Byre Lake and the Rockies

After the harvest was over we scooted quickly south to warmer weather.

I live in my car. Why would I ever take off my pajamas?

Dan noticed this picture was in the camera right after the previous driving shot. I can see the resemblance.

Somewhere in South Dakota there was a roadside attraction that advertised a cowboy ghost town and buffalo herd. I wanted to check it out. The place was pretty busy because it was the only gas station for miles, but apparently no one ever went inside the cowboy town. The gift shop was also a fireworks store and an overpriced grocery store for shelf goods and meats. All of the souvenirs were left over from years ago, faded, and covered in dust. Around the walls there were animatronics exhibits behind plexiglass walls of cowboys and the piano-playing gorilla that would move and talk and play and shoot if you put a dollar in. We didn’t want to see what they looked like in motion. Apparently it was a preview for the cowboy town attraction, which cost an extra $7 per person. The owner of the shop was sitting behind a paper-strewn dusty check out counter behind racks of old souvenirs. I collect spoons from places that I travel and I asked him if he had any from Nebraska, and North Dakota, but he said he was out of those. But then he said that he had every collectable shot glass, bell, thimble, magnet, and patch. He also sold buffalo products, from teeth to jaw bones to tanned hides to meat and even green hides. He also had many informational booklets about South Dakota and Badlands National Park, and spent half an hour showing me all of the pictures when I mentioned I had thought about visiting it. Dan stuck up a wonderful conversation about New York and Las Vegas with the guy while I picked out a buffalo tooth, a few magnets, a South Dakota spoon, and some bison jerky. I wish I had gotten a green hide to tan because they were a steal at $80, but I had nowhere to keep it and work on it. He was selling the tanned hides for $700-$1500.

We left this little attraction and continued on South bound. Right before dark we began to pass signs for the World’s  Only Corn Palace, and decided to stop to see it. It took a while to find, and by the time we got there it was dark, so we just took pictures as we drove by. It wasn’t as interesting as it sounds from the outside, but maybe it’s better inside. I didn’t realize that it was actually open at the time we drove by, otherwise we would have parked and went inside.

It was just a square warehouse building with cool looking metal work and a few corn stalks glued to the front of it.

I asked Dan to find us an awesome campsite. Usually I’m the one who does the logistics, but this time I let Dan handle it. He didn’t disappoint. Our destination was Byre Lake in Kennebec South Dakota. It was dark when we arrived and we still managed to easily find the dirt roads leading to the lake, which had plenty of parking space, a picnic shelter with electricity and trash cans, a pit toilet, and a boat ramp. It was rainy and cold and dark when we arrived, so it wasn’t until morning that the beauty of the area was apparent.

Along the road to Byre Lake.

The dirt road by the lake.

The dogs enjoyed running along the beach.

Apparently the place is popular with hunters, and there were plenty of hunting parties and target shooting practices while we were there. During the first dreary rainy day we were almost always alone, though, and Rosie got to graze and the dogs had free space to run for acres on grass, through fields, along roads and beaches, and in the woods. The next day we moved close to the picnic shelter and hogged some power for a couple hours to run the heater, do some cooking, and watch a movie while it was cold and wet outside. The next day was sunny and warm, so I took the dogs on a hike and let the goat out to graze. Walking along the beach I found a huge dead beaver, halfway decayed at the edge of the water. I collected it teeth to add to the buffalo tooth. Collecting bones is a hobby of mine, and I have a nice skull and tooth collection. There was a swingset, volleyball net, and horseshoe game on a grassy peninsula projecting into the lake, and I spent a while swinging and taking pictures. The lake was calm and glassy. In the afternoon hunters came with their dogs and a man went out on a tiny boat to fish, so we took the animals back inside. Byre Lake was a welcome change from driving and sleeping in truck stop or rest area parking lots as we do so often.

Plenty of room to roam.

Speaking of rest areas and truck stops; when you have a self-contained RV it's easy to stay overnight in almost any parking lot. We utilize this often, and when we're not in the middle of nowhere on free dispersed camping land, we often stay in casino parking lots, Walmart parking lots, rest areas, gas stations, truck stops, or roadside pull offs.  

At one rest area we saw a familiar sight across the road: a sugar beet piler in operation!

Halfway over the Rockies we found a nice rest stop for the night.

We finally reached the Rockies and it was time to really test out our engine. She did wonderfully going up the mountains, albeit at a very slow pace. Down the Rockies was a bit scarier, though.

A first look at snow-covered peaks in mid-October.

An overlook offered a beautiful view of a mountain lake.

A lone cloud floated above the mountains.

On the way down we got a kick out of the warning signs for truckers. They were definitely heeded by us as well.

Even when staying at rest areas and truck stops we see wonderful views of the surrounding area. 

This Love's truck stop was in the middle of lots of canyon walls.

This rest area had a wonderful sunset over the hills.

Between Byre Lake in Kennebec, SD and Moab, Utah, we stayed exclusively in parking lots. Moab was sure to have the warm dry climate we desired, and it was our main goal to get there as quickly as possible. Colorado is pretty, but too cold for me in October! We'll leave the Northern adventures for springtime. Next up... Moab Revisited!

BeetJuice! BeetJuice! BeetJuice!

For the bus’ virgin voyage after the in-chassis overhaul we went to see my friend Justin in Asheville for Labor Day weekend. Finding a campsite on that particular weekend is usually nearly impossible, and we thought we were going to end up camping in Justin’s apartment parking lot. After being turned down at Lake Powhatan, we decided to try our luck half an hour up the parkway at Mount Pisgah campground, where we started our big trip last year. If you remember, Justin got lost last time and didn’t make it, so this time we came full circle! The tanks and toilet and back room weren’t assembled yet, but it was still a comfy adventure. There was gathering of wood and cooking of food on the fire, and plenty of beer and wine amounted to a festive weekend. The doggies were very happy to see Justin because he’s their dogfather.

Justin enjoying a beer at the picnic table. No flaming goats this time.

Our first real camping experience in the bus!

After a fun-filled weekend we returned home and struggled to beat the clock as it sped ever closer to the drive to North Dakota. Up to the last minute we were packing, installing black and grey water tanks, backup cameras, the back deck, and tail light wiring, and building a goat pen for Rosie and George the rabbit. The drive from Statesville, NC to Drayton, ND is over 1500 miles and takes 25 hours of driving time going regular highway speeds in a car. The bus tops out at 59 and averages about 50. Dan and I drove for 48 hours straight, only stopping for food, gas, and two two-hour naps. We were also learning to drive a 35-foot long 27,000 lb. bus that has loose steering. When we finally got there and slept for the night it still felt like we were shake, rattle and rolling along the interstate. 

Intense concentration.

Drayton is a small town of about 500 people. Lots of people live there for only a few months out of the year to work the beet harvest. Along with the nice pay we were also given a free campsite to stay in with water, sewer, and electricity and a bath house with hot showers and wifi. There was a large field by the bath house that the dogs and goat enjoyed romping around when we had some free time.

Juno's a lunatic.

Dan likes this picture because he's hiding his face.

American Crystal Sugars beet processing plant.

Our job was to receive beets by the truckload on a giant machine that put them in piles 30 feet high. We worked night shift, 12 hours a night, seven days a week, for two weeks. A couple of days we had off because of bad weather. The reason so many people do the job is because of the pay. You can expect to make over $1000 a week. When paired with a free place to camp, it’s a great deal. It is very hard work, however, and most of the 300 temp employees quit before the first week had finished.

At the end of a long cold night you can see the piler still in operation.

Truckloads of beets came in 24/7 because the day shift worked the opposite 12 hours. The trucks would enter the machine two at a time, empty their beets into an end dump on either side of the machine, and then pull forward under the dirt conveyor to retrieve the dirt that was sifted back out of the beets in the machine.

This is a beet pile. It’s about 30 feet high, 100 feet wide, and ½ mile long.

Dan worked on the ground at the foot of the pile. His job was to direct trucks into and out of the machine, keep the ground free of mud and beet chunk that fell out of the machine, and shovel any major beet spills. He also had to retrieve sample tickets from the trucks and bag beet samples to be shipped off to quality control for lab testing. The farmers are paid by the weight and sugar content of the beets. I started out at this job and only lasted a few days before requesting to be trained as a machine operator to escape the freezing weather.

As a machine operator I controlled the conveyor belts and hoppers of the piler machine. I was responsible for ensuring the safety of the 4-6 ground workers as they worked around moving parts. I simultaneously controlled the directional light box (tells the trucks when to dump), the end dump doors, the side and main conveyors, and the return dirt conveyors, and moved the machine backward when it was time to extend the pile. Another ground worker controlled the swing of the boom conveyor and the distance of the arm from the pile to create a nice even crescent-shaped pile. This is important because piling the beets in this way is how the beets are stored to prevent freezing and thawing and damage or rotting of the beets inside the pile.  Hard hats, safety glasses, reflective vests, work gloves, and warm winter clothing with multiple layers were essential.

In addition to all these button controls I had a set of eight levers to push and pull.

This is the view from the operator cabin. You can see the main conveyor with the boom swung to the left at the top.

Nap time!

After the initial rush of the first few days we had lots of down time for naps. I sat in the floor of the cabin with my space heater and woke up when I heard a truck pull up. There were nights near the end of the harvest where we would only have one truck every half hour all night. The lovely ladies at the scalehouse often made desserts and crock pot dinners for the employees to help keep us warm and full. The operation has eight pilers working to store over 11 million tons of beets for sugar processing. Some days we would pile over 8000 truckloads of beets in 24 hours. It takes 10 lbs. of beets to make 1 lb. of white sugar. Each beet can be as small as a potato or as large as a human head! In fact, most of the beets weighed at least a few pounds.

One night we had to shut down and clean the machine. Dan took this picture when he had to put on a safety harness and climb up onto the boom to clean out the hopper.

Sunset from our campsite. This view meant it was time to go to work. Every day at 7:40pm we caught a ride with our neighbors to work. A few times we had to walk the mile to the factory.

 

Cottonwood trees lined the field beside the campground.

With $4000 in our wallet we quickly moved on to warmer Southern pastures when the hard work was finished.

Say Hi To Our New Ride!

I had hoped to finish writing about our trip by now, but things have been hectic. The last post was about Panoche Hill, CA. I've yet to tell the story of our time in LA, Yosemite, and Vegas. This all happened last November, and then we took I-40 from end to end in four days so that I could return home for my second knee surgery. We spent Thanksgiving day stopping at every casino on I-40 to earn ten bucks at a time, which was a fun way to spend the holiday. Two days before Christmas I had my knee surgery, and shortly after that Dan and I went to work on my friend's free-range hog farm. In February I took Dan back to New York so that he could make better money at his old restaurant job, and I continued working on the farm. A month and a half later I couldn't stand being still any more. I needed to travel, and the pop-up was just too tiny and took too much work for all we needed it to be. So we decided to save more money and get a larger something!

I took the animals and went back to my home in Statesville with my parents. There's a friend in Statesville who needed help building a wooden kayak for his wife's anniversary present, so I made some cash by the hour for the hundred hours or more it took to build the boat. I also sell items on eBay to save money and fund adventures. Dan and I shopped around, trying to decide what kind of RV to get. Definitely not a travel trailer, because then I'd have to have another larger tow vehicle to pull it. Big, old Rv's can be had cheaply, but the older they are the more likely they are to have water damage, and if the engine is gasoline it might be pretty worn out from lugging a giant thing around. We came across a Toyota Dolphin, which I had been interested in previously during my search for the pop-up. It's a small (about 15 feet) RV mounted on a small Toyota truck chassis. Gets 20+ mpg. They tend to have axle problems because the weight of the RV is too much for the factory chassis, but after a certain year they fixed that problem. I went to test drive one. It was very squeaky, flimsy, and top heavy. It was also too small.

Another idea I had been toying with was converting a school bus into an RV. The idea kept gnawing at me. A bus would be massive and unwieldy, yes, but sturdy and customize-able. Plus it would have plenty of space and a good diesel engine. Dan and I were each going to split the cost of whatever we decided on, and were willing to spend about $8000 on an RV. After test driving that Dolphin I decided for sure that I wanted to go the school bus route.

I shopped around on Craigslist for a while, but buses on there are worn out and overpriced, so I decided to go straight to the source for used buses. When a school bus reaches so many years or miles, the school system buys a new one and sells the old one to the public. It's a good way for the school to raise money. Some of them are bought by churches, or scout groups. Most of them are bought by people from Mexico who come once a year to purchase every available bus they can find to use as paid public transportation units in Mexico. North Carolina is a great place to buy a bus because it won't have much rust like Northern buses. I found a website that listed all the available buses for sale from every school district in NC, and I visited four garages around the state to find the bus I wanted. In Alamance county I bought a 1993 International Navistar DT360. It's full size at 32 feet long with ten windows, has an inline six cylinder turbo boosted engine, great tires (which are important at $300 a pop), and full 60 gallon tank of diesel. $3000 and my dad and I drove it home that day. Don't tell the police about that part. We don't have CDL's.

On the drive home we noticed the steering box was super loose and had a couple inches of play. I started reading the three-page long file of previous records that I kept asking for and was finally given at the last second, and saw that the oil analysis showed coolant in the oil. My heart dropped. That is NOT a good problem to have. It's a potentially expensive one. When we got it home we saw milky oil on the dipstick. Another sign of coolant in the oil. But we drained the oil pan and saw no water in it, and did a pressure test which told us there was no leak. We thought maybe the milky oil was just vapor condensation on the stick which can happen if you start the bus without getting up to temp. So we said "whew, close call!" and went on with the conversion.

I worked on it slowly for a couple months while working on the kayak for cash. My friends helped pull the seats out and paint the inside. I put down maple laminate flooring for the living room and bedroom, and black and white checkers for the bathroom and kitchen.

We planned to convert the bus to run on veggie oil, so I bought tanks and all the large items for the rest of the build. I picked Dan up from Long Island in June and we began building the interior together. We put up three walls with windows and doors in them, installed a window AC, put in a clawfoot bathtub, and large cast iron kitchen sink, made a couch and memory foam bunks, all while living in the bus with the cats because they're not allowed in my parents' house.

We got the bus inspected by the DMV and had our title changed to "House Car," which is NC's designation for converted RV's. Then we hit a big speed bump. Couldn't find insurance. No company likes to insure these things because they say they're top heavy and dangerous. They're not top heavy, but I could understand how a DIY project could be a risk if not done properly. Even National General, a company that actually DOES insure Skoolies (the name for a bus conversion), said the only state they won't insure in is NC.

South Dakota allows non-residents to register vehicles there. Lots of full-time RV-ers register there because there's no income tax and you don't even have to ever go there to be considered a resident. You have to step foot there for one day to receive a driver's license, but it's not necessary to get a license there if you don't want to. We decided to register the bus in SD so we could use National General, but we had to wait three weeks for the title to come back. It finally came in the mail, and I decided one last time to try and find insurance in NC first. SD may not have income tax, but it does charge registration fees by weight. They love RV's because each RV-er will pay over $300 a year in registration fees. Then the insurance on top of that. I talked to Farm Bureau here in Statesville and to my surprise they were able to get us liability coverage. $222 a year, and we were legal to drive! We went two miles down my road to get an inspection. $13 for a safety inspection since old diesels don't require emissions testing. Woo! On our way back home, alarms began to sound and the oil-coolant light flashed. Uh-Oh.

I pulled in the driveway and stopped. Checked the coolant. There was none. Checked the oil. Chocolate milk. Houston, we have a problem. A big problem. It seems that there was a leak after all, which turned into a big big leak after sitting for a couple months.

We drove the bus to the garage and started taking the engine apart to diagnose it. Four possibilities: broken oil cooler, leaky cylinder O-rings, busted head gasket, or corroded cylinder sleeves. Not the oil cooler, since there was no oil in the coolant, only coolant in the oil. We completely pulled the head off the engine and there was no problem with the head gasket. Then we pulled the sleeves. There were no holes in the sleeves but there was minor erosion. The O-rings were hard-baked from a frequently overheated engine, and lots of them were completely cracked. Found the problem. O-rings are cheap, luckily. So we needed to replace those and put on a new gasket set, which has to be done anyway any time you remove a gasket. That's about $200 worth of parts. Good. Not $1200 for a whole rebuild kit. Two of the cylinder sleeves had more corrosion than the rest, so my dad wanted to get us replacements for those at $125 a piece. I searched for parts online and saw a list of parts with no prices from a company in Nevada. I called them and they told me they were a distributor and didn't generally deal with the public but that they would make an exception for me. Here's the reason auto parts stores stay in business; the same parts that would have cost me $450 at a retailer online cost less than $100 from the wholesaler. An older engine can also have worn out bearings, so for those kind of prices we added extra parts to our order such as oil control rings, a third replacement cylinder sleeve, main bearings, and rod bearings. Our total order was about $350. The same order would have cost $1000 or more from a retailer.

A week later our parts and in an we spent a few days rebuilding the engine. One of the last steps is to torque the bolts to specifications. The book said 130 ft. lbs. on the connecting rod bolts, which seemed a bit ridiculous, but OK. Started to tighten them and they stretched, so we stopped after the first one. Looked it up online and the manual was wrong. It was supposed to be 80 ft. lbs.! Yikes. I called about fifty diesel shops and the International dealership trying to find two connecting rod bolts, but the ones for this engine were discontinued. My dad found some that his mechanic friend could order and get shipped within three days. $75 for two bolts and nuts. Ew. But we had to do it. When we finally got it back together and turned the key, it started right up! My dad has worked on cars his whole life, but never a diesel engine. We bought the maintenance manual and followed the instructions, and Dan and I did most of the work. He's even less experienced with cars than I am, but it wasn't hard. We took the unfinished bus on its maiden voyage to Asheville on Labor day weekend to visit my friend and camp on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was also a nice break-in period for the engine to seat the new O-rings, and gave me plenty for driving practice with curves, steep grades, and stop lights. Dan got the practice driving on the interstate.

After the weekend we kept working on the bus. There's a beet harvest in North Dakota and Montana every year that pays $1200 a week for a month. They mostly hire RV-ers, and pay for a campsite and electricity if you work there. We applied and were told to be in Drayton, North Dakota on September 25. For the last two weeks we've been working non-stop to finish so we can get on the road. We put in two backup cameras, added grey and black water tanks, plumbed the toilet, sink, and tub, my dad built a three-foot back deck complete with tail lights and turn signals to haul the generator, bikes, and hay bale, and he specially engineered a passenger seat for the front that folds up out of the way. We really could not have done this project without him and I am so grateful for his help. He's put so much time and work into this because he wants me to be safe and comfortable and accomplish my goals. I think he also thinks it's pretty awesome to tinker on a school bus.

Yesterday we built the goat pen in the back next to the chest freezer-turned refrigerator and mini-washer-dryer combo unit. Rosie will have her own 25 sq ft bedroom with a rinseable drained grate floor. It's on a 2-foot high platform with storage space uinderneath. She'll love riding high up in the air and not getting yelled at for pooping in the car. She has plenty of windows to look out, too!

We're all tired and sore from working so hard and long, and today is finally the day we leave. The goal was that yesterday would be our latest possible day, but the work just wasn't done. I still have to lug all the crap I packed into the bus and pick up the goat, and then we're outta here! 1500 miles from here to Drayton, and two and a half days to get there. We're hoping two twelve hour days for driving will get us there in time to sleep before meeting the beet boss at 10 am on Saturday.

My laptop screen died, and we won't have internet or time anyway, so I won't be able to add pictures to this post until later. I'm typing on my dad's laptop at the moment. If you'd like to see pictures and a detailed account of the bus conversion, take a look at the forum thread I've started on Skoolie.net. You can easily access it by typing in tinyurl.com/onenationundergoatbus or clicking on the link. Adios, folks, and wish us luck!

Sunsets and Sauron at Panoche Hills BLM

After leaving Sacramento we found a lovely campsite at Panoche Hills in Fresno, California. This is BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land and it is free and open to the public. This is what your taxes are spent on. Panoche Hills is a popular shooting range. The rest area where we camped is just short of the actual camping spots that are farther down the loose, sandy, hilly road. After a few days of camping there the rangers came and told us that we were camped in the incorrect area, but they allowed us to stay there until the next day. The rangers can also issue a free fire permit. We didn't have a campfire while we were there, but it's important to get a permit if you do so that the rangers are aware of potential for wildfires. The few days we were there we probably saw ten or fifteen different groups of people hunting or having target practice. It was a bit nerve-wracking because I was concerned that the goat might be an accidental target, but luckily we were at the top of a hill instead of in the valley where the shooters were.

On the way to Panoche Hills BLM.

The road from Fresno had lots of Monsanto orange farms, and the surrounding area was very flat. The paved road was very narrow and full of holes. We arrived at the entrance to the BLM dirt road as the sun was setting, and suddenly had to go up and up and up the twisty rutted dirt road. When we got to the overlook and began to set up we saw what looked like a rocket high up in the atmosphere. A piece of it broke off and fell down, and it made us wonder if a spacecraft had been launched within a hundred miles or so and was dumping its boosters before heading out into space. On the opposite side of our site at the same moment a bloodred moon began to rise in between mountain peaks. It looked like the eye of Sauron, and it rose so fast we couldn't believe it. We looked at the moon on the edge of the skyline, looked back at the rocket for a few moments, and then when we looked at the moon again it was already a few finger-widths above the horizon. I tried to get a picture but it's impossible to capture the moon, especially with only an iPod to work with. 

It wasn't until morning that we understood the vast beauty of the area. I never thought that the desert would be my favorite environment. I was raised at the base of the Appalachian mountains with the wet, green trees and dark brown earth. Although the dirt in the Piedmont where I live is actually bright red moist clay. And not too far away, in Wilmington where I went to college, is the beach. I never was a fan of sand, but I see now that it's the combination of sand and water that makes it undesirable to me. Water makes sand stick. The windy sea air is humid and makes sand stick to my legs and arms and in my hair and on my glasses. The desert has no humidity, so the sand just sits there. It might be windy, but the sand doesn't stick, so it's ok with me!

The camper was situated on top of one of the magnificent hills. I could tell Rosie wanted to go gallivanting all over this jungle-gym, but with all the shooting and the threat of coyotes it was too dangerous to let her run around very much. I couldn't run and play with the animals due to severe knee injury. For those who don't know, I had knee surgery six years ago due to a knee cap that doesn't like to stay where it's supposed to be. Last year the dogs were playing and they ran into the back of my knee and ripped up everything that the first surgery had fixed. At the time of the trip, a second knee surgery was being planned for December 2015, and so I spent the whole trip hobbling around the best I could. Dan was not so handicapped, though. He had a great time chasing Rosie and Piper around. Juno doesn't listen and tries to run away whenever she's off leash, so she has lost her privileges.

The view back toward the road from our site.

It was amazing to wake up and see the view from the window.

Bartleby wants Dan to come back inside.

Shooting was happening down in the valley.

I can see so far!

There were lots of airplane trails all the time.

Rosie had to make friends with the fence she was tied to.

One of my favorite Rosie pictures.

Everywhere I went I was astounded by the sunsets. North Carolina sunsets are wonderful, but nothing like what they have out West. Here are my favorite sunset pictures from three nights at Panoche Hills. I probably took over 200 pictures of the sunset!

To my Pop-Up Portal forum friends;

if this isn't a great view, I don't know what is!

While we were in Panoche Hills we decided to drive the car on up the road to see what was there. We were happy that we didn't attempt to tow the camper past the parking lot; we surely would have gotten stuck. The hills became even more impressive as we continued along, and at the top was some sort of facility. These hills are massive. They look like sand dunes, but they are solid ground.

When we left Panoche Hills to go to Yosemite we stopped at a gas station and checked our tires as usual. That's when we discovered that we yet again needed to buy a new tire. It seems that the road to the Panoche Hill rest area had some sort of metal debris that sliced into our tire. We replaced it with our bald spare and went on toward Yosemite in search of another tire.

I believe by this point we've been through seven tires.

Stay tuned for an adventure in Yosemite National Park!