BusBuilding

Get the best shell that you can afford. Get the plumbing installed. A toilet and a shower (you can always do the dishes in the shower). Throw in your cot, some folding lawn chairs and tables, and an ice chest. Now you have everything that you need to hit the road and you can work on everything else as time allows.

– Tim Jones (Torquester) April 24, 2004

Never, Never, Never give up.

Ten most needed circuits for the DIYer…
Pretty good list of some starter circuits for many projects…“a list of the top ten most needed circuits that are a must know for anyone interested in DIY projects. These are the basics that can all be interchanged and used in conjunction with each other to make many of the projects that we all love so much.” Link. [MAKE Magazine]

If they build it, I will come!

The Corridor of Discovery is merely a good idea, not a trail. It’s a 94-mile, unused rail line between Great Falls and Helena on the east slope of the Continental Divide in central Montana. The rails haven’t had a train on them in about five years, and many Montanans now want to turn it into a tourism dollar magnet, a paved, non-motorized recreation trail, similar to the much-ballyhooed Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes in northern Idaho.

They say wealth follows beauty, which is what happened in Idaho, but the Montana route has plenty of potential wealth, too. From north to south, it meanders along a Mecca of fly casters — the Missouri River — for half its length, then along Little Prickly Pear Creek and through red-stoned Wolf Creek Canyon before dropping into the Helena Valley along Silver Creek to Helena. Lewis and Clark followed much of this route on their way West; hence the name.

[New West Travel & Outdoors]

The fine folks at MoCo Loco say it much better than I can…

Do-It-Yourself primer from the editors of ReadyMade, the DIY magazine. Not unlike Todd Oldham’s Handmade Modern, ReadyMade has lots of projects with a modern sensibility, but with two noteworthy differences; 1) focus on re-use, taking the unused detritus of life and making it attractive and practical and 2) the Readymade graphic design style. A good example of re-use (and art) is the CD Wall Mural project, where one takes jewel cases and reconstructs an image that will make all who view it do the work of finishing the piece themselves. And kudos to the book designers who have pushed the ReadyMade design esthetic with this book. The thoughtful design includes an embossed plain cardboard cover with measuring tape binding. The book has six chapters/materials, paper, plastic, wood, metal, glass and fabric, all illustrated, with all-new projects not seen in the mag. Of most value to me, for lack of time to actually make anything, is the implicit theme of consume less, live better. Consume the book at Amazon - hardcover, 208 pages, $16.50.

+ ReadyMade at Amazon

Regarding the obscured view of nature by covering up the rear of a bus conversion…

The “everything I ever owned aboard folk” usually have a locker for out of season clothes where the rear window was, exchanging this delight for old skivvies.

– FAST FRED

Most coaches built in the last 25 years or so never had a view out of the back anyway, but it’s funny nonetheless.