Cadillac Ranch

Texas is Full of the beautiful and the very weird roadside art. Cadillac Ranch offers a beautiful mix of both. Welcoming you into Amarillo, Tx off of Route 66, the standing classics are a sight for sore eyes when making the track from any major town in the west into Amarillo. For the sounding miles are treacherous and dangerous during a long haul. Jason and I had been driving for 600 miles when we finally reached the outskirts of Amarillo. And to make matters worse, we had just entered a famous Texas Thunderstorm. The storm swirled around us for miles are  finally reached the campground. Pulling into a 1950s themed campground on the Texas plains, in a thunderstorm,  at midnight, after a full day of driving, without eating.......Sort of felt like the prologue of one of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films.







When we woke up the next morning we discovered the crisp air after a huge dirt lifting thunderstorm. the air was foggy and there was a thin layer of frozen snow/frost. So we decided to have a late day and go back to bed with 2 cups of coffee and plan the rest of our decent into Texas.

The frost was lifting as the sun started to break the clouds and we approached the Ranch just after lunch. Once the Sun was high in the sky, winter melted around us.  Seeing a bunch of cars nose down in dirt is like seeing a 1950s space creature. Very Strange.


 A little back history on  Cadillac Ranch.  Created in 1974 by the Artist of Ant Farm- Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michaels. The Cars are Buried Nose-first into the ground at a corresponding angle to that of the Egyptian Great Pyramid of Giza. They pitched the idea to millionaire Stanley Marsh 3 and the ranch was "planted" in 1974  2miles from where they are currently placed. Its reported they were moved quietly in 1997 to their new home further away from the rapidly growing Amarillo Texas.  I took the time to so a nice Handstand to "stand with the cars" or #handstandacrossamerica

Stanley Marsh 3 is a well known prankster millionaire in Amarillo, Tx. While he is best known for Cadillac Ranch, he is also known for "Dynamite Museum" which includes a large amount of mock traffic signs. He was quoted on Amarillo.com that "Every sign you see if bossy, we would be better off without them. But since people look at them anyways we are putting our own in".

 

The Cadillacs have been featured in numerous music videos and movies. They often get a fresh solid coat of paint in honor of events. When Stanley's wife had a birthday the cars were painted pink. In honor of gay marriage being legalized they were painted rainbow and when the artist passed away they were all painted black. 

We left our mark of this one of a kind landmark attraction and plan to come back here every time we pass through the panhandle of Texas. 10/10 would recommend! 

Crater of Diamonds State Park

400 Miles Later and we are in the beautiful Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, AR. We pulled into the camp site around 10:30 pm. After spending the usual 30 mins to set up the bus, Blair cooked Spegetti and enjoyed a well deserved meal after making a long haul for the day. This is the first night we were able to be in a campsite in a state park that was purely pitch dark, we were able to see the entire night sky. In the distance we heard Owls and Coyotes howling and hooting at the moon. We even joined in the festivities of singing in the night with nature by adding our own hoots into the mix. It was so wonderful to just be in nature, reconnecting with the night sounds and really living in the earths musical. Every animal has a special part of the theatrical experience. The Owls sing like a greek chorus. They comment with a collective hoot on the actions of the other animals. The Coyotes keep the story line moving and in this sense they are the protagonist. They have the loudest sound. Their song sings out and resonates though out the canyon we are in. We can hear one group directly in front but in the distance singing out to another pack far behind us. though we don't know what they are saying to each other you can tell there in an urgency to the howls. There are night birds chiming in the act with their own comments here and there. This went on for at least 2 hours. We sat in the dark and listened to the musical of the forest play all around us until it was time for sleep.  

We awoke the next morning to find that the completely full campsite we pulled into had been emptied out. This was weird to us as it was a Friday night. The site had said they were booked through the weekend. We didn't realize until after our morning hike that the corner of our campsite had not actually been cleared out, The campers had all just moved. We went a mile down the road from where we were parked and started realizing "I saw that car and camper last night" and after seeing/having moments and moments of the same thoughts we realized: everyone moved away from our camper.
no harm, no foul. At least we have room to roam now.

We spent the next 2 days digging in the dirt at the Crater of Diamonds. Our original intention was to find my engagement diamond for my ring but after spending days in the dirt finding only rocks that look like potatoes and quarts we decided that the diamond for the engagement ring can come from a professional rock hound.

There is an extremely nice hike down to the river nearby that has 3 workout stations along the path. They include pictures and descriptions of how to properly use the equipment and Jay and I played around on them for a while. The walk down to the river includes various signs telling  you about the wildlife in the park and also includes pictures of wha to search for. It started drizzling on us on the walk but the forrest is so dense that we didn't really get wet it was just a beautiful soundscape.

In all I would visit Crater of Diamonds again, and next time I'll take the class instead of being too stubborn to learn how to properly dig in the dirt and find diamonds. The State park was wonderful and we were able to sit on the back deck and hoot with the owls and enjoy our breakfast with out the disturbance of others.  I would recommend this state park to anyone who loves the outdoors and wants to try their hand at treasure hunting.

Night Bird Ranch in Ledbetter Texas

We are getting settled into our new spot at Night Bird Ranch. The Teague's are wonderful host and we are extremely excited to start working with them. We've been employed to build some shelving for their office and fix up a few things around the ranch.

We have been excited to make this our home the last few days. We really are starting to feel settled into our own bus and then the environment around us. as far as bus chores-we have paired down much more than we expected to with new things leaving the bus daily as we learn to let go of needless items and learn to live fully and in the present.

Nightbird ranch is a delightful place to stay for a night or a week. It has all the things a working Texas Ranch would want to offer. A large fishing pond, a canoe, a large tar to climb. lots of cow patties....... and very (maybe overly) friendly horses and donkeys. Who (if you aren't careful) will walk right up to your bus and pop their nose in through the back door.... Thank goodness its at headlight and these little scoundrels aren't going to be able to squeeze through the doors.

Pulling Wayne down an extremely bumpy dirt road was a little intimidating but we thought thats a rancher and her horses could make it up and down the road here, our little house should be fine too. Everything turned out to be great and we settled into the landscape pretty well.
We were able to dine with friends the first night and getting to catch up with long lost friends as well. Jason and I believe that is so important to hold your friends close especially in the unknown times- like when you live on a bus and you don't know when your next paid work day is coming or where to park.

In the following days we visited Round Top Texas where Teague's Tavern is currently being built in the center of town. It's a beautiful spot on picturesque Texas land. This is also the home of the famous Junk Gypsy workshop and retail space. Now- I need to admit something to y'all... I LOVED their show in TV and have been WAITING SO LONG to come and see their shop. All of the unique findings and inspirations over the years have had to have brought some amazing finds to their unique business.... Unfortunately they say don't meet you heres for a reason. When we arrived at the shop we were greeted by a cute pink station wagon. Once we stepped foot inside it was like a tinkers paradise but also littered with things made in china and your stereotypical tourist junk like lipglosses and hair ties. They had a LOT of cool things inside the shop but Jason and I were sort of unimpressed.






I would rate Night Bird Ranch a 11/10, the family is extremely nice and welcoming. The ranch is beautiful. Its only a few minutes from town but it feels so much further away and they are building a Tavern in town that i am VERY excited that we will be coming back to dine at. The nights are clear and vast and the weather is mostly nice.  We will be back- thats for sure.

Until next time
Adventure is out there.
Blair, Jason and the pups

Move in Day!

Move In Day! Move In Day! Move in Day! 

It is currently 30 degrees outside and its been snowing since 4 yesterday afternoon BUT nothing is going to put a damper on our excitement for today. We have been waiting 5 months for this moment. The Day we get to MOVE INTO OUR NEW TINY HOME. Things are in full swing here at the loft. We even have a few friends helping us move in the snow. 

BIG SHOUTOUT TO our Army of Snow People. Matt, Summer, Darion, Malia, Jess 

Right now nothing is perfectly placed. We have been so busy between filming and cleaning that we don't have much time to get our little bus ready but tonight we will be heading down to the bus yard to stay a few days with our new friend Charlie Kern (Check out his bus conversion at Lookatthatbus.com) 

While we are in Commerce City at the bus yard we plan on getting this tiny home organized, and Jason plans on sealing the solar panels along with fixing our canopy and organizing the tool crib. Its going to be an interesting week as we plan to plunge into bus life together. Stay tuned for the first time we host a dinner in the bus as I'm sure it will be interesting! 

Until Next time, 

Adventure Is Out There. 

Blair, Jason & the Pups. 

Lights Up!

Today is December 23, 2015
Tiny Bus Deadline: 8 days

Today we made a huge leap forward! WE HAVE LAND POWER! What does this mean? We can successfully live on the grid, plugged into grid power. What has to happen next? We will be working on the solar system tomorrow. The plan for the next few days is to install the brackets for our solar panels, wire the solar system from the roof to the power bank and set up our main power/solar system. We chose to run off both grid and solar power because we really want to live green but we understand that storms happen and sometimes backups are a necessity. Our two battery packs that will be holding our main power for the system are equipped to hold 2 days worth of power. We are extremely excited about this advancement in on the bus.

Till next time
Adventure is out there.



Join us on the adventure.
Blair, Jason & the pups.

Day 3: Floor removal

Day: 3                 Days till move in: 24

Today We removed the rest of the flooring on the bus. The wood around the front and back of the floor were weathered and rotten so severely that I was capable for removing it with my hands. As we moved closer to the center of the bus and farther away from the windows The flooring became harder to remove as it wasn't as exposed to the elements.It took us 2 days but the floor FINALLY came out! There were a couple smashed fingers and even more curse words but at the end everything came out! We were also able to cross off a few more items on our

       MASTER BUS TO DO list:

• Remove Drivers Seat
• Remove Air Conditioning box
• Remove Old Cables and Wires near pedals 
• Remove & Restore Speed and Gage plate
• Remove Poles and People Separators 
• Remove Wasp nest in back speaker box 
• Snip U shaped metal at end of wall 
• Sweep/ Vacuums out ALL DIRT
• Power Wash the Inside & Outside 
• Scrub good windows 
• Prep Damaged windows for removal 
• Prep Back door for paint

(This will grow in time) 

Till next time, Adventure is out there. 

Join us on the adventure at 

www.tinybusbigadventure.com

Blair, Jason, & the pups. 

Trailer Made Custom Trailers

When Jay and I were looking for a way to mount the bus to a movable object we did a ton of research. We found Trailer Made Custom Trailers in Denver, Colorado. They had advertised that they were Denver's leading Tiny House Trailer fabricator. We were so excited to reach out the them and they quickly responded! Yes! How exciting the Tiny Bus crew to have found an answer so quickly to our current problem of how to get mobile and out of that junkyard! Unfortunately for us we had no idea that this would take a very different pace very soon. We had a consultation with the owner and he assured us we could make this old bus a duly axel and a strong hitch and come in under our $2k price range. AWESOME! ....But time would only tell our fate.

We had 2 failed meetings with them at the junkyard. The first one Jay and I waited for 3 hours. We called after 30 mins had passed and figured since it with straight to Voicemail they may be on their way. so We waited an hour. After the first hour passed we called the office again. We were connected with he owners wife who told us that her husband should be on the way but was tired up with another business deal and would be there soon. so we waited longer. After the next hour we called again and this time a young man answered. He said that the boss had been quite busy and was leaving the office very soon to meet us at the junk yard. Finally after the last hour, we threw the towel in and left the junk yard after being told someone was coming who never did. We called the office again to let them know that if someone ever cared to show up we would no longer be there. So they rescheduled for 3 weeks later (Ugh!) When the time finally came the owner once again promised that he would be the one to meet us. This time once again they were an hour late. We called the office about 30 mins in to the wait and were told that someone had JUST LEFT the office and should be arriving soon. (note: we are 45 mins away) So we continued to wait because we needed the bus on a trailer and these were supposed to be the knights in shining amour. When they finally showed up it wasn't the owner at all. It was a 19 year old kid and his girlfriend with a large trailer and no clue what they were getting into. He assured us that he would get the bus to the shop safely but had never transported something so large and weird.

The total time quoted to us was 3 weeks once they received the bus to the shop.

We FINALLY arrive at the 3 weeks point. We haven't heard ANYTHING from the shop. While we were a little worried and ready to get the bus back we were patient and understood that sometimes shops get backed up and these special projects can take longer.
4 WEEKS go by (1 week after the promised date) Jay calls the owner to find out what is taking so long. The Shop informed us that they signed a deal the Tiny House Nation on HGTV for 100 trailers and our project had been bumped. (which would have been fine if we were given notice...which we weren't) We now only have 3 months to finish our build and we are starting to get very nervous that it wont be finished before we have to move out of our loft.

3 more weeks pass and Jay calls again. The owner explained it would be ready at the end of the week- they hadn't started on it just yet but it should come in under our $2k budget and everything is going to be fine! (sigh of relief) and we should expect to pick up the bus on Friday with its new axel and we were pumped! Well, Friday comes around and we never had a call on what time to pick it up so shortly after 11:30 we decided to make the 45 min track down to Thorton, Colorado where the shop is located.

We arrived to find the welders just finishing up the wiring on the brakes. There surprisingly was no second axel and the shop owner was floored that we asked why. He explained that he wasn't able to do any of the things he had promised and since this was such a unique RUSH order (note: they had access to the bus for over 7 weeks) they had done the best they could. Upon handing us the bill for the bus updates we became stunned. The bill was $1.5k over the estimated total. The shop owner explained that since it was custom and they had to learn how to execute it on the fly they had put in extra man hours. Unfortunately when we explained to him that they had been out of contact for 7 weeks and we had tried to reach them multiple times with no response.

After quiet a few more exchanged words we gave in. We paid the now $3,500 bill and took our little Wayne home. It sucks that we weren't able to change the business owners mind about our experience with their company on lowering their price but now we know that you should not shop at Trailer Made Custom Trailers.

Meanwhile Onward and upward ahead.
We weren't going to let this stand in our way!