Monday, March 05, 2012

A New Chapter • NASAV Ends

After living, full time, for six years in the NASAV motor home, it became time to retire her from service.

Eight years ago the idea of moving out of the city and retiring to the RV lifestyle was planned on paper and NASAV was born. It is an acronym which stands for North American Surrealistic Adventure Vehicle.

My idea of constructing a recording studio in a 27.foot motor home was challenging. However, it is amazing that I created a very top-class and productive studio inside of 6x5.feet of space! There are photos on my blog here; try searching the word "studio".

Prior to our purchasing the motor home, I created the NASAV logo which initially began on a yellow legal pad. I hand drew the general idea of the logo font along side of an American flag. The first mock-up was drawn using pencil and Sharpie marker, while the American flag was quickly sketched using Crayola crayons. Soon, the NASA worm font was introduced for the logo letters. I acquired the font from a disgruntled, retired, ex-employee at NASA who wanted me to have the original PostScript font. The lettering was constructed and edited using Adobe Illustrator version.9 and the .AI file was emailed to a vinyl lettering shop. They special ordered a flat.black.rubbery vinyl for the lettering. The flags were custom ordered from a store that only sells American flags and flag accessories, including flag stickers.

It was only a couple weeks after the final logo mock-up on the wall above the 8.foot computer table that we purchased the motor home. During our first two weeks living in the RV we prepared and applied the NASAV lettering and American flags. The truck's engine hood, front grille, all bumpers, wheel skirts and trim that ran along the RV shell were are painted flat black.

We moved four times in six years and did not travel as much as we had originally planned. This was because we found some VERY nice places to live where the air ranks 9th place in the entire United.States and we had unparalleled privacy.

Moving out of NASAV was bittersweet and a new chapter has began as we take residence in a very quaint small house nearby.

The new location offers tremendous studio space which I feel will enable much faster production of my up and coming record album slated for Q4.2012.

HHNET