Anyone on our route from Florida to Mew Mexico?

[ezbme]

Well we are now getting down to the deadline to move to NM & running out of time. The 16th of September we shove off from the "sauna state" we call Florida! Can't wait...

This is the maiden voyage for us & our Thomas & are wondering about a few things. Any skoolies currently in NM? We are moving to a leeetle town called Datil, close to Magdalena, or Pie Town (really-good pie I hear), or Socorro. About 2 hours south-southwest of Albuqueque & about 1.5 hours from the Arizona border. Would love to catch up with some other skoolies in the area sometime!

Also, our trip is going to take us up the panhandle thru Tallahassee to I-10, a stop in Baton Rouge, across 10 to Austin for a family visit & a meet & greet for me & my wifes relatives (they can't believe we bought a bus & wanna see it!), thru El Paso & then to NM... Anyone on our route? Never know when we may need a helping hand or pit crew on our trip or just to hang out for a spell! Anyone?

Jonathan

[cheezypsnookle]

sounds like a haul how many days are you planning
also if you run into trouble in tx drop a line i will see what i can do

[ezbme]

Originally Posted by cheezypsnookle

sounds like a haul how many days are you planning
also if you run into trouble in tx drop a line i will see what i can do

Hey thanks for the offer, it is appreciated! It will be about 2150 miles... We are taking easy steps, about 4-6 hours a day driving as our 4 month old girl is a bit needy! Well, that & I really do not want to be totally wiped by the time we get there as I am driving the bus & my wife is driving the Frontier pulling the trailer. Top that off with Buster's top speed of about 62 MPH & I really don't wanna push the bus too much...
We figure Talahassee the first day, Baton Rouge the next, Austin with a 2 day stay for family will be the next, El Paso & then a short 3 hour-ish drive to the cabin.

Jonathan

[SeanF]

Hey Jonathan-

As you know I'm in Silver City, NM -- would be happy to meet up en route or once you're parked & settled. Will PM you my phone number to use if you have issues nearby. I'm no mechanic but can at least offer moral support.

Safe travels!

[ezbme]

Originally Posted by cheezypsnookle

sounds like a haul how many days are you planning
also if you run into trouble in tx drop a line i will see what i can do

Hey PM me your number if ya don't mind!

[ezbme]

Originally Posted by SeanF

Hey Jonathan-

As you know I'm in Silver City, NM -- would be happy to meet up en route or once you're parked & settled. Will PM you my phone number to use if you have issues nearby. I'm no mechanic but can at least offer moral support.

Safe travels!

Moral support does make issues easier to deal with! At least I can laugh about a potential problem as opposed to going postal!

Thanks mighty, we are definately gonna check out the VLA amongst many many other locations we found online in Datil & surrounding areas... I CANNOT WAIT TO EXPLORE!!!

[ezbme]

Originally Posted by jimmyaustintx

You might rethink the hrs driving, from Austin to the La border takes me about 5-6 hrs and that is hauling ass, when we went to New Orleans it was 10 hrs and than about 8 1/2 back doing about 85 mph and we were still getting passed. We did a trip out to big bend in 92 and that took 10 hrs but we were doing a little above the speed limit at the time it was 55 all of this driving was in a pickup. It will take over 2 hrs to hit I 10 from Austin by way of hwy 290 west. From the La line to El paso is about 873 miles. I hear great things about this park right off I 10
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/find ... balmorhea/ where you can swim and snorkel with the fish a Desert Oasis
Were are you staying in Austin

Hey thanks for the info Jimmy, the times we got are typically inaccurate mapquest qoutes... They show Baton Rouge to Austin as being a little over 7 hours & 433 miles. Of course I need to calc our speed too...

[ezbme]

Hey-hey-hey, we shall soon be on our way! It looks like Buster will be shovin off on Tues morning for NM... We should be hanging out with family & friends in Austin on Fri-Sun. I will try to contact all who passed their phone numbers off to me from Austin to see if we can meet up somewhere!

Jonathan

[SeanF]

Nice...wishing you smooth & safe travels.

[ezbme]

Originally Posted by SeanF

Nice...wishing you smooth & safe travels.

Thanks!

[ezbme]

Originally Posted by mightybus

I'm putting this to the front because we have a fellow skoolie making a run across this fantasy land called America. We are anxiously awaiting a post. Having spoken with Jonathan, I am here to report he has a story to tell. End of message.

I started a blog that has nothing really to look at yet but will include the story of purchasing the property, buying the bus, setting up the bus & the move along with family fun stuff & what we are doing now that we are here in New Mexico. It will highlight living off the grid & how we are doing it. But for now I thought I would add some photos as I haven't had the time to update much & I miss checking out skoolie!
So here goes!

First shots are at the house just before we left Sebring.
Followed by the first 8 miles of our trek before BREAKING DOWN! Yea, made it a whole 8 miles... Didn't even warm up the drivers seat yet!

(details of this saga are on the buster thread... viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4344&p=43628#p43628)

Sitting along side of the road waiting on SOS Roadside Assisstance to take care of the bus & get her running again for us! As I mentioned before the fuel in the tank was off road grade diesel that was old, the fuel filter was spent because of it & the oil filters were the size of my VW Jetta's & obviously wrong for the Cat 3208 needs! The loose wire on the ignition caused alot of trouble but was good to figure out & fix while the mechanics where there! Finally after sitting at the campsite we were on the road 8 hours later! The couple managing the campground were nice enough to let me hang out inside & watch Repo with them which was cool! That big huge gaudy "blond" chick is well...uhm...nasty!?
I didn't get any photos of the SOS crew tho...



I tell you what, this bus hauled a massive amount of weight! This thing was PACKED... Good thing I didn't have to roll thru any weigh stations.







This is at one of the many fuel stops we made... Got old stopping every 100 miles of so to top off the tank to get rid of the nasty old red dyed agri-diesel but then again it was necessary as our baby was just a shittin' & eatin machine so the many stops worked out well I guess!



This was our first stop for sleep. We arrived at about 5am to the motel/campground & they wanted us to check out by 11am & still charge a full stay! We talked them into 4pm checkout as we were the only people there. I believe this was around Tallahasse. Nice campground, wished we had the room to camp in the bus but with my wife, the baby, our Border Lucy & 2 cats...not gonna happen.





The bus continued to leak oil after the correct filters were put on. Looks like an oil pan seal is bad so I checked the oil at EVERY stop. What a hassle but yea, necessary!



Heres momma boobie feeding little Nia while I fueled up - still in FL...




The little chunky monkey taking the controls!



I gotta upload more photos to the bucket...will continue!

[ezbme]

The ONLY non-service skoolie I saw on the whole trip...






Self portrait



Oops... It gets boring driving cross country by yourself! At least my wife & I had some Motorola Talkabout 2 way radios to entertain each other...



Somewhere in LA before the LONG 18 mile bridges across the wooley swamps on I-10...



At the only rest stop along the marshlands... Nia learned how to make farting noises! She has already outgrown that one in 3 weeks for newer funnier noises!



& more feeding time... tell you we didn't do much as it seemed we never left the road the whoe trip!



Finally made it to TX! This is the Kickapoo Rd exit offa 10.




By this time I had full faith in Buster making it to NM no problem! Was cruising 60MPH for the most part but did hit 67 at one point...lost the wife in the process. The Nissan was overloaded as was the trailer. The wife did have some problems but drove like a champ. She wasn't used to driving a 5 speed manual with so much weight, both stopping & pulling out...



Some old group of shops & general store somewhere in TX.





We finally got to Austin & we were a bit exhausted by this time & ready for a break. We stayed for about 2 days & I met many of the wifes family & her grandpa got to meet his latest great grandchild which was great!

This is a nephew of my wifes that kept trying to get me to let him drive the bus.



This was one of the views leaving Austin on a HOT day. This was the first time we had to stop to let the bus cool down as the inclines were incredible! This is somewhere near the Colorado River I believe (I had no idea that the Colorado went thru TX).



Believe it or not this stuff was secure...except for the cats maybe!



On our way out of Austin we made a slight mistake that took us both on a White Knuckler of a ride along a road called Bullick Hollow Rd! Mapquest conveniently forgot to mention the left turn onto 620 & needless to say we went straight & unknowingly took the worst possible road we could have taken. It was one of those cliffhanger roads they cut out of the mountainside with incredibly steep hills & descents... scared the **** out of both of us! There was no where for either of us to turn around, much less pull over once we realized "this just isn't right" It required me to climb some of these hills from hell in 1st gear so the turbo was spooled up & follow by a 1st or 2nd gear descent. HATED IT!!!! This part of the trip took an hour & a half by itself but let me tell you the turbo did its job as the bus handled it pretty well.

I had to get some street shots for ya'all to see but unless you have driven this road you can't appreciate it by the photos alone...







The wifes hat fits!
I had alot of people blow their horn & waving at us when passing which was entertaining. My dog Lucy had the slider window behind me & had her head hanging out the window for alot of the trip which I am sure drew some attention!



This was a truck stop we stayed at in western TX somewhere... cheap & sorta nasty place but the breakfast was good!






Next round coming...almost in New Mexico!!!

[ezbme]

Man I tell ya Smitty I wish it had been a vacation & not a major move... we could'a enjoyed the trip so much more as there was so much we wanted to see off of the highway...

Ya know...Before we took off from FL I wondered if I could have towed the Nissan & the trailer behind the bus for the trip & had everyone inside the bus... It turns out that now I am in NM - Datil is a stop over on route 60 for camper after camper pulling double trailers & yes I saw a diesel pusher pulling a pickup truck pulling a camper trailer! I still don't know if that was legal or not tho... Would have been nice to have ridden together...

I have the best photos to put up yet, sometime today!

[ezbme]

Originally Posted by jimmyaustintx

It looks like you were about a half mile from my place off FM 620, and the old store been there for at least 100 yrs in the same family in Ledbetter where they still make the old fashion milk shakes behind the orig soda fountain about 60-70 miles east of Austin on hwy 290 and the road you took is winding for sure motorcycles love that rd. Where did you stay as you know now there is a different way to where you ended up at .

That road was insane! There was what looked like a Ford club following behind us at ridiculously slow speeds which was led by a new Ford GT...Nice cars & perfect road for it! I gotta ask my wife again what the address was as I am not at all familiar with Austin. Mapquest conveniently forgot to mention the left onto 620 which lead to the nightmare
I wanted to catch up with some fellow skoolies on the trip but with my wifes family being there (they all came specificaly to meet me & our new baby) I didn't have the ground to stand on for making that decision!

Well here is some more of the trip...hope I am not boring everyone with so many photos...

This was West Texas when the mountains started to get big, on the way to El Paso... This got us excited as we had lived in FL for a long time & seeing even hills is a nice change!








Another random stop to prevent the bus from over heating & a quick diaper wiper! This kid had more toys for the long trek!







Just outside NM



Hand-held time exposures at a rest stop...I like em!





FINALLY!!!




Eddie (the king) & Yoda



We had many hills to climb on the way to our property, NONE - I repeat NONE worse than his one, on RT60, only about 20 miles or so from the cabin...

HOLY CRAP this was an incredible incline! You can see in the photos how steep it is & the elevation is about 7000 feet where the bus is making it hard to breath for both me & the bus! My wife was ahead of me when I had no choice but to pull over. She finally stopped close to the top of the hill & our batteries on the 2 ways were now dead so I had to hike it up...
The bus did make it about 4 miles further than a stick & staple diesel pusher that had overheated & was sitting along side the road! The views are what got us to move... It is so isolated out here & just plain beautiful...
We now take this road on a regular basis to get supplies & driving this hill is a blast...









AAAAH... this is the view from about halfway up the back of the property from a porch swing that hangs in a tree, along with my lil girl givin' a wave with momma!




The Buffice parked in a prime location, ready for me to run our off-grid business out of!




We had some astronomers in town the other day & some friends took us to hang out in the subdivision to see the stars. This is just before the sun set. We got to see a comet, Jupiter & 5 moons, the Milky way up close & personal & much more... very cool!



Just happened upon this... reminds me of CHEESE-WAGON's avatar, just a different finger!



OH YEA, almost forgot...

SO I made it 2,138 miles without an incident...then the last 50 yards to the cabin there was this tree, & this soft ground... I rounded the last of the 5-6 90 degree bends & got a little too close the the large brach on this Pinon Pine & yep, the rear tires sank into the ground, the bus went off-kilter & I slammed the side of the bus into the Pinon! ****... I had to keep going or I would have pinned the bus to the tree making it immobile so I gunned it & only took out 3 windows! Oh-well, I figured on skinning those windows anyway, just sucks... Thats what I get for not scouting out the driveway first & instead I went like Geronimo cause I just wanted to get home!






One of our neighbors scootin thru our yard...




Yep, we have an outhouse!
My wife putting up a toilet roll holder...



Well thats about it for now... have more photos to post later!

Jonathan

[SeanF]

Nice story and pics. The hills out here in the west can be killers. Fortunately they usually include great scenery.

Looks like a nice patch of land. Last week we started having frost in the mornings here at 6000'. I'll probably last another month.

Sean

[ezbme]

Originally Posted by Smitty

OK....very 1st pic...was it an alien battleship? A black helicopter? Or a bug on the windshield GREAT bunch of pics Jonathan! Glad the trip went well (and safe) for all of you, ya sure know how to give a guy the travellin' blues Bummer about the windows, but for that long of a drive, that's not bad.....and they claim most accidents happen within a few blocks of home....or was it in the bathroom?

Beautiful countryside, and looks like you're parked in the middle of it!

Smitty

Thanks Smitty! It felt great to get out & see places I have never been! I was SO careful when driving the bus although I did hit bottom front & rear leaving a gas station & almost got hung up in the drainage culvert at the exit... scraped the asphalt & got her out!

Originally Posted by SeanF

Nice story and pics. The hills out here in the west can be killers. Fortunately they usually include great scenery.

Looks like a nice patch of land. Last week we started having frost in the mornings here at 6000'. I'll probably last another month.

Sean

Thanks Man! Yea we had ice on the Nissan last week & there was snow on the tops of the Magdalena mountains. I haven't seen snow for years! I just got finished installing the wood stove about an hour ago & it is HOT in the cabin!!!

So you move when it is cold? Where ya go next? Let me know if you are ever in the area...

Jonathan

[SeanF]

Originally Posted by ezbme

So you move when it is cold? Where ya go next?

Jonathan

Not sure where I'll go, but I usually gravitate toward Tucson. I have an aunt there, and some friends. There are always some Craigslist ads for RV parking spots on private property. Been thinking about Mexico too. Still researching...

[ezbme]

Originally Posted by SeanF

Not sure where I'll go, but I usually gravitate toward Tucson. I have an aunt there, and some friends. There are always some Craigslist ads for RV parking spots on private property. Been thinking about Mexico too. Still researching...

WHEW! Had to get outta the cabin, the new wood stove is sweltering! I think I am gonna have to open some windows to sleep!

Tuscan sounds nice... what is the temp in the winter? The RV spots you mention, is it free to stay, just to watch the property?

[cheezypsnookle]

my wife and i spend a lot of time not 250 miles from you in new mexico we have some family land near mora new mexico its to cold there for us now
how are you acclimating to the the elevation and temperature change?

[SeanF]

Originally Posted by ezbme

Tuscan sounds nice... what is the temp in the winter? The RV spots you mention, is it free to stay, just to watch the property?

Lows in the 30s-40s, highs in the 50s-60s, sunshine nearly every day.

The free parking/caretaking gigs are rare. I have scored one in the past, but I don't count on it happening often. Usually the rent for spots on private property are slightly lower than RV park rent...but the pricing rules are the same: further from civilization & fewer amenities = lower cost. I waaaay prefer the private property thing.