WHAZAMMO & THE GILLIG

  WEEK SEVEN... 4 November, 2024         an FYI... This blog (Whazammo ashore),is private, viewable only to those with the link address), there are 21 recipients (considered as "need-to-know"), to opt out-simply send an email or text with "opt out". Hopefully, the very last of the pesky, " oops, I forgot that one" , address and account changes got completed this past week... seems like in a 2025 world of AI, internet processors, and rapid communications that it would not take 2 full months to move, and redirect, much of what was changed did not stay changed, and the second time around had to be redone... pathetic efficiency level.   Anything postal-tied is beyond explaining, two letters sent, one took 8 days, the other 11 ... from here to Portland !! If you walk @ a speed of 2 1/2 miles per hour, 8 leisurely hours a day, you can hand deliver a letter to Portland in 10 days. The areas of real importance Medical, Pharmacy, Banking, controlling the t...

 THE WORLD JUST GOT SMALLER... WEEK SIX  28 OCTOBER, 2024 We reached out to Bandon this past week, and Brookings last week, it was an all too familiar experience to our 8 years in Florence and reaching out to Eugene, Newport, and Coos Bay...  it was a failure, a repulsive, disgusting failure.       We left Florence 5 times in 8 years, and now doubt we will ever leave Port Orford/Gold Beach, ever !  After years spent with a pre-drivers license age yearning to wander, leave, escape, investigate, and explore ended at 16, never to be put back into the garage, or run out of highway ever again... now, I have installed spike strips around Curry County for keeping us local,  the yin - yang of it all, there is simply nothing more to see out there, no worth in the experience, we are saturated with averse, we are staying home. We pioneered this obsession long before Covid, long before the wall was completed, we left town for-the-sea for a reason, remote...

 Who knew it rained in Oregon ? Week 5: On the 14th at 1500, a "V" of well organized geese flew over , headed South... 135 of them ! (I counted).                                                                        no picture this post    And a gazillion things your Mother never told you about, all arrange to haunt you (just before Halloween), snails, hermit crabs, turtles, gypsy's, boat people, yurt dwellers, RV livers, and tenters all carry their homes around with them, they are liquid, untied from the dock, "loose", resilient...whatever/however you wish to describe their state of freedom. When you live in a Tardis you become very private, firstly... because there is not much room for entertaining guests, or visitors, secondly there is the issue of you must either become a minimalist, or a "...

 Week four... here is a list of complaints:  15 October, 2024 We are working on a complaint list, here is what we have amassed so far, after four weeks...  no sea gulls no garage sales no fresh seafood no homeless masses sleeping, camping, begging.    Oh wait. !  ... that last one is not complaint, but a commendation. Made the Brookings run, found the picnic ground and lakeside fire ring, got the van back to status, got medical and pharmacy on board, all of the addresses changed, and the online accounts readressed, got started on the winter prep (readying for the November rains), locals here think they get more rain than Florence, and more wind too... so far, no contest whatsoever...  but, we will see. Three weeks until the election drama, we burned out many "hours" of telephone time doing what could not be done online or by snail mail to transfer, update everything/everyone over to the new location... really enjoying the small town friendly and effici...

  THREE WEEKS... 21 days in Paradise. 6 OCTOBER, 2024 No, not in St. Barts or Grand Cayman… right here in Oregons’ old State of Jefferson founding place, Port Orford… we have possibly one more week of acclimatization, reorganizing, and familiarizing to do, but this place is amazing ! It is not yet winter, but so far there has been far less wind than Florence, and there are stars !!! the silence (after the harbor) is unbelievable, we are really missing the wildlife... as are the cats, but the rhythm and atmosphere here is like something from 1960 Oregon, only with Amazon, wifi, and electric added in.   The slower pace, and lack of wealth on display seems to have lowered the competition bar, it is a truly “casual” tempo, without being “pioneer” or Oregon trail level sittin’ on a sack of seeds laid back. After the shiny wears off, we doubt we will ever miss the Florence/Bandon “little California” scene we left behind <intentionally>, we appear to be able to simply lock ...

  Well, we did it ! Here is a running two week recap of our last six fun filled weeks entries....  Late, on Sunday 15 September, we are off of M/V So..fea and into the M/C "old memories"  ... headed to our new digs.             The "new" story began with a plan to head south on Labor day ... the last minute changes to the coach   ALL  went awry, and there was a major coach cross-computer conflict, no accelerator pedal, no brakes, alarms aplenty, and deflated airbags, one-at-a-time sequential failures.     Although the sale date was for the 11th, we knew the new boat owners would not be coming to Florence until around the 20th due to a medical surgery on the 16th, even that failed miserably with a September 10th 2300 phone call wondering where the boat key would be at when they arrive this morning at 0900 !!   That 0400 arise, then packing like there is a Tsunami coming, and four massive in the dark...

 A long way to go... we were supposed to be out of here the week-end of Labor Day !  but MANY problems have arisen, so last week we just paid for another months stay here at the storage lot, (taking us to 1 October... (that is even hard for me to type). Where we are today in this project... we are at 90-95% and very satisfied with he final build, reading back over the early posts, we ended up (as we warned) far away from our original design... we end up with a "Park Model" RV (NO holding tanks), all full sized household appliances, 220 volt (twin 50 amp 120 volt) power on 20 circuits, 30 gallon hot water, and a swirl flush toilet, built for two (not 12),  

SEND HELP, SEND MONEY... send in the white van, straight jackets and the goons, they need to take me away SO, here it is, six full months after starting this project, actually almost 7 full months !  We have been under so much self-imposed pressure to leave by 10 September that I have not even had time to do the blog. Today is 1 SEPTEMBER... we are 9 days away... we were lied to, this is a cave, not a tunnel, there is no light at the end to be seen (yet)... fatigue and frustration are bad for any project, especially when in the final days before completion.  The money is not an issue, just fatigue. The fatigue is not psychological, mental or physical... it is engineering-innovation fatigue. This has been an extremely rough project to build, it challenged us at almost every turn, nothing,  repeat nothing here could draw from the earlier experiences of building four earlier busses... this GILLIG is "that unique", it also is possibly among the two-three projects (in my lis...

We have disappeared socially (more so than our usual reclusiveness), and the next 18 months promise to be even more withdrawn, as we sequester ourselves (somewhere) out of the public traffic, and exposure... many of our acquaintances and followers seem to view our online and written productivity as our being very social (rubbing shoulders social-entertaining house guests social-attending banquets/conference/gala social)... wrong! When after locking ourselves away in a small coastal port town on the end of a remote pier as one of three liveaboards in a 100 boat harbor, we feel encroached on, sick of people, and wanting to "get away" by selling our 8 year boat home to go live ashore in a coach, perhaps people should get the message... we are "not" very social. The COVID charade cast in stone a great many of our previous theories and beliefs, the recent events for six or so years have validated what we "knew" and have spoken about regarding corporate and poli...

WHAZAMMO AND THE GILLIG #35  (Click the "MORE POSTS" link at the bottom to find Post #1)    FINALLY THE ELECTRIC BOX IS MOUNTED ! We survived five months of trial by GILLIG, the next thirty days are highly intense as we try to do 45-50 days worth of work compressed into a small time frame for leaving Florence before the Labor Day week-end. We have five or so "destinations" lined up on the watch list, spanning Ohio, Idaho, West Virginia, and Oregon -only- affordable space for us is available, and will only cost right at double the per month cost of the boat berthing ... (typically, most RV spaces are triple the cost).  150 DAY TOTALS: "Actual" MONEY-OUT-OF-POCKET   total   TO DATE: $ 6,280.00-$7,800.00  remember, the ancillary support expenses TITLE-LICENSE-INSURANCE-TRAVEL-FUEL- ( not including the purchase price of the bus, or any construction materials, ment there was a $ 900.00 chunk of change spent on B.S.)... in actuality that should finish t...

  WHAZAMMO AND THE GILLIG #34 tarting the decommission of So...fear, and electrifying a gillig...  (Click the "MORE POSTS" link at the bottom to find Post #1)                                  Have been attempting to get into the electrical system work, but cannot get past the rethinks (which lead to redo's), the most recent being the beds, the new 11" mattresses simply require step ladders to enter... so, down they come off their pretty stainless steel mounts to now be 5 inches lower... sounds easy huh? The through-bolts into the wheel wells are stainless, but the nuts are steel ? covered in tar for protection, and obviously installed with the duallys off the rig, so, out comes the air tools, followed by a pressure switch failure on the compressor, a heat wave over the fourth weekend, arm power and lotsa' tar ! Did get the water system completed, drain and pressure lines all run to the hookup ...

  WHAZAMMO AND THE GILLIG #33  (Click the "MORE POSTS" link at the bottom to find Post #1)                                                  The pressure is on ! we lost a good 7-10 days of work time massaging the sale of the boat, there was much inefficiency and time wasted chasing leads, showing, and advertising...it's over. Clear-minded, after this weekend (we are having a yard sale too), it's kick-ass time.  and we are exhausted from the multi-directional razz ma tazz span of places that needed attending, but, now it is all coach, and "where to". We have a debriefing and passing of information glut to accomplish as indoctrination for the new owners, some Seagulls to worry about a coach to plumb and wire (did I mention countertops and a shower?), a forward door set to close, a mid-coach door set to build, 90 days worth of work, and about 60 days t...

WHAZAMMO AND THE GILLIG #32  (Click the "MORE POSTS" link at the bottom to find Post #1) NO COMMENT REQUIRED  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=902134958617475&id=100064629376368&ref=embed_post

WHAZAMMO AND THE GILLIG #31  (Click the "MORE POSTS" link at the bottom to find Post #1)   The events that direct our lives... BACK ON THE HOME FRONT Part of, the essence of, building the GILLIG, buying the GILLIG, and planning the future with the GILLIG revolves around selling the current habitat... our 40 foot TOLLYCRAFT, and making the transition boat-to-coach. At the turn of 2024 Whazammo's "read" of the American situational dilemma was such that the February entrance of the GILLIG entered...with exit plans from the boat and Florence set for August 15th-to September 5th (after Labor Day), if you are following this blog you know 1/2 of the story. The other half takes place aboard the Motor Vessel So...fea, and really is quite simple, the prep for selling, sorting, and transfer after 8 years aboard, is somewhat thrilling, yet emotional as well, as you create a new home and identity aboard the GILLIG.  The kitties, the marine-specific stuff, and the time consum...

  WHAZAMMO AND THE GILLIG #307  (Click the "MORE POSTS" link at the bottom to find Post #1)      Being a boat builder and full-time live aboard, I have encountered many types of boats, among them, the canal boats of the UK... which are narrower than canal boats on the Holland or Germany-based canals. For us non-tilt-out bus builders, there are some shared ideas to be had, UK narrow boats are 6 foot 10" to 7 foot wide and present all the same problems as a slightly wider 7 foot 5" Skoolie or 8-foot transit bus, the UK narrow boat makes up for its skimpy side-to-side in length... from 40-72 foot long. Canal rovers are booondocking almost full-time, and their knowledge from experience goes back some 200 years, try aquavista.com, rightboat.com or whiltonmarina.co.uk for a starter, you will enjoy the views. A SIDE NOTE:.... This morning we put the boat up on Facebook Marketplace FOR SALE ! Remember last year this time, we offered her for $55k, and then dropped to $45...

  WHAZAMMO AND THE GILLIG #29 (Click the "MORE POSTS" link at the bottom to find Post #1)                                             We have all experienced  a UPS/FED EX/USPS mess-up in a delivery (especially now that we do sooo much online shopping/buying), living on the remote Oregon coast, we have a shared UPS/FED EX warehouse-staging area outside of town, the big rigs unload daily deliveries there, the local trucks all park there overnight, are fueled and serviced there. Ever so often you will see unclaimed freight and lost freight for sale items in our local thrift stores, usually new, unopened, and wrapped a thousand rounds of that clear stretch Saran-Wrap plastic packing ... we circuit the local stores once a week for oddities, surprises, and to keep our flea market rage at bay and controlled. I never go through the quilting-sewing, huge book-magazine, women's...

WHAZAMMO AND THE GILLIG #28  (Click the "MORE POSTS" link at the bottom to find Post #1)         " SO " much has changed idea-wise, it's like we started all over, one of the biggies is now deciding to close off the normal, right-front entry doors that all "busses" have...two main reasons, and many secondary reasons that we will explore later....    Well.....we have survived four full months of this original 6 month build-it sentence by GILLIG, I think we may have to add a full additional month (200 man/hours) to our timetable due to our cabinet ordeals, it took almost three weeks to reconstruct the three cabinets aboard, waaay too much time... and we still have one more cabinet, the shower, and lotsa' counter work waiting to devour us ( after... we do the electric and plumbing). Then there is the always-forgotten fine tuning era to go through (the sea trial, the dry run, the proofing). It was only a $5-600-ish dollar spend month, (we are choked w...