Lady Franklin-Building Good Energy On Wheels

[Lady Franklin]

I do already have a blog where I go into specific detail about Lady franklin http://www.fuzzytravel.com/waalner/ but I need a place to get my flighty thoughts out. I have to say I am living for this bus now. Everything my wife and I do is for Lady Franklin. We are both working and cramming all the money away so that we can take a year off to just build her. We got started last summer and got most of the structural work done. But when money ran out I was forced to go work and try and make big money quickly. I started my own general contracting company and will soon have the dough to build this thing to the finish...I hope! I picked up my water tanks and the next thing to do is install them under the bus along with the other underbody equipment, generator, BBQ, propane system, and storage boxes. But winter is coming, and in Manitoba Canada working outside in the winter kills people every year, no seriously people freeze to death. So I guess I just have to focus on getting my loose ends tied up for work then go mad on Lady Franklin.

[Navistate]

From what I see in your photos you and your wife's coach/bus is awesome. That is some fine engineering from what I see. The dedication you speak of is what I'am doing to. You two have done a two stage roof raise. Bravo! I did my roof raise by myself with regular car jacks. It is just a matter of desire. My wife wants to take our bus/coach on the Alcan Hwy. to Alaska so that is what we will do. Considering where you two live I'am sure I can learn from your "heating knowledge". Keep up the nice work.

[Abbott]

Very nice work!

[timbuk]

hows the bus coming and hows the weather,franklin that canuck winter taking it to ya yet? timbuk

[Lady Franklin]

So I guess I am due for an update. We moved to Regina in the new year to try and realistically grasp the project at hand. And although Lady Franklin will continue to live in Manitoba (2.5 hours away) we moved here to help us deal with the impending work ahead of us. See we originally thought the bus was going to take a fraction of the time to build but realizing the full scale of the project we were forced to "get realistic" and accept that we needed to "settle" somewhere.

So we have decided that a reasonable goal is sumer 2011 as completion date. The short term goal for this summer is to get her equipped with air bag suspension, lower the sides of the bus, skin the exterior and have the signal lights operational. Then we can continue to work on the inside throughout the winter.

Rachel and I were a sliver away from abandoning the project to simply moved directly to our long term goal of living on the east coast, mainly Nova Scotia. We had to answer some difficult questions about finances and our desires as a couple. Was this project really worth the terrible sacrifices we were making. Also we are getting older and if we want to have little ones one day we want to before we turn around the thirty corner. That only leaves three years. So we are looking at possibly starting a family on the road, makes you consider more things.

After much thought and a tough, realistic conversation at a local coffee shop we renewed our commitment and are looking forward to taking some time off to work on Lady Franklin. I have taken a hard hit with my business which has put a damper on the financial backing of the bus, but there is lots of work to be had here in Saskatchewan so I am not too worried. Not to mention the fact that everything we need to get Lady Franklin to our summer goal is waiting beside the bus. It seems its just a matter of finding time to work on the bus.

I will update as we start to install the airbags next month. Thanks for the comments guys, don't know if I would still be at this crazy thing if it weren't for your encouragement, and I think thats a good thing.

Eric