Green Energy Project

[dangie]

DieselDan- I'll take another look at the bolt under the ball socket part, it felt tight but perhaps it could be tightened further. I do have a padlock on the lock mechanism. We made it to Albuquerque without further incident so the ratchet strap may be helping as well.

The white sands was really a site to see. It rained off and on while we were there, stopping long enough for a rainbow to poke through the clouds at one point. We are definitely going to have to come back when its warmer and camp for a night here.





Thanks to Lornaschinske's suggestion we stopped at the Valley of Fires on 385 as well. There was a light but steady rain during our visit, but it was amazing how vast the lava flow was.





We are now in Albuquerque visiting with a friend. It's verrrry cold, 40s/20s everyday this week. Unless we find a local veg. supply or a biodiesel place near by, we're going to have to stay here until we raise the $400+ to pay for diesel to get us to San Diego because its too cold to filter any. I have some mural jobs lined up but we'll see if they follow through.

[dangie]

Angie's mom and sister flew out and met us Friday in Albuquerque and we went to the Grand Canyon for the weekend. Very cold time to visit but it was beautiful. Now back to finding money to move somewhere warmer.... If anyone knows someone in San Diego or southern CA who might be interested in helping out a pair of amateur traveling filmmakers with a place to park their bus let us know! We're hoping to ride out the rest of the winter/early spring there but it doesn't have to be that long term.




We saw lots of elk, mule deer, and a few coyote but no mountain lions or bobcats one day...

[lornaschinske]

Yummy! Venison!

Want to lots of wildlife? Go up to PieTown and make sure you lock everything (foodwise) up. The 4 legged critter are rampant!

You could go out to Quartzsite or the Slabs. Go To SKP forum and search for Quartzsite and Slabs or Slab City. Quartzsite seems to be more popular and safer. It is a combinations of two or three BLM LTVA. I've heard everyone needs to do Quartzsite at least once. We may, we may not. I do have other places to see while still out here (like the Grand Canyon among others)

If you go to the Slabs, bear in mind that it has gotten a little rougher. You may want to keep your "stuff" locked up and keep a gun handy. Slab City info they do have a solar powered internet cafe

This is dispersed camping at Quartzsite....

http://www.planetizen.com/node/43369


RV show http://www.roadtripamerica.com/rv/Quartzsite.htm
http://www.quartzsitervshow.com/

BLM website
Boondocking guides has info on BLM boondocking

boondocking website that may interest you

[dangie]

Big Easy now in matchbox size!

[lornaschinske]

360 Degree Panorama of Slab City in case you are interested.

[dangie]

Ever since I watched 'Into the Wild' Slab City has been on my list of places to visit, we will definitely try to make it there at some point. We have just arrived in Phoenix, AZ today. Not much else to report, had to replace a headlight but otherwise smooth (and slow) sailing. I'll be trying to renew my license here tomorrow, as mine expires on my birthday at the end of the month. Hopefully I can pass whatever test I might need to take, and AZ licenses are valid for 25years!! Thats amazing compared to VA (5 years ) Before we left Albuquerque we visited the hot springs @ Ojo Caliente which were fabulous..



We will be here for the next 2-3 weeks while we continue to look for someone to stay with in CA. If you know anyone send us a message! Thanks!

[spencerforhire]

Hey Guys, If you ever find yourself in Central North Carolina around Raleigh or Greensboro Area and you need to find a place to park for a week or two I have a field and a plenty of space for another skoolie to park, But alas, No space in CA.

[dangie]

Thanks for the offer! We wont be headed back that way until summer but we appreciate it

[Diesel Dan]

Glad to see y'all finally found a warm climate... or at least some warm water to soak in. There are a lot of natural hot springs in the northwest if you're heading out that way. Enjoy!

[dangie]

We finally found a host in CA and had planned to leave this past Saturday, but a new mechanical problem has developed. The last week or so I noticed the bus lurching when shifting gears, then an ominous clank sound when shifting into overdrive. The lurching is barely noticeable if I let off the gas while it shifts, but the clank remains... over the past few days its grown louder. Saturday I decided it was too risky to try and make it through the mountains heading to San Diego, so we're hanging out in AZ a little longer while it gets inspected. Should know whats wrong tomorrow (hopefully). Right now just hearing the word transmission makes my stomach turn.. so wish me luck!

On a lighter note, Phoenix has been awesome! We have made some really great friends and I found some really cool art gigs. I renewed my license when we got here (because VA is dumb and wanted me to fly back for a vision test! no really... apparently there are no exceptions.. ) and now I don't need to renew until 2052! 40 YEARS!! compared to every 6 in VA thats crazy. Here are some highlights in picture form:


Thats me with vinyl toy artist Huck Gee at one of his book signings, if your not familiar you should visit his site: http://huckgee.com/ He makes some really cool art toys.


Mural job for my new friend Kevin, among other paintings I did here he also is setting me up with some work when we get to CA which is awesome!!


We're riding our bikes everywhere now and have mastered hanging them in the light rail trains which are so cool! I wish we had one in Richmond.


This is a power station we toured at Stara Technologies who are researching alternative energy sources for the military among others.


Another art gig, painting logos..


I've managed to get some more paint time on the bus.. she's about half way covered now.


Celebrated my 25th birthday with new friends!


My dad came to visit one weekend between work meetings in CA and took Angie and I up to Sedona, beautiful! This is a picture of a giant sinkhole we came across near coffeepot rock.

The only other news is that our scooters for sale. Partly in anticipation for the enormous maintenance bill I'm sure is coming, and partly because we really do bike everywhere now and haven't driven the scooter since Albuquerque. However, this has raised yet another problem.. I don't have a title for it. The guy I bought it from didn't have one, and in VA you don't need to register or have a license for anything 50cc or under so I didn't bother. However, AZ (and CA) requires registration so everyone that calls about the ad asks if I have a title. I drove the scooter over to the MVD today just to see what it will take to get one but I got there too late for the inspection. Most likely when I go back they'll tell me I have to do a bond title, which will probably be more money than its worth for me but I'll post what I happens next time.

[bansil]

Thank you for the update,great pics and stories...one question...what does the tag art on the nose wrap say?I don't speak inner city

You are very talented,good luck in Ca...when you get there

[igloo]

The only other news is that our scooters for sale. Partly in anticipation for the enormous maintenance bill I'm sure is coming, and partly because we really do bike everywhere now and haven't driven the scooter since Albuquerque. However, this has raised yet another problem.. I don't have a title for it. The guy I bought it from didn't have one, and in VA you don't need to register or have a license for anything 50cc or under so I didn't bother. However, AZ (and CA) requires registration so everyone that calls about the ad asks if I have a title. I drove the scooter over to the MVD today just to see what it will take to get one but I got there too late for the inspection. Most likely when I go back they'll tell me I have to do a bond title, which will probably be more money than its worth for me but I'll post what I happens next time.

I've run into this problem with a motorcycle I bought. I knew the guy who sold it to me, and he gave me a title... everything seems fine right? Well I go to title it in FL but the title had the engine block number on it and not the VIN. I frankly have no idea how someone got that shit mixed up, there is a huge difference in the amount of numbers for the engine block and a VIN. I bought the bike from the guy in Missouri, and in Missouri that's fine apparently since they don't inspect anything... but in Florida they want to inspect the vehicle and match the VIN to the title. The problem was, that the vehicle was titled in IL and IL had screwed up and used the engine block number and not the VIN. Missouri wouldn't reissue a correction since they weren't the original state that titled the bike and for them to issue a corrected title they would need IL to admit to screwing up (send them a letter saying they got it wrong), or take it to IL to reinspect the bike and IL would reissue a title. I bought this little 1985 Yamaha bike for $500, no way was I going to scoot around the US just trying to title the thing... just not worth it. So, I sold the bike to my brother and he went to the DMV in Michigan and basically said "I found the bike in my Grandma's garage." They were fine with that as long as he agreed to let them do a background check on the bike/VIN and make sure it wasn't stolen. If you're reasonably sure the scooter wasn't stolen, you can use that method to get a new title for the scooter.

[dangie]

Bansil- It says 'living sustainably' but its mostly just letter practice for me. I'm pretty new to can work, and while I find graffiti lettering interesting I don't use it much in my own work. I've always seen this bus as canvas space for me to practice can work, and it will undoubtedly get covered again and again. If you would like to see more of my art you can visit my website @ http://www.johnsondaniel.com

Igloo- Yea I wondered what they would have done if I just neglected to mention I was from VA because they ran the VIN through AZ database and obviously it didn't come up as stolen. If I had left that out maybe they would have been satisfied.. who knows. As it stands, I called VA DMV and they said I will have to submit a form that gets them to do a search for the last known title holder, then DMV sends that person a letter requesting that they come to DMV and transfer the title. The odds of the person actually being located by itself are unlikely.. they could have moved out of state, not forwarded their new address, they could have died, or more likely than anything lost the original title. Even if they thought they MIGHT have the title somewhere in some box... would they bother tearing apart their house looking for it for some random kid in AZ? So unless someone wants it for parts or is moving to another state that doesn't require registration then im probably just going to keep it till I get home. We'll see.

I haven't received the actual bill yet, but Aamaco called earlier today and told me the transmission is shot. They gave me two options: Rebuild with a 12month warranty for $2600 or 'Re-manufacturer' it for a 3year warranty $2900. The difference in price seemed minimal for the warranty range difference and supposedly they will upgrade any parts that have been updated since the original transmission was installed 20years ago... So thats what I went for. Its going to mean some frugal spending in the months ahead... probably for the rest of the trip... but as long as I can still find side work and make all my payments we'll try to soldier on. If anyone is interested in some artwork... I can paint a really cool Skoolie portrait for you!!!!!

[bansil]

That seems awful $$ doesn't it have a TH400(TH350 same R&R) in it? they should be able to have it out and on the table in less than a 1/2 hr(driveshaft,1 nut for shifter,6 crossmember bolts,4 dust cover bolts,3 or 4 torque conv bolts,2 lines and speedo); tear it apart,clean and have back together and reinstalled in 1 day

[chev49]

You can easily rebuild a turbo 400 or 350 transmission yourself, but you need some bushing drivers or make your own, and a clamping device to release the snap rings, and some good snap ring pliers, n torque wrench.

I started doing my own for my street rods because a few years ago i paid a shop to do one, and they had 3 things wrong with it when it wouldnt work in a street rod, and i tore it down...