somewhereinUSA out and about

[somewhereinusa]

First 2016 camping.

We went on the first camping trip of the year. It was also our first time at a Hoosier Cruisers Rally. It's an FMCA chapter that meets once a month somewhere in Indiana. Nice group, although most have large class A's with two or three slide outs.
It was held at CERALand in Columbus IN. It's a private campground owned by Cummins and has a very large sports complex with many ball diamonds and soccer fields. There was even a group playing cricket. It's a nice facility, although since it had rained most of the week prior, you didn't dare get off of any gravel surface. Some of the newer parking pads looked a bit soft to me.

Almost all sites are well shaded.



As is typical for spring in Indiana, it was cold and rainy most of the weekend. It did get warm enough to eat outside, mumsywumsy even took off her coat and talked about shorts.



The mini splits work perfect in this kind of weather. Just set them on automatic 68 degrees, and they kept the bus just right whether warm or cool. It did get down to 38 one night.

My son was also there with his MCI.



I generally like my bread toasted. My new induction cooktops don't work well with my old over a burner toaster. I don't like toasting in a skillet. We were prowling around antique shops and found this. Surprisingly good shape for it's age. I remembered that it would turn the bread over when you opened the door, but couldn't remember how. Works pretty slock



We'll be going a lot more this summer, next outing is a square dance weekend campout.

Dick

 

[Tango-SKO]

Excellent Outing! --- Sounds like a great first trip for 2016. And the park looks sweet. Thanks for sharing, will have to add it to my trip list.

 

[Robin97396]

Nice trip.

You know, you can slap a steak in that toaster!

 

[somewhereinusa]

Flxible Rally is almost over, here's a video of the parade in town on Saturday.

Really great rally, there were about 20 old FLXs and about 20 SOBs (some other bus) Pictures later

 

[gbstewart]

that's awesome , thank you for sharing , this inspires ever one to get out and drive there bus,
gbstewart

 

[Tango-SKO]

Sweeeeet! Love the look of the old, rounded Flx's. Thanks!

 

[cadillackid]

I totallty forgot to drive up... im only 90 minutes away is there busses just riding around town today or is everyone pretty much gone?
-Christopher

 

[somewhereinusa]

Look what I found at the Flxible rally flea market.

 

[somewhereinusa]

We went on an overnight to a local state park that is just 10 miles from home. Just to get away. We met my brother there. We only live about 10 miles apart but, rarely get together. It was nice to reminisce about old camping trips with mom and dad.

Dad, Bob and I about 1954



Bob likes to cook over a fire.



On phone before trip Bob asked about food. I said we usually take steaks, he said they would probably just bring hot dogs. We brought hot dogs, they brought steaks.



Mumsywumsy and me.



All had a great time, maybe we'll do it again before another 20 years pass.

Mutt and Jeff, Bob has an 11 foot camper.



Bob said it was nice to use a restroom he didn't clean, he and his wife clean restrooms at a big campground.

Dick

 

[plfking]

I like your pup. Well-behaved, but waiting attentively to help clean up any 'litter' the instant it hits the ground.

 

[ol trunt]

Looks like fun, MMMMMMMMM, steaks cooked outside! I'm jealous. We probably won't get out again until after Aug 20 as that is the "Grand Opening" of wifey's (and 14 of her best buddies) art co-operative studio at the local marina. July and the first 2/3 of Aug are being spent building out the studio and although things busly are taking a back seat, it pleases me to see her enjoying the project----still jealous though. Jack

 

[somewhereinusa]

Bus rally

We traveled to Michigan a couple of weeks ago to a bus rally hosted jointly by CCO (Converted Coach Owners) and GLCC (Great Lakes Converted Coaches). It was held in a firemans park and we had the place all to ourselves. It is very near Frankenmuth, MI where the worlds largest Christmas store is located. This is a very old rally and one of the members has wired the park so that everyone gets 20A service. (they used to do it with extensions cords) Thanks Marty.

We went a day early to visit the Christmas store and walk around Frankenmuth which is a very old Bavarian community. Was told later by a very upset mumsywumsy that we didn't stay long enough to see all she wanted, who knew, I thought she was ready to go back.

There is always a lot of activity at these rallys with repair manuals, diagrams, voltmeters, heads stuck in various access doors. The guy I got my cruise control plans from helped me sort out my stupid mistake. It's nice to see how others have done things and get more ideas.

One of the members had a glider equipped with a camera, here is a picture captured from a video he took. It was very windy that day and he couldn't get much altitude.



There were 20 buses and 6 motorhomes (they used to have buses). This picture was taken Sunday AM and three of the Prevosts had already left. There were, I think, 6 Prevosts, 2 Eagles, 1 Fishbowl, 1 Buffalo, 4 MCIs, a couple GMs, and 1 school bus. Four were from Canada

On Sat miltruckman stopped by, he lives real close, but had air tanks off of his bus and couldn't bring it.

Great Lakes Converted Coaches is a FMCA chapter consisting of members who own or want to own a converted coach (bus) in the Great Lakes Area. CCO is not a FMCA chapter and originally you had to have a diy bus, no store boughts. However, since membership is dwindling, you don't even have to have a bus, just have a love of things bus.

Dick

 

[cadillackid]

rallies like that are more my speed than a skoolie thing where im rewuired to sleep in a tent or boondocked.. I wouldve loved to have gone to michigsn... are these rallies generally friendly to those whose busses are still alot like busses? up there I couldve easily had a hotel room and then enjoyed meeting the people duriong the day.. while partsking of my other hobby which is extreme christmas decoarating.. and enjoying the nice bus ride up and back... as everyone knows I love driving my bus..

I could so driver from rally to rally snd have fun... since my work is anywhere i can continue to get my work done .. (my bus is my work lab)..

would love to find out more about these and where and how to attend them.. whuch ones are friendly to partially or nearly stock conversions...

sharing ideas, meeting people, and looking at busses is a dream for a bus geek like me...

-Christopher

 

[somewhereinusa]

Just got home

We just got home. 983 miles round trip. The bus performed flawlessly, Steepest mountains I've done in it so far. Topped Jellico at 52 mph, engine temp 220 at 91 degree ambient. Trans temp never got above 250 taken at torque converter. Average fuel mileage 7.5 in the mountains.
We were camped with no shade in 95 deg temps mini splits kept mumsywumsy comfortable which means I wore a flannel shirt. We were there for the solar eclipse and it was AWESOME.

Here's a couple of pictures.

 

[somewhereinusa]

BusBoys Rally

It's only 11 days until the Bus Boys rally in Hibbing, MN. We're leaving in 8 days. The Greyhound museum is in Hibbing, it's where Greyhound started.
Rally Schedule in Hibbing, Minnesota

Anyone else going?

This will be our longest trip, it's hard to get mumsywumsy very far away from home. We have all but one night scheduled with Boondockers Welcome so, all nights but one so far are free. Still looking for something on US24 in IL between IN state line and El Paso, IL. Gotta have at least 15 A electric, mumsywumsy refuses to sleep without AC.

 

[somewhereinusa]

Not sure if this is really a camping picture. It WAS taken while we were at a campground. I found it while looking for things for the operators manual I'm working on. Just thought it was a cool picture.

Just a reminder of things to come. I'm just hibernating today and tomorrow. We're supposed to have a high of -10° tomorrow.