Nearly a year later, an update is due

Wow...so much happened since last March!  Even though there were many highs, and lows, looking back everything seems fine.

I had a scare regarding my back and some nerve pain.  After many chiro visits, some rolfing, and physical trainer work, I finally corrected my injury from my fall in Oz.  I've noticed great advancements from building up the core and allowing the body to rebuild and heal after having Blasto.  I left Oz and had Blast in 2015, but it seems to be completely gone at this point which makes me very happy.  That was a touch bug to lose.

So, I ended up putting a Norcold 3 way fridge in Floyd, 4 new tires and new propane lines, preparing for my trip to Tao's last May.  I drove the VW bus with its 1641 dual port all the way to Santa Fe, and barely made it to Taos.  The cylinder head temp guage was hitting 480F, and I was waiting for my engine to blow...well, luckily I had enough guages and would pull over when things were too hot.  Yet, that seemed to be the norm in the higher elevations.  I also noticed a washer broke when adjusting the valves.  The washer kept the rocker in place, so thankfully, I was able to source one from Uncle Pat's friendly mechanic who gave me two for free.

I had so much fun with Nicole and and met a couple of her good friends, Althea and the other one who drove an old shorty school bus.  We traveled around in Bessie, her 2003 Vista Cruiser Sprinter...and I was never the same.  I knew my time with Floyd was limited, but I had to give it one last try.  I bought a 1776 with dual Kadrons from Chuck at Pacific Coast Cycles.  He drives a VW bug to work, as well as Doka, and mentioned his motor when I returned from Oz.  Well, he still had it two years later and sold it to me for $2000 turn key minus a distributor.  It's a good running motor, but I'm still fiddling with the jets.  I might need a new fuel pump or electric one.

After going to Oregon in October, I realized it was fun traveling in the bus, but all the vanlife stuff with the sprinter's you could stand in was soon to be my reality.

Prior to that, I was having a good summer and starting to date again.  I met an interesting woman, but it didn't turn out.  We were having excellent times together, but I believe her dreams and mine differred enough to pull us apart....or something happened that was unexplainable and drama took its course.  So, we split off, and it seemed appropriate after enough time went by to heal the wound.  It seemed like a shame, but I didn't feel like she was in a place to open up and work together as a team...it seemedl like she needed a lot of time to get to know one another, and there wasn't the bond being formed to solidify a union, so we were on different clocks and at different points in our lives for what we were both seeking.

Then the flood...Harvey took out my Mother's house.  She was with a guy that made life difficult as well...a bit of a sociopath.  After the flood, she had a stroke and he and I butt heads so much, it ended with him becoming an X.  Long story short, they got back together, then Stacy, my sis, joined into the fued and pulled my Mom back to her house...then another three ring circus began.  Wow...things got crazy for many months, and I just pushed forward on the vehicles that I needed to sell.

We played quarkle over and over again, and she beat me most of the time.

At this time, a blue convertible is ready for market as shown below.

I love this color.  I purchased this car when I arrived back in Cali in the summer of 2015.  I needed some wheels, and this was it.  I ended up fully restoring this little 70 Karmann Ghia back to it's original splendor.  

In the meantime, the green one gets a small dent while filling water at the Carlsbad Alkaline water store.  

It is shown in my work zone about to be repaired.  At this time it has been touched up, tach added, and new hard fuel line front to back installed today.  I have to color sand it once more since I sanded thru in two spots and resprayed today.  I also need to vacuum and clean the carpets.  I'm going to miss both of these, but with the purchase of the Sprinter, I need to set these free to pay off the new purchase.  

Here is a photo oof the dent with slight surface rust being treated.  Luckily the accident didn't change any of the lines.  I paid Cory to do his paintless dent removal on it, which got in in a place where I could finish the surface work.  I created a template of the curvature from the good side and used it to pound out the fender to match the factory contour.  I then, spead a light layer of filler, sanded, blocked, primed and painted.  If you look under the fender there is no sign since everything was worked to the finest detail.  I'm very happy about the fix, but let down on the color match.  It might be good enough, or I might have to get another batch mixed up.

My Mom will move out here as soon as her rehab is done.  We have a few more weeks to go.  I had to ask my tenant to leave, which sucked because he is the best I've ever had, but I needed to make space for my Mom. 

I decided to remove 4 3kw packs from the EV Bug to use in the Sprinter Van Conversion build.

So, I started using other people CAD to create my design and had to switch to include my Mom so I could continue the dream.  

This last week I sped up to San Fran, saw my Aunt and Uncle and Samantha too.  I picked up a bunch of Vanagon Westy stuff to use for my build.  I got two swiveling tables, the sink/stove combo with faucet, pump, propane tank, water tank and cabinet.  I also got two bug doors for the bug resto.  

After a long drive up and around picking up parts, hanging out by the campfire.

 Samantha with her Mom, Betsy.

Uncle Pat and me

There were so many special moments in the last year.  I really enjoyed my times with Jenn, getting to know Darwin better, always having good chats with Dario, knowing my Mom will be okay, and seeing my glass friends in Oregon.  I'm enjoying my time in Oceanside, and spending time restoring these classic autos is a soothing way to spend the day and make a little money when the deal is done.  I'm looking forward to some adventures in the Sprinter when the time is right!

This isn't the best photos, but Casper had less than 6000 miles when I make the purchase.  I had to fly to PDX on MLK day to pick this up before any one else.  It is a double slider 2002 T1n, with dual awning and was an X-Ray vehicle for homeland security.