Paint Job Possibilities!

We want to paint the bus soon!

I was out there yesterday spray painting over the final vestiges of "MILO ADVENTIST ACADEMY" and "M.A.A." because I was sick of looking at it. Turns out WD-40 is killer for taking the adhesive nasties off our bus. I used it earlier when some duct tape left marks on the side of our bus...not sure how eco it is...I'm guessing not very...but it definitely works.

Ok, don't laugh at my silly photoshop drawings. It's REALLY HARD to freehand on that thing!!!! I'm going for a victorian thing here. But it ended up looking more gypsy than victorian. Go figure. The blue/red/yellow thing may also get a shot of green at some point. I think that would really cement the period look of it.

So this is the panel we'd like to do in the rear arch....(she is Luna, after all!)


One option...blue extending down to the ground....note the sun panel in the front!


Another option....just a blue stripe with some accent stripes. Paint is *expensive* after all. This is the "economy" option. The guy at the paint shop recommended spray paint for this endeavor...more research to be done. If we do use the kind of spray paint we were looking at, just the stripe would set us back $75-$80. I'm guessing I would do the sun in acrylics and seal it with something? We don't have the money just yet one way or the other so this is all speculative. In any event, the economy paint job could always lead into other paint jobs down the road.....exhibit A:


Here's the serous paint job. The investment paint job. I would need a team of hippies to make this one happen....which might be possible this summer.

In the end, I think we're going to start with the sun and moon and go from there. We are hoping to go and camp outside the Dead and the Allman Brothers at the Gorge Ampitheater this May (WOOOO!) and I'd like to put a little bling on the bus before this very exciting event. However, if we can't get the veg conversion done by then, we estimate gas from Portland to the Gorge to be $165 round trip. Plus $45 camping. (Plus waaaay too much money for tickets. Hence camping outside.) Several friends may be coming, too, which would cut costs but still...at this rate we don't have the money.

BUT Julia has two job interviews this week!!!!!!! Fingers crossed!!!!!!!

<3 <3 <3

Love to all out there!

Erin

Moving to Portland!

Hi all - many changes are afoot. Last time we posted, we were tucked away in the Santa Cruz hinterlands... but since then we've decided to change scenery and move to Portland!!

Staying in Santa Cruz was wonderful and I think it was exactly what we needed to get re-oriented and figure out which direction we wanted to go in. We were blessed to be staying with a group of wonderful folks in Bonny Doon who gave an unexpected and grand send-off with much love, farm-fresh eggs, flowers and pastries. Thanks guys, you're wonderful!

Erin and I are super excited to be moving to Portland - it just seems like it will be a hub of the kind of activities we want to get involved with. DIY and crafting, sustainability and community organizing, etc.

Anyway, we drove our bus up the 101 a few days ago. We took about three days to come up and got to revisit some of our favorite spots that we discovered on our last trip some months ago. It was interested to see how the landscape has changed from peak summer to winter.


We re-visited our favorite free campsite called Madrona along the Smith River and Hwy. 199. This is where we had our magical encounter with our house-bus inspiration Michael.


The river was about 3 times as full as last time and it was roaring!



Oh! Another exciting bus modification happened. While at our stop-over in Santa Rosa, I think we fixed our leaking window issues once and for all. The answer...

Gutters!

Here's a pic of Erin's latest temporary interior decorating masterpiece. We've been doing a lot of insulating with that foil covered bubble wrap insulation called reflectix so there's been a lot of silver to cover up.

Anyway, we're now in Eugene and we're planning on moving our bus up to Portland any day now. We found a couple of really awesome houses to park at up there and we're just trying to decide which one to go for.

We're excited for our move and will update again soon when we get settled. Love to everyone!