Meet the "BloeRV" (rhymes with swerve)

[Canned Ham]

Thanks for the info. While I don't have a bus yet, I do have a fixer-upper house that needs cheap kitchen/bath/whatever countertop help.

Keep the pics coming! I'm really enjoying your build!

[johnbloem1974]

After some downtime (in the shop getting a new starter and some other minor things.) got back to work on the bus! Got to get things ready for the trip to Montana. We leave on May 5th and will take 10 days to get to Montana. Super excited about the trip...

Let's get right to pics!!

We wanted to make a divider for the bed area, so we took a bedspread that we got in Mexico and my wife cut it up and put buttonholes in it so we could hang them up. She also made up some ribbons with leftover curtain fabric that were reinforced and put on the ceiling with sheet metal screws:

Here's a closeup of the ties:


Got 'em all lined up and ready to go!


Not too shabby!


Made them in 3 panels: 1 small one for under the cabinet, the big middle one and the one on the right. We have hooks and ties so they can be tied out of the way when we want a more open look. I will post the final pics on these tomorrow as we have some re-cutting and minor adjustments to do...


Got the TV mount up and secure. We will take the TV off when underway so it doesn't wobble all about. Fortunately the mount has an easy-release hook on it. It swivels just enough to be able to comfortably watch TV from the couch as well!


Speaking of the couch - We finally got the cushion done. Also used from a blanket we got in Mexico. Nice n' comfy!


Also got the fridge in and secured. Really excited about this one. The inverter we have is enough so we can run the fridge when underway. That will be great for the trip...


Also found a good deal on some lock cylinders that are all keyed alike, so I replaced all the locks on our storage and also added one on the battery door which did not have one. One key for all 3 doors. Woohoo!
Also put a hole in the electrical cord storage door to keep things nice and neat!


Tonight we are making front lips for the cabinets and making them cushioned with an upholstery cover (using more leftover curtain fabrics) hope to get them up and mounted tomorrow.

Also will be getting the rest of the curtains up too hopefully....we'll see how quickly time gets away from us!

We looked at each other yesterday and realized we have just over a week before we leave Texas and head to Montana.. PANIC!!!!!!

John

[Robin97396]

Nice build. I love that you painted your wheel chair lift.

I think I have the same wall mount for my 32" TV. I haven't taken it down the last couple times I've been out, but I do use a strap to hold it close to the wall so it doesn't swing around.

[cadillackid]

this is coming along great!! what did you do t osecure your frig? ive been trying to think of various ways I could secure a Mini(single door) frig and not have it slide all over and still be able to open the door..

-Christopher

[Dapplecreek]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

this is coming along great!! what did you do t osecure your frig? ive been trying to think of various ways I could secure a Mini(single door) frig and not have it slide all over and still be able to open the door..

-Christopher

I was thinking of a full side wall for the refrigerator, then a strap over it and down to a tie point on the floor. Then a stub on the chair rail behind the refrigerator to keep it snug, and perhaps a piece of angle iron on the floor in front of the front feet? That way it would be cleated left, right, front and top, and the floor and side wall of the bus take care of the other two directions it might go. Sketch on request. Well, after I get home from work.

[johnbloem1974]

Thanks!!

Chris - I just used 2 pieces of metal plumbing strapping screwed into the wood sides on the bottom of the platform with foam on the top corners to prevent scratching/chafing. I also put a second thin piece of plywood along the front of the platform creating a lip that the fridge feet sit up against. No sliding or rocking!

[johnbloem1974]

Well, any more work we wanted to do is going to have to wait for a bit, but I'm pretty happy with what we were able to get done before the trip! On Thursday, we start our journey to Glacier National Park, where I work as the Assistant Location Manager for the Glacier Park Lodge in East Glacier Park and my wife is a fee ranger for the National Park Service, stationed at the Two Medicine area of the park. This will be our 4th season of what we hope to be many more...
We are going to take a nice, leisurely 10-day trip stopping at some state and National Parks along the way going via New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana.
I want to thank everyone again for being such awesome people and I will be sure to take lots of pics along the way to share with you as we head north. And of course, we will post pics of any other work we will be doing once we get settled in for the summer!



John and Erica

[johnbloem1974]

So close! We are stopped for the night in Ennis, MT which is about 6 hours away from Glacier Park, our final destination. The trip has definitely been an adventure and I'm sooo glad we are doing it.

Days 1 and 2: Kerrville, TX to Brantley Lake State Park, NM (near Carlsbad)
stayed 2 nights here and spent the next day at the Living Desert Gardens and Zoo - really cool place!!
Driving-wise pretty un-eventful - had a nice tailwind and wasn't too many hills. We have a 3.98 rear end ratio and have a top speed of 68 on flat highway. On the 7% grades, she slows down to about 35-45 depending on how long it is. All in all, I'm pleased with how she's doing though. With the 'ol AT545, downhill is a little challenging, but I just downshift and stab the brakes every so often to keep a certain speed range, and it stays in control just fine.

All hooked up and ready to go! got a dual receiver hitch so I could put the hitch basket (which I mounted the generator to) and still be able to use the tow dolly.


Checked and double-checked all the connections and ready to roll!!


Our little bobble-head and bobble-tail armadillo we got in Mexico! Sits on the dash and guides us on our way!


our campsite the first night - we had to switch spaces the 2nd night as they were filling up. Luckily it is very eeasy to hook up and un-hook the car and dolly setup!


There was TONS of bunnies here....


....and also snakes!


Our 2nd night spot was even better!


Days 3 and 4 - Brantley Lake to Santa Fe, NM (Hyde Memorial State Park)
A grueling, boring uphill day. Went from 3000 feet to 8700 at our campground! Santa Fe is about 7200FT! The highest State Capital in the US! Met up with an old boss there and had a nice time. The campground was absolutely breathtaking and we even had some snow!!

Nestled in the trees at 8700 ft! such a cool spot!


Nice and quiet spot!


Snow! Not sure if you can see the flakes, but they were there!


Drove further up the hill and got a great view of the Santa Fe valley!


Day 5 - Santa Fe to Navajo State Park, Colorado
Easy day from Santa Fe - just spent 1 night here, but another great spot! My wife made a comment on how well I did on choosing the spots!

Neat campground - very open along a lake!


Was nice to have a covered picnic table! Super nice sunny day!


The cat finally got a chance to survey the new surroundings!


I finally got to set up a campfire too! New Mexico parks had fire restrictions due to it being very hot and dry.


Days 6 and 7 - Navajo State Park to Salt Lake City, UT
Holy ****! That was a long day - I unfortunately don't have any pics, but that was a grueling day. 3 HUGE mountain passes and lots of white-knuckling steep grades.
Southern Utah is breathtaking, and I will get up the pics that Erica took in a later post. Stayed 2 nights at the KOA there - pack 'em in like sardines!

Days 8(today) and 9 - Salt Lake City to Ennis, Montana
Today's drive was more like it! Nice and flat Interstate for most of the time, and really excited to be back in Montana! We think we will spend tomorrow night here too, then have an easy 6 hour final run to East Glacier Park Village!

Yesterday with all the mountain passes we averaged about 5MPG... OUCH!
Today with some flatter terrain, we did 8.7! Much better!

Welcome to Montana! Just missed the Welcome sign - you can see the edge of it on the right side.


Our setup in Ennis - nice little RV park.


That's all for today! I will put up another update as soon as we are back on the road!!

[jbohall001]

That's so awesome! Glad to see you are having such a good time on the trip. I hope I get to do something similar one day.

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[johnbloem1974]

Well, we have been in East Glacier Park now for about a month and are getting settled in. The remainder of the trip was super easy and we made it here without a hitch.
It is quite a chore to open a 103 year old hotel that has been closed all winter, but we did it and are now settling in for the season!
Finally had our first few days off this past weekend and we took the bus to the West side of Glacier to explore a bit and get away.

Here we are at the entrance!



We decided to spend the night at the Apgar Campground and had a blast. I love early in the season as we basically have the whole park to ourselves - not loaded with tourists, traffic, etc...

Here is the spot we had with a very content wife by the campfire!



A closer shot of the site with fire ring:



A great weekend! Already looking forward to the next outing. Most likely will be somewhere in the Flathead National Forest.

Stay tuned! Hoping to get some more work done on the bus too as the season moves along....

[johnbloem1974]

Been a long time since an update! Back in Texas now spending the winter - hoping to make Skooliepalooza, just depends on work (wife is working a temp job right now...)

Scored this baby last week for $100!! on Craigslist. I couldn't believe it. Granted, I had to drive 3 hours to get it, but it was totally worth it. These things are north of $500 brand new. It is an Attwood Wedgewood Vision 22" 3-burner. It's in really good shape. The previous owner was upgrading his 5th wheel and needed it out of the way! Win-Win for both of us!



Also scored 2 nice aluminum wheels for the fronts. I'll upgrade the rears later, but these were too good to pass up also! Here's the boring wheels I have now..


....and here's what I will be upgrading to!


Can't wait to get those babies on there! Now, of course, I will have to spiff up the front bumper a bit too. Just going to sand it and get a fresh coat of black paint on there to make it look a bit nicer!

We also made a small closet and a shelf above it on the driver's side just behind the bathroom -

Getting it framed up and putting up the back wall


The front is actually angled in to end at the foot of the wheel well, which we liked the way it flows and still gives us plenty of room to walk around. Because of the angles, I had to cut little wedges to make easy places to tie in the plywood rear wall...


Here you can see the upper shelf - nice and level!! I just used angle brackets to support the shelf. Nice and solid!


Here's another angle looking towards the front of the bus


We also finally started to get the bathroom finished up - we have a plan for blacking out the one window and then waterproofing the whole area. I'll post pics when we make some visible progress on it.

I will also post pics of the oven install. I'm really excited to get that going and functioning!

I hope everyone on here has an awesome holiday season and I hope to be able to meet some of y'all at Skooliepalooza if we can make it -

John

[Carytowncat]

New shoes excitement! Congrats.

[johnbloem1974]

Greetings, Skoolie folks! It's been a while since we got back from Skooliepalooza, figured I'd give a little update. We have been quite busy with everything and trying to get the bus ready for summer in Glacier. Have done some nice things to the bus and can't wait to finish more and get stuff checked off the list!

Bathroom is finally being finished! Here, we needed to secure the liner and make sure it was flush up against the wall so it would be easy to put up the wall liners. Used some bracing and it worked great!



One wall down, 2 to go!


Finally got some fun finishing work too! We used a vinyl "tin-look" adhesive tile to put on the wall by the sink. We really like how it looks, and its nice to look at something other than plywood on that wall. Also modified a little Ikea shelf just below the paper towel holder


Continuing around the sink area, we got a towel bar and mounted it on the underside of the cabinet to be able to hang stuff on it...


We wanted to have some sort of covering over the sink area and weren't ready for doors yet, so we took a little wooden dowel and used left-over curtain material and made a temporary cover! drilled a hole on each end and the dowel just slides in. I put a little screw on one side of the dowel to keep it from sliding out when we're underway.

just drilled a hole into the left side


I put a screw on this side of the dowel so it doesn't slide out of the hole


did a quick fit, and only put on one panel to see if it worked. works and fits great. We will put snaps on the bottom of the curtain to keep it from blowing around when underway.


finally moved the combo grey/black water drain valve to a WAY more accessible place. Now I don't have to climb underneath the bus to dump the tanks.



re-routed the gray and black outlets to their new home.


finally got the shower drain and P-trap plumbed into the grey tank


Also got some more LED strip lights to put underneath the cabinets for better lighting at the sink and stove - I'll post pics once I get those in.

Really can't wait to get back on the road!! Looking to go to the DFW area for a bit in March and then start the journey northward to Montana for Summer #5 in Glacier Park!

Cheers!

John & Erica

[tfarrskoolbus]

Just found your build and read it start to finish! Great looking bus! You are making it sound so easy and you guys are doing it just as you need it and adding personal touches as you go and find the right fit.. love it.

I hope to find a DT466, I'm in the research and planning phase right now getting real close to the buying. I think I'm gonna have to try and keep myself from bidding for now and wait for just the right bus.

I love that you guys are basically able to fit great jobs into traveling! Hope to do the same someday soon.

-Tyler

[johnbloem1974]

Originally Posted by tfarrskoolbus

Just found your build and read it start to finish! Great looking bus! You are making it sound so easy and you guys are doing it just as you need it and adding personal touches as you go and find the right fit.. love it.

I hope to find a DT466, I'm in the research and planning phase right now getting real close to the buying. I think I'm gonna have to try and keep myself from bidding for now and wait for just the right bus.

I love that you guys are basically able to fit great jobs into traveling! Hope to do the same someday soon.

-Tyler

Thanks, Tyler! "Bus Life" is awesome and I love that we are able to participate. Hang in there and you will find your bus. Sometimes it happens when you least expect it. Keep scouring Craigslist and the auction sites - your bus will find you when you least expect it.

And! The best part about this community is the help and advice that you can get. The people here are awesome. When you think you are stuck, throw out a question and you will find an answer.

Cheers!

John & Beeks

[johnbloem1974]

We are getting close to "crunch-time", as we want to start our journey Westward soon. We need to be in Glacier around the 1st of May and are wanting to leave Texas around the 1st of April to have sufficient time to sight-see along the way. so.....EEEEK! gotta get rolling!

Today was "sticker day!" got some stickers up and finally got the "BloeRV" decal on the front. turned out really nice!

This was a fun one we got last time in Mexico - figured the placement was appropriate


This is our Mexico/Texas side - more stickers to come!


And here is the Glacier/Montana side:


We also finally got out "US & Canada State stickers" and put them on the window that we can't open behind the fridge...


And here is the front "BloeRV" decal - turned out really cool!


Also got the under-sink area curtain finished and mounted - the only thing left is to mount the snaps on the bottom to keep it from flapping about in the wind!


Bathroom is going slowly as we put one side on, brace it, then wait for it to set before we do the other side/part. Getting closer, though! -


Had some fun with a friends' embroidery sewing machine while Beeks was finishing the under-sink curtains on the other sewing machine... I made some fun bus towels! - Now I get to add the "embroidery feather" to my cap!


Hoping to finalize the bathroom before the weekend - we'll see... Mother-in-law decided to add Diesel to the gas riding mower , so I need to deal with that tomorrow A fun day of siphoning Diesel out of the tank and seeing if I can get it to run again. I'm sure I'll need to change the filters and put a new spark plug.... YAY!!

Have a big GTFO (Get the F**k Out) list that we want to get as much done as possible before we head west....here's to productivity!

John & Beeks

[johnbloem1974]

Well folks, another successful summer in Glacier National Park has come and gone snd it us time for our next adventure .
This winter we are going to be managing a Pumpkin Patch and Christmas tree lot in the Bay Area, California! Something new for us and looking forward to a mild winter. Best part is that we get to live in our bus on the lot for free! We get the joys of California living without the cost of living hassles of rent and utilities! Looking forward to some yummy fresh Pacific seafood...
We have some time before we start, so we will get to the Pacific and head down the 101 along the coast!
1st stop is the Potholes State Park in Washington. Neat little park near the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge. Trying to upload a pic from mobile and not working. Will have to bust out the laptop later... will post more (with pics, of course!) as the journey continues...

John & Beeks

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by johnbloem1974

Well folks, another successful summer in Glacier National Park has come and gone snd it us time for our next adventure .
Will have to bust out the laptop later... will post more (with pics, of course!) as the journey continues...

John & Beeks

Sounds like you guys are living the life! Great build/adventures.

Keep the pics coming !!! It motivates me to keep working...

[johnbloem1974]

Let's see if this works... We made it to the Oregon Coast!! Roads were narrow and winding for the last bit. Settling in at the Nehalem Bay stste park. Nice place!

[johnbloem1974]

Made it to the Bay Area and spent the 1st few weeks running a pumpkin patch. Really hard work, as it was more Inflatable kiddie rides than Pumpkin Patch. Think all day dealing with screaming kids! Eeek!!
Now have a little down time and then we will be managing a Christmas tree lot. During this down time we've been playing tourist and did some more small things to the bus to make it "smarter"

A little cubby to store some light stuff


A medicine cabinet for the bathroom


Another spice rack in the kitchen and a knife rack!


A under-cabinet dish drying rack...



I'm super stoked to be getting the little things done and making it more comfortable!!

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