The Naked Englishman Within the chaos there is a pattern and it is wonderful to behold!

Another ATV ride, this time with some of my friend Johnny’s family. We loaded up at Johnny’s Cabin, (A “cabin” on steroids I may add) and ambled down to Paradise point and jumped into Lake Superior for a “dip”.

Pictures speak a thousand words or something like that so check out this video composition that Alana created using Microsoft Movie Maker, ( By the way Movie maker is super easy to use and comes standard with Windows XP Media Edition)

4 Wheeling from Yooper Gal on Vimeo.

Well Ok. Remember the last “Living on the Road” Blog, well the small scouring pad provided was not adequate and I splurged on some extra scrubbers from Lowes.

 

After two days of scouring the truck bed was scuffed up and prepared for the painting, which went extremely well and there was just enough in the kit for two full coats.

Here the tuck is painted with the Hurculiner.

My neighbors checked it out and said, “Oh that looks professional” which made my day.

On July 4th Weekend I loaded the truck up with a couple of canoes and Some friends of the family and Alana and I went down the AuTrain River. The truck bed passed the test!

By the way, the custom enclosure frame is built and color coded. All I need is the fabric. And a lot of detailed pattern designing. I will only have one chance to make it right.

More on that later. But here is a pic of the framework.

I have color coded the poles ends with Enamel paint so that even Alana can assemble it without me.

Committing to the road in a camper the size of ours will prove to be a big challenge. In order to make it possible at all we need to upgrade our mobile living space.

The camper has a flat bed on the back half that is used to transport the ATV and, one day, a motorcycle for Alana. When we are camped for more than a night or two we can move the the ATV off the flat bed and free up the space for living.

The problem is that this space to be really useful needs a canopy that is easy and quick to set up, that will not flap around, that is highly water and UV resistant and will not cost an arm and a leg (need those).

The other location that can provide us office space is the back of the truck itself.

So to hit the road I will need to

1. Build a custom enclosure over the “garage”

2. Build an “In Truck Office”.

In order to build the Enclosure I need a decent walking foot industrial sewing machine, as the material I will be using is a heavy weight Vinyl material, and 10ozCotton Duck Canvas.

Well, I did a search on craigslist and discovered an old Consew 206 RB1 walking foot machine. Alana and I took a long days drive and back to pick it up.

I have serviced it and it is is ready to go. I just need some needles, thread and a zipper foot which I will order when I have the materials list organized.

I have it in a outside shed in the garden, right by the camper so it it is perfectly positioned to build the canopy being only 20 feet from the camper.

I have the parts for the canopy frame work ordered on on its way, it should be here by Thursday 7/2/.

To build the office space I think I should be able to purchase a used In Truck Camper and rip the guts out and install a custom office space. For the truck to carry a camper I had to remove the plastic liner (If anybody wants it let me know) and install a spray in liner.

I have purchased a do it yourself paint in liner kit from the local hardware store (Menards) Read more about Herculiner here!

First thing I need to do is buff and scratch up the entire inside of the truck.

The kit has a scouring pad, it looks kind of small compared to the size of the truck bed but I will let you all know how it goes.

I have been doing a lot of ATV’ing around Marquette.

Mostly I have been following my guide, Gary around. Lately I have been able to make my own decisions, and have successfully navigated some of the many interlocking trails without getting lost. I have even made it to the dam, where I like to swim.

Here I have managed to not follow Gary into mud hole.

 

 

 

 

 

Now clearly I had to tow him out.

 

 

 

 

 

I pulled him out forwards through the obviously deeper (deeper) water in front of him, and of course he began to sink. I applied all the throttle I dared, and managed to "ski" him out of the hole.

Awesome Fun!

Don’t worry I high centered my ATV a little later on, and Gary pulled me off.

I am officially laid off. I look just like the statistics in the news. The recession has impacted my life.

TO THE BETTER!!

Alana and I want to live and work in the UP, Michigan so when I was laid off work we packed up all our stuff and moved. We put everything in storage and set up the camper in my Father in law’s garden.

It was only supposed to take a couple of weeks at the most to find a place to rent. Marquette has  a lovely University which is good for everyone except those people, like us, trying to find a place to rent. Everything is taken by the University and divided into smaller rooms to rent or rental apartments for students. It is easy money for the locals and a house can expect to make tw0 or three times what the house could rent to a single family for.

Well after sweating it out for a month already, Alana and I decided to hit the road for a year! Instead of adding more expenses to our existing overheads, we decided to use what we have and live in the camper for a year to save money so that we can then buy the home of our dreams in the UP.

To do this we need to add a room. We are going to purchase a camper that will sit in the truck bed, or what is known as a truck camper.

I will convert the camper into a custom “office” for Alana and I do do our thing on the road and make money exclusively from the internet. We make a living truly  “location independent”.

Alana has been building on line retail outlets for the last year or two and I believe she is about to be very successful.

I am going to write my second application, ADDIOS II. A contact management and sales tracking tool for independent product consultants. From Passion Parties to Tupperware.

Alana will market this software online at www.divadata.com

Currently we are camped in the garden of my Father in Law’s garden enjoying a spectacular UP Summer.