13,027 miles. That’s how far we drove Brucie on an epic journey stretching from the flatwoods of the Southeast, across the great plains, down the Pacific coast, and back again through the Southwest. Along the way we visited twenty-two national parks and took a full measure of this country’s amazing public lands. In the last six and a half months, we’ve seen a lifetime’s worth of natural wonders, camped in some amazing places, and met many lovely and fascinating people.
The backlog of stories and photos is profoundly massive, and while it is unlikely we’ll ever fully catch up (we find we are far too busy having adventures and rarely take the time to settle down and properly write about them), there are a few updates yet to come on the blog now that we’ve once again become stationary for more than a week at a time.
A door latch, fire and a drawer
After the door was installed, it spent nearly a week without any sort of latch, as I pondered the available options while working on other stuff. A traditional door knob wasn’t going to work, and a gate latch I picked up from the hardware store was both hideous looking and only marginally functional. Eventually I decided it was worth the time investment to make my own latch using red oak.
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Interior Door
Today I finally finished framing out for and assembling the bulkhead door. Wood used was yellow pine (mostly scraps and salvage, with the exception of one 2x4 stud) and some surplus cypress tongue in groove. Most of the wood had been sitting around in a shed for over a decade, so a bit of restoration was required. This is to say I burned the snot out of it with a blowtorch, gave it a quick pass with the palm sander, and rubbed it down with oil.
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Countertops, Lighting and Appliances
Countertops and interior LED lighting have been done for a while at this point, but its only now I am over in the UK that I am getting around to sorting through hundreds of pictures and marshaling the appropriate sort of descriptive words.
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Electrical distribution
AC wiring is largely complete at this stage, and the core of the DC distribution system is also in place.
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Sink and Countertops
As has become the norm, project documentation is a bit behind progress. I am currently working on waterproofing the bathroom and shower stall, but that will not be finished for a few days yet. I’ve already framed out for the bedroom (if you can call it a room- its more like a mattress alcove) and bathroom, finished running the AC wiring to both sides of the bus, built the enclosure for the fresh water tank and made the electrical enclosure into a closable cabinet. But that will come later. For now, we have some catching up to do.
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Bus status update
Since my return from England a little over one month ago, I’ve been working pretty steadily on the bus and related projects. While I’ve been quite productive, I’ve also been remiss about documenting progress. I will attempt to bring things up to speed in broad strokes in this post, and go into a bit more detail in later posts addressing specific project areas as they are finished.
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Putting the bus out to pasture
I write this from the Atlanta airport, a mere 15 minutes from boarding my flight to London. The last few days have been spent preparing for the trip, packing and tying up loose ends with the bus. Over the weekend, I loaded most of the tools and project supplies into the bus and drove it out into the middle of the pasture to minimize the risk of damage if we have a tropical storm or hurricane while I’m gone.
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Floor and more, finished
This last Saturday Karyn and Bob came out for a visit and to help for the afternoon. This coincided with the application of the final coat of wax on the floor, so Karyn took over the buffer while I worked with Bob to reinstall the lights in the ceiling.
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Saga of the electrical cabinet
At long last it is time to tell the tale of the electrical cabinet! I started working on this back in mid June almost as soon as I got the batteries, inverter and charge controller.
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Solar Panels!
The solar panels are finally installed! Lucas came out this Sunday and together we got the panels secured to the roof and the wiring run to the interior of the bus.
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