From the back of the bus

Looking at the windows that have already been tinted

Carefully measuring the film to the window

December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas, everyone!! I didn't plan on waiting so long between pictures, but, when we finally left Fontana to head for the desert, we had such lousy reception on our aircard at Sidewinder, that I just didn't post anything. We are now at Lake Mittry, in Yuma, and believe it or not, for those who have been here in years past, we have an excellent cell signal and we are getting broadband on our aircards! So, now I can post pictures and tell you what we've been up to. We did get our windows tinted before leaving Fontana and the bus looks really good! Right now, Ron has been doing some wiring, (boring inside stuff), so unless he does something that is good for pictures, I won't be posting pics for awhile. Ron did wire up the lights in the bathroom and the living room, though. We have activated the composting toilet and except for a few glitches, it seems to be working fine. We did find out that the one bank of solar panels that we had tilted was putting out far fewer amps than we thought they were and that is due to the shadows cast by the two swamp coolers up there. So, now, Ron has to figure out what he's going to do about that. I suggested that maybe he just has to hoist the offending panels up higher to clear the obstructions, hey, it sounds simple to me! Also, Ron plans on making the facings for the cabinet shells he's already built at the wood shop at the Army base, since it's so close to us. We hope to be able to stay here at the lake until January 10th, but, we'll see. Technically, we can stay here only 10 days per calendar year, so that should mean 10 days in 2007 and 10 days in 2008, right? So, if we can stay, we will, then, we may head up to Eherenberg with the Boondockers for a few days until the bus rally starts in Quartzsite. Hope to see many of you in Q!

I forgot to mention that the tank with the large holes in it is the 100 gallon gray water tank and the other one is the 100 gallon fresh water tank. Remember, we will have no black water tank because we have the composting toilet. Ron also wants to get all the windows tinted while we're up here, so we may have that done at the end of the week. I think that will really make the bus look different.

Here are the tanks all ready for the plumbing to be attached

Another view of installing the fittings

Drilling the first hole for the new fittings

Our new floor in all 3 bays, with the tanks inside the back bay

Looking at the newly re-painted bottom half of the bus

You can't really tell in this picture, but, the visors are all shined up. Also, the metal has been painted.

Wednesday, December 5

The work that Oscar was doing on the bus is finally done, but, we are still here in Fontana. Today, Ron laid out the fittings for the holding and fresh water tanks to see where they are all going to fit, then, he drove down to have them installed on the tanks. You'll also see that the whole bottom half of the bus has been re-painted and it looks pretty nice. Oscar also shined up the rear visors, as well. We're hoping to leave sometime Monday to head down to Oceanside to Camp Pendleton, but, time will tell if we make it or not.