Tag Archives: featured bus article

2015/08/21 (F) Have Fridge Will Travel

I was up at 7:40 AM and made a pot of Costa Rican half-caff coffee.  Linda was up just before 8 AM and washed off some fresh blueberries to put on our breakfast granola.  The Costa Rican is definitely not our favorite coffee and I brewed it with a little too much water which did not improve matters.  But we bought a pound of beans and are not going to throw them out so the sooner we use them up the sooner we can get something that we like.

Harvey Carter (AC8NO), the current President of our South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club, agreed to help us move the old bus refrigerator from Chuck’s shop in Novi to our house this morning using his cargo van.  He pulled into the parking lot of the shop right behind us at 10 AM.  Chuck and Barb had already left for Oscoda in their bus with their race car trailer in tow.

After opening the shop we had Harvey back his van up to the overhead door.  We brought several lengths of 2x4s planning to use them under the back of the refrigerator but Harvey had two ramps made from 2x12s with a cross piece that spanned the rear bumper.  That looked like a much better alternative to us.  He also had a good hand truck and a ratchet strap.

We decided to truck the unit from the left side because the refrigerant and water lines protrude beyond the back of the case.  We removed all of the trays from the doors and cabinet but left the shelves in place.  We slid the hand truck under the left side of the cabinet and secured it with the ratchet strap.  With Harvey on the hand truck we tilted it back and rolled it out to the ramps.  We adjusted the ramps so the hand truck wheels would be centered on them.  Harvey then pulled the hand truck up the ramp backwards as Linda and I pushed from the bottom, eventually lowering it all the way down as we slid it fully into the van.  I then closed up the shop.

I rode with Harvey in the van and Linda followed us in the car for the trip back to our house where I had Harvey back his van up to the small garage door.  Reversing our procedure from earlier we unloaded the fridge by rolling the hand truck down the pair of ramps and put it just inside the small garage bay near the door.  We plugged it in and it started running so at least we did not break it.

We wanted to put the drawers and door bins back in but could not get the fresh food compartment door open more than a few inches.  I was able to open it just enough to see inside and determine that at least two shelves had come loose and wedged into positions that prevented the door from opening.  The solution was to remove the door.  I undid the three screws that attach the top hinge to the cabinet and removed it, allowing Harvey to lift the door off of the bottom hinge.  I reattached the two shelves to the mounting rails at the rear of the cabinet.  Harvey then set the bottom door hinge pin back in the lower bracket and held the door while I reinstalled the top hinge.  We will plug it in later next week and let it cool off as it has to be running and cold when DTE Energy comes on Friday to pick it up.

While Linda unloaded the drawers and bins from the car and put them back in the refrigerator I gave Harvey the ham radio tour.  We looked at the antennas on the tower, the cable entry box, and the ham shack with the multiple monitor wall mounted track system we installed.  I then gave him a tour of the bus interior.  Linda was getting ready to go for a walk but I suggested we take Harvey to lunch and agreed to go.  He lives in Green Oak Township southeast of Brighton so we went to the Panera on Grand River Avenue at I-96 as it was in the direction of his house and we all like their food.

After lunch we drove to the frame shop in Howell and picked up the last of four paintings we had framed.  We were pleased with our choice of framing material and the owner, Rick, did a nice job assembling it.  We headed back to Lowe’s and looked at thin paneling materials.  Linda got a shield for the bird feeder that is supposed to keep the squirrels from getting to the seed block and I got a recessed outlet that I am considering using for the refrigerator in the bus.  We stopped at the Walmart adjacent to the Lowe’s but did not find the peanut butter filled pretzels we were looking far.  I needed a battery disconnect for the lawn tractor battery but we did not feel like doing anymore shopping today and returned home.

It was late enough in the afternoon that I did not feel like getting the air compressor out and working on the floor of the bus so I went to my office while Linda went for a walk.  I was going to upload a few blog posts but decided to work on an article for Bus Conversion Magazine instead.

I took photographs of two buses at a pair of converted bus gatherings in Quartzite back in January of this year.  Larry and Carol Hall had a very nice GM4106 at the FMCA Western G.M. Coach rally while Byron and Betty Pigg had a gorgeous Model 15 Eagle at the Eagle International converted bus rally.  Larry and Byron are the presidents of their respective groups and the rallies took place at the same time in adjacent sections of the Quartzsite Marketplace dry camp area.  This campground is near the epicenter of RV vendor activities and only a mile from where we were camped.  Gary Hatt, the owner/publisher of BCM, brought his newly acquired Eagle conversion and had his mobile mechanic drive his MC-9 Moose Creek Motor Cabin, which was for sale.  He invited me over so we could finally meet in person, I could meet a few folks, and photograph the buses.  He knew, in particular, that Larry and Byron were interested in having their buses featured in the magazine and figured I could help make that happen.

I had started articles on both buses right after I photographed them and worked on them a bit back in February but I did not get them finished before we had to leave Quartzsite in early March.  Once we pulled up stakes we were on the move and very busy and I did not get back to them before we got home.  Of course, we got even busier once we got home so new articles for BCM were on the back burner with the gas turned off.  But magazines have lead times with deadlines for each issue, and Gary very much wanted to feature both of these buses before 2016 arrived, so I dusted them off and decided to work on the article about the Hall’s GM4106.

Larry had sent me a brief narrative some months ago and I had started filling in the detailed specifications about the bus and conversion.  I had already selected possible photos for the cover and centerfold as well as the article and post processed some, but not all, of them.  I massaged Larry’s narrative, added an introduction of my own, extracted some additional specifications, and then focused my efforts on completing the post-processing of the photos.

I took a break for dinner and afterwards completed the photo processing.  I then started inserting the thumbnail versions of the images into the Word document and writing captions.  There isn’t really any magic to writing an article; it’s just a specific kind of work.  You string words together into sentences, organized by paragraphs, that tell a short story about something interesting and you illustrate it with captioned photos that are hopefully relevant and technically adequate.  It takes time and energy to do this well, however, and I ran out of both around 10 PM.

 

2014/03/07 (F) Housekeeping

The weather forecast for the weekend was near perfect and John and Marian agreed to come back on Saturday (and Sunday, if needed) to help me with some more bus projects.  With Linda returning on Monday, today was the day for doing some housekeeping chores, specifically laundry and shopping.  Sunday evening will be vacuuming carpets and cleaning tile floors.

With the Friday night fire circle starting at 6:30 PM, I got an early start on my chores and work.  I worked on the Cool Cruiser article for BCM in between trips to the resort laundry building.  By 1:00 PM I was on my way to Ocala for cat food, with a stop at the Publix supermarket on US-27 for a few things.  I was back by 3:30 PM and spent the rest of the afternoon working on the article and dealing with e-mails.  I had a nice salad for dinner and at 6:30 PM was off to the fire circle.

There were 12 of us there initially, including John with his guitar.  There are other activities at the resort on Friday nights and the fire circle tends to be smaller and more intimate than on Saturdays.  The high temperature only reached 51 degrees today, so it was cool even with the fire, and got cooler as the evening progressed.  I tended the fire while John played and sang.  The small crowd was especially appreciative of John’s music this evening.  By 10 PM there was only John and Ali and me.  I left them to knock down the fire and turned in for the evening to enjoy some fresh strawberries I had prepared yesterday and upload some blog posts.

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

2014/03/05 (W) Rainy Day Work

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

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

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