First music festival of the year!

Well to turn the mood around on losing little Sheldon, this weekend is my first music festival of the summer, the Sterling Folkfest! By far one of my favorite festivals of the season. A few of my friends and myself will be heading up there this evening for a few days of peace. I will be trying to stay on top of what happens but sometimes I "lose track" of what's happening ha. So I will post more about the festival along with pictures when I return on Monday, I hope you all have a fantastic memorial day weekend!

Onto a new chapter.

Well as some of you may know for the past few months my home has seemed more like a zoo with the addition of my mothers kangaroo, Sheldon. Well yesterday the gentleman who owns Sheldon found someone to purchase him. So yesterday evening my mom had to hand Sheldon off to another. I didn't really think I was that attached to him but I have to admit I cried a little when I heard the news, he had become a part of our family and we had all forgotten the fact that things don't last forever. So now my home seems quit and empty yet again. I truly hope Sheldon never forgets his time in our home, because I know I won't ever forget him. I wish my sister had been able to meet him, then again I wish my sister was able to experience a lot more then she was able to. So today starts a new chapter in the Hawkins household, a chapter that won't have a friendly kangaroo in it. I'm gonna miss you little guy and I hope you have a very long and happy life wherever you are.

Well I finally remembered to add the pictures!!

Well it wouldn't let me rotate the pictures for some reason so I hope you can still appreciate them!

Here is the fold up table on the driver's side wall.

Here's the table when its folded down, along with the rear jump seat that will house the power inverter along with any other electronic equipment I bring with me.

This is the sink/fridge, so for me it is the kitchen and the bathroom sink haha. The fridge will be more of a cooler simply because thats more or less what it really is, but he sink on the other hand has a drain through the floor and out the bottom of the bus and I will be adding a pipe to the hand pump sink so that I can attach it to a jug of water and pump water out when i need it.

Finally the bed is back in along with the passenger side closet!! This is what my home will look like, besides missing a few things, once I leave in the fall. Im going to live quite simply for a while !!

I really hope you enjoy what I have so far, over the past few days my father and I have been going through the electrical and have found that it is going to take some time to trace back all the wires and make sure everything is functioning but once that is done it shouldnt be much longer until I am driving Chleo as my daily driver!!! Stay tuned because I will be forcing myself to stay on top of notonly the bus but also my blog! Once I get on the move and head out on my travels I will be doing my best to update often because this will be where people can follow my travels! So stay tuned for more updates! Thanks for checking out Chleo's travels:D

Finally some solid updates!

Well its been a little bit longer then I would have liked but I finally have quite a few updates to tell you all about!! First off it looks like Chleo might actually be ready in time for our first festival the last weekend of May!!!! I dont want to get to far ahead of myself though. So to start of I'll fill you all in on whats been going on thus far on Chleo's Travels, my father and I installed the last of the wall panels in the back of the bus, we installed the plywood subfloor along with a sheet of quarter inch luon over top of that. I decided to go with an astro turf carpet for the back camper section simply because of the amount of use it will get, its easy to clean and wont stain. Once we installed the flooring we were able to finally put in most of the original cabinets such as the jump seat, most of the rear bench seat/bed, as well as the sink/fridge cabinet which we had to also add a small bit of piping so that the water would be able to drain from the sink out through the bottom of the bus. We put the flip up table back on the drivers side wall. We added some weather proof speaker box felt to the back of the bench seat chest and will soon be lining the underside of that with cedar (this will be my dresser for the duration of my journey). We only have one last cabinet to install but we need to replace a few part before we can do that. We also started to take a look at the engine which will be the next step, it looks as though it may not take to much to have the engine in tip top shape again, we are ordering everything I need to give the little 1600cc a face lift hopefully in the next few days! Each day I see my dream getting closer and closer to completion, I cant wait until I can drive her away into the sunset! stay tuned for updates!!!

The swan

So I decided to ride my bike around in town because of the wonderful weather so I cruised around for a while and ended up down by the lake, so I am currently sitting on the rocks and Am just watching the water and I turned around for a moment and I turn back and there is this gorgeous white swan floating in the water, all alone just floating in the water. Then I looked to my left and I realized the man in the kayak that I had paid no attention to was my father. Now I've spent a lot of time around this lake and I have never seen a swan, the only person I could think of when I looked at the swan was my sister, I finally feel like I got to say good bye. I finally feel like she knows I always will love her.

Sole Rebels!

I forgot to add the Website for SoleRebel shoes, so here it is!
http://www.solerebelsfootwear.co/

Sorry for the lack of posts!

Ive been kind of slacking on both Chleo and my blog so first off my apologies for that! Well like I said I haven't really worked on Chleo to much as of late but we did pick up the material for the new wall panel and the plywood sub-floor. I also worked on shaping the panel so that it fits again and only have a few more adjustments to do before we can start putting the sub-floor in. So that's pretty much all I can say so far about Chleo. So instead of focusing entirely on Chleo today I think I might just put some thoughts to screen! Well this past weekend my mother acquired a quite odd house guest, a baby kangaroo named Sheldon. He was such a hoppy little guy haha, nicest kangaroo I have ever met, well so far. He is an education animal that belongs to my moms company and we will be helping raise him and training him! Even though I'm not home all that often I will most definitely be stopping by to check in on how that little guy is doing. The weather turned for the better this past week as well so I took absolute advantage of it, my father and I spent a few days biking all over town. Its been way to long since I've been able to get my bicycle out! Well that's pretty much all I've got to say this far, oh I did want to mention a shoe company I found a few days ago. The company is called SoleRebels, they hand make their shoes in Ethiopia, now at first I was a little skepticle, but after looking into them
I found out they are a Fair Trade company, the only Fair Trade Shoe company in fact, so after searching around I found a few pairs I really liked and purchased one, the Riff Classics, but they are a little tighter then I like so I am returning them for another pair. The shoes, besides being a little to snug, were extremely comfortable, they are made with hand spun cottons, and recycled tire treads! So if your looking around for an earth friendly, comfortable pair of sneakers, boots, or sandals SoleRebel is worth a look! Also I will post up some pictures of Sheldon the kangaroo!

Here's the little guy, Sheldon the baby kangaroo. 

Every little while Sheldon would pop his head out of the pouch to just look around the room.

He loves that pouch haha.

We had to lay this rug on the floor so he wouldn't slide all over the hardwood floor, but it was riot to watch haha.

Not as much done as I had hoped for, but still moving forward!

Well I was hoping I would have more to post today about Chleo but we weren't able to do as much a planned on Monday. We were able to put in the rest of the interior insulation and the sliding door interior panel, but we had planned on running the speaker wire but decided to wait until we put the flooring in. So this Thursday me and my pops are hopefully going to put on the final wall panel and put in the plywood floor and possibly some of the cabinets, and furniture. So by Friday I should have some photos and more to tell about Chleo's current condition! Thank you for staying posted on my slow start to this long journey!

Putting in Insulation!!

A shot of the hatch panel and the small drivers side panel we were able to put in today.

The insulation we were able to get in today, next week we will run speaker wire and put hte wood panel back on.

I forgot I had this picture, but here is a few of the things I found while emptying out the bus, notice the rolling papers hahah ( A neccesity in every bus).

Well today we made a bit of headway on Chleo, actually a bit more then I had expected! I started out the day with cutting up some foam insulation for inside the wall panels, after I finished cutting a few pieces of insulation my pops got home and he gave me a hand using a little "Liquid Nails" to seal the insulation to the walls. We were able to put the wood panel on the rear hatch as well as the uninsulated wall panel on the drivers side wall. So it may not sound like a lot done so far but we also realized theres a few things we need to get together before the walls nad flooring will be entirely done, this week I'll be picking up about 20ft of speaker wire for the rear speakers, a few blue plugs for attaching the remaining wall panels, and a sheet of birch plywood to replace the side of the main closet cabinet. I also found a 1972 high top bus and depending on what I hear back from the man selling it I may pick it up and do a roof swap so instead of the canvas pop top it would have a solid fiberglass top which would be much easier to maintain then the canvas, so I'm hoping I can work out a deal and pick up the 1972. So by this time next week I should have a bit more to update you on nd hopefully the inside will begin to look more like a finoshed VW bus!

Introducing Chleo.

Yours truely and Chleo the bus on her first few days home.

The captain of the ship!

The inside before we stripped it all out.

Chleo showing a little skin.

I had realized in my last post I never added a photo of Chleo, I cant have Chleo's Travels unless you see the main character! First off ill give you a little run down of what Chleo brings to the table, She is a 1971 VW Westfalia camper bus, she is white with a few little rough spots, she has the canvas pop top with a slight modification to the top luggage rack, it's been replaced with a nice little "lawn". The lawn is just plywood and astroturf, but its very convenient on sunny days! She came with all the standard Westfalia interior including the Z bed, ice box, sink, table, and multiple cabinets and shelfs. She is the vehicle of my dreams, Im slowely stripping her down and redoing her from the inside out! So far my father and I have taken out all the electronics and all the interior cabinets, When I was pulling it all apart I found so many empty and full rolling paper packs, an uncashed pay check, and so many just odd things that I wasnt at all suprised to find in a 40yr old bus from a Dead Head haha. I found a song book from his old band, an envelope with a little weed and hash in it and the most suprising thing was the meat cleaver i pulled from between the seat and the closet! Of all things to find in a bus a meat cleaver ? hahah. Well anyway after clearing out the interior we grinded down all the rust spots on the metal floor and resprayed it with rust proof white primer, we removed the front bumper, front grate, the windsheild wipers, mirrors, and the old window seals. We repainted the rust spots around the windows and cleared out he silicone the previous owner had used to try and fix the seals. So not a whole lot done so far but monday evening me father and I will be putting in the foam insulation in the walls and possibly putting in the plywood subfloor. Hopefully in the next few weeks we can put the majority of the interior back in! As far as the flooring I am thinking of using Astroturf as the carpeting for convenience, what do you think about this? Should I go with a linoleum or vinyl flooring? Well I'll update my blog again after monday so we can see how far we get. My dream is coming closer to completion everyday!

Where Chleo's Travels Began.

It's been a long time coming for this blog to be born, I have been putting its creation off for quite some time now simply because how it begins is quite a delicate subject for me, but I hope, those of you who read this, will take my story to heart because this is the beginning of a new place in my life.
          The story begins on June 16th, 2011, this was by far the worst day of my life thus far. This was the day my beloved sister passed away. It was also the day my childhood ceased to exist. This day changed my outlook on my life entirely, my sister was an incredibe woman, she lived and breathed to simply see others smile. I plan to spend the rest of my days living the way I know she would have. My sister was 21 on the day she passed, when she was born they told my parents that she would not live much past her infancy, she proved not only the doctors and surgeons wrong but she proved to me that you can never listen to what they say, it is your decision to go on and live. Right after my sister graduated high school she decided to move to South Carolina to live with my aunts and cousins. She barely had any money and no job there, needless to say my parents, as well as myself were very upset with her. This did not stop her, over the next 4 years my sister lived in South Carolina and Mississippi with friends and family with short stops home from time to time. Then she returned home for a few months until she had worked enough to pay back my parents and then one day poof she was gone again back to Mississippi, I never would have told anyone or even let it be shown but I was heart broken when my sister left, I was afraid  I would never see her again. Then one day after she had run short on money she returned home, she returned home on June 9th, 2011. I wont ever forget the last memorys I have of my sister, the last words I said to here were" Spencer I love you with all my heart but you piss me off way to much". The last text I would ever recieve from my sister was one of the most painful things I have ever read, this I will keep to myself. I truely hope my sister knew what she ment to me in her final moments because there are no words or any physical way to express the love I have for my sister. She spent everyday of her life doing the things she wanted to do, she never let anyone get her down for more then a moment. She has been and will always be my hero. If by any chance my sister takes a break from facebook and stumbles upon my blog while she is up there I hope she reads it and knows how much I care about her.
       My sister was the inspiration for this blog, and the journey I have planned. My sister's passing encouraged me to take the step of deciding my own path. With that said I would like to begin my journey here with all of you. This past summer I fulfilled my childhood dream and purchased a 1971 VW Bus, I found the bus that would come to be known as chleo while volunteering at a music festival in Trumansburg, NY. The bus was exactly what i\I had dreamed of, rough around the edges but still had a story to be told and a story still to be written. My father and I trailered Chleo back home after purchasing it from a rather "rough" gentleman who seemed s though he had never left Woodstock. I soon realized that my dream would need a bit of maintenance before we set sail. Since I purchased Chleo in July I have slowely been fixing and replacing parts and restoring what needed restoring. It has become quite a project for my Father and I. I plan to have Chleo on the road for my first festival of the summer but that depends on how fast we can get the interior finished. The point of this blog is to not only show the progress of Chelo, but also to give me a place to record my adventures, I plan to set sail for Vermont in the fall with just Chleo by my side. Until I depart I will try to update this blog everychance I have, even if no one reads my blog it will still be my own personal record of my life. So I hope you enjoy what I have to say, if you do not, I apologize for your ignorance.