Heading Home--- Too Early!!

[Devin & Amy]

Hi All,

We left Florida on March 13. We are now in Minneapolis, MN. The driver side exhaust manifold has a good sized hole in it, the temp. is 20 outside, the wife and four kids who have been on the road for 2300 miles are getting a bit testy, and dad is about ready to be committed.

I wish you all had time to live in your busses for nine months out of the year.
I do.
You get a lot of accumulated sh$t that you really want at home, but not in the bus. (I have a brand new roof air in the hall)
You also have alot of ideas for improvements.

We get to sit in MN for three months this summer. I can't wait to get home.

I go home tomorrow, yea!
My Vacation.

Devin

[white-eagle]

6 sounds like at least 3 too many  .  me, the wife and our dog works just fine.  you have my envy if you can spend that much time in the bus, and my sympathy that there are 6 of you.

[Ncbob]

Like you, Devin, we're heading home in a few days. NOT too early. It's getting too warm in Central FL for my liking. While this was our first year at wintering in our bus we've learned so much.  For example: If you think you need to take that item...leave it home....you won't have used it anyway.

My wife brought more junk that she absolutely HAD to have that I needed to rent a storage room for the winter in order to keep from tripping over the overflow.  Granted, I brought more tools than I had time to use but will adjust for next year because the interior is now almost finished.

The line has been drawn in the sand for next year.  If it won't fit in a place where it can travel and stay for the winter....IT WON'T GO.  And that includes tools.

It would be a dream come true if next year I could play a little golf, join the jam sessions and just spend some time visiting with the great neighbors we found here this year instead of constantly moving stuff around in the bays and running back and forth to the storage room for the items we don't have room for because we're overloaded with junk!

It probably won't happen...but it sure does feel better now that I've unloaded....on y'all.

NCbob

[Brian Diehl]

The driver side exhaust manifold has a good sized hole in it

We get to sit in MN for three months this summer. I can't wait to get home.

Hi Devin,
I'm in northwest Minneapolis (Maple Grove).  Where are you now?  If you need help with the exhaust manifold let me know and I'd be happy to help you out.
-Brian

[gumpy]

Well, if it's any consolation, I just returned from a week long trip to WY that seemed like 9 months!

We left last Friday. The winds across NE and eastern WY seemed like 150 mph and directly into my front corner. We camped at the hotel walmart in Laramie, and the bus rocked all night.

We were supposed to go skiing on Sunday, but Saturday night, my son got the flu and basically used up 2/3 of my 150 gallons of water. He spent Sunday in bed. He was feeling better by Monday and we forced him to go on the tour of the University, which was the reason for our trip in the first place.

After the tour we headed over to my Mother's place. The wind completely shredded another gear set in my piece of crap Polaraire roof vent and we had to tie it shut with a shoelace. Fortunately, I think I have a replacement from the last time it broke (find previous post regarding Polaraire vents).

On Wed, we headed headed to Riverton to take care of some business. I was planning on dumping the tanks in Baggs, but the town had the dump station locked and the office was closed. So I figured I'd dump at Flying J in Rawlins. Wrong! It was "out of order", and there was not another to be found. I was looking for a nice chunk of desert sagebrush along the way where I could get off and back on without getting stuck. Ended up spending $10 at an RV park in Riverton to dump. It was worth it. The guy was pretty cool. We talked for awhile. He brought up the walmart camping subject and said he has nothing against it and has done it himself.

On Thursday, the daughter came down with the flu. She was sick all night and her back hurt so she and her Mother thought she should probably sleep in my bed! I ended up sleeping on the floor! And to top it off, her Mother kept waking her up every hour so she could drink something cause she was really dehydrated. She'd come in and kick me and wake me up so I could pour her something to drink because she was so dizzy she couldn't hardly stand up. By the third time, she was obviously feeling better cause she had a big grin on her face when she kicked me!

We headed home on Friday and hit blizzards and of course the wind had changed directions and was now blowing directly into my front corner again! I only got a little over 700 miles on a full tank (180 gal) and I was sucking air by the time I stopped, 45 miles from home (ok so I was pushing it to get home).

We stayed in a steak house parking lot in Murdo, SD. Decent food. It was 7 degrees this morning. The heater ran all freaking night! I need to get my insulation done and get some insulating window shades. But it was pretty comfortable. I had been feeling ill all day yesterday, but I got a good nights sleep and felt pretty good by morning.

To top it off, the house was at 43 degrees when we got home. I'd left the thermostat at 62! The igniter went out. My cats are not happy with my neighbors who were watching them. They're cold!

All's better now, though. We're home. The heater's fixed, and in a few hours my fingers might warm up enough to type again.

I'm sure my wife will come down with the flue tomorrrow! 

craig

[captain ron]

Six to nine months in a bus? WHAAAAAA   I have been living in semi converted buses now for 2 1/2 years and love it. Can't wait to get this one completed though. Every time I make progress on something another thing breaks. I haven't had a fridge since aug., my fresh water pump took a dump, I ran out of money a long time ago but I'm still digging the bus thing. I've been stalled out in Nashville for 4 months doing only a few shows. I start a "JOB" Monday installing cabinets in apartment complexes. Today I booked a nice run of gigs in Iowa & Illinois For the week of may 18th through May 26th Then back up there for Memorial day. I think I'm tossing a small anchor here in Nashville for a while doing the install job as it's pretty flexible and travel back and forth doing my gigs. Planting some shallow roots.

[Busted Knuckle]

I'll be heading home from Ft. Walton Beach, FL here in a short while today! Witha stop in Nashville to drop of these 2 bus loads of Vanderbilt students on the way! Then next weekend pick-up a different fraternity from Vandy and come back down to Pensacola! I love these spring formal trips! BK 

[captain ron]

Give me a call when you get here if it aint to late

[Gary W]

We just got back from a 2 month trip in our bus, we made a trip into Los Algodones Mexico to get the bus painted, we spent 16 days at the shop and are very happy with results. We met a fellow there Mac with a 1947 Flix that he had painted there, it still looks great. He sends other bus owners there to get their buses painted.One of his friiends Bob was there getting his GM 4107 painted , it turned out great.
We spent 4 days with friends in Yuma. From Yuma we drove to Apache Junction for a week. Had a great time there then went to Vegas for three days. After that our son phoned us and said he was taking his kids to Disneyland and would be in LA for a week. So we headed south again to Hemet Ca  so we could visit the grand kids. It was a great trip but nice to be home.

Gary

[RedWriter]

Hi guys,

I actually registered simply because of this thread, haha. We've been on the road since June 23, 2006. We are: my wife, 13 year old daughter, 12 year old son, 10 year old son, 8 year old son, my 2 year old golden retriever and myself. We have been across the entire US (started in New Jersey). We are now in Myrtle Beach, SC enjoying the last few stops of what will be a one year road trip. It has been awesome! My wife and I have accomplished everything we wanted: more time as a family and the ability to show our kids the beauty of God's creation here in the United States. Pretty cool stuff!

Have fun.

[cody]

We've had some great times out on the road but our trips seem to run 3 months or less at a time, met a lot of great people.  Now the crunch lol, my wife just found out she's short on her social security credits so now she has to go to work for a while to get them, she needs 9 credits so I told her I think she can get up to 3 a year so she can work and get her yearly max, then we can  cruise for a while, then she has to work again and get her yearly max the next year and do it that way, always something lol.