Day 3 of the 2014 GLAMARAMA kicked off with coffee and doughnuts at 7:30 AM. Those attendees going on the morning tour of the Jayco factory had to assemble early. We had coffee and visited with friends until the vendors opened at 9:00 AM.
At the 2013 GLAMARAMA last September I had decided to buy a small video camera/recorder to mount on the inside of the windshield and record what is happening in front of the coach. By the time I went to buy it on the last day at 3:00 PM the vendors were closed. I did not make the same mistake this time and bought one this morning. We still need to get a 32 GB high speed SD card to go with it.
We had spotted some Velcro straps at another vendor and decided to buy a pair to use for securing the Pressure Pro TPMS repeater to the inside rear view mirror in our Honda Element. The same vendor had an LED light that looked like it might fit in our downlights. They loaned us one to try. It fit well and the light was OK. I returned the sample and bought a new one. Lloyd De Gerald had his Aqua-Hot service booth right next to the Aqua-Hot factory booth and I purchased an inline secondary fuel filter from him.
Michele Henry from Phoenix Paint ordered some silver (white) reflective tape for us as it was on sale and we thought it might look OK around the lower portion of our bus. (There is a channel on all of the lower body panels, as well as the front and rear bumpers, where this reflective tape is intended to go.) Our hope was that the tape would reflect the adjacent paint color while making the bus much more visible at night. Alas, it did not pick up the surrounding color and the tape was a little wider than the channel, which would complicate the installation. I did not see it, but Linda did, and did not like the way it looked.
Josh Leach specializes in interior projects and is currently working out the Phoenix Paint facility. He teamed up with Darin Hathaway (the Aqua-Hot technician who serviced our Aqua-Hot system on Monday) and Michele Henry (who painted our coach two years ago) to get a booth at the GLAMARAMA. We discussed our interior remodeling ideas and agreed to have him come by the coach to see it.
Just after noon Linda drove to the Whole Foods store in Mishawaka, Indiana to get ingredients for dishes she planned to serve back at the house on Sunday. I attended two seminars, both by Gary Bunzer (the RV Doctor). The first one was on balanced battery systems. The key concept of that seminar was that there are poor, OK, and optimal was to interconnect multiple batteries to form a battery bank of the required voltage and energy storage capacity (Amp-Hours). The second seminar was on controlling/eliminating holding tank odors. Linda dropped in on this one for a little while and then headed over to the reception for vendors and chapter officers. I joined her at the reception after the seminar concluded. Gary has published a column somewhere on RV maintenance and operation every month for the last 38 years.
The vendor and chapter officers reception was very nice, with fresh fruit and veggies, cheese and crackers, some deli meats, and a choice of wines. We returned to our coach for a little while after the reception before heading over to the evening entertainment. Keith Longbothum and his sidekick, an excellent harmonica player, put on a high energy show that was initially Nashville country but morphed into gospel and patriotic. One thing I noticed about entertainment tonight and on Wednesday was the use of pre-recorded instrumental soundtracks which make it possible for a small ensemble to produce a very full sound without having to pay a lot of musicians.
There was a door prize drawing after the entertainment. We did not win. The head of the parking crew also gave instructions for departure on Sunday.