiar with slant six motors, I quickly figured out the distributor gear had stripped. (cheap plastic crap). Problem was it was Sunday morning in a drowning rain. Looking over the field I saw a junkyard so I ran over there, hopped the fence and found a six cylinder mopar and took the distributor. Felt a little bad about it, but, I needed to push on. Got the truck running again and once more we were off. It was an uneventful trip clear to Virginia. There ,we decided to stop at the wife’s relatives and I could tinker with the dodge because the heater wasn’t working and the throw out bearing was making a little noise.George decided to keep going so he could get back to work and I figured why not? the bus was purring. That night, I get a call from George. He say’s I’m in Edison New Jersey and the bus caught fire and the police had it towed. Geeez, a guy just can’t get a break. So, woman and I pile into the S-10 and with trailer in tow off we go. Made it to Edison about 2:30 am and sat in a donut shop waiting for morning.

Come morning, I drove to the tow yard, and there sat old Joy bus still hanging on the back end of a 3 axle Kenworth wrecker. This will cost me a small fortune I thought to myself. Went into the office and started talking to the owner. While standing there I noticed some pictures of dirt race cars on his wall. Turns out he sponsored one that raced at Flemington. We got to talking race cars and I told him we did a bit of racing too. He said he saw the quick change rear end and 15″ wide rims in the back of the bus. We wandered out to the bus and I crawled under and saw the problem right away. Someone had run the positive battery cable over the steering rod and the constant rubbing finally wore through and thus the dead short and burnt wires. I saw the starter was toast, but other than that and the burned cable, I could find no other damage. Next problem is where does one find a starter motor for a 1963 big block 318 motor? Simple… Owner tells me “up on the hill under an old hood next to a divco milk truck should be one”. Off I truck, up the hill past about a thousand junkers and sure enough, there’s a Divco milk truck and under the hood next to it a starter. Complete with the battery cable still attached. Takes me no time to replace the starter, he let’s it down and I hit the key. Fires right up. Back to the office for the bill. Well, he says, you being a fellow racer how about $75 dollars. Man, some days it does go right. I pay and we are off again. We drive straight to Vermont without further issue and George heads off to work (won’t take any money), and we empty the U haul and return the trailer.

Wife decides to stay in Vt and find us a place to stay so I hop a greyhound and head back to Virginia to fetch the truck and motorcycle. Once in Va, I tear into the truck and find the a broken collar for the throw out bearing. Since I had no other vehicle available to me at the time, I unloaded my motorcycle and headed for the huge town of Bumpass Va. Of course, while on my way it started to snow. The locals must have got a chuckle out of this wacko from Ca. riding a motorcycle in the snow. the local dodge dealer had nothing as old as what I needed, but, he pointed me to “Shorties garage” and told me that boy can fix anything. They were right as he was able to repair the collar and after another bone chilling ride in the snow, and still more bone chilling time laying under the truck in the snow, I was ready to hit the road.

From here on out, there wasn’t much to tell. The trip was boring and with the exception of the no heat issue, trouble free. Got back to N.E. and settled in once again. Oh, a side note… took the truck to the radiator repair shop to get a new heater core. Instead, the radiator guy went under the hood and reversed the heater hose’s and just like that… Heat. Common problem he told me when people install the hoses backwards. grrrr, wish I had known that before I froze my butt off.

Well, there you have it. The second journey across this great land of ours. I was sure I wouldn’t have to move anymore, but, It wasn’t that many years before we were loading up a bus and preparing to head across the country AGAIN.  Stay tuned.

Lost my baby

This is without a doubt the hardest post I’ve ever made. On Oct. 18th 2017, the demons left over from her time in Afghanistan won their fight with my precious baby daughter. Just 32 years old with her whole life ahead, she took her life. I am without words for the hurt I feel. There is a huge hole in my heart that can never again be filled.

Jennifer… I love you my baby.

 

Buddies

Wrote this over 45 years ago. Still haunts me all these years later. For all the KIA, you are not forgotten brothers.

——————–Buddies———————–

Just think man. pretty soon we’ll be home.
I mean, what’ve you got? 30 days? Then all
this will just be a bad dream. You’ll go
home,see your chick, and pretty soon, all
will be normal again. Oh, there will still
be some bad dreams and memories I guess,
but at least we’ll be home. Here man, hold
my hand. It won’t be long now. That wound
don’t look too serious. What? No, hell no,
of course I won’t leave you. We’re buddies
man. We’ve seen it all. Eleven months worth.
Getting shot this way ain’t really that
bad. Hell, it’s just some sham time at the
rear for you. Hospitals, pretty nurses, the
whole bit. What? Oh, don’t worry about me.
You know I’ll make it alright. I was born
under a lucky star I guess.

And so it was. The scene when they arrived.
They stood, and watched, and one of them
slowly shook his head. They led him away.
Still protesting about having to leave his
buddy that way. Meanwhile, one of the medics
sadly covered the sightless eye’s, of the
buddy.

You’ve changed

First, a simple disclaimer. Some of these pics are borrowed from the net, as not all my own pictures survived all these years. Now, on with the story.

You’ve changed…

Oh boy, I heard that more than once in the winter of 1970. That was the year I returned from my tour of duty in Vietnam.  Of course I changed, who wouldn’t? Let’s see, there I was barely out of high school digging the new Roadrunner, when uncle Sam gave me a call.

Next thing I know, I’m in Vietnam facing an enemy that we were not really trained to fight. While they were teaching us old school fighting (aka wwII, Korea etc), the Vietnamese had been perfecting gorilla fighting for years. Hit and run, booby traps, etc. My friends were drinking beer and chasing girls when I left. When I returned, they were still drinking beer and chasing girls and they couldn’t understand why I had changed. Unless you have been there, I guess there is no way to convey all that was happening. The fear, the smell burnt flesh, rotting corpses, the pungent odor of defoliant, and the general smell of death. Think about it… one day you’re home thinking about some babe, next thing, you’re thrust into and environment totally foreign  to you. First, there are many ways to die. Not just the enemy, you also had nasty snakes, spiders and other assorted bugs, tigers, baboons, malaria, and even your own government (although at the time you didn’t know that one). There was no way to tell a friendly from a hostile, so you had to treat all as hostile.

I remember setting up a night ambush on a known VC path. Now, we would normally set a clay-more mine on the path with a trip wire and a detonator. The Vietcong  soon figured this out and in the night, they would sneak up and turn around the clay-more. Then, make a little noise and when you set the mine off, it blew back at you. To combat this, we wired a second mine to the first and when they tried to turn the mine, it blew both of them at once. In the morning, we found bits of flesh and guts hanging in the trees. We did however, find two left hands so it was safe to say we killed at least two. (don’t know why that would change you)

Get into a firefight and call for air support. Watch a cobra gunship fly in with it’s mini gun blazing, or if it’s a really hot fight, just call puff the dragon. (a converted C-47 cargo plane) See the time lapse photo showing the red tracers as puff banks and lets fly with 3 mini guns and keep in mind there are 4 other rounds between each of those red ones. Then try to imagine having to pick up bits of what was once a human being.

(how could you not change a little after that).

Trudging through the jungle and head into a bamboo stand. Now, you have to not only watch for the enemy, you have our old friend the Bamboo Pit Viper. A cute little fellow not more than about 12 inches long and not bigger around then your finger. However, when this little guy who hangs in bamboo and looks a lot like it bites you, the wound is extremely painful, as if you had been branded with a hot iron, and the pain does not subside until about 24 hours after being bitten. Within a few minutes of being bitten, the surrounding flesh dies and turns black, highlighting the puncture wounds. The wound site quickly swells and the skin and muscle become black due to necrosis.  To say you need first aid quickly is an understatement. (experience that or see someone else get bit and see if you don’t change)

Then of course, there is the rain. Sometimes it seems endless. Nothing like hiking through mud, swollen streams or rice paddies (filled with leeches) and wondering if you body will ever recover from the flesh literally rotting off you. You would trade you soul, (or at least a few packs of cigarettes from an SP package) for dry socks. and best to just cast off the underwear. You’ll semi dry a little quicker without it.

Forget a hot meal, they don’t have kitchens in the jungle. In between trips to the field, you have some down time in a small fire-base. Usually 3-4 days to regroup and prep for the next duty.If you’re lucky, you might find a semi dry bunker at the fire-base and with a small bit of C-4 explosive, you can cook a can of soup. (if someone back in the world sent you a can)

Speaking of the world, do you know what my prize possession was? It was a picture of some purple flowers. That’s right, something that simple becomes very important when you have cut life down to the basics. (still  think this wouldn’t change you)?

So there you have it. Tell the truth. Wouldn’t this experience have changed you too?

Moving cross country in a bus

I have moved across the country several times and each time I have to admit, they became lifetime memories, although at the time I might not have thought so. The first time was the winter of 1980. I was sitting in my house watching the only channel available and listening to the weather man explaining that we were enjoying record days of below zero weather for something like 30 plus days. Then he finished the broadcast with this quote… “And the warm spot in the nation was Gilla Bend Az”. That finished it. I turned to the wife and proclaimed… we are moving to Gilla Bend. Once the decision was made, it really wasn’t all that difficult to do it. I paid $275 dollars for an old purple school bus with clown faces on it. “The Two Penny Circus”  which was a 1965 Chevy 66 passenger bus with a 283 2bbl engine and a granny low 4 speed trans., and proceeded to fill it with all our earthly belongings. Besides the belongings, I managed to stuff a 1936 chevy bodied dirt race car in the back. Of course, it would have been simple to just pile in the old bus and head out, but no, I had to bring my 1933 Chevy roadster hot rod, and my 1934 ford sedan hot rod, and the Ford F-250 with the slide in camper, and the 1972 Lincoln. Doing the math was simple. There was at least three vehicles and two drivers. The Lincoln would tow bar the 33 Chevy, the F-250 would haul a single axle trailer with the 34 Ford on it. For drivers, I convinced my friend George and his wife and daughter and son to go. In addition, I rounded up my buddy Bear to help. I would buy them all plane tickets to get back home when the journey was over. So, with a total of 8 people hoping to fit in a slide in camper, we were off. Here was the line up… The trailer (minus the Mustang), the purple bus, the Lincoln, the 34 Ford and the 33 Chevy.

Now, it was Christmas eve and it was snowy and crappy out, but, we headed out anyway. The first leg of the trip was kind of uneventful. I did however discover that the bus had no second gear. With a granny low 4 speed, that meant anytime I had to pull a grade and downshift, I had to go from 3rd to granny low. That made for some mighty slow hill climbs. Also, less than 100 miles from home, the entire exhaust system from the Header pipe back departed. Now, I was driving a really noisy bus. Oh… and also, the lower window in the door was gone and before long, my right foot was getting cold, while my left foot was cooking against the huge bus heater it rested against. Before this trip was over, I got pretty good at driving cross footed to warm my right foot. I also discovered that the bus had no parking brake, and the starter quit working at the first gas stop. No biggie, just chock the wheel when stopped and pull it with the Ford truck and trailer to bump start it. It was in the Pocono mountains where things started to go bad. While pulling a long hill (in granny low of course), I noticed the bus overheating. Had to pull over on the shoulder and found the block drain on the motor had rusted through and was pouring antifreeze out. Now, keep in mind that it was now dark, the wind and snow was howling and to make matters worse, the fitting would only turn with a pair of vise grips and then only about of an 1/8th of a turn, then release the grips and clamp again. So, laying with my face and hair sopping up antifreeze, I started to remove the fitting. I was only able to get about 2 turns and my hands were numb, so, I’d climb in the truck cab and stick my hands in the defroster ducts while first George, then Bear would take a turn. Finally got the fitting out and rummaging through my stuff, I came up with a pipe plug to fit. Now, we faced another problem. All we had was water with us, no antifreeze and it was bitterly cold out there. So, being men, we huddled in the truck cab trying to figure a way to get some antifreeze on Christmas eve in the Pocono mountains. The situation looked hopeless when the wife wandered over to see what the holdup was. Told her our dilemma, and with a look of total disdain, she said why don’t you use the antifreeze out of your hot rods? Duh. 15 minutes later, we were ready to hit the highway. About that time, a state trooper rolled up and wondered if we needed some help. Had to bite my tongue and said no thanks, but we could use directions to find a place to eat. He said follow me, there’s a motel/restaurant up ahead. So, we hooked the truck/trailer combo to the bus, and bump started and off we went. Leaving of course whatever we had chocked the wheels with. That was a pattern that was repeated all across the country. First the wooden blocks, then the box of triangles, then the house jack, and even a box of 3/4 drive sockets. It also seemed that at least 100 miles went by before I remembered what ever I had left. Too far to go back for them.

Now, the Lincoln was pulling the Chevy with no issues at all, and the truck was pulling the old trailer with the 34 with no issues either. Only the bus was beginning to irritate me. I found it was using about a quart of oil every 150 miles or so. Being winter, we went down I-80 to I-40 then to I-30 and then to I-20 and then to I-10 and finally I-8. That was our plan. I also felt that as soon as we got south, the weather would warm up. Ha! We got to Dallas and it was 18 degree’s. It was there however that I discovered the valve covers were leaking all the oil. A pair of $10 gaskets, and we never used another drop of oil. The trip across west Texas is the most boring, nothing, desolate place I had ever seen. I was so glad to see a sign showing El Paso ahead. That is until the axle on the trailer decided to depart and the 34 looked like it was going on it’s side for a bit. Luckily, the trailer remained upright and we stopped in the center divider. Looking at the damage, I realized it could not be repaired, so, on to plan B. I took the one good tire off the trailer axle, pulled the number plate off, filled the radiator of the 34 with water and had the wife start driving it. We drove off leaving the remnants of the trailer right there. It was after we left Texas that we discovered another problem. The little Fiat radiator I had in the 34 worked just fine in New England, but, didn’t lend itself to desert driving very well. Seems like we’d just get rolling good, and the poor 34 would overheat and spew water everywhere. We managed to get to Arizona and finally, the temps were in the comfort zone. So, we stopped in a rest area and had a ceremonial burning of our winter clothes in one of the trash cans. That of course brought a ranger there who proceeded to explain how many laws we were breaking. I think in the end however, that he took pity on this bunch of grubby, bleary eyed hayseed’s as he let us go with a warning. We made it to Gila Bend AZ. but, when we got there, all I saw was some boarded up buildings, a small gas station with a drunk Indian sitting out front, and not much else. I didn’t see many opportunities for work, so, the decision was made… Let’s push on to San Diego and we’ll live in the bus on the beach while I find work. LOL yes… we were that stupid, but, we pressed on. Somewhere before Yuma Az, the over heating took its toll on the 34 and the motor gave up. No problem, we just hooked a chain to the truck and proceeded to yank the 34 to San Diego. Now, the mountain that sit between El Centro and San Diego goes from below sea level to 6000 feet. The poor old bus took hours to get up those hills. (granny low remember).  Just outside of San Diego (Alpine) I believe, a CHP pulled us over and explained that it was illegal to chain tow a car on the interstate. You could only tow it to the nearest exit. I didn’t have the heart to tell him we had just towed it some 200 miles, so I just said it had just happened and we’d get right off. Leaving the 34 at a gas station, we drove down to Pacific beach and tried to get the bus onto the beach. Didn’t take long for the local law to show up and explain that not only was it illegal to park on the beach, it was illegal to even be on the roads by the beach. Anyway, the bus ended up in a storage yard in Chula Vista (where it promptly got broke into) and I ended up renting an apartment until I could find a proper house. After finding a house, I drove the bus up to Santee and somewhere along the way, the brakes gave out. I pinched off the rear brake lines and managed to nurse it to the house… very slowly, and drove it into the back yard and hung it up on the terraced rear ground. Once settled in the house, I put another engine in the 34 Ford and had it sitting in the driveway. The next morning it was gone. Stolen and to this day, I haven’t ever found it. A short time later, I sold the old bus and got $300 dollars for it. Not a bad return on my money.

So, that’s the saga of my first, (but not last) trip across this country. It was a short 2 years later that we were struck with a case of home sickness for New England, so, we sold this house and bought another bus, and……….. I’ll save that story for later.

House Building

One thing about being an independent thinker… I feel anything can be accomplished if one has the will to just try. That is how we decided to build our house. No way could I afford to hire it out, so, the wife made a drawing of what she felt a house should be, and we proceeded to have at it. Having skills as a certified Journeyman helped as I was able to rent a backhoe and install my own septic system. Secondly, my father was a contractor and I was basically slave labor. The advantage, although I didn’t realize it at the time, was I was taught plumbing from my uncle, electrical from the old German who worked for dad, cement work from the Portuguese man who worked for dad, and framing, roofing, building and finish trim taught to me by dad. Little did I know at the time how handy this knowledge would be.

One thing I had in mind was to use screws to hold the entire house together. This created an awful stir on do it yourself forums. I was told over and over that it can’t be done. It’ll never hold. “Bull” I built this house in 2006. It has survived a cat-4 tornado coming within 800 yds, an ice storm that left us without power for 13 days, and even a spell of having a renter in it. I will post a pic of the house today. (2017)

About the property. There is aprox. 11 acres of land which is about half field and half woods. which meant an unlimited supply of firewood for a wood stove. In the lower meadow, there is a year round creek that defines the property line. As an added bonus, there is a spring on the land that has produced clear water year round for over 150 years. This was a good thing, because I installed a 300 gal cement tank with a 1 1/2 hp deep well pump to supply water to the house. A pic of the tank and pipe before I put the pump and a small building on top. As time went on, I bought more of the land around me until I now have 33 acres.

The next order of business was to put up some kind of weatherproof shelter for materials and tools. The quick answer was a 18’x30′ carport with saw mill lumber for sides and some t-111 doors. The end result was a sturdy, waterproof, lockable shed. Now, we had to sell the bus to finance the rest of the build. We were able to use a friends 5th wheel to stay in until we could shell in a building. I decided on sawmill 2″x6″ for the main framing. The base was built on pressure treated 8×8’s and treated 2×10 floor joists. We put piers every 3ft. as my motto is not to build, but to overbuild. on top of the joists, we put 1/2″ insulating sheets over that, we laid 1×12 planking and 1/2 OSB on top of that. Once the decking was down, the walls were ready to be framed. Before I could frame, I had to buy a planer because sawmill 2×6’s were anywhere from 2 1/4 by 6 5/8 thick. So, I planed all of them down to 6″ so the walls would be uniform.

the framing actually went pretty quick. We used 1/2″ OSB on the outside walls and for the most part, everything went up fairly easy, although getting the ridge pole and rafters up were a bit of a challenge since it was just the two of us. However, we managed and started putting felt paper on to protect from the elements.

Once the shell was closed in, we went to work on the inside. Our plan was an open floorplan with as few walls as possible. The building was three 20’x20′ cubes forming an L shape. Framing with 2×6 allowed us to use R-30 insulation and that with some expanding foam in the small spaces created a snug home. I cannot emphasize enough, insulation, insulation. It will pay off with low utility bills and a lot less outside noise to intrude into your life.  Our design allowed use to have a 20’x40′ large open space with only a cross brace and one upright needed. We knew this would let a wood stove spread a lot of heat. 

I worked real hard at finishing the outside of the house. We decided to use sawmill 1×8’s as a lap siding. First, we stained both sides of the boards and we put liquid bug killer in the stain that was used on the inside of every board. Then, I used screws to anchor all the siding. I also put plain 3 tab shingles on the roof. The end result was very satisfying.

Of course, the house was near done on the outside when we realized we needed to add an extra room. So, a 16’x20′ room was added where the french doors were to lead to a deck. Now my decision to use screws made the addition a piece of cake. No demolition, just unscrew and re-frame.

The inside of the house was not too hard to finish. I wanted a log cabin look in the kitchen area, so, I  took rough cut 1×6 and hand planed a small bevel on every board. Then, after screwing them to the studs, I used white silicone and made them look like they were chinked logs.  The west side of the house was the living room and I install three windows 6 feet tall, but, mounted them close to the floor so the little fur babies could stand there and see outside. The 20×20 kitchen was a women’s dream. lots of cabinets and counter space and a center island we built ourselves. The island top and all the window sills were made of MDF wood with a bunch of rustoleum paint swirled on top and covered with a deep coat of clear urethane. It made for a tough surface. The living room floor I did in red cedar and coated it with clear urethane which made for a lovely soft looking finish. Because I kept the plumbing mostly on one wall, the kitchen sink faced a blank wall. To cure that, I made a cedar frame and placed mirrors behind it so it looked like a window.

The sun room was the only room in the house with drywall. (did I mention how much I like wood and detest sheet-rock) I did however make it a vaulted ceiling with some unique angled windows in the peak.

For heat, I went with a wood stove as my main source. I also had a 220v wall heater mounted next to the wood stove, and another 220v wall heater in the bedroom and bathroom area. Then there was a ventless gas heater in the sun room. That setup worked great.  On the south side of the house, I built a deck and put up an above ground pool. I have since rebuilt the deck and added a roof over it, and another pool is in the works.

The bedroom was pretty basic. Same with the bathroom. A small shower, and a large corner heated Jacuzzi bathtub. There is a second half bath along with a washer/dryer, and laundry sink.

Words cannot  describe the feeling you get when you’re sitting on one of your porches in a house you built with nobody’s help. watching the deer or wild turkeys  wander through, or just relaxing and taking in a beautiful sunset. Or the cozy feeling of a crackling wood stove warming you while outside, the world is turning white and being buried under a blanket of snow.  You just have to experience it.

A post script. My mothers health forced us to move to Florida for a spell and the renters turned into exactly what most renters are. Crap. Not only did they let the house and yard go, when it came time to evict, they managed to steal or destroy almost everything. As it turned out, from June 2016 to April 2017, I have had to almost completely rebuild the inside of the house, and repair and re-work all the outside. It’s been a long haul, but, the old home is back in it’s original state.

A pic of the house now. 2017

UPDATE… disaster struck in 2022. House is now gone. Burned to the ground. I am without words.

My super bus conversion

Like a lot of people, I grew up as a gear head and went through a slew of hot rods, and race cars. I have spent 40+ years as a diesel/heavy equipment mechanic.  During this time, I owned several different bus’s. some were turned into car haulers, and most were just used to move back and forth across the country. It was cheaper to buy a bus, gut it, and haul your belongings. Then, when you got where you were going, you had dry storage and didn’t have a time limit to return a truck ala U Haul. Once you were settled, you just sold the bus and made back some of your money. It was and is a wise way to move. Here are some of my bus’s.

However, always in the back of my head was the notion of converting a used Greyhound bus for living and traveling. The time came when I was offered an early retirement. Now would be the time. The task of finding a suitable donor bus, turned out to be quite the undertaking. There are a lot of bus’s out there, but, my demands were limiting. First, it had to be an older GMC (either buffalo, or senic-cruiser). Second, it had to be in good running condition. Third… and most important, it had to be affordable. About a month of scouring for sale adds finally brought me to Easters Bus Sales, in Basset Virginia. Turns out that he had purchased all of Piedmont bus lines inventory when they closed their doors. He had over 100 GMC bus’s and also 100’s of MCI’s and Many Silver Eagles. It was bus nut heaven. Wife and I spent 2 days there combing over every bus in the yard. I drove the yard man crazy as he had to haul batteries around and start all the bus’s I wanted to try. Eventually I settled on a fully seated, restroom equipped  1974 GMC PD 4905A coach. AKA the buffalo. It had an 8V-71 Detroit diesel and a grumpy wet clutch 4 speed spicer trans. A bonus was the fact it only had 240,000 miles on it, and had been painted. I was able to buy it for $5000 dollars. A small price to pay seeing that this included a full oil/filter change and the bus had to pass a Va. inspection before it could leave. So, all the lights, tires, brakes, batteries (2 4d), and glass had to be up to snuff. A couple of hours later, I was on my way to Florida to start my conversion.

The bus ran flawlessly back south, although I thought it kind of lacked the power I thought it should have had. It wasn’t until I got home that the reason for lack of power came from the fact that the luggage bays were crammed full of spare bus parts. there must have been thousands of pounds of excess weight down there. A bonus for me as I was able to sell quite a few of the parts and make back a lot of the initial money I’d spent.

Once home, we started the task of stripping out the interior. Pain in the you know what pulling all the seats and the old nasty nasty restroom, but, eventually we had an empty shell.

About this time, we named the old bus “Bus Lightyear” to infinity and beyond. Once the bus was gutted, we proceeded to strip our old water damaged, wore out class A motor home “Large Marge”. A good and faithful rig that just wore out. However, the fridge, roof air, generator, hot water heater,toilet, furnace, holding tanks, propane tank, and lots of smaller parts were salvaged before sending her away. Having a parts rv will save a lot of time and money as it’s the small parts that add up quick.

With parts gathered, and all the time watching craigslist for more super deals, the real work started. First, we used tape on the floor to figure where things would fit, then I had to string 110v wire everywhere I thought I would need it and while I was at it, I added some 12 volt wire through the ceiling for any additional 12v. stuff I might add in the back of the bus. After the wiring, came the insulation in the walls and ceiling and then the 3/4 marine plywood floor. For the ceiling, I chose 1/4 inch luan because it was flexible and easy to arch. I did however make a small set of rafters across the middle of the ceiling to allow for a slightly less curved ceiling and space for wire’s etc. Worked fine for us short people.

With the basic interior in, I started using  some of my craigslist finds  and donor pieces from Marge such as the kitchen cabinets, installed the fridge, hot water heater and framing the bedroom, bathroom, installing toilet and plumbing,

and making a set of twin beds with lift cylinders (pinto hatchback) to raise the platform and give me under bed storage. I also insulated and closed off the rear window area made a couple of rear closets and made an access panel for the oh so heavy and hard to get at Detroit starter. I then scored some awesome emerald green carpet from another re-model and bought a small piece of linoleum for the kitchen area the inside was rapidly taking shape and we were so pleased at the low cost, that we splurged and bought green glass hardware for the kitchen draws and cabinets and a sheet of thin decorative paneling and a sheet of faux brick to add a little touch of something different.

The kitchen and bath finished.

I found that using clear urethane on all the wood panels and the luan made the grain jump out at you and gave a soft soothing feeling. Then, I found an acrylic mirror that was flexible enough to mount on the ceiling. The results were great.

While I was doing all the interior, I was also setting up the bottom compartments of the bus. They are huge and go all the way through. My coach came with a retractable rear donkey axle that I didn’t need, so, I removed it and installed a 60 gallon black tank, rv propane tank plus a spare 20 lb. bottle, furnace, tool box all in that bay. In the middle bay, I installed a 100 gal. fresh water tank, and a 100 gal. grey water tank. along with a whole house filter, and an 8 golf cart battery bank along with a 5000 watt inverter. Plus, a 110v electrical panel with an added 12 volt fuse panel In the front bay, I installed a generator and a washer dryer combo unit and left the entire other side of that bay open for storage, or hanging clothes to dry when weather was bad.

I also ran the vent pipes out the side to prevent having any extra holes in the roof. Added a trailer hitch, sold the rv roof air and installed a portable a/c unit inside the bus.(again to prevent any extra holes in roof). I installed 250 watts of solar panel on the roof and coated the top with 3 coats of Kool Seal to help fight desert heat. After, I learned that I’d need at least 530 watts of solar.

In the drivers area, I built a small console with a hole for the air brake button and another for a cup holder. I then added 2 cb radios. one a normal 40 channel and the other had upper and lower sidebands. Plus a monitor for the back up camera. A small fan completed the work zone.

Back inside, I finished the living room area and installed a cut down day bed and a recliner. The wife added a lot of finishing touches and all in all, it made for a comfy coach. Between the kitchen and bed room and across from the bath, I had an unused space. We pondered it for a while and then decided to create a work space for the computer. While mulling it over, I decided to make a fold up shelf that when closed was fine for computers, but, could be opened and used as a spare bed. It also became one of the most famous (bright ideas) in our family history. I found an old hassock at a thrift store and proceeded to cut a hole in the bottom of it. then, I cut a matching hole in the floor and screwed the hassock down. Now, I had a perfect receptacle to put my smelly socks. Open the lid, drop the socks, close lid and they ended up in the basement area in a basket.

Old Bus Lightyear was finally ready for the road. A 20 foot enclosed trailer with the Camaro, and motorcycle inside and we were off on a cross country wandering. After the first month, we added a screen room addition to our supplies.

We wandered the U.S. for quite some time (see map below) and somehow ended up in Arkansas where we bought a piece of land to build a bus pad on and use for a home base. It was while setting up the pad, we decided we liked it there and so, we sold the bus and went on to our next big plan… Build our own house. Stay tuned.

Here’s the bus sitting in Arkansas on the pad that was soon to become the house site.<img src="https://life

Life is a carnival

Sure is. sitting here sipping Southern Comfort, listening to some music on the headphones and reminiscing about how quickly life passes by. Got the old XP rolling on the computer and going back through old photo’s. Funny how your whole life is nothing more than a bunch of pictures with a sprinkling of memories.

I hate growing old. I have cheated death a few times.(although this fire was probably the closest I’ve come). Seems like almost everyone I knew is either sick or dying. I guess it’s time I started putting down on virtual paper some of my many journeys through life. there is no order to them (ha… the story of my life).  Just random thoughts that I feel should be written down.