The Rally in Tally!

I'll start this entry off with a disclaimer, if I met ya and forget to mention you in this entry, it wasn't intentional as we were in meet people overload for the time we were there :)

The backstory:   GMC Motorhomes International is a group of mostly GMC owners that have been getting together since the 1980s when the coaches were still pretty young.  In any event they have two big rallies or conventions a year and this year's spring one was in easy striking distance in Tallahassee, FL.   I took a couple of vacation days and it worked out with Naya's school spring break so we were a go.

As you probably saw in the last entry, we had some fresh repairs of the ball joint, a bent bogie arm from our eclipse trip, and a few bushings in the front end needed fixing.   Got all that done and got my sister to drive me out to Okeechobee to pick it up a couple Saturdays ago.  I thought about a quick entry in the blog, but figured I'd just mention it here.   Uneventful although as my sis lives off 441 in Lake Worth, we took that and the old US 98 diagonal (now a state road as they moved 98 and 441 onto a divided highway about 10-15 years ago).  It's a nice ride through the sugar cane with little traffic.

The Rally ran from Friday through the following Wednesday, but I couldn't take that much time off of work right now and with Lucy's classes and Naya's school we made the most of the 3 days we had.   We packed up and rolled out on Thursday afternoon around 4:45PM and made it to Chilligan's Island (what my buddy Seacliff calls his backyard bar) by 8:30PM.  Food and drinks were consumed and we had a nice evening.   As he had to work the next morning and we were less than halfway, we had an 8AM departure scheduled.   I woke up before my 6:45 alarm and got up.  Around 7:15 I ventured outside and saw the first of two problems....the driver's rear tire was flat as it could be.   I freaked as we were blocking Seacliff's car in, so I had oh 45 min to solve this issue.....   I sprung into action grapping the air compressor and the extension cord and getting it hooked up. 

I had never used it to pump up the tires, only the airbags.  I found with the holes in the wheel were so small I couldn't get the inflator chuck to lock down.   I finally figured out to run it through the wheel one hole over and bring it in sideways.   I took about 20 min at least to pump it up.

I actually had to turn it off for 10 min to let the compressor cool off.  Before I even got that far, I saw another problem I couldn't immediately address (or so I thought).   I mentioned the bent bogie arm.  How I found out it was bent, was I wore out one of the new tires at 5000 miles on the outside.  As it wasn't a show stopper, at the time I threw the old spare on there as it had 99% tread, but was due to age out.   Running a 100 miles at a time, I wasn''t super worried about it as the sidewalls looked good and when I put it on it was only 6 years old.   Well now the bogie was fixed and the tire still looked good by was 7.5 and with another brand new 2 yr old spare, I decided to flip them for the ride to Tally (440 mi one way). 

So prior to leaving I took care of that.  This wheel was so snug I had to use a pry bar to get it to come off.  I'm assuming I loosened the dust cap in the process as, you guessed it, it was gone Friday morning in Lakeland.  At the time I was concentrating on the flat so I didn't notice that the bearing and race were exposed.   

I got the tire pumped up and we weighed anchor right on time at 7:55 AM heading to a local tire shop 2 miles away.  Got there easy enough and they were very gracious and got us sorted out in 30 min or so.

I couldn't see it before we moved but the offender was pretty obvious in the tire.

3.5 inch long piece of steel we picked up (probably on Hwy 60).  Looked like the steel they use in a grid they put down and pour concrete over.

Took a minute to check on things while they were easy to get to.  All systems looked good ( the white spots on the drum are aluminum polish as I did a quick and dirty with a powerball on the rims before we left).

Levy Tire in downtown Lakeland.  Give them your business, they were fast, friendly, and had a collection of Highwayman art in the lobby. I should have taken some pics, there were some nice ones!

The Stuffy Patrol of Molly, Tommy, and Hugo were keeping an eye on the guys in the tire shop.  Of course Lucy waited until we were ready to leave to decide to go to the bathroom.....

Back on the road we rolled north through the Green Swamp on 471 and hit I-75.  20 miles of that and off on US 27 for the rest of the ride to Tally.  I prefer staying off the interstates in the coach when possible as with the coach going slower, it really doesn't take a whole lot longer if at all.

We took the ride pretty leisurely and rolled into Tally around 2:15PM.  I added it up and figured it would take us 8.5 hours on Monday on the way back.  I did it in 7.25hrs (partly as I got caught up in fast traffic through Orlando on the turnpike and my GPS said I hit 85).

We got checked in and hooked up....

You can see Naya setting up the table.  I opted for the pop up out front vs. the side as to be more sociable and not crowd out neighbors.  We parked tight because we were asked and also,  there was one pedestal of power for each 4 coaches..  Our spot was nice as we had partial shade from a big oak for most of the day.  I was surprised a bit as the coaches were spread all over the place so it didn't look very crowded, but there were 140 attendees (although I don't know the total coach count but it was over 50).

Once we were all settled in, I fixed the flat on Naya's bike tire and we headed over to the main hall to check things out.   There were vendor tables, and merch booth, popcorn, a puzzle table, and few other things going on.  At 5PM there was the official welcome meeting and most everyone was there already.  They had a catered BBQ dinner which was really good.   Afterwards we headed back over to the coaches, made a drink and made the rounds meeting some new and interesting folks from all over.

There were people from California, the Netherlands (they left their coach at home), Canada, and all points in between.  I was amazed at the diversity and honestly it was too much to drink in all at once....

Normally, I slam everything into one very long winded post, but I'll stop here and let you enjoy it.  I will add Days 2, 3, and 4 in the next couple of days.....


Happy motoring!

Another Kissimmee Prairie Post - now with drama!

2019 Started off with a BANG.   Literally.  I got rear ended in my wagon on New Year's Eve afternoon.   60 MPH and no brakes.  My baby, my project of 3 years of nights and weekends, gone in a the blink of an eye. 

Short version is I was minding my own business at a traffic light and she decided not to slow down at all and jut run into the back of me.  If you are interested there is a write up about it here:  RIP Jade

So the next day my AC in the house takes a powder after 25 years (no complaints, got my money's worth).  Luckily a cold front went through the next day and it cooled off.  Lucky for us it stayed cool for the next 6 weeks.  Only in the middle of Feb did it warm up and I bit the bullet and got a new one installed.

I looked forward on the calendar to Feb and the weekend before my birthday was open at the Prairie so I booked it.  Seems the days of a reservation a week or two in advance are gone as the word has gotten out about the park.

Got out of town on Friday pretty well as I worked a full day Friday.  I just wanted to beat rush hour through West Palm Beach and did.  The 2 hr ride to the park was uneventful and the girls (my daughter and her friend) put away their phones without me having to ask (Once on the Beeline and getting out of town, I have made it a requirement to put them down and look out the windows).

It was dark by the time we got to the park but the gate was still open, so I felt good about that (I had the code) so I wasn't too late.   I did notice that the gravel road was pretty rough, so it was slow going the last couple of miles to our spot.

Friday night was hamburgers the girls made while I whipped up a fire to cook them on.  We finished eating around 9 and they said they were going to go lay in the field and look at the stars.  I didn't bring the telescope as the moon was still 85% full (very bright).   I washed the dinner dishes and headed toward the field with 5 min before moonrise.   Halfway there I encountered the girls on their way back.  I lobbied them to come watch the moon rise, but they said their were mosquitos and headed back to the coach. 

It was a beautiful moonrise and by walking 10 extra steps I got in a breeze and their were no bugs.   I watched it for about 15 min and headed back to the coach.   Both of the girls had passed out on the gaucho and it was only 10pm.  I started reading the book I brought and went to bed about an hour later.

Saturday morning I woke up not too early and got outside around 7:30.  Went for an early bike ride as the girls were obviously sleep deprived and out cold.....   I rode over toward the ranger station and saw alot of spider webs covered with dew

I also saw a rafter of turkeys (a rafter is what you call a bunch of turkeys).  There was one Tom who was strutting his stuff impressing all the lady turkeys.

I watched them for about 15 min or so and then headed back to the campsite and rousted the girls.  Finally got them up with the smell of bacon cooking.   Made pancakes as well and showed them a trail map and announced we were going on a hike after breakfast.  We had an interesting visitor to breakfast:

Naya selected the 5 mile hike which I've done that whole trip in two different trips as it was a triangle.  2.5 out to the primitive campsite, .7 up to the Military Trail (pre WWII trail) and then straight back to the camp site.  We set out at 10:45  with only 1 1/2 liter water bottle.   I had pre loaded with water after the pancakes and it was pretty warm in the mid 80s....

The first part of the walk went through 3 hammocks so we had some shade

But the in between the hammock parts, there is nowhere to hide from the sun on the prairie

It was pretty brutal even for February (I cant imagine how hot it is in August), and the girls scarfed up the water by the halfway point.  We hung out in the shade and there was a good breeze blowing from the South (front was coming the next day).   The second half of the walk had virtually no shade for the last hour.  We ran across various animal tracks and saw a couple of cool birds at the last hammock

On the home stretch I saw some butterflies and had the girls try and take some pics.   They were hard to get in focus as the flitted about.....

The hike back from this point was very straight and forward ha ha 

The campsite is about half a mile past that tree line.  We found out the next day that the tree line is sort of man made.  A drainage ditch was dug and the trees grew up around it.

Back at the campsite it was time to relax.  I made a sammich and settled in for a relaxing afternoon

with a book

The girls grabbed a sheet and headed out into the pasture by the horse paddocks, where there is a nice shade tree and I had a few hours to myself. The hike of 4.8 miles took just over 2 hours in the midday sun.  Probably would have been 1.75 hours without the stops, but we had a good time and girls while all hot and tired, took it in stride pretty well.  

Lucy showed up and there was a beautiful sunset.

With nature's display over for the day, it was time to start cooking.   Many years of field research have shown kabobs to be one of the easiest campfire meals as the meat is in small easily cookable chunks and you can rotate them around to achieve even cooking on a campfire.

Also the mini potatoes cook fairly well and quick (in the foil).   You may notice their is a ton of pineapple on these.  There was.  It was a whole pineapple and was 2x the chicken chunks.  We ate it all.  The moon came up later and I made everyone stay up to see it.

The next morning was foggy and we got up early to do the buggy ride.   It's a 2.5 hour ride and we covered a lot of the same ground we had hiked the day before.

The ranger was super informative and even though I've done the buggy ride at least 5 times before learned something new.   Below is what healthy prairie looks like a year after a burn.

We also saw some areas where the burn was a little more recent

Until I started coming to the park, I had never heard of the Crested Cara Cara.  It is a bird of prey and is only in a small area of inland FL peninsula surrounding the Kissimmee River.  It is also found in Mexico and Central America.  It is thought that at least a breeding pair were carried to FL in a hurricane and took up residence...  They pair up and are beautiful birds

Even though it is the dry season the prairie can be pretty wet.   A few years ago I biked this path with my son.  The water was about 3 ft deep.

These little guys were about a year apart from the little one to the bigger ones.   Kinda unusual to see them mixed like that, but there were congregated into this little seasonal pond.  

As I had some things to do at home, after the buggy ride, it was pretty much pull up stakes and book it out of the park.  While I went to dump the sewage, Lucy took the girls up to the spot where there are always birds and gators to take some pics.

Red Shoulder Hawk

Tri Color Heron

Wally Gator

Some kind of grasshopper

 As soon as I finished up dumping and headed down the washboard road I knew something was wrong with the suspension/steering.  Sure it's washboard but I felt something was off.  As I idled down the the road taking it easy, Naya shot some cool pics showing the Pineapple in stalking mode...

I stopped and picked the girls up so they didn't have to ride in the T-bird....or so we thought..

It's a couple miles out of the park on washboard.   Then about another 6 to a county road.  Something still felt funny and I was going really slow.  I pulled over just before US 98 and climbed underneath and checked everything.  I didn't find any parts falling off and a tug here and there didn't show anything super obvious......So I continued on.  On the US hwy it felt better but not great.   I tried calling a contact to try and get ahold of Jeff Sirum from Sirum's GMC in Okeechobee as I was driving right by there.  They specialize in these 45 year old machines but are closed on Sundays.

Anyway as luck would have it and I'm thankful.  About a mile from his shop, I see a GMC about 1/4 mile ahead of me in traffic.  Sure enough it turns into the driveway of the shop.  I pull in right behind him and he's not even out of the coach to unlock the gate yet.   It's one of the employees and is bringing his coach back after the weekend.   As Lucy brought the T-bird up on Saturday she is behind me.  I talk to him, explain the situation and we leave the coach and keys at the shop.  It's about 90 miles from my front door to the shop and I'm glad I'm not blasting down a busy 2 lane road at 60 with a questionable front end.

It takes us a few minutes to empty out the food and clothes and we are on our way again...Turns out that I drove about 30 miles on a broken ball joint.  The main stud was okay, but the bolts that set the joint, two had broken off so it was floating in its socket.   I haven't gotten it back (this Sat) but she's all fixed up and ready for Tallahassee.