Tag Archives: BCM

2014/03/06 (R) A Change of Plans

Our coach has eight awing style windows, four in the living room and four in the bedroom. Two of the living room windows and two of the bedroom windows are fogged, and one of the living room windows has standing water in it as a result of very heavy rain today. I finally got around to calling Suncoast Designers in Hudson, Florida this morning. They manufacture windows and repair/rebuild RV windows. They have been recommended to us by several different friends as THE place to have our fogged thermopane bus windows fixed. I had also been told that they might not work on our windows because it is a Prevost.

It took a few minutes on the phone, but they eventually concluded that they could repair our windows due to age of the bus, i.e., it was old enough that they could work on it. This was one of those rare cases where older was better. The first available appointment was April 8, so I took it. I was told to plan for 3 – 5 days to complete the work on the four windows. We have to arrive on the 7th so they can start first thing the next morning. They have water/electric hookups and a dump station provided at no (additional) charge for customers having work done. If I had called in January (like I should have) we could probably have gotten an April 1 appointment; no fooling.

My main focus for today was to wrap up my article for Bus Conversions Magazine on the Cool Cruiser, a 1957 GM PD4106 that belongs to Frank and Phyfi Morrison. Of course there was a constant flow of e-mail as well as breaks for food and games. I can focus for a long time on a task if have to (and want to). One of the nicest things about retirement is that I rarely have to, and I am learning not to want to, at least not all of the time. But I am enjoying writing for BCM, so for now this is something I want to do. The article I finished yesterday on the Iron Horse was the first one I have written about someone else’s bus. The one I worked on today was the second. I have a third one in the queue and several offers out to help other friends. I also have a dozen articles in process or planned on our various bus projects, places we have been (Harvest Hosts), and things we have done (Habitat For Humanity build).

Hudson, Florida is approximately 2 hours SSW of Williston, so it only made sense for us to stay here until April 7th if possible. By early afternoon there was a lull in the rain so I went to the Resort office to see if we could extend our stay for six nights through the night of April 6th. The answer was “yes” and we will be able to stay in our current site. They charged us the daily rate equivalent of our 3-month rate; about half the normal daily rate. Williston Crossings RV Resort continues to be a very nice place to stay.

The Cool Cruiser article still needed a lot of work as I had not yet selected, processed, inserted, and captioned the photographs. I worked on that, off and on, the rest of the day and late into evening, but did not finish the job. Oh well, tomorrow’s another day.

2014/03/05 (W) Rainy Day Work

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The weather turned cool and wet and was forecast to stay that way through Friday. The cloud cover must have been thick as the light level was very subdued all day. I do not, however, find such days to be dreary. They are good days for hunkering down and working, and the bus is a good place to do that.

The coach is a more intimate place to work than most houses. We live in close contact with the outdoors. When it rains you see it and hear it. When the wind blows you see it, hear it, and feel it. The bus has a lot of front and side window area and we are rarely more than four feet from one (the coach is only eight feet wide inside). It also has four translucent skylights and three ceiling vent/fans with clear covers, so there is plenty of light even on overcast days. There is also always a view; all we have to do is look. A bonus is that the subdued, low contrast light is actually better for working at a computer, being easier on the eyes with less glare.

I have been working on a couple of “featured bus” articles for Bus Conversions Magazine and today seemed like a good day to start wrapping them up. The article on the Iron Horse, Jimmy and Sadie Clay’s Model 10 Eagle conversion, the Iron, was nearest to completion so I worked on that one. It took the whole day and evening but I tied up all the loose ends and uploaded everything to the Dropbox folder I use for the magazine and still got to bed at a reasonable hour (for me).

2014/02/10 (M) A Day Of Firsts

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It was a near perfect day weather-wise, and a pretty decent day in all other respects. We woke to clear skies with temperatures in the upper 40’s but by late morning it was 70 and gained a few more degrees by late afternoon. Winds were very light from no particular direction and there were very few flying bugs. We had a leisurely morning with our usual coffee and granola. We took showers. Linda vacuumed. I opened the awnings on the coach to let them air out and dry, with assistance from Linda for the patio awning. This was only the second time we have deployed the awnings since we left home, and the first time we planned to leave them open as rain is predicted for only one day in the next 7 to 10 days.

Linda continued with her cross-stitch project and I dealt with e-mail, website, and technology issues. Bill was unable to clear the error codes on Pat & Vickie’s DDEC I engine computer so I e-mailed Butch, who also has a DDEC I, and provided some additional guidance. Bill indicated that they needed wiring diagrams, which Pat did not have. Bill had them, but they were back home in Ontario. Doh! I have the diagrams with us on the Network Attached Storage device. They are all PDFs I got from Bill on a CD. I located the lists of drawing numbers, picked a half dozen that I thought might be what Pat needed, put them in a folder in our Dropbox, and e-mailed everyone back. Dropbox has turned out to be one of the better little pieces of technology in our cyber arsenal.

Around noon we walked to the Grocery Depot to pick up a few ingredients for dinner; a one mile round trip and the closest place to the RV resort to buy groceries. Linda prepared lunch and we ate outside; the first time the weather has been nice enough to do that since we got back to Williston Crossings on January 1st. We then sat outside to work; again, one of the rare days we have been able to do that. Mid-afternoon we went for a longer walk around the RV resort that included our first hike down into the quarry.

We noticed that WCRVR had installed a new sign just inside the new entrance to the resort off of FL-121. This is where the new section of park is being developed with ownership sites that will be available for purchase. The sign said “The Reserve at Williston Crossings” so apparently that is how they plan to market these sites. The sign is framed on either side with a new wood rail fence and plants, all of which looks very nice. The first two sites have had paver blocks added to the concrete pads to dress them up a bit; presumably as demo sites to show prospective owners what can be done if they so choose. It will be interesting to see what else they do in this area before of the park before leave.

When we returned to our coach we continued to sit outside to work and just enjoy the day. Although the park is quiet and peaceful, it is not silent during the day. We rarely hear other residents (talk or music) but there are always folks walking or riding bikes, and maintenance work being done by resort staff and residents. We are near the south/old entrance so when we are here we see all of the rigs coming and going that way. We saw more people out tending their sites or cleaning their vehicles than on past walks. And there are birds—lots of birds—and with the sunnier, warmer weather they have had a lot to say.

Eventually, inevitably, as afternoon faded into evening it cooled off and we lost our light. We retreated inside, had dinner, and watched Antiques Road Show on Gainesville PBS while working on projects (cross-stitch and BCM) before retiring for the night. Linda made a delicious acorn squash stuffed with white rice and mushrooms, and onions and we opened our bottle of Blueberry Rhubarb Wine from Forestedge Winery (LaPorte, MN). We have been spending time at the resort on less than ideal weather days so we could use good weather days to go exploring. We enjoyed finally spending a nice day at home.

2014/02/08 (S) Uptime

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We had heavy rain off and on overnight and woke this morning to steady showers so I decided to delay doing the laundry until later in the day. After making the morning coffee, which serves as Linda’s alarm clock, I finished my blog post for yesterday and updated the BCM page of our website while Linda concentrated on her counted cross-stitch project. The amount of time that goes into a handcraft project like this is considerable, but she enjoys it and actually finds it relaxing. The recipient of this effort will be our 14 month old grand-daughter (and her parents) who took her first unassisted steps yesterday. Her parents captured it on a cell phone camera and sent it to us. Although Linda is not looking forward to returning to S. E. Michigan weather, she is eager to see Madeline and wants to have her cross-stitch project finished, or close enough to done that she can finish it while she is home.

Our BCM website page has a reverse chronological listing of all the issues of Bus Conversions Magazine that contain articles I have written. Today I added the listings for the January and February 2014 issues, including the Special Edition of the January issue that BCM produced for distribution via the Great Lakes Area Motorcoach Association (GLAMA) newsletter. The January issue cover story was my article on the GLAMARAMA 2013 rally back in September 2013 at the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds in Goshen, Indiana. The February issue cover story was my article on the Arcadia Bus Rally 2014 that was held at the Turner Agri-Civic Center in Arcadia, Florida December 29 – 31, 2013. I posted extensively about these two rallies and those posts are still available in the blog archive.

Bus Conversions Magazine is continuing to evolve under the ownership of publisher Gary Hall and editor Mike Sullivan. Starting with the January 2014 issue the digital edition now contains additional content and features not found in the print edition. Although Gary hopes/plans to expand the print edition, he needs more subscribers and advertisers to justify the added printing and mailing costs. The digital edition, however, now features additional photographs and clickable advertisements with plans to add links to videos and other content as it becomes available. Starting with the February issue, the digital edition is now available in Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD) versions as PDF files. The difference between the SD and HD versions is the resolution of the photographs, which the reader can click to enlarge. Both versions are available to online subscribers for download but only the SD version is available as an e-mail attachment; the HD version must be downloaded from the BCM website.

In the afternoon I updated the accounting records and roster for our FMCA Freethinkers chapter and did a small load of laundry. I heard some additional complaints about the park Wi-Fi. We can connect and log in with our individual devices and we can connect our WiFiRanger, but not log in. The technician told me a few weeks ago he had not done anything to specifically block a device like a WiFiRanger (booster/repeater) but I suspect he has. An e-mail to WiFiRanger is in order to see if they are aware of any way a Wi-Fi system could detect that their device is something other than just another Wi-Fi client.

We had an Asian soba noodle dish with tofu and scallions dish for dinner that we bought at the Earth Origins market in Gainesville earlier in the week. We finished dinner at 6:30 PM, poured a couple glasses of moscato, and headed over to the fire pit. As seems to be the pattern there were more people than last night, maybe 30 at any given time with a little bit of turnover. Kevin had a good fire going and John brought his guitar. John is recovering from something respiratory and still doesn’t have his singing voice back, so tonight became a sing-along. We met another first-timer WCRVR couple from South Bend, Indiana who owned the KOA there until 2005 and I had a nice chat with the husband about the business of running a campground. A couple from London, Ontario sat down next to Linda and she had a nice chat with the wife. By 9:00 PM the declining heat of the fire wasn’t keeping up with advancing cool of the evening and we retired to our coach for the evening.

2014/02/07 (F) Downtime

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Earlier in the week we were making plans to go to Crystal River today with John and Marian Hagan but by Wednesday evening realized that being out three days in a row would be too much and put us too far behind on various tasks. Besides, the weather forecast for Friday was for cold, overcast, rainy conditions; not ideal for exploring and hiking, especially when we had the option of going some other time. The forecast for Saturday was even worse, but the forecast for Sunday looked much better and turned out to be a better day for them anyway. We would have had to be back early today anyway as tonight was pizza night and our pickup time was 6:30 PM, so we stayed home today and planned to stay home tomorrow as well. I did not take any photos today.

Linda concentrated on her cross-stitch, went for a walk, and took a call from Butch, who had another potential buyer for their business (Linda helps them with accounting and tax returns). I worked on e-mails and blog posts and had a couple of phone calls and e-mails with Pat, who had a relay replaced in their bus and needed someone to clear the fault codes in the DDEC I engine computer. Unfortunately the only cartridge I had for our Pro-Link was for a DDEC II / III. Pat had already called Prevost’s Nashville service facility and they did not have a code reader for a DDEC I. I suggested that he contact Bill in Orange City. As I blogged in late December, Bill has a newer diagnostic instrument with cartridges for every DDEC version, as well as Allison transmissions, and was camped relatively close to Walt Disney World. I also suggested Prevost’s Jacksonville service center and Florida Detroit Diesel Allison in Jacksonville, both of which are only an hour from Fort Wilderness.

With the January 2014 issue Bus Conversions Magazine started adding additional content to the digital edition which they send out as a PDF or allow online (registered) users to download. With the February 2014 issue they began offering the digital edition in two versions; Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD). The SD/HD editions has expanded content compared to the print edition, most of which is additional photographs with the photos in the HD version being much higher resolution than the in the SD version. They have also made the advertisements live links to the advertisers’ websites and plan to add video and other expanded content in the future. I had an old login for Bus Conversions Magazine that no longer worked so BCM set up an online subscription for me so I could access the online only HD version. My old login did not work for the BBS/Forum either so I also registered for that.

Volunteers at Williston Crossings RV Resort (WCRVR) make pizzas to order every Friday using the clubhouse kitchen, which has a small conveyor type pizza oven. Orders have to be placed by 4:00 PM on Thursday and are for a specific pickup time. We decided to give this a try after our neighbors described how it works and told us the pizzas were pretty good. We ordered one with mushrooms and onions, hold the cheese, and asked for thin crust.

Friday and Saturday evenings are campfire nights at WCRVR so we had a salad at 6:00 PM, picked up our pizza at 6:30 PM, and headed to the fire pit. The pizza was big enough for two people to split, only cost $6.00, and was partly a social thing. Kevin, John, and Ali were there along with a few other folks. Kevin had a nice fire going and John had his guitar. We ate our pizza and then Linda got us a couple of glasses of Moscato. WCRVR is not over programmed, but there are plenty of things to do here if you want to join in. Of all the nice things at Williston Crossings RV Resort, the Friday and Saturday evening campfires have been the nicest, with John, Jeff, and others providing musical entertainment. And they have been best when they were more lightly attended, which has been the case on these cool, damp evenings, allowing for more and better conversation.

After we returned to our coach for the evening we turned on the TV and watched a couple of interesting shows on PBS while I finished creating the blog posts for the two preceding days. Such are our days at WCRVR in Florida.

2014/02/05 (W) Jacksonville (FL)

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Prevost Service Center, Jacksonville, FL.

Prevost Car Inc has a major service and parts facility in Jacksonville, Florida and had the (one way) check valve I needed in stock. Jacksonville is a major metropolitan area in the northeast corner of Florida, about two hours northeast of Williston. We took FL-121 to Gainesville where we picked up FL-24 over to US-301 northbound at Waldo. US-301 runs up to the west edge of Jacksonville, but the Prevost service center is in the southeast part of town, so the GPS routed us onto FL-16 at Starke and then onto FL-21 and up to I-295 eastbound. We found the facility easily and ended up having a nice chat with Dann Wiltgen, the VP of Pre-owned Seated Coach Sales and New Key Accounts, who we bumped into at the coffee station.

At the parts counter Service Advisor Jennifer Beardslee got the check valve and also pulled the new auxiliary air filter assembly for me to see. I decided to buy it, but had to order the mounting bracket from Canada as it was not in stock anywhere in the U. S. This was the first time we had been to any Prevost facility so I took a few pictures of the exterior before we left.

Looking north from North Beach at Little Talbot Island SP (FL).

Our business concluded at Prevost we got back on I-295 headed north. Just after crossing back over the river/bay we headed east on FL-105 (Heckscher Dr.). We crossed Little Marsh Island, Pine Island, and Fanning Island before Ft. George Island and Ft. George Island State Park. Fl-105 joins up with FL-A1A which runs along the coast and includes a ferry to the south side of the inlet. But we were headed north to Little Talbot Island State Park, which occupies the entire Little Talbot Island.

Us on the boardwalk at North Beach, Little Talbot Island SP (FL).

We stopped at the Little Talbot Island ranger station, trailhead, and beach area, parked, and walked out to the shore on a boardwalk across low dunes. The weather was pleasant enough and we had a nice stroll down the beach and took a few photos. We continued on to Big Talbot Island, most of which is Big Talbot Island SP. We parked at the trailhead for the Big Pine Trail and hiked out to the marsh through a beautiful forest. This area had been most for a while and was very green. I took a few photos, but it’s difficult to capture the nature of such a place which is both grand and intimate at the same time. Lenses do not “see” the world the same way our eyes do.

The Big Pine Trail at Big Talbot Island SP (FL).

From Big Talbot Island we crossed to Amelia Island, the southern tip of which was Amelia Island SP and the location of the George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier SP. The GCBFPSP is the former bridge connecting the toe Islands. When a new bridge was built the state left the old one, closed it to vehicle traffic, and made it a state park. Thus was another example of why the Florida State Parks system is the only two-time winner of the award for best state park system in the U. S.

The marsh at the end of the Big Pine Trail, BTISP (FL).

As we left Amelia Island SP for the Nassau area we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of a very high-end resort community. FL-A1A eventually joined up with FL-200 headed west towards Yulee and across I-95 to Callahan where it becomes US-301/FL-200 headed SSE through the west edge of Jacksonville and then on to Gainesville and Ocala. Along the way it passes through the little town of Lawtey. About 5 miles north of Lawtey there is a billboard warning drivers of the “Lawtey Speedtrap.” We thought it might be a gimmick ad for a restaurant, but it turned out be an actual warning. As we entered Lawtey there were dings saying “Speed Strictly Enforced” and a Lawtey police car checking vehicle speeds. We don’t speed when. We drive, so we were not at risk of being trapped, but I don’t understand why states permit little towns to do this sort of thing. Law enforcement should not be a major source of revenue for any municipality; it distorts the whole purpose and process of law enforcement.

Fungal growth on a dead tree along the Big Pine Trail at BTISP (FL).

I had received the Feb 2014 issue of Bus Conversions Magazine a couple of days ago with my article on the Arcadia Bus Rally as the cover/centerfold story. Many of my photos were used for the expanded digital edition and I had several e-mails going back and forth with Gary Hall, the owner/publisher, and Mike Sullivan, the editor, as is often the case. Starting with the January 2014 issue they are producing three separate versions of the magazine. The print version is currently 32 full-color glossy pages. Gary would like to up the page count, but needs to build the subscriber/advertiser base to do that. The digital edition now cones in two versions, SD and HD, both of which have expanded content over the print version, especially photographs. The SD (Standard Definition) version is e-mailed to subscribers and can also be downloaded by online subscribers. The HD (High Definition) version has the same content as the SD version, but the photographs are much higher resolution, and can only be downloaded. The SD version for Feb 2014 was ~10 MB while the HD version was ~ 25 MB. They can be viewed online or downloaded as PDF files.

The beach at Amelia Island SP by the George Crady Fishing Bridge SP (FL). (4x4 vehicles permitted.)

The beach at Amelia Island SP by the George Crady Fishing Bridge SP (FL). (4×4 vehicles permitted.)

I also had some e-mail correspondence with Don and Kim Greene of Harvest Hosts. We received the February newsletter a couple of days ago and read that they were extending subscriptions for subscribers who mentioned the program on their websites or in their blogs. We stayed at four “hosts” in 2013 and blogged about each one of them. We also have Harvest Hosts listed on our website as one of our travel resources. The posts were a bit dated but I sent an e-mail with the direct links and they were kind enough to extend our subscription by four months. They also requested one of the photos from Acres of Land Winery and Restaurant to include on their Facebook and Flickr sites.

It seems that when our days are full they are full right up to the brim, and that’s OK. We’re tired at the end of such days, but it’s a good kind of tired.

2014/01/11 (S) Silver River State Park (FL)

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We finally had a day with some sunshine and no rain and Karen suggested that we go to Silver River State Park. Karen had been there many years ago and had fond memories of the place. The park is in Silver Springs, Florida on the eastern edge of Ocala, Florida, about 35 miles from our wintering grounds at the WCRV Resort in Williston, Florida. We left around 10 AM and were there by 10:45 AM. I have posted a photo gallery with today’s date in addition to this blog posting.

Silver River SP is large for an urban location and has two entrances. We went to the west entrance first. This is where the water park, springs, glass bottom boats, concessions, and entertainment facilities are located. There was also a major Ford car club show going on. We could not buy an annual pass at this entrance, however, so we drove to the east entrance. The east part of the park is where the campground, hiking trails, historic Cracker homestead, education facilities, and museum are located. We bought an annual park pass, good for admission of one vehicle with up to eight people at most of the Florida State Parks, went in, and parked at the trailhead area.

Silver Springs SP, Silver Springs, Florida.

Silver River SP, Silver Springs, Florida.

We had a leisurely stroll on the 1.9 mile Swamp Trail. The trail took us through pine Forest and cedar swamp to the south bank of the Silver River. There was a variety of interesting flora along the way (with an occasional explanatory placard) that Steve and I stopped to photograph. When we finished the hike we explored and photographed the Cracker homestead recreation, although none of the buildings were open.

Steve and Karen Limkemann., SRSP (FL).

While we were on the trail Linda got a call from our daughter. She was at our house and said the road was icy and the driveway had not been plowed. We had contracted with someone to take care of this in our absence and apparently they had not been there since the most recent heavy snows and extremely cold temperatures. I called the phone number we have and got a Verizon message indicating that the number had been changed, disconnected, or was no longer in service. Great (not).

Us at SSSP (FL). (Photo by Steve Limkemann.)

Us at SRSP (FL). (Photo by Steve Limkemann.)

We had gotten a referral for this snow removal service from the realtor who helped us by our house so I gave him a call. I made it clear that we understood that this was not his problem and we did not consider him in any way responsible, but if there was any way he could contact this guy and determine if he was still in business we would appreciate it. I thanked him, indicating that we really did not have anyone else we could call and appreciate any assistance he could provide. This is one of the potential downsides to being away from home in the winter, but no reason to spoil a good hike.

The World Famous Glass Bottom Boats, SSSP (FL).

The World Famous Glass Bottom Boats, SRSP (FL).

Our hiking done we returned to the east end of the park. This part of the park was once a private/commercial enterprise but is now a Florida State Park. The water park wasn’t open this time of year, but we were there to ride the famous glass bottom boats. The 30 minute ride gave us a great view of seven of the 20 springs that feed the Silver River. The water was crystal clear, so light penetrated easily to the bottom (as much as 55 feet down in the spring openings) and was teeming with aquatic life. A variety of birds were also there, especially Anhinga. We did not see any alligators, but we did see plenty of warning signs.

Ford car show at SRSP (FL).

The springs have been used for many years to film underwater scenes for movies, including one of the James Bond films. Most famous, however, was the Sea Hunt TV series starring Lloyd Bridges. All of the 120+ episodes were filmed in one particular spring that we were able to see.

Linda and Karen on the Swamp Tail, SSSP (FL).

Linda and Karen on the Swamp Tail, SRSP (FL).

The Ford car show had a lot of vehicles and a lot of people looking at them. One whole area was high performance Shelby Cobras with a Ford GT nearby. We wandered around and took a few pictures. The wind started to come up and when Linda checked the weather there was a storm front moving our way with severe thunderstorm warnings for Williston. We decided to head back as we had a couple of stops to make on the way and wanted to be back at the coach before the storms hit.

Steve photographing palms on the Swamp Trail, SSSP (FL).

Steve photographing palms on the Swamp Trail, SRSP (FL).

Sometime on Friday the Dropbox service developed a major problem as the result of some maintenance they were doing on the system. Our desktop clients were suddenly unable to connect with the Dropbox cloud servers and I was also not able to log in through the web interface. I had planned to upload photos for the BCM Arcadia Rally article and couldn’t. Plan B was to put them on a flash drive and mail them. I found a 16 GB unit for $9.99 at Staples and bought a padded mailing envelope to ship it in. We then stopped at the Publix supermarket on US-27 to pick up some things Linda needed to make risotto. It just started to rain as we got back to the coach, so we quickly got our groceries and ourselves inside. Moments later the thunder, lightning, wind, and rain began in earnest.

Linda, Karen, and Steve at the Cracker Homestead, SSSP (FL).

Linda, Karen, and Steve at the Cracker Homestead, SRSP (FL).

Although Saturday is also fire pit night at WCRV Resort but they do not build a fire when high winds are forecast. We heard voices over by the fire pit later but decided to hunker down for the evening. Linda made a traditional Arborio rice risotto with mushrooms, onions, garlic, Pinot Grigio (which we also drank), and four different greens (kale, Swiss chard, spinach, and arugula). It was truly excellent. We had fresh strawberries and dark chocolate covered almonds for dessert. We four people in the coach for dinner everyone has to hold their plates on their laps, but Steve and Karen were good sports about it.

2014/01/09 (R) Rainy Days And Writing

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I finished the first draft of my article for BCM on the Iron Horse converted bus and e-mailed it to the owners. I also completed a draft of a shorter article on the Cool Cruiser bus conversion. Both of these coaches were at the Arcadia Bus Rally where I was able to photograph them and interview the owners.

Rainy days are good days for this kind of work. We’ve had a few recently, and we have taken advantage of them. Linda has worked on her needlepoint, reading, and some accounting work in addition to putting our meals on the table, playing an occasional game on her iPad, and going for walks. She is less inclined to sit and work for as long as I am, and rain does not deter her from walking.

Eventually, however, I also need to stretch my legs and get dome fresh air. Around mid-afternoon we went for a long walk through the heart of downtown Williston and out to the west edge of town. We stopped at an Italian restaurant to check out the menu and it had some options that would work for us. We have friends arriving tomorrow mid-afternoon to spend a couple of nights, so we may try the restaurant for dinner.

We found the Win-Dixie supermarket and will check it out the next time we need groceries as it’s a lot closer than the Publix stores in Gainesville or Ocala. We stopped at a roadside fruit and vegetable stand, sampled several different oranges, and bought a small container of one that was particularly juicy and flavorful. We also stopped at the ACE Hardware store, checked out the store, and bought an outlet expander (2-to-6).

We were just about back to the entrance of the RV resort when a pickup truck passed us, slowed down, stopped, and backed up. It was none other than Jimmy and Sadie Clay, the owners and converters of the Iron Horse. They had driven over from Apopka, where they are volunteers in the state park, to check out Williston Crossings RV Resort. They have a friend who had stayed there and told them how nice it was. They were as surprised to see us as we were to see them. We climbed in the back of their truck and gave them a guided tour of the resort.

Linda microwaved a couple of baking potatoes for dinner and sautéed onions, mushrooms, and broccoli with spices as a topping. She added some shredded vegan cheese and we had a hearty, delicious meal.

We are both getting anxious to start exploring Florida, but it’s been good to be parked for the last week in our quiet little corner of our quiet little resort with cold, wet weather that gave me the opportunity to make significant progress on several critical projects.

2014/01/08 (W) Florida In Winter

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It dropped below freezing again last night here in Williston, Florida, but not by much. This weather is not unusual for this time of year, and therefore not unexpected. We normally use our three electric toe-kick heaters and our Broan ceramic cube heater to ward off the chill but when the outside temperatures get down towards freezing we use the Aqua Hot (diesel fueled hydronic heating system).

The unit has been running fine, but this morning I noticed that the coach had cooled off a bit. I checked the blowers on the bedroom and bathroom heat exchangers and the air coming out of them was not warm. I checked the main unit (in one of the bays) and while the burner appeared to be running the feed lines were cool to the touch. Normally they would be quite warm. I turned off all three thermostats (bedroom, bathroom, and living room) and shut off the main switch that controls the burner. The coolant in the overflow reservoir was at the add mark, so added some. I turned the unit back on, turned on all three thermostats, and set them high enough to call for heat. A short time later we had heat again. The fans for the living room heat exchanger even came on (they haven’t been working the last couple of days). Ahhh, the mysteries of the motorhome. I added to much coolant, so of course it overflowed when it came up to temperature.

The weather was cloudy all day and the high temperature barely broke 50 degrees so we stuck around the RV resort. Linda continued working on the needlepoint she is doing for Madeline and I started working on a featured bus article for Bus Conversions Magazine. At the Arcadia Bus Rally I had the opportunity to interview Jimmy and Sadie Clay and photograph their 1984 Eagle Model 10 conversion “Iron Horse.” The interior is done to resemble a railroad car from the Old Wild West. I did not have a finished draft by bedtime, but I made excellent progress.

We took our usual walks and Linda made stuffed acorn squash for dinner using some leftover rice and other ingredients she had on hand. She served it with a side of Brussels sprouts that she browned and then steamed. Simple but delicious, and very satisfying on a cool evening.

2014/01/05 (N) Views of WCRVR

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I’ve been hunkered down writing an article for Bus Conversions Magazine on the recent Arcadia Bus Rally and Linda has been working on her counted stitch needlepoint, but both of those are activities from which we need to take breaks and go for walks. When we do, I usually take my camera along. Here are eight more photos of Williston Crossings RV Resort that capture some of the features of the park and the ways that residents make their sites uniquely their own.

A cactus garden.

The fire pit.

Grass and palm trees.

The old quarry from the back of one of the sites.

This belongs to one of our next door neighbors.

Tiki huts and rock gardens.

Donna & Michael’s Motorhome.

Donna, Michael, and Linda.

2014/01/04 (S) Rally Articles

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Our site at WCRVR with our sign!

Our sign. (Normally reserved for 4 month or longer stays.)

In addition to writing blog posts I have written three articles in the last five months on RV rallies. One was on the GLCC/CCO rally last August in Clio, Michigan and was the cover story for the October issue of Bus Conversion Magazine. I wrote an article on the September 2013 GLAMARAMA rally for the November issue of our GLCC newsletter. I rewrote that article from a different perspective and BCM ran it as the cover story for the January 2014 issue. Although different from writing a personal blog, these articles still retained the perspective of personal experience.

Our patio and picnic table.

Gary Hall, the owner/publisher of BCM, knew we planned to attend the Arcadia Bus Rally in Arcadia, Florida between Christmas and New Year’s and asked if I would cover the event for the magazine, which I agreed to do. That made for a different experience, putting me in the role of a reporter with a publisher and editor expecting an article by a certain deadline. We returned to Williston Crossings RV Resort on the 1st, got settled in on the 2nd, I got to work on the article on the 3rd, and had a complete draft by bedtime today, although I still needed to have Linda proof-read it in morning and then send it off to the rally organizers to fact check. I will spend the next two days selecting and processing photographs. I also heard from Gary and Mike Sullivan, the BCM editor, that the article was back on as the Feb 2014 cover story, putting me on a short timeline to get it to them.

The fire pit at WCRVR.

I can work at this kind of task for long periods of time, but eventually I have to get off my butt, move around, and clear my head. Williston Crossings RV Resort is an excellent place for walking and I went twice today with Linda. (She does her first/power walk in the morning without me.) Resort volunteers build a big fire in the covered fire pit on Friday and Saturday evenings unless there are high winds. The fire pit is surrounded by rocking chairs and benches and is a social event for some of the resort residents, especially those, like us, that hail from more northerly places. We went over after dinner, sat by the fire for 90 minutes, and made some new acquaintances. While most of the residents were hunkered down avoiding the temperatures in the upper 40’s we felt like we were on a fall camp out back in Michigan, complete with a smoky campfire.

New friends around the campfire at WCRVR.

2014/01/03 (F) Power Dinner

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Linda went to the Publix grocery store in Gainesville yesterday, so we are well stocked for the next week or so. We also learned last night from Donna and Michael Bartolomeo that there are several vegan restaurants in Gainesville as well as a vegan ice cream parlor / bakery / brewery and a vegan pizzeria. While we don’t plan to eat out very often, having vegan dining options less than 20 miles away is a nice plus. The Happy Cow website confirmed their addresses and menu selections.

The overnight low hit 35 degrees F, but that is not unexpected in this part of Florida in January. We had closed up the rig before we went to bed and did not turn on any of the heaters (other than the refrigerator) so the temperature inside dropped to just under 60 degrees F; a bit nippy, but not uncomfortable. The refrigerator is a compressor driven residential unit that exhausts heat out the bottom front into the kitchen/dining area. In warmer weather (no rain) we usually have the ceiling vent open and the exhaust fan running to pull that warm air out of the coach. But in colder weather the vents are closed and the heat from the fridge helps keep the coach from getting too cold.

We lost power to the coach around 11:15 AM, but only for a few minutes. The inverter kicked in immediately and did what it is supposed to do. The microwave clock did not lose its time and the UPS that powers the NAS kept it double protected. The power was restored before I could go investigate what had happened. When I checked later there was no code set in our Progressive Industries EMS, indicating that we had simply lost power and then had it restored, which clears any previous error codes.

The View From Our Coach on Site 439 at Williston Crossings RV Resort.

After her morning walk Linda worked on her needlepoint while the light was good and I took care of e-mail, finished up the blog post for yesterday, and started working on the Arcadia Rally article for BCM. I had an e-mail from BCM publisher Gary Hall indicating that they planned to bump the rally article to the March 2014 issue, so that gave me a little breathing room in terms of getting it done. Gary also sent me the January 2014 special edition they produced for the FMCA Great Lakes Area Motor Coach Association (GLAMA). This issue has an extensive article that I wrote on the September 2013 GLAMARAMA rally. GLAMA is going to include the entire issue in their next newsletter, which will go out to somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 members.

Tonight was one of the scheduled fire pit nights at the resort. The fire pit is only 100 feet from our site so we checked it out. It‘s under cover and surrounded by large rocking chairs and a couple of benches. We often enjoyed campfires when tent camping, but have not made very many since we started RVing in 2005. We were planning on going when I got a call from Michael Bartolomeo inviting us to their motorhome for dinner.

Michael indicated that it had been a strange night and that’s when we found out that the whole north section of the park had lost power overnight. Apparently the short power outage we experienced this morning was connected with the restoration of power to the north section. We stopped by the office later and inquired as to what had happened. Sometime the night before someone ran into a utility pole (outside the park) and took out power to half the city of Williston including the north section of the RV resort. When utility crews finally repaired the damage and restored power, the transformer that feeds the southern half of the northern section failed. A replacement had to be brought in from some distance away, and residents in that part of the resort were without power for about 18 hours.

Donna and Michael had been without power overnight and when they got it back their furnace decided not to work. Michael was able to locate a loose connection and tighten it this morning which brought the furnace back to life, but they had a chilly night in their rig. They had us over for dinner nonetheless and it was wonderful. We had pistachios (in the shell) for an appetizer, butternut squash soup with fresh apple slices and croutons, and whole bean burritos with guacamole, spicy salsa, and steamed kale. They served dark chocolate covered almonds for dessert and we drank Pinot Grigio to wash it all down as we continued our conversation from the night before. No pictures yet, however, as we have not crossed paths with them during the day when I also had my camera with me.

2013_11-16_12-06 Time Flies

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It’s been three weeks since my last post. We have been incredibly busy, but that doesn’t mean I have much to write about. Sometimes busy is just busy. For my part, I’ve been neglecting our website and this blog in favor of designing, testing, and vetting three other WordPress-based websites; two for RV clubs and one for our local ham radio club. That has taken a lot of my time, but I don’t mind. It’s very interesting work that I chose to take on, and I’m learning a lot, which I enjoy. But it isn’t necessarily all that interesting to write about.

I continue to discover useful WordPress plug-ins and learn how to use them. I am using Participants-Database to create online member directories, WP-Members to block them from public view and require a username and password to view them, and Exclude-Pages to create web-pages that do not appear anywhere in the WordPress menu structure. I am also using Meteor-Slides to create automated slide shows. After a long and frustrating search for a good photo album / image gallery plug-in, I finally figured out how to create galleries using the native WordPress gallery function. That was a major victory and I was so glad I persisted in my search instead of buying one. I have also installed WP-Backup-2-Dropbox, which is automatically doing a weekly backup of all four of the sites to my personal Dropbox account.

Steve was over several times to work on the Linux box and we finally got one of the WordPress websites ported over and working! We had to edit a few pointers in the wp-config.php file and set the permalinks back to default, but that did the trick! Porting over the other three sites will have to wait, but eventually I will be able to install and test new plug-ins on my own local web-server and even develop content which I can then upload to the live site. Working on the local web-server instead of the live web-host has a number of advantages. For one, the system will respond more quickly. But most importantly I won’t inadvertently take down one of my live sites.

Bus Conversions Magazine ran another one of my articles in the December 2013 issue. This one was on the construction and installation of the new auxiliary air panel. You can read more about it on our BCM page.

The new owner of BCM, Gary Hall, has faced and met a whole string of challenges since buying the magazine, but I remain confident that he is on the path to saving the magazine and not just making it viable, but making it better than it has ever been. BCM remains a unique resource for the non-commercial bus converter and I am doing what I can to help keep it in business by subscribing and submitting articles. It’s pretty simple really; the magazine needs subscribers, authors, and advertisers. The problem is that each one of those groups wants the other two groups to be in place before they make a commitment. No one wants to read a magazine with no content (articles and advertisements). Authors don’t want to write for a magazine that no one reads and advertisers don’t support. And advertisers don’t want to spend money placing ads in magazines with no content that no one reads. Fortunately BCM has advertisers, authors, and subscribers, but they could use more of each.

If you are reading this blog post and you own a converted bus, are converting a bus, are thinking about converting a bus, or have a business that sells things that might be useful to people with converted buses, please consider subscribing to or advertising in Bus Conversions Magazine. And if you are specifically converting a bus or working on one that is already converted, please consider writing one or more articles about the work you are doing, and take a lot of pictures to go with it. You do not have to be a great writer or photographer. If you provide them with a starting point the folks at BCM will work with you to turn it into a nice article. And I can tell you from personal experience this past year that it is fun to see your articles in print. In fact, your bus could be the “cover” and “centerfold.” Now really, haven’t you always dreamed of that? 🙂

Starting with the January 2014 issue of BCM there will be another staffing change. It appears that they are going to use my article on the FMCA GLAMARAMA 2013 rally that was held in Goshen, Indiana back in September 2013. While the article is specifically about that rally, it is more generally about the experience of attending an RV rally put on by one of the large RV organizations. Assuming the article runs, it will be my seventh article in 12 months and my third cover article. Not bad for a beginner. I have also agreed to “cover” the Arcadia 2014 Rally in Arcadia, Florida December 29-31. It’s called the 2014 rally because it runs through New Year’s Eve with everyone departing on New Year’s Day. This is one of the largest gatherings of converted buses currently taking place in the country, and it will be the first time Linda and I have attended.

Applying putty to base of Searchlight

The 19^th, 20^th, and 21^st of November saw me back at Phoenix Paint in Edwardsburg, Michigan working on the bus and consulting with Michele Henry on the repair of the body panels and rear bumper fascia. I was invited to spend the night at the house of fellow GLCC members Pat & Vickie’s nearby which saved me the cost of a motel and provide dinner and conversation. Thank you both.

WiFiRanger MT permanent mount

We We managed to fix the front roof-mounted remote-controlled searchlight and get it re-attached to the roof. We also undid the temporary mounting (zip ties) of the WiFiRanger-MT (mobile titanium) and mounted it behind the front TV antenna to the driver’s side using the permanent roof-mount bracketing. I removed the covers from the front and rear over-the-air TV antennas and was finally able to determine and map the direction they point to the numbers on the controller box. That will finally allow us to know where we are aiming the antennas.

Access hole in utility bay floor

My last little project was to install the Critter-Guard. There is a hole in the floor of the utility bay with a ring installed around it that is threaded to accept a screw-in cover. The Critter-Guard consists of a circular piece of high-density foam, a two-piece plastic cover, and small latches to hold the cover in place. I was not able to remove the old screws that secure the ring, so I drilled holes for new ones halfway in-between the old ones. The product came with two sets of slightly different latches to accommodate just this situation.

Critter-Guard parts and instructions

Critter-Guard installed

With the latches installed, the electrical shoreline and fresh water hose were routed into the bay through the hole in the floor. The foam is split along most of a diameter and has two holes in it (along the diameter line), one for the electrical shoreline, and the other for the fresh water hose. The foam fits snuggly around these lines and into the hole in the floor. The two-piece Critter-Guard cover plate is also split along a diameter and has two holes to match the holes in the foam. The plate has a tongue on one piece and a groove on the other. It is fitted around the shorelines on top of the foam and the latches are turned to hold it in place. The net result is that “critters” cannot get into the bay through the utility line access hole. I plan to submit this little project to Bus Conversions Magazine as a short article / product review.

As long as I’m talking about buses, I found a major air leak in Chuck’s Prevost H3-40 Liberty conversion. As with all older buses, he has been plagued with air leaks. Our mobile mechanic, Joe Cannarozzi, has fixed a lot of them by replacing air valves and tightening air lines, but leaks remain, and Chuck’s auxiliary air compressor was still running more often than it should while parked. I was poking around in the bay under the driver’s seat—looking for the check valve that is usually installed in the air line from the auxiliary air compressor to the air system—when I heard a distinct hissing noise. I heard it clearly, but it was at a frequency that Chuck did not hear. He had a plastic tube stethoscope and I used it to clearly locate the leak as coming from the pressure control switch. This switch (also known as a well pump switch when used in a water system) monitors the pressure in the auxiliary air system and turns the auxiliary air compressor on and off as needed to maintain the pressure between two set point limits. Once I was able to place the stethoscope at the loudest point, Chuck was also able to hear it clearly. He removed the old pressure switch, got the specs off of it, and I found an exact replacement in stock at Northwest Plumping Supply in Howell, not far from my house. Chuck picked it up, installed it, and … no more air leak, at least not there. The auxiliary air pressure is holding much better than it was before so the auxiliary air compressor is running much less frequently and Chuck (and Barbara) are much happier. They things that make “bus people” happy are different from what makes most people happy. You would probably have to try living in an RV to fully understand.

When Linda went in for her annual physical exam in early November she was able to talk to the nurse and find an opening for me. I was able to get my lab work done a few days in advance, and the results were available in the Henry Ford Health System MyChart website that same afternoon. I like having the lab work done in advance so that I can discuss the results with our doctor. Everything was within the normal range, so I was pleased. I got a new prescription for my nasal allergy medication and had to mail it in to our mail order pharmacy provider as this was the first prescription either of us has had filled since we switched our health coverage to the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System on July 1^st.

The Thanksgiving Spread

We went to our daughter’s house for Thanksgiving with family. Linda and the two kids did all the cooking and we had a nice assortment of dishes, many vegan-friendly. We got a Tofurkey for the two of us and it was very good. (Everyone else had real turkey; boo.) We had fresh grapes, fresh cranberry-orange salad, roasted Brussels sprouts, candied sweet potatoes, regular mashed potatoes, home make Parker House rolls (thanks Meghan!), some yummy cookies, some nice wine, and other things I can’t remember. Both of our grand-daughters were there. It was nice.

My friend and former co-worker, Kate, got back from a week+ trip to Berlin, Germany just in time for us to take her out for a birthday dinner; not exactly on her birthday, but close. We went to Nirmal in Ypsilanti, an Indian restaurant with a health conscious attitude. They had a buffet style setup designed for carryout, but you could also have it dine-in, which is what we did. Linda and I got two vegan entrees (green beans and okra), yellow rice, garlic naan bread, and a small dessert for $5 each plus tea. Kate ordered Makhani with chicken off the menu. We adjourned to the closest Starbucks for coffee, photo viewing (on an iPad, of course), and conversation. Kate had selected 30 photographs to show us, and they were wonderful, as usual.

2013_09_23-27 (M-F) Getting Ready

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There is always lots to do around the house when we return from an RV rally, more so since we are still getting moved in to our new (to us) house and trying to get it ready for an open house / house warming. We decided about a month ago to have the house warming as a way to “force” us to accelerate the moving-in process and so far that seems to be working.

Arriving home yesterday we were able to pull in to our pull-through driveway with the car attached, which was very nice. With the added “fines” (sandy silt) material mixed in with the 21aa road gravel, the driveway is now packing together very tightly and easily supporting the weight of the bus. The planned driveway geometry has worked out well allowing us to pull in and out with the car attached. That means we cook hook/unhook the car in the driveway rather than in the street.

Linda babysat for Madeline on Monday while I worked around the house, unloaded the clothes and bedding from the bus, and started doing laundry; not very interesting, perhaps, but satisfying work in its own way. We both spent a fair amount of time on our computers this week, Linda with household accounting chores and RV park research and me with some CEPI work, our website/blog, and websites for several other organizations. Using WordPress to create/manage websites and blogs has really grabbed my interest. I’m not very proficient yet, but I’m leaning.

We hung the last few pieces of artwork for now and spent part of the week opening and moving boxes. Linda was looking for papers we could take to a shredding company and managed to accumulate quite a few boxes of them. At this point we’ve run out of time to open boxes and sort through the contents, so we turned our attention to finding places to “hide” them until after the open house. We’re not there yet, but we are comfortable that the house will be presentable enough by the time it needs to be.

We decided to harvest some of the apples from our apple tree and discovered that a large branch (3-4” diameter) had peeled loose in three places, probably due to the copious amount of fruit on it, the age of the tree, and the fact that it had not been pruned properly (or at all) for years. We don’t know much about fruit trees, but we know that this is not the time of year to prune them. With the tree obviously damaged, however, we decided to cut the branch off and let nature take its course. We took it off in three pieces to make sure we could handle them. The branches of an apple tree tend to get intertwined, especially if it isn’t pruned, so we really had to pull to get the pieces down. That brought lots of apples to the ground besides the ones on the damaged branch. We left the branches and their apples on the ground for the deer and other animals that frequent our backyard.

We collected a large bag of apples and Linda spent time during the rest of the week peeling them, dipping them in lemon, and freezing them. She also made apple sauce and apple bread (both of which were outstanding). She commented at one point that “I am starting to understand why farm wives never got out of the kitchen.” Cooking real food with real ingredients (whole-food, plant-based) is a lot of work. Linda finds the work satisfying, however, now that she has the time to do it, and I certainly find the results satisfying as well. Yummy.

Ed and Betty Burns arrived on Thursday afternoon in their Tiffin Phaeton motorhome and stayed until late Friday morning. This was their second visit in about a month and we really enjoyed having them here again. They have been working at the Middleton Berry Farm and finished their tour of duty on Thursday. I moved our motorhome out of the pull-through driveway so they could pull in and park in a level spot with power.

They got here in time for dinner and Linda put out a nice meal. She served a nice Waldorf style green salad using some of our fresh-picked apples with homemade apple bread. The main course was a lentil loaf with a baked potato and homemade applesauce on the side. I chose the Blueberry Wine from Forestedge Winery in LaPorte, Minnesota to go with the meal. (It only occurred to us later than we had an apple wine from the same winery, which would have really completed our apple-themed meal.) Forestedge Winery is owned by Paul and Sharon Shuster, who are members of our FMCA Freethinkers associate chapter as are Ed and Betty.

Linda made apple crisp for dessert, but none of us had room, so we saved it for breakfast the next day. In addition to the apple crisp, breakfast included Linda’s homemade granola cereal with fresh blueberries, fresh banana slices, and raspberries that we had personally picked at the Middleton Berry Farm a few weeks ago and frozen. A little orange juice and a 50/50 blend of Ethiopian Yirga Cheffe and Kona coffee rounded out the meal.

We decided earlier in the week that we would try Florida for our first snowbird experience. (Snowbird is a term used to describe folks who live in northern climates where it snows and head south for the winter to get away from same. If there is a corresponding term for folks who live in the south and travel north in the summer to avoid heat and humidity, I don’t know what it is, other than perhaps Bridwons. Think about it.) Our decision was motivated by the desire to attend a large converted bus rally in Arcadia, Florida that is held each year from December 26 to January 1st. (The actual rally is Dec 29, 30, 31, but you can arrive as early as the 26^th and departure is the 1^st.) The rally was started by Jack and Paula Conrad, who ran it for the first ten years.

Ed and Betty used to live in Florida so we were eager to draw on their knowledge and experience before trying to book a place or places to stay. Earlier in the week we called the Low-Key Hideaway RV Park and Motel in Cedar Key, but they were not able to accommodate us. We knew about Low-Key Hideaway Cherie Ve Ard’s Technomadia blog postings, and it appears that the place has developed quite a clientele, perhaps in part as a result of Technomadia’s publicity.

At the last two GLCC rallies we had talked at length with Pat and Vicky, who winter in Florida. I also had an in-depth conversation this week with two other fellow RVers (Ed and Al) who winter in Florida and got their thoughts, suggestions, and recommendations. Our friends and fellow H3-40 owners, Chuck and Barbara, have spent the last seven winters in Florida and the last several at Pelican Lake Motorcoach Resort in Naples, Florida. We delayed our return home following the Holistic Holiday At Sea cruise in March so we could drive over from Ft. Lauderdale to see the resort and have dinner with them. It was very nice, as you would expect.

We learned a number of things as a result of this quick “research”. Some of it was stuff we knew, or assumed as a form of common sense, but some of it we did not:

The cost per day generally goes down the longer you stay in one place. The usual breakpoints are week, month, 2-month, 3-month, 4-month, 6-month, and year. (You can also purchase lots, but probably don’t want to calculate the per day cost for that.)
The farther south you go, the more expensive it gets.
The reason for the previous point is the average daily temperate range. In northern Florida it is not unusual for temperatures to drop into the upper 30’s at night, and record lows have been recorded in the teens. That doesn’t happen in Key West, and money tends to follow the pleasant climate.
The closer you are to one of the coasts, the more expensive it gets. You pay a price for beaches and sunrises/sunsets.
No-See-Ums, however, can be a real problem near the coasts, and some folks have very bad reactions to their bites.
If the RV park has “resort” in the name, it will be more expensive, with “motorcoach resort” costing even more, and “luxury motorcoach resort” costing even more than that.
Most of Florida is swampy; being inland or staying at a “luxury” resort does not guarantee that you are not camped in or next to a swamp. Think bugs, snakes, and alligators.
You can almost always rent a deeded site at a higher-end park directly from the owners much cheaper than you can rent it through the park management office. Check the classifieds in the back of FMC Magazine.
Moving every week is expensive and tiring, but gets you access to more of the state.
Staying more than one month at the same place can get a bit boring, but that’s a personal thing.
Some parks are in dense urban areas, others are near small towns, and some are in the middle of nowhere. It’s a shopping convenience versus solitude thing. You can end up having to drive 20 miles or more for groceries if you are not paying attention when you choose an RV park.
Not all parks are “big rig friendly” (even though they will claim they are).
Most parks have punitive refunds polices, so be sure before you know what they are before you book.
Make sure your park of choice is located near things you want to do (hike, bike, kayak, fish, watch sunrises and/or sunsets, or have access to highways so you can visit natural and historic sites in your car, etc.) Tallahassee is not a good base camp for visiting Key West.
Many RV parks are adjacent to a major freeway, railroad track, or airport; sometimes all three. If you don’t think the noise will bother you, you’re wrong.
Some RV parks are gated (if you care).
Whether the residents in a park or nice or not seems to have little to due with the physical appearance and amenities of the place.
There are a lot of older parks with mixed use, i.e., year-round “Park Models” in addition to sites for vacationers and snowbirds.
Check the type/quality of the interior roads and parking pads (concrete, gravel, grass, hard dirt, or sand), it might matter with a big, heavy coach.
The spacing of the sites varies greatly; some parks have sites that are small and close together (but they will tell you they are very spacious).
Find out whether there is any landscaping, especially shade trees around the sites.
Find out whether the roads and sites have trees trimmed up and back sufficiently to not scratch your RV.
Check to see if “lakes” on the property actually have water in them (seriously).
Check on the availability and cleanliness of onsite bath/shower facilities and Laundromats.
Check the availability of onsite activities (which could be a plus or a minus) and facilities such as swimming pools, tennis courts, etc. If you don’t want them, why pay for them?
Find out if the park has pet restrictions, and if so, what they are.
Some parks are 55+ operations, others allow/encourage/cater to families with children. Know which type you are signing up for and make sure it’s what you want.
The photos on the website always look beautiful, but somehow manage to avoid showing you views of the parking sites from a vantage point that allows you to assess all of the factors mentioned above.
Google Earth and other satellite image websites/apps are your best friend and ultimate research tool.

Our goal was to book a park or parks for January and February by the end of the day Friday, but we didn’t make it; too much to ponder and no time to make phone calls. We will get back to it early next week as Tuesday is October 1^st, and January 1^st will only be three months away.

Tom and Tom from TOMTEK HVAC were back on Friday afternoon to finish up repairs on our hydronic heating system. They did not have one of the parts they were going to replace but it didn’t matter as they discovered some additional issues that will require a return visit.

The first thing they discovered was that the propane shut off valve didn’t shut off the propane. We had to turn off the supply at the tank so they could replace the valve before doing anything else. When they removed the propane diffuser cone to clean it and replace the gasket they discovered that the end of the cone had large holes in it. These holes were preventing the propane from burning as efficiently as it should, and if they got bigger could prevent the furnace from working at all. Parts like this for a Weil-McLain GV Gold Series hydronic heating system are not common, i.e., they don’t carry them on their truck or even stock them at their office, so they had to special order it.

As long as they had the combustion chamber open, they went ahead and vacuumed it out. They had me look at it, and it had what appeared to be a couple of inches of rusty debris lying in the bottom, the result of a lack of proper (professional) service over a very long period of time (or perhaps any service at all). They put it all back together and will replace the diffuser cone, gasket, and igniter (along with the part they forgot to bring) when they return next week.

I don’t know if this qualifies as serendipity in the usual sense, but we are lucky that we decided to have the system “serviced” in advance of the start of the heating season. If not, we would not have discovered defects that could have led to a wintertime failure of the furnace with serious consequences for the house.

As I was working at my computer Friday evening an e-mail showed up with the PDF version of the October 2013 issue of Bus Conversions Magazine. The article I wrote on the mid-August Back-To-The-Bricks rally in Clio, Michigan was the cover/centerfold article, the fifth one I have had published in BCM. (See the BCM page of the website for the complete list and information about Bus Conversions Magazine.) That was a nice end to nice week.

2013_09_18 (Wed) Under A Harvest Moon

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I was up early this morning to check e-mail and work on my backlog of blog posts. The WiFi at the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds is excellent; our WiFi Ranger is picking up nine open fairground signals, with five of them quite strong. Even so, WiFi always works better when fewer devices are trying to use it.

A 1948 Spartan and aour1990 Prevost.

Linda was up in time to go to the registration building at 8:00 AM with the intent of reserving one of the pavilions adjacent to where the GLCC chapter is parked. Alas, they were both taken. She and Vicky scouted out the ones that were still available, selected one, and reserved it for our Thursday evening pizza social and business meeting. We will be meeting at the Elkhart Noon Optimists building, 603 Locust St, by the big blue Fish Fry sign. While they were taking care of this I brewed a pot of coffee using two parts Ethiopian Yirga Cheffe to one part Columbian decaf, a very nice blend that cuts down a little on the amount of caffeine. When Linda returned we had a light breakfast of her very yummy homemade granola and fresh orange slices.

Don and Sandy Moyer’s restored 1948 Spartan bus conversion.

Mid-morning Linda, Fonda, and Vicky drove to the Shipshewana flea market, which is only open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I took that as an opportunity to wander the fairgrounds and photograph the arrival and parking activities. Today was the official beginning of the 2013 GLAMARAMA and motorhomes arrived all through the day. The arrival and parking process appeared to go quite smoothly, which makes for a good start to a large RV rally. The all-volunteer parking crew put in long hours, but were patient and cheerful throughout.

Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds.

While I was wandering around I found Ron and Meredith Walker’s Prevost XL-45. They just joined our GLCC chapter this past summer, but are not camped with us at this rally. Ron is the conductor of the Frustrated Maestros, who are doing several scheduled performances during the rally, so the FM chapter is their primary focus while they are here.

A motorhome approaching the fairgrounds entrance from the east on IN-34 / Monroe St.

They were home but rather busy. A muralist was air-brushing a mural on their rear cap and their front entrance door was partially disassembled. Meredith had me check out the mural and then Ron filled me in on the door situation. The main door handle had failed that morning while he was outside talking to someone, as a result of which he was locked out and she was locked in. They managed to find a technician who was able/willing to climb in a bedroom window and disassemble the door enough to get it open. I looked at the mechanism to see if there was anything I could do to fix it. There wasn’t, of course, but I told them I knew someone who might be willing/able to help.

Welcome to GLAMARAMA at the Gate 5 entrance.

I returned to the GLCC camp to see if Butch would be willing to lend some assistance to fellow GLCC members. He was, of course; RVers tend to be helpful to other RVers when they can, but converted bus owners really tend to look out for one another. We went back over to the Walker’s coach and Butch determined that a weld had failed. While he couldn’t fix the latch on the spot we realized that the whole mechanism could be unbolted and moved out of the way so it couldn’t engage the latch pin on the door frame. Ron did the work, and that temporarily removed the lockout problem until they could get a new latch assembly from Prevost. In the meantime they could lock/unlock the door from inside or outside using only the deadbolt.

The staging area where towed vehicles get unhooked.

When the ladies got back from Shipshewana we pulled our camp chairs into a circle by Butch and Fonda’s MC-9 and spent a relaxing afternoon visiting with our fellow GLCCers. While we were sitting there, Frank and Sandy Griswold arrived in their Prevost H3-45 Vantare conversion along with Dean and Cindy Chipman in their Holiday Rambler Endeavor motorhome. A bit later Scott and Tammy Bruner arrived in their MCI MC-12 conversion. This completed our set of nine GLCC rigs that would be camping together for the duration of the rally. Our chapter had originally requested 8 spots, but the parking crew did a great job of getting nine coaches parked.

The holding area where RVs are queued for entry and escorted to their sites.

During the afternoon conversation someone asked how long we had owned our coach. That’s when we realized it was our 4th anniversary; we purchased our Prevost H3-40 on September 18, 2009. We met the owner at a restaurant in western Pennsylvania, gave him a certified check and got the title. The coach was at Creative Mobile Interiors (CMI) just south of Columbus, Ohio where it had been sitting for about two years. The owner had taken it there for service and then decided to sell it instead of fix it. CMI allowed him to leave it there while they advertised it on their website and tried to find a buyer. I described some of this story in the cover/centerfold article of the February 2013 issue of Bus Conversions Magazine.

A caravan being assembled for entry. They will be parked together.

We eventually broke for dinner and a little quiet time before heading over to the opening ceremonies. Linda made a simple green salad and a bow-tie pasta dish with olive oil, garlic, onions, mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes. The Arcturos Late Harvest Riesling from Black Star Farms in Michigan’s Leelanau peninsula was the perfect accompaniment. Their late harvest Riesling and pear wines are two of our all-time favorites.

A different kind of motorhome, called a Class D, with a fancy paint job.

A group of us from GLCC walked over to the evening activities building around 7:00 PM and were greeted with handshakes and hugs by Jon and Sondra Walker, Charlie Addcock, and Jane Roush. That may not sound like a big deal, but it was. Hugs are an Escapees RV Club tradition, not something we had ever seen before at an FMCA rally. When Charlie and Jon were elected to national office they promised a new tone and new direction for FMCA, and it appears they are putting themselves behind that in a very personal way.

The Frustrated Maestros performed from 6:45 to 7:30 PM. The opening ceremonies began at 7:30 PM with Dane Bailey, The Singing Auctioneer, as the master of ceremonies, a role he will be performing for the duration of the rally. We had the usual opening consisting of an invocation, Canadian national Anthem, and U.S. national anthem, the posting of the colors by the local VFW color guard, and the chapter parade. There were 12 chapters officially in attendance. Notably by their absence were the Michigan Knights of the Highway, who formerly ran the GLASS rally. Dane then introduced Jon Walker, the FMCA Senior National Vice-President, who welcomed everyone. Jon was the GLAMA president and FMCA area vice-president until this past July when he was elected to the senior national vice-president office. He and Sondra are well-liked and well-respected within the Great Lakes area, and remained as the co-rally hosts for this event along with Jane Roush. (Jon and Sondra are also members of our GLCC chapter and Jon was our National Director for a while.) Jon announced that we had 469 coaches in attendance, although Vicky told us that one more had arrived. (Pat and Vicky were the official coach counters.)

FMCA National President Charlie Adcock was introduced next and said a few words. Charlie is a very enthusiastic, upbeat guy, as is Jon. Charlie administered the oath of office to Jane Roush, who was elected as the GLAMA president when Jon resigned to take his new national office. Charlie acknowledged the long list of VIP attendees, which certainly helped the rally coach count. The rally was budgeted for a break-even point of 400 coaches, so everyone involved in the planning and execution was very pleased with the turnout. I suspect that many of the VIPs were here as a show of support for this first ever attempt by GLAMA to organize its own rally.

With the opening ceremonies concluded Sgt. Daniel Clark, The Singing Trooper, was introduced. Dan is a former U. S. Marine and retired Massachusetts State Trooper, but has been singing since he was a child. He was clearly a trained opera singer and mentioned that he spent time at Tanglewood. He did a very tightly constructed and energetic show of patriotic and sentimental American favorites, ending with a medley of U. S. armed services theme songs, including the one for the U. S. Merchant Marines. The evening’s activities concluded, we had a leisurely walk back to our coach under a harvest moon.

And that is part of why we go RVing.

2013_09_13 (Fri) Bakery Business, WordPress, And Gutters

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Linda left early to drive to the bakery where she put in a long day. I worked on the CEPI ATR project for a while in the morning. The mail came around noon and contained the written proposal package for the bus barn from Morton Buildings. We also received a box from Bus Conversions Magazine containing multiple copies of the issues in which I have had articles published this year (Feb, Mar, May, and July). We have been distributing sample copies to potential subscribers as we travel to try and help the magazine build its subscriber base.

At 1 PM I met with Mike (W8XH) from SLAARC to work on a new website prototype using WordPress. On Monday we had been unable to complete the installation of WordPress at Larry’s for lack of the necessary login information, but Mike had obtained that from another club member during the week. Finishing the installation was more complicated than we anticipated and we ended up on the phone with Larry (K8UT) most of the time. Our original goal was to investigate themes and plugins but we worked on installation and configuration instead, including figuring out how to set up subdomains through GoDaddy; first things first, after all.

By mid-late afternoon I was back home, the weather was pleasant, and I finally had time to investigate the gutters. It came as no surprise that the downspouts were all completely clogged. What did surprise me was the amount of fine gravel in the gutters. This was material that had washed loose from the surface of the shingles over time and accumulated along the bottom of the gutters to a depth of 1/4 to 1/2 inch in places. I got out the 8 foot step ladder and the long hose and spray head, switched the outside faucets to direct well water (unfiltered and untreated) and spent a couple of hours on the roof hosing out the gutters and downspouts.

This was only the second time I had been on the roof, and the first time I had inspected the entire surface. The inspector had dubbed the roof “serviceable” during the purchase inspection, meaning that it probably did not need to be replaced immediately. My assessment was “marginally serviceable”, meaning that it will probably have to be re-shingled next summer. It is a relatively low pitch roof, roughly 4-in-12, so I may redo it myself. I’ve done this work before, and although I was much younger then, I am actually in better shape now. The key will be getting the shingles delivered to the roof rather that to the driveway. The bonus to being on the roof was that the views were nice and I had a much better Verizon 4G/LTE signal than I do in the house, so there is still the possibility that I can get a usable signal into the house using some sort of signal booster system.

By the time Linda fought her way home through Friday evening rush hour traffic she was tired and did not feel like cooking. It was also obvious that we would not be ready to leave for Twelve Mile, Indiana by noon the next day. We quickly decided to delay our departure until Sunday and, relieved of that pressure, headed off to LaMarsa in Brighton for dinner. The LaMarsa in Farmington Hills was a favorite of ours before we moved, and the one in Brighton is equally good. Our favorite dish is Koshary, an Egyptian street food made with rice, legumes, two different pastas, fried onions, pickled beets, and a spicy sauce. It comes with a salad with a lovely Middle Eastern vinaigrette dressing. Dinner always comes with fresh pocket pita breads and garlic spread and the whole meal is vegan, served in a nice setting by wonderful wait staff.

2013_08_31 (Sat) Our New Online Home

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From mid-afternoon on Thursday 29^th through late evening on Saturday the 31^st I was occupied with moving our domain {website/blog and e-mail} to a new web-hosting service. That wasn’t all we did, of course, but the process involved a lot of back and forth and everything else seemed to fit in around it.

Like many things in our modern world, we tend to take our communications technology for granted, after all, most of the time it just works. But just like losing power to your refrigerator, you don’t really understand just how dependent you are on technology until it doesn’t work. Unlike a refrigerator, which either works or it doesn’t (and it’s usually obvious which condition it is in), our e-mail failure was more subtle. We continued to receive e-mails from some recipients if they originated them (but not always) and recipients typically received e-mails that we originated (but not always). But we did not receive replies to e-mails that we sent. What was particularly strange was that the person sending the reply did not get a bounce-back or other error, so to them it looked like they had sent the reply successfully. We didn’t know if they got the original message, and they assumed we got the reply.

I do not know what went wrong with our e-mail accounts at iPage, and never will, but they were definitely malfunctioning and iPage was unable to fix the problem and ultimately unwilling to move it to a sufficiently high level of technical support to figure it out. I have nothing against overseas technical support as long as it is technically competent and customer supportive. In my support ticket interactions with iPage I never corresponded with the same person twice. The problem with the “big name” hosting services is the same as a lot of mutual funds. Huh? Way too much time and money put into marketing, way too little into a high quality, reliable offering. It’s a numbers game, and my number was 1, as in, I am only one customer. We will almost certainly lose money in this transition by not getting an adequate refund from iPage, but one of the secrets to life is knowing when to take your losses and being willing to do so and move on. In the end we had no choice but to move our domain.

In the two weeks prior to reaching that decision I had two completely independent recommendations for QTH.com as a web-hosting service. “QTH” is ham radio lingo for “location” and Scott Neader, the guy behind QTH.com, has amateur radio call sign KA9FOX. The company is located in Wisconsin, and so is the technical support. In the move from iPage to QTH I exchanged numerous e-mails with Scott, who personally handled much of the set up and transfer. Moving our WordPress installation (website/blog) turned out to be particularly tricky because of how iPage had it installed. I would not have been able to do it by myself, but Scott got it done. By 8:00 PM EDT Saturday evening I had confirmed, as best I could, that everything was working and began sending out e-mails to a selective group of recipients asking for replies to validate the correct functioning of our accounts. With the exception of a couple of e-mails that got blocked as SPAM (one in each direction) all of our e-mails were received and successfully replied to.

Chuck Spera, a fellow H3-40 owner in our area, found a place locally to make a screen for the awning style window in the main entrance door of his coach. I drove down to his bus garage in Novi and borrowed it to check the fit in our coach. It was good, so we are getting two of them. It’s a custom fabricated part, and it’s easier to get a spare up front. These are not rectangular screens; they have five sides and are basically trapezoids (top and bottom parallel) with one upper corner cut off to make the 5^th side. The local shop made and checked a template in Chuck’s coach before fabricating the actual screen. They used a sturdy aluminum channel, and in spite of having five joints, the frame does not flex very much. This is a significant improvement over the flimsy, poor-fitting we have lived with for the last three years.

I finished editing drafts of two more articles for Bus Conversions Magazine, selecting/inserting the photographs and writing captions for them, and uploaded them to my Dropbox account. We enjoyed a lively breakfast with our South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club as we do most Saturdays. We are trying to get ready for a house warming in early October, so we continued to unpacking boxes and find places for things. We are managing to identify a few things for disposal, recycling, or donation, but that continues to be a challenge for me, which is one of the reasons we are not full-time RVers.

2013_08_16 (Fri) BTTB Rally – Day 2

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We had another cool night overnight that was great for sleeping. 7:30 AM found the coffee brewed and the bagels, fruit, muffins, and Danish pastries awaiting the rally participants. This isn’t a “fancy” rally in a fancy place, but it sure is a nice one.

Mike Mullen’s Flxible (on right), the only one at this rally.

Two more buses showed up today; Mike (GLCC vice-president) & Mary Ann Muller and Mark (CCO president) & Diane Reid. Linda took off with a group of the women to search out garage sales, but came back empty-handed. (She is not a garage sale person.) Over the course of the morning bay doors were opened on various buses and small groups of (mostly) men could be found peering deep inside. These sessions are sometimes for the purpose of seeing/admiring someone’s latest handiwork, and sometimes for the purpose of trying to help diagnose a problem and fix it if possible. There was some of both today. On Wednesday, for instance, someone blew a transmission hose just as they were pulling into their parking space. With the help of some of the other participants, a new hose had been custom made by a local supplier and installed, tested, and verified as operational in less than 24 hours. Today several guys worked on diagnosing a severe vibration problem someone in the rear of a GM 4104.

Bill Gerry’s Harley Davidson with Leyman trike conversion. Bill is in the center of the photo, directly behind the bike (dressed in black, of course).

Mid-late morning Bill Gerry showed up on his Harley Davidson Leyman trike conversion. He left the Toronto, Ontario area around 6:00 AM for the 4.5 hour trip plus several fuel stops. As you can see in the picture, it’s a gorgeous machine. Bill is the de facto “ring leader” of the Canadian contingent that usually attends this rally, but he and Karen could not come this year because of a 50th wedding anniversary party being held tomorrow for some of their best friends back home. (Karen stayed home to help with the preparations.) Still, I think it says a lot that Bill thought it was worth driving 9 hours round trip to hang out with all of us for a few hours. Such is the attraction of the bus conversion community, and the camaraderie of those who choose to be part of it. As mentioned yesterday, Dennis and Bernadette did make it to the rally in their Class B, so our Canadian friends were represented.

Late morning conversations in the pavilion.

Everyone was on their own for lunch today, so Linda and I had some sun-dried tomato hummus wraps with onions, lots of onions. Because we knew we would only have a 20A connection, Linda planned the meals we would have to provide for ourselves around not having to cook things. With the way we eat, however, “no heat don’t mean no eat.” It was a bit warmer by lunchtime than the last few days, and the cold dishes were particularly satisfying under such weather conditions.

Since most of the rally participants were now on site, I decided to bring out the copies of the February 2013 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine and the May-June issue of The Gypsy Journal to distribute to those who don’t already subscribe to them. We left home in early June with about 60 copies of the BCM issue and picked up about 100 copies of TGJ in Gillette, Wyoming. We have been carrying them with us every since and passing them out at campgrounds and rallies. After today’s distribution we have less than 10 of each left.

Almost everyone was present for the roundtable discussion, which lasted two hours.

At 1:00 PM (Ed time) we circled up the chairs for our roundtable discussion. This has been a regular Friday feature of the rally since it began. We had 20+ people in the circle, 30 total in the pavilion, and almost everyone participated. Someone was having a problem with a 2-year old leather chair that was peeling, and the group helped problem-solve how to deal with the vendor, who was being very reluctant to make good on the situation. We ended up on speaker phone with them, and made it clear that 30 of us were listening to the conversation. By the end there seemed to be a greater willingness on the part of the vendor to try to make the situation right.

Other topics of discussion included electrical shorepower and how to build/use a combiner box to plug a “50A” connector into two smaller capacity outlets (30A, 20/15A). Some of us indicated that we also carry long, larger gauge extension cords with 50A RV/marine twist lock connectors that have the L1 and L2 pins internally jumpered. There’s no magic to this—20A is 20A—but it does allow power to be applied to both legs of the coach’s electrical system so that everything onboard is able to receive electrical power (except for any 240VAC devices). That doesn’t mean you can run everything; 20A is still just 20A after all.

We had an extended discussion about supplemental braking systems. While everyone present indicated that they use one, there were several different types represented, and questions about each of their methods of operation, and opinions about their relative merits. Like any other vehicle, buses have brake systems designed to safely stop their GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating). This is the maximum amount of weight the bus is designed to move and stop, including anything it is towing. Most states and provinces require supplemental braking for anything being towed that weighs over a certain amount, with 1,500 pounds being a common specification. A major consideration is break away situations, in which the toad breaks loose from the bus. Many supplemental braking systems are designed to apply the car brakes hard and keep them applied in this situation.

Several discussants had issues with their pneumatic systems so those were put forward and discussed. At lot of things on buses operate on air, including suspensions, brakes, accessories, and even engine throttles. The universal reality about air systems seems to be that they leak, so the issue is never IF, but HOW BAD? Many air leaks are small enough that you can live with them, but not always.

The subject of Coach-Net came up. Many FMCA motorhome owners have Coach-Net emergency roadside service policies. What the policies cover is actually fairly limited, but does include towing (a huge benefit for a bus or large motorhome owner), fuel (if you run out), and telephone technical support. If you need a roadside repair they will try to get the right person to your location to do it, but the cost of the repair is not covered. Several of our GLCC members had recently had their service canceled, in spite of not having made any claims. The reason they were given was that Coach-Net had changed their policy and would no longer cover buses (specifically?) that were more than 40 years old. Pat indicated that he had talked to Jon Walker, a member of GLCC and the recently elected FMCA National Vice President, and that the contract between FMCA and Coach-Net had ended as of July 1 and not been renewed. The rally participants who were affected by this had no problem signing up for Good Sam Emergency Road Service.

There was a question about solar panels (photovoltaic). The question generated a lot of comment, but no definitive recommendations. It was a systems sizing question that was simple to ask, but not simple to answer without specific analysis and calculations. Finally, several rally goers reported on recent, successful service experiences and gave positive recommendations for the service providers.

After the roundtable ended around 3 PM Bill said his farewells and left for Toronto. Folks returned to their coaches, resumed their conversation groups, and returned to their “bay watch” patrols and repair work.

L-to-R Gordy, Marty, and Glenn cooking up the burgers and hotdogs for dinner.

Dinner this evening was classic summer fare; grilled hotdogs and hamburgers with the fixins’, potato salad, baked beans, and potato chips. Some raw veggies were left over from the other night as well. We supplied our own tofu hotdogs, which Glenn grilled up for us very nicely. We garnished them with fresh raw onions and mustard. Potato chips and raw veggies rounded out our meals, which, while not exactly whole-food, plant-based, were definitely vegan.

Prepping the buffet line. There were a few young folks at the rally, although not as many as in past years.

Not long after dinner Bill Foley stopped by. Bill is a CCO guy who lives nearby but was not able to attend the rally with his bus. Bill has a bus barn that Don has been trying to arrange for some of us to go see. I ended up at Ed’s coach and had a long chat with Ed, Bill, and Don. We discussed bus barns, but we also talked about the situation with our driveway at some length.

I eventually returned to our coach to sound of the nearby race track. We have heard these vehicles at various times most days, presumably making practice runs, but we assumed tonight were actual races. Some of the rally participants started playing bingo in the pavilion around 9 PM. They were done by 10:15 PM, after which conversation continued along with the racing. RVers, or at least the ones we hang out with, tend to be up early and turn in early. This particularly rally, however, tends to keep folks up a bit later, especially on Friday and Saturday evenings. We are gathered out in the country, not in a commercial campground or state park, so we have only our fellow rally participants to answer to, and no one objects to conversations extending into the evening. Eventually the rally site quieted down and the only thing that disturbed the nighttime silence was an occasional train. (For those who don’t know, it is a requirement that wherever two or more RVs are gathered, there must be an active rail line nearby. If there isn’t, I think there are special crews that get dispatched in the middle of the night to quickly build one.)

2013_08_09-12 (F, S, N, M) Odds And Ends

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There is a certain routine to being back at the house, and when we are here it feels like we should get back into that routine. Otherwise, it becomes too easy to sleep in, start slow, and not get around to even thinking about doing things until the afternoon, by which time it is too late to start anything.

Friday we were still unloading a few things from the bus, finishing up laundry (me), weeding the flower beds (Linda), catching up on accounting tasks (Linda), catching up on operating system updates (me), and other such necessities of daily living. I placed calls to various service providers and filled out an online trouble report to try and get our AT&T phone line back in service. Based on the missed calls on our answering machine, it appears that the phone line quite working around June 25th. What I found interesting was that our High Speed Internet (HSI/DSL) worked fine and never went out.

With necessary chores attended to I turned my attention to writing first drafts of articles for Bus Conversions Magazine (BCM). I had started an article a while back on the exterior makeover so finished a first draft of that and sent it off to Michele Henry of Phoenix Paint for review. I had six other projects I had worked on the last 11 months that I also thought would make good articles. Over the course of the weekend I completed first drafts of all six and sent all seven article drafts off to the Publisher (Gary Hall) and Editor (Wendy Crosby) of BCM, sans pictures.

Until today (Monday) the weather has been delightful since we returned, with blue skies, a few puffy white clouds, highs in the low-to-mid 70’s and lows in the upper 50’s. Friday evening we decided to get out of the house for a while so we drove to downtown Brighton and went for a walk along the Mill Pond. This is a large pond formed by a small dam in the heart of downtown, and it has a boardwalk that runs along the east side for about 1/2 mile. Besides people there were ducks and geese, including babies, and a swan. We also saw bluebirds and two muskrats. Downtown Brighton is a happening place on a Friday night. There were lots of people at the many restaurants, but equally many out walking.

Part of our routine is Saturday morning ham radio breakfast, usually with the South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club (SLAARC) of which we are members, but occasionally with the Novi Radio Club. Having been gone for a while we went to the SLAARC breakfast. It was good to see our ham radio friends and catch up on what everyone has been doing. Folks were interested in our travels, of course, and we enjoyed sharing a little bit about that.

Back home I decided to run a computer network cable from our AT&T Gateway to my office in the basement so I could connect the computers down there to a hub and and connect it back to the Gateway. I’ve been trying to accomplish this connectivity with WiFi, but have had limited success. I ran a small experiment first to make sure it would work, plugging my laptop into the hub and the hub into the Gateway with all of the components in close physical proximity to the Gateway. It worked, so I proceeded with the larger project.

I had to enlarge a hole from the basement up into the wall cavity behind Linda’s desk, and managed to nick the Cat5 cable that carries the DSL/phone signal to the Gateway. Naturally the AT&T repair truck showed up a short time later. That did not turn out to be problem, however, as the technician very quickly determined that the problem was somewhere upstream in their system. He had our signals restored at the outside junction box long before I was ready to reconnect to them.

I managed to get the Cat6 network cable run through the suspended ceiling in the basement and into the office. I put the hub in the center of the room and ran the longest cables I had from various devices across the floor and over things. I would include a picture, but it isn’t a pretty sight. 😉 The hardwired connection isn’t necessarily faster than the wireless one, but it stays connected, which is more important than speed.

While I was at it I decided to run a new, higher quality Cat6 cable from the AT&T junction box (outside) to the AT&T Gateway (inside). After poking around in the attics above the garage and the house, I decided that this was not a project that had to be done at this time. As I have worked on projects in the basement I have been removing old telephone wires as we use a cordless phone system and the wiring is obsolete. I was going to to continue that work, but decided for now to just fix the cable I had damaged and get our phone/DSL connections back on line.

Another part of our routine is the Sunday morning Howell Farmers Market. The nice weather continued and we enjoyed strolling through the market and talking to the vendors. We bought some corn and peppers and herbs. We bought some more coffee beans from Irene’s Beans of Milford, and also from Teeko’s of Howell. Teeko’s is not far from our house and they keep their beans green until you buy them. They then roast them to your taste while you wait. They have a very wide selection of beans, including 100% Kona and Jamaica Blue Mountain. These are premium coffee beans and are not generally available even at upscale food markets.

On Sunday Linda split her time between weeding, her computer, and just relaxing, which usually involves reading. Of course she also took time to make meals, which were good, as usual. I continued working on articles drafts and started updating our GPS units. I had the docking/update software for both units installed on an older laptop that is not very fast, even with a hardwired network connection. I replaced the hard disk drive in that laptop some time ago with a solid state drive as I plan to use that computer to run the Silverleaf VMSpc software for monitoring the bus engine while I drive. I figured the SSD would be more tolerant of bumps and vibrations. It probably is, but I did not figure on how incredibly slow it would be.

It took quite a while, but I got the Garmin nüvi 465T updated. This is a nice little GPS unit designed for truckers (the T model) with a 4″ diagonal screen. Because it is designed for truckers, we can create profiles for different vehicles/combinations, including length, width, height, and weight. That is very handy when driving a large vehicle. We use it in the toad, and as a backup for the bus. I need to move the docking software to my newer laptop if I can figure out how to do it. Part of the problem is that I also have map subscriptions installed on the old laptop and have to move those as well.

Sunday night was our monthly SLAARC meeting in South Lyon. Linda opted not to go, but as the Vice-President of the club for this year, I really needed to make an appearance. Besides, the program was on how to use an oscilloscope. The presenter was (Dr.) Steve Smith, N8AR, a member of our club and retired electrical/communications engineer who worked on the space program at one point in his career. Steve has done a number of presentations for our club. They are always good, and they always draw a crowd, and this was no exception.

This morning (Monday the 12th) we woke to find it very overcast with a high probability of showers for most of the day. That meant we would not be doing much outside work today. Our Honda Element (towed vehicle) was overdue for it’s 75,000 mile service, so we took it to Brighton Honda right after breakfast. While I was getting it written up Linda picked up my favorite Amy’s frozen pizza for dinner as she had plans for dinner and movie with Diane; their belated annual birthday night out.

I planned to continue working on my articles for BCM, selecting, adding, and annotating photos to illustrate them. But first I decided to install the docking software for our Rand-McNally RVND7710 GPS. That was easy; the software resides in the non-volatile memory of the unit, which connects to the computer via a USB cable. I checked for updates; there were some, so I installed them.

I then decided to purchase the Lifetime Map updates, which I had not done previously. I accomplished that easily enough but had a little trouble getting the docking software to accept the Activation Key. Closing the software, powering the GPS down, turning it back on, and re-launching the docking software got it to work, but that wasn’t part of the instructions. Great; time to download and install updated maps, which I did. It took eight (8) hours! I know our Internet connection is not very fast, and I have no idea how much data got downloaded, but 8 hours?! Unfortunately that tied up my laptop for most of the day, so whatever else I had hoped to accomplish got delayed. But that was OK; it rained all day, and a slower pace with a subdued tone somehow seemed appropriate.

2013_08_08 (Thu) Settling In

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Today was a settling in kind of day. Linda spent much of it working at her desk on accounting and tax returns, with a break for grocery shopping, cooking, and a walk on an absolutely perfect Michigan summer afternoon.

I spent most of the day at my desk as well trying to diagnose our non-functioning AT&T home phone line and filing an online repair order. I caught up on correspondence, backed up and moved computer files around, and got back to the task of writing articles for Bus Conversion Magazine. I also finally got to be present when the backup generator started up at noon for its weekly self-test.

For dinner Linda prepared a dish using quinoa, black beans, corn, onions, and garlic in a little bit of vegetable broth and seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin, and cayenne pepper. The dish had just a hint of heat but let the flavors of the ingredients come through. She served it along side baby bok choy that she quartered and roasted. Bok choy has a taste/texture suggestive of Brussels sprouts or cooked cabbage, but more subtle. I drizzled mine lightly with white vinegar for a little added zing. A small glass of Summer Sunset from Leelanau Cellars completed the meal. Latter we had fresh strawberries for dessert.

2013_06_30 (Sun) Happy Birthday

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Sunrise over Boxelder RV Park, CAM-PLEX, Gillette, WY

Sunrise over Boxelder RV Park, Gillette WY CAM-PLEX

Linda was up early this morning and went for a sunrise walk. Perhaps she was too excited to sleep because it was her birthday, but this is the 53^rd Escapade and the 35^th anniversary of the founding of the Escapees RV Club, so it could have been that. When she got back I brewed up some Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee (from Irene’s Beans in Milford, MI) and she opened her birthday present. Linda now has her first “cowgirl” shirt! She liked it so much that she made blueberry pancakes for breakfast with real, fresh blueberries and real Michigan maple syrup. (If you are thinking that I should have prepared breakfast for her, let me state that in the past I would have, and could have, done this but she is the resident WFPB culinary expert, and I have basically stayed out of the kitchen, and out of her way, since we started down this path two years ago.)

We got a call from our son who was checking on our house. Linda had asked him the day before to check our answering machine because it wouldn’t pick up when we called. It turned out that we didn’t have a dial tone, but our Internet connection appeared to be OK. He said there had been a lot of rain this past week, so that may be the reason. Our phone and data service come over the same wire, so I’m not sure that is the problem. We decided to wait a few days and see if it clears up. If not we will have to contact AT&T.

We had more coffee at 9 AM at the WiFi Cafe and more conversation with Charles Martin. We returned the defective Camco hose and got a replacement. Their analysis was that the metal sleeve had not been swaged properly which is why the barbed fitting did not stay in. While we were there we looked at the Camco Genturi genset exhaust stack. This is an auxiliary exhaust stack that fits on the end of the generator tailpipe and carries the generator exhaust up past the roof line of the RV. It’s made of 3” PVC in 4 foot sections, so it can be taken apart and stored. A tailpipe extension curves up into the base of the 3” pipe with room to draw in cooler air around it and creating a Venturi effect, thus the name of the product. This is a fairly easily duplicated design; the main reason to buy it is that you don’t have to source all the materials and make it yourself. The vertical pipe has to be supported somehow, and suction cups are one of the options. The vendor suggested getting large ones from Harbor Freight that are normally used for handling windshields and other large pieces of glass. If/when I build one of these, I would like to be able to hook it onto the gutter rail where the roof starts, but the large suction cups are an interesting idea, although I am not too keen on that idea with the new paint on the coach. Our Aqua-Hot exhaust exits out under the driver side of the coach right next to the generator exhaust, and I have considered building a double stack that hooks to both of these. In both cases, however, I have to be careful not to restrict the exhaust flow and create back pressure.

We walked through the vendor area again and talked to Sean at WiFi Ranger about the factory default reset we got when we turned the power off and back on. I also bought a roof mounting bracket for our WiFi Ranger Mobile. Linda bought a silicone cooking sheet for use in the microwave from RV SpaceSavers. We stopped and talked briefly to Nick & Terry Russell of The Gypsy Journal and gave Nick a copy of the February 2013 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine. Until a few years ago, Nick and Terry lived in an MCI bus that Terry had converted. (Nick is famous for not knowing how to use tools.) We talked to a vendor who provides mobile black/grey tank cleaning service, but deferred signing up. We also chatted with a satellite TV vendor who felt strongly that Direct TV was a far superior choice to Dish Network, especially if we were also going to use it at home. She confirmed that Moto-Sat had gone out of business and that RF Mogul was started by former Moto-Sat employees. We discussed the possibility of using a fully-automatic open style multiple-satellite dish on a tripod or other mount rather than having it attached to the roof. She seemed skeptical, but did not see any fundamental reason that it wouldn’t work. (In fact we have seen a lot of open style satellite TV dishes mounted on tripods or sitting on the ground, although most of them are manual dishes, not automatic.)

After our jaunt through the vendor area, we visited “The Row” to get our “bingo” sheet filled in but ended up talking to many of the chapter and C-BOF representatives. We finally met Steven Gullette from the HFH BOF, with whom we had exchanged many e-mails in the last few months. He will be one of the co-leaders on the build in Sheridan in a couple of weeks. We chatted with Lou Petkus, K9LU, and signed up for the newly formed SKP Photographers BOF (no charge). We also talked to the Elks BOF and found out that we can join the Gillette lodge while attending Escapade, so we took some information and an application form. The initiation is Friday evening.

We got back to the coach around 12:45 PM and grabbed a quick lunch before running some errands. We went back to the Boot Barn to exchange Linda’s new shirt for a different size, and had to join their “loyalty program” in order to do the exchange. The manager had to approve the exchange and was a bit surly. We will not be shopping there ever again. We also mailed an anniversary card to our son & daughter-in-law. Linda received a birthday call from her sister and a video birthday greeting from our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. In many respects, RV life is just like regular life.

We attended the opening / welcome ceremony at 3 PM and were delighted to see and hear from Kay Peterson, SKP #1. Dinner was leftover risotto with the rest of the Lawrence Elk black currant wine from Prairie Berry Winery, and both were excellent. I was sorry that they were both gone, but there’s more where they came from.

We went over to the Wyoming Center at 7 PM for the Door prize drawings followed by the Rivoli Review for the evening entertainment. They do a good show, with lots of energy and humor, although the patriotism was laid on fairly thick, and there were moments that were just plain jingoistic and inappropriate. Although many of the attendees were enthusiastic about their show, there were plenty of folks sitting on their hands who were clearly not so pleased.

2013_06_28 (Fri) Eagle Butte Coal Mine

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Even though we had registered to arrive yesterday, today was actually the first early arrival date for Escapade. Yesterday was supposed to just be for volunteer arrivals, but someone had made a mistake when creating the registration page/form on the website. Not that it mattered to us; we were already here and parked.

We had reservations for a 9:00 AM tour of the Eagle Butte Mine, an open pit mining operation north of Gillette, Wyoming owned by Alpha West Mining. The tour is two hours long and there are no restrooms available during that time, so breakfast did not include our usual coffee. (It’s good to skip morning coffee occasionally, if only to prove to one’s self that you are not addicted to it and can function just fine without it. The result, however, usually establishes just the opposite.)

Us standing in a an overburden shovel bucket.

We arrived at the visitor information center (at the Flying J on Hwy 59) in Gillette about 20 minutes early and checked in. The tour was by small bus–the kind used by car rental companies as airport shuttles–and was free! Reservations were required, however, and Linda had made ours on Wednesday. Our tour guide / driver was Danielle. Her normal day job is teaching 7th grade physical education, but she had worked production at the Eagle Butte mine in past summers. Her professional teaching skills were evident as she was very knowledgeable regarding the whole mining operation and was able to clearly explain what we were seeing with a strong voice that everyone could here.

A coal train pulling out of Eagle Butte Mine.

What you see on any tour of a functioning production operation is always a bit by chance based on what is going on at the time you are there. Your chances were pretty good with this tour, however, as the mining operation is 24/7/52 and the tour bus, which is owned by the mine, actually drives through the mine property and stops at various vantage points and a viewing platform. We were lucky today as there were shovels and trucks (dirt/overburden, coal, and water) operating, along with smaller equipment. There was also a train being loaded, and we got to see the loading process from a very close up vantage point. The trains, with 110 -140 coal cars, move through the loading area at a very slow but steady 0.6 MPH, up a slight grade, even as the mass of the train changes as each car is loaded. I presume that the locomotives are computer controlled, but I was not able to confirm that.

Coal shovel, Eagle Butte Coal Mine

Eagle Butte is a relatively small mine compared to most in the region, but the scope of the operation and the size of the equipment were still quite impressive. Eagle Butte is in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin (PRB) where the coal lies in a horizontal layer 100 -120 feet thick below 200 – 250 feet of overburden. The reclamation process is continuous and very strict, with the overburden being used to back fill once the coal is removed. The land is returned to its former condition (as much as possible), including the exact replacement of native flora and fauna.

After the tour we returned some items to Wal-Mart, bought some replacement items, and then went to the HealthStyles Market. Rick still had his 20% off coupon from his FMCA welcome bag and gave it to us yesterday. We, in turn, gave him some coupons for food items we would not be able to use.

It was warm again this afternoon, but it was not uncomfortable due to the low humidity (34%). Linda went for a walk and encountered Nick & Terry Russell. She also met Charles & Connie Martin, who invited us to go out to dinner, which she accepted. We have not dined out on this trip much as the available restaurant/menu choices are limited to non-existent, especially here in Gillette. Linda had found the one and only Italian restaurant in town and suggested we go there. Italian restaurants usually have a few pasta dishes that work for us, and there is always the “pizza without cheese” option, although this has proven to be a hit-or-miss proposition.

We had a quiet afternoon and visited with Rick next door for a while. The Martins picked us up at 6:00 PM and we went to Adriano’s. The food was underwhelming, but the conversation was great. Linda enjoys planning and preparing our meals, and I enjoy eating them, but she also appreciates a break now and then. Charles & Connie have an MCI 102C3 conversion. Charles was very familiar with Bus Conversions Magazine (BCM) and its founder, but was not aware that Gary Hall now owns and publishes it, so I gave him a copy of the February 2013 issue, which features our coach.

We got back from dinner at 8:00 PM and decided to go for a walk while it was still light, and before it got too cool. We walked a portion if the Boxelder RV Park to see who else had shown up and met some very nice dogs (and their owners). I spotted a motorhome with a very tall flag pole attached to the rear, but no flags. The owners were outside and I asked if it was a flagpole or a ham radio antenna? “Yes” was the answer, so we stopped to chat with them. They have been full-timers for a while but only recently started traveling. This was their first Escapade. By the time we made it back to the coach it was dark and cool. We had a few sweet cherries for dessert and it was off to bed.

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Tag Archives: BCM

2014/03/06 (R) A Change of Plans

2014/03/05 (W) Rainy Day Work

2014/02/10 (M) A Day Of Firsts

2014/02/08 (S) Uptime

2014/02/07 (F) Downtime

2014/02/05 (W) Jacksonville (FL)

2014/01/11 (S) Silver River State Park (FL)

2014/01/09 (R) Rainy Days And Writing

2014/01/08 (W) Florida In Winter

2014/01/05 (N) Views of WCRVR

2014/01/04 (S) Rally Articles

2014/01/03 (F) Power Dinner

2013_11-16_12-06 Time Flies

2013_09_23-27 (M-F) Getting Ready

2013_09_18 (Wed) Under A Harvest Moon

2013_09_13 (Fri) Bakery Business, WordPress, And Gutters

2013_08_31 (Sat) Our New Online Home

2013_08_16 (Fri) BTTB Rally – Day 2

2013_08_09-12 (F, S, N, M) Odds And Ends

2013_08_08 (Thu) Settling In

2013_06_30 (Sun) Happy Birthday

2013_06_28 (Fri) Eagle Butte Coal Mine