#27 OUTSMARTING MODERNITY BLURB

WHAZAMMO AND THE GILLIG #27 (Click the "MORE POSTS" link at the bottom to find Post #1) This should end up being a VERY long page...

The sudden cascade emergence of over 20-year-old (especially "beater & screw-up Skoolies) broken down, left abandoned, wrecked, and illegally parked RV's of all types on city streets and county roads has raised a new level of RV visibility, awareness, disgust, and revulsion. City councils, Police Departments, citizens, and the neighborhood, mobile home parks RV parks, campgrounds, and roadside rest areas all have their bellies full (and memories revived).

The plywood window glass, house paint, and assortment of tied-on "things" on rooftops, side brackets, gas cans, bicycles, milk cartons, wooden crates, refrigerators/generators tied with rope on bumpers, missing body panels and storage doors, bald tires, have laid a line of disgust that can only be overcome by going in an opposing presentation direction ... or...be thrown in with the crowd. Unfortunately, as the 2024 "system" now re-evaluates the over 25-foot RV's, their checklist is fully "appearance and safety" dialed in... propane bottles swinging in the wind on their hoses at 60 mph gets their attention. Roof air units without covers and 2x4 jockey boxes hanging off rear bumpers make the state police ask questions, bald tires, broken glass, grey water into the gutter, ... it all leads to a "SAFETY INSPECTION".

The impound lots are overfull, the Counties are renting chain link barricades and property to enclose the over-run, new signage is popping up... no parking of over 7-foot high vehicles, no parking of over 21-foot vehicles, 3-hour parking limits, 9-5 parking limits, no overnight parking restrictions, 2-hour parking for customers only, and No parking are all freshly minted signs showing up in excess.

Parking "meter maids", concerned citizens, concerned drivers, and local police patrols all can cause a Safety Vehicle Inspection to be called for, enter the RVIA sticker again, tire wear gauges, insurance-title-plates-drivers license, vehicle weight, and the resulting scary "roadability" decision.

The storage lot where we are building the GILLIG is a full-service RV shop with tow trucks, and has a regional state police impound lot just for such vehicles. I am advised... "Anything bigger than parking space with a front entry, non-latching door, and without an RVIA emblem, becomes the prime candidate for review per our Statutes, legally we can call for a full vehicle conditional and safety inspection to determine roadability AND habitation for the public safety, no one wants a parking lot, or RV park fire or disease threat."

So, the folding and front entry doors stigma returns... plus, the low floor is right-front loaded with heavy kneel and ramp add-ons that must all be removed to lighten and free up a few miles of airlines, connections, and electrics... since I have a mid-body door, I decided to close off the right front after tearing out the ramp and kneel (more later on that).

Meaning we are now going to a mid-entrance design. in doing that... things shifted on the right side of the coach, the display shelving went forward 32 inches, eating up some of the space allocated for the wood stove, we also added a 6" counter between the stove and reefer (that counter is a heat stand-off between stove and reefer that I have not had on the boat, Buffalo, or Skoolie), I am determined to install that cabinet this time to eliminate the SS spatter shield, reefer side heat load, and gain a right hand workspace. The mini-wood stove from the boat was a great idea -until- I tried to figure out the exhaust pipe... no side exit could be done, and the pipe would have to exit 36" from the wall through the ceiling... too odd.

So, change begets change, the GILLIG was allowing us to move up from a 20" apartment sized electric stove to a 24", an out of sequence find then turned that into a 30 inch range found at an estate sale, add in a 12-inch wide counter the 32-inch reefer, and the 16 inches needed for the wood stove is used up.

This removal of the dinette-centered wood stove created a "change begets change" over on the left side now, so, its back to the boat for the wood stove and a reinstall.

Again, not having a shop or driveway/back yard makes for everything needing to happen inside the coach... To install the middle vinyl flop "EVERYTHING" was moved aft atop the bunks, now it all must come down from there to the middle in order to finalize the bed heights, tie in the bath wall and secure the cabinets before moving on to the shower stall and walls.

Once completed, it all goes back aft again, while the mid-section cabinetry, wiring, and plumbing goes in.

Were we not moving off the boat prematurely in order to set up for selling, and clearing out all of our personal effects, collections, and lifes goods from the boat, this would be far-far easier. Thank the bus Gods for the tool van, but, we are shuttling things fore to aft and back over and over as a result.

A nagging problem here was having a very traditional/funky bus seat dinette with the 36 x 24 table size... our boat has a 42 x 42, the 6 foot allocated to the GILLIG dining area was highly inefficient (since the low floor is smaller than advertised), I was very cramped on my hot water heater enclosure and had compromised my dishwasher side cabinet as well... by eliminating the BUS dinette seats and making an entire 16 foot continuous counter top (shower wall, over the clothes washer-over HW heater-6 foot dining/workspace-12" DW side cabinet- galley sink to pantry wall), it puts us back to the boat high boy bar chair use, and having an under counter knee space, shelf-like bar) with maximum and convertible working area for computers, printer, laminator, files, eating, writing, etc.

This will look really odd,but, we "are" both writer-intensives, and it is "our" coach, so we will do as "we" want, will it look weird ? you betcha', but, the galley area on the boat is countertop-to-overhead a full view glass 270 degrees, the GILLIG is the same, with lots of light, view, and very efficient (for our lifestyle), so now, with an all-counter continuous design, will have even more counter/desk space than the boat, perfect for writer and poet--lots of room ! All of this will come out in future photos, for the umpteenth time I remind you, "These low floors are weird to build", nothing from your past experiences will be of much help.

The biggest future project coming at us, and the most aggressive project in this build will be that last project: rebuilding the right front entry door and body work... tilt-ramp removal, corner rebuild, new side glass, and bodywork.

This project is now in a familiar phase of uncomfortable self-doubt and self-questioning, lots of money was spent this month on pieces/parts, the build inventory is all here, stacked in boxes, the chaos is at its height, and finally... the rain quit ! only a reefer and a combo washer-dryer are left to purchase (plus the right front window assembly), but the ominous labor ahead is daunting/exhausting/ and tedious.

We just concluded 2 full workdays 15-ish hours, retrofitting just the display cabinet... and there is another days work to finish it, like the back cabinet "nest, and the front cabinet turned sideways, the retrofit for Low floor is insane...

You wonder "if" it is ever going to go together?, will the spending ever quit? are we both insane? the answer to all three is "YES". September 2 is Labor Day, we need a year-long reservation somewhere for 5 September, and to be on the road headed there !