Tag Archives: Bill & Karen Gerrie

2015/09/23 (W) Autumnal Equinox

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We were up at 8 AM, had granola for breakfast, and enjoyed our coffee in the living room by the fireplace.  I like cool mornings.

I spent some time yesterday morning, and again this morning, considering my full-frame DSLR options.  The only 50 MP “35mm” DSLR camera body on the market at this time is the Canon 5Ds/R and there is no indication that Sony plans to introduce a successor to the A99 anytime soon.  The A99 is still available, as is the vertical battery pack/grip and I am at the point where I will probably order one.  It has a 24 MP full-frame CMOS sensor, which is double the resolution of my alpha 100.  More importantly, it will accept all of my old 35mm Minolta A-mount lenses and they will work as designed.

Linda left at 9:40 AM to meet Diane at Kensington Metropark.  I gathered up the laundry, sorted it, and started the first load.  I then settled in at my desk for a while.

I e-mailed Mike (W8XH) to see if he could assist me on Saturday and/or Monday with climbing the tower to do some more antenna work.  I then e-mailed Bill Gerrie to see if he and Karen were in Michigan yet.  I pulled up the initial mockup of the October 2015 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine and proofread my article on replacing the speedometer.  Jorge had done a good job of laying it out.  I e-mailed back four minor corrections, one slightly larger one, and a general comment about the lack of space following periods.  I had an e-mail from Steve Smith (N8AR) with contact information for Yaesu Fusion technical support.

The washing machine beeped so I transferred that load to the dryer and started another one.  I noticed that it was after 11:30 AM so I cleaned the cats’ litter tray, grabbed the garbage from under the kitchen island sink, put it in the trash can, and got it to the street.  Alchin’s normally comes “around noon” but I had a feeling they had already driven by.  They were still in our subdivision, however, and stopped on the way out to empty our can.

I had another cup of coffee and updated this post.  By noon Linda had not called yet let me know she was on her way home so I headed to Lowe’s for a roll of plumber’s sandpaper.  I also picked up the paste we need to hang the new wallpaper.  On the way back to the house I stopped at Teeko’s Coffee and Tea to order some Cafe Europe half-caff blend.  Linda was home when I got back and we had a light lunch.  We have both finally taken off some of the weight we put on this past winter.  Long, hard work days with little or no lunch seem to help.

By the time we got back to work on the bus projects it was 3 PM.  It’s hard to make progress when the workday starts in the afternoon.  Today is the autumnal equinox, so it gets dark much earlier in the evening than it did in late May, June, July and even most of August.  Still, as anxious as I am to get the heat exchangers re-installed we have to deal with the wallpaper in that part of the bus first.  Linda helped me assemble the right desk base, repeating what we did yesterday with the left base.

The left pedestal base with the Aqua-Hot fan-coil heat exchanger mounted inside.

The left pedestal base with the Aqua-Hot fan-coil heat exchanger mounted inside.

We installed the metal grates on the air openings (from the inside) and then used doubled-sided tape to affix the plastic mesh to the metal grate.  We put a 1/2″ plywood spacer in the bottom and marked the locations of the mounting bracket holes and the heat exchanger.  We took the exchanger and spacer out, punched the starter holes, and drilled.  Linda cleaned the heat exchanger and used a pair of tweezers to straighten the bent radiator fins, of which there were quite a few.  We cleaned off the two copper pipe stubs that provide the inlet and outlet for the antifreeze and then attached the self-stick 3/8″ X 1/4″ dense foam weather-stripping around the front of the housing.  We mounted the exchanger to the spacer with approximately 1/8″ of the foam weather-stripping beyond the front edge of the spacer.  We put the spacer/exchanger assembly back in the base and I secured it with screws while Linda pulled it into position, compressing the weather-stripping.

Linda cleans and straightens the fins on one of the fan-coil heat exchangers.

Linda cleans and straightens the fins on one of the fan-coil heat exchangers.

I took a few photographs as we worked and took some more of the finished assemblies.  While we were working we got a call from Philip Jarrell of Precision Paving.  Phil was calling to see if we still wanted the French Drain and driveway work done.  He has been busy all summer and even more so coming into fall when folks decide they need stuff done before winter.  He had given us a quote (estimate) back in the spring but could not do the work then because the soil was way too moist.  The property has dried out nicely over the last seven weeks and he wanted to make sure he did the work yet this year if we were still interested.  I told him “yes” and he said he would call “Miss Dig” right away to get the utilities marked and then get started.

The two desk bases with the fan-coil heat exchangers installed view from above and behind.

The two desk bases with the fan-coil heat exchangers installed view from above and behind.

I think this annoyed Linda as it will be another significant expenditure, but it’s something I think needs to be done and it is not easy to get a slice of Phil’s time.  (Actually, we have done a lot of difficult work together on the bus this summer and I think she was already annoyed from working with me on the right base.)  Not taking advantage of Phil’s availability would likely mean a two-year delay in getting this work done.

This project is actually a combination of two different projects that happened to make more sense to do at the same than at separate times.  The French drain is intended to dry out the far west end of our property which has standing water in the spring and after heavy rains, and stays moist/soft for the first half of the summer.  There are a lot of trees in that area and we have lost some and are losing others.  The driveway work will give us additional parking for people visiting in their RVs and create the main approach to the location for the bus barn that I hope to eventually build.  The topsoil that Phil pulls out from the driveway will be used to fill in low spots on the west end of the property, further improving the drainage in that area.

The right desk base viewed from above/behind showing the fans mounted on the back side of the heat-exchanger.

The right desk base viewed from above/behind showing the fans mounted on the back side of the heat-exchanger.

Linda returned to stripping wallpaper in the bus while I folded the laundry and put it away.  For dinner we had a salad and more of the soup that Linda made yesterday.  After dinner Linda researched wallpaper installation while I worked at my computer and uploaded eight blog posts from the third week of July.  About the time I finished the last one Brendan called so I went upstairs and Linda put the call on speaker.  He is a couple of weeks into his position at Eastern Michigan University teaching Art History and gave us a status report on how it is going, along with news of how Madeline is doing in her new daycare program University of Michigan.

We watched Dr. Michael Greger’s 2015 nutrition research summary on Linda’s iPad.  This is an annual presentation that he does at the vegan Summerfest in Pennsylvania.  His theme this year was the top health concerns of Americans, based on a major survey that was done by one of the national survey organizations, and what nutrition research has to offer with respect to these.  As we already know, many different diseases, one common answer; whole-food, plant-based, nutrition with no animal products.  We really are what we eat, and Americans are now some of the least healthy people on the planet.  We went to sleep reaffirmed in our dietary choices.

 

2014/08/16 (S) Bus People

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We enjoy the company of our fellow “hams” (amateur radio operators) and so our first destination this morning was the Senate Coney Island in South Lyon for the weekly SLAARC breakfast.  It was a much smaller turnout than last week, but that often leads to better conversation for the lower noise level if no other reason.

Converted bus people are also our kind of people, so our second destination today was the Fireman’s Park in Clio, Michigan where the joint CCO/GLCC “Back-to-the-Bricks” rally was taking place.  There were 22 rigs in attendance, 19 of which were converted buses.  We got there around 11AM and spent the afternoon visiting with whomever was around, starting with Pat and Vickie Lintner.  Light rain moved in during the early afternoon and we had a nice visit with our friends from Ontario, Bill and Karen, in their bus.

With a few exceptions we knew all of the attendees and they all knew us, so this was a comfortable reunion with old and new friends.  We had a chance to talk to Glen Williams, who runs a clock repair business named Tenor Clocks, about our broken grandfather clock and made an appointment for him to come work on it on Wednesday at noon.  (Glen is also part of a four man singing group named “Three Men and a Tenor”.  Glen is the Tenor.)  We were most cordially invited to stay for dinner but we had not paid to attend the rally and there was very little food we could (would) eat so we left around 6 PM as the group was assembling for the evening meal.

We stopped at the Panera in Fenton on the way home and enjoyed their black bean soup and Mediterranean veggie sandwich, hold the feta cheese.  Once home we enjoyed a small glass of Late Harvest Vignoles wine from Acres of Land winery in Kentucky while we worked on our iPads a bit before bed.

 

2014/06/10 (T) Early Entry

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Today was early entry day for the FMCA Great Lakes Area Motorcoach Association (GLAMA) area rally, known as the GLAMARAMA.  Following our usual departure routine I dumped our holding tanks and prepared the outside of the bus for travel while Linda secured the inside.  We pulled out of Elkhart Campground around 9:30 AM and headed west on CR-4 to IN-19 where we turned north back towards Michigan.  IN-19 becomes M-205 at the border and we followed it around to US-12 east.  A few miles down the road we turned onto M-217, the Michiana Parkway, and followed that south back into Indiana where it became CR-17.  We exited CR-17 at US-20 and headed east towards Middlebury, Indiana.  The reason for going this way was to avoid driving through Elkhart and Goshen.  Monroe Street in Goshen is closed at the railroad tracks forcing detours to get to the fairgrounds when approaching from the west.  We knew from our recent visit to the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds for the Escapees RV Club Escapade rally that the easy way in and out of the venue was from/to the northeast.

GLAMARAMA14 is the second rally organized by GLAMA.  The first one was in September 2013 at the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds.  I wrote an extensive article about that rally that appeared in the January 2014 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine.  A version of that article also appeared in the November 2013 newsletter of the FMCA Great Lakes Converted Coaches (GLCC) Chapter.

We encountered unexpected road construction on eastbound US-20, but we had no particular time constraints and patiently worked our way through.  At IN-13, south of Middlebury, we turned south, drove down to IN-4, and headed east.  Before getting to Goshen we turned south on CR-29 and followed that to its terminus at CR-34 (Monroe Street) where we headed east a short distance to the northeast entrance to the Fairgrounds (Gate 5).  The trip took us a little over an hour whereas the direct route, without road closings, would have taken 30 minutes.  But it was an easy, stress-free drive and we arrived relaxed and ready to enjoy the rest of the day.  Northern Indiana is a particularly easy place to drive a large RV; the roads are relatively flat with very few overhead clearance or weight restriction issues.  The one thing you have to watch out for are the Amish buggies; they are everywhere in this region.

We indicated on entry that we were with the Great Lakes Converted Coaches Chapter.  After unhooking the car in the staging area the parking crew escorted us to the sites reserved for our chapter in the fenced area directly behind the vendor and entertainment buildings known as “the compound.”  We were the second bus to arrive; the Lintner’s having already been here for a few days.  A short while later Bill and Karen Gerrie (1965 GM Transit) arrived with Mike and Kathy Dickson and Joe and Mia Temples (GM 4905 “Buffalo”).  Later in the day Don and Sandra Moyer arrived in their 1948 Spartan with John and Paula Lingafelter in their 1958 Flxible Starliner.

In the early afternoon Chris Dunphy and Cherie Ve Ard (Technomadia) walked over from the FMA area to the GLCC area with Jason and Nikki Wynn (Gone with the Wynn’s).  I introduced them to Bill Gerrie and Linda joined us for a brief chat.  It’s always good to cross paths with Chris and Cherie and it was nice to meet Jason and Nikki.

We volunteered to drive golf carts during the rally and our first shift was today from 2:30 to 5:00 PM.  Although the rally does not start until tomorrow the registration office was open and attendees from all over the fairgrounds needed to go there, without knowing where “there” was, so we had our share of customers.

 

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.

 

2013/12/31 (T) Good Bye 2013

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The final day of the Arcadia (Bussin’) Rally featured breakfast, seminars, meetings, tire kicking, preliminary departure preparations, dinner, door prizes, and a New Year’s Eve party with a live band.

Tin Can Tourists.

Tin Can Tourists.

Once again breakfast was coffee, juice, donuts, and bagels.  But we didn’t have to cook it or clean it up, and it was the first social activity of the day, so it hit the spot.  The building was already decorated for New Year’s Eve with sparkly signs and ceiling streamers.  Although celebrations are really about the people, the room decorations added a festive touch.

CCO meeting.

CCO meeting.

After breakfast I went over to photograph Frank Morrison’s GMC PD4014 “Cool Cruiser” and interviewed him about it for a possible BCM featured bus article.  The coach conversion was originally done by an architect in Flint, Michigan and the interior is different because of that.  Frank bought the bus from him.

CCO meeting.

CCO meeting.

The morning seminar was on GPS and mapping technology with Tom Mason.

Paula and Jack Conrad, Bussin’ Rally founders.

Paula and Jack Conrad, Bussin’ Rally founders.

We did not attend the morning seminar because the Converted Coach Owners (CCO), which we belong to, had a meeting at the same time.  There were approximately 15 people in attendance.  CCO is a small, independent group of converted bus owners most of whom are from the lower Great Lakes area, so this was a pretty good turnout for being so far away from home.

Roundtable discussion with Howard Best.

Roundtable discussion with Howard Best.

After the CCO meeting I had the opportunity to talk with Jack Conrad at some length about the rally and get a few pictures of him and Paula.  Jack and Paul started the Bussin’ Rally in December 2000 (the 2001 Rally) and turned it over to Bill and Brenda Phelan after the 11th one in December 2010.  Acadia Rally 2014 (Dec 2013) was Bill and Brenda’s third as organizers and hosts.

New Year’s Eve Dinner.

Bingo!

The afternoon seminar was a roundtable discussion lead by Howard Best.  With respect to owner-converted buses the knowledge and experience that assembles at the Arcadia Rally is probably unmatched by any other such gathering during the year.  Even with 100 buses and 200 people, the Arcadia Rally was very relaxed and these experts were very accessible.  Throughout the rally participants ambled from bus to bus and stopped to chat.  Sometimes they pulled up a chair and sometimes you would find their heads in a bay discussing a technical issue.  It was just that kind of event, and has been since it started in Dec 2000.

The last meal of 2013.

The last meal of 2013.

The afternoon seminar was followed by bingo with Bob Ernst calling the action once again.  Linda, Karen, and Kathy came over to play, and Linda had bingo on the first card!  I think she’s hooked.

This dress was entirely covered with pull tabs from cans.

This dress was entirely covered with pull tabs from cans.

As the day went on we noticed quite a few people making preliminary departure preparations and decided we should do the same.  We had hoped to not have to dump our tanks until we got back to Williston on the 1st, but we were getting low on fresh water which usually means our waste tanks are nearing full.  We dumped our holding tanks, filled the fresh water tank to the 2/3rds mark, stowed the water hose, and put lawn chairs away.  All that remained to do on the outside for tomorrow was stowing a step stool, a couple of mats, disconnecting the electrical shoreline and stowing it; turning on the chassis batteries and engine accessories air switch, and hooking up the car for towing.  The inside usually takes less than an hour to get ready and we typically deal with that about 90 minutes before we plan to pull out.  We don’t like to do this too soon as once the interior is prepped for travel it is more difficult to use for living.

The food servers for the last meal of 2013.

The food servers for the last meal of 2013.

At 5:15 PM we headed over to the activities building with Bill, Karen, Mike, and Kathy for dinner.  A centerpiece had been added to each table and about half of the rally goers had changed into dressier clothes.  Like last night’s meal, there was a serving line to get your food.  Volunteers staffed the various serving stations, and it was a smooth, quick process.  Dinner included spaghetti with marinara sauce (no meat, thank you!), veal parmesan, shrimp, green salad (no cheese, thank you again), and desserts, including fruit cocktail (thank you a third time) with sweetened tea, unsweetened tea, and water to drink.  People also brought their own beverages to suit their tastes.

Bill and Karen.

Bill and Karen.

As the band started bringing in their equipment I figured it was going to be a long, loud night, so after dinner I went back to the coach to work in quiet surroundings.  In my absence the door prizes were given out starting at 7 PM.  After the door prizes were distributed a group of volunteers put the New Year’s Eve party decorations on the tables.  These consisted of plastic lei, party hats, tiaras, and noise makers.

Kathy and Mike.

Kathy and Mike.

The New Year’s Eve party got started around 8 PM with country rock band Desert Moon.  We sat with our dinner group at a table in the middle of the room with good access to the main doors.  The room acoustics were very “live” and the volume was dangerously high so Bill and I came and went throughout the evening, finding camaraderie with like-minded individuals who gathered outside the building to talk buses in the cool evening air.  The median age of the rally participants was probably between 65 and 70, and many people left long before midnight and of those who remained many were also in and out of the building.  There were often more people dancing while the band was on break than when they were playing as the volume of the pre-recorded music was lower.  But enough of us stuck it out until midnight to bring in the New Year when Bill and Brenda lowered a sparkling ball from the ceiling while we counted down from 10.  At the stroke of midnight (EST) we all said our “Happy New Year’s,” and then many of us went back to our coaches and went to bed.

Desert Moon.

Desert Moon.

Our children are grown and have not spent New Year’s Eve with us in quite some time, having lives and friends of their own with whom to celebrate the coming of the New Year.  Our tradition for more than 10 years now has been to spend a quiet evening at home enjoying some traditional foods, watching the celebrations from around the world on TV, and finally having a champagne toast at midnight.  We no longer have those foods since we changed the way we eat and we have been busy enough at the rally that it never occurred to us to buy a bottle of “bubbly.”  We did open a bottle of Black Star Arcturos Late Harvest Riesling, which served the occasion just fine, but what we really enjoyed was ringing out the old year and bringing in the new one with old and new friends who share our interest in the converted coach and the lifestyle it makes possible.