Tag Archives: 50/50 drawing

2014/06/14 (S) Day 4 Rally Conclusion

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Each rally has a slightly different approach to food.  On the last full day of the GLAMARAMA they switch the breakfast carbohydrate delivery mechanism from donuts to pancakes and serve them with sausage links.  The coffee and tea are still there, of course, so we had coffee.  Other rallies, like the Escapades, have a “hitch up” breakfast on the day of departure, with coffee and donuts.  When Nick and Terry Russell were running their Gypsy Journal Gathering rallies they also had coffee and donuts on departure day as I recall.

In order to serve a lot of pancakes to a lot of people in a relatively short period of time GLAMARAMA hires a specialized food service.  The one they hired this year had long griddles with an overhead depositor that moved the length of the griddle like a gantry crane.  It would precisely deposit the batter to make a row of 5″ pancakes.  The operator would then move it by hand and deposit the next row, repeating this as they moved along the griddle.  Another worker followed behind the depositor with a pancake turner (flapjack flipper) and turned the pancakes when they were done on the first side.  Although hand labor was still involved it was an efficient, high volume, production process that did not require an army of volunteers.

When we were done drinking coffee and chatting Linda headed back to our motorcoach to prepare food for our family gathering on Sunday afternoon.  I headed over to the seminar building for a presentation by Jason and Nikki Wynn of Gone with the Wynn’s.  They were joined by Chris Dunphy and Cherie Ve Ard of Technomadia and did a panel discussion on earning income on the road.  They also covered work-camping and volunteering in exchange for a camp site.  They did an excellent job, relaxed and low key, and streamed the event live to the web.  The logins indicated that 68 people viewed the presentation online, which was probably more people than were in the room.

Geeks on Tour got their flash drives in (Nick and Terry Russell brought them down from Elkhart).  I wanted to restart our subscription, but wanted the flash drive instead of the CD as Linda needed it to store some files.  I ended up with both.  Their Tutorial Video series ( http://geeksontour.tv ) is an amazing resource for learning how to use a wide range of technologies for Planning, Preserving, and Sharing you RV adventures.

At 10:45 AM I met with Jerry Yates, Executive Director of FMCA, in my role as a member of the national education committee, to talk about RVillage.  It also gave me a chance to further explore making online education available to FMCA members, such as that provided by the Geeks On Tour, either directly from the FMCA website or through discounted subscriptions to provider websites.

Linda helped Alma Baker get situated for the Fleetwood hot dog lunch and had a tomato and onion sandwich while she was there.  I had a couple of tofu hot dogs in our coach and eventually headed over to a 1:30 PM seminar on 120 VAC by Gary Bunzer.  It was very good, as usual, but by Saturday afternoon seminar attendance had thinned.  This was a repeat of a session he had done on Wednesday, so many attendees who wanted to see probably already had.

Linda hung around the coach waiting for Butch and Fonda, who drove over from Twelve Mile, Indiana to work with her on some aspects of their pending business sale.  I came back to the rig to say hello and around 4:45 PM we gathered up some hummus, chips, and beverages and headed over to the 5:00 PM RVillage get-together.  The volunteer dinner started at 4:30 PM, but we decided not to go as we knew there would be little-to-nothing we would be able to eat.

Nikki Wynn had scheduled the RVillage get-together in the Dog and Cat Pavilion and we ended up with a nice turnout of 17 people.  It was not a pot luck, but enough folks brought munchies and extra beverages that everyone had something.  We milled around conversing in shifting groups and eventually formed chairs into a (sort of) circle.  Chris Guld suggested we go around and introduce ourselves and say where we were when we were 15 years old and whether we had any notion that we would find ourselves where we are now.  It turned out to be a fun, low key, way to get to know each other by filing in a few personal details.

We disbanded by 6:30 PM, went back to our coach for a few minutes, and then headed over to the final evening’s entertainment.  The Walker Family hails from Nashville and we saw them a few years ago at the G.L.A.S.S. rally in Berrien Springs, Michigan.  Dad, mom, and seven kids; four girls and three boys.  The “girls” are now young women; two are married and one just had her first child.  They perform as “The Redhead Express.”  The boys are now 15, 13, and 11.  The older two play drums for their sisters and perform as a trio with guitar backup from one of their sisters.  Mom and dad joined the sisters for a couple of numbers, but the entire family never performed together.  My recollection was that they had the last time we saw them, but that’s been at least four years, maybe five, and Linda disagrees with my memory.  Regardless, they are very talented and put on a spirited show of country songs with a bit of gospel and patriotic stuff mixed in; just what you would expect from a Nashville-based group.  They did not, however, use any pre-recorded sound tracks.

Following the concert there were drawings for prizes and the 50/50 raffle.  The Grand Prize was a gift certificate for an 11-day Adventure Tours Mega-Rally worth $3,000 (one motorhome with two people).  One of our GLCC members won $200 in the raffle.  Those of us “camped” in the GLCC area gathered by our rigs after the drawings and stood around talking until it cooled of to the point that everyone was ready to retreat into their rigs for the evening.

 

2013_10_24 (F) 50/50

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We were up early this morning as Linda had to go to the bakery today.  I stopped by the post office on my way to Williamston and arrived around 9:15 AM.  Joe was already working on the coach and I got busy working on some small items.  I needed some WD-40 and neither of us had any, so it was off to the store.  As long as I was out I picked up coffee at Panera.  Yum.

No, today was not a 50/50 raffle, although those seem to be regular features of large RV rallies and ham radio meetings.  Today was a day of even odds as to whether new parts would solve some nagging bus problems.  As of the end of the work day the score was parts 0, problems 2.  That doesn’t mean the day was wasted, not at all.  We have a new governor (pressure regulator/controller) on the main engine air compressor and a new speedometer sensor on the transmission.  We also had a new hub gasket on the driver-side drive axle and dynamic wheel balances on all six positions.  The chassis had been lubed, the side-view mirrors had been tightened, the entrance door latches were tightened, and the passenger-side engine compartment door latch assembly was lubricated, as were all of the bay key locks.  That’s a lot of stuff taken of.

The auxiliary air system, however, still bled down quickly to just under 100 PSI each time the air-dryer purged and then slowly built up pressure to 130 PSI and the repeated the cycle.  I called Joe as soon as I got home to let him know.  He called someone that he relies on for advice and was told that it was most likely the unloader valve in the head of the air compressor.  The valve is not an expensive part, but replacing it requires a lot of labor.  The air compressor is bolted to the transmission end of the main engine block and the head is tied in to the engine cooling system, so not only is it difficult to get to (in a bus), the coolant (antifreeze) has to be drained at least to the point where the air compressor head is empty so it can be removed without making a huge mess.  Ugh.

As for the transmission speed sensor, the speedometer continued its bizarre, random behavior as I drove.  It stayed at zero (0) MPH when I first started driving, as it usually does, then jumped around erratically independent of vehicle speed, then decided to sit at 85 MPH (maximum on the gauge) regardless of vehicle speed, and then jumped around a bit up there.  It never did settle in to the correct speed on the whole trip back.  In other words, exactly what it was doing before we changed the sensor.  Ugh, ugh.  But at least we know the problem is somewhere else.

Chuck drove out to Williamston from Novi and arrived just before 1:00 PM.  Joe needed to test drive the 2002 Prevost XL LeMirage he’d been working on, so he drive the three of us to lunch in it.  That was the first time I had ridden in an XL and the first time I had ridden in a converted coach powered by a Detroit Diesel Series 60 engine.  The ride was very nice and the engine obviously had a lot of torque.  The thing I noticed most, however, was how quiet it was without windshield and door gasket air leaks.

While Joe finished the front end work I finished putting trim back on the wheels, packed up my tools, and reloaded the car and the bays.  With all of the work done, Joe guided me out of the garage and I pulled around into the driveway where I could hook up the car without blocking anyone.  Eventually there was nothing left to do but pay Joe and leave, so that’s what I did.

Centramatic dynamic wheel balancer on driver-side front wheel.

Centramatic dynamic wheel balancer on driver-side front wheel.

I got back to house late afternoon, got the car unhooked, unloaded the bus and the car, stripped the bed, and started a load of laundry.  Retirement may mean that someone else fixes your bus, but it doesn’t mean that some else does your laundry.

I did not get a chance to winterize our coach while it was in Williamston.  Overnight low temperatures have been dropping down near freezing, and were forecast for the upper 20’s tonight.  The living area in the coach will stay above freezing just from retained heat and the heat put out by the refrigerator, but I was less sure about the bays.  There are still water lines in the front bay from the old combo washer/dryer so I turned on the electric bay heater.  The water tank bay does not have an electric heater, which I thought was odd, until I realized the Aqua-Hot is in test bay and has an electric heating element, so I turned that back on as well.

Linda left the bakery around 5:00 PM, which put her in the middle of the afternoon rush.  I’m not sure why it’s called rush hour since traffic mostly moves slowly or not at all.  While on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia last week we were reminded of similar reversals, made famous by George Carlin, such as why we drive on Parkways and park on driveways.  And we wonder why non-native speakers gave trouble with English?  I sat on the couch and worked on this blog posting and Juniper (our female cat) curled up beside and went to sleep; very unusual for her.  We had a heavy downpour of rain and sleet that lasted for 20 minutes, but Linda finally made it home at 6:37 PM.

Dinner was pan grilled onions and extra firm tofu slices in Bar-B-Que sauce served on a whole wheat bun with a mixed green salad, a few Tostitos whole grain dipping chips, salsa, and a small glass of white wine.  The odds of that being a really tasty meal were much higher than 50/50.  Simple yet simply delicious.

2013_09_20 (Fri) Techs and Trains

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The Frustrated Maestros perform each day at breakfast.

The Frustrated Maestros perform each day at breakfast.

I was up early again working on blog posts and finally uploaded several pertaining to early last week.  By the time Linda got up it was time to walk over and get some coffee.  We tried to catch Michael Canode before his 9:00 AM seminar on digital photograph, but did not get there in time.  I missed his seminar yesterday on designing and publishing website, but he offered to bring a copy of the handouts to today’s seminar.

Breakfast was coffee and donuts (rear) with “concert” and table seating.

Breakfast was coffee and donuts (rear) with “concert” and table seating.

We headed back to the vendor area, found Lloyd De Gerald, and paid him for the annual maintenance he did on our Aqua-Hot yesterday.  We also bought a replacement nozzle to keep on hand.  Lloyd suggested that we have the spare nozzle installed at our next annual service and buy another one to replace it at that time.  His experience has been that nozzles that sit unused for too long often do work well when they are finally installed.

The morning was overcast and a bit dreary, so there were not a lot of folks talking to the outside vendors.  We took the opportunity to chat with Lloyd about our interior remodeling plans and asked him what issues we should anticipate in moving the heat exchangers.  He said that the coolant loops can be difficult to prime if they get drained and suggested that once we had re-plumbed everything it might be best for us to have him refill and start the system.

He also indicated that we could have up to three heat exchangers on each of the three zones (bedroom, bathroom, and living room / kitchen.)  We have one heat exchanger in the bedroom, one in the bathroom, and two in the living room.  We also have radiators in the water bay and the front storage bay.  Lloyd indicated that the water bay was probably plumbed in with the bathroom and the front bay was probably plumbed in with the LR/kitchen, but that was not guaranteed.  It should be easy enough to determine this by turning on the Aqua-Hot and then activating one zone at a time and checking for heat; I just haven’t bothered to do this yet.  He suggested that we add heat exchangers to have three per loop, and that we replace the radiators in the bays with heat exchangers (which have fans).  He also said the newer heat exchangers are smaller and much quieter than the ones that are probably in our bus conversion, and that we should probably replace those as well when we remodel the passenger side of the kitchen/LR area.

We needed to kill some time before Michael’s seminar ended, so we strolled through the inside vendor building again.  The FMCA booth had shirts on sale, and they were even cheaper with our “rally bucks” coupons, so we bought a matching pair of plum pocket Ts.  (The matching clothes phenomenon gets a double whammy due to age and RVing sub-culture.)  We caught up with Michael at the end of his photography seminar.  Someone had taken the handout he brought so he e-mailed the PowerPoint file to me.  We ran into Butch and Fonda.  Butch and I decided to wander over to Ron & Meredith Walker’s coach to see if we could fix the new door latch.  The part arrived yesterday from Prevost and Ron had installed it, but it wasn’t working quite right.  Butch saw what was wrong right away and corrected it.  We then returned to our buses where Linda and I had leftover pizza for lunch and I took a nap.  (That’s the problem with getting up really, really early; not that I consider taking a nap a problem.)

The Blue Ox technician showed up mid-afternoon to service our Avanti II tow bar and brought my nap to an end.  The tow bar is showing signs of stretching in the latch pin holes and will apparently need to be replaced sooner rather than later; but not today.  He completely disassembled the tow bar, cleaned it thoroughly, added new rub plates (washer), lubricated it, and reassembled it.  I thought that was a pretty good deal for $25.  Since I was now awake again, I did more work on blog postings and we had more leftover pizza for dinner.

I have been remiss in not saying more about the trains going past the fairgrounds. The trains have been so constant here that I am hardly aware of them anymore and keep forgetting to mention them.  The tracks run along the southern edge of the fairgrounds and the trains seem to be almost constant at times.  Linda read online that a train passes through Goshen approximately every 6 minutes, presumably headed to or from the Chicago area to points east and south of here.  These are often medium length trains traveling fairly fast in both directions and the sound their horns long and loud at every crossing, of which there appear to be a very large number.

Linda talking with Alma Baker (L) and George and Sue Myers (R) at the reception for officers and vendors.

Linda talking with Alma Baker (L) and George and Sue Myers (R) at the reception for officers and vendors.

We went to a 4:15 PM reception for officers and vendors.  This was a “ticketed” event, and we got to attend because Linda is the Treasurer of the Great Lakes Converted Coaches, which is organized under GLAMA, and I am the VP/Secretary of the Freethinkers Associate Chapter, which is organized under the International Area (INTO).  This was another new feature at this rally, and was another example of how FMCA and its area associations are trying to recognize those who serve and make FMCA function.

Officers reception in the food hall, hor d’oeuvres and beverages on the left, seating on the right.

Officers reception in the food hall, hor d’oeuvres and beverages on the left, seating on the right.

FMCA has 11 areas and almost 500 chapters, but many of the members do not belong to a chapter and/or have never been to a rally.  Not that chapters and rallies are for everyone, but FMCA is very much aware that members who do not get involved in a chapter and/or attend an occasional rally often do not remain long-term members.  And why should they?  If you don’t engage with the people that are the organization, the benefit of membership boils down to a monthly magazine.  This is essentially our relationship with the Good Sam Club up to this point.  Our Good Sam membership is paid through 2017, but I don’t know if we will renew it at that time.  We have, however, met several people over the last few months that recently attended Good Sam rallies and said they were excellent and that they had a great time.  Of course, endorsements are like movie reviews, not very meaningful unless/until you can calibrate your taste with that of the reviewer.

The last light of the day.

The last light of the day.

The reception provided enough food for our dinner and we returned to our coach to relax before going to the evening entertainment.  The last light of the day turned dramatic as we were preparing to leave.  The featured performer for the evening entertainment was Sarah Getto, assisted by her father, who drives her motorhome, sets up the equipment, and runs the sound board.  He is also a guitarist and adds guitar and vocals to some of her songs.  Blind from birth and born with a cleft palette and lip, she is now an attractive, talented, 29 year old singer/songwriter with a music education degree that included training as an opera singer  Her preferred vocal style, however, tends to lean towards country, although she does a very good impersonation of Karen Carpenter.  She has much richer sound on stage than you would expect from a solo keyboard, as she prerecords richly layered sound tracks and then performs along with them.  All of the vocal and instrumental work on these sound tracks is done by her, and her dad was very transparent about the process Sarah uses to create her shows.  We enjoyed her performance along with the rest of the audience.

The evening concluded with a 50/50 drawing and door prizes.  We didn’t win anything, but that was OK.