Monday, September 26, 2011

Traveling in Our GMC Motorhome

Grabbed the GMC from the paint shop in Topeka, In. and hit the geocaching trail.

I love squeezing the GMC and car into these little graveyards. Teri is always squeemish. Guess she is afraid I will run over a grave or something.

Check out the scooters. These were double priced but looked good. Going to pick up one of these small ones when I run onto a deal. Saw one yesterday for 325 on the side of the road but we were in the coach heading to church, and it was raining. They go for about 300 used.

Burnettsville, In. had a special day Saturday. Teri and the girls did a 5k walk. I hung around the car show.

This was slick.

So was this one. I love the painted bumpers.

Ok, what year do you think this one is? I won't even ask you to name it.

Had a good visit with the Mustang owner. He is like me in that he has had this car since he was a kid.

1950. Lots of attention paid to detail on this baby. Older restoration.

48 2 door sedan.

Look at these.

They both looked brand new.

On the road Sunday after church. We took a lot of 2 lanes. I love the backroads. We were in the rain almost all the way home. After crossing the Wabash over into Illinois, I got tired of the detours for new bridges and all of the water puddled in the low spots. We jumped on 64 over to 57 and arrived home at 9 pm.

Grabbed a cache early this morning right down the street from our home. Teri and I now have help hiding caches around here.

Had to wash the GMC and the bug. The GMC was really dirty after the 550 mile run home in the rain.

Grabbed 2 of my buddies and off to the drug store we went. I am on a diet so had to sneak a lick from Marci Claire.

Ran down to the spring for some fresh water.

Rylan found his first geocache today. He was excited. On Wed. he will be 5. We are "tight".

Teri's birthday dinner at our daughter's tonight.

I loved this part.
How does a guy know when he is slipping? Well, yesterday at church I looked for the bathroom. Found it and made sure it said men. Got in there and a lady was coming out of the stall. Wow. Did not take me long to exit. Looked at the sign again it did say men but had "wo" in front of it.  Oh well, everyone involved was laughing so I was not arrested.
Good to have the GMC back home. They did a good job with the roof painting. I knew they would.
Thanks for checking in.
Dan

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Cloudy Saturday In Rural North Indiana.

Can't get any pictures up. Verizon is not much up here. Neither is ATT, so I don't know what type of cell service is local to Logansport. I do know I am piggybacking from some kind of cell service and it is super slow.
Will head home tomorrow from Kokomo, In. We are taking the back roads and will cross the Wabash north of Evansville and down to the Ohio, near Cairo. We enjoy the slower pace and looking at the small towns as we pass through in our motorhome. Will have to cross the Mississippi on I-57 and then head on in the last 40 miles on 4 lanes.
So, stay tuned. Once we arrive home we will get some photos of our trip posted. Been 2 months since the GMC left home. It has a nice shiny roof again and is a happy camper.
The tracker will be running, WD0AFQ, so ride along if you can. We will leave Logansport at 830 am then leave Kokomo by noon. We are looking forward to the drive as a lot of US history was made in Southern Indiana and Illinois. Got a little geocaching in yesterday and may get some in tomorrow, depending on the weather and time.
Dan

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Rolling In The Morning

Oh yes, life is good. Our friend, Larry, emailed me this morning. He said our GMC is finished. We dropped it off at Topeka Graphics last week. The clearcoat was peeling from the roof. He took the paint off, repainted it and did the propper clearcoating. There were some problems from when we had the painter paint it back in 06. Larry did not paint it but was eager to take care of it for us. He is great. This is who painted the vdub to match the GMC.
Oh, check this one out. The grandkids came by to see us before we leave. We always have fun. Little Larsyn is a handful. Getting ready to wal and he is all over the place. He sees is bothers and sister drinking from granpa's cup and has to do the same. I knew they were coming so it was full of nice cold spring water tonight, just for him.
Ride with us if you can. The tracker will be running, WD0AFQ-1.
Catch you in Indiana.
Dan

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Dexter, Missouri Geocaching

After Teri went to bed last night I was checking the geocache site. To my surprise I find new caches here in Dexter. They were placed while we were away in the coach. It is nice to have help in our community to hide more caches.

Teri grabbed this cache where these playground things are in a park, just east of our home. Our daughter takes our grandkids here often.

Nice little hide. It lives with the squirrels. Hope they don't chew it up. I ran one out to get this one. It's in another park where our grandkids play. Also, I played here as a child, 50 years ago.

Next, we headed over to the east side of Dexter. The grandkids play ball in this park. There are two caches placed here.

If you look close the cache can be seen hiding behind the pole. The carnival folks are moving in for the fair next week. We got lucky and no one was in their campers when we took this one.
We have a small park just west of our home. Boone Park. Today I started gathering coords to place one there. I think it will be cool to have a cache so close to our home. Will gain permission and place the cache next week before we leave town again.
I wanted to take some of our grandchildren with us today but none were available. So, I had a date with my gal.
Our community is taking off with cachers. There was a newspaper article last month talking about geocaching. They mentioned 3 of our caches in the article. No one knows who we are. Kinda cool. When we place the one in Boone Park I will tell them the owner lives several months in the black and silver GMC parked just up the street.
Life is good. Hope you are enjoying it.
Dan

Friday, September 16, 2011

Gimmy The Traveling GMC, Geocahing

Thursday morning we had to get up and roll early. We took the GMC to Topeka Graphics and left it. The clear coat is peeling from the roof. Larry did not paint our coach, painted our Vdub, but said he would fix it. The plan was for us to get there around 8 am and for me to pull all of the solar panels from the roof. Larry does not know how much I appreciated him when he said I will take care of those panels, yall hit the road. 520 miles we had to get home. The real problem was I had broken a rib at the convention and could barely move. I could have hugged his neck. Never even mentioned to him that I was in serious pain.

We have to get Gimmy in a cache. Our plan was to do this after the Patterson Convention and see if he could get to Goshen. The flooding hindered our plans. So, We struck out to the western side of Indiana to be near an interstate. What we found was a remote spot 2 miles from I-65 with a great cache to put him in. I hope he is found and moved toward Shawnee.

This cache has a lock on it. It is not readily identifiable and is on the side of a rural bridge, just west of Hebron, In, 2 miles. I will get the tracking number and post it so folks can put him on their watch list. This will be interesting. Teri took Gimmy from my Hotwheels collection so I have invested deeply in this guy, ha.

A little more geocaching and we are on I-57 headed to Missouri.
Tuesday night I was under our GMC working on the exhaust. I felt the rib snap but was hoping I was wrong. I have broken ribs twice before so I know what a broken rib is. Well, it is snapped. I am in considerable pain so we were in a hurry to get to my doctor. Called him at 35 miles out and he was gone. No work on Friday so I was stuck. No sleep Thurs. I will find someone to get me some relief today if I have to rob the pharmacy, just joking.
What a convention we had. We hope that folks enjoyed the photos. I know how I used to enjoy Arch's photos when I was working and he was at the conventions. I would run home from my office during the day to see what new pictures he had put up. He is unable to attend now due to health so I am trying to keep the pictures up. I know how much it meant to me. Sometimes I don't have time to post names but I do it when I can. Totally unbelievable what I learn at these conventions. Jim K. has blessed me by letting me help with his stuff for sale at the conventions. If I was not courteous the last few days realize I was in pain. I apologize if I was "short" with anyone and will make it up to you in Shawnee.
So, I gotta run now and find a doctor. Catch you again when I feel better.
Dan

UPDATE!!!
Here is the tracking number for the GMC trying to get to Shawnee, Ok.
TB40Q74
Zero, not a capitol o.
Oh, I got in to see a doctor today. The rib is not broken but pulled loose from the cartlidge. Still hurts but I got some pain medicine.
Have a great weekend,
Dan

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Racing The GMC Motorhome

When I was a kid, I wondered what the older folks did for fun. I wonder no more.

These coaches are fast. We even hold the land speed record for motorhomes on the Salt Flats. Don't believe me, look it up. Why do you think our coaches are called "Hotrods With Plumbing"?

Well, we can race our coaches at these conventions so we race wooden models, just like the Boy Scouts.

Ken B. getting his ready. He was one of the fastest tonight.

Jim K, who takes this very seriously.

Check out the Mini Cooper inside this coach. Randy actually has a GMC that he rebuilt to haul one of his Mini Coopers.

Everyone's favorite, Bobby Brown.

Teri is pretty serious about this stuff too. I grabbed these shots of her for our grandkids.

She has to have it sitting just right before she will get down.

See how close she eyeballs it.

We have some real builders on the team.

Another detailed coach.

And, the crowd goes wild.
The GMC Motorhome people know how to have good clean fun. These conventions are great. I believe we had 166 registered at this convention. That is a good crowd considering the fuel prices. Tomorrow is our last full day.
 Teri and I are taking our coach over to Topeka Graphics to have the roof worked on. Our clear coat is coming off and I want it fixed. Larry set an appointment for us about a month ago, when we were there. Will leave from there, in the car, and head home Thursday. The following Friday we will drive back up, 500 miles, and pick it up.
I hope you enjoyed seeing just a little of the fun we all had tonight.
Dan

Sunday, September 11, 2011

GMC Motorhomes and More Fun

Teri and I jumped out early this morning and headed to church. Look what we found on the way.

Was able to run down my dad's first cousin and sat behind her and her husband in services. I suspect it has been over 40 years since we have seen each other. I enjoy tracking down kinfolk.

As soon as we got back Teri started helping folks with the geocaching again. We have some children at most events. These were already geocachers. I enjoyed watching folks all afternoon with their gps units looking for the 35 or so caches that Teri has hidden on the grounds.

Here are our experts for today's panel. This is always one of my very favorite sessions at the conventions.

Everyone's friend, Ken B. He is one great guy to know. Always willing to help anyone with a need.

Check out some of the coaches.

Friends enjoying friends.

Coaches stacked everywhere.

We had 140 coaches signed up. I think the count tonight is 165. This is great. Lots of locals found out we are here and came to be with us.

Around every corner of this facility we have coaches lined up.

The guy standing up with his back to us always gives me fits. I love Bob Paterson. One nice guy. After I snapped the shot he ran me off.

This looks like original paint and it really shines.



More friends enjoying each other.

Coaches are everywhere.

The more the merrier.

As I have said before, the GMC coach is how most all of us met. Soon we forget the coaches and want to visit with our friends and find out how their families are. I suspect there are few clubs that get along as well as GMC clubs. Life is good.
I am in a hurry as they are serving strawberries. I don't use spell check so there are probably some gramar errors. Overlook them tonight. I don't have time to proof.
Gone,
Dan