Man-Man. What a week! I have said it before and I will say it again ... "Life would be so boring, if everything went our way." Bus is in the shop (not the repair shop mind you, my shop) and the tanks are drained, she sits there in all her bug encrusted glory. I did not wash it, just gave it a generous shot of the put-it-away-basic's and backed it in there.
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This last trip was a washout, you win a few and you lose a few, and sometimes (not often) those mother's ..... well they just burn to the ground. I read with interest all the great comments here on the board and find that I am not "The Lone Ranger" and others have walked in my shoes, most likely down some of the same old worn, tired pathways of life and that is comforting. The entire experience, while unsavory and leaving a bad taste in my mouth, has also taught me a few life-lessons and the take away was in some cases positive, so it is time to move on.
Reading the comments on the
I Am Broke Down thread, I see I have a common bond with most of the guys (and girls) here. I have had stick & staples RV's let me down, old pickup's and travel trailers, bad oxygen sensors, jacked up on wooden blocks in Winslow, Az in the Walmart parking lot, a cold chilly morning and frozen hands. Doors that would not shut, blow-outs, generators that would not run, pumps that no longer pumped and in the end ... believe it or not ... I still think my bus is the best bet for me.
So I sit in my easy chair and I think about it.
I secretly pine for Montana, it is never far away in my thoughts, often just around the corner. The pale blue sky opening up over Bozeman seems to stretch forever. The air is fresh and clean at the top of Bear Tooth Pass outside Red Lodge and the roads empty before, now most likely are bare altogether. A long BNSF freight racing across the land at breakneck speed eastbound to Chicago, clear water streams and long hot summer days.
In the summer, you can drive across southern Montana and the haystack dotted farmland seems to roll on and on forever. You drive by the small outfits, and they haul out to the front fence, what they have to sell. Worn out, beaten up pickups, a combine here and there, well used tractor an old motorhome, whatever.
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I have driven on two lanes so striking, so majestic and mesmerizing, hauntingly familiar, that you swore they were objects of art. Rolling green sea's of prairie grass, visions of Native Americans, stampeding horses, bison and of course, cowboys taming an unruly bronco fill my mind.
You would not expect anything less of someone who's favorite western is "Dancin' With Wolves."
Eye candy for the soul is how I always seem to refer to it. A place in time, that lingers in your mind and often helps you thru your day. Despite all the turmoil, the expense, the ultimate let down of a well planned and thought out aborted trip. I find one constant in my life.
Distant roads are still calling me.
Like an old dog scratching at the screen door in the kitchen, I still want to get out and roam. Through scenery so spectacular that much like a fine oil or a colorful print hanging on the wall it takes your breath away. To secret places like Montana. Where the mood and the feel of the land permeate your soul in the big sky country of the west, the home of Louis and Clark, the chisled Grizzly.
Some will call it "Stainless Steel Fever" or "Whiteline Poison" ... me? Well, I yearn to travel despite all of its unseen pitfalls and misfortunes. To experience the old time towns and the architecture mixed with the new style trendy restaurants and galleries of the new west. Pickup's with gun racks, Small detailed dream catchers hanging from the rear-view mirror, a blue healer dog in the back, one stop light at the end of the block.
And always, a canvas of baby blue (sky) right above you.
It as most of you already know, none of this "happened this year" but I have not given up, I have not thrown in the towel. I am going to keep choppin' on this and see where the chips fall, I have to, it is the only game in town that works for me.
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Six on the floor! The other one out the door ... Hammer down, Hammer down!
Catch you on the flip-flop
BCO
Possibly Related: http://boxcarokie.com/2009/03/16/the-worry-tree/ (http://boxcarokie.com/2009/03/16/the-worry-tree/)
I want to drive through the Arizona desert at least once in my life. I hear ya.
Brian
I like your barn trusses. I wished I had done things a little different when it came to my barn. Oh I gues something like, not use the dipstick for a contractor that I used. My trusses are straight across. It seems yours with the angle will hold more weight, make it stronger and allow more bus room. My wife and I are planning a build just like yall have done. When we retire (Oh God please let that be soon) we plan on selling everything, living in the bus at the build site and overseeing every screw put in the building. Don't know where that will be but it is a nice dream to dream. I do like the north east end of Oklahoma. The bird hunting up there is fantabulous and the fishing isn't bad either. Land can be had for around $1000 an acre right now. I want to be able to plop green cash down and knock it out.
Quote from: bevans6 on September 15, 2011, 07:12:00 AMI want to drive through the Arizona desert at least once in my life. I hear ya.
Brian
Yeah, Brian, it's really good. The odd thing is that a lot of the Arizona desert doesn't look like "desert". There are many areas that are covered with slow-grow evergreen trees (more like bushes, really) and arid-land vegetation. But then there are the open stretches, wide roads, and usually a hill or mountain off in the distanct no matter which way you look. It's awe-inspiring and soul-inspiring. And if you get into the northeast part of the state, you have the Indian reservations and Monument Valley. Truly places that everyone should see at least once in his life.
Aw! Youns guys. Gimme the hills of Pennsyltucky ant day. You can see mebbe 50 yards in a single direction almost anywhere ya go. Hot in the summer but its that humid heat. About as damp as San Francisco in the winter but SF is warmer so theirs doesn't feel quite like winter but just miserable. Now I was raised in Pa. Tucky but I ain't prejudissed....thurs lots of places I been that I don't want to do agin. Biloxi is a'nuther. Gila bend in August is certainly up on that list....at least. But Gila bend is nice in the winter and so is Pa. at a long distance measured in days.
I'm just fun'n now. I cherish all those mamories of my grow'n up years. Really, I do. 'Case any of the home folk are listening. ;D
One of the major uses of buses is to get thru some of those places to get to the others. If you follow my drift.
John
Don, when we go out in the bus, we call it an adventure not a trip. I've been broke down , but my children and grand children have learned a valuable lesson. Whatever happens, you must keep going. No quit in me.
Big John
Very nice post indeed. "So live, that when thy summoms comes to join...." HB of CJ (old coot)
I used to get pretty upset when the bus broke down. I managed to stay 100% calm during the last breakdown. It really helped that one of my friends mostly slept through the whole thing. He tends to think he is in charge even though it isn't his vehicle and he isn't paying for the repairs.
My friends offer lots of advice and try to help when the bus breaks down, but they don't own the vehicle and they aren't paying for the repairs. I'll let them make repair arrangements if they are prepared to pay the bill. I would rather take an extra hour or two to find the best most cost effective solution to the problem.