1980 Chevrolet Shasta Mini Motorhome

On May 29, 2007, I bought a 1980 Shasta Mini Motorhome. 23 feet long and made by Chevrolet, it was advertised in the Topeka Capital Journal as "Good condition. 60,000 miles." The good condition part is arguably true. It's not a brand new Winnebago or Pace Arrow, but for being 27 years old it's fairly well intact and preserved. The claim of 60,000 miles turns out to be a minimum estimate as neither the speedometer nor odometer work. When they stopped working and how far the motorhome was driven after they did is anyone's guess. What we know for a fact is that it has at least 60,000 miles. 58,888.9 to be exact. I added another fifty (at least) to the overall count yesterday on a test run to Perry Lake and back.

I'm telling anyone who asks that I plan on doing a little travelling. That's what you do with motorhomes, right? The reality of it is that I plan on living in this thing if the bottom ever drops out of my online interests. That may never happen. Or it could happen next month. I don't stress as much over intangibles like that as I used to. If the bottom does drop out I'm going to be ready for it. You won't see me underneath any bridge overpasses eating cold pork and beans from the can with my hobo buddies. Not for very long anyway. I've got a house that's completely paid for.. no rent, no mortgage, no house payments or ungodly high property taxes to contend with. The only thing I have to do is make sure I don't wreck it and I think I can probably do that. Unlike most other vehicles, a motorhome retains at least some minimal value even with a blown motor or shot transmission. As long as the roof doesn't leak (it doesn't), and I've got a place to park it, I should be in business - a last resort for sure but at least I've got one.

6/6/2007

I've turned the Shasta into my second office. It's actually going to be my main office for the time being. It's the official annex. Business hours are from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., seven days a week. That's the routine and I've already made a vow to stick to it. I've been having trouble staying focused lately whenever I try to get anything done online. If I was an author you could say I have "writer's block". I've been drawing blanks coming up with new things to do and new things are what I need right now. In the absence of these mysterious "new things," I've been creating work artificially, going over each page on each website I own and looking for things to change, compiling those changes on a list and then going back and addressing each

Turning a 23 foot motor home into a working office.

one by one. I'm having trouble keeping focused and I'm having trouble staying motivated because these aren't things that have to be done. I'm inventing them simply for the purpose of having something to do. My work ethic was fading fast and needed a shot in the arm. I turned the table at the rear of the motorhome into an office desk, set up a computer on it and imported a comfortable chair to sit in. Power is supplied by a fifty foot 16-gauge extension cord run from an outlet in the garage (I haven't tested the Shasta's internal electrical system yet and I'm not in any real hurry to do so). I also have an Audio Solutions AM/FM stereo CD player with MP3 capability that I picked up for about twelve bucks at Walgreens two years ago back when inexpensive MP3 options were all but non-existent. The coffee pot is a twelve-cup Black and Decker "VersaBrew Plus" with a two-hour automatic shut-off that I retired three years ago when I upgraded to the "Mr. Coffee." I'm not running a phone line out here. It's just another distraction (or temptation), and I'm on a mission to eliminate distractions. That's what I have the machine for anyway.

continued on page 2 >>>

top

Sitemap - Privacy Policy - Contact