Slab City

In our search for places to boondock on this trip eastward, we encountered Slab City. Boondocking is the art of finding a strategic free camping site where your presence will not bother the neighbors or attract attention. This is not always an easy task when few places are both legal and free to camp, or when you drive a big red bus. Slab City is near the Salton Sea in the California desert, hidden behind a rundown town on an old military base where only concrete slabs from the buildings remain. The entrance, an old checkpoint booth, boldly states “slab city, the last free place”.

Past the booth is the largest piece of folk art we have ever seen, Salvation Mountain. It’s a shrine to Jesus Christ and to Love. “Jesus I’m a sinner please come upon my soul and into my heart” is painted on the side of a handcrafted adobe hillside, next to a scene that depicts among other things a waterfall and a yellow brick road which leads to an enormous cross at the top of the hill. This was all crafted by a now 77 year old man, Leonard Knight. Leonard broke down in 1984 and planned to spend only two weeks building the shrine. Twenty five years later he is still going strong and giving tours to over 100 visitors daily. He showed us the adobe cave he built to live in and the adobe balloon he still works on. The balloon interior towers above at over two stories. Old automotive glass windows allow the light to penetrate into the interior, illuminating artificial trees. The trees are made from old tires filled with sticks and covered with painted adobe, just like the rest of the interior. “Currently the bill is in the Senate to have this dedicated as a national treasure”, he gleams with pride. Not in a cocky way, more out of contentment for what he has accomplished out of love for humankind and Jesus.

Two young men were standing around offering help to the elderly gentleman as he spryly scooted around. We started talking and they commented on our bus, which is always open for tours. “You gave us a tour, now it’s our turn”, Justin said with glee. As it turns out these two clean cut young men were best friends from Boston, recent graduates who couldn’t find any work in these hard times. They packed what they needed and drove out west to the Slabs, having heard about it from the movie “Into the Wild”. They had spent the past several months helping the old man at times and enjoying free life within the community. They gave us a few pointers and a general idea of what things were like: most of the slabs were accounted for, but there was plenty of space to stay on, and no time limit. The talent shows on Saturday were the highlight, but we would be long gone somewhere in Arizona. “Sometimes valley girls from LA come out here to get the whole experience, like from the movie. They only last five minutes and then go home”. They told us about the natural hot spring, so we got our towels and suits and walked down the road. Military vehicles whizzed past us blowing sand in our faces. Apparently the loud booms we had been hearing were coming from a bomb test site out in the desert. At the hot spring we encountered other bathers, older men in their fifties washing themselves with shampoo. It was gross to imagine swimming in used shampoo, but one guy told us the spring pumped 7,000 gallons an hour, so we decided to go in. All three men had been living at the Slabs for several months out of the radar of the federal government, or so they thought. They seemed like normal folks, just tired of the same day to day life.

On our way back to the bus we discussed the day and decided to see Slab City for ourselves. After crossing the hill we could see a sea of RV’s ranging from old broken-down school buses to hundred thousand dollar motor homes, amidst scattered shrubs and the rare tree for shade. We pulled over at what looked like an information booth, but we found it was the 16th Annual Solar Potluck-- just our luck since we had not eaten since early in the day. We cautiously approached the crowd of 40 people ranging in size, shape and age, and an organizer invited us to eat. It was one of the more eclectic groups we have ever seen. The most surprising of all was that everyone looked clean. The hot spring and outdoor shower must help. After some consideration we decided that it didn’t make sense to just spend one night at the Slabs; it was more a place to spend several days and get to know people and their stories, but we didn’t have the time.

We drove through the edge of the abandoned town north toward the Salton Sea and Joshua Tree National Park. We started ascending a beautiful canyon and noticed people parked off to the side, and it was BLM land. We decided to stop there for the night and hike to the top of one of the hills while we still had an hour of light. Our spot was a good ways from the road and had its own fire pit. We sat around a fire that night for the first time on our trip, enjoying the beautiful glow and smell of burning wood.

San Diego

Monday we left LA after a two month attempt to find work. What we managed to find was meager and sporadic. We are sad to say goodbye to our new friends Pierre, Lindsay, Ryan, Chris, and Jordan and my old friend Colin. You will be missed, and your kindness will not be soon forgotten. We gave our farewells, closed out our P.O. box and filled our water tank for the next part of our journey. We met with the last few kayak shops on the West Coast along our route to San Diego, the last major city in California. Our hopes of driving to Central America had been long forgotten after our struggle to find work and our high cost vehicle repairs, not to mention me losing my passport right before we came to LA. Some things are not meant to be, at least not now. In San Diego, we had Mexican food in Old Town and then crashed for the night next to the Department of Transportation. In the morning we took the time to explore the area and go paddling. It’s disappointing that most of the Southern Coast is overdeveloped or cliff. I look forward to my summer paddles on Cape Cod. Our plan to spend another night in the city changed once we had biked around Ocean Beach, ate delicious lunch at Cass St. and checked out some other areas, and we started our journey to our next stop, Slab City. We only made it 100 miles before we needed to eat and sleep. We pulled off the highway and parked on a back road overlooking the desert and Mexican border. We could even see the fabled wall dividing the two countries. I thought it was just a myth. That night we were visited twice by the border patrol. “You just camping?” the officer asked. “Yes sir”, I responded. “Okay, right on” and he was off. This was much less of an ordeal than other encounters with law enforcement officers. In LA we were pulled over for the Panda Paddles sign on the back of our bus. The officer claimed that we needed proper permits to hang a sign on our bus and he asked if it was commercial. This seemed suspect to me; more like, let me see if I can get the punks for something while I have them pulled over. He even went as far as entering our vehicle without permission.

The build

For this posting I am going to discuss the basic construction process for building a RV from a bus. Let us start by going through my thought process for finding a vehicle. I started first my choosing a vehicle based on three major factors, size, condition and price. I spent a good portion of the build looking to find a bus that was a good size, weight, height etc. For those of you thinking to build and RV use this as a guideline, and remember some facts are based on government regulations, please check with your local DMV for current regulations.
First determine how much you would like to carry in the vehicle such as couches, storage, size of kitchen, beds and other. Another thing to consider is what sort of storage you will need for water, grey water tank, black water tank, extra batteries, generator, AC, hot water heater, and air heater. RV furniture is not that much different from regular furniture so if you measure household items this can give you a good idea about layout. A vehicle over 30 feet is going to have many limitations, on street parking, turning, parks and campground etc. Vehicle height and width is also a concern. Width is fairly standard at around 9ft; over that width you need a permit. Height limits are 13.5ft without a permit, I would recommend building/buying no more than 12.5 feet or less, as this will help insure clearing most all brides and trees in the road. The final and most important limitation would be weight. Special CDL (commercial drivers licenses), are needed for vehicles over 26,000 GVW. This license is available to anyone who applies and takes the tests.
Now we must determine what type of needs we have for electricity, water etc. This stage of the game may even take you longer than the build especially if you purchase a smaller vehicle.
First determine water needs since this is the bulkiest. If you plan on staying places that have a lot of hookups then please keep that in mind. For my needs I have a fifteen gallon tank which last around 4-7 days for two people. My gray water tank is 25gallons, since it should be larger than the fresh water tank. I do not have a black water tank since I have a composting toilet. If you have a shower you will need much larger tanks if you plan to go more than one or two days without a refill.
Remember that if you plan to be at a place with hookups that you have not need solar or a generator. For places with now hookups you need to determine your power needs. This can be done by adding the watts each item you plan to use will require and multiply by how many hours a day they will be used. If you are planning to add a generator then just add the total number of watts to determine the size of your generator. You may need to get a conversion chart to figure out the demands on your system, and other things I do not explain here. Once you determine your total electrical needs it will become clear what your best choice is for creating power.
I am currently in the process of refinement. I have one deep cycle battery currently which lasts for two days before I need to run the engine. Two batteries would be better since I run the engine about once every few days. I do not have an AC or high usage appliances so I do not really need a generator. I plan to acquire solar panels for most of my needs and supplement with a small portable generator. The biggest demands I have are my laptop, lights and fan for the composting toilet, which needs to run 24/7. I have a cooler which I fill with ice every other day, with a total cost of about 8 dollars a week. Please remember that energy costs money, solar panels can pay for themselves, generators may not because of gas costs. Large appliances have a hard time running on solar without large battery banks and large panels. Solar is a great choice for supplemental power such as lights, pumps, cell phones and more. My vehicle could easily run on solar.
After you have determined what you require for the above needs please take into consideration where you will put the tanks etc. Some can be mounted under the vehicle, but smaller vehicles can hold less. It may be necessary to have compartments installed or other things welded onto the vehicle. Propane gas is dangerous and needs to be installed in a safe location outside the vehicle.
Good sources of appliances are RV stores and junkyards. Often time appliances can be reused saving you a lot of money and time. I built most of my items from scratch which was unnecessary. I had limited space and could not find a good source of used components. This is something you should keep in mind; used parts may not always be available. Appliance can be purchased new as well as furniture; the rest is up to you.

San Fransisco

We left Eureka, CA, on a gray day, much like most of our days in the Northwest. We drove through redwood forest along rocky coast toward wine country. The scenery was much like Spanish countryside with its green rolling hills, Eucalyptus trees and vineyards. Our first stop for meeting with kayak outfitters was in Point Reyes, a beautiful piece of countryside surrounded by forest and sloughs, which are like estuaries. The weather started to turn to our favor boasting temperatures in the high 60’s-- a welcome change and what we had been looking forward to. We drove further south to Oakland where we would spend the next week, parked on a quiet, hilly cul-de-sac (gracias, Armando!). Our bus attracted a lot of attention from the locals and we gave several tours of our little home and explained the journey we had started almost two months ago. We spent the next several days exploring the surroundings areas, working around the bus, and Amanda visited several schools in the area that specialize in Somatic Psychology. We made some new friends which we hope to keep in touch with. Armando’s neighbor Stephanie invited us out Friday night and we biked several miles to a late night art walk. Much to our surprise we found ourselves fading at about 9 o’clock; we had forgotten about the time change. At the moment time had slipped to the wayside, freeing us from much of what confines us to our daily routine. We work when we can and play just as often. Amanda had a mini Rice University reunion with Jeff, Rene and Leif in San Francisco. I spent one Saturday with a friend from a semester in Spain. It was great to see her again, a much overdue visit. The night before our departure south I went on a beautiful full moon kayak in the bay with folks from California Canoe and Kayak, a premier outfitter and guide service. Needless to say I brought the paddle along which got a good review. That same evening a dear friend from high school called to have dinner, a pleasant surprise since both of us were leaving for extended trips in the morning.

The following day we awoke early and continued our journey south to LA, where we plan to have our winter stay and replenish our bank accounts. The journey has brought us through some of the most breathtaking landscapes we have seen on the West coast. Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing was one of these places. We spent the night on the water, falling asleep to the barking of seals and the ocean surf. In the morning we took our kayaks off the bus for a morning paddle. Let me describe the procedure of removing a 16 foot boat from atop a 10 foot high roof rack. This involves two people, one on the roof and the other on the ground. The person on the ground catches the boat as it slides delicately off the back, becoming almost vertical. The one on the roof then lowers the 50 pound boat over the edge with a rope. While this may seem a simple task there are certain risks such as crushing a $3,000 boat, slipping off the edge of the slanted roof or dropping the boat on someone’s head. The paddle was full of sea life such as sea otters, seals, loons, pelicans and the standard seagull. The seals follow the boats and playfully dance in the water beside you, sometimes for miles. The sea otters bob their head out of the water like the whack-a-mole game at Chuck E. Cheese. Watching them play chase and wrestle in the water, as well as watching one momma sea otter cross the river on her back with her furry baby asleep on her belly, was one of Amanda’s favorite things.

The journey to Monterey was my biggy on the notorious Route 1, but south for the next sixty miles we would be in for a surprise. The road has many treacherous curves and with steep cliffs on either side. Signs warn of landslides and fires every few hundred yards. The guard rail would be nothing more than a speed bump if we lost control. White knuckled I drove 15 miles an hour for the next sixty miles. That didn't stop from us enjoying the beauty of the landscapes and the breath taking contours of the shoreline. I puttered along at my slow pace, yet even if I had wanted to drive faster it would have been futile because the road was so winding that our bus would have had a hard time staying on the road. I could just imagine how thrilled the traffic behind us must have been, yet none of them beeped or gave us the finger. Every so often I would stop to look at the GPS. "I can't believe we have only been seventy miles, at least we only have thirty to go." Well after dark we managed to pull over and find safe parking. Only eighty five miles from where we had started that morning.

Stop, Go

Well, I'm sorry its been a while, I guess we fell off the blog wagon when we broke down and life got a little crazy...but we're back! We made it out of Utah, through cold Idaho, west through Oregon, and we were so close to Portland and the coast when the Wander Bus came to a sudden and decisive halt. The engine died and would not start again. It happened at a four way stop in little Hood River. Justin jumped out and opened up the hood, I grabbed him the toolbox and rummaged for the number for roadside assistance. A passerby helped out by getting in the road to direct traffic because a long line had formed behind us; drivers just didn't want to believe our hazard lights meant they needed to go around us and some didn't even want to obey our impromptu director. Maybe his landscaper's attire created some doubt. Anyway, Justin had his head in the engine in an instant, replacing one of the fuel filters, and soon diesel had spray coated him and a 3 foot radius, but to no avail. The cops came and were anxious to get our vehicle out of the street. The tow truck finally arrived, and Justin was working on the engine until the moment they hooked up the vehicle. We were towed to a shop at the edge of Portland where Justin and the intake staff worked on the bus until past 10 pm. They also informed us that they would not be able to work on the vehicle, there had been some miscommunication and we shouldn't have been towed there in the first place, we needed to go to an International repair shop for an International engine. So we slept in the bus in the parking lot and in the morning we got towed again. The silver lining is that the repair shop had a clean, hot shower for stranded people like us, and it felt for a moment like being in a hotel. We do have a sun shower, but we hadn't had sun or the necessary seclusion.

The International shop had said that they would look at if not start work on the vehicle that same day, but instead it took them five days to even look at the bus. FIVE DAYS! It was in a seedy area in the outskirts of Portland, which happened to be quite rainy and cold. I like Portland fine, minus the rain, but Justin was bothered by all the street punks. One thing that's great about Portland is how bike-friendly it is, with bike lanes, bike routes and riverside bike paths. Sustainability is big, and the kayak outfitters we met with were stoked about the bamboo paddles. We also liked how the city breaks up into small neighborhoods, with clusters of independent coffee shops, cafes and bars. We were thankful to stay with Joe and Casey during this time, but they had a lot going on and we eventually stayed in the bus by sneaking into the repair warehouse at night, where mechanics worked until midnight and started again at 6 am. Our repair bill was huge (a friend said "I thought you meant that amount minus a zero") and once we dried our eyes we were on our way north to Seattle.

Salt Lake City

Well, after 3,500 miles, the Wanderbus broke down. We're currently on an extended stay in Portland, Oregon, while we wait for it to be fixed. We'll tell you more about that in a bit. First, a story about cold weather.

We left Moab on a hot, sunny day. Our next stop would be Salt Lake City, Utah. I have always been curious about what the city looked like since I hear its praise from tons of people back East, many of whom are avid/fanatical skiers.

The ride through the mountains proved to be ever colder. The temperature in the first 100 miles dropped by more than 15 degrees. After winding up the mountain roads to about 6,000 feet we encountered snow flakes and a mild storm. I was driving, still in my shorts and t-shirt. The heat was still disconnected from the summer's RV conversion, and frankly, I never expected to get snow on our trip. At least I was praying for it not to snow. I personally like snow, but our oil pump does not like pumping oil the consistency of lard. Was this going to be the end of our trip north? Thankfully we had just enough fuel to arrive within the city limits of Salt Lake City, and just in time. Snow started dumping from the sky and we bundled up to keep warm. First things first, we need a heater. I got back in the driver's seat and we drove to Lowe's to purchase a Mr. Buddy Heater. $170 later we were warm again and parked for the night in a Walmart just south of the city.

Amanda had the great idea to find some hot springs in the area. We did some research online to find the closest spot. It was only a few miles north and offered us the opportunity to drive through part of the city. Being Sunday, it was more like a ghost town. One thing I was surprised to learn is that the epicenter of the city the the Mormon Temple. All roads start from that point, meaning the numbered roads go up from there. I still don't claim to understand the street system in Salt Lake. Even the GPS had a hard time finding its way. Fortunately we made it out again.

The hot spring was in a small park to the north and looked more like a hot sewer drain. It was surrounded by razors and toothpaste tubes. A lady bathing her feet tried to entice us to take a dip. More like taking a dip in used bath water, I'll pass. Since we were still in the area we decided to go to the "cool" area of town. We drove back through the ghost town but saw nothing much except a Mexican restaurant. Much to my surprise, their waste oil was still liquid. This was our chance to fill up the tank. We were both relieved, since we knew that Boise, Idaho, our next major stop, was just outside of the winter storm and would be a much easier place to find "liquid gold".

Later, we drove north to Antelope Island, an island state park right in the middle of Great Salt Lake. Antelope Island is the home to free range bison. The smell of the lake reminded us both of the ocean air. Since the sun had already set, we waited to explore until the morning.

The island by daylight was barren, void of most anything except some hares and bison. We climbed a nearby hill and were able to see a full 360 panorama of the area. It was completely surrounded by snow capped mountains and uninviting sparkling blue water. Any previous thoughts we had of kayaking were wiped away. We were not prepared for freezing temperatures, especially not in the desert.

Time to head to warmer climates.

Arches

For those of you who have never had the time to spend in the desert, we highly recommend it. Nothing compares the glowing canyon walls at sunset, the wave-like dunes and the majestic desert vegetation that thrives in such an inhospitable climate. It is not hard to imagine how a desert may have once been an ocean floor. Like an ocean floor, it is sparse of life and not someplace you would go without adequate equipment. Walking through a canyon can be a breathtaking experience. Sand squishes between your toes and light bounces all around, casting shadows and rainbows of earth tones. Moab, Utah, is the most gorgeous place we have stopped so far. Arches National Park is absolutely breathtaking. We highly recommend visiting and taking a hike on one of the primitive trails. Be sure to allow extra time for those of you not familiar with walking in the sand. Our little 6 mile hike took us an hour extra, getting us to the trail head well after dark with the moon high up in the sky. We meandered through the well lit canyon without a flashlight. The moonlight danced around us and cast large shadows on the sandy floor. At eight o'clock we arrived at our little home, our sun shower still warm from the bright desert sun. We hung the shower from the bus doors and set up a makeshift showering area. The wind whipped around us and the warmth of the shower had little effect in the strong gusts. We hurried inside to take off the chill and put on some warmer clothes. The bus' warmth was comforting and kept the wildness of the surroundings at bay. After super we crawled into bed, tired from the day's adventures.

Vapor caves, canyon, metallic intestine

It may be hard to imagine a higway as being beautiful, or at least I did. I-70, as we have come to find out, has some of the best scenery imaginable. The drive from Denver to Grand Junction, CO, was spectacular. Snow covered peaks and canyons abound. You can truly see a reflection of the American West today with all of the traces of mining towns and scars on the landscape from decades ago. I can see how the temptation was there for many to make it big in the land of mammoth and somewhat almost surreal landscape. Its beauty masks the fierceness of its winters. Fortunately for us we were able to see the beautiful side on our trip, especially with our stop to Glenwood Springs.

Glenwood Springs is not a town that would come up in normal conversation such as Vail, Aspen or Breckenridge, but it is one that I surely will remeber. When driving west on 70 you arrive at White River Park just before reaching Glenwood Springs. This part of the highway goes through the enormous Glenwood Canyon that literally swallows a vehicle whole. After emerging you arrive at the town, home to the U.S.' only natural vapor caves. It's a dark, natural, underground steam room, with mineral deposits on the walls and an earthy odor that takes a couple of minutes to get used to. We sat, sweated, came up for air in the spa's solarium, and repeated.

After the caves, we took a bike ride through the canyon along the river, and we got to see bighorn sheep up close, and went through a highway overpass that was like being in a metallic intestine. By night we headed to Grand Junction, our last stop in Colorado, and had a parking lot sleepover, before moving on to Moab, UT.

Boulder, CO

We're enjoying this week in the Boulder area. One of the more memorable things was the stop we made on the way, though, in Grinnell, KS, population 286. We spent the night parked out in cornfields--real, non-stop cornfields this time--and in the morning we attracted a lot of attention when we took photos of their "downtown", which was one sleepy street. Brad from the feed mill at Frontier Ag offered to show us how soybean is processed into cattle feed, so we got an awesome lesson (on video).

We had a productive meeting once in Boulder with Sustainable Flooring, who have an existing relationship with Panda Paddles, to explore new possibilities for the product. We gave them a tour of the bus and they got to see what their beautiful cork tile flooring looks like in a school bus.

The past several days have been spent hiking and checking out the area. Bill, Justin's stepdad, visited before heading to Utah with Justin's mom, and he and Justin mountain biked. Justin and I liked hiking in Eldorado State Park, south of Boulder, as well as in Rocky Mountain National Park, where we got a little snow shower today at the top of Estes cone. It was 11,000 feet, small in comparison but enough to keep me winded.