Day Two - Off to a Rocky Start

After an early start we got onto Interstate 40 West at Ash Fork. Things were going pretty well but a vibration led us to pull into a tire shop at a Loves just short of Kingman, AZ. We had the front tires balanced and the air corrected all around. We found a right front tire that is out of round. So much so that it would take more than the allowed amount of weight to correct it. Well, they mounted 22 oz. and we were off. But not for long.

 Just ten minutes later we pulled into a WalMart in Kingman to fix lunch and make repairs. We wound up getting a bunch of kitchen stuff. But the big delay was trying to get the kitchen cabinet to lock the drawers. I don’t know if we sustained damage at the unloading or if the vibration of over the road travel was just too much for the locking mechanism. At any rate, we wound up spending four hours in the parking lot. The temperature was hovering about the 100 mark inside the bus. We found out that the engine powered AC unit does not work at all.

One of the differences between a bus and a motor home is that a bus is meant to have self-contained climate control. All of the comfort function is provided by the engine powered AC unit or the onboard Webasto heater. There is no other system for air intake or venting. The windows are supposed to be opened only in an emergency as an escape hatch. There are no powered intake/exhaust vents as there are in a motorhome. We have a 13,500 btu Coleman air conditioner recently installed in the roof but a motorhome this size would normally have two 15,000 btu units. And we have no ready generator to fire up to power the ac, only a portable Honda generator, which, while a very good piece of equipment, is really only useful if we are set up in camp.

So, the bus got hot. We got hot and it was about to get worse. We left the parking lot and headed North toward Las Vegas. The temps kept slowly climbing and by the time we made Tinsel Town it was 114. Inside and out. With no air. We had ice in the freezer so we kept handing out ice water. There’s nothing to do but keep going and hang in there and hope for better temps as we get further North. But the temperature just refused to back off and we just sweltered. The dogs were really suffering and the old folks weren’t much better. We kept going and going and going and finally would up in Ely, Nevada, about 450 miles later. That’s a long day in the heat considering that we really didn’t get started on the day until about noon.

We weren’t the only ones to get hot. Somewhere North of Vegas, the engine and transmission decided getting up the hill in 5^th gear was more than they wanted to do and went on strike. All power in the bus quit and we slowly coasted to a stop. It’s 114, we are in the middle of nowhere, looking at hours of down time for a repair. Dark clouds of doom are following us. But, after a short rest, the engine cranked right up and into gear and away we go. It hasn’t burped since but it rides in the back of our mind.

We did manage a rest stop at a pleasant roadside. We sat and had more drinks and let the dogs romp but it was still over 100 in the shade.

                                                                        Our rest stop

But now the good news.

Our fearless leader, John, is a private pilot and he landed us at the Ely airport, a private facility on the North edge of town. After explaining who he was and our need, he secured permission to park in the lot for the night. What’s so great about that you say? Well, one of the courtesies extended to visiting pilots is the use of the hanger facilities, which included a full kitchen and wonderful bathroom facilities complete with showers. So we jumped into the shower (in turn) and cleaned up and cooled down and relaxed. To top that off, we had brought a couple dozen ears of fresh sweet corn from a farm in Camp Verde and John used the kitchen to cook them for us and the other folks sharing the facilities. And it was just scrumptious, the best I’ve had in a long time. I even managed to down one of the beers I had brought along. The fridge, like most RV fridges, had struggled with the high temps but recovered overnight. 

                                       The sunset view over the runway from the bus that night

The nice thing about the dry desert is that is really cools off at night. By the time we awoke in the morning it was in the high 50’s and everybody was in good shape and ready to go.

A word about the Ely, Nevada airport. It turns out that this little airport is situated in a long valley surrounded on both sides by really good sized hills. The particular geography makes this one of the premier soaring destinations in the world. There were pilot visiting there from around the world, including Poland, Germany and New Zealand. Most had self-powered gliders and had towed them in special trailers to the field. They were there for a week or a month and lived on site in motorhomes. One also had a Gold Wing motorcycle that he carried on a lift on the back of his motorhome. And they were the nicest people you could hope to meet.

We're Off - Almost

{First off, let apologize to everyone who has been waiting for new postings to the blog. Between the travails of the trip and the geography we have passed through, today, day seven of our trip is the first opportunity that I've had to have both power and connectivity in the same spot. We went straight north out of Las Vegas where there is just nothing for cell coverage. Then when we got out of Nevada, we were traveling in deep valleys or were camped far from towns and had no coverage there either. I expect that this will continue and I'll post at every opportunity. It's been much tougher than I had hoped.}

We had been warned to be ready to go this Saturday so we were packed and ready at 8:30 in the morning. We took our stuff down to the bus and got it all loaded but the bus detailing was still in progress so we came back home. Went back down at 1:00 and it was the same story. Went back home and watched a shower blow through with the beautiful rainbow seen above. Then we went back down at 9:00 and we finally left at 10:30 pm. So, we have committed to the trip and everybody has gotten their stuff together and loaded. This is not only the start of the trip, it is also the shakedown cruise for the up-fit. Things might happen. And they did. With the first good right turn, the kitchen cabinet (aka tool roll-around) was unlocked and decided to unload its’ contents all over the floor. We continued unabated while some of the passengers cleaned up the spill. No real damage but what racket when it let go.

We start off and get out of town before anybody can change their mind. I think that was the logic behind leaving no matter what because we only drove about 50 miles and pulled into a parking area just short of Ash Fork to spend the night. Everybody was pretty keyed up but we finally got to sleep. We were up at 5:30 and pushed off a little while after.

                                                         Our parking spot the first night.

A Side Project

I try to do little side projects to help earn my keep here while we wait for the bus conversion to conclude. When I first got here, I reinstalled the pump timer that I had first put in two years ago. The well pump had been replaced and the timer never hooked back up so I rewired the pump circuit to put the timer back to use. Otherwise someone had to go out to the pumphouse and turn on the water on and off twice a day. It's easy to forget the times involved and the timer takes the guesswork out of it.

After I had built the solar array for the bus, I had one solar panel left over. I proposed that it could be used to power a ventilation fan for the tack shed. Everybody liked the idea so hunted about for a suitable fan. I looked in the local flea market on Saturday but they didn't have a single fan, much less one I could use. I wound up going to AutoZone and buying an electric radiator fan. It fit perfectly for the space I had to work with so I cut a hole in the roof of the storage container and mounted the fan.

 Some time ago, a roof ventilator had been found on the side of the road, brand new in the box. It's one of those roundish whirly things that vents by the action of the breeze. I mounted that on the outside of the hole in the roof. That way any breeze would act to vent the enclosure when the sun wasn't out.

I mounted the solar panel on its old frame and mounted it on the roof, running the wiring through an existing hole in the side of the container. The output from a single panel is close enough to the power requirements of the fan that I didn't need to add a controller to the circuit. It works like a charm and significantly reduces the temperature inside the container. There's an inlet hole in the side of the container that is always in the shade to draw in cooler air.

I went down to the bus last night to start the wiring. I had gone into town earlier in the day and gotten the batteries and other bits that I would need. For batteries I went to BatteriesPlus and got two Trojan 6 volt deep cycle golf cart batteries. They will be wired in series to get 12 volts and will be charged by both the solar panels and the engine alternator when we're under way. The alternator is a 265 amp oil cooled model. It looks as big as a five horse motor.

I managed to get the refrigerator all wired and we tested the electrical parts of it to make sure that was good. I also wired up a couple of fused distribution panels and a charging center for each end of the living space. They each have cigarette lighter sockets and USB ports so that we can power and charge our laptops and phones on the trip. I still have to install the batteries and the isolation solenoid and mount and connect the solar parts, both panels and controller.

Most of the windows have curtains now. The bunks are about done and a stove has been found. Work on plumbing, both gas and water is continuing. I'll do more wiring when the plumbing gets a little more wrapped up. We're doing womething different for hot water. We have an on-demand, propane fired water heater that is portable and will be deployed when hot water is desired. It will be stored in a lower bay while under way and then retrieved and hung on the outside of the bus and plumbed into the water circuit when we want to shower. Otherwise, only cold water will be supplied to each of the faucets. It's certainly a different approach and if it doesn't work as planned, we will have enough plumbing supplies along to make changes on the road.

Moving Day

 These are the two horses we moved today. Cisco is on the left and Tess is on the right. Cisco is an old cow horse who is living out his retirement here in the pasture. Tess is a younger horse acquired a few years ago to ride. Both horses are effectively pasture ornaments.

The horses are well fed and have spacious areas in which to roam. They each have separate pastures. But horses are a lot like other pets. They need constant contact and handling to keep them tame and easily handled. These horses suffer from a lack of handling. Being left alone most of the time they are fairly wild and Tess is especially skittish. Three of us spent over half an hour trying to catch Cisco in his pasture this morning. We finally lured him with some feed and got a halter on him. Tess was easy to halter but absolutely refused to enter the trailer. We all worked for over two hours to get her into the trailer. Finally, what worked was to back the trailer into a slope and empty two tractor bucketsful of dirt onto the trailer floor so it looked like the ground went right into the trailer. Even then we had to box her in with gates on one side and the tractor on the other. It took lots of kind words and urging to get ther to finally move into the trailer. You just don't force a half ton of horse to do anything. And if she got too wild, we wouldn't even have been able to hang on to her. So we proceded to be as patient as we could muster and as creative as it took. It only took five minutes to unload them and they both looked visisbly relieved. Here is Tess in her new quarters in the shadow of the San Francisco peaks North of Flagstaff.

While we were trying to figure out how to get Tess loaded, this guy crawled out of the pasture.

It was four foot Bullsnake, a non-poisonous snake common to the area. In fact all the snakes I've seen out here have been Bullsnakes. I have yet to see a rattler. The cat wasn't too sure of what to do.

After we delivered the horses, we met a bunch of family in downtown Flagstaff for lunch. We went to a diner called the Galaxy. It's right on the old main route through town which also happens to be Route 66. They play up the old time connection to the hilt and have the walls covered with pictures of movie stars, most from quite a long time ago. The had great food and a huge menu and great service as well. Certainly a place not to miss when traveling through.

The horse delivery took up most of the day so that meant I didn't get any time in wiring on the bus. That's on the list for tomorrow. I saw the main sink being plumbed in today and the new wheel seal is done.

Critters

I'm not sure why, but when the rains come the tarantulas start emerging from wherever they have been hiding. This gal was on the path to the pumphouse the other night. The females have a brown abdomen while in the males it is black. This one was about 4 1/2" across as she sits. The kids pick them up and let them crawl around but that has no appeal for me so I just took this pic and backed away. They are not aggressive at all.

Then yesterday I was watching the back yard and this guy came around. This is the closest I've been to a roadrunner and the first time I've seen one standing still. The light really wasn't good enough for a good picture but you can get the idea. Note the bunny watching him.

There is more slow progress on the bus. The fridge compartment now has its' vents and the fridge is on board but not in place.

The front bed has now been framed in. The platform of each of the beds is hinged to allow storage underneath the bed area.

I think this is supposed to be where I will sleep. We have cushions for seating and then a foam mattress to add to it for sleeping. No protection against the midnight sun. I brought a sleep mask.

The mid bathroom now has its' sink and the mirror cabinet installed.

The plumbing continues to be roughed in, including the added waste and fresh water tanks.

I still have no idea just when the trip will start. The upfitting is continuing in a methodical manner and we are not rushing to get done and on the road while at the same time we are trying to keep working steadily towards completion. I believe work on the wiring will commence tomorrow.

The horse transfer that was to have taken place on Sunday has been instead delayed until tomorrow. We will still have another horse to transfer after that, along with feed and sundry other items. We can't move them both at the same time for fear of them hurting each other on the way. The mare is very skittish and we are going to try to use lavender oil to try to calm her down for the trip. We're going in the morning to try to avoid the thunder and lightning which have been occuring every afternoon and which would upset her even more. Forget Trigger and Champion, these horses seem dumb as a box of rocks.

Change in the Weather

We have entered what is called the Monsoon Season out here. I'm told that it used to start on July 1st but now starts with some combination of temperature, humidity and dewpoint. On a practical basis, it means that we see high building cumulous clouds each day and they bring a good chance of rain. Phoenix got rain yesterday, their first in 122 days. We've had rain here the last two or three days but nothing significant so far. It takes about an inch of rain to put water back in the tank and so far we've had less than a quarter of an inch. The change in sunshine and the cloud cover are welcome but the higher humidity means that the swamp coolers don't work as dramaticallcy and so the heat feels stronger at times.

We are still preparing for the trip and part of that involves moving animals to other locations. Tomorrow, we move two horses up to Flagstaff so in anticipation of that we had to first take feed and the panels used to construct the pen up so we'd have a place to contain them when we get them there. It was quite the adventure.

We have a large horse trailer to use to carry the feed and panels and livestock. It has been parked next to the pasture for the last several months, so first we had to drag it out from where it was with the tractor. We got the tractor out and backed it up into place under the hitch only to discover that we had the wrong blade mounted on the tractor. The one with the hitch ball welded to it was still out back of the barn. So, change the blade. It's mounted with a three point hitch which means getting out two pins and a bolt. Do they the slip out and line up? No, of course not. There were four of us working at it and it was finally accomplished. Back to haul out the trailer. We pull it out and discover that it was concealing a large hole in the fence. The horse spotted it at about the same time we did so it was a mad dash to head her off and put a temporary patch in place with plywood, barrels, wire and whatever was at hand. Now we have the trailer to load but first we see that it has a flat tire on the left side. Well, we'll just haul it up to the barn and air it up. We get it up there and air it up and all is good. That is until we spot the large chunks of tread missing on our newly aired tire. Change to the spare. Good. Oh look, there's a tire on the other side with a six inch slash in the side wall. Well, the trip is off until we get new tires. Wait, we've got a very questionable tire but we also have a chunked out spare and a light load. Maybe we can make it after all. Ok, load the panels and hay and feed on the trailer. Thank God for grandsons and friends who are young and strong. Off we go down the road, keeping a carefull eye on the bad tire out of the window. We get about 15 miles down the road and are about to get on I17 North so I get out and check all of the tires when I hear a plaintive wailing coming from inside the trailer. We have a stow-away. It turns out to be gray kitty and we coax her out of the trailer and into the truck cab. We don't have anything to put her into so now we try to keep her somewhat calm and away from the driver. We drive on with no further mishap and reach our destination and unload. They have a cat carrier we can borrow, they feed us and we return  as the sun goes down. I tried a shot of the sun shining down through the clouds but it didn't show up nearly as gorgeous as it was in person.

Here's what the tire we rode on looked like. It went 175 miles without any problem at all.

And here's the spare. We went to a local tire service and had them both replaced today in advance of our trip with the horses tomorrow.

For dinner tonight we had steak and stuffed zucchini and beets. We had gone into the local Sprouts, a produce store, for regular beets but next to them were bunches of Golden Beets so we decided to give them a try. We cooked them just like we would the red ones and they tasted just about the same, maybe a touch milder. I'd never seen them before but they were good.

On the bus front, the latest news is that a badly leaking wheel bearing seal has been found. A new one will be sourced on Monday. The brakes will simply be cleaned with brake cleaner and re-installed.

We are now informed that the bus conversion will take somewhat longer than planned. None of us here are surprised nor dismayed by this news. Our starting date will be pushed back but how much remains to be seen.

A Quick Update

The reconstruction of the bus continues apace. I got a quick look at it this morning. The change is gradual rather than dramatic. For those curious about the melding of the low profile toilet with the existing stainless steel unit, here's an attempt to show it:

It's interesting to note that the original installation did not include a sink. Of course, the new one doesn't either but there will be others on board.

Here's a view looking to the rear showing the tub installed to the left rear and to the left front is the box for the fridge. The fridge box still needs its' vents installed.

Here's the view from the other direction, standing in front of the old toilet looking toward the front of the bus. behind the wall on the right is the tub and you can see the other toilet installed just past the partition on the left. The silver loooking thing past the toilet is a corner mirror cabinet that will be installed high on that wall. A smaller, bar type, sink will also be installed on that wall.

Here's a better look at the tub/shower area. For those concerned about the window, the tub will have a surround type shower curtain. It is also anticipated to have outside shower capabilities for times when that will be possible.

Here's a better look at the enclosure for the fridge:

It seems now that we will have a separate, dedicated 12 volt power system for the coach area. It will be deep cycle batteries charged by solar, backed up by a generator. We will take advantage of some of the lefover wiring runs that go the length of the bus to carry 12v to where it will be used. An inverter may emerge later.

We have yet to see the sinks, countertops, kitchen storage, couch or forward bunk area.

Tomorrow is the big parade in town and John is driving his team in the parade. Following their participation in that, they will need to be moved to a temporary home for the duration of the trip. We still have at least two trips to make up to Flagstaff to relocate horses and build a corral and supply them with feed. So there are some distractions in the next few days. It remains to be seen if we will make our scheduled departure.