Hey, hey, hey – we have launch. As with everything it took a little longer than anticipated to get Gyrtle off of her jacks. And, I had problems with two tires – one on Gyrtle and one on my truck. In order to take care of things my wonderful assistant – Mike Ring – and I had to set up the compressor to fill the tires. This entailed going to Lowe’s to get “fixin’s”.
Once we had the tools we needed we noticed that the air wasn’t really filling the tire – and then we heard a faint hissing from the valve. In a way it was good to find out right away what the problem was – a bad valve. So then we needed to get the tire off and put on the spare. I thank God for strong young men – specifically for Mike. Even he tore up his hand applying the needed pressure to loosen the nuts on the tire.
The tire on my truck wouldn’t fill completely so I’ll go today to where I can get more pressure. But that tire is holding enough pressure to drive Gyrtle to a station. Or maybe Allfleet will be able to fill ‘er up for me.
So, the truck was attached to Gyrtle with no problems. We saw the flat and the low tire and took care of those. We moved all the materials that had been stored under the trailer and then we completed removing all the other jack stands and supports until my home was settled onto terra firma via her own wheels and the truck! You will see from the photos that the springs held up and the tires didn’t squish. Yaaay!
Of course, I’ll still be adding a number of thousands of pounds with my batteries, generator, propane tanks, solar panels and interior finishing, and of course my personal belongings. But, I feel all is well.
Yesterday was a different sort of 4th of July here in Colorado Springs. After the tremendous Waldo Canyon fire and it’s devastation things were pretty quiet – no fireworks anywhere, no barbecues allowed. There was a big concert at the World Arena with the symphony, the cowboys from the Flying W Ranch (which was burned out) and a number of other local musicians to raise money for the displaced people. I must give a shout out to the amazingly virtuosic yodeler – I’ve never heard anything like that before.
The great work of the firefighters is hailed over and over. Many homes were saved by their good work and the fire now is 80% contained (or more). It was kind of nice to have quiet acknowledgement of freedom, community, the importance of paying attention to and caring for the earth and lots of gratitude.
TTFN
Gypsy Turtle Journal 
It’s getting to look a lot like home. Congratulations!
At least on the outside!