New Years

Check out this old VW van, there is no spair tire on the front.
But there is a grill, radiator and electric fan, in a steel ring
with a vinyl tire cover. Investigating further, climbing
under the back end, I see it has some water cooled V6.
For those that don't know, these old vans were stricktly air
cooled, which was both the best, and their downfall at the same
time. Although more power required more cooling, air cooling
is limited, especially in Mexico temperatures. I can see why they
did this here, and it is a very good disguise.

Funny my computer has switched its self to spanish, wile I
am here, without doing anything. As long as it switches
its self back I guess it is kind of cool.

We got some good sun today on the beach all morning
watching the surfers. I am going to try to surf tomorrow.

I love how the bathrooms here don't even give you an option
to dry your hands, or especailly hot water. It is so hot
you don't need eather.

The morning Lattes ended up costing just about as much as
lunch at $2.50. We found a very nice resteraunt we have
been regulars at, with the $3 chicken burger and fries, or
monster barito and salad.

For the afternoon we looked at realestate in Sayulita. It
all seems over priced, even on the outskirts of town, where
it smells like there is no sewer system, it can cost $85k
for just a few thousand square feet of land. This is a real
hot surfing destination though.

Every place we look at, I get excited about the potential of
having a place to lock the dune buggy up and leave it down
here. Sayulita there are so many cars you really appreciate
the quads and golf carts when your walking. With cars parked
on both sides of the street, there really isn't room for
the traffic. Then store owners have taken over the side
walks and so you are forced to walk on the street, and stop
between parked cars to let cars pass.

I acctually don't even like it much here, but Michelle
loves the ocean, so I will put in anoter day here. If I can
surf it might be more fun.

We met a friend from 2 years ago, I think it was the first
day we were here. He was camping in his van 2 years ago,
But he liked it so much he bought a place 2 houses from the
ocean, and he has been here ever since. He isn't having a
new years party, but we shouldn't have much trouble finding
one.

6pm now and we are already half way through our liter of rum,
so we did an emergency run to get another liter. They stop
selling here at 9pm, the way we are going we won't be in any
shape to go at 8:30.

Been hangin out w our brit freinds and an Ausy. The brits
bought their motor home in the states, for their 365 day tour
now they want to sell and go home. Very tempting for us.
Regaurdless they are lots of fun. Think we will be sticking
w them for our last night in Sayulita.

Sounds like Josh might not make it now, work calls. I borrowed
his surf board today, and kicked ass. Got the shit kicked out
o me too. Our friend said today is not a day to learn, waves
are way too steep, but I caught one which was total vicotry.

One Way To Keep The Chicken In Your Yard

A chicken we found on a walk, notice the tether.

Funny my computer has switched its self to spanish, wile I
am here, without doing anything. As long as it switches
its self back I guess it is kind of cool.

We got some good sun today on the beach all morning
watching the surfers. I am going to try to surf tomorrow.

I love how the bathrooms here don't even give you an option
to dry your hands, or especailly hot water. It is so hot
you don't need eather.

The morning Lattes ended up costing just about as much as
lunch at $2.50. We found a very nice resteraunt we have
been regulars at, with the $3 chicken burger and fries, or
monster barito and salad.

For the afternoon we looked at realestate in Sayulita. It
all seems over priced, even on the outskirts of town, where
it smells like there is no sewer system, it can cost $85k
for just a few thousand square feet of land. This is a real
hot surfing destination though.

Every place we look at, I get excited about the potential of
having a place to lock the dune buggy up and leave it down
here. Sayulita there are so many cars you really appreciate
the quads and golf carts when your walking. With cars parked
on both sides of the street, there really isn't room for
the traffic. Then store owners have taken over the side
walks and so you are forced to walk on the street, and stop
between parked cars to let cars pass.

I acctually don't even like it much here, but Michelle
loves the ocean, so I will put in anoter day here. If I can
surf it might be more fun.

We met a friend from 2 years ago, I think it was the first
day we were here. He was camping in his van 2 years ago,
But he liked it so much he bought a place 2 houses from the
ocean, and he has been here ever since. He isn't having a
new years party, but we shouldn't have much trouble finding
one.

Sand Castles in Peurto Vallarta

Pictures are a little behind, but that is some sand sculptures in Peurto Vallarta we saw last week.

This morning we woke up in Sayulita in the camp site. We are in the grass well off the sand, but some campers on the high sand, got waves within a foot of their tents this morning. Big waves and high tide I guess.

We got a whole water melon last night, out of a truck, for $1. This morning we got what we call the soup can muffins for $1. I took some pictures of my banana muffin, because it looks like a soup can, I love it.

Now I will probably go get a Latte at the americanized shop for an unreasonable price, and look at some local realestate w an agent.

Sayulita

Little Gus Gus hiding under the camper cause its so hot.

Michelle wants to spend a couple of days camping on the
beach in Sayulita. Joe was nice enough to drive us out
there this morning. We got the same camp site we had 2
years ago for our honney moon.

The price however is double, at $10 a night, per person,
and another $3 for internet. Our tent is far more
glorious with all the tent poles, and the front "patio".
The beach they want $50 a day to sitin 3 beach chairs
with an umbrella,can you imagine? Pina Coladas are $6
each this year. I won't be drinking much here.

Another Camera Down

The Picture is just Michelle and I walking out into the
ocean. Shortly after we came in a 15 ish year old nearly
drowned. He was swept out to sea, or walked off an edge.
He was popping out of the water screaming every 20-30
seconds. Life gaurds showed up on a quad long after he
was rescued.

The only internet we have is over at Joe's appartment
we can plug the lap tops in to a cable from the inernet
cafe next door. Or pay at the cafe if we don't want to
disturb the father inlaw at his place. So far it looks
like I go on line every 2 days for a few min, check email
update the blog and that is it.

I went over my truck cooling system very carefully, with
primitave tools. The crappy 12v compressor I got on sale
for $10 years ago has been priceless here. The whole
radiator presure test, with minimal tools will be another
blog post for a day in Canada. My discoveries were no
surprise. First of all the radiator temperature fan
switch failed at some point, so I will need to wire a
switch there or something. I found the fan is always on
this far south any way.

The head gasket appears to be not too serious. A head
retorque should fix it. I am having a hard time
getting even a torque wrench, so each bolt might just get a
1/8 turn. The worst case I will need to add water every
100km, which is just over 15 stops to get to Nevada,
where I can get a new rebuilt motor for less than $2000.

The plan is to stop and get a new motor in Nevada,
because it is half the price of Canada, and doesn'
require a core. In Alberta, they wan to charge me $100s
more still on top of that if there is anything wrong w my
core motor I am returning, on top of the $4000 price tag.
So if I am having to add water more than every 400 km I
will likely pay another $2000 to have them install the
motor there too. But I am sure that the water consumption
will only be a huge burden going through the mountains.

We parked the camper rite near some shugar type ants nest.
It didn't take even 2 hours to have a noticable ant
"problem" in the camper. However not 10' away are some
fire ant hills, with that in mind I am happy to welcome
the shugar ants.

At least 1 coconut falls on Joe's property every 48 hours,
that I have noticed. But the fallen coconuts are always
bad. We had to climb the tree and we got down 4 coconuts
a few days ago. I ate them all because Joe is sick of
them and Michelle wasn't interested. 2 of them were
not ripe at all, just coconut milk inside, wile 2 were
nearly ripe with lots of meat and milk.

I had scoped out the neighbors palm tree, because it hangs
over Joe's property and is full of ripe coconuts, easily
100 or more. It has never been harvested, until today. I
get the idea, and the neighbors read my mind and climb the
tree. So I went over and asked them "uno coco por u",
and they gave me 3 coconuts.

It was the Sunday market today. I had fun just walking
the streets with my new favorite beer, "Indio", and
negotiating prices. I did buy matches $2, 3 pairs of
jeans $12, a belt $2, a second pair of flip flops $2, a
12v transformer to run 12v camper accessories $5, and
a long sleave shirt to weld in $2.

It was also the end of my camera today. Ironically it died
exactly as my first good camera died a few years ago, in
Mexico. I had taken it to the beach and been so careful
with it. I went swimming in the warm ocean and hung my
shorts to dry over night. Then today I wore the same
shorts, took my camera wallet and keys. Well just enough
sand was left in the pocket from the ocean, and it got in
the camera, now it doesn't focus zoom or even open without
manual force. I still have the $40 video camera, so I can
take some pics w that. I was Eyeing up a DSLR camera in
Arizona too, that could replace mine.

The set up in Vallarta

Mission Successful, sort of

We got to Peurto Vallarta with the trailer in one piece. There was a few casualties on the way, including the GPS rite at the start. Then towards the end of the trip, the last 100km, we cooked the trailer brakes coming down the mountain. Presumably the brake pads are gone and they are metal on metal, as the brake controller on the lowest setting locks the wheels up now. That was entertaining. Worst of all we blew the head gasket out on the truck sometime in the last 400km, I think it was up a climb in the last 100km, but can't be sure. It has started the random over heatin, and there is 3 x the oil in the engine rite now, along with lack of antifreeze. That is going to be some adventure trying to get this thing fixed here.

Last night we got pulled over by the Policia, wile we were driving on coble stone. The trailer was bouncing around like crazy on the coble stones, and the Policia said we were driving too fast, and he was going to write us a ticket. We paid him off, $140 pecos, about $14 Canadian, I couldn't stop laughing, it was hysterical. I will get pictures of our camp set up today.

Update in Arizona

Were held up just less than 2 hours at the border. They didn't like the for sale sign on the trcuk and
the fact that i had some of my tools in the truck. But otherwise we are harmless. I had a good laugh because my tail
gate is broken, and when they questioned me about my tools, I said "no no my tools are mostly all in the drawers that you
didn't see were removed, behind the tail gate, because the tail gate is broken." They are like "yeh, it wasn't that hard
to open." I thought that was funny cause it took me a lot longer to figure out how to open it, but I assumed it was broken
worse than it really was.

Just stopped 140km into the states to use a rest stop and make Lattes. Well all the milk and egg nog was frozen. I mannaged to squeeze a couple of drinks
out of it, and wow did it make fabulous foam. Maybe it really does help to make the milk really cold before you steam it?

We slept really well last night at the Tim Hortons, and woke up to our favourate comercial coffee. That was brilliant.
Except I am sure we pissed at least one person off as we took up 4 semi prime parking spots. Iwoke up at 8:30 and the
first thing I heard was "look at this penis" from somebody walking by.

That was the first night in the states, Then...

We stopped in Beaver Utah for gas, and had a good laugh there. First of all the sign, "Beaver, Mountains Of Fun". Then a woman
in a crazy 80's track suit, walking little white dogs with big red bows. Even Arbies was comical there.

We stayed in a Wallmart Parking lot in Grand Falls. The first time I ever pulled into a Wallmart parking lot and it was
almost empty, but it was 2am. And guess what, Wallmart was open, at 2am. We pulled in the back with 2 other massive campers
and a tent trailer. I got a picture of the tent trailer behind us at 10am when we got up. They look like they were camped out
there for a wile.

It is Friday now, we are about half way, so we are staying in Mistique Navada, at a casino/hotel/pool/shower. Basically just
a shower, the rest is a bonus. They gave us $10 to gamble with "free". I am a champ gambler, I won half my money back
over 100 times.

It's Saturday night, and we found internet at the Dennys in a little town half hour from Pheonex. So here is the update. Things have been going slow since the south end of Navada during the day. The heat just doesn't help us pull the old trailer, which I weighed in Canada, and

Camping Outside Tim Hortons

Just about at Lethbridge, and camping outside Tim Hortons. This could be the last post until we find some internet access in the states.

One definite advantage of a motor home "Bus" is it is warm inside when you stop. Our camper seems to be well insulated cause it is about 0 deg here, and the camper is still -30 inside. Good thing the furnace works.

3 Hours To The Border

Just the after math of the fire from the other day, guess they pulled this truck out after it all cooled down. Nothing to do w our trip, just a fun pic.

My Magelin GPS died. That is # 4 on the GPS count. This one didn't recover from being foze in the truck all night. I happened to have the reciept and packaging in the truck and so I took it back. Well it was 31 days, if there was 31 days in Nov, and they only have a 30 day return policy. But because it was the 15th I bot it and the 15th today they took it back, yeh $220. Thats the last battery op thing that gets left outside.

Just in Red Deer eatin dinner now, and headed into the states, hopefully to somewhere that is no less than - 20, so the truck starts in the morn.

Got 9mpg towing the very heavy camper this far, which is good cause I only got 10mpg on the last tank, from the cold starts, idle time and such.

On The Road

Yesterday my truck wouldn't start. I kinda lost hope and it went from getting in the cold truck to putting an arm in the door to try and turn it over. Somewhere along there I forgot that I need to hit the brake to start the thing. After reading the manual I realized rite away, but before that I was sure I needed a new starter.

Last Night I got it running, and unplugged the truck to plug Michelle's car in. The cord was plenty long but all frozen in some sort of zig zag formation and so, unknowingly to me, the cord unplugged itself from the wall. Then the Hyundi didn't want to start this morning. Michelle's car never did start this morning, but I plugged the truck in at the same time, and the truck started before the car would. Michelle was 2 hours late.

I came home, got her car started, hooked up the trailer, loaded the dogs, and now I am on the road. Headed to pick Michelle up for 4pm.

Fire in Andrew

Saw this smoke, rite by my house, and had to check it out this morning. Sure enough, there was a fire in Andrew. I expect it was from some heater gone bad. Looks like the fire was pretty much contained to the garage.

It is still ridiculously cold. I really need to get these vehicles started and put away, going to be fun making that happen today.

Too cold

I just realized, as I was called by Carol, that I give too much. Carol was calling, and I can plainly see on call display, and I knew rite away why. Was it last year she called when it got this cold, to help her start her car? I answered anyway to confirm my suspicion. "I have called everyone I know in town trying to get a jump" she says. Then the confession, "I could call Jerry but he will charge me". I simply told her that nothing here will start, and she needs more than a jump. I will buy a propane blower heater, but I am not going to bring it over to your car up for fun I thought. She has one last Ukranian to call, and then she will be walking to work on Monday if he says no. Funny thing is she lives not even a block from her work, and its Sunday today, she doesn't have to be at work, she just starts her truck every few hours for piece of mind. I have to start admiring and maybe following the people that can do a favor, and then drop a bill in the mail. Like the new owner of Ron's bobcat. I said how long does it take to clear out the gas station w the bobcat, he said "20 min, the thing is awesome". But what was funny was he said the police station is snowed in and they are all humming and hawwing about hiring the snow removal out. So he just did it and dropped a bill in the door. What does he care if they don't pay it? If they do pay it he has a new income stream.

A slightly modified story, for ease of explanation, I wasn't interested in plowing the driveway, but rather just moving all the vehicles around. I am going to see if I can reach the first page for my lawn tractor block heater post on the Possum Electric Blog.

One day left in Alberta

A pick of Gus Gus after he found his place to be and settled down in the truck. We are going to get his Rabies shot in the City.

The dune buggy deal is postponed. I really think it will happen, but today being the day we were going to do it, its -39 deg C out and I am not driving no dune buggy two hours home in minus anything. It can wait for a warm day in February.

Today I do the preparation for leaving. First of all find someones passport, which is in the car hopefully. Then move the work trailer in the garage. Drain the hot tub, and unload all the tools from my truck. Then whatever doesn't happen today will be finished tomorrow, if we both have our passports.

The Glorious Latte

Yes I think the glass mugs make the morning Latte even better!

-33ish, can't wait to leave. We are actually leaving on Tuesday afternoon, not Wednesday, so just 2 more full days here in Andrew.

My truck mileage has dropped down to 10mpg again, which is no surprise with the cold weather. I found a way to adjust the fuel air mixture, and everything else with a programmable ECU called Megasquirt. Check it out here here

Dogs on Leash

How boring is that picture? The dogs are starting to learn to walk together. More Gus Gus is starting to learn to walk on his leash.

Its looking like Larry is getting a huge 4 plex, which he plans to turn into an 8 plex. This is new construction, someone started, got it to lock up but couldn't finish. Larry is getting smarter, he is going to take bids on this one, instead of hiring people by the hour. By the hour everyone is waiting for some one, some thing, or some material, and they don't get much done during the day. I feel good today, I actually had coffee w Larry, and he told me not to tell the other guys about this new building. So yet again with the next project it will be me, with potentially another raise, if my bid goes well, and a whole new crew of carpenters and other tradesmen. I got paid more than the other guys too, but I never hung around waiting for anything.

I put my truck in the ditch today, which was really kinda fun. I just slid on some ice, and the front wheels just went off the road, and I felt committed, like I wasn't going to be able to back out, and I was likely to slide all the way down the bank. So I pinned it, and drove down the bank, and just spun out down the ditch, gaining enough speed to get up the bank where the next drive way was. There was probably only 6 inches of snow in the ditch. I feel I wouldn't have slid in if there was more snow, with some hard packed on the road edge.

Buggy Trade

Was surfing the Swap/Trade section of Kijiji a few days ago, and came across this yellow VW in the picture. He wants to trade his VW for a "side by side" to do more off roading with his kid. A side by side is the newer style ATVs where you can sit side by side. I love the hammerhead, and it is great fun, but I don't get to use it that much. In the last year, I have only put 500km on it. I have had some funny dreams, of putting a VW engine in the Hammerhead too. It really isn't fast enough, part of the reason it doesn't get driven so much out here. I can drive the truck, be there in 30 min, or the buggy and be there in 60 min, be cold, somewhat covered in mud, but I will have saved 2 liters of gas, and had a ball. So that trade is in the works, and has great potential, the VW owner seems interested. When needed I will throw in the flat deck buggy trailer that I made, to sweeten the pot, and I might just end up with a VW again after some 18 years of being VWless. The hammerhead in the pic is just a random pulled off the internet for those that don't recall, but it is exactly the same as mine, being a 2008.

weather is warming up. The decorative frost on the windows actually melted off the south windows yesterday, with the sun. I think today is only supposed to be -20.

Christmas Decorations

All our windows are now decorated nicely, with authentic frost on the lower corners, for Christmas. That is about the extent of our Christmas decorating this year. I was thinking we might do the camper up for the road trip, with Christmas lights. Might still do that if I get out to buy some lights, and the temperature comes up to something tolerable outside.

I have done some work on my blog, including making several other blogs. You have no idea what a challenge it was for me to make the Ranger header there, but I feel a fair bit smarter now I figured it out. Still learning every day about the blogs and HTML.

I had put an exciting countdown timer on this blog, counting down to the Mexico trip, but I couldn't get it to keep the deadline. It would go to zero whenever I reopened the page. If anyone wants a list of my blogs just let me know. Otherwise there will be the odd link to my other blogs and even outside blogs.

One of the latest inspirational and cool finds is the pedal powered buick. All my links from now on will be designed to open in a new page, so that you don't have to lose your place on the blog. Any feedback is appreciated, I have only tested my limited HTML on Google Chrome so far, so outcome could vary.

- 30 blues

Thats right, over night the temperature dropped another 10 deg celcius, and everything went for a crap, except the well pump, it is still working so far. But Michelle's 2008 Hyundi Accent would not start, at all. It took 2 hours with the block heater, a battery warmer, a battery charger, and a magnetic heater on it before it would even sputter. I am totally disappointed in new cars again. For all that effort I could have easily started my 18 year old truck. I tried to put an 8' extension cord on Michelle's car so she could plug it in at school. I wrapped it around her passenger mirror, and all the insulation shattered off the cord like it was ice.
I had put 2 of the gas shocks on our screen door, so that the wind could never rip it out of your hands when you open it. Well both the gas shocks are frozen and now the back door makes horrible screeching sounds as you force it open and closed.

I am missing the old barrel stove this morning.

We are going to look for an apartment in Lamont, hence the picture on yesterdays post "city living, country style". Mostly because Michelle doesn't like driving in the snow, so she could walk to work.

Now it is too cold to go outside, I will start blogging more, you can expect daily posts on here, and I will make a small blog empire to complement this, with the odd link to interesting stuff on the other blogs.

Auto Emails Off

This is the sign for Lamont, where Michelle works.

The results of the blogger email notifications were not as expected, and have, therefore, been canceled.

Today, Sunday, has been a somewhat lazy day. I was reading up on "blogging for a living" most of the day. Its -20 outside, and it has snowed lots in the last 3 days. Can't wait to go to Mexico, just one week left.

Fire wood stock is hardly dented this winter, and I was sure we wouldn't have enough. That is because of the attic insulation I expect.

Lots Of Snow

Super happy w my snow plow I made. I don't even really need the bucket for snow, I manage to drag the snow wherever I want it. You may not notice my prototype heated steering wheel and heated vest keeping me warm rite there, its good stuff.

Not sure if this post will get emailed to everyone again, that is not quite what I expected to happen, maybe it happened because I sent it from my email to Blogger I don't know, but it seems redundant to email everyone AND put it on the blog.

I started messing around w HTML, making a more profitable blog. It is just messing about w a free Blogger template, I will have to pay for a server when I have some HTML experience, but I just made a couple of HTML links. That Blog is possumpower.blogspot.com and I get paid about $35 if you buy the best 13" computer of 2009 through my link on there. To check out that blog
Click Here

Blogging Email

I am making some moves towards internet domination.  Firstly I will do HTML1 when I get back from Mexico.  I have been dialing up stuff for the smith blog, including email and sms posts.  This is the first email post, if it works.  The SMS (text messaging) service isn't working or it is slow.  One thing people might notice, if it works is an automated email when there is a new post, which has potential to be much more frequent.  There is still no urgency to this blog, and you can check it whenever you feel like it.  I can remove anybody from the mailing list just fire me an email with the request, but they should make viewing the blog easier, don't know for sure, but I expect you will be emailed the address every time there is a post.

I will start a weekly news letter, with free DIY, Hacks and cool gadgets.  That will work as an email with a list of cool things that caught my eye wile I was online.  The list will be written as links, and one can click on a link of interest.  Through that link they are directed to another blog with pictures and a summary of  the plans I found.  That gets me 1 traffic point, plus the potential customer is then exposed to a bunch of google advertising which I am paid per clicking on.  If my summary isn't enough there is a further link to the original sight in a new window.  That is the end of my relationship with the viewer if there was nothing offered for sale, which would be the case most of the time.  But google will always offer the advertising related to the blog post.  I believe people will stop opening your emails if you continuously try and sell stuff.  Once I get the traffic up to 10,000 per day plus, which won't take long, my web space will be premium advertising ground.  Then I can charge thousands per month to post adds in my space.  So watch out for an email subscription form on my blogs.  They will all be the same, so no need to join more than one, and the option is always given to unsubscribe.

I got tubes for both the front tires on the dune buggy.  I got them on today, that was a challenge in the -18ish that it is outside.  I am not even interested in going outside.  I want to make my prototype heated steering wheel on the buggy too, maybe it will go into the garage tomorrow, and I will have a nice fire in there.  There still isn't enough snow to go out on the sled, something exciting and crazy about showing up on a dune buggy in this weather.  I have to put a volt meter on the old buggy now too, make sure the alternator keeps up with the extra roof lights, heated wheel, and heated vests.

I went to the Salvation Army today, after I took Michelle out for lunch in Lamont.  I bought 7 vests, for the price of one, $5.  They won't all make great heated vests, but I can do different stuff on each of them and take pictures for the plans I am making.  Then we will never have to go out on the buggy or bikes without a heated vest.  With the exception of the lil red Honda, we will only make one 6 volt vest, and it will be vest or headlight, not both.

Pigeon Holocaust

Andreashyk invited us over for dinner last night, cause I volunteered to help her w her pigeon problem. I took the dune buggy over during the day in some -10 ish cold and tested a prototype $1 DIY heated vest. The vest was great, but I realized great discomfort in my frozen hands, even with my thick winter mittens. I realized there is nothing available besides awkward heated gloves, to keep your hand warm on a go kart/dune buggy with a steering wheel. I will have the entire market when I release my heated steering wheel plans, which I thought of at that second with my frozen fingers. That is so exciting, because those plans will not only have the market, but most of the work is already done with the heated vest plans.

When I was at Michelle's during the day I unloaded 15 of her bullets on the 30 ish pigeons, but they all got away unscathed. But later at night Probably because of owls stalking them, the pigeons would not leave the garage at night. I managed to snipe out 18 of them before dinner, after dark. Got a little carried away, intended to just hang a couple o dead carcases to prevent the rest from coming back, but then only 10ish of them left the garage in the dark.

Then going home I got a flat tire. Thank goodness I have been carrying a spare around on the buggy, it would have sucked to walk home in -10 in snow boots. The rim just cracked, for no apparent reason, besides beating the crap out of the whole machine, no specific rim trauma or damage. But that is both front rims cracked and broken on the old Hammerhead now. I am not going to pay $100 for another Chinese aluminum wheel. I can get away with a tube in this one, until the rim actuality breaks all the way in half.

Moved the camper to the front yard in preparation for driving to Mexico, and possible snow in the next week.