On the Road with Adie

Hakwood ceiling

Front ceiling. Still in need of some finishing touches.

Maybe because Adie is a sleeper bus, maybe because I once visited the Sistine Chapel—beats me—but I love a nice ceiling. I’ve seen the muraled types and the bare metal, traditional headliners (like what I have in the pop top) as well as bamboo. But for Adie, I chose a tongue-in-groove board painted white. Simple, elegant, and surprisingly easy to install.

Body work

Work in progress at Spring Valley Body Shop.

Everyone has an opinion about body work—mostly the guys who do body work. Like everything else I do, I researched the shit out of this one.

It is probably worth noting what I was looking for in terms of bodywork because everyone has different expectations. What I want out of my vehicle can be markedly different than what the next guy wants. I was looking to stop the rust and make the van road-ready. That’s all. Most everyone who saw Adie would say, “That’s not so bad” initially. She had some rusty spots at the wheel wells and at the bottom of the slider door, around the engine hatch and of course under the bay windshield. But upon closer inspection things grew more grim. Window leaks and some of the surface rust pulled away to reveal through and through holes. A gaping rusted wound underneath.

Frittata

Once upon a time I was a short order cook at a breakfast place where I slung hash and flipped eggs and flapjacks, and gooped out blueberry compote onto waffles and hollandaise onto crepes. To say that I am well-versed in egg cooking is an understatement. In the four years of cooking I probably cooked more over easy eggs than any normal person in their lifetime.

The one egg dish we didn’t do right: frittatas. That thing that is like a crustless quiche or a thick open-face omelet. When done correctly, it is a decadent breakfast perfectly paired with mimosas or a savory dinner best served with a coffee hard cider (I recommend Bryant’s Hard Cider from Virginia).

Sound system

As you can imagine, no road trip is any good without the appropriate soundtrack (and don’t come at me with “Life is Highway”). In order to have this sweet sweet sound, you must have the right sound system. Locally that means going to a place called Stereo-N-Dash.

Serpent Mound

Funny how things seem so much bigger when you’re a child. I must have been about eight years old last time I saw Serpent Mound—Ohio’s largest earthwork and one of the country’s most well-preserved earthworks. I remember it as this massive, meandering mystery of a thing with all sorts of astronomical meaning. I remember there was a colossal viewing tower where you could see the entirety of the snake unfurl across the land.

Well, it was not as big as my memory.

Sparkling Beet Cocktail

Beets are good for you and are surprisingly tasty. Sure, many of you have probably eaten canned and/or pickled beets, so you have some sort of grudge against my favorite root vegetable. A fresh beet is nothing like what happens when it is canned. A fresh beet is earthy and crisp, summery and slightly sweet.

Seat spinner

One key feature I wanted to have in the bus was a rotating passenger seat. When using the bus as a living space, seating is at a premium. Sure the bench in the back can cozily seat two, but what if you wanted to look at the other person’s face? Turn that seat around. Plus, it makes the inside feel bigger.

Seats and door panels

Originally I had two dark blue seats out of a Camaro. The material was velour. The thing about velour is that it is terrible. It has that velcro-like quality with fabrics and body hair, so you can’t really shift around in your seat. During the summer, heat simply soaks into velour, especially if it is dark in color. Which means your sweat too will pour into this sponge, making it a petri dish of filthy heat.

Taco meat

Taco meat is camping magic. You can put it on chips, mix it into eggs, wrap it up, stir it into queso. It’s a versatile food and making the perfect taco meat is an art. If you’ve ever been subjected to the grisly unseasoned madness of someone who thinks all you need is chili powder and black pepper, you know how foundational wetness is to making that meat palettable. My recipe hinges on two things: a robust blend of spices and moisture.

Headlights

See how dark that left headlight is? That means the reflective backing has come off and it needs to be replaced.

Okay, here’s a gimmie project that will take no time at all and will keep you safe out on the road. If your old headlights are weak—replace them! In Ohio, humans are probably outnumbered by deer. For real: the deer here are probably only controlled by vehicular deer-slaughter. It’s a way of life, a rite of passage. While good headlights aren’t the silver bullet for deer slaying, they may prevent you from, well, deer-slaying.