On the Road with Adie

Scat shifter

My mechanic, Norm, was pretty upset about this one. I bought Adie with the original shifter in it. (Though, hilariously enough, not the knob. The knob itself had the wrong shift pattern on it, which I called a theft deterrent.) Putting it lightly, the shifting was sloppy. Sometimes, in my less careful moments I would brush reverse when I went from first to second. And third gear practically took me all the way to the glovebox. Fourth gear I would sometimes knock Miracle’s knee.

So when I took Adie to the shop prior to a shakedown trip, I asked Norm to take care of anything hinky—things that weren’t broken, not wrong, but could become an issue.

Podcast: Norm

When I bought my VW Bus I was told I was a lucky man because I lived in Dayton, where a very talented VW mechanic lived. His name is Norm Vocke and he owns Oak Grove Import Auto Service.

The end of cicada season

I am writing this blog post ahead of schedule. Yes, I know it shatters the illusion that every three days I sit my ass down and peck out some post just for you, dear reader. I am writing this post at the height of cicada season in mid-June. Outside my office window I can hear the little buggers whirring and clicking and doing their every-seventeen-year-dance. I love it—how the air feels like it’s vibrating and the whole world is crawling with primal energy.

Ace is the place

Our beloved Sun Bug in front of our beloved Ace.

I claim the miles I put on my Prius for bus repairs and trips. Most of those miles accumulated from a fairly narrow source of day trips that are mainly lumber runs and hardware scavenging.

When the time comes to match a bolt or fit a nut (and that time comes thrice per week, folks), you’ll want to visit an Ace Handyman store. But, Ryan, my detractors will cry, why buy hardware per piece when you can buy at bulk rate from Rural King?

Stovetop (or grill) pizza

A staple in our diet at home is pizza. Ever since Miracle and I got together there has been pizza—from the Eucharist-thin Dayton-style pizzas to the deep dishes, to ones I once made on English muffins. For the last seven months we have lived around the corner from two pizza places—one with the aforementioned Dayton-style and the other from the floppy saucy slice New York-style school (which we prefer). So the idea of setting out for an entire year without the ability to make our own pizza might have been one of the more daunting aspects of our plan. With only a two-burner cooktop, I needed to know: can I make a pizza on a gas stove?

The answer is yes.

Podcast: Dan & Kathy

On the first decent spring day of 2021, Miracle and I donned our masks and drove out to Yellow Springs, the nearby hippie village at the north end of the county where we live—Greene County. Now, Greene County is a bit of misnomer—by and large the county is deep red with nearly every elected seat filled by someone identifying as conservative. Except Yellow Springs. Everything about Yellow Springs is liberally charming—from muraled breakfast places and its art house movie theatre, to the banners at the entrance of town that say, “Love is love,” or, “Black lives matter.” They moved here decades ago, in a cross country venture that began with… well, a yellow VW Bus they called “the cool bus.” Also, they made their own teepees.

Door seals

First off, get the German-made seals. Bus Depot sells both the generic and the German and they go through pains to tell you why it’s a good idea to spring for the better ones, but you may still be tempted to save a few bucks. If this is you, then you either shouldn’t own a Bus or you haven’t learned the hard lessons yet. Water inside your vehicle is a killer. Buy the good door seals.

Pop top tent for Riviera

I know there’s the eternal debate over the superior camper bus—Westfalia or Riviera (and the answer is Riviera). But when it comes to the tent tops, the distinct advantage of Westies is that they have abundant manufacturers. Finding a decent tent for a Rivi is hard. Sure, there are a couple, but the best reviewed and reasonably priced came from Bus Depot. Before you order, you need to know the length of your old tent. To get the length, remove the old tent and measure it flat on the ground. Don’t take chances. Besides, you’re not going to reuse your old tent, right? (At least I wasn’t going to reuse mine that was cracked with age, mildewed, and with busted-out screens.)

Swizzle Cider Summer Sipper

When in Cincinnati one must visit Rhinegeist. If you’re not familiar with the Nasty Nati, you may not know that at one point in time, Over the Rhine (OTR to us locals), was considered a bad part of town. It has since been renovated, updated, gentrified, rehabbed, what have you. At any rate, it is a very cool place to visit (a killer farmer’s market, great breakfast places, wicked cool boutique hotels, a thriving arts scene, good public transit. You get the picture.) In the heart of OTR is a craft brewer, Rhinegeist. They own an old factory building with a great hall containing not one, but two (count them—two!) bars. Plus, there is a rooftop bar that is well worth visiting if for no other reason than taking in the splendid vistas of the Queen City.

Podcast: Jen

Every owner of a bus knows what it is like to break down on the side of the road. That moment of panic. The frustration. How their partner immediately gets stressed…

Well, we met a woman, Jen Hunter who uses her moments of stasis to keep moving forward. Jen is an artist and we met up at her studio, Vagabond, at Front Street Galleries in Dayton Ohio, in the old warehouse district. Across the street is an active warehouse where trucks come and go. Down the hall, some musicians were jamming. It is definitely not the ideal recording location, but it is the right place to conduct this interview.