Monthly Archives: August 2019

Laundry day

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So today is the day my ‘hamper’ is full, mind you it does not take much to fill it. A pair of pants, a top, some socks and underwear and maybe a tea towel and its time to do laundry. I pulled out my R2D2 unit and got my utility water ready.

In my bus I have a large bpa free water container with a spout that I use for bathing and for washing whatever needs washing. When I do laundry i use 3/4 of this large container so need to refill it before I hit the road again.

Fill up the unit to approximately half full (there is a line inside the tub to guide this measurement), add soap to the top in the 5ml divot in the white steel ball lid, cover up and start pedalling.

I love this thing. What I do is step on the pedal a few times to make sure all the clothes are wet then let it soak a bit, pedal a bit, soak a bit, etc. Which I feel gives the clothes time to de-stink and get clean. Overall I pedal for about 20 minutes total without the wait times.

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I usually brace the other side with my other foot to keep the machine steady. You can pedal this unit pretty fast especially when you’re spinning the clothes dry after a rinse cycle and it needs to be stabilized, which I do with a hug type hold. I also don’t put my full weight on it as it is not designed to hold up a person. So I’m careful to be aware of not stressing out the housing of the R2 unit.

Wash cycle, one normal water level rinse cycle and one small quick rinse to remove any excess soap and its time to hang them on the clothes line in the bus! While I drive, these clothes dry in a couple of hours and I’m able to take them off the line.

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The bus got a full cleaning out as well, taking everything out, sweeping and reorganizing for the next leg of my trip. And… my bedding all got washed! It’s all fresh, and I’m all fresh, Seamus and I are almost ready to take off towards Saulte Saint Marie, Ontario, then on to Tobermory and down beside the lake to London Ontario.

 

 

The most useful ‘on the road’ item in seamus

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Several years ago I pre-bought a foot pedalled laundry tub on a hope and a prayer that it was not a scam. And thank goodness, it turned out to be one of the coolest things I have purchased (other than Seamus, because Seamus is the coolest thing I have ever purchased (my ipad is a close second to that) and gone into debt over (house exempt as I have to live somewhere)). And if all those brackets turned out to make sense, we are all doing well!

I know you’re wondering how I manage the call of nature while on the road for extended periods of time, and if you weren’t wondering you should have been, and if you were wondering but didn’t want to admit you were wondering, don’t be so worried about what’s proper because we all need to do these things or we would likely explode. Before your mind wanders too far ahead and thinking I’ve somehow turned my foot pedalled laundry tub into a toilet, well, I haven’t but it does play a small role. As a matter of fact, so does the famous Pampered Chef microwave veggie steamer pot. This steamer has become my chamber pot (you’ll be comforted to know I no longer use it for cooking veggies, it’s been permanently re-purposed).

This is the laundry machine: I call it R2D2

Inside the machine there is a stainless steel ball with a little lid at the top to add in clothes and when I was laying in my VW bed I realized that the hole in the steel ball is the same size as my veggie steamer chamber pot!

The only issue was how to keep the steel ball from rotating or shifting while I ‘hovered’ over it to use it as a support for my chamber pot, so towels were stuffed along the sides to keep the ball still.

Voila! Now it’s a little chamber pot holder for hovering over when my body needs to release some excess water.

Additionally to this purpose, the laundry tub serves also as a laundry hamper for my dirty items waiting to be cleaned. (Post on doing laundry coming in a few days as my ‘hamper’ is getting full!). Below you can see dirty (and cant smell thankfully) items of clothing.

All in all, it has three main purposes now and life would be much more difficult without this Yirego miracle. And as an added bonus, if we have a zombie apocalypse and a power outage, I can have april fresh clothes while I’m running from those brainless creatures.

As for my morning ‘constitution’ I drive to the nearest restaurant and order something small on the menu as a form of payment for using their washroom.

Mystery solved. Washing my hair is a bigger pain in the hole but the morning ritual of sponge bathing is a cinch and takes only about 10 minutes in total before I’m fresh as a daisy and ready for another day.

Seamus Does Wisconsin

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August 24th me and Seamus ventured out towards Wisconsin via Chicago. Destination: Eau Claire. My apprehensions about Seamus blowing up from overheating were very real and I imagined I would be stranded on the side of the road in some po-dunk part of the US with a seized engine and nothing but my knitting to keep me company.

With new tires, full oil and a newly re-attached voltage regulator I was packed up and gone by 6am, headed for the Sarnia border. Then ten minutes in I realized I had NO cash on hand either in Canadian or US currency, so I pulled off the highway before leaving Canada to get some cash and as soon as I crossed the border and stopped for gas I took out some American cash.

First observation: Americans are aggressive and discourteous drivers as a whole. I was cut off more times than I can count and nearly side swiped several times, which angered me given the relic vehicle I was driving. I thought driving in Toronto was bad but compared to here, Toronto drivers are lovingly patient and safe (which they are not).

Crossing the Blue Water Bridge:

The bank I went to in the US is “the fifth third bank”, which had me re-reading the name several times trying to make sense of the name. Then I saw that the logo was “5/3” and it made a bit more sense, but not much. Every time I come to the US I feel like an alien. I don’t seem to know how anything works. I always think Canada and the US are so similar but really we are not. Buying gas here requires me to pre-pay inside, then go out and pump the gas. We don’t do this in Canada, its pump and go in the North!

Driving through Illinois was Illannoying! There is a toll station so frequently that I can barely get the bus up to 60 miles an hour before having to pull off again and pay another $1.50. I could barely wait to get into Wisconsin just so I could make better time not having to pull off and pay a toll every 5 minutes.

The bus needs to cool off about every 3 hours, not because it has broken down by driving longer, but because I feel like it needs a rest. I find I am unwilling to push it too far beyond what I have already, not wanting to tempt fate into giving me a breakdown. On a gas note, higher octane makes the engine run more smoothly and when I turn off the ignition it does not sputter for an additional billion seconds like some dying cow hanging on to life with its hooves.

Just after one of the billions of Illinois toll stations, I pulled over and put my feet up for half an hour while Seamus cooled off, with open engine hatch to speed the cooling off period a bit. I also had to pee so made use of my unique patented system (not really) but it is neat. More to come on that later.

By about 7:30 pm or so I realized I was not going to make it all the way to Eau Claire. I had already been driving for so long. I needed to find a safe place to pull over and sleep.

I find the signs on the side of the highway a bit redundant and obvious. Things like “avoid rear end collisions” and “Stay on road” seem to be stating what anyone with a license should already be doing. Then the sign that said “highway, do not follow” seemed confusing. It was in a construction zone and I think it meant to NOT follow the highway because it was being diverted from its normal pathway. Duly noted.

My all time favourite thing about driving the bus is that now and then someone will give me a salute, thumbs up, head nod, or will straight up yell “I love the bus” in affirmation. Seamus makes people smile. At least once a trip I am asked if he is for sale. Hells bells no he’s not. He’s mine all mine!

So, I looked on my map for a green blob of colour on my route and came up with the Rock Cut State Park in Illinois, just south of Madison Wisconsin. I drove there and asked if they had a place I could park my bus and sleep and for 12$ I got a front row seat to the lake.

It was a beautiful sleep. The next day I woke up and drove to Madison where I met a friend for coffee and a photo of me beside the iron statue of Hans somebody, a well sculpted specimen of man. His beard was well shaped.

Madison is a pretty city, with water in it and nice buildings in the capital square. After coffee was done, I headed off to Eau Claire. And now I am in bed, a real bed, ready to sleep.