🗺️ Maps 🖼️ Photos 📽️ Videos

Making some progress on the truck build 🚛

|

Always takes long then one might expect.

The Yakima Racks were all seized up and needed adjustment, 🛶 which added several hours to the install, requiring disassembly, along with the the swap over, and I had to drill all new holes in aluminum bar, plus figure out how to squeeze the second solar panel on the roof. Good news is though that the solar controller can supposedly handle both panels, rated at 30 amp, though I can’t imagine you’d ever want to push that much amperage through such a little unit. Shelf back in the new truck, batteries are moved over but not wired. First project for this morning.

First thing today is to run hot 🪫 power from the alternator back to the relay. I mounted the relay last night, and hooked up the ground between the accessory batteries but not yet back to the frame. Planning on where each component will be mounted is mostly done, it’s easier to visualize things when they are laid out.

I got to go down to the library 📚 and do some work. And then in afternoon I’ll head back out to Mom and Dad’s with a new drill bit and some properly sized bolts for mounting the second panel – the original ones were too big, and get the panels on. The rest of the wiring I can do from home, most of it will just be in the truck cap, as that’s where I’m mounting the components this time for easy monitoring, maintance and adjustments as needed. Trying do everything right, to avoid having to make adjustments in the future. I was going to run the wires from the upfitter switches back to the cap when I ran the hot, but I’ll run that in separate conduit loom going forward, just because I already have existing conduit loom on the for run back for the hot wire. 🔌

It’s frustrating how much time it’s taking 🫤 but it’s coming together. Slowly but surely, though right now it’s kind of a  mess of wires, as I continue to clean out the old truck, move gear over. Slowly but surely it’s getting done. Heading out now to run some wire.

Don’t you want to talk about camping? 🏕️

|

Few things annoy me more then people who think I want to talk about camping. I really don’t like camping, per se, it’s kind of saying one likes going home. I mean, you got to sleep and make your meal somewhere. Maybe it’s because my life is so boring, but sleeping just doesn’t seem like something worth talking about.

I like to get out to country, to travel and see places that are not work, not Albany, not some place I can just ride to on my bike every day like Five Rivers Environmental Education Center or the Town Park. Some place that isn’t my nasty, run down apartment. I try to get away as much as I can, though weather can make it difficult at times. I like being up in wilderness or in some small town, away from Albany. I guess in that sense it’s camping, as it’s a temporary staying up in woods, prior to owning my own land and homestead.

I get it’s an interim solution, and maybe the word for traveling and staying over night in wilderness is camping, but I so despise that term for all the connotations that surround it. I wish people wouldn’t use that goddamn word, or even bring it up. Someday I’ll own my own land, but for now I’m kind of a gypsy, getting away while I still can, exploring, surviving in these years before I settle down. I actually kind of resent being reminded that I’m homeless in my miserable run down apartment in suburbs, and that this is the best I can do on weekends when I can afford to get away from the city.

What cities do I want to visit?

|

I really don’t have much of a desire to visit any cities. I’m much more comfortable in the wilderness, on the dirt road out in the sticks. While I enjoy urban life – especially the ease of mass transit and cycling to get around, cities aren’t really a place I would want to visit recreationally. Instead, cities are place to get together with others, to meet, collaborate, work and share time together.

Well today is the day I put together the new rig 🚛

|

Start working on cleaning up the old truck, getting it ready to sell hopefully in the next few weeks. In many ways I’m already kind of bored with it – more of the same costly old – but I don’t know what the alternative is.

Boredom is a growing factor in life, 🥱 so much of the same old, day after after. I know there are alternatives, but I am not really sure I like any of them. But maybe I”m just so set in my comfort zone. I wish the truck cap had come a week earlier so I could have wired things up last weekend and put it into service for this long weekend, but it’s a pretty cool day, much too cold for doing much swimming and with the breeze wouldn’t have been good for paddling. 🛶 I’m hoping for next weekend, but with the forecast I am not optimistic.

Facebook is now feeding me a constant feed of posts about mental help services 🤪 schizophrenia and drug treatment clinics, as apparently getting put in Facebook jail for trolling 🧌 an ad on drug treatment for a second time will do that, along with maybe all my silly AI generated images in the style of Underground Comix and R. Crumb. One is promoting, find a way to better enjoy your summer for once. Yet, I’m struggling to find novelty and new experiences in my 43th summer, building the new rig is just a way to dig into more of same old, even if it does have some noticeable improvements over the old set up. 💸 It just seems like so much cash, though the spend should drop dramatically now that I have everything but those nuts 🔩 for the solar panels left to buy this morning and maybe some PB Blaster in case I have issues getting bolts off.

If next weekend turns out to be rain, 🌧️ maybe the following week I’ll take off July 1st and 2nd, head north on June 30th and then I have off July 3-6th. 🇺🇸 Seems like a fitting way to send off the 250th Anniversary of America, maybe travel to a few different state forests to keep things under 3 nights so I don’t have to get a camping permit. Do some swimming, paddling, fishing 🚣‍♂️ once I renew my license. Then probably July 29th head out to Finger Lakes. I am back about thinking more about Michigan but with all the expenses of the new truck, 🚛 and just that long drive, I’m not sure if I am up to it this year. I crave the novelty of seeing a different part of the country, and I could afford it, especially if I slowed my investing a bit, but I don’t want to dip into my cash savings anymore. 💰 Time is going by fast and I don’t know if there will be a future year to do it, but I am not sure if Michigan is all that it is cracked up to be. But first I got to finish my truck build.

It just seems like a lot of money 💵 but it’s not really when you consider 🤔 inflation and how much more money I make and have invested. And I still have very little interest in running out and buying a plastic house in the suburbs and a 25-year old Honda Civic and driving 🚗 it every day to the suburban office building next to old city garbage dump and sewage treatment plant. But there is only 11 summer weekends until Labor Day. 🍂 It’s not to say that September is necessarily cold right away, but it always comes so quickly, and by then the evening are much darker and it is often too cold for much floating in the tube or swimming in the Potholers.

Map: Shindagin Hollow State Forest Ortho
Map: Severence Hill Trail

If the truck cap had come a week earlier 🚛

|

I would have probably made it to camp at this point, been getting things set up and relaxing to a cold beer about now. Watching as the sun sets, getting ready for a big fire, enjoying a three or four day weekend, depending how much time I tacked on to the weekend.

Gathering supplies together for the big wiring project tomorrow. A lot of it is just moving equipment over from the old truck and cleaning it up. And reconnecting and bolting things down. Securing the solar panels are the main challenge – it will be a bit tight getting both on the roof – and I’m a little concerned with how rusted on the bolts may be, not to mention having enough wire in a single run to make the connection back from the alternator back to batteries in bed. And just generalized concerns about unforseen problems. Also want to get more lubricant to soak bolts in, and I need bolts to bolt the second panel to aluminum bar, a step I previously overlooked.

It rained a bit on the ride home but after that it cleared out but storms seemed to threaten all evening, so I stayed home and looked for supplies and continued to plan the big wiring project tomorrow. Hoping to get things mostly functional by next weekend, so I can get away for an extended weekend though the long range forecast is talking rain. I don’t know, things could change before next weekend, but it would be nice to get away, test out everything before I head out camping for the Independence Day Weekend. Happy to see has prices have come down a bit.