Fire Belching Balloons, Dirt Bikes and Angle Grinders Eating Compressors!

Almost every morning here the day starts just before sunrise with a rumbling woosh... Not sure where they're taking off, but I'd guess not far from here...

Normally, I look out the window and watch it float as I wait on the coffee maker to brew my morning elixir... This morning, it took me quite a while to even find it...

Not sure how you spell the sound of a hot air balloon... but it was rumbling like what you might expect to hear crawling into a Dragon's lair...

Only... he was nowhere to be seen, so I'm stumbling around, pre-coffee, peering out the windows wondering how you can hide something that big...

I think he was right directly overhead ;) just before the sun broke over the eastern ridges. I think he was just goin' up and down in the dead calm of the morning, ... trying to find a breeze to move the balloon.  ;)

We had some neighbors for a couple of days... a Dad and a couple of kids.

The other morning they loaded their bikes to haul over to the OHV trail head that's just across the road and down a half mile or so...

Kinda caught my eye when the daughter, helped load the lil' guys scooter. Dad had run the other pair up; His and her full size bikes... the boy, probably 6 or 7 had this cute lil' dirt bike...

I shoulda gone over to the trail head and photographed the lil' guy kickin' up the dust. :) buuuut... you know... lazy and workin' hard behind my window at the computer... ;)

But... I did finally get the button punchin' work done and tackled another small project that's been pokin' at me for a long time.

When you're on the road for a while... sometimes things start to migrate around when you're in a hurry to pack up... things get added, swapped out... and the "system" starts to get clumsy...

I wanted to do some reorganizing and clean up that mess as well as make some basic "improvement" changes that had come to me... as to where things might fit better.

I've wanted to move the compressor to the truck for a goodly while. Where it was in the front roadside compartment... it was really awkward to use... and so it didn't... and so having it along was pretty useless... and tires weren't being kept... ahem... up to speed as well as they should.

The problem was, the compressor had a handle on it that was a few inches too tall to fit in the sidebox of the truck... and honestly, I wasn't totally sure that bobbing the handle would make it fit.

The box where it was to go is a pretty tight squeeze... buuuuut... A minute or so with my angle grinder and a cutting wheel and it got shortened up just fine!

Now... another problem still lay ahead... 20" long 18" high compressor had to fit through a narrower and shorter door way...

 Some of the tool cases, jack and such that had been in the compartment are sitting on the bed...

Tool me a few minutes of tweaking, torquing, cussing and wiggling things around to realize... it wasn't ONLY the handle... uh oh... ;)

I had to take some of the compressor apart to fit it through the door...

Nothing major... it came down to just the lil' muffler had to get unscrewed to give me that last 1/4" of clearance to pop her through the door...

Now... with the compressor in an accessible place and out of the front compartment of the Fifth wheel... it left all that space open...

To move my tool box in there from where it sat on top of the battery box on the other side of the front compartment.

Before, I couldn't open the drawers, 'cause the lid couldn't open to release 'em...

So I had to pull it forward to get that clearance... but I still couldn't see 'cause it sat too high...

Boo Hoo... it's always something.

Now, It's at a good height and the lid can open without a hassle...

And I can see into the drawers when I pull 'em open! Excellent!

Looks like a pretty good fit don't it? The box is also 20"long... and the space it slid into is 23"... shouldn't be a problem should it? Except because the way the battery box overlaps the opening, the box had to slide in diagonally and then turn...

Dang... this hyar is gittin' complicated! Gee-awmetree and thinkin' stuff an' ever'thing! Let's see; mass X acceleration divided by the coefficient of the tool box color =  the negative multiplier of cold beer applied to the common denominator on a sunny afternoon... ME! :)

I fought that heavy loaded bugger, pushin' and gruntin' for ten minutes before I finally figured out that the Other end had to slide into a small recess out of sight on the right, and THEN it could turn into place.

Funny how ya just keep shovin' cuz you're only a 1/4 of an inch off... and you KNOW it will fit! Everyone knows that trailer frame'll flex if you push hard enough! :) and that steel tool box will compress! :)

So Then! I went in to home depot for some lil thing a bit later... and stood staring at the door wondering why it wasn't opening for me... until I realized that I was looking in the Window... BESIDE... the door! Man did that thing work slick when I moved 'bout six feet to my left... to where the door actually was! :)) The lot boy pushing carts in was exceptionally polite to the poor old man scratching his head and staring at the window... :))

With the tool box moved... I could move the cases that carry most of my small leather tools (the three cases to the right of the parts case drawers, and one more out of sight to the right of them) to where it sat... and stash the cases with them other tools ~almost enough to build a house ;) ~ out of sight above those...

With a little more repacking and the normal "puzzle work" of fitting odd shaped stuff and paraphernalia into the odd shaped nooks and crannies of a rig, I made some significant progress the day before and yesterday afternoon.

I even replaced my air chuck and air gauge for some that'd work without so much hassle on duals and got all the tires on the rig in proper shape to haul. We should be rolling out some time before noon! ;)

Tools more accessible, air compressor more accessible... Things a bit more organized... again... Dang! I might even start doing my maintenance around here in a lil' more timely fashion!

Yeah right... Had ya goin' there for a minute didn't I? ;)

Bound for Death Valley
Brian