I have to wait until warmer weather to start the really big job of removing the bus windows and skinning the sides prior to painting. In the meantime, I got the lock installed  for the back door. The door is about half way back on the driver's side. I plan on using it mostly for loading groceries and supplies, but also want it to be operable from the inside in case there might be an emergency. Most of the added locks I have seen can only be opened from either outside or inside.


Inside

Outside

I almost have the box for the external power cord installed, but as usual things were more difficult than planned. I had to cut through some of the rub rail ribs, and now have to weld inserts into the open ends. Pictures to follow at a later date.

I got the electric door lock finished and installed today, I think it works pretty cool. Note in the crack between the door and jam you can see the dead bolt move into the door. That just about finishes up all I can do on the door frame until it gets warm enough for paint to dry.   It can be actuated either by remote control or a key switch on the outside. There will also be a switch on the inside. While I was at it I removed a lot of wiring that had to do with the flashing lights and side stop sign.

The next project is building the service entry box where the 50amp cord will plug into the bus for shore power.

I got the metal back and the latch side of the frame in temporarily. I didn't get all of the frame put in. As always, something has to be done before proceeding. I now have a door that latches shut. Since a lot of the jam will be glued as well as riveted, I'm going to wait until warmer weather so I can also paint it. Just in time, the temp is dropping fast and it's just starting to snow.

Door getting closer

I'm getting closer to getting the door done. It's installed now just have to get the frame and latches done.
The shop is bending some metal for me and I'll get it picked up tomorrow.
Here's a picture of the new door installed.

  Hopefully I can get it all sealed up before bad weather REALLY gets here.
I was stuck at the computer today, so I worked on the floor plan some more. This is pretty much what the kitchen and photo room is going to look like.  The big black cabinet in the middle will have my printers mounted on sides in it.

It's been a long time.

I can't believe it's been over a year since I last posted. A lot has happened. We retired from driving. Yippee!!!!!!! Officially in October, although I quit driving in August. I like to drive, I just don't like waking up in the morning and thinking "I have to be 500 miles from here before I quit today" My new project is c
onverting a 1991 Bluebird school bus into a motor home. It is a 40 foot rear engine,automatic, with a Cat 3116. I have the bus and much of the "stuff" to do the conversion. Now if I just had 36 hours a day to get everything done.
Here's a picture of the bus. Taken at the dealer where I bought it in Moriarty,NM.

I took a Grayhound to New Mexico and drove it back. Another adventure to add to my list.

Here is a drawing of what I hope the interior will be like.Plans are still changing, but this is the main idea.


It will serve double duty as a showroom with computers for Dick's Photography as well as letting us travel and stay in comfort.
Mumsywumsy has also retired and hopefully she will travel with me, Kate and Molly.

I hope to keep up with the blog and post pictures of the bus conversion, until we can start traveling again.

Short way to go,long time to get there.

We only had 333 miles to go before Monday AM, so we spent the day doing geocaching. Looked for four and found four. This is certainly good exercise. Sooooo, you ask what kind of treasure do you find?

Here is one we found out in the desert.
As you can see it's quite valuable.

Here's another. This one has a travel bug. It has it's own number and log. It is to be taken and added to another cache on your travels. This one started in Texas, then went to France and the Netherlands before coming back to the states. I found it in Milan,NM and hope to get it back to the midwest soon. You can view the track log here

Here's a picture of Kate and Molly with the SWAG (stuff we all get) out in the desert. Molly will stay very well when working sheep, but she just won't sit still for pictures.

This picture is a watering hole that the cache was on the other side of. K and M had to stay in the truck for this one. We started out together, but the goatheads were so bad they couldn't take a step with out getting stuck. The have learned to stop and wait for me to remove them, and they are very painful.






Dick,Kate & Molly

We've been absent

We've been absent for a long time, just too many things to do. I have found something else to occupy more time. It's called geocaching, it's basically a high tech treasure hunt done with a gps. I have found, at least for now that my Droid phone does a pretty good job. There isn't really much "treasure" just the fun of finding it. Mumsywumsy likes to do it so it's something we can do together. So far I have found 17 out of 23 searches. I was looking for one today and got to within 2 yards of it when my battery died. I did find one today, two yesterday and one the day before. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE. More info can be found at www.geocaching.com