The previous installments are:
The Early Years
Room Addition
Repaint then Road Trip
The Great Highway 1 Housetruck Race
Extreme Makeover
Guest House
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Some of you have been asking when the next in the series of photo posts of Grace would be available. As I mentioned, these are coming according to a timetable of unusual design, and the clock just struck 12.
The last week of October 1992, I found myself on an unplanned trip to Santa Cruz to visit Prakash. I had just finished constructing new studios for one of the local radio stations to move into, and hadn't really anticipated a vacation at the time, but Prakash convinced me to come down for a while anyway.
Since my last visit, he had separated from his wife and moved Grace to a new location on some rented property overlooking a quiet valley, he had been there only two weeks when I arrived. There were no buildings or other structures on his corner of the lot, so the bus was his home and hearth. The property was located away from any roads, so there was no traffic noise, no electricity, no telephone, and water had to hauled in by truck and stored in tanks. The conditions were primitive, but I loved every minute of being there.
It was during this visit that Prakash and I entered into a discussion about building a new rig to replace my rusting Housetruck. This was the genesis of my search for a new bus that eventually resulted in my purchase of the Crown.
Photo 35:
The back of the bus faced out into the valley, and a couple of comfortable wooden chairs allowed relaxing while taking in the view. At night, a few lights could be seen across the hills, but for the most part, it was all quiet woods.
Photo 36:
Grace's back porch served as the casual living room, workshop, clothes dryer, and shower room (standing on the pallet on the ground with a bucket of hot water and a pitcher for pouring). A small solar panel provided enough power for a few lights and a modest stereo. Larger power tools required the use of an ex-military generator.
Prakash had spread straw on the ground around the bus to keep the dust down, and the side benefit was that the lighter-colored stalks made navigation at night easier.
Photo 37:
This is the by-now familiar image from the Grace pages on the site, with a difference. The towel hanging on a line stretched from the bus to a tree has been photoshopped out.
OK, here's some inside information on Photo 37: The caption on the photo on the web site reads: "Carpets spread to dry after a storm flooded the guest tent", whatever that means. Well, since there was no other building on the property, Prakash had erected an old canvas camping tent and outfitted the interior with carpets, candles, a cot and a small stove to serve as my sleeping quarters during the visit. Of course, most of my time was spent around the yard or in Grace. Six days into my visit, a big storm with heavy rain and high winds blew into the area. I awoke to a tent that was nearly completely flooded. Fortunately, my bedding survived dry, but the carpets in the tent were soaked. The carpets were laid out on sawhorses to dry after the weather returned to a more reasonable dryness
Photo 38:
Here's the tent in dryer times, with water tank #5 behind it.
Because of the coming winter weather, and due to his lack of dry, secure storage, Prakash sent many of the smaller carpets home with me for safe keeping. He also asked me to store several boxes of photographs and probably a couple of thousand 35mm slides for him. All of the images from the "Early Years" and "Room Addition" posts came from this stash of photos.
So did this one:
Photo 39:
Prakash gets his furry disguise on for a 1980 Mayday dance around the Maypole in Tie Gulch
