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Finding Fox Den Acres Campground proved more difficult than first imagined, for a town totaling 4 square miles. Our first detour took us through some hilly, twisty and narrow backwoods lanes reminiscent of Kane's mountain. For those who don't know Kane's mountain, which is everyone, it is a small acreage in the "Promised Land" of Missouri that comprises a stream and a large hill where the area of the actual land is twice the area as visible from above. For those unfamiliar with the "Promised Land" of Missouri, the Mormon Church have come to the conclusion that the area east of Kansas City, MO, is their Promised Land. So, why are they based in Utah? Probably has something to do with their, now passe, practice of polygamy. But I digress.
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Broke camp, drove through tunnel remembering to turn of the gas. Hilly, tried to stop at walliemart in Warrenton, VA, but could not find the store. Finally stopped at Front Royal W-M because it was easy to find.
Four states in about as many hours
Only thing I can figure with dolly lights is to replace them. It is going to be hot today, 92, so sticking close to home, using the pool and arguing with reception about having to move one slot.
Also trying to figure out the best way to keep the travel diary up to date, On day 21 I have 2 articles posted. Have decided to start posting outline articles and filling them in later, at least the world will know where we are and what we are up to.
Spent 30 minutes in Wal-mart procrastinating over what light to buy for the trailer. My research suggested that the plug for lights that include stop lights (not a legal requirement, but I feel would be a good idea), similar the the LED ones I saw, have an extra pin (makes sense), which would mean that I would also have to buy another adapter for the RV 7 pin output, and would then have difficulty using it behind the Blazer (not that I intend to, but having the ability may come in useful at some point). All that was moot as the LED lights only had a 4 pin plug. Now I have no idea how it would operate a stop light. Best I can figure is the "stop/tail" wordage is an "OR" rather than an "AND". All of this became moot when I started to dismantle the old lights where I found the problem. One of the plastic ties seems to have cut through the wire, now that explains everything. So back to Wallie-mart to return the lights and buy a striper//crimper (I have 2 at the house, one of which I thought I had packed, but I cannot find it) and connectors.
Had a couple of dips in the Rich man's pool (the one by the premier sites, they have cable!!). Most of the weekenders have gone so not as many kids in the pool.
Watched a couple of movies on the front TV, via Hulu.com, Sherlock Holmes in B&W and Val Kilmer in the Saint. Carolyn retired early, so I caught up on the Simpsons and Family Guy.
Heard a cat meowing outside when it had started raining, shone the torch headlight but saw nothing, 15 minutes later more cat noises, search revealed a black cat like Tanner. It was Tanner. On investigation, the rear slide screen was up, so he had gotten out the open window. When the heat drops outside, we usually switch off the A/Cs and open up. Either Carolyn had pulled the screen up as she was opening the window, or Tanner has figured out how to lift the screen. We hope it was the former.
Annual Beach Bum Parade on Tybee Island.
Friday 21st May 2010
 To mark the beginning of the tourism season, Tybee Island, has since 1987, organized its 'Beach Bum Parade'. The parade kicked off later than the advertised 6:30pm, which did not stop the revellers practicing on any vehicle passing by. We arrived about 4 PM and had several dousings on our way to park on the beachfront. Lining Butler Street were a multitude of encampments armed with a large water supply and combatants wielding pump action water canons, various super soakers (both manufactured and home-made), and pistols. The ammunition stations ranged from cool boxes, being fairly mobile, large lined drums and trash cans, being stationary, and the big guns, pickup truck with tarps lining the bed to carry large quantities of water.
 Before the parade had started most of the audience were already wet to some degree and enjoying every minute. The local police were out in force, trying to close the parade route to traffic, which was not easy as there are many side streets joining the main drag from the beach front road, which is one way. At one point we were reminded by a patrol car speaker that we could be arrested for spraying water at an officer. I do not think they were buzz killing, rather than just trying to do there jobs without getting involved, there would be extremely good targets.
 One or two altercations did break out, one of which required the lights and sirens to be deployed. A driver crossing the street must have had his window down and took exception to getting wet. Jumping out of his vehicle to remonstrate was his second mistake, water hit him from every direction.
The actual parade involved a couple of dozen floats sponsored by local businesses and officials running for office, each loaded with water firing troops, who opened fire on anyone that fired on them. Positioning yourself away from the ammunition dumps kept you out of the obvious lines of fire, although if you looked too dry friendly fire was likely to get you. A good time was had by all.
  
One of the primary reasons for creating an UbunutuBus was to have the ability to work on the road. As a major part of arsenal is being on-line, so having access to the Internet is important. Also the growing stock of media available there is another important resource for the project.
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The first computer to be installed in the RV to transform it into an Ubuntubus is finally complete. Not without problems though.
The selected components are as follows:
The case: APEVIA Black / Red SECC Steel / Aluminum X-MASTER-RD/500 ATX Media Center / HTPC Case.
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Link: http://dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Mode Having found a suitable router to use as a client bridge to connect the on-board computer network in the motor home to an internet access point, we now have to configure it.
I chose a Linksys WRT54G for the purpose and happened to buy a Version 3 edition to load the DD-WRT firmware on.
First step was to ensure the router worked correctly as it is supposed to. Next, the firmware was brought up to date with the latest from Linksys. Then we get to the real upgrade, to DD-WRT vintage mini version. I found instruction on the DD-WRT wiki page. This particular router works best with the vintage edition of the firmware and can be updated with a variety of versions. As we only need to use it as a bridge, the mini version would suffice.
I have cut and pasted the instructions to configure as a bridge, but research on DD-WRT provides all the information needed to do the job.
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 We figured we would need a trash can for daily use inside the RV. So continuing the theme of using local resources and wood to "match" the existing trim, I had some lumber "left over" from making the frame around the front TV enclosure.
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We decided the best way to go, for towing a vehicle behind the RV, was to add a tow dolly, the reasoning went something like this:
- We certainly need something to drive 'locally' as most trips will require camping away from major shopping etc.
- Although we have most of the equipment required to 'tow 4 on the floor', i.e. Blue Ox tow bar and Brakemaster 9000, the cost of equipping the Blazer for towing, i.e. baseplate, wiring and hydraulic harnesses, would be dead money. If we changed the Blazer we would get zero return on the approx $1,000 needed to install the necessary.
- We will replace the Blazer, at some time, for something more suited to our needs. The Blazer was purchased to enable guest and supplies transport for the Bed and Breakfast. As we are no longer pursuing that project it is now overkill. We did come up with a short list of suitable replacements, VW Beetle Diesel, PT Cruiser convertible, or Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible, but residing rurally limits the available sellers and time is now becoming short.
- Not all vehicles can be towed '4 on the floor', mostly manual transmission, but most can be towed on a tow dolly. Going this direction will not restrict our selection.
- Most tow dollies used in the US do not have any braking system as it is not a legal requirement. Canada does require towed vehicle braking. Again to leave all options open we need brakes. We did talk to a fellow RV'er at Walmart who had a Discovery towing a Trailblazer '4 on the floor', a similar set up to ours, and he said he had no problems particularly with the Jake brake installed, which we also have.
- Most tow dollies available in the US with brakes have drum brakes that constantly need adjustment. The systems are either surge or electrically operated. The obvious choice is surge braking, meaning that as the weight of the vehicle moves forward as the RV slows the brakes on the dolly operate slowing the mass on the back.
- The only suitable equipment I could find was the one we bought, an Eze-tow, which is due to be delivered on the 17th April 2010.
There are many reasons for the decline in manufacturing in the US.
Restrictive trading practices in other countries.
Cheaper products made overseas.
Tax breaks for outsourcing.
To start a new business requires more than an idea. You need premises, a work force, administrative staff, material supplies, sales outlets, and all this requires money. The process is overwhelming to all but a few dedicated individuals, and there is no guarantee of success, the majority of small businesses fail within the first 2 years.
It does not have to be that way, if we all get together and "Do what we do best".
We all have the 'great idea' that would make a fortune if only....If only we had someone we could trust to take it and run with it. Well why not.
Set up an 'Ideas development shop', where anyone can go to develop their ideas. Given encouragement most people would pursue there ideas given that they might make some money from it.
OK we have the IDS (Ideas Development Shop) and it has 100s of product ideas filed away. Now what.
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Link: http://davidryman.com/writer.php?title=manufacturing-opportunities-in-the-us&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more272 Workforce
The workforce at a manufacturing plant are generally paid minimum wage. I would envision two distinct groups of workers, the experienced and the trainees. The Trainees would likely be those that have recently left the education system. They will be able to get some productive experience before moving on to better paid 'traditional' businesses. The Experienced workers would likely be retired, part-time people seeking additional income to bolster their retirement funds. They would also include workers between jobs, who have some valuable experience under their belts. There would probably be a third group, those that cannot find better paying jobs and remain within the system for life. Still it would be better than claiming Social Security.
It is not the intent of this manufacturing base to make anything complex, so the workers do not have to be highly skilled, although there are no boundaries.
We have the motor-home, had basic, but thorough instruction in its operation, have the new HDTV installed, have everything we need from the house loaded OK, so we are ready to hit the road ? Let's find out.
Linda and Ken, the previous owner of the RV, had already paid for the camp site space until the end of October, and were gracious to allow us to use it for our first test trip.
We loaded everything we could think of and the cats and headed off to the gas station to fill up with diesel. $176 seems a lot, but that ought to take us 700 miles or so, and it's not like we will be refueling every day. We started a log to detail our consumption with gallons, price, mileage and as the generator is also fed from the diesel tank, the hours on it.
  
We found our first motor home on Craig's list. It is a 2000 Fleetwood Discovery 36T.
One of the biggest selling points was the previous owners, Linda and Ken Shatz, who, as well as being nice people also had many years experience living in an RV, this being their third such vehicle. With 10 years and 2 motor coaches under their belt, they put all that knowledge into selecting this coach. As Ken pointed out, manufacturers know how to build them but do not live in them so miss some niceties that are second nature to seasoned RVers.
   
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Approach
The idea is to use a light touch approach, meaning that the software system will not take over the entire system and exclude other applications, much like LinuxMCE does, but take an approach more like MMS where the application presents a menu type system that utilizes other applications that are masters of their own domains. This project takes it a step further by using a Linux desktop to offer the user with available options. Two mantras spring to mind, Why reinvent the wheel, and Standing on the shoulders of giants.
Linux has been selected as the core operating system as it is the only open source OS out there capable of doing what I want, and well it's Linux.
Ubuntu has been chosen as the base distribution as they seem to be very active in developing their package, and having built a development machine, Ubuntu 9.04 recognized the sound card and produced some noise out of the box. It also has side projects that can be incorporated.
Medibuntu (Media, Entertainment and Distraction Ubuntu) will handle the media delivery.
The end result I am looking for is a custom package that includes all the necessary applications on a CD that, once a network is installed within an RV, can be loaded, easily configured and your good to go.
First step was to build a suitable PC to test out and run the required applications. The box is a quad core AMD Phenom with 4Gb of RAM on a Gigabyte motherboard.
Step two is to acquire an RV to house the whole thing. This is in progress.
History
For our Bed & Breakfast project, I had planned to construct and develop an in-house system to provide guests with all their media and communications needs through a single networked computer and screen.
Research uncovered the Fiire system (Fire Engine, Fire Station, etc) which ran Kubuntu with LinuxMCE. Having, finally, built a PC capable of handling video graphics, I installed Ubuntu 9 (jaunty) with the intent of trying out LinuxMCE only to discover it only runs on Kubuntu 7. They are porting it to Kubuntu 8, but as is my want, I want the latest and greatest. Seems clear to me that the project is either under staffed or the scope is too large.
The company offering the Fiire system, which was built on a previous project, produced all the networked hardware required for total media presentation as well as foraying into home automation. They have since disappeared. LinuxMCE seems to have ground to a halt also. Another system available is MMS (My Media System), which I tried, but managed to lose my sound.
As we are now intending to travel for a couple of years before settling down somewhere, the project has morphed into the RV project. This has also expanded the potential scope of the work.
Overview
To create an on-board system for recreational vehicles, specifically motor homes, that will control every electronic device available.
Phases
Phase I will attack media presentation and help guide the development of the hardware required to develop the project.
Phase II will attack GPS and navigation systems.
Phase III will attack media capture, both DVR and web cam.
Phase IV will attack communications.
Phase V will cover security
One of the first projects on our 'new' motor-home was to upgrade the TVs from analogue to digital. Although the existing system would be adequate for plugging into cable TV, we were looking for the ability of receiving over-the-air broadcast digital signals. Also the intention of converting the Discovery into an UbuntuBus would necessitate having the facility to view computer content on any of the screens.
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I spent many hours scouring the Internet looking for a suitable RV, slowly defining and redefining our requirements and preferences. We need a vehicle capable of housing the two of us and our five cats, that is self contained, able to provide us with the essentials of living, and suitable for conversion to an Ubuntu Bus.
Ebay provides an excellent source for researching the marketplace. With prolonged viewing you get a feel for which sellers to trust, how active the marketplace is and a sense of what is available.
RVWeb.com provides an overview, specifications, images, and floor plans of many RVs. It is not a complete guide to all RVs but has sufficient data to be a useful resource.
RV On-line, RVT, and RVZen are commercial sites advertising RVs for sale.
Google is an excellent resource for finding RV dealers and sales companies in an area. Using the map function, you can find RV sales establishments located in a specific area, useful for organizing day trips.
In the end we found what we needed on Craig's List.
Features
Watch any media on any screen aboard, or watch different media on individual screens.
Watch what you want where you want.
Live birds eye view.
Travel/parked modes to block functions on individual screens
Scope.
DVD movies
On-line programming
TV programming
Music collection
GPS
Games
News
Weather
Security
Engine monitoring
Security
Phone
Email
Internet
DVR
Video capture
Video editing
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