So the day after the fire I got to work labeling and tearing out the burnt up wiring harness. It turned out to be about eighteen wires, of which I was able to easily trace about twelve. The rest were burnt down to nothing and broken. But it was a good start—we were making forward progress.
The next day the manager of Marin RV Park comes out and says, “You have to leave.” Just like that. Why?
“We don’t allow tow-ins. That’s our policy.”
“You accepted us as a tow-in.”
“That’s because Good Sam told me they’d be towing you back out today.”
“Well they may have said that, but I’m just fixing the wiring myself. Should only take two or three days.” We’d been careful to this point to keep everything contained to the inside of the bus so we wouldn’t have a big mess outside around our space, and I mentioned the fact that nobody could even tell that the bus wasn’t working.
“Listen, I’m not going to discuss it. We don’t allow tow-ins. That’s how people try to become permanent residents. They get towed in and then they won’t leave.”
And on and on like this. The guy wouldn’t budge. He couldn’t care less that they had a dozen empty spaces and we were paying sixty-five bucks a night, or that we had young kids and weren’t from the area. He let us pay for one more night and said we had to be out by noon the next day.
So day two of work was dead in the water. We spent the rest of the day scrambling to figure out a plan. We sent a call out on Facebook and immediately had offers of places to stay. Long-time Bum friends, fellow overlanders, and current RVers with two young kids also happened to have a small “farmlet” in Petaluma just thirty miles away.
We called Good Sam towing again and told them the situation. They—according to the rules of our towing insurance—wanted to tow us to the nearest service facility willing to the do the work. By now I realized that they were not going to be able to find a single person within five-hundred miles that would meet that criteria, so I wasn’t too concerned when they said, “I show here that there are two Dodge dealerships just about a mile from you.”
I told them to go ahead and give those new car dealerships a call, let them know about my ’66 RV with the completely melted wiring, and when they were done we could discuss them just towing me to my friend’s house thirty miles away instead.
I was on hold for a good thirty minutes before they came back on. “Okay, Mr. Schulte, what is the address for your friend’s house?”
Success. I really didn’t want to pay a mechanic $125 bucks an hour to stare at a schematic and scratch his head. Could he do the job faster than I could? Of course. But it was going to take a lot of hours, and we would have been shoved in a hotel room, or imposing on friends, in the meantime.
So the next day at 11:30 the manager walked over, “I just want to make sure you’ve made arrangements.”
I sat on my hands and nodded.
Five minutes later the tow arrived. I had already disconnected the driveshaft, so he just hooked us up and took us to our friend’s farm. Day three after the fire was shot, but the kids were happy with a field to explore, chickens pecking, sheep grazing, and a huge pot-bellied pig named Petunia grunting and snuffling about. And we were happy to finally meet in person some long-time internet-only friends.
Day four I dug back in and started running wires while Ali tracked down a new alternator regulator, starter relay, voltage regulator, and other miscellaneous bobs and bits. About ten new wires were run on this day. I also cleaned up a bunch of others, the biggest and easiest thing to do to clean up the under dash area is to shorten wires. Ever wire seems to have an extra foot on it, which just ends up making it look like a nest. Anyway, we took one step forward today.
38 Comments on “Petaluma”
Wow, that wiring makes the backside of all my computers look tame.
I hope everything gets put back together. Having a fire on the road would completely unnerve me!
I have not yet met Petunia from Petaluma, but I know her owners and I’m sure they’re glad to have you on the farm. We stayed at Marin RV Park for 3 months last winter and I’m disheartened to hear they kicked you out. Good luck with your repairs!
Petunia is a sweetheart. Her owners are okay, too. 🙂
The thing that scares me more than anything concerning your wiring is that under the dashboard everything is wood. Wood! Which burns. Thank God you had the guy who disconnected your battery. I’d be thinking of adding a quick ground disconnect somewhere in there.
There is one, but I was so busy with the flames that it didn’t occur to me at the time.
Boy, the bus seems to be in need of a bit of an auto-electric rewiring! You ever thought about digitizing your vehicle? Modern engines have data ports that you can use instruments to access the mechanical data.
I’m not a mechanic, I’m a software engineer, so i only know about that! You guys look like you are having a lot of fun, keep it up until the winter comes! I Hope that your babies are happy and well, and having fun.
Trent.
No modern engines, no digitizing, nope.
I am so glad that you were able to find a spot to work on the wires. I saw the Facebook post but I am in Portland, Maine so not too much help for you guys.
That farm sounds awesome! My 5-year old would love that pig!!
Hope you are able to get it sorted soon.
So, net-net, boats or buses?
He will be in for alot after another year of attempting to travel in a very old machine with minimal mechanical upgrades, then next to zero for resale, the boat thankfully had a good resale.
One feature of the current Bumfuzzle seems to be that there just isn’t that many mechanical upgrades that can be made. The thing reportedly goes and stops pretty well now. Fix up the wiring a little and what else is left?
I don’t think dollars are a good unit of measure for the value of a 50 year old bus. Especially considering that transportation isn’t its main purpose.
What is with people worrying about our bus’ resale value? We don’t give a crap as long as we enjoy it. If we were concerned about resale value I think it is safe to say we wouldn’t have bought a fifty-year-old bus.
Buy a house. 🙂
Towing insurance is funny. The base AAA is to the nearest AAA facility, which is how I ended up in Ozone Park (but very convenient to the A train). The next level up is to a location of your choice within 100 miles, which is how my mother completed her trip south to Florida last winter. The kind car companies pack into a lease is to their dealership, which often will be less attractive than AAA.
In any case, I think you were lucky to get a second tow out of the same incident.
They gave us a second tow because they couldn’t find a shop to tow us to on the first one, with it being a weekend.
Okay, I think Ouest needs to illustrate a book about the wonderful farm. Then you should take a few GORGEOUS photos that feature the kids holding sign cards thanking the guy for kicking you out because you’re on this glorious farm and not paying $65 a day. Incorporate those into Ouest’s book, then, on your way out of town, drop it by the campground as a thank you gift.
I know the guy running the travel park sounds like the villain in this story, but dealing with the public you see all kinds and the scammers in society are very good at portraying themselves as the victim and in the end I’m sure this guy has been duped by vagabond travelers before, plus just look at the rig, it screams we are leaving it here.
Joe, all the heartless park guy had to do was google the bumfuzzles. He would have found out that Pat and Ali have funds, are travelers and have a following. The dude was just being a di(khead about it.
I think this link should have taken care of the problem: http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/50/. The park guy could have listened to it on the way home, quit his job the next morning and Pat would have had all the time he needed to fix the bus while the park was out looking for a new manager 🙂
Well, playing devil’s advocate, a Google would show that they “say” they have funds. But, if so flush, why the ancient rig and dilapidated sailboat they just sold. It’s the internet, anyone can say anything. Kind of hard to blame the travel park guy. Thank God this didn’t happen in the middle of nowhere.
Wow. Snobby much? That “dilapidated sailboat” cost $75,000, which might not mean anything to you, but for a lot of people out there that boat would be a dream come true. Looking at your blog I see that having everything shiny, new, and expensive is the most important thing to you, and that’s fine. It’s also why you’re living on a boat in your seventies instead of cruising in your thirties.
Why thank “God” this didn’t happen in the middle of nowhere? Would something really terrible have happened then?
^What Pat said!!!
I seldom come to this blog…it’s been a couple of weeks and I only came this time to wonder what would be giving my blog traffic from here. I should have known. Another mistake. I’ve left barely a handful of comments on this blog, barely been here a handful of times…it’s not my cup of tea, and I won’t be back here ever after this comment. But, since you brought it up…
Forget “a lot of people”, the old dilapidated sailboat was obviously a “dream come true” for YOU, you bought it didn’t you, sight unseen, no survey and all proud of yourself (sorry it got the best of you) …as you did the motor home, right?. Good for you, I guess, if that’s how you want to spend your life…I don’t think most do but don’t care one way or the other. What is the point in your comment? You don’t appear to have one. But, you know kid, just to nip this and your attitude in the bud, and so we are clear, don’t bet the farm you don’t have that either me or my husband give a flying fig what you or your beautiful family do. What you are rightfully so proud of doing we’ve long been over. You are right about one thing though, we don’t have any desire whatsoever to drive around the nation or sail anywhere – EVER – in a POS motor home or run down sailboat like you have and had…much less mooch off the family when the latest jag gets old or too difficult. And, for the record, smartace we neither live on our boat nor are we in our 70’s. In our thirties, though we both sailed at that time, full time cruising was not something either one of us aspired to do. One major reason we are going cruising now is to find/decide where we want to retire.
But, that does bring up an interesting point LOL. Are you REALLY so friggin pompous and juvenile that, knowing nothing about us whatsoever – NOTHING – you feel you can assert what WE wanted to do and missed out on in our thirties, but have had to wait until now to do? Or, are you a mind reader too? I mean that is rich, truly. LOL Obviously you are, or THINK you are…typical.
I’m sure this will come as a great surprise to you, “bum”, but I’m pretty sure most of the world, in major understatement most certainly the sailing community, and absolutely me and my husband don’t gauge success or failure on being able to emulate the punk privileged Bumfuzzle dog and pony show.
Barely a handful of comments on this blog, and barely been here a handful of times? Twenty-nine comments you’ve made in just over a year. Twenty-nine. You must have really, really, really big hands.
Really I don’t see a sign screaming we are going to leave it. How about helping people out a little bit. Manager could have checked them out and given them a couple of. Wow
I checked out comments from travelers about Marin RV Park, seems the general consensus is the location for visiting San Francisco is really good and with that the management and staff seem to thing they can do as they please and still rent spots. Too bad too as managers and staff that run ruffshod over guest not only give their campground a black-eye, but the whole RVing campground industry a black eye. Any amount of common sense would have shown that “Bumfuzzle Family” were experiencing a short term problem that could have been a real asset to Marin RV Park in showing how RV parks can listen and help out travelers. After all, without travelers there would be no need for RV parks at all.
Good luck with the repairs. This look like quite a job. Do you know how the fire started?
Mark and Cindy
WHOAH.
I saw the photos from David’s IG feed (- that you guys were there) and of course it’s like, SMALL TRAVEL WORLD! Holy cow.
And then, WHOAH… *facepalm* – your bus! I have to confess, I felt pangs of wanting something similar to your bus when you first got it (- vintage! so cool!) but I think now I’m really content with our F350 4×4 with the Alaskan Popup Camper. We have an older model truck and an older model camper – it’s definitely a squeeze with all 5 of us in there and the dog, but it will take us anywhere – it’s a mad powerhouse on a stupendous souped up engine.
But don’t let me talk more. I’ll bet you guys have to be feeling it right now. Hope you get it fixed soon and everything ironed out –
xoxo
Curiously, I have owned a 1967 Dodge Travco, and a 1975 Travco, and you cannot believe the sob stories that I have heard from countless owners of brand new zillion dollar coaches. Allegro Bay, Fleetwood, all of the big names. Delaminating walls, returns to the factory for complete re-working of systems. Every one expressing their envy for the good old days, and the good old Travcos.
So true. Everyone thinks they’ll buy something new and won’t ever have any problems. When in reality they have just as many or more problems, and worse, they can’t fix any of them by themselves.
PS
I’d like to hear more about how the fire started (if you know) too – I mean, HOW DID THAT HAPPEN??
I don’t know if you read my post on the previous page, but I had a similar experience. The end result was not just a shorted wire. The starter wouldn’t stop engaging and the motor started running. The alternator kept both going strong with the battery disconnected. I had to cut the alternator wire too. I finally found that both the starter and flywheel teeth were chewed up and both had to be replaced. Just so you’re aware, that is something to check.
Thankfully that doesn’t seem to have happened here.
Pat,
Keep the faith, and hope you can make it to Mexico.
I just had my 1975 into a shop. Needed both valve cover gaskets replaced. Also the transmission pan gasket and transmission filter were replaced. Lot of leaks from them. I had the steering “bell” and associated parts replaced to take out the play in the steering. He painted the valve covers. He tightened all the belts. Recharged the dash A/C. Changed the transmission fluid ( of course). New PCV valve and associated vacuum hose. Resealed around the windshield. He fixed one of the running lights. His wife washed the entire outside of the motorhome and the inside, cleaned the fridge, washed the ceiling. And more that I cannot remember.
2900 pesos about $215.50 USD. And glad to get the work!
Fuses?, Breakers? If not already installed, now might be a good tine.
Perhaps a 50 amp fuse/breaker that feeds everything except the starter motor?
Sorry to hear about your mis-hap. Hope for better luck in the future.
Paul Thomas
Glad to read that you have a place you can go to! I hope the repairs go smoothly. Best wishes
There is really no accounting for those who live strictly by “the rules” but there are plenty out there….if you have been watching national news you know that a flight attendant refused to allow an Army Master Sergeant with a chestful of ribbons and accommodations to hang his coat in First class because that was the rule….she did not have to think! Glad it worked out so well….
Common sense is no longer.