Black Hills National Forest, Destination, National Park, school bus RV, Skoolie

Destination: The Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial

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So, another destination area for us is out to the west of the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota, the Black Hills area of South Dakota and Wyoming.  The Black Hills are a small, isolated range of mountains in the midst of the Great Plains, and got their name from the way the heavily forested mountains looked from a distance across the plains.

The oldest rocks in the formation are Precambrian rocks (mostly granite in the core, dated to about 1.8 billion years ago) pushed up by volcanic uplift in the center, with more recent rings of exposed Paleozoic , Mesozoic, and Cenozoic layers going from the center out, often explained as looking at a bullseye with the oldest rock at the center and the most recent at the edges.  If you want tones of technical details, the US Geological Survey has a whole pamphlet of information on it here.

Once there, though, there are a number of localities that we would want to examine in detail:

Mount Rushmore:

Carved (and blasted) from a granite batholith formation in the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of four United States presidents: George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865).   Construction on the memorial began in 1927, and the presidents’ faces were completed between 1934 and 1939 by Gutzon Borglum and then after 1941, finished by his son Lincoln Borglum.

While the Lakota Sioux called the peak the ‘Six Grandfathers’, and had been a spiritual location for the Oglala Lakota Sioux medicine man Black Elk (writer of Black Elk Speaks).   But this similarity of profiles in the view was what drove South Dakota historian Doane Robinson to suggest to Congress that historic likenesses should be carved into the mountainside to try and promote tourism into South Dakota.  This is an unfortunate byproduct of the military campaigns of 1876-78 where the United States government forcibly took the lands from the Lakota Sioux due to the controversial 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie.

A Native American answer to Mount Rushmore is …

Crazy Horse Memorial:

About nine miles away as the crow flies is the Crazy Horse Memorial, conceived by  Lakota leader Chief Henry Standing Bear and designed and expanded by Korczak Ziolkowski.  Intended to be a mounted likeness of the Lakota leader Crazy Horse,  this unnamed mountain peak is being systematically reduced and carved into a monument 641 feet long and 563 feet high!

Jewel Cave National Monument:

Jewel Cave National Monument contains Jewel Cave, currently the third longest cave in the world, with 179 miles of mapped passageways.  Declared a national monument by Teddy Roosevelt in 1908, it wasn’t until much later in that century that most of what we have mapped of the cave was discovered.  Named for the calcite crystals that adorned the first two miles of the original entrance, there are many other areas people can see, and an average of three additional miles are explored and mapped each year!

Wind Cave National Monument:

Another of Teddy Roosevelt’s National Monument declarations, Wind Cave was the very first cave system to get the National Monument designation in 1903.

Among its notable geological features are the calcite boxwork (caused by erosion rather than accretion), of which the Wind Caves contain almost 95% of the known boxwork formations in the world, as well as the fact that the caves form the densest three-dimensional cave maze in the world!  Definitely not a place to wander off on your own without a good bread-crumb trail.  But is also supposed to have been the site of emergence for the Lakota Sioux in their creation story, making is a sacred location.

Devils Tower National Monument:

Some 75 miles northwest of Jewel Cave is the amazing Devils Tower monolith, the remains of igneous rock that may or may not have actually erupted.  Either way, however, the sedimentary rock around it eroded away, leaving the tougher rock, with some hexagonal columns standing alone.

Again, thanks to Teddy Roosevelt, Devils Tower became the First National Monument on September 24th, 1906.  But before that, this site was sacred to several Native American tribes, with several of their legends regarding the area referring to bears, whose claws raked the sides of the monolith as they strove to get at the trapped people atop it.

This is, however, some 1470 miles from Buffalo, making it about a 25 hour trip (at bus speed) to get there.  Likely, it will be part of a bigger trip.

 

For more on Black Elk, and Lakota sacred views and practices, check out: 

benches/bed, design, school bus RV, Skoolie, woodwork

The Master Bed/Back Benches (Final!)

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So, finally, after several planning attempts to get a workable means of getting a master bed out of two benches in the far aft of the bus, I did it.  While I set up detailed plans for the back benches in a couple of previous posts (Parts One and Two), I ended up making some variations based on our assessments of our stays in the bus over this last summer.

The bench in profile, showing the `pocket` for the platform.
The bench in profile, showing the `pocket` for the platform.

While I had planned to have pallet sections span between the two benches before, I had designed for only two pallet sections of ~29″ width each to be the ‘back’ of the bench.  What we decided to do was to make the span into three sections of 19 1/2″ width, to be stowed under just one of the benches.  While this loses a little more storage area overall, the sections are much easier to unstow, and there’s more accessibility to the storage area.

Oak & 2x3 frame, starboard side.
Oak & 2×3 frame, starboard side.

So, I started with a simple frame made of 2x3s and 1 3/8 x 1 3/8″ and 1 3/8 x 5″ oak that I planed down.  This gave a stable, and in places, visually appealing structure for the bench. Along the outside wall of the bus, I ran another 2×3 which I screwed into the structural ribs of the bus body for the wider planks to rest on.  In working on the counter in the galley area, I found that the pocket screws were a pain to put into the ribs.

Port-side bench, showing storage area for the pallets.
Port-side bench, showing storage area for the pallets.

On the port side, however, I put the storage for the pallets, so instead of a large open box, I ended up with a box-within-a-box sort of system.  This still left some shallow storage space above the pallet area and a deeper section all the way to the back.

The angled supports for the pallet sections.
The angled supports for the pallet sections.

One of my reasons for designing the original set-up for having the wider pallets being the bench backs was that they wouldn’t be able to slide around, as the back of the bus gets the brunt of bounces and tail-swing forces.  In storing the pallets under the bench-seat, though,  I designed the storage area to have angled supports, only dipping down about 3/4″ over 21″ of width.  I’ll have to decide after a few drives if I’ll need extra stops to keep the pallets from sliding out.

Rail & stile router bits and my handy pocket jig.
Rail & stile router bits and my handy pocket jig.

With the bench frames in place, I needed to build the outer shell of the benches, still using the flat panel wainscoting that I used elsewhere in the bus.   For this, I pulled out a set of rail & stile router bits and my Kreg pocket jig, which together make some really nice, secure wainscoting.

All the panel pieces, and some of the oak plywood ...
All the panel pieces cut and routed, and some of the oak plywood …

There were three pieces of panel to make up, as the fore part of the starboard bench opens into open space, it needed a section that the port bench (coming up to the bunk wall) didn’t.

Almost set, just needs plywood panels and the top rail.
Almost set, just needs plywood panels and the top rail.

Assembly was easy, just drilling for the pocket screws, evening up ends, and measuring for spacing of stiles.  Once these were set, I cut 1/4″ oak plywood for the panels, and set those in place with a single brass wood screw.  I don’t like to use glue for these, as the wood tends to expand and contract with heat and humidity, and I wanted to give it that flexibility.  On the other hand, I don’t want the panels (very literally) rattling around while the bus is rolling.

Panels installed, notches in top rail visible.
Panels installed, notches in top rail visible.

The last detail to work out was in the long top rails, so that the 1 3/8 x 1 3/8″ supports on the edges of the pallets would rest securely in place.  This is one of the places where having the oak frame was important, as it would be visible behind the notches.  But it all worked out nicely.

The port side bench with wainscoting installed.
The port side bench with wainscoting installed.

The port panel was more tricky, and involved some chisel-work to get the rail above the pallet storage to sit nicely and give a robust, non-routed opening for the pallets.  The bench tops were made of 3/4″ oak plywood for the hinged bench top, faced with a 1″ strip of oak as an edging, then the rest was oak boards that lapped over the supports.

Look the benches are gone, and now it's a bed!
Look the benches are gone, and now it’s a bed!

With the pallets in place, it makes a 58 1/2″ x 92″ bed-space.  One of the nice things about it is that the space under the bed is still accessible, either by reaching underneath from the front, opening the rear door, or opening up the bench tops.  I’m planning on getting some nice recessed handles that will make opening the lids easier.

The bench goes all the way around the back.
The bench goes all the way around the back.

But the modular design of the pallets makes them interchangable in all the notches, and allows for a U-shaped bench in the ‘observation area’ of the back of the bus.

So this new design fits better with our uses of the back area of the back, and makes it really versatile, as we could have the center pallet in as a table, and have several folks around it.

Awesome Trip Stuff, camping, Destination, Great Smokey Mountains Park, National Park, school bus RV, Skoolie

Destination: Great Smokey Mountains National Park and The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History

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NPSGreat Smokey Mountains National Park

So, yet another National Park destination, and this one is not only in the Appalachian Mountain Range, but also is at the south-western end of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  But instead of being in Virginia, here we’re located in North Carolina and Tennessee, with more wilderness in the park.

Cades Cove (Elev 1807), Elkmont (Elev 2150), and Smokemont (Elev 2198) are the only campgrounds that can accommodate an RV as long as our 35′ bus, but there are others that can fit smaller campers and RVs.   All of these are “frontcountry” campgrounds located around the edges of the park, with trails leading in farther.  But even with these edge locations, there are no showers or electrical or water hookups in the park (except for a few 5 amp sites for those with medical needs).  All the sites farther into the park are hike-in “backcountry” sites.

The 360 observation tower atop Clingman's Dome, on a nice, clear day.
The 360 observation tower atop Clingman’s Dome, on a nice, clear day.

One of the places I want to hit here is Clingman’s Dome,  which at 6643 feet, is the highest point in Tennessee and the third highest mountain east of the Mississippi.  There is a seasonal road to get up there, but the Appalachian Trail crosses over Clingman’s Dome as well.

The night sky at Clingman's Dome.
The night sky at Clingman’s Dome.

There is a 45 foot observation tower to make sure that you get a chance to see as far as you can (on some days over 100 miles).  Just seven miles from the Newfound Gap Road (Route 441) (Newfound Gap is the lowest altitude drivable pass through the Great Smokey Mountains) that traverses the park from south-east to north-west.   Just along this road to the south-east is the Smokemont campground and the start of the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway that runs from there to Charlottesville, VA (Right up along by the Shenandoah National Park).

The 'Tree of Shame' at Deal's Gap motorcycle resort.
The ‘Tree of Shame’ at Deal’s Gap motorcycle resort.

On the western end of the Park is the (infamous) ‘Tail of the Dragon’ road (Route 115) from Chilhowe, TN to Cheoah Dam, NC.  This section of road has been seen as a ‘proving ground’ for motorcyclists and sports car drivers as it borders the Park and has thus stayed undeveloped.  This 11 mile section of roadway has nearly 320 curves to it, and even with the reduction of the speed limit from 55 to 30 miles per hour, there are numerous accidents, commemorated at the ‘Tree of Shame’ at Deal’s Gap Motorcycle Resort, decorated with bits of wrecks.

So lots of scenic drives and hikes through the area, but just over 100 miles to the south is the:

 

The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History
The General
The General

An affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History of Kennesaw, GA, houses The General, a famous locomotive stolen by Union spies during the Civil War who tried to run it to Chatanooga, TN, a story that inspired Buster Keaton’s 1926 silent movie The General.  And while much of the museum is apparently built around preserving the historic locomotive, it also focuses on how important the supplies and mobility provided by railroad networks were for both sides during the Civil War.  They even have an machineworks exhibit that details the process of building a locomotive, from casting to assembly.

 

And, because it’s available, here is the full-length comedy classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilPk-SCHv30

Rebuilding a school bus into a rolling house.