Hello from Snow Central (Evergreen

Hello from Snow Central (Evergreen)

Thursday Morning May 13, 2010   (Second travelogue of this trip).

We are back home after our short trip to Iowa for the funeral. 

It rained for most of the first half of the trip home and then again as we got closer to Denver.  Indeed, the rain turned to snow as we got close to the house.  We have over 4 inches of snow on the deck this morning!

It took us about 12 hours to drive home.  We took our time and made some longer than normal stops (one to do some Internet work).  We arrived home last night about 6:30 PM.

Our short time in Iowa was very whirlwind.  We were amazed at how small towns respond to the grieving families.  Some of the families delivered food within a few hours of hearing the news.  The food was abundant!  Folks were very good about delivering the food, saying a quick condolence greeting and then leaving.  They did not overwhelm the family. 

Speaking of family, Joe's family is very large.  We had a family dinner Sunday night and there were over 50 people there.  The minister said a few words and asked for ideas as to what to say the next day at the funeral.  That started an small avalanche of stories.  Everyone was laughing and crying at the same time.

In my last post, I may have given you a slightly distorted picture of Joe.  He was everything I described, but much more.  To say the least, he was a CHARACTER!  He loved life and lived every moment to the max.  You would not be able to pick him out of a crowd, but he was larger than life.  The minister concluded that many of the stories that folks related would not be appropriate for the the service {big grin}.

There were 18 of Joe's cousins (first second and third) that traveled from Denver for the funeral.  That tells you how much our family thought of Joe!

We are off schedule for our travels.  We had planned on leaving for Iowa next Monday for a wedding and then some family travel to Orlando followed by travel to two trade shows.  We will still make the trip, but may not be able to make the wedding.  Part of that depends on how my final testing of the bus goes.  I think I have worked my way through the problems and have a plan. 

I am a little surprised that none of the readers noticed that I posted the wrong month in the text my last post.  Seems anymore I don't know what month it is {grin}.

That is all for now.

Hello from Prescott, IA

Hello from Prescott, IA

Subtitled: We will miss you Joe Holbrook!

Monday Morning May 10, 2010 (First travelogue of this trip).

We had planned to travel to Prescott next week, but those plans got changed last Thursday evening. We received a call that Pat's cousin, Joe Holbrook, passed away quite unexpectedly at age 55. He had had surgery to repair a torn hip muscle. Apparently a blood clot from the surgery caused the death.

We left Evergreen early Friday afternoon after my doctors appointment. We arrive in Prescott at 1:00 AM their time.

Today is the funeral and I will not do well. You see, Joe was a very special person. In a lifetime, a person meets a handful or two of people who are a cut way above any other friend. Joe was one of those people with out question.

Joe was a wonderful husband. He and Cheryl did not have children, but he was a very special friend to every kid he ever met. When we would show up in Iowa with our three girls, Joe would quickly round them up and take them for ice cream. They loved it!!! I suspect there were times that he did not have two nickels to rub together, but he still took them to the ice cream shop. But Joe was much more than that. We went to a family dinner last night (about 50 people) and the out- poring of love was unbelievable. Yes, that happens at other similar times when folks pass away, but it was quite different than that.

Our girls were devastated and immediately made plans to try to be here, in spite of their hectic lives. Two were able to make it, but Judy's family has had some terrible flu going on and they were not able to be here. However, she wrote a wonderful tribute blog (here).

I have searched for a way to describe Joe, and I can't find the right words. I looked up warmhearted in the Merriam-Webster dictionary and it said it was “marked by ready affection, cordiality, generosity, or sympathy”. That certainly described Joe, but there would be a much longer list for him. The term “heart of gold” came up several times last night, but that also fall short. Lets leave it that Joe was a very special person who defied description!

I should also mention that Joe was a very proud Marine. His funeral today will include a Marine ceremony. There will not be a dry eye in the place. He loved his country as much as he loved his family.

WE WILL MISS YOU JOE!

I will continue this travelogue when we again head out to Prescott and then travel to some tradeshows.

That is all for now.

Catching Up.

Monday May 3, 2010

Catching Up.

I have not posted on this blog since April 1.  As I have mentioned several times, this blog was conceived as a travelogue.  We have not traveled since our fateful trip home behind the hook (tow truck).  I thought I would catch up on a few things that have been happening since then.  And for a change, it has been a pretty good month.

First, I have to tell you that we are still having some snow storms.  Over the weekend, the snows in the mountains were huge.  Two of our daughters were traveling in the mountains and had hectic stories to tell.  Daughter Judy and her family were traveling in their new to them motorhome and got into terrible snow on one of our highest passes.  Their story is here. 

Last week we talked to our former German exchange student, whom we keep in fairly close contact with.  She was asking about my analogy of the light at the end of the tunnel as related to some of the trials and tribulations we have been going through.  It was obvious that she was concerned.  I assured her that things were not as bleak as she had thought.  It is always fun to talk with her and catch up on her family  news.

Last week we went to a very sad funeral.  The granddaughter of our good friends died at the age of 34 from cancer.  She was developmentally disabled, but seemed to live a fruitful life based on considerable testimony from her many friends who live in the various community facilities with her.  It really brought home how fortunate we are to have healthy productive children and grandchildren!

Speaking of productive children, we must brag on two of our daughters.  Their books have been published recently.  Kelly has written a great textbook for new teachers.  This book is a continuation of a training class that she presents.  The Amazon link is here.  The ISBN number is:  978-0545167284    .   Daughter Judy has published a children's book  based on her llama business.  The ISBN is:  9780984532308.  It should be on Amazon in the near future.   She has plans to visit disabled children's facilities with one of her llamas with the goal of helping the children cope with life.  Now each of our daughters have been “published”.  Lisa co-authored at least one professional technical paper.

One of our major accomplishments this past few weeks is to establish a new doctor “network”.  As a retiree of Gates, we have to adjust to the changes of their insurance program.  For years we have been in the Kaiser system.  We felt comfortable with their program and our doctors.  This year Gates dropped Kaiser and adopted Anthem.  That meant that we had to find new doctors.  Sounds simple, but that is not the case.  Pat was finally able to find a rheumatologist.  That was getting critical as she had to have her bi-monthly blood tests.  Her rheumatologist recommended a doctor in Conifer (close to our house).  We have appointments this week for our physicals.  Hopefully we will feel comfortable with this new doctor.  My physical will include the paperwork for renewal of my CDL drivers license.  I have an appointment with the eye doctor who did at least one of my eye surgeries (now possible since we are in the new insurance system).  I will need his sign-off on the CDL form because of my sight issues. 

Now to the bus project.  I have been trying to put at least 4 hours most days to get some fairly major projects done.  The timing of these projects affect my ability resolve the transmission control problem.  The major sub-project was to revamp the hydraulic system.  I am adding a large hydraulic fan to cool the charge air cooler.  This has been an ongoing problem since I installed the Series 60 engine in the bus.  When the hydraulic system is finished (hopefully today or tomorrow), I will be able to operate the jacks from the same system.  The jacks will permit me to easily elevate the axles off the ground.  This, in turn, will allow me to place the rear axle on blocks in order to do some preliminary testing in the shop.  That will make the troubleshooting much easier.  I am sure that is paragraph is clear as mud to most folks, but the crazy bus nuts will understand {grin}.

Guess that is all for now.

Reposted with corrections: Hello from Mile Marker 117 South of Colorado Springs

Hello from Mile Marker 117 South of Colorado Springs
Subtitled:  I think the light is a train.

Started Wednesday Morning  March 31, 2010  finished Thursday evening April 1, 2010 (Fifth travelogue of this trip).

The information relating the subtitle will become a bit more obvious as you read through this lengthly post

I am starting this post at a location that was an unplanned stop on this trip.  We are having Internet issues, so I am not sure when we will upload this post.

We decided to stay over Sunday night at the Hollywood Casino so that we could watch several race programs (NASCAR, IRL and NHRA).  Turns out that they were all rained out.  However, we enjoyed the laid back day and the weather was pretty nice.  Monday we drove to Trinidad, CO and stayed at the Wal Mart.  We have stayed there several times as it is a nice driving distance to/from Evergreen.

Yesterday, as we drove through Pueblo, we noted that the transmission did not down shift as we slowed down.  We made it through town OK in tenth gear and then continued on to this rest stop.  I did quite a bit of trouble shooting and determined that the transmission computer had failed.  I had a backup computer, but it was at home.  I have been carrying the replacement parts with us for the past several trips, but in the rush to get on the road for this trip, we left them home.  We were a bit over 100 miles from the house so we decided to unhook the service truck and drive to the house to get the computer.  We left at 12:30 and arrived back about 5:30 after taking a detour to for a stop to get a backup disc from our printer who is going out of business.

I was able to switch the computer and we everything looked OK.   All of the issues I  had seen on the computer reader were gone and the transmission went in gear correctly.  It was getting late, so we decided to stay in the rest stop. 

Well, it is now early afternoon and we made it all the way to MM 116 – all of one mile.  The transmission has gone into limp mode where it will not shift.  I did quite a bit of diagnostic work with my computer reader with the help of the Eaton transmission representative – a great resource.  We are both very puzzled as to what is going on, but we have no alternative but to be towed home.  I do not think this a huge, costly problem.  However, it needs to be addressed at home where I can pick away at the troubleshooting process.

The first tow truck that showed up was big enough (capable of hauling semis), but did not have the reach to hook onto the suspension.  The second  tow truck has been dispatched from Colorado Springs.  Supposedly they have the correct equipment.  I will update this post as we learn more and then try to post it later today.  {note: we got home quite late and had Internet problems (see below), so the actual posting will be delayed.

The new tow truck showed up and had the correct equipment.  It took at least an hour to hook up and pull the axles.  We left for Evergreen about 3:30.  We followed them to the weigh station where the DOT folks made them put on an “oversize load” banner on the back of the bus and the front of the truck (they were 85 feet total length).  That was not a huge issue, since the towing company had the proper approvals.

The trip to Evergreen was quite slow.  We had to take a route that allowed wide turns.  We arrived at the entry to the Highlands about 7:00 PM.  We unhooked there because we still have a lot of snow/mud in the yard and the area we would normally pull into was not available. The trip to our house was quite short which was a good thing since I was locked in second gear and that is about 5 MPH (recall that this is a 10 speed truck transmission).  Besides, I was at least able to show that the bus was still drivable (small grin}.

As if all of that is not enough, we have a major Internet issue.  We use Hughes Satellite for both the bus and the house.  For the past several days we have not been able to connect with the satellite.  We had been told that we had a problem with the satellite controller on the bus.  We accepted that, as it is a fairly complex system and there are lots of things that can go wrong with the software/hardware.  However when we got home, we still could not connect using our fixed dish.  Lots of troubleshooting determined that our modem and/or power supply has gone bad.  We have one on order, but it will be a few days before it gets here.  I have been using the library to do some posting, but that is a real hassle. 

Today we finally decided to get a Verizon Air Card.  This will back up our normal system and give us options for connecting to the Internet when we travel without the bus.  It seems a bit slow here, but we are pretty much off the beaten path for these kinds of services.

Now lets discuss the my reference to the light.  Many of our recent posts discussed the fact that the past several months have been very difficult for us.  I have made reference to being in a tunnel and seeing a light in the distance.  We were not sure if it was daylight or a freight train.  Well, our latest setback suggests that it could be a train {grin}.  We can only hope that things get better.

BTW, Pat commented that I had handled the very stressful bus situation rather well.  We were both pretty stressed, but we took the attitude “what can you do?”.  We can only hope that things get better (they can't get much worse).

That is all for now.  I will update the blog after I figure out what is causing our bus transmission problem. 

Hello from Mile Marker 117 South of Colorado Springs (text deleted)

This post had significant problems due to a file corruption problem.  I have re-posted it with corrections in a new post.

Sorry for the confusion.

Hello again from Algodones, NM

Hello again from Algodones, NM

Saturday Morning March 27, 2010 (Fourth travelogue of this trip).

We wrote our second post of this travelogue from this same location last Saturday. As we noted then, it is a fun, convenient, inexpensive place to stop. We are staying here two nights to wait out a snow storm that is hitting Denver. Besides we need to relax after a rather hectic show!!

The FMCA rally was a mixed bag. For the attendees, it sounded like it was a royal pain. The show was at the fairgrounds, but the camping was at the Balloon Fiesta Park, several miles away. The ran large commercial buses between the two facilities, but that must have been a logistics issue for the folks in the park. On the last day of the rally, there was a rollover crash on I-25 that had traffic virtually shut down. We could really see the impact at the show, as there were very few folks in the vendor area and 3 or 4 ladies missed Pat's craft session (after they had paid for it).

In addition, Albuquerque is over 5000 feet in elevation and the aging membership includes many folks who have health issues at that altitude.

Albuquerque was our first trade show in 2004. It was a disaster for us, as we were not prepared and we were located in the Balloon Park. At the time FMCA said they would not be back. I don't know what changed their mind, but they again held it in mid-March when the weather is really iffy. I think the attendance reflected the lack of enthusiasm for the location by the membership. FMCA always publishes the attendance, but they did not this time. We believe they were quite embarrassed. We have a semi-official count of less than 1700 coaches. That is, by far, the lowest attendance at an “International” rally. Attendance has been declining over the past few years. We attended some of these rallies before we started vending and went to several that were well over 5000 coaches and a few that were over 7000.

In spite of the bad attendance we did OK. We had quite a bit of interest in our fire suppression system and sold a reasonable amount of other product. Probably not enough to pay for the total cost of the trip, but better than many of our shows. It might sound strange that we don't cover the cost of our trips, but our philosophy is that we are “paying our dues”. With our kind of product, people need to build their confidence that we are trusted vendors. We have begun to see a bit of an up-tick in system sales that we attribute to contacts at the shows.

The booth had potential customers in it almost all of the time. Often there were several at one time. That is the good news. The bad news is that we were on our feet on hard concrete for most of the three days of the show. We had to get up before 6:00 each day and often got to bed well after 10:00. Not complaining, as we know the “drill” going into the rally. However this rally was harder on us than most. Hence the need to relax here at the casino.

In the last post we had a link to the map of our location at the fairgrounds. If you look closely, we were a couple of hundred yards from Central Ave. This is the old Route 66. We have talked a great deal about Route 66 in the past. It was a highway that ran from Chicago to LA. It was first planned in 1926 and finished in 1938. It has been immortalized in music, books, movies and TV. One of the best sites for the history of the highway is here.

I would love to quote all of the page cited above, but the following excerpt will give you an idea of some of the compelling content:

“In his famous social commentary, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck proclaimed U. S. Highway 66 the "Mother Road." Steinbeck's classic 1939 novel, combined with the 1940 film recreation of the epic odyssey, served to immortalize Route 66 in the American consciousness.”

We have held off establishing a trade show/travel schedule pending resolution of the bus problems. Now that it appears that we are “back on the road” again, we will be firming up our schedule. The shows and rallies we are looking at are very exciting.

That is all for now.

Hello from Albuquerque, NM

Hello from Albuquerque, NM

Tuesday evening March 23, 2010 (Third travelogue of this trip).

We are currently parked in the vendor dry camp area at the fairgrounds (map). This is the sight of the FMCA International Rally. In the “good old days” these rallies would attract over 7000 motorhomes. In the last few years, that number has dropped to perhaps 2500 motorhomes. It is rumored that there are only 1600 motorhomes here. We will get the official numbers in the next day or two.

When we last posted there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground. By noon, most of it has melted and later in the afternoon, I was able to wash the bus and service truck. Since then the weather has been very nice. However, it is supposed to rain late tonight and most of tomorrow. There is some mention of snow as well.

Sunday we moved from the Hollywood Casino to the fairgrounds. The parking went very smoothly (not always the case). In the afternoon we got most of the work done setting up the booth. Yesterday Pat was at the welcome center selling tickets to her two craft classes (sales were not as good as has been the case in the past). I did quite a bit of running around and a bit of rubber necking of the new motorhomes.

Today was the first day of the rally for vendors. In spite of the reported small attendance, the vendor area was pretty busy. We had a few sales and several good contacts with customers who are interested in our fire detection and suppression system. Pat did the first of her two craft classes. There were 15 people in the class including one man. Tomorrow I will do my seminar and Thursday Pat will have here second seminar.

We have two more days of vending and then we tear down on Thursday evening. We will pull out on Friday and head back to the Hollywood Casino. We will then pace ourselves to miss some storms that are predicted for the Denver area. We do not have to be home at a certain date, so we will make sure we travel in good weather conditions.

Sunday we had dinner with Gary and Karen – great friends. We then went to the Kirkland Air Force base where they are camped in the “Fam Camp” for retired military personnel. They have a beautiful Prevost bus conversion that is new to them. It is an amazing bus!

One of our readers, and best friend, pointed out that I spelled Pat incorrectly in the first post of this trip I spelled it Par. I often spell her name Pay (I think that is a Freudian slip {{{big grin}}}).

That is all for now.