#1 LET'S BEGIN HERE ... 09 FEBRUARY, 2024
WHAZAMMO & THE GILLIG
A little older, and a new house, I lost my Chameleons and determined to find them discovered a (probably still there today) unknown area at the top of the mid-hall linen closet…what appeared to be the ceiling (above the door trim) was actually another shelf… the squeeze-in access was very small, once in, you replaced the ½ shelf “ceiling” and you had a 2 ½ foot by 5-foot area around 2 ½ foot high, dark, and very warm cave… all worked well here until a passerby would push the door closed - latching it ! the door handle being 4 feet below the “cave” was an extreme challenge even for a 9-year-old “Rubberman”.
Next up was the huge Oak tree in the woods by the quarry that the squirrels showed me, the rotten center removed, it was a great spy area to watch nature from, or just in case the Nazi or Commie hoards invaded. I bought my first car, a 1948 Ford Coupe, at age 13, it became the driveway hideaway of the day, and bode the future… as the next 67 years have been spent in some sort of a “vehicle” as a hideaway... cars, trucks, boats, busses, travel trailers.
Like any of them, they needed “building”, add in the mid-teens need for adventure-travel and any such place of respite had to have either wheels or float for moving on to the next “hiding place”.
Somewhere down the path, after being compressed into Navy shipboard living, I lost my need for large space (square footage) extravagance, preferring smaller-higher quality, over expansive and cheesy, years of corporate suitcase hotel travel living added to the smallness mentality acceptance, and I actually became averse to large mansion-like habitations.
Even after acquiring a family, as I now review the past 55 or so years of travel and 25+ homes, we have only five times ever dwelt in “over” 1,000 square feet of living space, our average homestead has usually been around 600-850 square foot, but, in that mix have been motor homes, boats, cabins, trailers all around the 300-500 square footprint as well.
In short, we were “small house” people 50 years before the Generation X, Y, and Z’ers ever thought it up... Creating liveable efficient life spaces (habitation) is like living in a Tardis, it takes thought, innovation, and a skill set to build, it can never be had simply “buying” an existing “anything” designed by a 3,000 square foot thinking designer, or manufacturer.
Enter the first quarter of the 21st Century, and society's demand of securing it to the ground with a foundation to be legal, making unmoveable tree houses, or fire tower/water tower structures totally unacceptable (especially for the taxation, building permits income), hence, the popularity in “move-outable” legal-mobile, RV-Motorhome-fifth wheel-travel trailer-house truck-bus and large van designing, building, and living.
Making for a lot of confusion… to man's arrogance and history that we all must contemplate and now experience in 2024, the small hut/tent/yurt dweller, the nomadic, gypsy, circus/carni, traveling road show, that has been ridiculed for centuries now has to be somehow considered, tolerated, accepted, and condoned by society, the government, social stigma, our elites, mansion owners, and our personal psyche… a "small" living space is simply another type of “catch up” reality for the 21st Century.
We have lived full time on board our 40-foot trawler “So…fea” for what will be 8 years this 2024 Fourth of July, before that, there was a 40-foot GM H8H Buffalo bus, a 160-foot “big flamingo" boat, and three 35 foot "dog nosed" I-H Schoolies, a custom ordered new Shasta 32 foot travel trailer, a 40 foot mobile home in the deep woods, small stick built houses, cabins, and even a tent. (yes, we also had our share of four or five 2500 sq. ft. extravagant homes).
Experience, knowledge, and skill set matter more than age or money here, follow along with us as this conversion develops, this new low-floor design of bus is radically different than a raised-floor school bus, motor home, or coach bus, there will be no “copycatting” here, this “is” a prototype build, with many unknowns and one-off innovations.
So here we are, embarking on “one more” build, one last build… as an 80-year-old couple ... last week (10 February) on an online auction, we bid, then bought (at a never to be disclosed price) a 40-foot Gillig low-floor transit bus (#2620) from Lane County Transit District… sight unseen, based on the documents, photos, good ole' boy, "word of mouth" inputs, and lotsa' "research" ... VIN decipher, build data sheets, maintenance records, and even driver interviews.
Follow along with us on this new blog, as we go pick up, and drive back with our "bought-sight-unseen" prize ... and then begin to build it ... our 6 month scheduled low-buck completion, and highway launch is planned for this August (at the latest Labor Day)...
Before the November election, the uprising, the ban on selling diesel fuel*, the martial law lock-down, the "forced" Chinese/Spanish/Arabic language lessons, the government forcibly making our boat a "sanctuary" entity for housing, and in the midst of yet another pre-planned pre-election scamdemic, and creating the need for inter-state highway passports & travel ID documents (in multiple languages), or allowing the various immigrant armies to set up roadblocks, charge tolls, or just block the highway system entirely.
Last week (December 14, 2022), the City Council of Portland, Oregon passed a resolution that will gradually ban the sale of petroleum-based diesel fuel within city limits starting in 2024, a national first. By 2030, the city will require stations to sell only diesel made from low-carbon, renewable sources, such as used cooking oil or animal tallow, aka grease.
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