Rally in Tally Days 3 and 4

Sunday morning started out with run over to the hall for breakfast.  Waffles, coffee and a french cruller made for a tasty breakfast.  I probably had one or two too many the night before and felt just a tad fuzzy on the corners, but the coffee took care of that. 

As most of you know, Lucy and I also teach martial arts and have been doing so for a while.  We teach primarily to give back to the community and help people grow as individuals.  When registering for the convention, the organizers put out a call for anyone who wanted to teach a non technical session (ie. not GMC related).  I volunteered Lucy and myself (and Naya to help too), to teach a self-awareness and self-defense seminar.   About a decade ago when our dojo was on FAU campus in Boca Raton, FL, we would do a similar seminar for the students of the university (mostly young girls would come).  We knew this demographic would be quite different than what we were used to as many of the attendees are retired people who are a bit older. 

In any event we had our class Sunday morning after breakfast and had 36 people show up.   It was more than we were expecting and the class we designed worked well for the 90 minutes we had.  Afterwards, several attendees were quite gracious saying that we had given them things to think about that they never had before so that was nice to know we possibly helped some folks recognize dangerous situations and avoid them.   We were too busy teaching to take any photos, although I did see a few taken so maybe they will pop up online.

On Friday when we arrived, I put the pop-up tent in front of the GMC and had Naya put out the chairs and table.  Well she set it up like a desk which gave me an idea for Lucy...

It reminded me of the booth in the Peanuts strip.  I actually was asked 3 times where the coffee can was to put the nickel in..

It was good for a few laughs.

Afterwards, we checked out some more of the vendors offerings and spoke to some others and had a nice lunch.   At 3PM it was open house.  About 25 coach owners opened their doors and let folks inside to check out their coaches.   We didn't as we wanted to look around for ideas.   Unfortunately neither one of us thought to bring a camera so, we didn't get any pictures, but we did see a number of beautiful coaches from true survivors to totally redone modern takes as well as some out of the box remodels.  

Sunday was dinner on our own and we grilled up some steaks that were delicious and then cruised around an met up with others.  This night seemed to be alot more social than some of the others (of course we bailed the night before to see the band).   I had already started breaking our camp by packing away the pop-up and the bikes.  After dinner I put away the table and chairs to facilitate an easy exit.

We turned in around 11PM as I wanted to be on the road before 9AM.

Day 4:

Up early for breakfast, was done eating by 8AM.  Said a few goodbyes to old and new friends.  By the time I got back to the coach by 8:15, one of our neighbors was gone already and another packing up.  I pulled her out and headed to the dump station before getting on the road.  There was another coach in front, but they were quick.  I pulled back up by the hall and we made a pitstop prior to leaving.   We ended up pulling out around 9:40 AM and headed SE. 

Like Friday the trip down US 27 was easy and enjoyable.  About 90 min in I stopped somewhere not far from Perry.   They guy at the next pump really liked out Scooby Doo Mystery Machine.  We kept heading down to Ocala and got on I-75.   As there is only one easy way through Orlando, we took the turnpike from I-75 to Kissimmee and got off.  We gassed up again and made the run east on US192 and then south on US 441 all the way to Okeechobee where we hit 'rush hour'

This train was switching onto a siding and held up traffic for about 10 min right on 441.

Prior to hitting town I demanded a photo of a black and white cow next to the fence with an egret on its back.  I got about 10 shots and this was fairly close to the ask...so I was happy.   It was a random thing I thought of.  Apparently it's hard to get this show at 65 mph.

Here is Molly checking out Okeechobee, FL on FL 70 heading toward Sirum's GMC.   We actually passed the shop around 4:30PM so we were making good time.   In fact we were able to get right in the thick of 5PM traffic through WPB so it took an extra 15 minutes to get home. 

The Intergalactic Space Pineapple made it back to Space Dock in one piece with a weary crew....Mission Accomplished!

Rally in Tally Day 2

With an afternoon under our belt and getting all situated, day 2 started with me making a solo run to breakfast.   I got there and say they had Hot Waffles, so texted back to the troops and in 5 min my daughter got up and was over there, lol.   This being our first rally, we had the newbie tags on, so people made it a point to meet us which was nice.   After breakfast, I attended a seminar about RV fire safety which was informative.  I lasted about 90 minutes, then I went back to the main hall and looked through the merch booths. 

As mentioned in the last post, I discovered that I had lost a dust cap.  At the time  in Lakeland, I didn't fret too much as I didn't notice that the actual bearing was exposed and that I drove 250 miles on it....It didn't even occur to me to look for one as I figured my best bet would be to find one at the Rally.    As is turns out the GMC on the rear wheels at least, has two dust caps.  An outer and an inner.  I will assume that the inner one was already missing, but at the time I only thought there was one. 

In any event, I asked around to the various vendors and on one had one with them. I then proceeded to check around with all the 'Garage Sales' that were going on.  Seemed everyone did have one, albeit not with them.   I must have knocked mine loose when I swapped tires before the trip.  As time went on during the weekend, Mike from Vero lent me one of his outer ones as he had an inner (and could get another outer the next week.   We tried to order one from O'Reilly's once we looked up the part number.   The closest one was.....you guessed it, Lakeland!   So we got some grease and packed that puppy up and tapped the cap on.  Problem solved for the moment.

I took a walk around and saw a few really nice looking coaches....

 Wide angle view from just in front of our coach.

 The owner was from Ft. Myers I believe.  He has a 59 Ford hardtop convertible the same turquoise color.   This one was nice inside too.

 Tailgating Machine here.  Owner was a big time fan and did the coach up nicely.

One of five or nine built (depending on who you talk to), the Coca Cola Gadabout was built in 1977 and 5 were given away in a sweepstakes.  A few more were built for bottlers, hence the variation in number built...  I got a quick peek inside on Sunday during the open house, but when I came back with Lucy half and hour later, it was locked up.   From what I saw it looked all original inside but was probably refreshed.   LOTS of red and white lol.  They were pulling a sea plane ultra light on the trailer.  VERY cool rig.

This 23 is the 'sister' to our Pineapple.   It was the first GMC to be powered by an Oldsmobile 350.  Ours is the second.   This one has 4.10 gears so it's alot quicker off the line.  As you can see it has a full air ride suspension and is painted with Rhino Liner.   There is an AC that is fitted in the coach but they managed to strip all the extra off the outside and tuck the bumpers for a sleek look.   It's a total hot rod GMC.  I love it.

 I just liked how clean this one presented on the outside, Nicely done upgrades

 RUn of the mill Palm Beach.  This was probably one of the most popular looks when they were new.  Most of the ones I recall as a kid looked like this one.  Nice green plaid interior and shag carpet too!

 With a matching painted 'Towed' or Toad, This one in my mind invoked the Stripes paint scheme a bit.

 Another Super Clean looking machine....

 The coach on the left is owned by a really nice couple from the Chesapeake Bay area.  It was very nice inside, and the owners were really nice.   Hope to see them again soon.   You may see the Cruise America rental in the back.  One of the GMC owners couldn't get their coach to the convention so they rented a SOB (Some Other Brand) in order to make the convention.  There were a couple of them there.

 Here we have "The Beast"   It is an eight foot stretch on a 26' so it's 34' long.  Owned by Paul and his partner, it houses a bowling alley and skating rink.  Honestly though, the inside of it seems loooooong!  It is really well put together and is amazing to see going down the road.   Paul was the one who saved my rear end a month ago as I happened upon him returning the coach to Sirum's GMC  in Okeechobee, FL a couple weeks ago.

 Another turquoise one.  There were a couple and the late 50s colors seem to work well on these coaches.

 I just love the paint on this one.   Simple, clean, and looks good.  Notice another SOB behind it.

More coaches. I think these were the GMCMI folks as they looked like they got there before everyone else as they were in a different area.

Saturday evening was rolling up fast and I had been very please to find out my friends from The Inoxicators!  had a gig at the WaterWorks in town (they live in Tally, so an easy night for them).  For me it was a BIG treat as it was a double bill with The Disasternauts  a quasi famous Surf Chimp Band!  We met some friends up there and also took one of the GMC faithful with us.   It turned out to be a great evening. 

We Ubered up there and watched the Intoxicatiors! rip through a great set.

 After a short break, the Disasternauts took the stage and the place went bananas!

 All they needed was a guy in a banana suit up there dancing with them.

 Lucy monkeying around with the lead chimp

Apparently monkey's like flashy lights.....

We got back to the fairgrounds fairly early which was good as we had to be up early the next day....I think it was around 1 or so when we got back.