Wires and Winter

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Life is pretty tame around here at the moment. I go off most mornings to work on the bus while Ali takes the kids out somewhere to try and burn a little energy. We meet back up in the afternoon, play, eat, take a bath, and go to bed. It … Read More

Ice Bus

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I was working on the bus this morning when I suddenly realized I could no longer feel my feet. That’s how I know it is time to call it quits for the day. Yesterday Ali’s dad gave me a hand removing the rooftop air-conditioner. Wow did they overbuild the crap … Read More

Trophy

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We went bowling today. I rolled a 197. The family was completely unimpressed with my bowling prowess and in the end decided that they deserved trophies and I did not. They took all my quarters, deposited them in vending machines, and walked away with piles of plastic Chinese jewelry as … Read More

No Walls, No Ceiling, No Floor

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So Ali and I went back and forth with what to do to the walls. Currently they have a sort of blue wood-grain paper glued to them, which I quickly realized would take three to four years to remove. I then tried to convince her that keeping it would be … Read More

That’s All

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I got back the other night after the kids had gone to bed. At 5:30 in the morning Ouest called out and I went in to check on her. She was sitting up in bed and as I walked up to her she said to me, “I just wanted a … Read More

Moving the Bus

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Today the bus got moved to a friend’s house where we can both hide in a giant shed out of the weather. There is also plenty of room for me to empty everything out so I can work on things. The extra room allowed me to empty out two storage … Read More

Ice Wash

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We took the kids to a movie for the first time today. Ouest, at Lowe’s age, would have never sat still for two hours to watch a movie, but he chilled out the entire time, with his only complaint being the volume. Ouest dug it too. She asked me why … Read More

Life Around Here

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Haven’t been accomplishing much of anything the past few days. I promised myself that in this post I wouldn’t complain about the weather, so I’m not even going to mention why I haven’t been outside working on the bus. I started calling around about tires today. The tires themselves are … Read More

Swimming in Minnesota

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We figure we’ll be here a few weeks, and things aren’t looking good for getting outdoors anytime soon, so we’ve been hunting for things to do indoors instead. Today we took Ouest for a swimming evaluation to determine which swim class she should be placed in. She was excited, telling … Read More

Cold and Ceilings

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I’ve begun tearing apart the bus. Well, the ceiling panels are off and the old insulation is out. The insulation covered maybe half of the ceiling by this point in its life, and clearly wasn’t doing much good anyway. I pulled all the wiring that we would no longer be … Read More

1966 Dodge Travco Interior (Before)

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We’ve spent the past few days just sort of cleaning up inside the Travco. It wasn’t that bad to begin with, but it obviously hadn’t gotten too much attention in the past few years. I also took off all the purple window tint, which made a humongous difference in the … Read More

Paperwork

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One of the best things about this Travco is the paperwork. The original owner, Leslie Smith—a perfect 1966 name if ever there was one, did an amazing job of storing and organizing everything. I’ve got every manual to every single item on the bus. They really are a window into … Read More