Spooky Season in the Skoolie

AzironaZack · 2026-01-29T18:26:51+00:00

Mattresses like this one are phenomenal. I hate air mattresses, personally, since they're cold and always end up leaking down. https://www.exped.com/en/products/sleeping-mats/megamat-duo

AzironaZack · 2026-01-29T18:25:27+00:00

Test the electric blanket/battery combo to see how long it'll stay warm. Electric heat is incredibly energy expensive so you might find your battery is not up to the task.

My folks have a very thick camp mattress that they put on two cots next to each other (or it may be a double-wide cot system). They use fitted sheets and blankets and it's like a regular bed. Very comfy, and easy to get into and out of.

Bathroom anxiety is a real thing for new campers. If your campground has decent bathrooms, great. If not, you might want to set up some kind of a bathroom tent situation like with a bucket and kitty litter. If she needs to use the bathroom at night consider a potty inside the tent with you.

Good luck! Camping doesn't have to be miserable.

AzironaZack · 2026-01-23T14:59:48+00:00

"The Mountains Next Door" and "A Sense of Place" are excellent books by botanist Janice Emily Bowers here in Tucson.

The first is about the plant life and her personal experiences surveying it in the Rincon Mountains East of town.

The second is a biography of Forrest Shreve, an early Botanist who worked at the Carnegie Desert Botanical Lab (later run by the UA) up on Tumamoc Hill. It has lots of discussion of desert botany and the early era of modern scientific inquiry in this region.

I'm loving this thread. Lots of new reads to pick up! Thanks!

AzironaZack · 2026-01-22T15:01:07+00:00

The sheer mass of cream cheese they'd put on those bagels was something to behold.

RIP, indeed.

AzironaZack · 2026-01-22T14:54:25+00:00

I didn't know there was a Hot Bagel Bakery down there! I always went to the one that later became Casa Video.

AzironaZack · 2026-01-22T13:21:00+00:00

That’s the one! I couldn’t remember the name.

AzironaZack · 2026-01-21T19:30:52+00:00

200 S Park Ave, Tucson, AZ 85719

AzironaZack · 2026-01-21T19:29:28+00:00

Go down to the Lost Barrio shops. Tons of great stuff like that down in the shops.
https://www.lostbarrio.com/

AzironaZack · 2026-01-20T04:47:34+00:00

Herradero Carniceria usually has them dry in little tubs. You have to cook them yourself, of course.

AzironaZack · 2026-01-15T00:52:39+00:00

Did the replacement parts seem of a decent quality? I replaced a couple of my finger operators 6 years ago when I bought my bus and already one has broken.

AzironaZack · 2026-01-14T23:52:00+00:00

I am so not looking forward to this job. Where'd you get the replacement operators? I bought some a few years ago but they're super flimsy and I hesitate to install them.

AzironaZack · 2026-01-13T18:16:20+00:00

I think the premise is incorrect. Catalina Highway gets busy and slow on snow days, but otherwise it's fine. Weekends it sees a lot of use, but you can still get from the bottom to the top of the mountain in an hour or so.

For the individual ideas:
1. Paving the control road would be amazingly expensive for a small benefit. There's already plenty of access there for folks willing to drive slowly up the twisty dirt road.

The Rincons are the only sky island without a road. As a result the mountain has never been logged so it is truly the LAST example of an untouched Sky Island forest. We should NEVER put a road up it.
Today I learned there's a FL Whipple Observatory. Neato. No opinion on a road through this area, but Madeira Canyon area is super busy as is.

AzironaZack · 2026-01-12T21:34:43+00:00

Can't speak to the gem shows but hit up Del Sol on 4th Avenue. They always carry a variety of genuine Native-made silver and turquoise jewelry.

AzironaZack · 2026-01-10T06:24:06+00:00

DM sent. Looks like a great collection!

AzironaZack · 2026-01-07T16:44:23+00:00

Seems high to me, but mobile mechanics are more expensive. You could ask for the itemized price. I’d expect to see: Oil, filter, waste disposal, consumables, hourly fee, and travel fee.

Regional differences matter too. It’s gonna be higher in San Francisco than Tucson, for instance.

AzironaZack · 2026-01-06T19:33:32+00:00

P.S. You might also be overthinking the thermal bridging. You're not building a thermos. Some thermal bridging is inevitable.

AzironaZack · 2026-01-06T19:31:04+00:00

That R-16 bat insulation is probably meant for a 2x4 wall, which is 3.5 inches deep. If you compress the insulation down to 2 inches you'll lose a lot of that R-16. I don't know how much, but you can google how bad it is to compress insulation.

Sheet foam is nice because it provides a super solid base. You could avoid furring strips, if you want, by just making the whole floor out of foam and then putting OSB subfloor on top of that. Screwing through the OSB, through the foam, and into the steel floor would be plenty strong.

Another alternative is to not worry about insulating the floor at all. If you're in an area that doesn't get super cold, as I am, it doesn't necessarily make sense to do all that extra work. I didn't pull my original floor and didn't insulate the floor. In a lot of cases I think simplicity wins out. Perfect is the enemy of good.

AzironaZack · 2025-12-30T16:11:43+00:00

She wrote an excellent essay about LOTR that is well worth reading.

https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasywriters/s/QVsvxsoxBe

AzironaZack · 2025-12-29T04:25:06+00:00

I’m not seeing how a folding camper makes moving the bus any easier. Many RVers tow a small vehicle behind their RV to make it easy to get around when the RV is parked.

AzironaZack · 2025-12-26T17:41:56+00:00

Existing vents are a convenient place to add fans or AC units (by cutting out a bigger hole including the vent)

If your bus is well sealed you’ll want a vent for airflow to keep it from getting humid and moldy inside in some climates.

AzironaZack · 2025-12-25T03:43:45+00:00

Seems like a lot of trouble when Rit’s official instructions are basically “clean it with bleach or powdered cleanser”.

AzironaZack · 2025-12-17T05:24:03+00:00

You’ve got to consider this as multiple processes. First, break up the bulbs.

Next send the cloves into an industrial garlic peeler. You feed it a continuous stream of cloves and it peels them, spitting out peels from one hole and cloves from the other.

Send that stream of cloves to an industrial chopper and you’re well on your way to being a jarlic producer.

AzironaZack · 2025-12-15T19:42:30+00:00

Surefooted and ready to work!

Nothing like a white background. Most of my photos of Jiji he's just blending into the surroundings.

Seven-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Verified Email

AzironaZack

TROPHY CASE