Rude Electrical

     Sunday night two weeks ago as we were settling down to get some rest I turned on the ignition to run some of the interior lights.  To my pleasant surprise the alarm buzzer that signals if one of the emergency hatches or doors is open was going off.  I had this issue about a week earlier and it just took a quick adjustment to the sensor on the roof hatch and it stopped.  This time however it simply wouldn't stop.  In typical I can fix it style I grabbed a couple tools headed to the electrical access panel and dug in.  I found the component and the connecting lines and determined which one of the wires was powering it.  I quickly disconnected it to stop the annoying sound ringing throughout the camping area around us ( it was after 9 pm ) and then had a new problem.  There was no longer any power to the bus at all.  Now this simply baffled me as to why anyone would run the electrical in this kind of method but it was too dark to continue working on it.  I decided to work on it in the morning and we used our flashlights to get through the evening.

     I got to the issue as soon as we finished breakfast knowing that the temperature was going to get hotter quickly.  Now that I could see I could tell that they had run the power loop from the ignition to this buzzer and then spliced off from it to the main power solenoid.  So to get thing straitened out I would need to redirect the wiring which didn't look like it would be all that bad.  I removed the buzzer completely and moved the extra wiring from it out of the way and then used a splice connector I had in the tool box to run the ignition switch power to the solenoid.  We had power, I checked all the systems and fuses just to be sure and it was good.  It was a pretty simple fix but it really reinforces my desire to go through and rework and clean up the electrical systems on this bus.

     With that taken care of it was time to hit the water.

Having fun. Even when things happen.

     Its been about two weeks since I have done much posting and that's primarily due to the kids and I just enjoying our time with our bus.  Which frankly was the plan.  However there have been a few things worthy of mentioning.

     After a night of terrible discomfort I went and see a Doc during the week and she said it looks like a torn rotator cuff and to take it easy and not make it worse.  Then I scheduled an appointment with her recommended specialist a few weeks away. fun!

    We have been Camping every weekend and have tried a number of the campgrounds around Lake Mineral Wells.  We have a couple favorites sites now and will definitely visit them often as our quick getaway from the  DFW Metroplex.

     Things have been pretty good and the kids have been slowly learning about catching all the critters we can find, frogs and toads, (both of which have taken trips to the shower with one kid or the other) minnows, lizards and one little crawdad.  It's good to see the kids find so much interest in the nature around them and enjoy the opportunity to get hands on with it.  

     We have also seen lots of deer and both kids have been expressing their own interest in hunting.
I'm not a big hunter in many respects as I just don't have a need to go out and kill a ton of animals every year just to do it.  I have done my fair share of hunting for the purpose of filling the freezer however and I do plan to take them both hunting as the get a little older to teach them the skills and the proper perspective to respect the wild and the animals in it.

    Overall we've spent a lot of time playing in the water where they have been making friends to play with.  There has also been the occasional sand castle and bury the kid up to the chest in sand.  Its been a pretty good few weeks for the most part.

     This last week I had a couple people come and pick up bus seats and I finally got the second set of 4 rows out of the bus.  I simply love the extra room and cant wait to start taking measurements for the interior planning.

     This last Sunday things were going really good we decided to try a campsite that's a little further from the lake but was a more spacious area and had more room for our hammocks.  It also didn't have any electrical so the prices are less and we don't need the utility.

     When we got to the site we had picked there was a very large branch that some previous campers had broken off laying across a good portion of the fire pit area and a lot of debris from it crashing through the adjacent trees.  I called the park ranger for a rake and we got it all cleaned up.  Then we set up our stuff at camp as usual and after a short rest we headed down to play in the lake.

     We had a blast playing with some other folk at the swimming area and finely headed back to our site around 7:30 pm.  My daughter said something to me as we arrived that  didnt quite understand on first hearing but as I looked around the campsite I quickly made sense of her words.

     We had been cleaned out.

     Yep, she said "Daddy the hammocks are gone" with a little bit of quiver and a higher tone to her voice.

     With a lifetime of camping I have never had anything taken from camp before and just thought to myself who takes stuff from a camp.  Really?  I walked around the site in bewilderment at the fact that the stuff was gone.  We hadn't left all that much really just 3 hammocks, the old ropes to hang them, a few extra straps and a couple bungy cords basically.  All totaled probably about $200.  The thing I found strange was that it was all totally gone.  I could see if someone wanted to steal the hammocks that they'd grab them quick and bolt but to go to the effort to take down all the hanging ropes which where made from some old ratty fades rope and two, one clearly broken, sun faded ratchet strap and some cheap bungy's just didn't compute.

     Since it was starting to get dark I made us dinner and then listened to the kids complain all night about not having anywhere to sit with the hammocks being gone.

     The fallowing morning I called the ranger station and asked if by chance they may have come and collected the stuff from the camp thinking it was left behind.  They said no and sent us the park police officer who kindly filled out a report after looking the site over and said that this was the first time in four years that they have had a report of anything missing from a campsite.  I felt so privileged.  OK maybe not.  He said he would let me know if he found anything.

     With that we spent the majority of the day at the lake since our loungability had been reduced and enjoyed what was left of our weekend.

A U-boat?

     On the last day before the temporary tag expired I made a final trip to the title and registration office and finally got the bus title, licence and registration done along with a payment of sales tax.

     I again got the same lady who was so adamant that I go get an official scale weight for the bus before she could finalize the paperwork.  This was to my benefit however as they determined the fees of the scale weight instead of the actual Gross Vehicle Weight Rating which saved me about $400. Every other state I have worked with in the past Has always used the GVWR.

     With payment made and documents signed she handed me the plates and I immediately had a thought of WWII when I read the number.  One of the sets of numbers happens to be U99.  I have always had a interest in the great mechanical wonders of the industrial age especially  the later part considered the machine age.  Like many boys big, loud and powerful pieces of transportation are at the top of my list of interests and submarines are one of the coolest.  I instantly recalled that the U99 designation was one of the more successful U-boats in the German fleet and as a man who appreciates the machines and there engineering I thought it was pretty cool.  I have thought many times how cool it would be to have a submarine for a home just like the old classic 20,000 leagues under the sea.

Now that it's all legal I hope to get her down the road some more and start planning for the conversion.