How We Live

The Vagabond world is a magical place filled with adventure.  Not really but we’re having a good time.  I won’t bore you with details on every place and haven’t thought to take many pictures.

So far we’ve stayed in an overpriced crap hotel in Fullerton, a nice log cabin in Yorba Linda, a Best Western in Orange, a great pool house in Santa Ana (twice), an old apartment over a storefront in downtown Santa Ana, and pictured below, the Sky Palm Motel in Orange.  The Sky Palm would be great on Route 66, it’s clean, friendly, and conveniently located next to Arthur’s, Genovese, and Taqueria Dé Anda.  Three of our favorite places to eat in Orange.

Vagabond California Motel

Vagabond California Motel Vagabond California Motel

Vagabond California Motel

Stoopit Craigslist

Lori was driving us back from Two Crows and I was looking for trailers on Craigslist and searched “Model-T Race Car” and this appeared.  It’s a 1922 “banger” Model-T racer.  The body’s rough, but it drives nice and it’s California plated.  Speed parts include, Rocky Mountain brakes, a Ruckstell two-speed rear end, a cam, and bigger valves.  The intake manifold is stock and the header is cracked so we’ll go back to a higher performance set-up. It needs a new interior and we’ll probably remove the paint.  The body’s aluminum and we’ll give it a little love when we get the paint off.Ford Model T Vagabond

Ford Model T Vagabond

Vagabond Car Snatcher Ford Model T

Ford Model T VagabondAnother Craigslist score, it has a motor too!


DTLA

Perhaps the ultimate Vagabond destination, Downtown L.A.  We spent a week at the ACE Hotel while checking out the 2018 Harley-Davidson models (BTW they’re great). The ride was short but the food, weather, and company were good.

2001 XL1200S


Vagabond RK Stratman DTLA

Ron Stratman, a Vagabond and good company.


Vagabond FoodI guess they’re good for you now.


Vagabond Rides Harley-Davidson2018 Fat Boy


Vagabond Rides Harley-Davidson

2018 Fat Bob


Vagabond Rides Harley-DavidsonNew Milwaukee Eight


Vagabond Food Vagabond Ride Moto-Guzzi

Vagabond Rescue

Vagabond ACE Hotel DTLAView from the ACE


Winslow News

Good news/bad news.  Good news is there’s quite a bit of quarter sawn oak office furniture in the Emporium and the place only needs cosmetic and fine tuning.  The bad news is we lost a year of work on the Motor Palace while Joe restored the Masonic Lodge and he’s ready to retire (he’s earned it) and our building permit expired.  The building permit is easy but finding someone to replace Joe is a challenge.  He’s helping with the transition and we hope for a soft landing.

Finishing the Motor Palace is now our priority in Winslow, all resources will support it until we have it signed off and fully functional.  The other good news is the Emporium Building freed space in the Palace for more interesting fixtures. (See the black and white a couple of pics below.)
Vagabond Route66 Winslow AZ

Vagabond Route66 Winslow AZ

Vagabond SanctuaryJoey found a counter and wall like this for the Motor Palace.


Van Life Route 66 Roys Amboy VagabondHow we roll #vanlife


Why We’re Vagabonds

Not because of the burning Kia.  We’re vagabonds because we sold our condo in Orange. The fire was two days before escrow closed and we’d already packed the fire extinguishers.  No one was hurt but UBER and LYFT are down one.

Vagabond Orange County

We bought the place thinking we’d stay a couple of years and move on, seventeen years later it was time.  Things went faster than planned and we never got around to finding a place to live so it’s motels and AirBnB.  We miss The Professor but that’s about it.  Oh, and finding anything when your stuff’s scattered in five places and two states.  We’ll probably look for a place pretty soon but we haven’t figured out where we want to live.
Former Vagabond residence

CondoSOLD, thanks to our friend and Realtor Darren Scott!


Vagabond Cat The ProfessorThe Professor


Vagabond MotorcycleLast one Out


Vagabond OC Fire Close callWe got evacuation notices but didn’t live here anymore. The new owners were safe.


The Professor

The neighbor’s cat hung out at our place so much the rest of our neighbors thought he/she was ours.  He lives in the sketchy house, the one with the car fire. They like him and he’s well-fed, but their new large dog bit him pretty good.  He has the dog figured out but it was quieter at our place.  Luckily he was our official host while the condo was for sale and the new owners like him.Vagabond Cat The Professor

Vagabond Cat The Professor

Natural Born Vagabond


Two Crows Vagabond Homestead

A big reason the vagabond life is fun and affordable is we spend weekends at Two Crows.  We’re able to do laundry, cook, and take care of normal household business here. It is out official residence but the hundred mile commute is a deal breaker.

Vagabond Joshua Tree California

Vagabond Joshua Tree CA

Vagabond Mercedes Benz W126 560SEL Joshua Tree CaliforniaA Moonlight drive through Joshua Tree. I love this car, thank you Larry & Floan.


Vagabond Jeep CJ5 Yucca Valley CaliforniaMoving firewood


Vagabond Joshua Tree Babes Ride Out BRO5 Harley SportsterBabes Ride Out (look at the Stance Socks) Here’s a link to Lori’s BRO5 experience.


Then this

We had an idea.  We’d buy the Vagabond dream machine, an old Airstream trailer.  We would stay at different campgrounds or parks, we could even park it in the shop! So instead of looking for houses, we looked at Airstreams.

It turns out many Airstreams are in really bad shape and the “restored” ones seem the worst.  In fact, “restored” in the Airstream world means anything the seller chooses. Restored in one example was “I opened some of the windows to air it out” but every surface, latch, hinge, drawer, and cupboard were damaged.  In another, they removed whatever or whoever died in it but didn’t think to open the windows.  For the most part they do a hack exterior polish, re-cover the rotting subfloor, and spray a can of air freshener.  The funniest thing is when you ask if the refrigerator works they always say, “I never tried it, I just put a block of ice in it and use it like a cooler.” These are small refrigerators and a block of ice would fill them and I want to know where the water goes when the ice melts.

Airstream shopping would make a great reality/freak show.Vagabond 1966 AirstreamVagabond 1966 AirstreamVagabond 1966 Airstream

Anyway, we found this beauty, it’s a 1966 17′ Caravel.  The appliances other than the water heater are original and they all work.  The original wood is in great shape and the sub-floor is solid.  The cloth upholstery is new and it body isn’t polished. We haven’t picked it up yet but the plate and registration are now in our names.  It turns out RV parks are rare here in So-Cal and we filled our shop up with condo stuff so we probably won’t “live” in it much but we wanted one anyway.


Bonus Random ThingsVagabond viewVagabond transportationVagabond ridesBadass Flower FTW YOLO Don't give a rat's ass

Thanks for reading, we look forward to sharing progress on the Motor Palace soon…and Thanksgiving dinner somewhere…

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave