Tag Archives: GLCC

2015/07/14 (T) Red Chili Wine

Storms moved through the area overnight with more lightning and thunder than rain, or at so it seemed. The storms were triggered by a cold front, behind which we had a cloudy day with periods of rain. Linda was up at 7 AM and read quietly until I got up at 8. I made a full pot of coffee (Cafe Europe half-caff blend from Teeko’s) and then joined her in the living room.

Linda was checking Dr. Michael Gregor’s speaking schedule and saw that he will be at Wayne State University in December and will be one of the keynote speakers for the 2016 Holistic Holiday at Sea vegan cruise. We have not heard him speak in person, and will not be here in December, so that would be another reason to go on the cruise again. By 9:45 AM Mara had not emerged from her rig so we went ahead and had breakfast. Linda then went for a walk and I went to my office and worked on the design of the custom desk for the bus.

Mara finally emerged at 10:30 AM and we chatted for a while until Linda got back. Our chat was briefly interrupted by a call from Mike (W8XH) on the Novi repeater so Mara got to see ham radio in operation. My reception was weak and noisy and according to Mike my transmitted signal wasn’t any better. The only thing that has changed since we tested this late last week is that I got the repaired M-302N VHF/UHF lightning arrestor back from Morgan Manufacturing yesterday and re-installed it. Mike is going to help me do some more testing, but I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that these units are defective by design and I will have to replace them with something else. I am disappointed to say the least.

It was another cool, cloudy, rainy day, just the kind of day for staying inside and getting stuff done. Linda and Mara both had things to do and settled in at the dining room table to work. Mara has been focused on planning her upcoming travels and spent much of the day making reservations. Linda worked on the bookkeeping for our GLCC chapter and SLAARC ham radio club (she is treasurer of both). She also renewed our Coach-Net emergency road service and our Harvest Host membership, which had expired, and probably took care of a lot of other things that I don’t even know about. Except for an occasional break I worked on the custom desk design until 6:30 PM. On one of those breaks I needed to measure something in the bus so we gave Mara the inside tour.

When I came upstairs Mara was taking advantage of the unlimited hot water available in our guest bathroom to have a nice long shower. We know from personal experience what a luxury it is to take such a shower when living in an RV. Linda had started preparing our dinner so I opened the bottle of Hatch Red Chili wine. This wine, from St. Claire Winery in Deming, New Mexico is one of the more unusual wines we have ever had but we really like it. It is a slightly sweet red wine with no tannin, a hint of chili flavor, and heat in the back of the throat on the finish. We had vegan mock Italian sausages with sautéed onions and red peppers and the wine went well with it. I had mine on a hotdog bun with mustard. Mara had another serving of her beef stew, which she is trying to use up, and Linda put out a plate of whole, fresh strawberries.

One of the nice things about having visitors is that meals take longer to eat as we linger at the table in conversation. Mara returned to her rig around 9 PM to have some quiet time with her cats before going to bed. Linda decided to watch a couple of TV programs and I went back to work on the desk design. I called it quits around 10:45 PM and went to bed to work on this post. The overnight low is forecast to drop into the upper 40’s which should make for excellent sleeping.

2015/06/07 (N) Too Soon, Too Late

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Unlike the Escapees Rallies, which always have a “hitch up” breakfast on the day of departure, the FMCA rallies always end with the entertainment the evening before departure day. On departure day there is an asynchronous but generally smooth exodus of motorhomes that can start as early as 6 AM. A small group of members from the Ontario Rovers chapter was parked across from our row of GLCC buses and they started firing up their engines at 7 AM and pulled out shortly thereafter. No one objects to, or is disturbed by, this as it is understood and accepted that folks need to get on the road as suits their personal plans and travel styles. We are usually required to vacate the rally venue by noon unless we are part of the debriefing meetings.

One of the things I find most interesting about rallies is the somewhat contradictory feelings many of us seem to have on departure day that the rally is ending too soon but we would have been glad to leave sooner. The sense that it is over too quickly has to do, for me at least, with the fact that we enjoy the camaraderie of our fellow converted bus owners who we only see very occasionally. The sense that it has gone on too long is just the fatigue of an intense multi-day event where every day is packed full of things to do.

John and Paulette pulled out around 9:30 AM followed by Don and Sandra and then Larry and Alma. The Canadian contingent of our chapter (two buses and a Class C motorhome) was headed to a campground in Middlebury, Indiana about 17 miles away. They had planned to leave just before noon on the presumption that they would not be able to check in any sooner than that. Karen called and found out their sites were vacant so they all prepped their coaches, hooked up their cars, and were gone by 10:30 AM. Once we saw they were getting ready to leave we did not have any reason to linger so we prepared our coach for departure and so did Scott and Tami. We both decided to hook up by our sites rather than at the dump stations. We pulled away just after 11 AM with them not far behind us.

We took the outer road along the southern boundary of the Fairgrounds over to the dump stations at the southeast corner. There are at least five parallel lanes that RVs can use to dump their holding tanks. We have never had to wait for one but when we got over there they were all in use and there were five motorhomes waiting to get in. We had to dump before we left, and so did Scott and Tami, so there was nothing to do but wait our turn. Soon enough we were able to pull up, hook up our sewer hose, dump our holding tanks, rinse out the hose, put it away, close up the bay’s, and head for the exit.

The easiest way in/out of the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds is NOT through Goshen, Indiana which involves narrower streets, lots of traffic, and railroad grade crossings. From Gate 5 at the far northeast corner of the fairgrounds we turned right on CR-34 (Monroe St.) and headed east. About a mile later, give or take a bit, we turned left and headed north on CR-29. A couple of miles later CR-29 ended at IN-4 which we took east to IN-13. IN-13 starts (ends) at that point and only goes north from there.

We discussed whether to turn east onto US-20 or continue north on IN-13 but finally opted for the US-20 route. IN-13 becomes US-131 in Michigan and we could have taken it up to I-94, passing through Three Rivers, Michigan on the way. But US-20 is a good route that we have traveled many times and is the quickest way home from this part of Indiana, getting us over to I-69 very directly.

Once we got to I-69 the rest of our trip was on Interstate highways except for the last 13 miles. We stopped at the Michigan Welcome Center / Rest Area at mile marker 5 and then continued up to Lansing where we exited onto I-96 east. As we approached the exit for the Mobil Truck Stop at M-52 our fuel level was indicating just below a half tank and I decided not to stop and top it off. We talked about taking the Latson Road exit but M-59 is the most direct route home so I took that exit like we usually do. M-59 only goes east from there and rolls along interrupted by only two stop lights. Approximately 11 miles later I turned south on N. Hacker road and we completed the drive to our house.

We had very light and intermittent rain from the time we left the fairgrounds but it did not affect the drive. The only issue with the bus was that the Battery Balance Light and Vanner Equalizer Light both came on twice. Both times it happened I had just hit a very bumpy section of road so I am wondering if I have some loose cables. I have not checked the batteries in a while and terminal connections are probably due to be cleaned and tightened. The batteries are three or four years old at this point and are standard lead-acid maintenance-free batteries. I keep them on maintenance chargers when the coach is parked, but these batteries typically only last about 5 years so I need to check them and keep an eye on them.

We pulled into our driveway around 2:45 PM and Linda got out to direct me as I parked the rig. We were level without any adjustments so I shut down the main engine, switched off the batteries, closed all of the air valves, and plugged in the shorepower cord. It was not raining so we busied ourselves emptying the bus, including the refrigerator, of items we needed to get into the house sooner rather than later. We did not empty the freezer section as Linda needs to clean out and rearrange our home refrigerator freezer section first, and we left a lot of the clothes on board.

The wind was gusting stronger as the afternoon progressed. It continued to spritz off and on but the heavier rains finally came around 6 PM. They were initially isolated and intermittent but became stronger and more persistent as the evening hours advanced and by 9 PM we had lightning and thunder. Our son called around 9:30 PM just to check in with us, see how our week was, and bring us up to date regarding their activities. Last week was grand-daughter Madeline’s first full week of part-time day care. She will be staying home on Monday’s and Friday’s through the summer and hopefully be able to spend some time with Grandma Linda and Grandpa Bruce.

2015/06/06 (S) GLAMARAMA 2015 (Day 4)

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Today was the last day of the 2015 GLAMARAMA rally. It started at 7 AM with a pancake breakfast that ran until 9 AM. For the third year the rally organizers hired Chris’s Cakes to provide the pancakes. They had three long propane fueled griddles with sliding depositors. The operator stopped the depositors and used a lever to release the batter for six pancakes at a time and then moved it to the next position and did the same thing until the griddle was full. All of the pancakes had to be flipped by hand but the operators (cooks) were fast and generally accurate. They would occasionally flip three of them into the air at once and someone would try to catch them on their plate.

Linda and both had coffee. She had to work registration from 8 – 10 AM and left to go do that. I was hungry so I had three pancakes even though they probably contained eggs and/or milk products. I should have saved the calories; neither the pancakes nor the syrup had any flavor. Zero, zip, nada, nothing; no taste. I cannot remember the last time I had food that was that bland. But Scott, Mark, and I settled into an in-depth bus conversation that lasted until after 9 AM and the coffee was OK.

Linda and I met up back at the coach a little after 10 AM. I got a call from Gaye a Young letting me know we had a meeting with FMCA Executive Director Jerry Yeatts at 2:30 PM. Linda and I went back to the Coach Supply Direct booth and talked to Josh some more about fabrics. He confirmed that the Flexsteel 529 captain’s chair had a skirt around the base and that we could do a 2-tone fabric on the Flexsteel 591 captain’s chairs. We got the set of Lambright fabric samples from him along with the MCD shade material samples, and took them back to our coach to study in situ.

Although we liked the Bonkers Havana fabric we had previously selected, we ultimately selected two different ones. The Lone Wolf Brass was similar to the Bonkers Havana but lighter and much less green. Until we saw them together we did not realize the Bonkers Havana was green at all. The Legacy Borpeaux was a deep maroon, a color that appears in the Lone Wolf Brass and Bonkers Havana weaves. We will use the Lone Wolf Brass as the main fabric for the 591 chairs with the Borpeaux as the inset for the lower back and center aft seat panels. The 529 chairs will be all Borpeaux as the design of the chair does not lend itself to a 2-tone approach and we wanted some variety in the fabrics as long as they coordinated well.

The selection of materials for the MCD night shade was limited to six choices with one of them being black and another one white. Of the other four there was one we liked (B33). It was a bone (bisque, biscuit, etc.) color with a subtle but nice pattern. We wanted this opaque material to be light, but not “white,” so it would reflect artificial interior light when it was pulled down. The day shade is only available as a black fine-mesh screen. It is designed to block sunlight during the day but allow you to see out without anyone outside being able to see in.

With our selections made we went back to see Josh and return his sample materials. We keep feeling like we are close to placing an order but Josh needs to work up his pricing and get us the line drawings of the chairs. For our part we need to determine the dimensions of the cushions for the sofa and talk to A–1 Upholstery and get their estimate of how many yards of material we need so Josh can order all of the fabric at one time.

We went for our first walk around the Fairgrounds for this rally, although Linda has been walking every evening with Vicki Lintner. We were back at Building A at 12:30 PM. Linda had signed up for the Ladies Tea, which started at 1 PM so she headed over to the Home and Arts Building and I went back to our coach.

Frank Griswold drove down and bought a day pass. He and Sandy had planned to come to the rally in their Prevost H3-45 Vantare conversion but were unable to attend due to family issues. Jim and Lydia Marin decided to leave and go visit their children and Tim Olsen decided to depart right behind them and get home before the rain got his newly acquired, and freshly washed, Royale Coach Prevost XL dirty. When you have inside storage for your bus you have the option of being concerned about such things.

I was eating a sandwich for lunch, had Jasper on my lap, and was working on this blog post when Pat Lintner knocked on the door around 2 PM. He had purchased 18″ LED replacement lights for one of the ceiling fixtures in their Prevost bus conversion and wanted help wiring it. I took my voltmeter over to his coach to check the wiring. All we needed to do was identify the +12VDC and DC ground wires and while it seemed obvious how the fixture should be wired I was getting some odd readings on my meter. I did not want to rush and clip any wires until I was confident that I understood how the fixture was wired, and I had a meeting at 2:30 PM, so I told Pat I would be back before diner to finish the job.

I met with Gaye Young (FMCA national education committee chair) and Jerry Yeatts (FMCA executive director) for about 30 minutes to discuss the current status of the national education committee and its work. I then participated in a roundtable discussion with FMCA national secretary Vicki Ferrari and six other chapter secretaries. It was a very informative session that lasted for 90 minutes.

I had a chance to think about the fixture wiring while walking to and from my meetings, so after the chapter secretaries roundtable ended I went back to Pat’s coach, identified the +12VDC and DC ground wires, verified the voltage, clipped the supply wires, and got the LED bulbs installed in the ceiling fixture. I was done in time to walk back to my coach, which was not far from Pat’s, drop off my volt meter and iPad, and walk over to Building A for the Volunteer Dinner where Linda was waiting for me at the front door.

We went in and were greeted by Charlie Adcock, FMCA National President, who addressed Linda as Mrs. Bruce, and then by Jane Roush, who addressed Linda as Fay, all of which she found slightly amusing. I suggested that she had an identity crisis but she assured me she liked it that way. Dinner was green beans in butter with bacon, mashed potatoes (milk and butter), beef tips in gravy, and dinner rolls. There was no salad so we had dinner rolls with margarine for dinner. Mostly we go to these events to sociable and visible but it would be nice if a bit more consideration was given to having food available for people who have gluten issues or do not eat meat, eggs, or dairy for whatever reason. Green beans, properly prepared, are actually very tasty without butter and bacon.

We returned to our coach for a while and finished the leftover seitan stroganoff so we at least had something other than bread for dinner. We walked back to Building A, which we are parked behind one end of, for the evening entertainment. Sarah Ghetto performed at the first GLAMARAMA in September 2013 and was popular with the crowd so they invited her back. She was born blind and with a cleft pallet. The pallet was corrected surgically and she is an attractive and talented 31 year old woman with a college degree in music education and a voice that does justice to the Ann Murray covers and other songs she performs. She owns her own motorhome and travels with her parents from her home base in Norman, Oklahoma about five months of the year. Her dad sets up the lights and sound, MC’s the show, and plays guitar and/or sings on a few numbers, but dad makes it clear that Sarah is the star and keeps the spotlight on her.

FMCA is an International organization with members from Canada and Mexico in addition to the U.S.A. and yet they insist on hiring performers who pay tribute to the branches of the U.S. Armed Forces and sing God Bless America and other nationalist songs. The Great Lakes Area (GLAMA) in particular includes all of Ontario and our Great Lakes Converted Coaches chapter includes members from the entire area (IN, MI, OH, and Ontario). Our Canadian friends seem to take all of the religious-patriot nonsense in stride, but we find it inconsiderate at best and offensive at worst. Still, we enjoyed Sarah’s concert, most of which was not this kind of stuff. The Marlin’s also did some of this kind of music but most of their show was just great renditions of oldies.

We all walked the short distance back to our coaches after the concert and stood around in conversational groupings. To our surprise Mark Lovegreen had pulled out. He was headed to a relative’s farm outside Topeka, Kansas and wanted to get started with the trip. Linda and Vicki went for a walk, as they have every evening, and returned as the daylight was fading. They took down the American and Canadian Flags for the last time and folded them properly.

As darkness fell so did the temperature and once again it was just Scott and I having a conversation. This time it was mostly about holding tanks. By 10 PM we were getting a bit chilled and finally returned to our respective coaches for the night. I had some fresh fruit for desert and then went to bed and wrote for a little while before turning off the lights. At rallies our days usually start early, are filled with things to do, and run well into the evening. By the end of four or five days of that everyone is tired, but it’s a good kind of tired.

2015/06/05 (F) GLAMARAMA 2015 (Day 3)

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Today was day 3 of the FMCA GLAMARAMA 2015 rally. We were up at 7 AM after a poor night’s sleep in which the trains seemed to be almost continuous and the engineers seemed to leave their horns on for prolonged periods of time rather than just tooting them. We were at breakfast before 7:30 AM and had coffee while conversing at length with our friends from GLCC. Unlike the full breakfast that was included as part of the rally yesterday, today’s breakfast was simply coffee and donuts. The day’s rally activities got started at 9 AM so everyone went their own separate way at that time.

Linda and I went back to our coach for a while. We got word from our daughter that our step grand-daughter, Katie, woke up very ill this morning with a temperature of 103 degree F and unable to keep food down. When Linda headed to the 9:45 AM presentation on the FMCAssist program I stopped in one of the vendor buildings to pick up a receipt from Daryl Lawrence and chat with Josh Leach from Coach Supply Direct about our interior remodeling project. I then returned our GLCC sign to the office and went back to our coach.

The luncheon was at 11:15 AM, which seemed a bit early, but we walked over with our Canadian friends from our GLCC chapter and got in line. As usual we could not eat most of the food (by our choice) but we were able to make tomato and onion sandwiches using hamburger buns. Our daughter contacted Linda during lunch to let us know that Katie’s mom was taking her to the emergency room and we did not need to travel home in the car as Katie would probably not be attending her high school graduation this evening or the family dinner planned for afterwards. Although that greatly simplified our day we were disappointed for Katie and concerned that she get better very soon.

After lunch we went back to talk to Josh some more. Darin Hathaway was still out on Aqua-Hot service calls but things were so slow in the vendor area that Josh was willing to step away from his booth for a little while and bring his Corian samples box to our coach. It turned out that the Sandstone color/pattern was a perfect match to our existing kitchen counter. We do not always have that kind of good fortune when working on our 24 year old bus conversion.

We talked about chairs and Josh suggested that a Flexsteel Class C captain’s chair (model 529) might be a better choice for our dining/work table grouping than the barrel chairs we thought we wanted. The 529 is only 24 inches wide (to the outside of the arms) and can be mounted on a bolt down swivel/slide base with a seatbelt bar. It has a higher back than the barrel chairs but appears to be better proportioned for our space. The higher back would also be more supportive and the back does recline, so it would be adjustable the extent we have room.

We also talked about the Flexsteel 591 captain’s chair, with and without a footrest, for the passenger and driver seats respectively. Josh looked at the motorized bases for both chairs and thought they could be reused. That would be nice if true as it would save us cost and potentially simplify the installation. We still like the Lambright Havana Bonkers cloth fabric but are wondering if it might be too dark to use on all of the furniture. He gave us the name and phone number of A-1 Upholstery in Elkhart and said that they could make our custom sofa cushions and were the best upholsterers he has worked with. We will not have time to call them until Monday.

Last, but not least, Josh took measurements of all of our windows (except the windshields and cockpit windows) for MCD duo-shades. While potentially not as attractive as the Specialty Window Coverings (SWC) pleated day-night shades we currently have they would probably work better mechanically and be more effective in blocking light while affording us a view. We will almost certainly replace the shades in the bedroom as one of them is already broken. Whether we do the others will depend, at least partially, on cost but the quality of the design and manufacturing is very low and many of the metal pieces are actually bowed and have been since the day they were installed. In retrospect we should never have accepted them.

We spent the afternoon in/near our coach reading, writing, and paying attention to our cats. The Chapter Officers and Vendor’s Reception started at 4:15 PM. We walked over with Bill and Karen Gerrie who are officers in the Ontario Overlanders chapter. We had a sampling of items from the fresh fruit and relish trays. Linda had the Franzia Moscato and I had the Franzia Refreshingly Red wine. While waiting in line we finally made the acquaintance of Gaye Young, the chairperson of the national education committee, and her husband Jerry. Gaye is a candidate for FMCA national secretary. The election will be held at the national convention in Madison, Wisconsin at the end of July.

We went back to our motorcoach for a while and then returned to Building A to hear The Marlins. A group of four brothers, The Marlins gave a high energy 90 minute performance of an eclectic mix of popular music from the last 75 years. Back at our coach several of us stood outside talking until it got cool and dark. Vicki and Linda took down the American and Canadian flags and folded them. Linda then went in for the evening while I remained outside talking to Mark Lovegreen, who owns the highly modified MCI MC-8 parked next to us with the Laughing Raven Touring Co. markings. Mark is from Alaska and we continued our conversation for quite a while talking about buses and travel. It finally got chilly enough that we both retired to our respective coaches, although Mark was probably just hitting his comfort zone. I worked for a while on this post and then went to bed.

2015/06/04 (R) GLAMARAMA 2015 (Day 2)

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We had a very full schedule today. Breakfast was provided from 7 to 9 AM by the catering branch of Das Dutchmen Essenhaus restaurant as part of the rally fee. We went over at 8 AM with the Canadian contingent of our GLCC chapter. Breakfast was eggs, potatoes, and ham, so we had potatoes along with coffee and orange juice. The potatoes were OK, improved by ketchup and Tabasco sauce, the orange juice was excellent, and the coffee was acceptable except that they ran out. Yeah, they ran out of coffee at an RV rally breakfast.

We walked over to registration at 9 AM to find out our pavilion assignment for the social this afternoon. They put us in Building 17, about as far from where most of us are parked as possible. Oh well. We walked over and put up our chapter sign and then started spreading the word as this was a different location than we had the last two years. With the help of Vicki Lintner and her bicycle we managed to get the word to everyone, including those chapter members that we knew were at the rally but not parked with the chapter.

The vendor buildings were on our way back to our coach so we walked through those. We stopped at Daryl and Cheri Lawrence’s booth and paid them for the TireTraker repeater Daryl gave us to try when we were in Quartzsite, Arizona this past winter. We were able to use our volunteer “vendor bucks” to pay for half of the repeater. Daryl also confirmed that we should be able to back the dill valve stems out of our inside dual tire extensions slightly (1/4 turn) to get the TireTraker sensors to activate more reliably.

Josh Leach was there from Coach Supply Direct so we chatted with him a bit. He can order the Flexsteel 1341-CH barrel chair with the Lambright fabric we like and can order the Flexsteel captain’s chair for the passenger position in the same fabric. He estimated delivery at five weeks. He can also get Corian countertops made and had a good assortment of sample pieces so we are going to try to get him to the coach with the samples and select something.

We also stopped at the MCD shade vendor and at one of their competitor’s booths. We are thinking about replacing the two shades in the bedroom with the duo-style roller shades. The MCD vendor also gave us a great tip on how to adjust our AutoMotion motorized windshield shades using layers of painter’s tape to get the fabric to roll up onto the spool correctly. The shades from either vendor are custom made and shipped. The MCD guy will ship them for free. The other guy is local to Elkhart so we could pick them up if needed, although there is certainly a real cost to the 300 mile round trip.

Back at the coach I returned a call from Mike at Suburban Seating and called Rick Short at ISRI USA but was not successful in reaching either of them. There was a meeting of GLAMA chapter presidents, national directors, and alternate directors at 1:30 PM with GLAMA President Jane Roush so I went to that. FMCA National President Charlie Adcock and Senior National Vice-President Jon Walker were also there.

While I was at the meeting Linda and Karen (Gerrie) left at 2 PM to pick up the food and sundry items for our GLCC chapter social. My meeting ended at 2:30 PM and I went back to the coach to get our chapter banner. Bill Gerrie agreed to help he put it up. He grabbed two chairs and I grabbed the banner and Scott Bruner, who was on golf cart transportation duty, drove us over. Bill and I got the banner tied up where it was visible and then sat and talked until Linda showed up in our car with the food. She had the air-conditioning on full blast to keep it cool. She’s a clever girl.

By 4 PM almost everyone had shown up so we had a moment of silence to allow folks to practice their individual pre-meal traditions. We were just getting in line to get our food when the photographer showed up and wanted a group picture. We gathered on either side of our banner and she apparently got what she needed although I only saw her take one photo. A few more members showed up and joined the food line. When everyone had their first helping, and a chance to eat some of it, George Myers asked if we could start the meeting and he could have the floor. No problem. I called the meeting to order and gave him the floor.

Besides being a member of our chapter George and Sue run the golf cart transportation service for the rally. George is also the GLAMA VP for Indiana. Since there was only one geographic Indiana chapter (the Hoosier Cruisers) all of the multi-state chapters, like ours, were put under the Indiana VP. Thus George had five chapters that he was responsible for assisting and had to go visit the other four. The main thing he wanted to cover was the FMCAssist program which is included as part of a full or associate membership in FMCA.

The rest of the meeting went smoothly enough. Of equal importance to me was that everyone seemed to enjoy the food. We had pizza the last two years so we were not sure how well our food choices would be received. We had at least 30 people there. Jane Roush, Charlie Adcock, and Jon Walker were supposed to drop in and speak to the group. I gave them a 5-to-6 PM window but they did not make it by the time our social broke up at 6 PM. Several folks helped clean up the pavilion and divide up the leftovers, some of which got loaded into our car.

Most of us are parked together and we ended up with a big circle of chairs back at our rigs. After putting away the leftovers Linda, Karen, and Vicki went to play card bingo while the rest of us talked buses and travel. I tried one of the Shortt’s Soft Parade beers we had in the fridge. To the extent that I like beer at all, which isn’t very much, I prefer fruit beers and lagers and do not care for the bitterness of hops. Based on that our daughter had suggested I try the Shortt’s. It had an orange citrus taste but also tasted too much like beer for me. But you don’t know if you don’t try. Eventually people drifted back to their coaches until the four of us who were left were chased indoors by darkness, bugs, and the chill of the night air.

Linda and I stayed up a while longer but we got word during the social that our older grand-daughter (Katie) had secured two tickets for us to attend her high school graduation ceremony tomorrow night. We were excited that she was able to get two more tickets but it also meant we would have a very long day tomorrow.

2014/09/28 (N) Oh Canada

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Today was all about company—getting ready for company and having company—and this time our company was from Ontario, Canada. Okay, they actually drove down from Frankenmuth, Michigan where they are staying at an RV Park, but they are Canadian citizens who reside in Canada when they are not traveling in their motorhomes. Bill and Karen are fellow converted bus owners and members of both the FMCA Great Lakes Converted Coaches chapter and the Converted Coach Owners group. Mike and Kathy have a purpose built class C motorhome and often travel with Bill and Karen. Kathy is Bill’s sister.

Linda spent the morning preparing vegan lasagna and apple/pear crisp for baking later in the day while I worked at my desk on secretarial and financial duties for our FMCA Freethinkers Associate Chapter.

Company arrived a little after 1 PM. Linda took the ladies on a tour of the house while I took the guys on a tour of the property and then showed them around the house. We had guys’ chat and gals’ chat for a while and then we all gathered around the table on the deck for some grapes and pretzels. Linda put the lasagna in the oven at 3 PM and prepared a salad. When the lasagna was done she put the apple/pear crisp in the oven to bake while we ate. We sat down at 4 PM for dinner and had a very nice meal that included Italian bread and olive oil seasoned with pepper. We opened a bottle of our 2009 Egri Merlot (it may have been our last one) and four of us had a small glass with dinner.

We continued our conversation on the deck after dinner and had our dessert out there. It was an absolutely perfect late September day. When the sun got low in the sky we moved inside as it cools off quickly and the mosquitos come out. We sat in the living room and talked until 9 PM. By then it was dark and they still had a one hour drive back to their RV Park. Kathy had rinsed off the dinner dishes, so Linda loaded the dishwasher and started it. Linda packed her computer and gathered up all of the things she needed for tomorrow so she could get an early start for the bakery. I will be home all day waiting for Bratcher Electric to show up and convert the whole house generator. They are supposed to be here between 1 and 3 PM. Karen took a few photos but I did take any, so I do not have any images to post from today.

2014/04/18 (F) Our Last Full Day

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Today was our last full day in Florida, probably for quite some time. We arrived on December 22, 2013 and the bus and I have not been out of the state since then. Linda flew back to Michigan in late February, to take care of year-end bakery business and family tax returns, and returned to Florida three weeks later.

Our motorcoach on its last evening in Florida for a while.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here and will certainly return someday. Florida is a large/diverse state and we did not get to visit and explore all of it during our first snowbird experience. But we do not live here and the time has finally come to head home. It won’t be a mad dash, however, as we plan stop three times and stay two nights at each of the first two stops. Our final stop will only be a few hours from home. This will allow us to dump our waste tanks before we leave and arrive home around mid-day with them empty, ready for our next trip on May 10th to the SKP Escapade in Goshen, IN.

Linda did a little more research on possible overnight stops and we settled on Northgate RV Travel Park. The first night we were at Live Oak Landing our neighbor recommended Northgate as a great stopover spot for one or two nights. It is right off exit 354 on I-65 near Athens in northern Alabama and is a good day’s driving distance from our RV park in Florida. It is not far from the Tennessee border and is convenient to Huntsville, Alabama which has several interesting things to do if we so choose. $25/night. Linda called and made the reservation.

The rain finally quit around mid-afternoon so we grabbed the dirty clothes and did a load of laundry. There is only one washer and dryer for the 72 RV sites here at Live Oak Landing, a much smaller ratio than we had at Williston Crossings, so it is literally first come, first served. As it turned out no one else seemed interested in using the machines. A number of rigs pulled in yesterday while were in Pensacola, and quite a few more pulled in today. By dinner time the park was almost full and we suspect it will be completely full tomorrow night. This is Easter weekend, and many schools are out if session for the week following, so families have their first chance of the year to go camping. Many of the new arrivals had fishing boats in tow. This was a “fish camp” before RVC Outdoor Destinations bought it and fixed it up. It has great access to the Choctawhatchee River and Bay, so you can get to fresh water and salt water fishing from here.

I decided it was time to change the way membership was controlled in three RVillage groups I created: FMCA FTH (Freethinkers), FMCA GLCC (Great Lakes Converted Coaches), and Converted Coach Owners (CCO). My intent was for these groups to be “private” in the sense that RVillage group membership would be restricted to RVillage members who were already members of the corresponding outside groups, respectively. My limited understanding of RVillage at the time led me to set up these groups so they were not visible in the main GROUPS tab and could not be searched. My logic was that you could not join what you did know existed, but that led to unanticipated complications.

Because the groups were not visible I had to “invite” RVillage members to join. That’s when I discovered that I could only send invitations to RVillage members with whom I had a “friend connection.” Hummm. I figured the most practical way to make this work was to provide directions to the members of each of these groups telling them to: 1) join RVillage; 2) find our profile; 3) send us a friend request; 4) I would accept their friend request; 5) I would send them an invitation to join the group, and finally; 6) they would accept the invitation and be members of the group.

It seemed easy enough at the time but was complicated and awkward from the beginning. Very few people were willing/able to follow the required steps, but I was unaware of any other way to accomplish my aim. I think the “friend” thing probably put some of them off (a bit too much like FB perhaps). Then two things happened: 1) someone joined one of the groups without me sending them an invitation, and; 2) I asked to join a group and got back a reply asking for my last name and SKP number before we would be “approved.” Double hummm.

The way I had these groups configured there was no approval process when joining; if you could somehow find the group then you could click “join” and you were in, just like that. It turned out that if you went to our profile page all of the groups we belonged to were listed, including these supposedly “private” ones. (They had to be listed somewhere or we would not be able to get to them ourselves.) The person who managed to join without an invitation had stumbled upon this “back door.” It was someone that I was trying to help join the group, so it was OK and I learned a lot about RVillage in the process. Thanks Donn.

In the case of the group we were trying to join it was immediately obvious that: a) there was some sort of “approval” mechanism available for RVillage groups, and; b) the owner/leader of this group was verifying membership in both the Escapees RV Club, and in the BOF which this RVillage group was set up to serve, before approving the request to join. This was both easier and more secure than what I was doing, and was the mechanism I needed. Today I finally made it a priority to change the configuration of the three groups. It took a few tries to realize how two of the parameters were interacting, but I finally got it to work the way I wanted. Now I had to let everyone know.

Late last month I wrote customized versions of an article for the GLCC and CCO newsletters on how to join RVillage and then join the corresponding group. Those articles had not yet appeared in a newsletter, so I revised them to indicate the new procedure and sent them off to the editors. I customized a version for the FTH group and sent it to our e-mail list. Within the hour a member followed the directions and was able to join. Success! Thanks Steve.

I also sent the GLCC version of the article to the National Senior VP of FMCA, who happens to be a member of GLCC and has already joined RVillage and the GLCC group. He called a short time later to ask if I would be willing to serve on a relatively new national Education Committee that was tasked, among other things, with pursuing the mutual benefit of FMCA’s involvement with RVillage. So, as of that phone call I have been “appointed” to the committee and the committee chair is being notified. I am reminded at this juncture of the expression “be careful what you wish for because you may get it.”

With all of the RVillage stuff handled for the moment I was able to turn my time and attention to finishing my WordPress post for yesterday and photo gallery posts for the last two days. The photos are a lot of work, but I am getting faster with practice and, hopefully, better. Photography has been important to me since I was 16, even to the point of having tried doing it professionally for a while. But what it comes down to is that I enjoy nature and landscape photography from a fine art perspective and I like making images of things that interest me, such as converted buses, the people who build and use them, the places we go in ours, and the people we meet along the way. So the work isn’t really work; it’s a hobby for which I have a long-standing passion.

The Choctawhatchee River at Live Oak Landing.

The rain had stopped some time ago and the sun came finally came out. I took that as an opportunity to disconnect and stow the fresh water hoses, water softener, and waste water hoses. The sun dropped lower and cast a beautiful low angle, warm light on wet foliage set against distant gray skies and passing white clouds. Landscape photographers live for such moments and hope they are in the right place when they occur. It was the kind of light that photographers try to create in studios. I waited for passing clouds to briefly reveal the light and clicked away until it faded again.

For dinner Linda made her whole wheat Angel hair pasta with mushrooms, onions, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes sautéed in a small amount of olive oil. A simple green salad, a couple small pieces of a multigrain baguette, and a glass of Franzia Sangria completed the meal. The Publix in South Walton is the first store where we have seen this particular Franzia wine. It was red, but it was fruity, and I liked it. Linda, maybe not as much, at least not with the pasta.

2014/04/01 (T) No April Fool

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Today marked the one year anniversary of Linda’s retirement from Metropolitan Baking Company where she was the controller/treasurer and HR person for 10+ years and the outside CPA for many years before that. She is still working for the bakery as a consultant, which was part of the reason for her return to Michigan in late February, but she has also been learning how to be retired over the course of the past twelve months.

Carriage Travel Club members. How to tow a 5th wheel RV in style!

This is now the 5th month in which I have been continuously away from “home” even though the number of days is less than 120 and will only be 126 to 129 days by the time we return to our house. That may be the longest I have ever been away from a fixed/permanent residence in my life. The only time that would come close to that was my first year in college when I lived in a dormitory for the school year. Even then, it was two semesters with a break in-between, and the semesters were only about 14 weeks in duration as best I recall.

Carriage Travel Club banners. They have ~70 rigs at WCRVR all week for a rally.

I was reading a post in Nick Russell’s Gypsy Journal blog the other day where he provided answers to FAQ’s he often gets from readers. One of them had to do with the definitions of “full-timer” and “extended-timer.” As Nick pointed out, there are no official definitions, but common sense (and usage) suggests that full-timers do not have a fixed dwelling to which they can return while extended-timers do, even if they are rarely or ever there. How much time do you have to spend in your RV (land- or water-based) to be an extended-timer? Again, there is no definition, but common sense (and usage) suggests that it is more than 3 – 6 weeks’ vacation usage and less than full time.

Since Linda retired one year ago today we have spent the following time traveling and living in our converted motorcoach:

59 days – (early Jun to early Aug). MI, IN, IL, IA, SD, WY, MT, ND, MN, WI, MI. Two rallies in Gillette, WY (FMCA and SKP) and a 2-week SKP HFH build in Sheridan, WY plus visits to national parks;
6 days – (mid Aug). Clio, MI GLCC/CCO Back to the Bricks rally;
10 days – (mid Sep) MI, IN, MI Twelve Mile, IN and GLAMARAMA13 rally in Goshen, IN;
12 days – (mid Oct). MI, OH, KY, TN, VA, WV, OH, MI. SKP Photographers BOF photo workshop/rally in Townsend, TN. GSMNP and camping with family in VA;
103 days – (Dec 19 – Mar 31). MI, OH, KY, TN, GA, FL. Mostly in north central Florida; our first season as snowbirds.

That’s 190 days; more than half of the last twelve months. We don’t have a numerical target, but our sense of how we want to blend RVing with living in a fixed house is to be in the RV for 6 – 8 months out of any given 12 month window but probably not gone for much longer than four months at a time. It won’t always happen that way, of course, but on average that seems like a comfortable balance to us at this time based on our limited experience and current circumstances.

While going back and forth to the laundry building I stopped and chatted with Jeff for a while. It appears they have developed a problem with the 12VDC house system in their motorhome. They noticed it the previous evening as a diming of their lights and then realized the refrigerator did not want to work, even on propane. I mentioned that we had just had a refrigerator problem and had stored our food in the refrigerator in the Activity Building kitchen while we got it sorted out. I suggested how he might go about isolating the problem but did not jump in to try to solve it as there was another guy there also giving advice. Too many cooks creates more problems than it solves.

We went to Satchel’s for an early dinner; our final opportunity to enjoy their excellent vegan pizza. In addition to John and Ali we were joined by Kevin, Sharon, Ian, and Pat. We had essentially the same pizza as before; hand-tossed thin crust with pesto base topped with mushrooms, onions, and sun-dried tomatoes. Instead of the Daiya non-dairy cheese, however, we had the cashew cheese. Instead of being shredded and evenly spread around the pizza it was in quarter-sized chunks like small mozzarella balls. It resulted in a different pizza, but it was just as good as the other pizzas we have had there. I also had the ginger pop. They make it in house from real, fresh ginger. The last time it was a bit weak, but today it was the best yet. The ginger was so strong that burned slightly. Exquisite.

Work continues at WCRVR on refurbishing the Pullman train cars.

The weather had been perfect all day so after we got back we sat around chatting with John and Ali and were joined by Jack and Silvia who were just finishing their evening walk. We had a small glass of Trader Joe’s Pinot Grigio. This is one of the wines Trader Joe’s sells for $2.99 a bottle. Our assessment was that you get about what you pay for, but in all fairness Pinot Grigio is a wine we normally drink with a meal, not as a before or after dinner drink. We were also having grapes for “dessert” and their sweetness probably made the wine seem dry by comparison. I do not care for dry wines, especially as a before or after dinner drink. We will try the rest of the bottle with a meal and see if our first impression was off base. We would love to find a $3 wine that we really like.

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.

2013/12/28 (S) Historic Arcadia (FL)

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One of the activities that often takes place at RV rallies, especially converted bus rallies, is a scheduled open house. People with owner-converted coaches are like a fraternity, and are always interested in what their fellow coach converters have done since they last crossed paths. We are still undecided as to whether we will open our coach because of our cats, who tend to be wary of strangers, but just in case, Linda decided to clean house this morning while I wandered the rally site taking pictures.

Rally organizers and hosts Bill and Brenda Phelan are expecting 100 rigs to show up and by noon today at least 90 had arrived. More arrived during the afternoon and a handful were planning to come in tomorrow. The rally officially starts tomorrow (Sunday) at 7:30 AM with coffee, juice, donuts, and bagels.

1911 Arcadia (FL) Train Depot.

Late morning we drove to the Arcadia, Florida historic district. Most of the district lies between eastbound and westbound FL-70 from FL-17 west for a couple of blocks. There was a sidewalk market throughout the district and we soon figured out that Arcadia is a center for antiques and collectibles. Much of the original architecture remains but except for a few restaurants and other businesses most of the square footage is devoted to vintage resale. This was perfect for us; lots of people out and about and lots of interesting things to look at, absolutely none of which we had any interest in buying. It helps us stay within budget.

Oak Street, Arcadia (FL) Historic District.

We had a light lunch when we got back to the coach after which Linda sat outside and read while I worked on some digital photographs. Even though it was cloudy, the temperature got up a bit past 80 degrees F and the bus reached 84 inside. I shut the computer and network electronics down since heat is their main enemy and we went over and had a long chat with Mike Muller and MaryAnn Nash who are parked two spots down from us. They are another GLCC couple and Mike is the GLCC VP.

Another view of Oak Street.

We returned to our bus around 4:30 PM to read and write when we felt a few raindrops. We put the folding chairs away and went inside just as it started to rain so we closed up the roof vents. The rain was brief, but the forecast for overnight and through the day tomorrow is for widespread, persistent, and occasionally heavy rain. The combination of temperature and wind has been quite pleasant, and we have had very few bugs, but the humidity has been noticeable. We expected that, this being Florida after all, but the storms forecasted for tomorrow are associated with a cold front, behind which the humidity should be a bit lower.

The old opera house in Arcadia (FL).

As dusk settled over the Turner Agri Civic Center we saw folks out strolling and decided to take our wine glasses and go for one ourselves before dinner. Along the way we met John Silver of Central Florida Bus Sales and Repairs. John has two coaches for sale at the rally; a 1994 Prevost XL (DD 8V92) Royale Coach and a 1997 MCI (DD 60 Series) Vantare. Although it was night by the time we got back to the coach, we had good visibility for walking as the main entrance road to the Turner Agri Civic Center has a long line of very tall, very bright lights. Many of the buses had their interior lights on, and some had exterior lights as well. It made for a pretty sight.

A former hotel in Arcadia (FL) Historic District. Mary Margaret’s Tea & Biscuit to the left.

Many RVers like to dine out, especially at rallies with friends. While we enjoy the company of our fellow RVers, we prefer to dine in as much as possible. We have delicious dishes prepared with healthy fresh ingredients in reasonable portion sizes and at modest cost in the comfort of our own home. Tonight was left over Tofurkey with baked potatoes and mustard greens that Linda bought from the only sidewalk vendor we found selling food in the Arcadia HistoricDdistrict today. We started with a small glass of white wine and ended by finishing the vegan chocolate cake.

2013_10_25-31 (M-R) FOOD At The Phase Place!

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Sometimes I get busy and don’t keep up with my posts. When I go back even as little as a week, as in this post, I find that many of the details are already lost in the continuous flow of daily living.

With the bus work in Williamston wrapped up, I turned my attention to figuring out what body panels and small parts I needed to order from Prevost to fix the damage I did to the passenger side of the bus leaving the campground in Townsend, TN. I spent a fair amount of time in the Prevost CatBase Viewer database. There were enough parts involved that I made an Excel spreadsheet. I called Prevost U.S. Parts and got Roger Anderson on the line. After discussing this for a while, we decided that it would be easiest for me to e-mail him the spreadsheet.

Next up was final preparations for the annual business meeting of our FMCA Freethinkers Associate Chapter (FTH), of which I am the vice-president and secretary. There are a surprising number of documents that are involved in a simple meeting of a small group: an agenda (from the president), minutes from last year’s meeting, financial statements (which Linda and I prepare based on data from the treasurer), proposed amendments to the bylaws, and an updated roster. All of these get converted to PDF files and uploaded to a folder in our Dropbox account. I have provided a link to that folder to all of our members.

We made our usual trip to South Lyon on Saturday morning for breakfast with members of the South Lyon Amateur Radio Club (SLAARC). Linda worked on recipes. I installed the WP-Recipes plug-in and she has started using it to capture and publish recipes for some of our favorite whole-food plant-based (WFPB) dishes. She is evening taking a photograph of the finished dish and adding it to the recipe page. (Click on the Food & Health Tab and then on Recipes in the dropdown menu.)

While Linda worked on recipes I worked on WordPress websites. Besides our own, I am working on websites for our FMCA Freethinkers Associate Chapter (FTH), our FMCA Great Lakes Converted Coaches Chapter (GLCC, of which Linda is the Treasurer), and our South Lyon Amateur Radio Club (SLAARC).

WordPress is constantly releasing updates and new versions. This generally a good thing, but they always strongly advise that you backup your site (folders/files/database) before installing an upgrade. I haven’t been doing that, so I decided on Saturday that I should. The GLCC website is an add-on domain for our primary/personal site, so I was able to back it up using the backup utilities in the QTH.com cPanel. The FTH website is hosted by iPower and the SLAARC website is hosted by GoDaddy, neither of which use cPanel nor appear to have built in backup utilities. There is some provision for backup built in to WordPress.

When I used the cPanel backup utility to backup our primary/personal site and the GLCC site it was about 1 GB. We only had 2.5 GB on our free Dropbox account, so I signed up for the 100 GB Dropbox plan. I then went on a search for a WordPress plug-in that would do the backups on a schedule. I selected WordPress Backup To Dropbox (WPB2D) and then installed and activated it on all four sites. I am going to test it for a couple of weeks and see how it works. I hope it works well as it is a very simple plug-in to use.

Our FTH meeting was scheduled as a conference call for 6:00 PM EDT on Sunday evening, October 27. We have 40 memberships in the chapter and needed 10 to make a quorum. 6:00 PM came and went and at 6:15 PM we only had 8 people on the line. The president polled the group and decided we would try again the next night; same time, same place.

Our SLAARC information net is held every Sunday evening at 8:00 PM. I was a regular participant up until we moved to the new house. Although I have our 2m/70cm base station antenna mounted on the old TV tower, I do not have the coax run to the ham shack in the basement. Hooking up the radio is inconvenient, especially in cold/dark/wet conditions, all of which we now have. I would like to have the ham shack set up and functioning, but it has not made it to the top of the list yet.

On Monday I drove the bus to W. W. Williams in Dearborn, Michigan to have them look at the auxiliary air system and the speedometer. They thought the constant cycling of the main engine air-compressor was either the governor or the air-dryer purge valve. Since the governor had just been replaced, I authorized replacing the purge valve. They thought the speedometer issue was the “tone wheel”, the sensor, or the gauge. The sensor was just replaced, so I authorized them to check that it was installed correctly and to pull the output shaft housing on the end of the transmission to check the tone wheel.

I called Roger back at Prevost U.S. Parts. He had filled in my spreadsheet and prepared a Prevost quote, so he e-mail those back to me. I decided to hold off ordering until Michele at Phoenix Paint has a chance to look at the damage and decide if she can fix it.

Linda and I had staked out the size/location of our planned bus barn and driveway. We adjusted the stakes slightly, moving the barn 5 feet farther from the road and squaring it up. It’s currently 32 ft. wide by 56 ft. long with a driveway that includes a spur for turning around. Phil from Precision Grading came by Monday evening, measured the area, and dug a couple of test holes to see what soil conditions we had. He said we had 13 inches of good top soil in that area. This will have to be removed and replaced with crushed concrete and 21AA road gravel, so we discussed possible locations on our property for the top soil. Some of it will go in a depressed area behind the proposed barn location. This area forms a lake whenever we get heavy/persistent rain. Some it will probably go on the west side of the main garage driveway, which currently drops off more than we would like, and somewhat unevenly. There are also low spots on the far west end of our property, and some of the topsoil will likely go there.

I spent the rest of this period working on the various websites. In particular, I finally figured out how to configure and use the WP-Members plug-in to restrict access to selected portions of a WordPress site based on a Username and Password. With that feature working, I focused on design (structure) and content for the FTH and GLCC sites. I got sidetracked on Halloween with the idea of installing a “slider” (automated slideshow) in place of the default graphic in the RESPONSIVE Theme I am using for the GLCC site. I selected and installed Meteor Slides based on its demonstration by the authors of RESPONSIVE. It had the appearance of being very simple to install and use, and it was/is once I figured it out. It took me 5 hours to do that, but I did. The site is not ready for viewing yet, but I will share the address when it is.

2013_09_19 (Thu) And Then The Rains Came

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(Note: There are photos at the end of this post.)

What would an RV rally be without rain? Rain was forecast for overnight into today, and rain it did. We had heavy downpours starting at midnight and lasting until 2 AM, with lighter rain through the rest of the night and into the early morning. Coffee and donuts are traditional breakfast fare provided as part of RV rally fees. We walked over around 8:15 and got some coffee. (I had a donut even though it violates our WFPB way of eating since it contains eggs, but they are my one, true weakness.)

We headed towards the seminar building for a 9 AM seminar on the Rand-McNally GPS unit. Along the way we stopped to chat with Lloyd De Gerald, an independant factory-trained Aqua-Hot technician. We attended Lloyd’s Aqua-Hot presentation at the FMCA rally in Gillette this past June. We have not had our Aqua-Hot serviced since the rebuilt unit was installed in 2009/10 and thought we would like to have him do our annual maintenance if we ever ran across him again. And here he was! So we signed up for an 11 AM service appointment today.

We have one of the first Rand-McNally RVND7710 GPS units built. We pre-ordered it at the FMCA national rally in Madison, Wisconsin in August 2011 and received it in October 2011. It has been an excellent unit, but it has a lot features that we have not taken time to learn to use. I keep hoping I will pick up some useful tips at seminars but they are not necessarily the place to get such specific training. However, Techno RV (Phil and Tracey May) has produced an excellent set of tutorial videos which they make available via an e-mail newsletter even if you did not buy the unit from them. We did learn that the newest model, the 7720, has built-in WiFi which allows it to connect to a cell phone hotspot while traveling and thus acquire some additional real-time information; a nice feature. The price has also come down (of course) and now includes lifetime map updates (naturally).

After the seminar we took a quick stroll through the vendor area. We stopped at the Blue Ox booth and signed up to have our Avanti II tow bar serviced as we have not had this done since we acquired it as part of the purchase of the Honda Element in the Spring of 2010. Directly across the aisle was the Harvest Hosts booth so we stopped to chat with the couple staffing it as Don and Kim Greene were not able to make it to this rally in person. We also chatted with the folks in the adjacent Always-Bright-And-Shiny booth. We purchased our built-in vacuum cleaner from them at a previous GLASS rally and also some of their aluminum wheel cleaning and polishing products. They had a really neat “2-burner” black glass top induction cook surface for sale. It is designed for a recessed installation, but could sit on a counter although it would be rather large. It was a 120 VAC device, although you could not run both heaters at full power at the same time.

We started to run short of time so we returned to our coach to make sure we were they when Lloyd showed up. The weather forecast was for continued heavy thunderstorms and the radar confirmed significant weather headed our way, so we decided to put our Zip Dee Awnings up. Lloyd arrived on time just as it started to rain lightly. I fired up the Aqua-Hot so he could see and hear it start and then shut it down so could listen to that end of the cycle. By then it was raining harder and we decided that he would come back when the weather was a bit more agreeable.

The view out our passenger side living room window.

We had an early lunch and Linda put together plates of three different leftovers, all of which were excellent. Around 11:45 AM heavy thunderstorms moved into the fairgrounds with frequent lightening, thunder, and 2 inch per hour rainfall rates. This part of Indiana had not had rain in a while and needed it, but this was too much of a good thing as heavy rains tend to run off and swell creeks, streams, and rivers. A flash flood warning was issued for Elkhart County.

We had planned to attend a 1 PM presentation on the Silverleaf Engine Monitor Systems. At 12:30 PM we got another band of really heavy rain and standing water started to appear around most of the coaches parked in our part of the fairgrounds. I don’t think the fairgrounds were in any real danger from significant amounts of rising water, but the drainage where we are parked turned out to be less than ideal and a lake started to form in our part of the fairgrounds surrounding motorhomes and cars. By 12:45 PM we decided to stay put and by 1:30 PM the water had reached the bottom of the rims on our Honda Element. Linda decided to move the car to higher/drier ground. Given all of the electrical service lying on the ground, I didn’t think going out into ankle deep water was a very good idea, but she survived the experience. (So did I as I stayed inside and worked at my computer.)

We have a Silverleaf VMS Interface that works with the diagnostic connector for the Engine Control Computer (EEC) in our bus and plugs into a laptop computer running Silverleaf’s VMSpc software (Vehicle Monitoring System personal computer). I have never installed it because I haven’t figured out a good way to mount the laptop computer where I can see it but not have it in the way. I decided some time ago that the best solution would be to mount the computer and interface box remotely and install a secondary flat-panel monitor, which would give me more flexibility with respect to the mounting of both the computer and the monitor. I never finalized my decisions regarding mounting hardware and the flat-panel monitor, so this remains an unfinished/future project for now.

There wasn’t any entertainment planned for this evening so that chapters could have a time to meet that did not conflict with other activities, except perhaps for other chapter meetings. Our Great Lakes Converted Coaches chapter social/dinner and business meeting was scheduled for 6 PM in the Elkhart Noon Optimists Club pavilion located at 603 Locust Street (one of the fairground interior roads). Butch ordered the pizzas yesterday from the local Pizza Hut and arranged for them to be delivered to Gate 5 at 5:30 PM. Butch checked in with Linda around 3 PM to see what the short-term weather forecast looked like, and they decided that the pizza party should go on as planned. I suspect that Butch was at the point-of-no-return with Pizza Hut and had to tell them yes or no for this evening. (Butch was kind enough to order two thin crust veggie, no cheese pizzas so Linda and I would have something to eat.)

The other seminar I planned to attend today was at 4 PM on designing and publishing websites. Unfortunately heavy rain continued off and on until around then, and I decided not to go. By 4:30 the sky had started to clear from the north and west, but we had several inches of standing water surrounding our coach and throughout the area of the fairgrounds where we are parked. I was curious to find out how long it would take for this water to disappear as it did not appear to have anywhere to go. The ground here was packed extremely hard when we arrived, to the point where we could not get sign wires pushed into it. While this area needed rain, we do not as a rule welcome inches of standing water substantially softening the ground under our tires.

With the improved weather Lloyd returned around 5:15 PM as Butch and I were getting ready to leave to meet the pizza delivery person. I took a few extra minutes to talk to him. He had access to everything he needed in the bay so I left him to his work. We will catch up with him tomorrow and pay him. Not all vendors are this trusting, but in general we have found vendors at RV rallies willing to lend us a part, like an LED light bulb, to see if it will fit our coach on nothing more than the promise that we will bring it back or return and pay for it. Not all RVers are honest, of course, but we always feel very safe when we are at RV rallies.

I went with Butch to help him with the pizzas, which arrived right on time. We drove them over to the pavilion and unloaded them along with soda pop, ice, and table settings. The GLCC gathering was well attended. Just as we were getting started FMCA national president Charlie Adcock and his wife Gloria stopped by with senior national vice-president Jon Walker (a member of our GLCC chapter). Jane Roush, GLAMA President also stopped by. They didn’t stay long as they had to visit all of the chapter meetings, but everyone appreciated them coming. Judy Czarsty, FMCA past national president, and her husband arrived a little while later and stayed through the end of the business meeting. Michele Henry of Phoenix Paint in Edwardsburg, MI attended as our guest, and Al Hesselbart, the historian at the RV/MH Museum and Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana also stopped by. Folks stayed to talk for a while but eventually the numbers dwindled until there were only a few of us left to pack up and take things back to our rigs. Photos of the event are at the end of this post.

Square dancing was scheduled for 6 PM, weather permitting, and card bingo was scheduled from 7 – 9 PM, but neither of these are activities in which we participate. Linda and Vicky went for a walk after the meeting. I got back to our coach around 8:30 PM and Linda returned around 9 PM. The ground was very wet but most of the standing water had already disappeared.

The Elkhart Noon Optimist pavilion where the GLCC social was held.

L-2-R: Vicky Lintner, Jon Walker (FMCA Senior National Vice-President), Larry Baker (GLCC President).

L-2-R: Larry Baker, Charlie Adcock (FMCA National President), Linda Fay (GLCC Treasurer, Gloria Adcock, Fonda Williams.

Getting the food and pop ready for dinner.

George and Sue Myers (GLAMARAMA shuttle service coordinators). Sue is the GLCC newsletter editor. George is the GLCC immediate past president and is the current president of the Friends of Angel Bus chapter.

Linda Fay (GLCC Treasurer).

GLCC president Larry Baker conducting the chapter business meeting.

The GLCC business meeting in progress.

Pat Lintner (L, GLCC Secretary and National Director, and GLAMA Indiana VP) and Don Crawford (GLCC Founder/first president, and former GLAMA President and national area
VP.

L-2-R: Larry Baker, Ron Walker, Judy Czarsty (FMCA past national president) and her husband.

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_17 (Tue) To Goshen We Go

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We awoke this morning to temperatures in the mid 40’s. As we had no reason to rush we stayed under the covers a bit longer than usual. Lazy mornings are always a source of consternation for our cats who, in spite of the obvious presence of food in their bowls, expect us to get up at the first sign we are awake and attend to their perceived need for fresh(er) food.

I turned on the electric toe-kick heater in the bathroom to take the chill out of the air, but then decided to fire up the Aqua-Hot instead to warm up the entire coach and preheat the main engine. At a seminar in Gillette, Wyoming this past summer we learned that the Aqua-Hot needs to run with some regularity in order to run well, so this was an opportunity to do that and to check my work from yesterday for leaks. The Aqua-Hot ran quite well, but as I feared there was a small leak at the gasket between the two halves of the check valve. I will try one more time to get a couple of wrenches on this part and tighten it, but if that is not successful I will have to install the new check valve, which would take another entire day. Ugh. I like doing projects, but I don’t care so much for doing them more than once.

We had oatmeal for breakfast, which is always nice on a chilly morning and has a certain staying power for days when lunch is uncertain. After breakfast we got our coach ready for travel while Butch and Fonda did the same with theirs’. We departed Twelve Mile, Indiana a little before noon with Butch and Fonda in the lead and headed for Goshen, Indiana to attend the Great Lakes Area Motorcoach Association (GLAMA) 2013 area rally (GLAMARAMA13).

Our route was IN-16 (Co Rd 700 N) westbound to N Co Rd 600 E northbound to IN-25 northbound to US-31 northbound to US-6 eastbound to IN-15 where we stopped for a stretch break. We moved into the lead and continued northbound on IN-15 to Goshen with Linda navigating based on directions provided by the rally organizers. We had been advised by FMCA to follow the directions they provided in order to avoid a bridge that was out on the main road to the fairgrounds from the west.

We tend to travel on Intestate and US highways, but have also found State highways to generally be good for travel. Even county roads are OK if we know in advance we will not encounter weight, height, or width restrictions. This is where it is helpful to have local information from folks familiar with the roads. It also helps that our Rand-McNally RVND7710 GPS is configured to know the parameters of our rig, so we are able to travel with some confidence that we will not encounter unexpected obstructions. As an added feature it also provides real-time traffic information, especially near larger metropolitan areas.

The trip up IN-15 brought us quickly into the outskirts of Goshen with heavy, slow traffic. This presented a challenge for us as the buses do not accelerate that quickly and the lights do not stay green for that long. It was important that I not lose Butch at a light as Linda had the detailed directions for getting to the fairgrounds. As we came to downtown Goshen there was construction with lanes closed and traffic rerouted through barrel lined jiggy-jogs. We pressed ahead none-the-less as we needed to go east on IN-4, just three short blocks beyond the construction. We made it through but it was the kind of situation that adds a bit of stress to the usual pleasure of driving the coach.

We continued east on IN-4 looking for Co Rd 29 southbound. Along the way we spotted an official looking sign that said “RV Rally and Fairgrounds” with an arrow pointing down a nicely paved road to the south. I slowed down and considered taking this road—even though the turn looked a bit tight—until I noticed the “NO TRUCKS” sign on the adjacent pole. We are never sure whether or not we are a “truck” so we generally decide one way of the other depending on what is to our advantage. In this case I took a “pass” and continued on down IN-4 to CR-29. We headed south on CR-29 until it ended at CR-34 where we turned westbound back towards the fairgrounds. Our directions said to enter at Gate 3, but as we approached the northeast corner of the fairgrounds an orange-vested parking crew member motioned us to turn in. I hesitated again, but decided to follow his directions. The parking procedures are usually well thought out and the crews usually know what they are doing. The whole arrival/parking experience generally goes much more smoothly if you simply follow their directions.

(It is worth noting, however, that as with a boat or airplane the driver of an RV bears the ultimate responsibility for it’s operation and is the ultimate decision authority with respect to that operation. If the driver is unclear or uncomfortable with what parking crew are asking them to do, the correct response is to STOP, ask for clarification, and not move until they are certain they understand where they supposed to go and are comfortable (willing and able) going there. Arguing with parking crew, however, is counterproductive, and ignoring them and moving the RV is potentially dangerous. Parking crew are there to move large numbers of RVs efficiently and safely to planned parking areas and drivers should always give them their full cooperation but never surrender their ultimate decision authority.)

We arrived at the rally venue a little before 2 PM. The usual procedure is to unhook a towed vehicle and drive it, separate from the motorhome, to the site or a designated parking area. And so it was today. They had changed the entrance gate to channel us into an area where there was more room to unhook our towed vehicles. With the cars unhooked, we proceeded to the holding area where we queued up and waited to be escorted to our site. For this rally parking areas had been reserved for chapters so they could park together without having to arrive together (caravaan style). We were part of the reservation for the Great Lakes Converted Coaches chapter (GLCC). The parking crew was friendly and efficient and we “wheels down” (an aviation term) in our site by 2:30 PM with the coach set up and ready to use by 3:00 PM.

The reserved parking was an unusual feature of this rally, and an attempt by GLAMA to be as accommodating as possible in spite of the added complexity of this arrangement. If you have not been to an RV rally, you won’t fully appreciate how nice it was to be able to park with “our group” without having to coordinate our arrival with everyone else. Generally if RVs want to park together at a rally they have to arrive together in a caravaan. The only aspect of their parking that is usually pre-arranged is the area of the facility they will be in based on the hookups (electricity, water, sewer, generator use) they have paid for as part of their pre-registration. Even with a small number of RVs caravaning can be a challenge. Wile some rallies provide an arrival area where RVers can meet up and form their caravan, many rallies do not have the space for this. In that case, the RVers first have to find a place to rendezvous. (Walmart is a popular choice, especially if folks are staying overnight there anyway.) They then have to make their way to the rally site while trying to keep the group together at stop lights (which isn’t possible with more than two rigs). GLAMA is to be applauded for trying this new approach.

Goshen is the county seat for Elkhart County, Indiana and the home of the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds. We had been to this facility once before for The Escapees RV Club Escapade in September 2010 and it is a nice facility for an RV rally. Access to the fairgrounds is good, and the interior roads are more than adequate for large motorhomes (and converted buses). The campgrounds can provide 30 Amp power and water for a large number of rigs (800+), and there are also some full hookup, 50 A sites. There are many buildings and covered outdoor areas available for entertainment, vendors, seminars, and meetings. And yet all of this is neatly contained in a surprisingly compact space that makes the venue very walkable while the paved roads make for good driving of toads and courtesy transportation golf carts.

This is the first Great Lakes Area Motorcoach Association (GLAMA) rally being organized by the officers and volunteers of GLAMA. For many, many years the Great Lakes Area Spring Spree (GLASS) rally had served this purpose. Held at the Berrien Springs, Michigan youth fairgrounds, GLASS was a nice rally at a nice venue held over Memorial Day weekend and consistently drew 800+ motorhomes until the last few years. Unlike most FMCA area rallies, however, the GLASS rally was organized by the Michigan Knights of the Highway, the 4th FMCA chapter ever formed, and the oldest FMCA chapter still in existence. MKH handled the registration process, and any financial benefit (or loss) went to them, not GLAMA.

GLAMA takes in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario Canada, so obviously it does not include all of the states that border on the Great Lakes. Even so, it covers a large geographic area with lots of FMCA members. GLAMARAMA 2014 is also slated for the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds in Goshen, but the intent is to then rotate it to each state and Ontario for two years each. That will entail more work for GLAMA organizers, but will open up the chance for more people to attend and build a stronger sense of ownership across the association.

Today was early entry day, so there were no official activities beyond arrival and registration/check-in. Pat and Vicky Lintner were already parked at the GLCC area as Pat is the GLAMA VP for Indiana and part of the rally organizing committee responsible for all of the rally specific signage. We pulled in next to Pat and Vicky, followed by Butch and Fonda. Mike and Laurie Minnick pulled in shortly thereafter in their 1968 MCI MC-7 bus conversion. Don and Sandy Moyer then arrived in their 1948 Spartan bus conversion.

[Note: The Spartan bus was built for three years, post World War II, in Sturgis, Michigan. The owner/president of the company was the chief test pilot for the B-25 bomber. All of the engineers and craftsmen came from the aircraft industry and the bus was designed/built much more like an airplane than a motor vehicle. Only 57 Spartan buses were built and most of them ended up being used outside the U. S., including some used to make a 12 hour daily run from Damascus, Syria to Baghdad, Iraq and a 12 hour run back, making it the fastest bus line in the world at the time. The Moyer’s bus was the last one built, a 28 foot model. It was destined for a bus company in Wisconsin but they never took delivery. It left the factory as a seated coach, was driven out of the factory, and the front tires came off the ground because it was too heavy in the rear end. Within two years someone had purchased it, taken out the seats, and had it converted to a motorhome. Many of the details suggest that it was “professionally” done, but the Moyer’s have not been able to track down who did the conversion. It was eventually parked and left to rot for 35 years until Don and Sandy rescued it. Based on their research there are no more than 12 of the original 57 buses still in existence and theirs’ is almost certainly the only motorhome. Don worked 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 18 months to put it back in usable condition. It is a truly unique RV.]

GLCC reserved space for eight motorhomes and the other three planned to arrive tomorrow. The chapter will have more members/rigs in attendance than that, but they will be parked elsewhere. George and Sue Myers are parked within close sight of our group, but are located for their convenience in running the golf cart courtesy transportation service. Don and Kathy Crawford from Ontario are in the VIP row as Don is a past president of GLAMA, which also entailed being the national vice-president representing the Great Lakes Area. Ditto for Jon and Sondra Walker, who was the GLASS National Director until he moved on to become GLAMA President. Jon was elected the FMCA Senior National Vice-President this past summer at the FMCA national convention in Gillette, Wyoming, so the number two national FMCA officer is a GLCC guy. Ron and Meredith Walker, who just joined our chapter, are also here but are parked with the Frustrated Maestros. Ron is a retired K-12 music teacher and is the conductor of the FMs.

Linda made something new for dinner: firm tofu slices pan fried with onions and Bar-B-Que sauce. She served it on a sesame seed bun with a side of sweet corn on the cob and some Sam Adams Cherry Wheat beer to wash it down. Sometimes simple is best.

2013_08_18 (Sun) Every Rally Has An End

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Every rally has an end, and today was the last official day of the Back To The Bricks Rally in Clio, Michigan. One of the differences between larger national/area rallies and smaller chapter/SIG rallies is the ending. Larger rallies often end with entertainment or an activity on the final evening. There are no official/planned activities on departure day. Attendees have generally come from a large geographic area and sometimes have long distances to travel upon departure, so RVs start leaving first thing the next morning, often as early as 6 AM. Smaller rallies, by comparison, are often attended by people who are somewhat more local to the rally site, and are already acquainted with the other attendees. The final day of the rally usually includes breakfast, after which there are still lots of conversations. RVs start to leave based on personal commitments, but the departure is slower and a bit more spread out. Some folks may even remain for another evening or so, depending on the rally site.

And so it was with the 2103 BTTB Rally. Departure day was the fancy breakfast day. We still had coffee, juice, muffins, Danish pastry, bagels, and fruit—just like we have had all week—but today there were also pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage. (Not for us, of course, but they were enjoyed by most everyone else.) Even as conversations continued all of us started putting the venue back in order. Grills were loaded onto trailers, leftover food was divided up among those who wanted it, and we carried six or seven picnic tables from the pavilion back to the meeting building.

I left mid-morning in the car and drove back to the house to get Linda. A few coaches had left before I did, and more were gone by the time we got back around 1 PM. By mid-afternoon most of the attendees had departed and by dinner time there were only two coaches left; ours and the Lintners’. Marty was still at the site dismantling the temporary power drops he had installed for the rally and we invited him and Pat to join all of us for dinner out. We went back to Sullivan’s Black Forest restaurant in Frankenmuth and had a nice meal enhanced by good conversation. The Linderman’s Framboise Lambic Belgian wheat ale was just as good tonight as it was this past Wednesday.

Marty dropped us back at our coach and he and Pat went on home. Pat, Vicky, Graciella, Linda, and I sat outside and talked until it got dark and the mosquitoes started to bite. Graciella came in our coach to play with our cats and chat for a while until her grandma decided it was time for her to come to their coach and settle in for the evening. So ended the official last day of the rally for us. Sometime tomorrow we will dump our holding tanks at a nearby RV business and then head back to our house; we just don’t know exactly when we will do that.

2013_08_17 (Sat) BTTB Rally – Day 3

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We continued to have a good weather streak for our rally. Cool temperatures overnight made for great sleeping and the brisk morning air made the coffee taste especially good at 7:30 AM. The breakfasts are simple, help yourself, affairs with enough variety that everyone can find something they like while no one is burdened with fancy preparation. A toaster and bagels ensure that a warm breakfast choice is available.

Carl and Cara Muntean’s MCI MC-8.

As soon as we left the coach to get coffee, a distance of 40 feet from where we are parked next to the pavilion, we realized that two additional buses had arrived since we turned in last night. Carl and Cara Muntean’s MCI MC-8 was parked alongside the other building, and behind the building we could just see the nose of a late model Prevost H3.

Coach Quarters (Mike Middaugh) Prevost H3-45 Marathon Executive Coach.

The Prevost turned out to be the 2007 H3-45 executive coach that belonged to Coach Quarters from the Columbus, Ohio area. Mike Middaugh had the coach in the Detroit area representing Prevost and NASCAR at the Woodward Dream Cruise, and came on up to our rally when he was done with that work. Mike is a member of GLCC and CCO.

A water distribution manifold, Marathon style, where function becomes art form.

This particular H3-45 is a Marathon conversion with an interesting history. It was in a bad accident and was further damaged while being towed under a low overpass. It was considered a total loss, and Coach Quarters acquired it. Mike, however, has been in the converted coach business for a really long time and knew how to get it repaired and back in service.

Marty explaining to Graciella who John McCann is and what it meant for his campaign to use this H3-45 executive coach as their presidential campaign tour bus.

The final result was a very nice executive coach that Coach Quarters rents out for day use by up to 14 people who need to conduct business while being driven somewhere. The coach is used to represent Prevost at events, including the Woodward Dream Cruise. For example, Prevost is the official motorcoach of NASCAR. The most famous use of this coach, however, was as John McCain’s presidential campaign bus.

The H3-45 galley features high levels of craftsmanship and style.

Mike positioned the coach by the pavilion and opened it up for rally participants to see, including the interior, the engine compartment, and all of the bays.

Late morning I drove Linda back to our house as she had agreed to babysit our 8-month old granddaughter this evening. I contacted our driveway contractor to see if he’d had a chance to come look at our problem. He had been there, and had already formulated a game plan for fixing it that involved some additional material with finer particles to help lock the gravel in place followed by compaction by some heavy roller. Due to current commitments it will take a week or so for him to get back to the house with material and equipment. I drove back to the rally site and arrived around 2 PM.

Don tracked me down to see if I was still interested in going to see Bill’s bus barn. I was, and so were three other folks plus Don. He arranged with Bill for us to head over. Bill’s barn has doors on both ends, and a concrete floor with a pit. The pit is not full length, but more than adequate to work on the underside of one end of a bus at a time. It’s a “pole barn”, but the main poles that support the 12 foot ceiling are set in from either side, with lower sections on either side for storage. I’ve looked at enough bus barns at this point to see that a concrete floor with a maintenance pit is probably a necessity. It would also be nice for it to have an 18 foot ceiling so I can work on the roof, and be long enough for a 45 foot coach with a car attached behind it. A pull-through design with access roads on either end would also be nice, but not necessary. What I don’t think we need is the extra square footage for storing as much stuff as the barns I have seen.

GLCC president Larry Baker (standing, rear) conducting a chapter information meeting immediately following dinner.

From 4:00 – 5:30 PM was the official “open house”, although most of us had already seen each others’ coaches earlier in the rally. Dinner was pot luck, with grilled chicken provided as part of the rally fee, and there were lots of good things to choose from.

Pat Lintner, GLCC National Director, addressing the members.

Immediately following the meeting GLCC president Larry Baker held a brief information meeting. Pat Lintner, the chapters National Director, also spoke and gave a brief update on the national convention that was held in Gillette, Wyoming in June and the upcoming GLAMARAMA rally scheduled for mid-September in Goshen, Indiana.

CCO meeting about to convene following the GLCC meeting. President Mark Reid seated, right.

As soon as the GLCC meeting was done most of us moved our chairs over to Mark Reid’s coach for a CCO business meeting. There was discussion of the upcoming Halloween rally in mid-October, and further discussion about rallies in general.

Some of the CCO members at the meeting.

All of the RV groups/chapters we belong to are facing the same challenge of getting members to host and attend rallies. No doubt the two things are related and determined in part by peoples’ personal financial circumstances and their general feelings about the economy. This seems to be a particular problem for groups that are formed around common interests, such as converted buses, rather than a limited geographic area, although even geographic groups are struggling. Several of us continued to discuss this informally after the meeting, but no one seemed to have a full grasp of the problem or any really good ideas as to what to do about it.

As with every other evening of this rally, the temperature cooled off quickly after the sun went down. Someone had a “Chinese lantern”. They lit the firepot and turned it loose. The flag at the rally site indicated no wind, but as soon as they turned the lantern loose it took off to the west. It rose to quite an altitude and we estimated that it was moving west at 20 – 30 MPH when we finally lost sight of it. Most folks turned in for the night after that except for a small group that stayed up and talked until sometime after midnight.

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_14 (Wed) No Way To Start An RV Outing

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We planned to leave today around noon for an RV rally in Clio, Michigan, about an hour’s drive north of our house. We spent most of the morning with final preparations, loading food, clothes, technology, toiletries, and finally the cats. We also put fresh water on board and checked/adjusted all of the tire pressures.

The tires were holding their pressures fairly well, but I discovered that the Pressure Pro Tire Pressure Monitoring System was reading 1 to 3 PSI low on most of the sensors compared to my tire gauge. I have a very good gauge and had its calibration checked a couple of years ago at the Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally, so I tend to trust its readings. Besides, when it tells me two tires have the same pressure and the Pressure Pro TPMS tells me the pressures are different (from each other) I tend to go with the gauge.

The rear end buried up to the frame.

The last thing is always to disconnect and stow the shore power line and lock up the house. I fired up the engine, put it gear, and got stuck in our brand new gravel driveway! We tried to extricate ourselves, but that only made it worse and the drive tires ended up buried in the loose gravel. I called the guy who did the driveway work for us to let him know of our predicament and see what he could suggest. He didn’t have the equipment needed to get us out, but recommended a towing company that could handle vehicles our size. He also indicated that he would stop by the house tomorrow evening and survey the situation. Clearly something (else, additional) will have to be done.

The winch really worked!

I called Woody’s Towing, and they said they would have someone there within 45 minutes. While we were waiting for the tow truck, I engaged the level low system and aired the suspension all the way up. This got the chassis up enough that we could dig out some of the gravel from around the tires and under the rear end. The tow truck showed up on time. It didn’t look like a big enough truck to do the job, but it turned to be up to the task. The secret was the very substantial winch and the use of multiple pulleys to multiple the pulling force.

Impressive tires holes. We clearly were not getting out of this situation by ourselves.

The technician had to position the truck three times to finally get us out. This was because we had to make a hard left turn onto the concrete driveway that would then take us out to the street. The first pull was straight forward using both attachment points under the front bumper with the bus engine running, the transmission in 1^st gear, the tag axles UP, and me applying power as directed. This was the hardest pull as we had to get the drive tires out of the rather deep holes they had made for themselves. The second pull was from the driver side attachment point at an angel toward the driver’s side to get us started in that direction. This got our steer tires onto the concrete driveway. The third pull was again from the driver’s side attachment point at an angle, pulling straight out towards the street. This pull finally got our drive tires off the gravel and onto the concrete. The holes where the tires had been were very impressive.

The technician from Woody’s clearly knew what he was doing. He got us out without any damage to the coach, and we were glad to pay the $175 charge. We hooked up the car and were on our way around 1:30 PM.

We made it less than four miles from our house and encountered a major construction-related traffic jam on M-59 just west of US-23; a one lane road with a flagger. With no way to turn around and no alternate route there wasn’t anything to do put patiently move ahead when we could. In what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only 15 minutes, we cleared the construction zone and were northbound on US-23 at 62 MPH, my preferred highway travel speed. US-23 merged into northbound I-75 at the southwest corner of Flint and we continued on our way. Things were looking good until about six miles south of our destination exit, when another construction zone had the left two lanes (of a 3-lane highway) closed down. There was a warning sign some miles before, but almost no indication of the actual lanes closures. No barrels placed a mile or so before the work to close down one lane at a time; just the sudden loss of two lanes of the highway. Highway work crews should not be allowed to do this.

Some folks, most perhaps, get on their brakes and stay/merge to the right. But there are always those “other people” (who are obviously more important than the rest of us) who try to speed by on the left for as long as possible and then merge in at the last moment. Well, not today bunky. I was already in the right hand lane when I became part of the traffic crawl and I watched with some delight in my driver side rear view mirror as several vehicles teamed up to block all of the other lanes, including the left shoulder. We patiently worked our way through the blockage for what seemed like our second eternity today, but was again probably no more than 15 minutes.

All set up at the Clio Fireman’s Park.

We exited I-75/US-23 at M-57 and made our way east through Clio, Michigan. On the east side of town we headed southeast on Saginaw Road. About three miles down the road we spotted the Fireman’s Park and made our turn. The Clio Fireman’s Park is a nice little rally site. It has an open pavilion with power surrounded by fairly level grass and gravel surfaces, all hard packed. There is a long driveway leading in that provides an excellent place for arriving RVs to stop and unhook their towed vehicles. We did just that and while Linda parked the car and went and found Marty Caverly to find out where we should park. Marty and his wife, Pat, are one of the two that organize and conduct this rally.

All of the other early arrival buses except ours.

Today was early arrival day and there were only five other motorhomes there (all converted buses) so we had our pick of spots. We chose one we had used before, next to the pavilion and with good access to 20A power. Marty is an electrician and had been working for days to install permanent and temporary power drops so everyone would have a legitimate 20A connection. In warmer weather we would not be able to function on a 20A connection, but the weather has been, and is forecast to be, cooler than normal for this time of year with highs in the 70’s and lows of 50.

Part of the protocol of RV rallies is that folks tend to leave you alone while you get parked and set up, but once you are done there is lots of meeting and greeting. We are expecting 22 converted coaches, and the balance of them will be arriving tomorrow, so there will be lots more meeting and greeting.

Sullivan’s Black Forest restaurant and brew pub.

The pre-planned dinner event for this evening was the Black Forest Restaurant in Frankenmuth. The 13 of is figured out car pooling arrangements and we rode with Paul and Claudiene Elbisser.

The 13 early arrivals at dinner.

I had a raspberry/strawberry Belgian wheat dessert beer and it was freaking awesome! (I am not generally a big fan of beer and have finally figured out that I don’t care for the bitterness of hops.) It made a great “cocktail beer” too; think strawberry daiquiri with a hint of beer after taste. Linda and I ordered a 16” think crust pizza, no cheese, with mushrooms, onions, and pineapple. What they brought to the table was a pizza with a crust 2” thick. 15 minutes later we got the pizza we ordered, and it was pretty good.

Everyone (except us) enjoying ice cream under the pavilion.

Back at the rally site, we got a tour of Paula and Claudine’s MCI MC-5 conversion. We last saw it two years ago at this same rally, and they have made a lot of progress on it. It‘s a very nice design, and Paul is a superb craftsman. Ed Roelle set up to serve ice cream with toppings, and everyone brought their camp chairs to the pavilion and set them up in a big circle. Ed and his wife, Janet, are the other rally organizer couple. We passed on the ice cream, of course, but enjoyed the camaraderie. As the sun set it got very cool, and folks gradually peeled off from the group to hunker down for the night.

2013_06_27 (Thu) Cowgirl Barrel Racing

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Today was the first early entry date for the Escapade, and RVs started rolling into Boxelder RV Park at 8 AM. The parking crews were ready and waiting and directed the rigs to their assigned areas and got them parked with great efficiency. Lynn & Linda Laymon were working the area near where we are parked, and I recognized their names from the roster for the Habitat For Humanity build we will be doing in Sheridan in July. We had a nice get-acquainted chat that Linda joined when she returned from her morning walk. (We have been walking together after dinner each evening, but Linda likes to do a 4 – 5 mile power walk in the morning, and I figure that’s an opportunity for each of us to have a little “me” time. We are, after all, living in a 300 sq. ft. condo on wheels with a really big “yard”.) In the course of the conversation we realized that the shift from FMCA to SKP had occurred and we got out our SKP name tags and pinned them on.

We enjoy being members of both FMCA and The Escapees RV Club, but they are different. FMCA is larger and has an extensive volunteer governance and management structure, as well as a paid staff. Membership is restricted to motorhomes, but it has a fair number of members and chapters focused on bus conversions, so it’s a good fit for us. The Escapee RV Club is smaller, and is actually a privately owned family business. There are no restrictions on what kind of RV you own, and there is a much stronger focus on full-time RVing. The club was founded by Kay and Joe Peterson as a support group for full-time RVers. They were living in a trailer and raising a family at a time when that was not “fashionable” as Joe was an itinerant electrician. I have heard it said more than once that “You belong to FMCA, but you are an Escapee.” Based on our limited experience, that rings true.

I was reminded this morning that “someone” has a birthday on the 30th of this month and that they would like to be taken out to dinner, “or something.” I accepted the “heads up” as a friendly but necessary reminder as I do get preoccupied at times and forget things, even important things like “someone’s” birthday. Plus, the 30th is the opening day of the Escapade, so the activity level will ratchet up quite a bit and I could certainly be distracted by that. An online search of local restaurant menus, however, failed to reveal anything other than a deli with a couple of vegetarian sandwiches that could be made vegan by leaving off cheese, mayo, and any other animal products that might normally be included. Not exactly a gourmet birthday meal, but at least “someone” wouldn’t have to prepare it.

We were on tap for another warm day, but decided to leave the windows open and the vent fans on as long as possible. Although we have a good 50 A electrical connection here at the CAM-PLEX, we like fresh air, and the house air-conditioners are rather noisy so we prefer not to use them if possible.

We spent the late morning and most of the afternoon working at our computers. I worked on my draft blog posts while Linda worked on our personal accounting. We had the vent fans going and some small fans to move air around, and I was surprisingly comfortable in spite of the interior temperature climbing past 88 degrees F. Linda usually tolerates (likes) heat much better than I do, but wasn’t feeling 100%, so mid-afternoon we finally turned the air-conditioners on and brought the temperature back into the mid-70s. (BTW: Because of the surface area to volume ratio of the bus and the amount/quality of insulation in the ceiling and walls, we can only maintain a 15 – 20 degree differential between inside and outside. However, even a 10 degree differential makes a big difference.)

Linda made a wonderful dish for dinner with farro (an ancient Italian grain), garlic, onions, mushrooms, and asparagus. The dish was fragrant, earthy, nutty, slightly creamy, and with just enough chew to have a great mouth feel. She paired it with a simple green salad and we opened the bottle of Lawrence Elk black currant wine we bought at the Prairie Berry Winery in Hill, South Dakota. Being from Michigan, we have ready access to wines based on fruits other than grapes, especially cherry and pear. The black currant wine was unique and very much to our liking, and I wish we had bought more than one bottle. (I guess we will have to go back.)

We were wrapping up dinner and preparing for our evening walk when Cheryl stopped by to let us know that there was a cowgirl barrel racing event going on over by the Morningside Park grandstand. We walked over to the small horse arena and joined them to watch cowgirl barrel racing, junior calf lassoing, and age 7-10 girls and boys goat tying. Finally, the real west. I snapped a few pictures and sent one to our two children.

When we felt we had been sufficiently westernized (and seen enough baby goats tossed to the ground and tied up to last us a lifetime) we continued our walk and found Charles and Connie Martin’s MCI bus conversion, which they had moved from Windmill RV Park to one of the generator only (24 hr.) lots. We stopped to chat for a while and got lots of good tips regarding travel directories and resources. It turned into a longer visit than we intended, but it was nice to spend time with fellow FMCA GLCC members. By the time we left their bus the sun had set and the temperature had dropped, so we had a chilly walk back to our coach. The coach was still closed up with the ACs on, but the compressors had disengaged and it was a pleasant 78 degrees F inside. We opened the rig up for the evening and had some fresh sweet cherries (Rainer’s) for a dessert snack. It was then off to bed as we are scheduled for a tour of the local coal mine tomorrow at 9 AM.

2013_06_24 (Mon) The Time Between The Rallies

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Today was laundry day, so after breakfast we gathered up clothes and linens. During the morning Peter & Sybil pulled out of the spot on our passenger side and shortly thereafter Ed & Rosemary pulled in (50A, full hookup). Linda left to do laundry, post office, and grocery store errands while I stayed with the coach and cats. Charles & Connie Martin, another couple from our FMCA GLCC chapter, pulled in across from us with their MCI 102C3 bus conversion. They were apparently given a hard time about parking at Windmill RV Park and were told they had to be on the west side of the paved road, which is only 30A & water (no sewer hookup). When we made arrangements with the CAM-PLEX to stay between the rallies they clearly told us we could move to Windmill anytime after 10 AM on Sunday and that 50A full-hookup sites where first come, first served. They even gave us a parking sign to put on our dash. It became apparent that there was some confusion as to who was supposed to park where.

I got on my computer (not literally, of course), went into the WiFi Ranger control panel, and reduced the power from “high” (the default) to “medium.” According to the manual (available online), the connection can sometimes be improved by using less power. I still had full/excellent signal strength in the bedroom, so I was not sure which radio this setting controls, or if it controls both, or if there are even two radios. I will probably try low power to see how that works, and talk to the WiFi Ranger folks about it when next we meet.

I worked on finishing my draft blog post for the previous day, and then went to work on hooking up the rear OTA TV antenna/rotator and TV set. My technological luck of the previous day ran out when the antenna failed its internal calibration process, and would not rotate. I went ahead and set up the TV, another 22″ Westinghouse LD-2240 (LCD/LED flat panel monitor) requiring an ATSC channel scan activation code. (Really, what’s up with that?) I was able to find and view most of the same channels we had up font, but the reception was not as good on some, probably because the antenna was not pointed in the right/best direction. A double check of the inside wiring confirmed that the RF & control cables were connected correctly, so the problem was either the roof unit wiring or the roof unit itself.

It was also possible that the problem was the rotator controller. I tested that possibility using the known-good front unit, but the rear antenna still wouldn’t calibrate. Soooo, back up on the roof to check the wiring to the antenna. The connections are on the rear underside of the housing, which is mounted on top of two brackets that place the underside about 8″ above the lower rear roof tray and just above the main roof. If you are short (I am) and flexible (not as much) there is just enough room to lie down, reach under, and use a short screwdriver. All of the wires were connected to the correct terminals, but I loosened and re-tightened them anyway, including the coax. I climbed down and retested the system, and this time it not only failed to calibrate, it displayed “Er” on the LCD. That’s what I call “negative progress!”

The installation and operation instructions indicated that the problem could be: 1) that the black wire was not connected (it was, on both ends), or 2) that something was blocking the rotor. In the later case that “something” would have to be inside the sealed antenna enclosure. However, warnings elsewhere in the instructions tell you, emphatically and in no uncertain terms, that the insides of the system are dangerous (high voltage) and that it should not be opened as there are no user serviceable parts inside. Huh? So how do I unblock the rotor?

(BTW: these are HD View 360 antennas from AntennaCrafters. There was an older model of this antenna on the coach when we bought it. It was designed primarily for the old VHF/analog TV signals and not optimized for the new UHF/digital ones. The rotation feature also no longer worked, but we liked the sealed, “flying saucer” design in which the rotating antenna parts are in a flat, weather-sealed enclosure that is fairly aerodynamic going down the road. I believe the antenna is an “active” design and provides some amplification of the signal it receives, but I am not absolutely sure of that. The new model has a controller with an RF remote and is designed to pick up the newer digital signals as well as the legacy analog stations that are still operating in some areas. Even though I was putting these two antennas in service for the first time, they were way out of warranty (90 days) as I had purchased them back in 2012 when we were having the roof redone and the coach repainted. Based on my sample of two, it appears that AntennaCrafters has a 50% failure rate on this model. I also have the problem that I bought these antennas from two different sources at two different times, and I don’t which one is which.)

At this point I will probably open up the rear antenna case. After all, with electrical engineering degrees and amateur radio licenses, I figure I’m qualified to do this without endangering my life. But with a storm approaching, that wasn’t going to happen right away. We closed up the coach and turned on the two front air-conditioners to try to keep the interior comfortable as the forecast high was 91 degrees F. The temperature outside was only 82 degrees F, but the sun was intense and the inside temperature was headed for 90.

We sat outside for awhile as it was cooler than inside, and watched a large thunderstorm develop northwest of Gillette. It was drifting to the northeast, but also expanding in size. As the southeast edge neared our location, and the winds picked up, we decided to put all of the awnings up and put the fold-up camp chairs away, not wanting to risk getting caught with them out should the storm change course and get cranked up. We stood outside and talked to Ed and Rosemary while we watched the storm develop all around us. It eventually started to sprinkle where we were so we went inside and soon had a heavy downpour that lasted for 15 -20 minutes. The winds were not overly strong, and our skylight leak (slow drip) did not reappear. The storm eventually moved on to the east. Besides the drama and beauty, the upside of the storm was that it blocked the sun and brought cooler air, both of which helped keep the outside temperature down and the coach more comfortable.

I have loved western thunderstorms since I first encountered them as a boy traveling with my parents. The combination of isolated development and unobstructed views to expansive horizons allows you to watch them develop for a long time as they move across a considerable distance. This is rarely the case back in Michigan where storms develop along frontal boundaries and are often embedded and obscured from view. Also, except in some flatter/cleared agricultural areas, views are not as expansive as in the west due to the extensive tree cover.

After dinner, and with the storm moved off to the east, I went back up on the roof to work on the rear antenna. The enclosure is held together by 8 screws inserted from underneath, but it is high enough above the roof to allow for a 4″ long screwdriver to be used. I had disassembled our old one when it was removed from the coach, so I had some idea of what to expect inside. The physical design hasn’t changed much, but the rotor was definitely binding. With nothing to lose, I moved it by hand and got it freed up, although I have no idea what, if anything, I may have broken in the process. I had Linda apply power to the controller, being careful not to come in contact with any of the deadly voltages I had been warned about in the instructions. It completed the calibration process this time and gave a direction number on the LCD. Success! (Maybe?) I had her cycle it several times, and it calibrated successfully each time, but the rotor was not consistent as to its position. I then had her slowly step through the 16 positions, up and down, several times. Based on what I saw, it appeared that position 1 is just to the driver side of the front of the bus. As the numbers increase the rotor turns counterclockwise, with position 16 just to the passenger side of the front of the bus. So positions 1 -4 appear to be port side bow quadrant, 5 – 8 port side stern quadrant, 9 – 12 starboard side stern quadrant, and 13 – 16 starboard side bow quadrant. This is, of course, with the double-headed arrow on the enclosure pointing towards the front (bow) of the coach. Both antennas are mounted this way, but since I moved the rear rotor by hand, its position may not be correct. It was also not as repeatable in its positioning as it should be, especially around positions 7 – 10, so the front one may not orient the same way. Since the instructions are absolutely silent regarding how the pointing direction corresponds to the number on the controller display, I will ultimately have to take the front enclosure apart and visually determine how it works. That would be easier, of course, if it wasn’t 8 inches above the roof and 13 feet off the ground at the time.

While I was on the roof, Bob Pinner stopped by. Bob and Molly are the Escapade Directors for The Escapees RV Club. He confirmed rumors we had heard earlier in the day relative to parking issues. It turned out that the Escapade had lost the use of three RV parks at the CAM-PLEX due to the damage done by the motorhomes departing the FMCA rally. The SKP’s had not planned on using Windmill RV Park, but now needed it for their staff and volunteers as well 30 A electric (only) registrants. It was obvious that Bob was trying to re-plan a lot of things at the last minute so we agreed to move our coach the next day. The decision was to move us back to the Boxelder RV Park, where we would have full hookups, and a good chance of 50 A power. We figured the sooner we moved the better site selection we would have, so we agreed to move first thing the next morning (8 AMish).

In spite of the issue with the rear TV antenna, we were able to use the rear TV and simultaneously watched different TV programs for the first time in quite a while as we do not currently have OTA, cable, or satellite TV at home and we do not have satellite TV in the coach. Gillette has PBS and Create, so this was the first time it felt a little bit more like living in the coach and a little bit less like being on vacation. The fact that we are between rallies with no pressing need to be anyplace specific, or do anything in particular, also contributed to this feeling.

2013_06_22 (Sat) FMCA Day 4

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If it rained overnight we were unaware of it. We awoke to gray, overcast skies, our 3rd day in a row of such conditions. As patches of blue started to appear it also started to rain lightly, and the darker gray clouds moving in from the west seemed to suggest more to come. Blue skies and rain seem to be another one of those “western” things we don’t see too often in Michigan.

Before we went to sleep last night we studied the program offerings for today and did not see much of interest to us. Nicer weather might have led to some work on the coach, but we decided to take one more stroll through the inside vendors and just hang out waiting for Marty Stuart’s evening concert.

We picked up another LED spotlight bulb from Jirah for the other bedroom reading light. These are the first bulbs we have found with necks that are long enough to fit in the aircraft-style swivel down lights. We were given two “Bonus Bucks” coupons by someone at the FMCA booth each good for $5 off the price of anything for sale in the vendor area. Linda found an FMCA T-shirt for $12 and bought it for $2. We picked up three roles of Rescue Tape, a non-adhesive tape that can be used to make temporary repairs on almost anything, including fuel lines, hydraulic lines, air lines, and electrical connections. We also bought a bottle of RV Digest-It from Unique Products, as we were running out of the Thetford Eco-Smart enzyme product. Their natural formulation products are available nationwide and their product line includes products for treating septic systems.

We also had a good discussion with the factory representative from Winegard antenna. We had been looking at Winegard’s ANSER and CARRYOUT portable antennas as well as the ViewCube and Tailgater (Dish Network) but decided to defer any decisions until we get home as we need to set up satellite TV there too.

While perusing the vendors we ran into Pat & Vickie Lintner again (from our GLCC chapter) and had a nice long chat. They have used Direct TV for years, both at home and in their RV, and are quite satisfied with it. We are leaning towards Dish Network as they appear to be more RV friendly, at least in terms of how they package/price their system, but this is not the prevailing opinion of the RVers we have talked to.

We also stopped at C & C Marketing to talk to Chris Yust about an insurance quote. At the fall 2010 Gypsy Journal Rally in Celina, OH she was not able to write policies for Michigan residents, but expanded their market to include Michigan in 2011. We are currently insured with National Interstate of Hawaii (which we are not happy about after Nick & Terry Russell’s very negative experience with them) through Miller Insurance (Cheryl Howarth) out of Oregon (with whom we are quite pleased). Our insurance renews in September, so it was a good time to get a quote from Chris.

Done with our RV shopping, we decided to go to the grocery store. Our GPS brought up a list and we selected a nearby Albertson’s, a western chain that we do not have in the Great Lakes region. As we were leaving the store we noticed a long N-S line of very ominous (not to be confused with omnibus) looking dark clouds. By the time we got back to our coach it had started raining. Shortly thereafter the storm blew in full force with 60 MPH winds, torrential horizontal rain, and pea size hail. We scrambled to close and latch all of the windows, but had two awnings out that we could not put in until the storm let up. Fortunately they were a small and medium window awing, and not the large patio awning. I waited until the storm let up a bit, and then went out in the wind, rain, and hail and put the two awnings up. Hey, it’s all part of the full/extended-time RV experience. When the weather turns suddenly bad, there is often no place to hide, and no time to get there even if there is. Linda checked the weather on her smartphone, which revealed a line of very strong storms moving through northeast Wyoming. We had obviously been hit by one of the severe thunderstorm cells. We were also under a tornado watch for three hours.

We knew we still had some minor leaks in the coach around windshields and windows. Most of them reappeared but were manageable. We also discovered a small drip at the outside front corner of the passenger side front skylight. We have had a drip there before, and thought it was taken care of when we replaced the dome on the Fan-tastic vent fan, which was crazed and cracked. I recalled that when replacing the dome it did not seal around the edges of the housing like I thought it should, so it’s possible that water was pooling &/or splashing up under the lip. But that is all speculation until we can inspect it and figure out what’s going on.

Once the storm let up we went looking for our two cats. Juniper emerged rather quickly, but Jasper was nowhere to be seen. He likes to hide when he’s uncomfortable with a situation, and his favorite spot in the coach is under the dinette, although it is not a particularly good place for him to be. We thought we had that area sealed off, but when Juniper started sniffing intently around there we figured that was where he hid. And sure enough, he had! At this point we have no idea how he got in there, as we thought we had all points of entry sealed.

The rain and wind eventually quit and I went out to check for damage. The bus is parked facing due west and the storm came from that direction. The windshields and front cap were undamaged, and the head of the searchlight was still attached to the base. Inspection for roof damage would have to wait for safer conditions.

Although we did not do much this afternoon, it was not a relaxing one. BTW: With the passage of the storm, the temperature at 5:00 PM had dropped to 46 degrees F!

After dinner we went over to the Central Pavilion (indoors) for the Marty Stuart concert, which was moved there from the Morningside Park grandstand (outside) due to the weather. Because the grounds had become quite muddy we finally used the trams. In spite of a number of coaches leaving early, and the generally disagreeable weather, the concert was well attended and appreciated by the audience, to the point that the band came back to do an encore and stuck around to sell CDs and sign autographs. Although we are not fans of country music, Marty and his group were very good, with a high level of musicianship. They did a range of music from bluegrass to traditional county, contemporary country, and gospel. They did a mix of vocals with tight harmonies, and intricate instrumentals. Marty performed years ago with Johnny Cash, and has a similar “sound.” They put a lot of energy into their show and they seemed to genuinely enjoy what they were doing, which was then reflected by the crowd.

BTW: The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day event started at 2 PM EDT today, and runs for 24 hours. We did not bring our HF equipment, and we have been too preoccupied to even turn on the 2 M handi-talkie. I did wear my 2011 ARRL Field Day shirt, however, in recognition of event.

Yesterday was also my dad’s birthday but I didn’t have a chance to call him, so I did that today. He turned 88.

2013_06_21 (Fri) FMCA Day 3

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We went to bed last night with a 20% chance of rain in the overnight weather forecast. We are not sure when the rain started, but around 5:00 AM the skies opened up and it rained hard for an hour. We are camped on somewhat higher ground with good grass sites and red rock roads, so the water drained away and we did not have flooding or muddy site/road issues. This was not the case in other CAM-PLEX RV parks, as I discovered while walking to the 9:45 AM International Area (INTO) meeting. My timing was bad, and I walked the 3/4 mile to the Wyoming Center in a downpour that included pea-size hail. My raincoat and small umbrella were no match for the rain, and there was not a golf cart or shuttle (school) bus to be found anywhere. In the end it was just water, and clothes eventually dry out. Always looking for the learning experience in any situation, I resolved that we would purchase serious wet weather gear when we had the chance.

Linda remained in the coach to make sandwiches for lunch as we planned to meet up with Louise Stuart and Craig Davis after the 11:30 seminars. We went to the Nostalgic Look Back at the Early Coaches of FMCA, moderated by Mike Middaugh, F3456. Mike is yet another member of the Great Lakes Converted Coaches chapter that we also belong to. Mike was joined by several other vintage converted coach owners who shared photographs of buses from the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s, some of them buses they had owned.

We then walked over to Louise and Craig’s motorhome, a very nice 38′ Monaco Dynasty. We had our respective lunches and a great chat as we got to know fellow members of our FMCA Freethinkers Associate Chapter. The service tech from HWH showed up around 2 PM to fix their slideout, so we took that as our cue to return to the vendor area in search of more knowledge and solutions to problems.

After some further discussion with the folks from A-1 Water Treatment we decided to purchase one of their water softeners with attached pre-filter. It was both heavy enough and bulky enough that we arranged to have them deliver it to our coach after the vendor area closed today.

We then stopped at the WiFiRanger booth and purchased a WiFi Ranger Mobile Titanium (WFR-MT) and optional AC power supply. (The Titanium version is identical in functionality to the standard version except for a metal case in place of a plastic one, and a 5-year warranty instead of a 1-year warranty.) The WFR-M/MT device mounts outside the coach and combines a WiFi “booster” (transceiver) and a WiFi router. The booster communicates with available Wi-Fi signals that can serve as on-ramps to the Internet. These signals originate somewhere beyond our coach and are paid for, and controlled by, someone other than us. These can be public/open (unsecured) or private/closed (secured). Use of a secured signal requires the correct authorization (password). Public/open networks are, by definition, free to use as you do not need a password to connect to them. Secured networks may be free, such as at some businesses, or there may be a charge, as in airports, and some hotels and campgrounds. There is an extensive system of public/open WiFi access points available at the CAM-PLEX, sponsored by WiFiRanger. It has been very good around the Wyoming Center, but varies out in the Boxelder RV Park. The booster allows us to receive this weak signal, use it, and send a suitably strong signal back. It does not, however, guarantee on-demand, robust access, as this is also a function of how many other stations are trying to access the system at the same time.

The router section of the WFR-MT generates a secure, local network that we control. Although it is generated on the outside of the bus, it should be strong enough inside and around the coach to allow us to use our devices wherever we want around our campsite (within reason). We won’t know this for sure until we hook it up, of course, but the device has been used and well reviewed by other travelers, including Technomadia. Being a full-fledged router, it not only allows multiple WiFi devices to securely connect to the Internet (via the external WiFi source), but should allow them to securely communicate with each other. (BTW: Technomadia has the definitive book on mobile connectivity. http://www.technomadia.comor Amazon.com)

I plan to mount the WFR to the cable entrance weatherhead with zip ties if it will work. The device has an Ethernet cable that plugs into a POE (Power Over Ethernet) power supply. The front cable entrance weatherhead opens into the cabinet behind/above the drivers head where a 19″ CRT TV was once housed. It comes with a DC power adapter, but we purchased the AC power adapter as there is already AC power in this cabinet that is supplied from the inverter subpanel.

Our Verizon 4G/LTE MiFi 5510L Jetpack device does essentially the same thing as the WiFi-M, except it communicates with Verizon cell phone towers instead of external WiFi sources. We will be using the Wi-Fi Ranger when possible, and the Verizon 5510L otherwise (assuming it has a usable signal). This means we could have two different WiFi networks running simultaneously. The upside to this is that we could have multiple devices accessing the Internet through different pipelines, resulting in faster data transfer. The downside to this is that devices on one network can’t communicate with devices on the other one. (We could solve that problem with a WiFi Ranger GO.) Although interference between the networks is possible, it is unlikely.

We needed an additional length of hose to hook up the new water softener when it arrived, so Linda picked up a 10′ long food grade hose from the Camco booth. She then returned to the coach to straighten it up for a visit later from Louise & Craig while I went off to the Great Lakes Area Motorcoach Association (GLAMA) gathering at 3:15 PM.

I attended the Great Lakes Area Motorcoach Association (area) meeting in the late afternoon. The main items of interest at the GLAMA meeting were the upcoming GLAMARAMA in mid-September 2013 and the 2014 GLAMARAMA planned for next June. Both rallies will be at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds in Goshen, IN. After that the intention is to move it around through Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Ontario (Canada), perhaps doing two consecutive years in each state/province.

On the walk back to the coach I had a long, technical conversation with Michele Henry of Phoenix Paint in Edwardsburg, Michigan regarding how to remove and reinstall the broken searchlight on the front roof while minimizing damage to the paint. Michele’s shop did the roof repair and repaint on our coach, and she always has a good sense about how to approach something like this. She talked me through the best way to approach it, and after considering the process carefully, I decided to defer an actual repair until we can get the coach back to her shop.

Louise & Craig came by around 5:30 PM and we continued our conversation over snacks and some Red Ass Wine from the Prairie Berry Winery in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The new water softener got delivered just as they showed up, so hookup was deferred until later. We put out the Blue Diamond Wasabi Soy almonds, and I think they caught Louise by surprise. (Sorry Louise. We really should warn folks about these. If you like almonds, and you like spicy, you will find these addictive.)

2013_06_19 (Wed) FMCA Day 1

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A Flxible bus conversion, the original Family Motor Coach

The FMCA 50th Anniversary Rally (Family Reunion & Motorhome Showcase) kicked off with seminars starting at 8:00 AM. We attended a seminar at 11:45 AM on the Aqua-Hot hydronic heating system. The speaker was supposed to be from the factory, but didn’t make it, so a tech out of Arkansas stepped up and winged it. Lloyd Degerald did a good job, and we now have a better understanding of what factory recommended annual preventative maintenance should include, and why it should be done annually.

Basically, it has to do with the properties of diesel fuel, which require that filters be changed and the burner nozzle replaced on a regular basis. The filters were obvious but the nozzle wasn’t. The nozzle has a very small orifice that atomizes the fuel under pressure and spays it into the combustion chamber. It is subject to clogging and wear, both of which alter its ability to properly atomize the fuel. This can happen both from overuse and underuse. Besides changing parts, the best preventative maintenance appears to be regular, but not excessive, use of the unit.

We then attended a seminar by Mike Wendlend on “Sharing Your Travels On The Internet.” Mike was a long-time reporter for the NBC TV affiliate in Detroit, Michigan, so we were familiar with his work. He retired recently, and now travels with his wife in a RoadTrek Class B and reports on their travels. He is FMCA’s official traveling reporter and does a monthly column for FMC Magazine. He also does a weekly segment that is fed to all of the NBC TV affiliates. But most of his time/effort seems to go into his online presence. He uses a lot of technology tools, but we were particularly interested in his self-hosted use of WordPress with his own domain name, as this is what we are setting up. He did not go into much detail about the workings of WordPress, but there are lots of videos available on YouTube for that purpose.

Although warm today (it reached the upper 80’s) it was pleasant outside due to the 25+ MPH winds out of the ESE. We hung around the coach, keeping the cats company, until 5:30 PM, when we headed over to the new coach display area for the Motorhome Preview. We ran into Pat & Vicky Lintner again, who told us that Jon Walker had won election as National VP at the Governing Board meeting that afternoon. (Charlie Addcock was elected National President). Jon is another long-time member of the Great Lakes Converted Coaches chapter and was our national director before becoming the Great Lakes Area Vice-President, and President of the Great Lakes Area Motorcoach Association (GLAMA, which is still part of the FMCA structure).

Upon returning to our coach we discovered that the head of our “ET” light (roof-mounted remote-controlled searchlight) had come loose from the base and was laying on the roof behind it. We have no idea when this happened. The winds here have been strong, but not as strong as driving 65 MPH on the highway. We got the Little Giant ladder out, opened it to full extension configuration, and I went up to investigate. Not good. There are cables inside the base that go through the roof and the holes are not sealed. There is a retaining ring inside the base that attaches to the head (from inside) with 4 screws. All of the screws had come loose and were lying in the bottom of the base, with the head unit only being retained by the wiring. To reattach the head to the base you have to remove the base from the roof. That’s really not good. The base is retained by three screws and (hopefully) sealant/adhesive. How much? Who knows? Also, the coach was repainted with the whole thing in place, so the paint is continuous from roof to base. I set the head back on the base and wrapped the joint with green Frog Tape until I could figure out how to remove the base and fix it properly.

2013_06_18 (Tue) Early Arrival

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Upon our arrival at the CAM-PLEX in Gillette, Wyoming yesterday we quickly discovered that we did not have a usable WiFi signal so Linda Googled coffee shops and we found one with free WiFi. This morning we headed off early to City Brew for some coffee, bagels, and Internet connectivity. Alas, no bagels, so I had Raspberry strudel sticks (which were probably not vegan). We couldn’t connect to City Brew’s WiFi, but the adjacent Qdoba restaurant had a strong signal and no customers as they were not open yet. We mentioned that we were not able to connect and when City Brew reset their wireless router it worked fine. Linda caught up on our banking and entered receipts into Quicken while I updated Passwords Plus. I then tried to log in to our website (The Phase Place = www.omnibus-mi.us), which is a WordPress installation running on iPage servers, and discovered that I had not specifically recorded the username and password in Passwords Plus. I also realized that I had probably not updated the contact e-mail address with iPage since bfay@twmi.rr.com was shut down in May. Soooo…. I logged in to the iPage control panel and opened a new support ticket to get these issue resolved.

Our neighborhood – Boxelder, Lot 2, 7th St.

With our online business taken care of for the moment, we headed down the street to the HealthStyles Market to get some Daiya cheese for our dinner “cheeseburgers”. We received a 20% off coupon in our FMCA welcome bag, but didn’t have it with us, so we deferred other shopping for later in the week. What a nice surprise to find an organic market, with some of the vegan products we like, here in the heart of cattle country. The FMCA materials don’t even list grocery stores; instead they list “meat markets”. Yikes!

Because we both have personal and business need for Internet access, we stopped at the local Cellular Plus (Verizon retailer) outlet and purchased a Novatel Jetpack MiFi 5510L 4G/LTE Mobile WiFi hotspot device and added it to our existing Verizon “share everything” plan. This device creates a secure (private) relatively short-range WiFi network which will allow us to connect any/all of our WiFi capable devices together and to the Internet via our Verizon data service, as long as we have a usable Verizon signal. It’s a 4G/LTE device that is backwards compatible to 3G/EVDO, and supports IPv6 addressing in addition to IPv4. Many of its functions are accessible throughout the small device screen and buttons, but the full functionality is easily accessed through a web interface via a connected device.

By the time we returned to the coach it was lunchtime. After a light lunch we decided to deploy the large patio awning. We apparently failed to put the manual for the new Zip Dee Awnings on board, but still had the manual for the old ones. Design changes have been minor in the last 20+ years, and I was familiar with the changes, so though we could figure it out. We weren’t able to open it very far due to the close spacing of RVs in the campground and the fact that our neighbors had slide-outs (as most of the RVs here do). The manual indicated that partial deployment was possible and acceptable, but we could not get the rafter (upper) arms to latch onto the roller tube. Our new Zip Dee awnings are very nice, with a translucent fabric that allows some light through so the interior doesn’t get too dark. They are manual awnings, however, and deploying/retracting the patio awning requires a step ladder because our coach is so tall and the latches are out of reach.

We left the patio awning in what we felt was a secure position and walked over to the CAM-PLEX offices to take care of our camping arrangements for the 4 nights between the two rallies. On the way we stopped and visited with the owners of four vintage Flxible bus conversions that were on display in front of the Wyoming Center. Three of the owners were Great Lakes Converted Coaches members, and the 4th one was the son of a member. Bruce brought sample copies of the February 2013 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine, and said he would bring some over for the owners.

The folks at the CAM-PLEX office were very helpful and gave us our parking placard for the Windmill RV Park. This park is smaller than Boxelder. Most of the sites are 30 A electric, but some are 50 A FU. We were told we could move there on Sunday morning the 23rd at 10 AM as specific sites were first come, first served.

By the time we got back to our coach a predicted storm was building to the west and moving our way. With 50+ MPH wind gusts expected, we decided to retract all of our awnings and close up the windows and roof vents. Thick clouds, a cool air mass, and strong winds kept temperatures inside very comfortable. I went for stroll around the campground to take photographs of the clouds. I then came inside and preceded to nap through storm!

After dinner we finally turned on our new MiFi device and connected our phones, tablets, and computers. We spent quite a while trying to set up the computers on the network so they could see each other and share files, and appeared to have it working, only to have it not work and not be able to get back to where they did. It was not essential that we be able to do this, so we let it go for now. Since we now had functioning Internet access I checked the iPage support ticket and found that they had responded. I followed their directions and once again have administrative access to my WordPress installation and have updated my contact e-mails for iPage.