Tag Archives: Jimmy & Sadie Clay

2015/12/30 (W) Arcadia Rally (Day 2 of 3)

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Although I went to bed late last night I was awake at 7 AM this morning and got up at 7:30 to find the rally venue shrouded in dense fog.  Linda was still sleeping at 8 AM so I put some of my non-dairy soy coffee creamer in one of our FMCA insulated flip top travel mugs and walked over to the activities building. There are 82 rigs at the rally with close to 160 people and I estimated that 50 of them were at breakfast when I arrived.  Some folks had probably been there at 7 AM when breakfast started and left before I got there.  Others, including Linda, showed up after me but before breakfast ended at 9 AM.  Breakfast was a simple, self-serve, affair at this rally:  donuts, bagels, cream cheese, orange juice, and coffee, both regular and decaf.  Coffee and a toasted bagel, dry, works for us.

We chatted with Frank Noehl and Jim Seagraves, both members of our FMCA GLCC chapter, and were eventually joined by Jerry and Rose Mary Campbell.  Jerry and his parents (Jack and ?) have MCI 102C3 motorcoaches that they converted to Detroit Diesel Series 50 engines from the 2-cycle engines that were original to them.  There are two other MCI coaches here with the same engine conversion, and Jack was the driving force behind all four of these repowers.  The four buses are parked together and I was interested in hearing more about this process.

The DD Series 50 is basically the same engine as the Series 60 but with four inline cylinders rather than six.  I chatted with Jerry yesterday and had a look at his engine bay at that time.  It’s a nice installation; a bit tight in spots but it fits.  The 50 Series engine was used in transit buses and local delivery trucks but not in long-haul trucks or motorcoaches.  Jerry’s engine is rated at 350 HP and 1200 lb-ft of torque.  That’s essentially the same torque we get from our DD 8v92TA but 100 less horsepower.  I seriously doubt that this would be an adequate engine for our Prevost H3-40 VIP conversion, but it is an intriguing idea should we ever need to replace our 8v92.  The Series 50 and Series 60 engines are 4-cycle, inline configurations and develop their torque at lower RPMs than the 2-cycle 92 Series engines and cruise at highway speeds at lower RPMs.  They are also designed to work with the newer Allison “World” transmissions.

We were back at our coach by 9:30 AM.  The temperature was still in the 70s, if not by much, and there was a stiff breeze so it was actually pleasant sitting in the shade under our patio awning.  We had PB&J sandwiches for lunch with Halo orange segments and Snyder Sourdough Pretzel Nibblers.  The day eventually heated up, however, and I went inside to work at my computer while Linda went for a walk.  I edited the blog posts for September 26 through 30, 2015, turned on our Verizon Mi-Fi, and uploaded them to our WordPress site.  Linda got back and stayed inside to read while I took the camera and went out to photograph the buses and other RVs at the rally.

Even with partly cloudy skies the sun was very hot and many of the rigs were not in good light.  And even though they were parked with a generous amount of space between them they were still close enough together to make good photos a challenge.  Folks also tend to have their toads parked in front of their rigs, making good photo vantage points just that much more difficult to find.

As I was photographing I was approached by someone who introduced himself as Dave Aungier.  He said he had read all of my BCM articles and enjoyed them and wanted to write one about his bus but needed help with the photos.  That is a much easier situation for me than actually writing an article about someone else’s bus.  His 1977 MCI MC-5C was parked between two open-sided buildings where I could not get good exterior photos.  Like most of the attendees he plans to leave Friday but will not be in a hurry to do so and is willing to pull his bus out into the open grassy boondock area so I can photograph it.  With any luck this will be an easy collaboration.

I got pictures of most of the rigs except the back/east row.  On my way over there I stopped to chat with Jimmy Clay and his brother-in-law Ronnie Mewbourn and Ronnie’s wife Diann.  They were here two years ago when I photographed Jimmy and Sadie’s Iron Horse Eagle conversion, which ran as the featured bus in the April 2014 issue.  After chatting a while we agreed that I would come back tomorrow with a notepad to get Ronnie and Diann’s “story” and possibly some interior photos of their 1968 Model 07 Eagle conversion.  They also plan to leave on Friday but will not be in a hurry to pull out and agreed to move their bus out into the grassy boondock area if needed so I can photograph it.

By the time I got to the eastern most row of buses, most of which are facing east, it was almost 4 PM and the sun was behind them and in my face eliminating the possibility of good photos.  I will try to shot them early tomorrow morning, weather permitting.

Dinner was at 5 PM.  Bill and Brenda included a mini salad bar as I had suggested so we were able to have a large plate of shredded lettuce with sliced cucumbers, shredded carrots, cherry tomatoes, and garbanzo beans.  They also had a bottle of balsamic vinaigrette dressing just for us.

Master of Ceremonies John Vickery handed out the door prizes and the recipient of the second set of Bus Conversion Magazines was Ken Siems.  The entertainment for the evening was the karaoke trio, Shake, Rattle, and Soul, doing oldies.  They were OK and given the typical age of the rally attendees, which was older than us, those who stuck around knew the tunes and enjoyed hearing them again.  They performed from 8 to 11 PM and I presume they were much less expensive than an actual live band.

As of this evening no one had stepped forward to take over the rally from Bill and Brenda.  It occurred to me that not only is it a lot of work to organize a rally, there is financial risk involved.  Live entertainment, or even a DJ, require non-refundable commitments far in advance, especially for dates like New Year’s Eve.  You also have to book a venue and put a deposit on it, and you have to incur these expenses without knowing how many people, if any, will actually show up.  Most bus nut are not in a position to incur that kind of financial risk, and the upside potential is small to non-existent.  Nick and Terry Russell, of The Gypsy Journal, are very savvy business people but gave up doing The Gypsy Journal Rallies because they were losing money on them even with the assistance of a small army of dedicated volunteers.  Sad, but true.

Although they are not the same kind of experience, one of the things that is emerging in place of these larger, organized, fee-based, rallies are “non-rally rallies.”  RVillage calls them “Get-Togethers.”  Someone picks a time and place and sends out word.  Everyone is responsible for their own camping fees, if any, and there are no planned meals, entertainment, or seminars.  Entertainment and seminars, if any, are strictly impromptu participant-driven events.  There might be some “pot-luck” (carry-in) community meals, but not necessarily, and they are typically not prearranged.  Basically, the event is not really hosted or sponsored by anyone, there’s no organizing that takes place, and there is no group, couple, or individual that has any liability for what happens.

 

2014/04/17 (R) The Blue Angels

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No, we have not been visiting religious resale shops.  Today we drove US-98 west all the way to Pensacola, Florida to visit the Pensacola Naval Air Station (NAS).  Along the way we stopped at the Panera in Sandestin again.  The outlet mall shops were not open yet so there was very little traffic and not much of a crowd.  We took 20 minutes to enjoy some coffee and a bagel before continuing on to Pensacola.  The 100 mile trip was probably a little slower than taking I-10, but it was a leisurely, pleasant drive that allowed us to take in the coastal sights.  Photographs from today are in a separate gallery post.

As we got to the end of the bay bridge we did not see a sign for the Pensacola NAS so we picked our way through downtown and finally pulled into a Walmart parking lot where we put the address in our GPS.  As soon as we resumed driving we saw a sign for the NAS and Museum and the GPS wanted us to take a different route.  In this instance the signs won, although the GPS way would also have worked as the NAS has a front and rear entrance and our destination was closer to the rear entrance.

Four of the six U. S. Navy Blue Angels in diamond formation.

Four of the six U. S. Navy Blue Angels in diamond formation.

The Pensacola NAS is the U. S. Navy’s primary flight training facility and is home to the Naval Aviation Museum and The Blue Angels Navy Combat Fighter Flight Demonstration Squadron.  The Blue Angels’ practice sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday are normally open to the public.  They did not fly on Wednesday this week due to weather conditions so they flew today instead.  The session was open to the public and the public showed up in large numbers.  They started at 11:30 AM sharp (this is military stuff, after all) and flew for about one hour.  The practice session consisted of the same maneuvers, in the same order, that make up the “show” The Blue Angels do almost every weekend somewhere in the country from mid-March through early November.  They might repeat a maneuver or leave one out based on how the routine is going, how the equipment is performing, or the weather conditions.

The security personnel also acted as “play by play announcers,” letting the audience in their section of the grandstands know what maneuver was coming next.  While we were waiting for the practice session to start they also provided information about The Blue Angels, the NAS, and answered whatever questions people had.  The gentleman in our section had spent 30 years as a Naval aviator and was very knowledgeable.  He also had the right personality for working the crowd.

When the flight demonstration was over we toured the Naval Aviation Museum.  The museum is adjacent to the runways where the Blue Angels practice and is served by the same parking lot.  While not as extensive as the Smithsonian Air and Space Museums or the Air Force Museum, it is an excellent facility with a superb collection of aircraft and artifacts focused exclusively on Naval flight operations.  We took about three hours to wander through the exhibits, but you could easily spend two or three days here if you wanted to read every placard and study the displays more carefully.  Admission to The Blue Angels practice session and the Naval Aviation Museum are both free.  The museum has an IMAX theater, flight simulators, and other attractions that charge a fee.

We left the NAS around 3:30 PM via the rear gate and headed west towards Perdido Key.  Along the way we found the entrance to Big Lagoon SP and went in to check it out.  We had heard about BLSP from Jimmy and Sadie Clay, who spent March there as volunteer campground hosts.  (I did an article on their converted bus, the Iron Horse, which appeared as the cover/centerfold story in the April 2014 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine.)

From BLSP we continued west to Perdido Key.  Just past the entrance to Perdido Key SP was the Perdido Key Visitor and Community Center, which housed the Perdido Key Chamber of Commerce offices.  Four miles down the road was the Alabama State line.  Our reason for stopping here was that Jimmy and Sadie had mentioned that their daughter was the director of the Perdido Key Chamber of Commerce and we thought it would be fun to meet her.  She was there (Tina Morrison) and we introduced ourselves and chatted for a few minutes.  They pulled up the website for Bus Conversion Magazine on a computer and there was the Iron Horse on the cover!  We got a nice map of the greater Pensacola area to help guide us back to I-10 using parkways on the west side if town, thus avoiding downtown during the late afternoon.  The drive back on I-10 was through heavily wooded rolling terrain with light traffic.  I was still tired from my night of no sleep earlier in the week and nodded off while Linda drove.

After a simple dinner Linda read while I processed photos from yesterday and today.  I updated a plug-in on all four of the WordPress sites I run and got my personal blog post for yesterday uploaded, but not the photographs.  The rain started around 9 PM and quickly intensified.  It did not take long for the bedroom vent-fan leak to re-appear.  A powerful low pressure center south of Pensacola was pulling copious amounts of moisture north into Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.  This was forecast to be a long-duration rain event, but without severe storms.  River flood watches and warnings continued for the area along with urban flash flood warnings and high surf and rip current warnings for the coastal beaches.  We decided to put a pot on the end of the bed to catch the drips from the leak and slept on the couches.  I guess that’s a good reason to keep a sleeper sofa big enough for two when we redo the living room and dinette.

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

2013/12/30 (M) Bussin’ Day 2

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Tom Mason leads a discussion about fresh water systems.

Tom Mason leads a discussion about fresh water systems.

The second day of the Arcadia (Bussin’) Rally kept us busy.  Breakfast was sponsored by Luke of U. S. Coach & Equipment Sales.  (Breakfast yesterday was sponsored by Steve Foster and the activities building is sponsored for the entire rally by Central Florida Bus.)  I went to the 9 AM seminar on the use of the on-board fresh water tank, put on by Tom Mason.  Tom uses the water in his tank for all domestic purposes, including drinking and cooking, and described the filtration system he uses to make sure it is safe and tastes good.  From there it was a Q&A/discussion format, which works well at a rally where there are a lot of very experienced people but the number of attendees at a seminar is not too large.

The Love Bus. Groovy.

The Love Bus. Groovy.

The “official” open house was today from 10 AM – noon, but many attendees have had their buses open to visitors since they got here.  Linda and I decided not to open our coach because of the cats, who are very stressed by strangers in their home.  We visited a few coaches including the Ultravan, the Love Bus, the Cool Cruiser, and two gorgeous trailers–a Spartan belonging to the Bone’s, and an airstream belonging to the Hunt’s—both with highly polished aluminum exteriors.

 

A vintage Airstream trailer and tow vehicle.

A vintage Airstream trailer and tow vehicle.

The “Old Hounds” group met for lunch at the Wolfert’s bus, so I stopped by there to get a few photographs.  After we had our own lunch, I attended the 1:30 PM seminar; a presentation by John Hunt of Tin Can Tourists titled “Home on the Road.”  John had researched and prepared an excellent presentation on how American’s took to the road in automobiles over the last 100 years.  The emphasis was on the evolution of where they stayed: think primitive roadside camping (the original boondocking) through the development of various kinds of campgrounds, cabin camps and eventually motels.  John’s delivery was very good.

 

The “Old Hounds” lunch meeting.

The “Old Hounds” lunch meeting.

 

 

The South East Bus Nuts were having a mid-afternoon meeting so I stopped by to take a few photographs.  Linda and MaryAnn went to play bingo and had a great time.  Bob Ernst was the caller, one of his many volunteer duties at the rally.  (Bob also takes care of the coffee all day, and was one of the golf cart drivers escorting buses to their sites.)  While the ladies played bingo, I went back to the Iron Horse and spent a couple of hours with owners Jimmy and Sadie Clay.  I took additional exterior photos and interviewed them about the conversion project.

Tin Can Tourists, L to R: Hunt Jones, Margaret Way (of Arcadia), & Forrest Bone. Margaret’s parents were original TCTs.

Tin Can Tourists, L to R: Hunt Jones, Margaret Way (of Arcadia), & Forrest Bone. Margaret’s parents were original TCTs.

We went over to the activities building with Bill and Karen for dinner around 5:30 PM.  As promised, Brenda Phelan had prepared salads for us.  We had hoped we might be able to have some corn, but after grilling it (yum) they put it in pans with butter (yuck).  The only other thing they had that we could eat was bread, so we each took a piece.

 

The South East Bus Nuts afternoon meeting.

The South East Bus Nuts afternoon meeting.

 

 

Dinner was followed by door prizes followed by a break before the evening entertainment started.  I used that opportunity to return to the coach and process some photographs.  I went back for the evening entertainment where Linda, Bill, Karen, Mike, and Kathy had held on to our table near the front.  Normally we don’t sit up front, especially for bands, but tonight was Sally Langwah and her husband, Roy.  They did a “Nashville impersonation” show in which Roy did Willie Nelson and Elvis Presley songs while Sally did a range of famous country female singers including Dolly Parton and Patsy Kline.  She changed into a different/appropriate outfit for each singer.

Sally Langwah leads a line dance.

Sally Langwah leads a line dance.

Sally and Roy were very entertaining.  They both interacted with the audience, who played along wonderfully, and their show lasted about 90 minutes.  After their show they provided another hour of music for dancing.  Linda and Karen learned a couple of line dances, and Linda and I got up for a few slow numbers (that’s the best I can/will do).   Although the crowd thinned as time went on, there were still 30 people there at the end having a great time.  Sally and Roy have already been invited back for next year’s rally.