Getting to the Real Work, subtitled, 'Bout Damn Time

Well, after my last blast about the Bossman, he decided to take away my computer privledges for awhile. Now that the ban has been lifted, I decided it was time to try and get a post up and get up to speed on what's been going on with the Tiki Trash Shasta.

But first, Halloween has come and gone yet again, but just had to put up a photo of my great costume I wore this year. Let me tell ya, kids act like they have never seen Jason in a camper before. Who knew?

 Ok, moving along, back to the saga of Bossman and The Real Boss. Or as I like to call it,  The Eve of Destruction, to steal a song title from days past. Once you see the pictures, you'll get the idea why this just so happened to pop in my multi colored head. Bossman decided it was time to finally do some work on the little camper I call home. I've been involved in some remodeling so I didn't feel the need to be too concerned about a little dust, dirt, and inconvience. What a damn mistake that was! Bossman has completely destroyed what was once a nice little camper. He tells me, "TikiMan, this is just like restoring an old car. Once you get started taking pieces off, you find it hard to draw the line on what is a good point to say stop". I'm guessing that it hard to draw a line on the floor when a good chunk of it is in the back on the pickup truck.

                                

But once again, I find myself getting ahead of the story. Where was I, oh yeah, Bossman had finally decided to get off his lazy, football watching, youtube video playing(more on this later) ass and get some work done to the Tiki Trash Shasta.

'Bout Damn Time

Bossman started with taking out the dinette, the bunk bed, basically everything that wasn't literally bolted down or screwed in. "Room to move around" he says. He's a few pictures to show the damage was a bit more than Bossman expected. He tells me he's up to the task. If I had real eyes they'd be rolled into the back of my wooden head already. "Yea of little faith" I hear The Real Boss saying in the background...........

When I got a look after Bossman brought the Shasta home, I looked at him and asked him, Are you blind?

 Bossman spent a whole weekend bascially gutting the dinette/entry area of the Tiki Trash Shasta. I think I have some pictures of what he found, he didn't seem very pleased. He's not pleased? Hell, I'm the one sleeping in a camper with no floor. Jerk!

Pretty I say, pretty damn rotten!

Note the missing framing on the corners? Yeah, me too. Bossman has possibly bitten off more then even he can chew.

I can hear the Bossman upstairs saying to get off the computer. I have a feeling he has the need to watch some youtube videos from "his glorious youth". Last time I caught the fool, he was blasting some really bad 80's hair band videos and telling me how great it was. I caught a glimpse of one video. Some awful water effects and tons of gratuitous fist clinching it looked like to me.

Till next time, Keep it Tiki

The Pickup and Initial Impressions

Well, Bossman let me in the house tonight so I could get a little 'puter time. He said, "Tikiman, why don't you come in from the cold for a little bit tonight. Stay in the basement though, keep out of my beer, and don't be surfing websites of questionable nature". More on Bossman's choice of brew at a later time.

The Recovery, Return to Base, and First Impressions.

The Bossman and The Real Boss made the deal, bought the Shasta, and arranged for pickup at a later date. Bossman isn't the brightest, he thinks otherwise though. Here's a prime example: buy a camper, ok, that's good, don't have a vehicle to tow it with, not so good. This is where Bossman would beg to differ, he has an old pickup, pretty cool truck actually, 1965 Ford F-100 Custom Cab longbed. Problem is, it doesn't have a hitch. Well, it didn't, he finally got off his can and installed a receiver hitch after the recovery of the Tiki Trash Shasta. Below is picture of above mentioned truck. Why does Bossman always has some goofy grin on his face?

Guess another introduction is needed at this point of the story. Enter one of Bossman's best friends, Awesome. Yeah, that's what he likes to call himself, as Awesome likes to tell it, "One man, One name". I'm thinking Bossman had better get some new friends. Anyway, Bossman calls up his bud, they make arrangements with previous owners, set a time and head off east on a nice, sunny, hot, July morning. I will give Bossman some credit. He picked up some tow lights, "just in case" he says, wrenches, screwdrivers, a jack and a set of rims and tires.. He tells me later, "I picked up a set of 15" rims and had some decent rubber mounted on them, the tires on the ole gal looked like the tread was 100% but were suffering from a severe case of dry rot". I'm thinking Bossman has a case of dry rot in the brain at times. Prime example: Bossman forgot to mention to Awesome that Tiki Trash Shasta was located at the top of a street that had a slope of approximately 30 to 35 degrees, and no place to swap out the tires. Problem solved, they hooked up, pulled it down the hill, which ended in a T intersection. Of course the road they were on was the one that had to stop, AT THE BOTTOM of this steep road. Nothing like a little adventure to start the journey back to Topeka. These clowns found a nice place to stop and swap out the tires, nice being, about having a foot from the edge of the road. Good thing Farley is a sleepy little place. I heard Awesome recount the story, "we hopped out, unloaded the jack and new tires, swapped them out in about 20 minutes, we looked like a Nascar pit crew". More like pitiful crew I'm sure. Their trip home was uneventful actually, no burnt bearings, flat tires, or anything else worthy of mentioning. The Real Boss and Bossman did a quick policing of the little gem and took the obligatory "new camper" pictures to post on that social networking website. Let me dig around the hard drive and see if I can't find some of the initial pictures.

Obviously some water damage to the corners, little does Bossman know what he is getting into!

Note the super cool Kraco 8-track player

Bossman told me he hasn't decided what to do about the AC, The Real Boss says it stays, somehow.

About time to wrap this up, Bossman is yelling downstairs, telling me it's time to take my Island shirt loving self back out to the Tiki Trash Shasta. Bossman has really started to dig into the ole gal, of course, bonehead waits until it's Fall and getting pretty cold in this part of the world to really get after it. I've been documenting the progress and will do my best to get this, possible disaster in the making, to the masses. Until next time, Keep it Tiki