Idle Hour Lake

Well, here I am in Altamont, KS at Idle Hour Lake North.  It's a nice quiet small campground.  There's a north campground and a south campground.  I'm in the north campground where you can get a nice view of the lake.  The south campground doesn't have a good view of the lake but is wooded with shaded campsites.  There are full hookups with 20/30/50 amp service.  There is tent camping and also group camping areas.  

There are available bathrooms and showers.  There are laundry facilities on site with an iron and ironing board.  There is also WiFi available.  

 I'll try my hand at seasonal work at Amazon while I'm here.  They pay your campground fees and utilities.  Free rent, and get paid too.  Who would'a thunk it?

There are three lakes.
This is the main lake.

Laundry room and take a book - leave a book library.

From across the lake.

Frisby Golf course.

Lake residents.

Kansas wildlife.

If all goes according to plan I'll be here until just before Christmas.  I'll post events as I visit neighboring towns of Coffeyville, Parsons, Joplin, Tulsa and others.  So far I've found out that Coffeyville, Kansas is The Town That Stopped the Dalton Gang.  Who knows what else I'll find out.  With Halloween fast approaching there are several Haunted Places Near Altamont, KS to check out.

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Leonard

How To Put Square Cabinets In A Round Bus

In this ongoing saga of my school bus conversion, my first choice for kitchen and over head cabinets was to make them. Older school buses have rounded roofs and stock cabinets are square. I figured I'd solve this problem right off by making the cabinets to fit.

The roof in older school buses was round, I'm told, for better roll over protection in the event of an accident. While I'm glad to have this added protection in my conversion, I still needed overhead cabinets.

While perusing a Habitat for Humanity Restore in Gainesville, GA looking for an office chair, I stumbled upon a boat load of cabinets. They were offering enough cabinets to do my entire kitchen for the price of one quality cabinet at any of the big box home improvement stores. Well, that set the wheels of thought into motion.

Below is what I've ended up with.

For more detailed information on how I did this goto www.instructables.com.

Well, I've sat still for about a week and a half.  Getting itchy feet and in an effort to prevent tire dry rot, I'll be on the move again today.  Where will I end up?  Won't know until I get there.  Be sure to check back to see where I've landed.

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Leonard

Grin, Snicker, Laugh!

I've heard it said,

 "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans".

While I didn't personally tell God my plans, I did tell everyone that would listen.  I posted it on this blog.  It was no secret that I was planning to retire and be outta here!

Thinking back now I can vaguely remember looking up at a virtually cloudless sky and noticing one small cloud formation far off in the distance.  Now I'm not one that sees animal shapes and things like the in cloud formations and water ripples in the pond.  But I possibly might have noticed that small cloud formation may, just maybe, had taken on the shape of a sly grin!  Nah!  Probably not!

Then a day or so later while still preparing the bus for this grand journey on a nice breeze-less day, still in Jasper, GA, a soft easy breeze blew by.  Now some say they can hear voices being carried in the winds.  I don't!  But I have to admit that the rustle of the leaves in the near by trees could have easily been mistaken for a light easy snicker.  Nah!  Probably not!

Even though I had moved out of the garage where I was building the bus I had only gone about 15 miles to a campground just outside of Jasper, Ga in a little town called Talking Rock.  I felt I still need about a good week to organize the bus and arrange things the way I'd like to have them without having to split my time and thoughts between setting up the bus and working a job.  So I booked a spot here for a week.

The first day and night I really did nothing.  I watched a couple movies.  Took walks.  Rested (much needed) a lot.  But that second night...   BOOM!  The sky fell.  It didn't really bother me as I was in the comfort of the bus.  But if I ever heard out right laughter, I heard it that night.  

Will I continue to make plans?  Of course I will.  But they won't be etched in stone.  Besides, I'm retired.  Where do I have to be other than wherever I am at the time?  First lesson learned...

Take life easy and enjoy it as it comes.

Speaking of enjoying life, this is a nice little campground nestled just outside of Jasper, GA.  It's Talona Creek Campground in Talking Rock, GA.

My spot.

My spot.

My spot.

My spot.

My spot.

The campground.

The campground.

Tent area.

Creek side.

Creek Side.

There are creek side swings.

Tent area fire rings.

Pirate ship fort the kids.

Pirate ship fort the kids.

Pirate ship fort the kids.

This is also a horse facility.

Wooden cowboys.

Office and bath house.

Sasquatch will welcome you to camp.

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Happy traveling!

Plans, Plans, Plans

One of the good things about retirement is that you don't have to make plans like when you're a part of the main work force.  However when you first enter into retirement I imagine you have to break old habits.  You know, like getting up at a certain time everyday.  Scheduling out your days, weeks and months to the point of when and where you may take a vacation NEXT year.

This is what I might start off doing when I leave here:

This is the first place I want to stop: http://www.enota.com/

So I won't even get out of Georgia the first night.

This is the second stop:http://shutupandgrowit.org/

I'll be meeting a fellow traveler, Ed in Keyser, WV

Then I'll be heading towards Philly Town.  Yah!

Then on to Drayton, North Dakota for the Sugar Beet Harvest.

Then on to Coffeyville, Kansas for Amazon.

I guess  I haven't learned to break old habits.  You may say, "That's not that bad.  That's only three months".  Well while that's true, there's more...  

January 6 - 20, 2015 Rubber Tramp Rendezvous in Quartzsite, AZ

January 17 - 25, 2015 32nd Annual Sports, Vacation and RV Show also in Quartzsite, AZ

February  8 – 22, 2015 Habitat for Humanity building project in Hobbs, NM

May 2015  Escapees CARE Center Livingston, TX.

June 27 – July 5, 2015  Habitat for Humanity Global Village volunteer program in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

And then, who knows what else.  

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Leonard

Another Awe Sh#%! moment

Here's another Awe Sh#%! moment

If you read my post on May 5, you may remember my tale of troubles on the road.  What I didn't say back then was that while trouble shooting my fuel problems I was on a roll. Thought I'd solved the problem.  All I had to do was disconnect the fuel changeover solenoid and feed directly from the tank.  The sun was shining, Life was good.  Tools in hand.  What could be better?

Awe Sh#%!

In my haste in disconnecting the fuel lines, one of the fuel lines didn't agree with my plan. Not to be out done, I man handled it.  It, not to be out done, laughed at me and said (it did, I actually heard it), "Oh, yeah!"  And just broke off in my hand.

You'll notice the two fuel solenoids above.  One has three ports and one has only two ports and a big hole in the side.  Can you guess which one I broke?  Since then I have learned to be more gentle with Easy and show her more respect.

Just another of several Awe Sh#%! moments that I was able to live down enough to smile as I related it.  Know that there are more to come.  Feel free to share your (speak-able)  Awe Sh#%! moments in the comments below.

Leonard