Tag Archives: US-27

2014/02/22 (S) Tin Can Tourists Rally

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The Tin Can Tourists (TCT) winter rally was being held at the Sertoma Youth Ranch about 15 miles southeast of Brooksville, Florida.  It started on Thursday, February 20 and was scheduled to conclude on Sunday, February 23.  TCT rallies almost always include a public open house.  For this rally the open house was Saturday, February 22 from 11 AM to 3 PM.

I left WCRV Resort around 10:15 and took the fast route down US-27 to I-75 and then south to exit 293.  From there it was a couple of miles on back roads to get to the Sertoma Youth Ranch.  There was a $5 charge to park, which I knew about in advance and gladly paid.  This is the second TCT open house that I have attended.  Although smaller than their main gathering in May at Camp Dearborn in Milford, Michigan (10 miles from our house) they had good participation with more than 50 rigs.  (I could have been as high as 70, but I didn’t count).

There were a few folks there that I knew.  Cherie Ve Ard and Chris Dunphy (Technomadia) were there with their 1961 GMC 4106.  Forrest and Jeri Bone were there, of course, as Forrest runs the TCT organization and planned the rally.  Hunt Jones, who I met at the Arcadia Bus Rally, was there, and so was Al Hesselbart, the historian for the RV/MH Museum in Elkhart, Indiana.  I had a brief visit with Al and a longer visit with Chris and Cherie.  I learned that the super secret project they are working on (RV social network) is scheduled to “go live” on March 1st.  Assuming that happens, I will have more to say about in my post for that date.

Almost all of the rigs were available for viewing.  Some allowed visitors to go inside; others had the door open but blocked so you could see in but not enter.  Many of the units were beautifully restored and others were somewhere in the restoration process.  Most were “staged” for display with table settings and items arranged on counters.  The owners were all very welcoming and enthusiastic about their vintage RVs.  I photographed most of them and have include some of those photos in the gallery at the end of this post.44

Al invited me to join him and some friends from Breezy Oaks RV Park for Chinese buffet in Brooksville, but I decided to pass, a combination of still being a bit tired from my long day on Thursday and not wanting to over-eat, which I tend to do at buffets.  I left at 3 PM, the end of the public open house, and returned to Williston via US-41, a longer but more scenic and relaxing drive than I-75.  I made a sandwich for dinner, caught up on some e-mail, and headed over to the fire pit around 7:15 PM.  We had our usual group of 20+ people.  John played his guitar and sang, and another man brought his guitar and joined him.  There was plenty of singing along, but folks were more conversational than at many of our previous campfires.

Photo Gallery: Click on thumbnail images to open for viewing.  Maximum dimension is 640 pixels.

 

2014/02/06 (R) Orange City (FL)

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Our plan for the day was to visit Bill & Karen Gerrie at the Orange City RV Park in Orange City, Florida where they are staying until March 1st along with Mike and Kathy (Bill’s sister).  Orange City, Florida is south east of us, north of Orlando and less than 30 miles southwest of Daytona Beach and the Atlantic Ocean.  The weather turned out not to be the most agreeable and I did not make any photographic images today.

We took US-27 from Williston to Ocala where we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts for coffee and bagels.  We then picked up FL-40 eastbound through the heart of the Ocala National Forest, intersecting US-17 which we took south through De Land to Orange City.  The Ocala NF is large, and parts of it are signed as wilderness.  There were caution signs for black bears, but we did not see any.  FL-40 was an excellent road and we had it to ourselves most of the time.  The housing, RV parks, and commerce scattered along the road appeared to be very economically challenged.

We did not take the by-pass around De Land to the west, so we got a good look at the city center.  De Land was quite charming and looked liked a great place to shop, dine, or just walk around on a nicer day.  Today, however, was cool, overcast, and drizzly, and we had an ETA to honor, so we just admired it from the comfort of our car.  De Land is the northern edge of a more densely populated part of Florida running along the I-4 corridor from Daytona Beach through Orlando/ Kissimmee and then Lakeland to the Tampa / St. Petersburg metropolitan area.

We found the Orange City RV Park and followed the directions to the Gerrie’s site.  We brought our folding camp chairs but the weather was not supportive of outside conversation so we sat in their bus and talked for over four hours.  We did not get out and about to see the area as we might have in nicer weather, but the reason for our visit was to visit, and we had a good one, as we always do.

I mentioned the milky white air tank water to Bill and he thought it was probably oil that leaked from the main engine air compressor and mixed in with water over time; nothing to be concerned about.  (I had some e-mail correspondence with fellow bus owner Butch Williams in which he indicated that it could also just be air in the water.  He had drained the air tanks in his shop recently and had something similar.  Either way, it was nothing to be concerned about.)

By 4:00 PM we were getting hungry and turned our attention to picking a place to have our birthday dinner (mine was Tuesday and Bill’s was today).  We settled on the Olive Garden and Linda went with Karen to let Mike and Kathy know.  It was a good choice all around and we had an excellent waiter who made sure we got menu items free of animal products.

By the time we finished dinner it was raining lightly.  We headed for Williston, reversing the route we had taken this morning, and encountered heavier and more persistent rain most of the way back.  Driving at night in the rain is not Linda’s favorite thing to do, so I took the wheel for the return trip.  We got back to our coach a little before 9:00 PM; another long but very satisfying day.

 

2014/01/30 (R) Fort Wilderness

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Yesterday was a stay at home day after our 2-day whirlwind trip to the Venice, Florida area to visit with Steve and Karen.  We got up a bit earlier this morning than we have been lately and were on the road by 8 AM.  Our destination this time was Fort Wilderness at Walt Disney World in Buena Vista, Florida.  The purpose of the trip was to visit Pat and Vickie Lintner, friends and fellow Prevost owners from our FMCA Great Lakes Converted Coaches chapter.

Walt Disney World is just southwest of Orlando and about 100 miles southeast of Williston.  We decided to take US and FL highways on the drive down return by way of the Florida Turnpike and I-75.  We stopped at a Dunkin Donuts south of Ocala for coffee and bagels and arrived at the overflow/visitor parking area for Fort Wilderness around 11 AM.  We had to pass through two gates to get to this parking lot, but each time we simply told them we were visiting campers at FW and they let us through without having to pay.  I phoned Pat and a few minutes later he and Vickie picked us up and gave us a driving tour of the campground on the way to their campsite.

Linda had been to Walt Disney World many years ago when our children were very young and stayed at Fort Wilderness in my parents’ motorhome.  We were there together in the early 2000’s when Linda had a professional development seminar at the Swan hotel near Epcot.  That was my one and only visit to WDW prior to today.

Like everything at WDW, Fort Wilderness is a really nice campground.  It’s divided up into sections, each with its own loop road.  The roads are narrow and winding, but the campsites are all angled so that even 40 foot motorhomes can back in easily to the paved sites.   There is extensive landscaping between the sites which, combined with the twisting roads, affords a lot privacy.  But there was only room for one car at each site, which is why Pat had us leave our car in the parking lot.  The common areas include playgrounds, bathrooms, shops, and restaurants, all done to be visually consistent with the Fort Wilderness theme.

The weather was light drizzle with temperatures in the mid-40’s and enough breeze to create a wind-chill factor, but we decided to go explore WDW anyway.  I did not, however, take my camera.  The photos in this post were provided by Vickie Lintner (thanks Vickie!).  From FW you can use the WDW transportation system, specifically the boats and monorail, to visit most of the hotels that are spread around the property free of charge.  We never entered any of the actual theme parks, which required the payment of an admission fee.

This horse with no name was very interested in us. (Photo by Vickie Lintner.)

This horse with no name was very interested in us. (Photo by Vickie Lintner.)

When we got to the Polynesian Hotel we decided to have lunch.  Pat had checked in advance and been told that any of the restaurants at WDW would make vegan dishes on request even if they were not on the menu.  Before being seated, the chef came out to talk with us and made some recommendations for vegan dishes he could prepare.  We ended up ordering a Pan Asian Noodle dish with tofu, and some100% Kona coffee, both of which were excellent.

Us on one of the WDW boats bundled up against the weather. (Photo by Vickie Lintner.)

Us on one of the WDW boats bundled up against the weather. (Photo by Vickie Lintner.)

We were a bit chilled by the time we got back to their coach, so Pat turned on the cube heater and we huddled under some throws to warm up.  While Vickie began preparing dinner Pat drove us to one of the other campground sections to visit with David and Marie Ross.  David and Marie had spent two nights at Williston Crossings visiting with us before going to Fort Wilderness to meet up with Marie’s sister and her husband for a week.  We got to meet them too and had a nice, but brief visit, before Pat returned to fetch us for dinner.

Us back at Pat & Vickie’s coach getting warm. (Photo by Vickie Lintner.)

Us back at Pat & Vickie’s coach getting warm. (Photo by Vickie Lintner.)

Vickie made a (vegan) butternut squash soup from scratch using her Vita-Mix and it was very good.  We learned about the Vita-Mix on our first Holistic Holiday at Sea cruise.  They are so powerful that you can make soup in them, not just blending ingredients, but heating them to boiling hot.  Following the soup course we had potatoes and mixed vegetables.

After dinner we drove to Downtown Disney, the shopping, eating, entertainment center of WDW.  We followed Pat but Vickie road with us to make sure we got there.  The weather had moderated a bit and there were a lot of people there, but we enjoyed walking the grounds and window shopping.  By 8 PM we were back at our cars.  Pat and Vickie led us to the entrance to the toll road, made a U-turn, and headed back to FW as we got on the highway and started for Williston.

2014/01/25 (S) Bushnell (FL)

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I got a call this morning from our mechanic, Joe, letting me know that he was still in Sarasota working on a bus and would not be available to visit at The Villager RV Park in Wildwood.  I contacted Al at Breezy Oaks and adjusted our plans for the day accordingly.  A visit with Al at Breezy Oaks was our main objective for the day, but as long as we were out we wanted to stop and see a few other things.

Rather than drive down I-75, which we have already done several times, we drove to Ocala on US-27 to where it joins up with US-301/US-441 heading SSE to Belleview.  From there we continued SE on US-441 through the eastern section of The Villages, finally turning west on CR-466.  We took CR-466 as far as Buena Vista Blvd and then followed its meandering path south as far County-466a where we turned west toward the town of Wildwood.  In Wildwood we continued south on US-301/FL-35, paralleling I-75 to our west, past The Villager RV Park and through the little towns of Coleman and Sumterville before arriving in Bushnell.

The Villages is hard to describe.  It’s a planned community of over 50,000 people and is still growing.  It is made up of numerous residential compounds, all gated, and office/retail areas that are publicly accessible.  There are a half-dozen golf courses, and special roads for the golf carts, which appeared to outnumber the cars.  It’s all very new looking, clean and attractive, but with a uniformity whose main purpose appears to be guaranteeing that no one will ever be bothered by the appearance of their neighbor’s house.  Medical services appeared to outnumber all of office space uses combined.  If you need access to multiple providers of every medical specialty known to man, this is probably where you want to live.  If not …

There are several RV parks in the Bushnell area, including Blueberry Hill RV Resort and Paradise Oaks Golf and RV Resort, and the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park.  But there were two RV parks in particular that we were interested in visiting.  One was the Escapees Sumter Oaks RV Park, which is one of the parks that is owned and operated by the Escapees RV Club.  The other was Breezy Oaks RV Park where our friend, Al Hesselbart (historian for t he RV/MH Museum and Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana), is spending the winter.  The parks are less than 1/2 mile apart and close to an I-75 exit about four miles south of the actual town of Bushnell.

Al Hesselbart and his 1978 Newell.

Al Hesselbart and his 1978 Newell.

We sat in the sun outside Al’s 1978 Newell and had a long, comfortable chat.  We had skipped lunch, so by 4 PM we were hungry and Al suggested a Chinese Buffet in Brooksville, which was actually in Spring Hill.  It had an incredible variety of food, some of which we could eat, and was in fact quite good.  We dropped Al back at his coach and headed for home with a brief stop at the Ocala Publix for a few things.

 

2014/01/13 (M) Prevost-Stuff Show

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The Tampa Convention Center waterfront plaza, Tampa (FL).

The Tampa Convention Center waterfront plaza, Tampa (FL).

We spent most of the day and evening traveling to, attending, and returning from the Prevost-Stuff Show at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida.  Prevost-Stuff.com is part of the Prevost Owners Group (POG) owned and operated by Jamie Bradford.  We have been POG members for a few years now but this was the first event we have been able to attend.  The Prevost-Stuff show is strictly used Prevost coach conversions.  Jamie organized the show starting last year to run for the two days immediately prior to the Tampa RV Supershow at the Tampa Fairgrounds because the Supershow only allows new units to be displayed.

TCC Beer Pavilion and Fish Sculpture.

TCC Beer Pavilion and Fish Sculpture.

Before heading to Tampa we stopped at the CVS Store in Williston to purchase an electronic pass for the Florida Tollway System.  We purchased a SunPass Mini, activated it via the website using Linda’s cell phone, put an initial balance on it, and mounted it to the inside of the car windshield behind the mirror.  We planned to use the Tollway for part of our trip to Tampa and did not want to be bothered with stopping to pay cash tolls.  We also knew that we would want/need to use the toll roads as we traveled around Florida over the next few months and the SunPass is both more convenient and slightly less expensive on a per toll basis.  A quick stop at the Williston post office to mail a flash drive full of photos to Bus Conversions Magazine editor Mike Sullivan and we were on our way.

View towards Tampa Forum arena from TCC plaza docks.

View towards Tampa Forum arena from TCC plaza docks.

Rather than take I-75 to Tampa, which we have already done once when we went to Arcadia, we headed to the west edge of downtown Williston and picked up US-41 S.  We stayed with US-41 S through Inverness to Brooksville where we took FL-50 over to the Tollway, FL-589, and then headed south towards Tampa.  Our Garmin nuvi 465T GPS was rather persistent in trying to route us away from the Tollway until we checked the settings and discovered it was set to “avoid toll roads.”  From there on it steered us through the convoluted Tampa freeway system, onto the surface streets, and directly to the entrance to the Tampa Convention Center parking garage.

TCC east entrance stairs.

TCC east entrance stairs.

The Prevost-Stuff show was in the West Hall at the Tampa Convention Center.  It was free and open to the public but there were no signs announcing it, almost as if it was an invitation only event; and in a sense that was true, the only real marketing being through the POG and Prevost-Stuff.com websites.  Much to our surprise, the first person we met as we entered the hall was Joe Cannarozzi, our mobile mechanic.  I knew Joe was in Florida for part of the winter, but wasn’t sure just where.  It turns out that he is staying at an RV park an hour or so south of us.

TCC east upper entrance level.

TCC east upper entrance level.

There were at least 30 units on display, all used and all for sale, with a roughly equal number of H3s and LeMirage / XL / XL2s.  All of them were very nice, of course, but most of them were not to our taste (too fancy).   Almost all of them were not in our price range either, so that made it a lot easier to not buy one : – ) (We agreed on the drive down not to make an impulsive purchase.)  I did, however, see a few interesting “features” that may eventually find their way into our coach.  I forgot to take my camera so the photos in today’s posts were taken with my smartphone.

TCC West Hall lobby.

TCC West Hall lobby.

The best part for me was the Prevost reception at 5:30 PM.  I got to meet several people including the owner of AAP.  AAP is the company that now handles Cruise Air units.  It was good to know that they are still available as our coach has three of them.  I got some suggestions from him about what we might do to reduce the noise when they are running.  We also met Jamie Bradford, the owner of the Prevost Owners Group (POG), and Dale Farley, who handles administration for POG.  Jamie said that in addition to the New Orleans rally he is planning for March, he is planning a rally in East St. Louis for the last week in September.  The RV park closes after the third weekend in September but remains “open” for another week for exclusive use by the POG rally.  He will have room for 90 coaches.  I have no idea what it will cost, and I am sure food will be an issue for us, as always.  St. Louis, however, is our home town and we not had the coach down there yet, so we’ll see.

TCC West Hall entrance, Prevost-Stuff Show

TCC West Hall entrance, Prevost-Stuff Show

Finally, we met several folks from Prevost, including:  Gaetan Bolduc, Eng. (president/ceo), Steve Ziegler (national sales manager for conversions shells), Martin –?— (factory product manager), and Bill Jensen, national service manager (conversion shells).  I now have faces and business cards to go with the names.

A whole row of Marathon conversions.

A whole row of Marathon conversions.

I had a chance to talk to Martin about the lack of availability of rubber seals for our awning windows and describe how we were able to get new ones made.  I offered to supply them if they have any other customers who need them : – )  I also got to discuss our intermittent speedometer/odometer problem with Bill Jensen.  Bill agreed that it sounded like we had a wiring problem somewhere after the engine and transmission computers and told me that the two wires of importance are numbers 16 (speedo +) and 20 (speedo ground).  He also indicated that the coach probably does have a “speed switch” and that it is most likely located in the electrical bay above the tag axle on the driver’s side.  The purpose of the switch was to disable the kneeling feature on a seated coach above 5 MPH.  The speedometer wires are “looped through” the switch, however, and it is a potential failure point.

A pair of late model, lightly used, Prevost H3-45 conversions.

A pair of late model, lightly used, Prevost H3-45 conversions.

By the time we left around 6:30 PM it was dark and Linda’s hip was bothering her so I drove home.  Our GPS got us to I-275 northbound, an easy, straight shot west from the Tampa Convention Center parking garage.  I-275 merged into I-75 N.  We exited at US-27 W in Ocala and were home before 9 PM including a brief fuel stop along the way.  Heavy and persistent rain was forecast to start sometime after 9 PM and go through the night, but we made it back to the coach before it started raining.  I took care of some e-mails, posted my blog entry for yesterday, and called it a day.

2014/01/01 (W) Happy New Year!

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A few rigs left yesterday but most of the rally attendees stayed around for the New Year’s Eve dinner and party.  A lot of us were up later than normal, so the first day of 2014 had a slow, quiet start.  Even so, there were a couple of buses that started up and pulled out before we got out of bed.  The weather was partly cloudy with pleasant temperatures, not the way we are used to starting a new year.  We have been tracking the weather back home and the key words are snow, ice, cold.

Although the rally was officially over we knew from conversations that some of them would be staying at the Turner Agri Civic Center for a few more days.  Some were headed home to places like the Carolina’s or Tennessee, but many others were headed somewhere in Florida.  Jack and Paula live less than 14 miles from the rally site and were headed there along with some of their friends.  Mike and Maryann were headed south about an hour to the Peace River Campground.  Bill, Karen, Mike, and Kathy were headed to Orange City up towards Orlando.  Others, like us, were headed north up the west coast.

We targeted 10 AM as our departure time and finished preparing the coach for travel.  By 9:30 AM we had everything ready to go except for the electrical shoreline, which I like to leave plugged in until the last minute.  We took one last stroll to find Bill and Brenda and thank them for a wonderful rally and say “happy new year” and “until we meet again” to anyone we encountered.  We chatted briefly with Dave Rush who also took a lot of photographs and shot video with his iPad.  You can find his images at http://tikvahmarketing.com .  Look for the Arcadia Rally link on the home page.

There was finally nothing left to do except leave.  We disconnected and stowed the electrical shoreline and did a final walk around.  We checked the lights and found that the towing lights on the car were not working.  I had noticed when we arrived that the connections on the umbilical cable were a bit corroded so I cleaned those and voila, we had towing lights.  We lit up the engine, pulled across the field that separated our site from the entrance road, and were on our way.

We made the 40 miles on FL-70 W to I-75 N in dry conditions, but not long after turning north on I-75 we encountered rain, which stayed with us for the rest of the trip.  We made a brief stop at the Pilot Truck Stop at exit 341 on I-75 to top off the tank and add our diesel fuel additive and biocide.  We wanted to make sure we arrived a Williston Crossings RV Resort with a nearly full fuel tank to keep moisture condensation to a minimum and the biocide to make sure nothing grows in the fuel while we are sitting for three months.

It was raining lightly when we got to Williston Crossings RV Resort so I put on my rain coat and unhooked the car while Linda got us registered.  We had scoped out our site (#439) when we were here a week ago, so I knew it was big enough for us and that backing into it should not be a problem.  We ended up coming at that task from a slightly different direction, but with the help of two resort volunteers and one of our new neighbors I got it backed in and lined up fairly easily.

The site was so level that I did not have to adjust the level low system, which I switched out of ride height position before shutting down the engine as it seems to help hold the air in the suspension.  I hooked up the shoreline (in the rain), shut off the air to everything that didn’t need it, and went inside to help Linda set up the coach for living.  We have more privacy on this site than we normally do in an RV park/campground, and we are parked facing due north (the ideal direction) so we decided to put our front shades all the way up and remove the upper side window covers, which we have never had off until now.  The four windshields form a picture window that is 8.5 ft wide and 6 ft high.  Having those uncovered opens up the sense of interior space, lets in lots of light, and affords a panoramic view as long as we are not parked where they get direct sunlight, which tends to heat up the interior.

We will be here for three months during which time we do not plan to move the coach.  This winter trip to Florida will be the longest period of time we have spent in this or any RV, and the three months at Williston Crossings RV Resort will be the longest we have lived in it while parked at the same spot.  That means we will finally get to use some things, like our printer, that we brought along for the first time but have not yet retrieved from their storage places and set up.  Likewise, it means we can store some things that normally sit out as we won’t need them again until April 1st.

We did not eat breakfast this morning, we never do on travel days, so once we were set up Linda made a pot of coffee.  She had some berries to use up, so she fixed breakfast for dinner; Pancakes Pirello (vegan) with blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries and real maple syrup, and vegan sausage patties.

Most of Florida is having a prolonged rain event, and the rain at the resort continued all evening and overnight.  I am happy to report that as of this writing none of our water leaks have re-appeared, a combination of Michele Henry’s good work at Phoenix Paint (Edwardsburg, MI) and perhaps warmer temperatures causing things to swell slightly and seal.  Whatever the reason, it was nice to be sitting inside on a rainy day with no drips.

 

2013/12/26 (R) Our Recent Travels

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We left Williston Crossings RV Resort in Williston, Florida at 10:15 AM and traveled to the Turner Agri Civic Center in Arcadia Florida for the Arcadia (Bus’in) Rally 2014.  Our route took us down US-27 to I-75 to FL-70 to US-17 and over to the rally venue, covering 200 miles in 3 hours and 45 minutes.  I-75 had a lot of traffic and a few construction zones, but US-27 and FL-70 we excellent roads with very few vehicles.  I have not been posting maps of our daily travels, so here is the route we have traveled starting on the 19th.  We have traveled about 1,300 miles in that time.

View Larger Map

We were met at the check in station by Bill and Brenda Phelan who now run the Arcadia Rally.  Linda took care of the paperwork while I introduced myself, indicating that I had been asked by the publisher of Bus Conversions Magazine to do an article on the rally.  We unhooked the car and were escorted to our back-in site.  We immediately recognized the bus parked behind us as belonging to Bill and Karen Gerrie.  They always travel with Karen’s sister Katherine and her husband Mike, and sure enough, they were here too!  By the time the rally starts on Sunday we expect there to be other converted bus people here that we know.

We were escorted to our site, backed in, straightened out, and leveled and then went through our usual arrival routine; Linda setting up the inside while I hooked up the electrical shoreline and checked the house battery state of charge and that the inverter/charger was working.  We then deployed the awnings.

While opening and securing the main patio awning the front rafter arm started to come off of the awning shaft.  Closer inspection revealed that there was supposed to be a retaining pin or bolt holding these two pieces together, but it was missing.  Yikes!  I looked down and there was a black bolt of approximately the right diameter and length on ground in front of me.  Was it possible that this had just fallen out?  I looked at the other end of the roller tube and there was the matching part, but with a Nylok nut on the end.  I went back to the other end and looked for the nut, but didn’t see it.  It probably fell off a long time ago, if it was ever there in the first place.  No one has worked on these awnings since they were installed by the Zip Dee Factory outside of Chicago, Illinois in October 2012.  It would have been very, very bad if these two parts had separated while we were traveling on the highway.

I managed to get the bolt back through the mating holes, but I did not have a Nylok nut of the correct size in my parts kit.  The Gerrie’s have a 1965 GMC bus that they converted.  Bill is a very knowledgeable and resourceful guy when it comes to buses, but he did not have an 8-32 Nylok nut either.  I did have some regular 8-32 nuts, however, so I double nutted the bolt and snugged it up nice and tight.  We added 8-32 Nylok nuts to our growing list of supplies we needed to buy and things we need to do.

With that chore out of the way, we pulled up the chairs and settled in for a chat.  I mentioned the Check Engine Light issue and erratic speedometer problem we’ve been having, and quick as a wink Bill had his ProLink/NexIQ engine diagnostic tool out, hooked up to our bus, and we were reading codes.  The DDEC II engine computer did not have any active codes set and only one inactive code.  The inactive code was for a fuel temperature sensor high voltage.  Joe Cannarozzi (our mobile mechanic) and I had replaced the fuel temperature sensor back in the spring but I never got around to hooking up my ProLink and clearing the old code.  That little oversight has caused me way too many anxious moments.  My bad.

Bill also had a special card for his diagnostic equipment that allowed us to look at the error codes from the ATEC transmission computer.  No codes were set, indicating that the vehicle speed sensor was sending a good signal at least as far as the transmission computer.  We assumed that was the case as the transmission was working great and the cruise control was working as it always has.  The erratic speedometer appears to be either a wiring problem between the computer and the dashboard or the speedometer gauge itself.  The easiest/cheapest thing to do would be to clean the connectors on both ends.  The next easiest thing would be to replace the speedometer and hope that’s the problem, but that will not be the least expensive solution if turns out not to be the gauge.

Although I had stopped worrying about the Check Engine Light, it was a great relief to know that there were no active error codes being generated by the engine or transmission computer.  One of the great things about rallies in general, and converted bus rallies in particular, is that many converted bus owners have done their own conversions and have a special sense of community about their machines.  They know their way around buses, travel with tools and parts, and are usually willing to help each other when there’s a problem.

With a potential awning disaster discovered and averted and the Check Engine Light issue resolve, we finally settled in to our chairs for a long, well-deserved, chat.  While we were talking four Sandhill Cranes walked by about 50 feet away.  These magnificent gray birds have a distinctive red cap on their heads, and can stand almost 4 feet tall.  Although they tend to spend summers much farther north in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Canada, we have them on our property in southern Michigan during the late spring to early winter.  We also saw kildeer, and several other birds we did not recognize.  On the drive down today we saw pelicans and egrets plus the usual raptors that can often be spotted along highways.

By 5:30 PM it was getting dark and mosquitoes started to appear so we wrapped up our conversation and headed inside for the night.  With all of the activity and socializing we had managed to skip lunch.  Rather than take an hour to prepare something, we had the chickpea salad Linda made the other day.  It’s one of our favorite cold dishes and reminds us of egg salad.

Linda turned on the TV and scanned for channels.  We are parked facing west with the front OTA TV antenna pointed slightly north of our nose.  That’s somewhat in the direction of Tampa St. Petersburg although they are actually northwest of our location.  The scanner found 60 digital stations, so she flipped through them to see what was there.  We had the PBS trio, a weather station, the usual commercial offerings, and lots of Spanish language stations.  Impressive really; if you look at a road atlas Arcadia is 40 miles east of I-75 and appears to be in the middle of huge swamp.

We could not find a usable Wi-Fi signal so we turned on our Verizon Mi-Fi device and got online.  If you need to be online while traveling, you need to have more than one way to get there.  (Technomadia has the definitive book on the subject for RVers.)  We checked e-mail and I worked on this post.  We took a few minutes to have vegan chocolate cake with fresh strawberries.  We finished up our online work and went to bed early.  Although the rally does not start until Sunday, I have to start acting like a reporter tomorrow so I can write a really good article on this event with lots of good photographs.