We’ve been playing airplane lately. This includes packing up luggage and flying from one grandma’s house to another. Today Ouest added a new wrinkle to the game and included a stewardess. “Hey, juice lady. Juice lady?” she called out once the plane had reached cruising altitude. Because really the best part of flying is being served apple juice (or apparently it’s the tomato juice for nine out of ten adults). To a four year-old, serving juice must seem like the only thing those flight attendants do.
We spent Christmas morning at Ali’s sister Toni’s and the afternoon at Grandma’s. Everyone had a nice time, but my favorite part of the day had to be seeing Ouest lead her thirteen year-old cousin Curt around the house from one game to another. They built giant block towers, drew pictures, and played hide-and-seek, but only after Ouest had explained to him how it was done. “One person counts, and one person runs and hides.” It didn’t occur to her that he may have already known that.
Lowe got a couple of trucks for Christmas. An old-school yellow Tonka dump truck, and a garbage truck. So yeah, he was all set. He doesn’t really play with anything except trucks.
Story of how we found the Travco. Once we decided we wanted to go RV style traveling we started the online search for vintage. Why vintage? Because if we’re going to travel off to all of the world’s amazing places we wanted something that we’d be happy to have in our photos. We need a bit of style in our modes of transportation. But why vintage? Because RVs have suffered from a severe case of the uglies beginning around 1974 and continuing on until, oh, about 2013. I mean honestly, they are hideous. Ugly monstrosities. Like a design student has never once been employed by an RV manufacturer type of ugly. And also, where’s the sense of adventure in driving around in a brand new Winnebago (writing this I realize that I don’t even know if they still make Winnebagos or not).
For a while we looked at old buses. Both school buses and motor coach greyhound style buses—but we didn’t find anything that caught our fancy there. Plus, they’re awfully damn big. Eventually I started to focus my attention on the old Winnebagos. The crazy looking square faced units with Indian names. We e-mailed a few of these sellers, but again, nothing was winning us over. Then Ali stumbled on a Travco listing and it was all over. We found a few for sale, but most looked really rough. Rough enough that they were going for like a thousand bucks. Then we found ours on Craigslist for $12,000. Pics were pretty bad, but the bus looked to be in pretty clean original shape, was said to run good, etc. We decided a twenty-seven footer would do us just fine, settled on a price of $9,000, and that’s that. We’ve got our vintage RV with plenty of style. We don’t have to worry about trying to crop it out of every picture like we would have with virtually every other RV ever produced.
I’ve spent the past few nights just getting the bus cleaned up. Interior pics will be coming soon. I haven’t changed anything or started tearing anything apart yet—this has just been the basic cleaning. It’s amazing how clean these old things will come with a little effort. The best thing I’ve done so far though has to be removing all the forty year-old purple window tint. Just like that the bus (yeah, I call it a bus, though it bears no relation on the family tree) feels like a giant fish bowl. So open and airy. I can’t wait to be in nice weather with the doors and windows wide open and a beautiful view outside.
In our first week here we visited the library three times. Man, libraries are awesome these days. If we lived close enough to walk there I think we’d go every day.
These two aren’t accustomed to spending so much time in cars. Now I see why parents like taking their kids for a drive.
Mailing a letter to Santa on Christmas Eve.
Lowe was so sure he wanted a Christmas cookie. He took one nibble and handed it over to Ouest.
Both of Ali’s sisters keep the Christmas thing going around here. Without them there would be no trees, no decorations, and no gifts. Lowe couldn’t keep his hands off of the tree. Just walking past he would drag his hand across it.
Not sure, but I think the seal around the door might need to be replaced.
If you’re a male under the age of 70 and you never had one of these trucks then your parents are monsters.
Ouest always says she has blue eyes, but truth is they are her mama’s greenish-grey for sure. Lowe has my blues.
Ouest’s cousin Lea was nothing more than a five month bump in her mama’s belly the day Ali and I got married. Any time I need a reality check on how old I am I don’t look in the mirror, I just look at her.
Did we mention that Ouest got her very own camera for her birthday?
24 Comments on “Holiday Ramblings”
I begin with saying that you should keep the boat, because after about one and a half year of being on the road with the Travco, living on the water will appeal once again. Assuming you will sell it, or possibly already have sold it, are you going to first fix the engine, and how do you plan to proceed with selling it?
I have to second the opinion to keep the boat. No matter how much you like or dislike sailing, the water is what calls you back. Having an RV and a sailboat sounds like the perfect combination to living in my book.
In my opinion keeping a boat that you aren’t using is one of the stupidest financial decisions a person can make. Two years, $500 a month dockage/hard storage is $12,000. Paying somebody to keep an eye on it $2,500. Coming back after two years to repair everything that has been neglected or just simply stopped working while you were away, another couple of thousand easily. So, $15,000 for something that we have no intention of using. That doesn’t even begin to take into account the opportunity cost of the money that is tied up in the boat. That’s another $10,000. Keeping a boat is stupid. We’re done with this boat, not because of the boat itself, but because it’s not how we want to travel right now. From Mexico there is nowhere that we want to sail to. If we decided we wanted another boat we would buy it somewhere else and explore other cruising grounds again, not go right back to what we were doing. One only needs to look around any marina to see hundreds of boats whose owners thought they’d “be right back.” We are not that type of person.
I agree Pat, 100%, Massive waste of money. When we found ourselves going to our boat once or twice a month tops, we decided the almost $500 a month we were sinking into it, plus the yearly insurance and upkeep was stupidity. We sold it and were lucky to find some buyers who enjoyed her as much as we did. I for one am really looking forward to your next adventure. Can’t wait to see South America from you and your families eyes as it is one of the places (Peru) I want to travel and surf. Never go back from wence you came….Except to visit…..keep moving forward. The best is yet to be!
P.S. That pic of Quest and Ali. Beautiful.
Agreed. People get sentimental about THINGS, which is almost always an expensive mistake. The storage industry is one of the fasted growing in North America because we can’t bear to part with THINGS.
Most things can always be replaced, if needed. Those that can’t are usually small and connect us to our personal history.
One of my favourite quotes out there is by Frank Lloyd Wright: “Most rich people I know are little more but the janitors of their possessions.”
No, not quite the stupidest. That would be buying a 30 year old engine and not knowing how to fix it. THEN, buy a 50 year engine and still not know how to fix it.
Huh? Is that supposed to be a dig towards me? Tell you what, I can’t buy a one year old engine either. I bet you can’t either. I really wouldn’t know how to fix computers. Maybe I should only take airplanes and buses until I’ve completed my online mechanics training degree.
Some people will never understand that it is OKAY to learn as you go in life. Will it probably cost you a little extra money over the person who stayed put and did years of research first? Probably. Does that make it the wrong decision? I certainly don’t think so.
That was an odd post by the anonyamous sailor. I hope we all don’t have to get rid of everything we don’t know how to fix. I’d be living in a cave with stone furniture. And a carb’d 318 is the perfect engine to not know how to fix because every mechanic everywhere does. So do most guys that came of age in the 60s or 70s. I bet there’s not a town in the Amercia’s where 10% of the population can’t troubleshoot and repair one of those beauties. The kids will probably be able to tear it down and rebuild it before they’re 10 years old.
Love the motorhome and it will look great when your done. I have a YouTube channel rvliving7 about gutting and redoing a newer rv but you might get ideas on insulating the walls and stuff, if you get time check it out. Good luck.
My bus is gorgeous.
Well, of course there are exceptions. 🙂
The kiddo’s sure like the snow. I’m from Winnipeg so I familiar with it. Love the RV. I can see you are getting RV advice from everywhere…but I am sure you will break it down to what you need.
Gotta love those Tonka trucks,they can take all the punishment a kid can throw at them and still come back for more the next day. When my mom sees those trucks in the store she always remarks at how my “little behind used to fit into the bed of my dump truck.”
Dad bought me a tonka…. I was about 9? took a big rock to it. Needless to say it didn’t last very long… and dad was pissed.
It’s nice to see Ali in a picture once in a while:-)
Those sleeping kids pictures… dang, awesome!… I was going to ask you about why, what reasons you settled on the travco… thanks for answering my questions Pat.
I never had a Tonka truck…it all makes sense now 😉
Of the thousands of pictures you have posted, the one today with Ali reading a book to the kids was outstanding.
Frame it and display it!
Agree sell the boat..and are you familiar with this site..
http://www.searchtempest.com/
does searches nation wide or within “X” miles of your zip great tool for craigslist search..too late now but lots of Travco-s 1964 to 1970’s nation wide from $1,000 to $5,000 some ready to go some needing fix-up to varying degrees and yes some over $10,000 too.
Exciting new adventures coming. The kids look amazing and happy as usual. As an ex cruiser who was considering doing it again, it is affirming that you have decided to get off the boat. Trying to decide what do with our gang, as we had Julia in September and Nina (almost 5) – we have struggled with a decision. We had our belongings down to what would fit in a trunk of a Nissan versa and then decided to table it. I was actually getting ready to send you two links on Ford Lehman experts that I have used in the past to fix my 120. I wasn’t shocked to see you are over it. We struggled with how much time I spent “fixing” things as opposed to how much time I spent with my family. We sold our trawler and my family won 🙂 Like you, I have done a ton of research online about RVing, boondocking etc. I will be watching and learning. Have fun with your new bus! Best regards, Erik from Oympia
Hi Pat & family,
Do you know if this make of RV can be converted to used cooking oil or another non-petroleum based fuel? I see one for sale in Ventura for about $10k, supposedly in excellent running condition. Here:
http://ventura.craigslist.org/rvs/4205603575.html
I don’t have the slightest idea. I know nothing about that stuff. She looks pretty good though. I bet it goes quick.
Used vegetable oil can be used in diesel (not gas) engines.
More details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable_oil_fuel
Live, Love and Learn! Continue life on your terms Pat! Being happy is the most important thing. You will not be on your death bed and say to yourself, “Gee I should have pumped all my money in that boat” lol Now get that bus ready and get moving! I’m getting claustrophobic for you, Ali and the kids! 😉
We are so looking forward to the next adventure. Everyone looks happy and healthy. I also love the picture of Ali and the kids.
Not that I have to tell you this, but what matters is that you are all together, enjoying these years while the kids are young. (Check our facebook for our single day out on an island on the Florida Keys. As ours are now 15, 17 and 20, we only get snippets of the moments with our kids that you all cherish daily.) Sail on… via Travco!
Pat & Alli,
I have had such an enjoyable day catching up reading about you and your beautiful families travels. It was nice to see Linda’s look of sheer joy being with your children, doing what Grandma’s do.
Feel free to email us and we can catch up. As I am reading, I have noticed that a smile has come over my face. I admire you two for being fearless. I can’t imagine how proud Linda is too. Please send her my best, I miss seeing her.
Take care and safe travels.
Nancy Mercer