Still Here

I know its been some time since i last posted. Im still here in Elkhart, trying to figure out what the future will bring. Lately ive been toying with the idea of fixing up my latest pickup camper thats sitting on my Dodge and hitting the road with my converted popup in tow. i still have my 63 chevy pickup, i put the 454 out of the motor home in it but thats as far as i got with it. there is still a alot of work before that truck is ready to roll. The thought of sell it for $2000 and putting the money into solar panels and odds and ends for the camper and Dodge, has been weighing on me. This whole situation of being back in Elkhart is really wearing on me. Im not happy at all. I did make a promise to come back here but i didnt think that it would be like this. I could go on for days about this stuff but ill keep it off here.
No matter what i deciede to do it will be spring till i can get anything going. Until the snow melts the only thing that i got going is keeping the snow cleared from the drive way with the bronco which means keeping the plow in working order. That has been an almost part time job. Other than that i spend my days surfing the net checking up on the blogs i follow, learning all i can on how solar panels work and watching DIY Network, History Channel, and Discovery Channel.

One hell of a year cont.

I tried to do as much as I could with my grandpa but I feel it wasent enough. He hated the fact that in the end he barely had the stength to stand. He wanted to be outside with me tearing the motorhome apart or swaping motors in the 63. He would tell me a lot that he felt alone down here and that I was the only one that would really talk to him. The hardest thing for me was watching the shell of the man he used to be waste away. Him and I shared a few bottles of bourbin which was the last thing I bought him. The night he pasted he asked me to run up to the store and pick up a bottle, which I did. He sat it down next to his chair while watching a western, with me sitting at the computer right next to him. And that is where he passed away at. Both my grandmother and myself thought he had simply fell asleep in his chair again. It wasent until she went to wake him for bed that we found he was gone. It was very peacefull atleast. For that I am thankfull.

So with our birthday fast aproching the thought of what I will do that day is with me. I usually go to a party that night but always talked to my grandpa eairlier. I'm not much in the mood for a party this year. I just hope 2010 brings a better year. Maybe ill break open his last bottle and pass out early.

One hell of a year

Well as I have the ability to post by mobile and I can't sleep id post.

This year started out with me loosing my father in witch I've already posted. Then last month I lost my grand father. This will be the first time in my life that I won't share my birthday with him. You see we shared our birthdays 12/31.

After moving home, my mother had the idea to get my grandparents to move in with us. This would make it a lot eaiser on myself finacally to split the bills with them, and would give me the company of my grandparents. I've lived with them quite a few times through the years so it was nice to bring them into my home for a change. I won't say it was easy for my grandpa, shortly after the move his loyal dog Patches passed. That was the first time I seen him cry. It was raining that day which didn't make it eaiser to dig his grave out back. I did the best I could, even making a cross with Patches name carved in it.

I'm now mobile

Well I'm now mobile. I've up graded to the awsome Droid. With this new smart phone I can now post straight from my phone. I've also added a new chat app on the left which keeps me logged into facebook myspace and yahoo im all the time. Also added links to a few of the other blogs I follow. Check them out.

Another slide in camper

Well i did it again. just got the motorhome all scraped out and i picked up another pickup camper. this one is a bit smaller than the last one. the new one fits completely in the bed of my dodge, i can even close the tail gate. this will camper will need some work (surprise) but not much. i hope that with the camper on the back of the truck i will be able to haul my trailer that i hauled behind the motorhome at speeds above 40mph. i found that while going from some friends house to the camp ground in NC that the trailer is not very stable behind a truck. it was fine behind the motorhome but that was do to either the taller tow vechile or the weight. i guess ill find out when i go to tow the trailer out of here. pics to come soon.

454 out

finally got the motor out of the motorhome. now the work of cutting up the frame and turning it in for scrap. hard to see but thats a 454 hanging from the hoist. after changing motormounts, removing the power stearing, ac pump, and smog pump, then a paint job, she will be ready to go into the 63.

Project underway

Its taking awhile but the 63 has come from out back and the work has begun. The motor and tranny is out, bye bye 350 hello 454. Ive still got to get the 454 out of the motorhome but am really close. One good work day is all i need to get the motor out, then a few days of cleaning and painting. Some how i just got to get the energy to get the work done.

Trying to move on

Its been a bit since i posted about loosing my dad. well it hasent been easy trying to fill his shoes. i dont know how he did it all these years. i have no idea how to be the man of the house. i really got to hand it to my brother next door (what not to do on a bike post, lol) he has been alot of help. he jumps right in to pick up my slack. i dont know what i would do with out him next door. THANKS ROB.

i didnt just loose my dad. i lost my best friend. we worked together for 4 to 5 years, every day. when work was over we went home and worked on projects around the house. we pretty much spent day and night around each other. i told him everything that was going on in my life. even stuff that people told me not to tell anyone else, i told him. what i told him to my knowledge stayed with him. he never once judged me for any crazy idea i had. even taking a junk camper all the way to Indy to trade for a couple junk dirtbikes. he did it without a complant (other than my truck didnt have cruise control). he did more for me than any other person in my life. since the day that i met him some 15 years or so ago, he has always been there. teaching me (sometimes without me knowing it) what it ment to be a man. now i know i didnt pay enough attention to his lessons. there are some stories that he told me that i will never repeat to anyone. stuff that he didnt tell anyone else, that is the stuff that i cherish the most.

i seem to be just going day to day. not really knowing were im going. it seems as if im working toward a goal that i just dont know what it is. it never seems to end. i just hope one day, one day soon, that i can figure out where im going and not just were ive been.

LOSS OF A FATHER

“Salt of the Earth” is what comes to mind when one thinks of Robert “Bob” Holloway. He was a straight-shooter who never minced words. He loved cars, racing and was known by his CB handle “Handyman”. He was a family man who dearly loved spending time with his grandchildren, no matter how far away they lived.

Born in Jasper, Alabama on August 8, 1941 to Marion Homer and Winnie Lee (Roberts) Williams, Bob was the seventh of eight children. Marion and Winnie worked hard to raise Bob along with his siblings, Lucille, Cloa, JL, Estell, Jeraldine, Mildred, and Linda. Marion worked to support the family, while Winnie stayed home to care for the children and run the household. The early years of Bob’s childhood were good years for raising a family. Even though there was a scarcity of goods, everyone worked together to support the war effort during WWII. When Bob was thirteen, the family moved to Elkhart, Indiana where he attended Samuel Strong Elementary School and later Roosevelt Jr. High School. When Bob wasn’t in school, he could be found with his buddy, Jerry Becker. Bob and Jerry would buy a dollar’s worth of gas and go cruising along main street looking for fun. At this time, Bob also played a mean game of pool and bowled on several leagues.

After high school, Bob joined the United States Army and began serving his country on April 26, 1960. He was trained as a Field Communications Crewman, commonly known as a radio operator. Bob spent a portion of his enlistment time in Korea. He earned his high school equivalency while in the Army and was honorably discharged on April 25, 1963. Even though he was a radio operator, his stories later in life were all about the driving he did for his Commanding Officer.

After his military service, Bob met a pretty young lady named Geraldine Alwine. After a time of dating, the two fell in love and were married on January 20, 1964. Over the years they brought five beautiful children into the world: Lee, Bert, Deb, Bobbie and Rob. Bob supported the family by working in the manufactured housing industry while Geraldine took care of the children. When they could, Bob and Geraldine packed up the kids and headed out to their favorite camping grounds. Here they could relax and spend cherished time together as a family. Thursday nights were a special family time, with pizza and a game of basketball afterward.

Later in life, Bob had a second chance at love when a lady named Sharon caught his eye at one of the local racing car concession stands. They started dating and were married on July 28, 1995 in the courthouse in Goshen, Indiana. On their honeymoon they took a cruise to the Bahamas, went to Disney and nearly froze to death while visiting Daytona Beach! Their good friends from Hoosier Transport, Rick Ikert and his companion, went along. Bob and Sharon spent a lot of time traveling together with Sharon’s three children, Jason, James and Tara, also Bob’s granddaughter, Jackie, whom he raised. They were huge fans of amusement parks and took the kids to Cedar Point, Six Flags, Michigan’s Adventure and Disneyland and other amusement parks..

Bob was not the kind of person to sit still and he never actually retired. He had worked in the housing industry for over forty years and the last thirteen years of his life he worked as an independent driver for Classic Transport. His job was to shuttle finished RV’s from the manufacturer to the shipping lot. Prior to the shuttling, he had hauled the finished units across the United States to different dealerships. He had racked up well over a million miles behind the wheel! Bob also kept busy working at home and maintaining his trucks. His two trucks have half a million miles each and still run today because of Bob’s dedication and hard work - He was known for being a master of “hillbilly” rigging, adding toggle switches to fix any kind of wiring problem in his trucks. Although Bob was quite the skilled craftsman, no project was complete without a bandaid – no matter how simple the project, Bob always ended up with some cut, scrape or puncture, often not even noticing it until someone pointed it out.

Bob had a life-long friend named Roy Arnold Sr., whom he had met through his friend, Harold Arnold. Bob and Roy spent many happy hours together, going to races, playing cards, and camping, where they would pass the “cough syrup” and shoot the bull. The two were inseparable and even their extended families joined in the fun.

In his spare time, Bob passionately watched NASCAR, cheering for his favorite driver, Dale Earnhardt Sr. He loved a good game of Bingo or Euchure and collected eagles and Zippo lighters. Bob also enjoyed working with his hands, fixing anything and everything around the house. Later, when Bob became a grandpa, he was just as passionate about his grandchildren. His grandchildren meant the world to him and he would travel any distance to be with them and make them smile.

Bob Holloway was a one-of-a-kind individual. He was a master when it came to fixing trucks, and he was passionate about racing. He was a man who meant what he said and said what he meant. Most of all he was passionate about his family; taking care of his mother, raising his grandchildren and bringing joy to his family and friends. He will be missed by all who knew him.

Bob Holloway, age 67, died suddenly in Elkhart, Indiana on February 1st, 2009. Bob’s family includes his wife: Sharon Holloway; children: Leona (Brian) VanBuskirk of Cromwell, Indiana. Roberta Holloway, Deborah Holloway, Bobbie Jo (Ralph) Holloway, Robert (Sherry) Wilson Holloway Jr., Jacklyne (Sean) Holloway-Harris, all of Elkhart, Jason White of North Carolina, James White of Elkhart, Tara (Steve) Dunklee of Michigan; sisters: Linda Miley, Jeraline (Eric) Merril, Cloa Holaway, Estell Gay, and Lucille Sims; brother: J.L. Williams; as well as nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren

Future home

well i figured i post a few pics of an idea i have on my future home. my motorhome is on its last life and i will soon be forced to figure out new living arrangements. now that im mobile i dont really want to go back to living in an appartment or house for the time being. i would prefer to keep my mobile house idea. ive been looking at building a house truck or turning a bus into a new home. ive been to alot of web sites reading up on other people that have done just that. and what i have found is there is alot of info out there on house trucks and skoolies. so i started to toy with the idea of a bus conversion. after all turning a bus into a motorhome isent anything that i havent done before. and ive already got a fridge, stove, microwave, water heater, and what not. so all i have to do is find a bus and start building it.

after doing the nascar car redneck bus with my mom and step dad i have learned a few things that i would do different. to start. i want more room head room. that means raising the roof. this has been done before and theres alot of info out there to help with getting the roof raised. next is i want an open floor plan. i want it to be as open as i can get it, so since i want to raise the roof why not make a loft for sleeping. that would free up alot of room in the main floor for a more open area. and if i put the bathroom in the back (like i wanted to on the nascar bus) there wont be any walls between the front of the bus and the bathroom. after living in the rv for awhile now i also know i want a bigger bathroom than is normally found in a rv. so if i take 5" of the back of the bus and make it the bathroom it will have plenty of room to move around as well as make room to keep my cloths. thats were most people change anyways, and with the limited head room in the loft its the most logical choice.

i also want to add a wood stove for heating. this will cut down on the cost of keeping the bus warm in the colder months and will be nice to sit down on a cold night with a book by the fire. my plan is to make it look like a cabin on the inside. with real wood cabinets and the like. in the drawing you can see that part of the bathroom will be raised also. this will allow me to have a normal shower height in the bus. if i didnt do this then only a very short person would enjoy using the shower. this is just a rough idea of what i plan to do. once i get a bus i can customize it as i go.

A few more pics from while i was home for the holidays

My nephew Chase with his nice shiner.
Chase and Kiersten playing in the snow

SNOW

Well it snowed today. i was really had hoped id left the snow behind when i moved down here. well i was wrong. to make matters worse is i wasent totally prepared for it. my fresh water holding tank which is mounted under one of the back bunks, keeping it from freezing, was empty. so when the pipes out side froze i lost my fresh water supply. i do have a few gallons of water that i can use for now till the pipes thaw. there is also the bath house that i can get water from but the water quality around here isent what im used to. its clean and all but i prefer to filter my water before i drink it. i dont really know if its a water issue or the fact i was using a regular hose when i first got here but the water was nasty. so i got a new hose. a white one rated for drinking water and an inline water filter so once the pipes thaw i shouldnt have a problem with drinking the water out of the tap. i dont really drink water. there is enough water in beer and soda for me, but when i tried to use the tap water to make coffee i ended up dumping the whole pot out. i only just got the new hose a filter so i havent tested it yet. it did taste ok when i first hooked the new filter up straight out of the hose so i dont think ill have a problem with it.

Ice Skating

Took the kids ice skating for the first time. its been years since ive been on the ice and actually enjoyed it more than i had thought. who would of guessed that i would have to move 1000 miles south to enjoy ice skating. the kids too to it like ducks in water. it didnt take long to remember that you dont skate too close to the little ones. they will take you down every time. but i only fell once the whole night so that aint bad.

GETTIN SETTLED

Well we have been here for a few weeks now and where starting to get settled in. Here is Jason and the kids sitting down to have dinner. it gets a little crowded at times but we make do with what we got.
We have one of the few spots in the park with shade trees. the rest of the park is mostly open. I really like our little spot that weve got. Were nice a tucked away from most of the other rv's . theres not much for grass down here in the "hole" so we dont bother with cleaning up the leaves, its just dirt under them anyway, so it cuts down on the dirt tracked into the rv.
Right now we have plenty of room to ourselves. There room as you can see to park the trailer behind the rv and still drop the ramp to load and unload the bike, and in front of the rv we park the truck. so the sites are pretty long. The managers of the park so far seem to be pretty decent people. It took a few weeks to get the cable company out here to hook up our internet though. but were up and running with high speed broadband, so now i can spend my days surfing the net and beign lazy.

Here is the view out the front door. The park cut this tree down some time ago but have yet to remove it. So we have been cutting some of the smaller stuff up for camp fires. The kids love to go climb all over it like little monkeys. Course there isent much else to do around here till summer when the pool opens.

Its been pretty nice down here for the most part. in the 70's most days still. Even got the bike out for few rides around town. Ive already found out that between 4-6pm is not a good time to be in a hurry when going through Jacksonville, Well i dont think there really is a good time to go through Jacksonville anyways.

Now Living in the South

Well the dream of leaving home and getting away from it all as been realized. Ive made the move from Elkhart to Jacksonville, NC. living in the RV with my brother. its going pretty smooth for me but I've been living in the RV for several months so it was just a change in view out the window for me. it was really easy to make the move. starting out parked in my parents yard for a few months until now. by brother also live in a RV for a few months with his wife and 4 kids plus 2 cats. so it wasn't anything new for him either. just more room now that the kids are only here on the weekends.

the trip down went pretty smooth even hauling my converted pop up to cargo trailer. i wasn't sure what kind of mileage the RV would get, with it having a 454 in it and all. but the price of fuel dropped from $4 a gallon to around $2 just in the nick of time. the first take of fuel i averaged 4.7 mpg but there was probably a 1/4 tank used up just in the yard before we left. we had to move the RV around the yard a few times and extension cords wouldn't reach so we had to use the generator. the second take got 8mpg and that was alot of mountains. so i figured that was pretty good. (well it could of been worse) i bet it would get pretty good mileage without the trailer, that is for a big motor home anyways.

right now were in a buddy of my brothers driveway for the next week till we can get into the RV park we found. we were looking at one park that had access to the waterway but found a better and cheaper park down the road a ways. the site is pretty nice too. lots of tree coverage and from the looks of it the neighbors are right up my alley. rednecks through and through. funny thing is that our neighbor at the park converted a pop up to a cargo trailer too. were going to copy his idea of using vinyl siding on the outside.

an added bonus of the new park we found is its within walking distance to the boat launch. my brother has a boat but needs a motor with controls so that will be on the list of things to start bartering for. i might end up looking for a replacement for the motorhome aswell. its in worse shape than i had orginal thought. the side wall is comming away from the floor in the front by the door. its out a good 1 1/2" so that will have to be taken care of soon. even down here its going to cost a bit to heat and cool this old thing even without the gaps to let air in. not to mention creatures that we might not want in.

another deal

i couldnt leave things alone. i ended up trading the ford for this motorhome. its a 27ft. 1985 with a 454 with 76,000 miles.
i had to clean it top to bottom. it had been sitting for a few years and had cob webs all over.
the side was coming loose so with typical fasion i tore into it to find a heck of a mess. all the wood was rotten and had to be replace. ants had made several nests in the walls.
even around the onboard generator was rotted. it took a few weeks to get the outside put back together. now im working on the back bedroom. ive been staying in it and sleeping on the couch. everything works in it. fridge, stove, microwave, ac, heat, everything. the generator works great, runs quite, and will power the whole coach.

some people have all the luck.

some more dealin i did. i traded the silver fzr for this truck. its an 82 f150 4x4. 3" lift with 33" tires.
pretty solid truck over all. just a little rust starting to come through.

63 chevy short bed fleetside

some more wheelin and dealin, traded my big 88 chevy blazer for this 63 chevy pickup.
it does run, but needs some work. nothing i cant handle. it should keep me busy for awhile.

yz490 yz400

white and red is a 88 yz490 yellow is a 79 yz400
i got these by trading the slide in camper for them. i had to take it to indy and pick these up. not too bad of a deal i think. ive had these for a few months. the 400 i traded off for a carb and intake and the 490 runs pretty good. lots of power.

Damn thats Hot

This is what my dodge looked like when it was new. its been down a log hard road in its life but she is still a jewel in my eyes. with 506,000 miles and counting, and after a few wrecks over the years, and me rolling it she's no spring chicken but she still runs like a champ.