Gone in an Instant

First let me apologize for my lack of posts recently.  The reason is understandable. You see on Aug. 8th, I lost Uncle Twinkie in a horrible auto accident.  This on top of losing my Mother in April.  Just a mere 5 months apart and the day after what would have been my Mother's 70th birthday.  I can't bring myself to write any details on the accident except that horrible is a mild word to describe it. Instead I would like to use this small space to tell you a bit about a Sister and Brother.  My Mother and Uncle were very close. My mother as the oldest helped with the raising of the two younger siblings, which made them more like her children than her brothers. Me being the oldest of the next generation and a mere 10 years younger. Made them more like my big brothers than my uncles. We had time to prepare for my Mothers passing but I know my uncle regretted not saying the words "I love you" to her. But you see my uncle was always upbeat and happy, that was the way he tried to leave people. When he went through a check out line the cashier was left laughing and happy, no matter how bad their day had been before. He never met a stranger and never passed anyone that needed help. And the times that help was taken advantage of, his reply was "It's ok, it will be alright"  or "It doesn't matter".  He touched so many lives in small and unassuming ways. Even unknowing to many the world dimmed a bit on Aug 8.  My one consolation is that I know my Mother and Uncle are together now. And he got the chance to tell her he loved her, although she always knew it.

May I Have a Little Wine, Please?

Aaahhmm make that whine.... oh gosh, I hurt.  All over more than anywhere else. Moving around will be a sad process for me today.  Ok whine over, on to what I am thinking about today.

Remember a few posts back when I said I had the power.  I still do, actually I have more.  I had to ask for that second Trojan 4D.  I could not stand the thought that it would probably get shuffled into a corner somewhere and ruin. Uncle L had already told me he had no use for it. So now I have the equivalent of a full time passenger on that side.  Those batteries weight 115 lbs each for a combined weight of 230 lbs.  That is the negative, the positive is that I have 330 amp hours available. Since I only want to use the top half of those hours.  I need to find a way to keep the batteries charged. I want solar but I don't think I have enough roof space for the amount of panels I need to keep those "bad boys" charged.  I think it will have to be a combined system of solar and alternator. I was really trying to avoid that.  I think the alternator is one of the few things on Gypsy that has not been replaced over the years.

When I was playing with the refrigerators I messed up and ran one of those batteries almost completely dead.  Although it was not all my fault.  The charger I had purchased to keep the batteries charged was defective.  Remember only a dummy buys a charger with dummy lights instead of a gauge.  I knew that, I just chose to overlook it at the time. Anyway once all of the return and replacement of the charger was done, I had to charge that battery back to full capacity. Let me tell you, that was a chore.  After a day on trickle charge (2amp) my inverter was still giving me a low voltage squeal.  It actually took another day at medium (6amp) to get that thing back to full capacity.  I really don't want to do that again.

Truthfully, I know enough about batteries, solar, etc. to be dangerous. I know the equations for converting amps to watts, visa versa and ect.  I also know all the pieces needed to tie it all together.  But I don't think I have the physical capabilities or complete knowledge to do it myself.  I think I am going to have to have help on this one.

Humpty Dumpty Sat On A Wall

Well you know what happened .... he fell off.  Humpty and I have something in common today.  I try not to complain or even mention my inabilities. Therefore most people think I don't really have them.  I actually have a list but I promise not to list them for you. There is nothing worse than someone who sits around all the time complaining about what they can't do and why. Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with saying you can't do something because....but make it short.  I'd rather concentrate on the few things left I can do. Anyway, about my fall today. I was coming down the back steps of my Mothers house and got almost to the bottom when the world turned upside down. I am not talking a short set of steps. As I mentioned before my Mothers house was built in 1843. The house itself is actually on the upper floor, the ground floor is an equivalent size basement of rooms. Fortunately, I was almost to the bottom or I would be in the hospital or worse right now.  As I lay there looking at the sky, I took inventory of the damage. I never move until I do this. I could tell my right knee and left hand took most of the impact. I don't know why but my right knee always seems to be the one that gets it.  I have trouble with it because of that. The outer damage is not to terrible, one scraped up right knee.  It is the inner damage that is going to give me problems for the next few days. You see, my spine is deteriorating from top to bottom. So for the next few days at least, I will be here on the internet. I have no idea what I will blog about since I won't be able to do anything on Gypsy. I guess I will know when the idea hits me and I post it.

Sustenance and Such

The amount of food you eat depends on your body's requirements. I am what you call a grazer.  Instead of the standard three squares a day, I eat five or six small meals. Most of the time these are simple meals, some fruit with crackers and cheese, a salad, or fold over sandwich.  I guess I eat more times because I simply don't eat much at a sitting. Also I like a lot of fruit and vegetables which have a faster digestion rate.  I don't watch fat counts, calories or pay close attention to what is good/bad for me.  I eat what I like, just not much of it per sitting. One thing I naturally don't eat much is deep fried foods. Again not because it's bad for you but because I just don't care for it.

I guess my eating habits would be suited to this lifestyle if I could find a fridge that would work in the van.  I have tried a 2.5 cu ft refrigerator and a thermoelectric cooler.  Neither worked, my 1000w inverter would not start the refrigerator.  It supposedly ran on 1.5amp with a 6.3amp start up. This calculates to a 725 watts start up and 173 watts to run... the inverter just squealed on start up.  So next I tried the 12v cooler. These things might work in a milder climate, but not here.  Even at night when temperatures ranged in the high 70's, nothing in the cooler was really any cooler than the ambient temperature.  So it's back to the drawing board for refrigeration. Somehow there has to be a solution that doesn't cost 6-9 hundred dollars.

Camping Out

No I haven't been able to leave yet, although I did stay in Gypsy last night. We have an extreme heat wave going on here. The temperatures have been well over 100 degrees during the day. Even at night it has been way too hot.  As I have for the past week, I sat at my computer dripping sweat as the air conditioner labored to do nothing. Understand this was all taking place at around 9pm. I finally gave up, if I was going to sweat anyway, I might as well do something.  First in the order though was a cold bath to cool down. After that I put the portable AC in Gypsy so I could have some relief from the heat.  The job for tonight was to cut down some of those silver folding sun screens that go in the front windshield. I wanted them for the back and side glasses too. I thought if the front one made such a difference... then all the way around should be wonderful.  When they are not needed I can fold them away. After about 30 minutes of working on the one for the rear window I realized.. this is as cool as I have been all day.  After a bit I decided it was going to be more comfortable to stay in Gypsy tonight. Unfortunately, finally getting cool caused me to abandon the window screen project with only two of them done.

I guess I need to take a moment to explain why the house is so hard to cool.  This house belonged to my Mother. She absolutely loved it. It made her happy and that was all that mattered. But this house was build in 1843. It is the oldest house in the area.  It was not designed for AC.  It has 15 foot ceilings, hand hewn wood floors and all slave-made brick walls.  When the weather is reasonable, AC is almost not needed.  You can open the front and back doors to a constant breeze. In this kind of heat though, it is a job to keep it cool. I hope we can find a buyer that will love it as much as my Mother.  This house was her dream, mine is to travel slow and light.

Ok, back to the subject at hand.  It is now noon the next day.  I am still in Gypsy, although she is starting to get a bit warmer.  If I had finished the screens she would probably still be cool.  The sun is bearing down on the passenger side windows at the moment, and they are without screens.  I leave everything on the drivers side in place because I don't use those windows when I drive.  But passenger and rear window stuff is designed to be stowed when I drive.

Here is Gypsy with AC installed

Here is another of Gypsy in camping mode

If you notice, I try to do all of Gypsy's modification in a way that will not alter her permanently.  If I stripped her back down to a plain minivan conversion, all you would see are some very tiny holes where I installed the small eye hooks to hold the curtains.  So far that is the only permanent alteration that has been made.

Now That's Entertainment

When you are living small, You need to consider how to reduce everything to the smallest amount of space required. Fortunately with today's technology you have many options.  But some of those options can cost big bucks.  My solution is a bit simpler and cheaper. I have a standard laptop.  But its a little uncomfortable to curl up with your laptop and read a good book. Yes I know they make e-readers now, I actually have one but never use the thing.  I have a better solution that covers all the things I like in one small device.  I like to read mostly, watch an occasional movie, and listen to some music. On very very rare occasion I will play a video game. To do this I use a PSP (playstation portable) that has been modified so that I may read on it also.  I won't go into how to mod a PSP here, there are plenty of website that can supply that information. But I will forget my phone before I forget my PSP. It is that useful.  I have about 125 books, 10 movies, 100 songs and a couple of games on an 8 gig card. I also have a 16 gig card that has about 25 movies and an 8 gig card that is free for more movies, books or music. When I get tired of the data on those cards then I just switch it out on the computer.... no need for an android, mp3 player, ebook reader, etc. Oh, and did I mention it is wifi capable. Now why would I want to spend a few hundred on a android table. Especially when these can be picked up in most any pawn shop for 75-100 dollars

Here is a pic in e-reader mode. As you can tell my PSP is well loved (indicated by scratches).  This will read txt. rtf. pdf. html.  If you get your books in a propitiatory format such as epub, lit, mobi, etc... they are easily converted with a free software called Calibre.  You can get it here.  If you don't like the white on black, it can be reversed or actually adjusted to about any color scheme you want. This just happens to be my preference.

One word of caution about modding a PSP.  If you do this (or have it done) don't go to Sony and expect an update. It will render your PSP unusable. At least till you find someone who can "unbrick" it.  As with most corporations now days, Sony frowns on modifications to it's products. Naturally they would rather sell it to you again. My answer to that is "Would you buy a new car because you didn't like the wheels"?   No, you would modify the car by buying new wheels.  I paid for this, I now own it .... if I want to "change the wheels" so to speak. I will!

Evolution, and More Evolution

So I went back out after it cooled off and did some more work on Gypsy.  She is coming along nicely in my opinion. Still not sure about that table I just got.  If I don't like I can always take it out.  Here is a shot of how she has evolved so far

Under those black crates is my house battery and 1000w inverter.  I said crates (plural) because even though those are the longer crates they were still too small to cover that Trogan 4D.  That is a big battery and the only place I have sacrificed weight.  I had to cut the end out of each crate and zip tie them together. I topped it with a piece of black coroplast. Instant table, battery house and power central.  At the end of the battery house, where you see the power strip is enough room to add the fridge or cooler when I get it.

Here is a shot a bit further back.  Notice the little gray box between the bed and the three tier drawers.... that is my camp stove. Also behind the drawers is my battery operated camp shower.

Next items on the wish list are a solar charger, port a potty and shower tent. With the way things have been falling in place I am curious to see which one becomes available first

It's Hot, Hot, Hot.....

Sweltering in fact. So I am staying in and writing in the blog.  I went on a scavenger hunt this morning and picked up a table for Gypsy. Although it may be too big. This means another reorganization.  Almost no matter what it is you can't buy it to fit her.  It has to be fabricated.  I am getting close to having all of the big items I need.  Still waiting to hear from Miss Linda on my 12v cooler. If not that then it will be a dorm fridge from Wally World.

I Have The Power

Well the vandwelling guru smiled on me today, in a really big way.  I went out this morning scouting for stuff.  I had nothing particular in mind, just a list of stuff I knew I was going to need. First stop was Uncle Twinkies, so called for his love of Hostess Twinkies. I knew there was a small suit case camp stove over there.   The kind that runs on a can of propane that looks like an aerosol spray can. They take up less room than most any woman's purse. While there we talked about the type of battery I needed. We agreed that the van was too small for lead acid, and there was no way I could afford AGM. So it was going to have to be gel. But even that was going to stretch the budget at the moment. Next stop was where Uncle Louie was working on his new freight truck.  I mentioned Uncle L in the previous blog.  He is the one that is the "King of Stuff".  Anyway he has a hot shot freight business. He recently purchased  two remote location trucks from a radio station to convert to freight trucks. This truck he was working on happen to still have a lot of the electrical stuff in it. But I didn't have a clue about this as I arrived at the shop. I was just going to show him what I had done to the van so far. Uncle L gets a kick out of fabrication. As we were talking I ask if he happened to have a deep cycle battery in all of his junk.  He grinned and sort of chuckled, then told me he didn't have junk, but he had lots of stuff. He also informed me that he had just taken four off the truck he was working on. Only two were any good, but I was more than welcome to one of them. Although they might be too big for what I wanted. As we strolled over to the batteries, I knew at that moment that I was being smiled on.  For there sat four Trojan AGM 4D's.   I had to resist the urge to ask for the other one.  When you are smiled upon, you don't get greedy. And Uncle L truly is the "King of Stuff", not junk.

A Rose By Any Other Name

The van finally has a name after 3 months. Don't have a clue how I derived the name for the van. It just popped into my head and seemed to fit. So from now on she is the Gypsy Jalopy or just "Gypsy" for short. I spent the day tweeking Gypsy and adding some things.

The bed got moved from the tail of the van up behind the drivers seat.  I didn't put it here originally because of the controls for the rear air conditioner. But really it fits better there and I can always move a pillow if I need to use those controls.

I have made the curtains for the windows and tinted the rear window.  I can't imagine why the rear window was not tinted like the sides. Tinting the side windows is not much help when you have the huge rear glass amplifying heat through it.

Tinting windows is not very complicated.  A bottle of windex, exacto knife, tape measure and a squeegee. Although, I didn't have a squeegee so I used a grocery bonus card. Now I have to get a new card for that store...... I dropped it down in the door as I was smoothing the tint down into the edge of the window.  Oh well, at least now I know those cards have a purpose, because I never seem to have it when I get to the store.

Let The Games Begin

So I have been driving this van around for a couple of months to get a feel for it.  Took some short trips and it gets thumbs up. I have also been playing around with ideals how to convert it.

Oh, and lets not forget, collecting stuff. I picked up a 12V battery operated fan and found a 12v cord to fit it in my electronic junk.  My Son donated a 1000 watt inverter to the cause. ~grin~ I have such wonderful children -- not only do they NOT frown on my out-of-the-box ideas.. they support them.

Hmmm... got side tracked ... back on subject.  So I have been thinking about how to create a light yet sturdy bed.  I don't want wood, too much weight overall. I thought about using a white plastic table top and change the legs but I could not find a size I am happy with. They are all too wide,  24 inches is plenty of space for me. Because of a physical disability, I can't roll over in my sleep unless I wake up. So I rarely turn over. Anyway, I finally found the bed solution.  Before I tell you about it, I need to clarify this.. I am not crazy (well, maybe a bit) and it does work.

Have you seen the three tier shelves at the home improvement stores?  They are two by three molded shelves with pvc tubing that separate each shelf.  Not the el cheapo dollar store variety but good sturdy ones.  Believe it or not, they claim to hold 750 lbs. The catch here is that the weight needs to be evenly distributed because of the pvc legs.  Well with a few alterations they make a perfect bed for my mini RV.

I took the pvc legs and cut them to 11".  This happens to be the perfect height for my van and for the single 29 qt single storage drawers.  Once this was done I inserted the legs into two of the shelves, set them end to end and zip tied the legs together.  The final modification was to cut 11" sections of 1 1/4 wooden dowel rod and insert it into the pvc legs thus making them more sturdy.  The pvc legs are the weak link in these shelves but the dowel rods solidify them.

Once all of that was done I added a foam mattress and bedding --- Perfect!  Oh, and what made this better than perfect .... I already had the shelves.  I only had to buy the doweling. So the total cost of the bed was $8.00.

My $8.00 bed....

Life on the Road

(previously posted on the old blog)

Ok, I know we are not on the road yet. We still have to complete the adventure of building the pearl.  But I thought I would talk about it a bit while waiting for warmer weather.  As I mentioned before, I have lived on the road in the mobile food concession business. Most times you are only gone for a few days, but there are times you can be gone for weeks.  I have slept in motels, trucks, cars, buses, box vans, travel trailers, and one time even under the lowered tailgate of a pick up. The tailgate story is a bit of an extreme but proves what you can do with some imagination.

The story really starts at a weekend show. We worked that weekend and then packed up on Sunday. It was midnight before we had everything loaded.  Our next show was a ten day fair that started in two days.  Since it was only two hours away from our weekend show, it was cheaper to travel to the next show early.  When we arrived at the fairground, it was two in the morning and misting wet.  This was entirely too early (or late) to go in search of a motel room. Both my uncles opted to catch some sleep in the front of their vehicles. This left my Son and I in our short bus, crammed to the ceiling with equipment and and only the single drivers seat. Really, talk about NO VACANCY  I had learned from years of experience to carry a bag of tricks. This trip was no exception. I had with me a queen air mattress, air pump and of course pillows and extra blankets.  I inflated the air mattress, dropped the tailgate on my uncles truck. Secured an extra blanket over the tailgate and then slid the air mattress under the tailgate. Instant tent!! That is where my son and I spent the remainder of the night. We were both quite snug, dry and comfy.  Adaptability is the key

The New Adventure Begins

Ok, so it took me three months to find a van that fit all of my criteria. I thought if I was going to do this, I wanted to do on my terms.  First let me list my criteria for you so that you can see how close I got.  It had to have:

Raised roof ..... yes
get around 20 mpg ..... 19 city, 25 highway
Dependable.... yes
Air conditioning .....  had to replace compressor clutch

In my price range..... yes
Less than or around 150K .... 161K
Neat but not necessarily perfect .... I might want to be mobile homeless but I don't want to look that way!
Year unimportant  ..... 1994

So let me let introduce you to the new adventure.  What I found was a 1994 Plymouth Grand Voyager with a Mark III conversion. Yes I will now be rolling around in a green, beefed up, "soccer mom" minivan. But hey, with gas prices the way they are, you can't beat an average of 21 mpg and room to live also.

The very first adventure began with buying the van.  It happen to be 240 miles from where I was at, but not far from my daughter's. So after planning logistics, I hopped a Greyhound Bus. I had my daughter pick me up and transport me on to the van in Conway AR. The van was pretty much as it had been advertised with just a couple of minor surprises. I knew when I left, I was going to have to fix the air conditioner. But I should have remembered that with this model van I might have to replace valve cover gaskets. They are notorious for leaking.  The previous owners had taken good care of the van with regular maintenance and repair receipts back to 2005. Just had 4 new tires within the last 6 months. I can't figure out why they over looked the valve cover gaskets, it's not a complicated or expensive fix.

Once I had the van in my possession and headed home, that is when I got my second surprise.  When I picked up the van it had half a tank of gas.  I knew I didn't need to find the nearest station so I hit I-40 headed towards Little Rock AR.  If you have ever been on this strip of interstate, you know that it's a long strip of nothing but trees with gas stations about every 15-20 miles. When I got to about a quarter tank I thought I had better get gas because I wasn't sure where the next station was. I stop and just paid for a set amount instead of filling up because I was using cash. This gave me three quarters of a tank. Good to go....right?  Well I thought so till I got a couple miles down the road and the gas gauge started a steady decline. Then I was looking for problems ... was I leaking gas down the highway? ... no, don't see any.... what the heck is going on and where is the next station... can I make it?  By this time the GPS is telling me the next station is 11 miles away. So I keep driving and watching this gas gauge fall. Luckily the gas light and station timed out at the same time. So I pulled over and stop the van. After looking it over, I can find nothing. So I get back in and start it up. Guess what, I have three quarters of a tank again.  It would have been nice if the previous owners had let me know to expect a cantankerous gas gauge.  It works, when it is full, it's full, when it is half full, it's half full. But anywhere between full and half a tank it does what it wants too. LOL

Once home I proceeded to fixed the few things it needed and give it a good detailing. I have now removed all of the back seats and we are ready to convert this thing to a mini RV.  I also have yet to give it a name.  I am sure one will present itself soon.

Let me visually introduce you....

A New Home

I have moved the blog to a new url since the Pearl died before she lived.  I have also copied a few posts from the old blog to give this one continuity. If you would like to view the old blog you can do so here