Rally, Rally, Rally! We started the summer with a brief stop at a Bluebird rally in Shipshewanna, Indiana. We’ve done this rally several times before, and enjoy spending time with fellow BluebirdBrains.
This year, we leveraged our time to get a new vent cover manufactured for the Refrigerator opening on the side of the bus…there is an Amish Aluminum Fabricator just down the road from the Rally. I took the dimensions over and discussed briefly. We agreed that the piece would be done “in the next couple days…” At 4:30AM (!) the next morning, the guy called me to say the work was done!
A New Grill! Also while in Shipshewanna, we had an interesting price negotiation for a new BBQ Grill! I have been casually browsing for one since we acquired the bus…it has a really lousy propane grill…I wanted a kettle or smoker of some sort.
Of course, whatever we acquired had to fit somewhere on board, which turns out to be a major constraint. I had ALMOST pulled the trigger on an updated version of the Traeger Pellet Grill that we had on RV WHERE YET, but was also looking at some Kamado-style kettles. These intrigued me the most, but offered the most difficulty finding a place for them to live…only one or 2 models seemed reasonable, and no one had them in stock.
Until the Bluebird Rally in Shipshewanna!
One of the regulars, Mark Rabalais had the EXACT grill I was looking at but couldn’t find, and was hoping to get rid of it! He has a bigger bus, and had bought a bigger smoker, and just didn’t need or want the Kamado as well! I took some detailed measurements of the grill, and then had to start noodling how to reconfigure the bays on our bus to accommodate (not a trivial project!). Over the next couple days, Mark and I had a friendly negotiation about the price. Sort of like this:
Mark: I’ll give you a GREAT deal (while offering me a smoked rib from his NEW grill)
Dan: Well, I AM doing you a big favor by emptying the bay…
Mark: Well, I am not GIVING IT AWAY, but I am sure we can work sumthin out (offering me a bit of pork)!
Dan: I was thinking you should pay me to take it! ?
We were CLOSE to a deal, when, on a walk around the park, I noticed another bus with a lonely, neglected grill. Bluebirdbrains Al and Sally Fink had one of the other Kamado-style grills I had been considering. Al was complaining about not really liking the style of cooking…More negotiations:
He said to me: “You want it?”
I said: “Maybe…”
Al said: “It s yours, take it…FREE!!!”
A little later, a slightly disgruntled Mark walked by, and said he was going to have to have a discussion with Al for unfair trade practices—dumping merchandise on the market well below cost. It was all talk, tho, he knew he was not going to match “Free” and so his grill was going to continue in his bay!
So, we now have a new-old grill, and I have inaugurated it already with Pork Shoulder, cooked low and slow…the first couple efforts came out REALLY REALLY WELL! Liz has forbidden me from doing any more pulled pork for the near future, amazingly having tired of Pork for breakfast lunch and dinner for weeks. But there are briskets, roasts, chicken and other things to be attempted.
What I like most is it takes some “futzing” to use the grill – you have to start the lump-charcoal, monitor and adjust the temp, etc. And, meat benefits from brining or tasty, lengthy marinades. That actually is part of the appeal – something to do over a lazy summer afternoon – or week!
“Storage Rearrangement” This probably needs some further discussion, since I spent a couple of months at it…and it’s not yet complete, in fact!!! The bay into which the Kettle was to be poured formerly contained my toolbox. Obviously, readers of this blog will know, that is not something that can be abandoned for a BBQ!!!! Instead, I acquired some full-extension glides and created space on the patio-side for tools and the Electric cooler. This puts the former on the side AWAY FROM TRAFFIC if we are broke down on the side of the road; and puts the latter (containing cold beer) ON THE PATIO when we are parked!
A WIN-WIN situation if ever there was one!!!
Minneapolis for a bit, and a bit, and a bit… We’ve made, and continue to make, multiple visits to Minneapolis this summer. This is to help dad with some things and generally spend time with him. He’s not as mobile as he once was, but the political, sports, social, ecological, economical, and general metaphysical discussions keep me on my toes!!! Generally, there is a sports bet to memorialized, though all of our teams pretty much SUCK, so we can’t (or won’t) bet on things as easy as, “Who has the best record.” Last year, for example, the bet was on which team (Bears or Vikings) would have the most points by Thanskgiving. One year, it was: “Most Delay of Game, Puck over Glass” penalties. Neither of us could figure out for this year a prop. Bet that would not favor or be handicapped by either team’s (lack of) skill…but there is still time!!
Eagle River. This is really a two-fer. We booked a spot up Nort for the 4rth of July Weekend AND for Liz to reconnect with College Roommates. Mary and Jim have a beautiful home up there, and invited “the girls” (and their arm charms, including me!) for some fun. We spent 10 days, did some biking, some hiking, some eating and some fireworks-watching!
During the biking sequence, Liz had a lesson in physics. As we were chugging along, I found myself in the wrong gear going up an abrupt incline. Full, and abrupt stop. Liz was too close behind, in a better gear, and much more fit, so she basically drove up the back of my bike, if not my a*s, Then she undertook a slow-motion roll into the adjoining ditch. No serious damage to bike or egos, but as I reached down to help pull her back up on the path, she realized she had dinged her ankle (and pride) pretty well. Took a couple weeks for the swelling to go down.
While in Eagle River, we visited nearby Rhinelander to get an airbag recall done on the car. While there, we became acquainted with the legendary “Hodag.” This is a mythical creature that seems to be most closely associated with drinking too much beer!
Also while in Eagle River, we realized just how small the world really is! Our friend, Mary Fran Gast, had moved up there to an assisted living community near where her daughter lived…we hadn’t seen her in YEARS, and learned quite accidentally that she was less than 10 minutes from where the Bus was parked!!! So we had to drop by and say hello. Now in her late 90s, Mary Fran was an inspiration to Liz and me as we took Ballroom Dance Lessons with her for many years. Not that she was a gr8 dancer (that would have been intimidating, not inspirational!), but her humor, spirit, cheerful demeanor and unwillingness to use age as an excuse for a very average sense of rhythm and grace… Those characteristics we definitely appreciate and emulate!!
Apostle Islands. Not too far from Eagle River, we visited the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. We had magnificent weather, and enjoyed a variety of hikes, some live music, a local brewery as well as a day trip to Madeline Island by ferry. In Bayfield, where the ferry departs, I found a t-shirt shop with the advertisement: “Make your own…” I wanted to make one that said, “Apostle Islands…Best kind of “AI”” The proprietor looked intrigued, but said, “We actually don’t make custom T-Shirts.” “But, your sign…” I said. “Yeah, well…” was all he could say.
Petoskey. From Northern Wisconsin, we were headed towards New Jersey and WashDC (which we’ll discuss in a minute…), but via Iowa, and SWEET CORN!!! Now, that may not seem a very direct route, but does it really matter how direct our route? We once went from Chicago to San Francisco via Atlanta. THAT may be a preferred routing by air if on Delta, but not usually on a road-trip!
We COULD go directly south, following the Minnesota/Wisconsin border, but what’s the challenge in THAT? Or North over the top, through Mackinaw and Michigan. So, that’s what we did! One stop was in Petoskey, where Bluebirdbrain friends Anita and Les Sonke reside during the summer. We found a spot in their park and had a BBQ and a couple of beers…great to catch up! Then we continued onwards and Southwards.
As we were driving along, heading South from the UP, I suddenly noticed a real buzz-kill-difficulty with GOOD TROUBLE. According to the instruments, We had NO OIL PRESSURE!!! There is pretty much no more serious problem, short of smoke and flame, that can be had where big engines are concerned, so some immediate (like, within 30 sec) decisions had to be made.
First and foremost, where can we stop safely and hopefully IMMEDIATELY (we were at the moment driving through the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids!). There was an exit coming up, so I took it, and pulled over on the shoulder, where I realized 2 things:
- There was no “Check Engine” idiot lite. There are 2 monitors for oil pressure…one a sender/gauge, which was reading ZERO and a warning light/buzzer that would alert to ZERO (and wasn’t). This gave me hope that the problem was in fact a 40-year-old gauge/sender, not the underlying oil pressure.
- The exit was the one for Holland, Michigan – which is where the dealer that sold the bus originally (in 1986!) was still located! Perhaps this was all about GOOD TROUBLE wanting to go home!? At the very least, Holland Motors could be a place to have a problem addressed!!!
Anyway, I got Stopped and started to investigate, including calling a couple Bluebird Resources about what to do. There was no puddle of oil – indeed the dipstick showed no loss of oil at all. The temp gauge was normal. All normal sounds. And NO IDIOT LIGHT. I decided that the gauge was at fault, and ordered a new one.
Once received, I installed (it was relatively accessible, not in a greasy place — basically easy as Blue Bird repairs go) and the new gauge proved that Oil Pressure was 100% fine!!
Iowa Corn machine. Once we made it to the Florer farm in Iowa, We proceeded to gorge ourselves with THE BEST Sweet Corn we have ever experienced (at least since last summer at the Florer’s) .
This year, we were treated to a NEW REDNECK MECHANICAL MARVEL..the “Shuck Buddy!”
Now, in years past we left Iowa with a freezer full of Corn that we have laboriously flash-blanched and manually de-cobbed into baggies. YUM. In the past, A day is spent doing this processing.
The shuck-buddy is a pneumatic marvel of redneck technology. It has a ram…you place the raw corncob on the platform and the ram pushes it thru a blade. All the kernels are magically separated and fall into a plastic bag. What had taken hours in years past (cooking, slicing, bagging), now took seconds!!! We de-cobbed sooo much corn that there was no way we had room in the freezer. Cindy solved that problem for us – she said to put whatever won’t fit in a box and they’d keep it for us in their home deep-freezer. We could stop thru every now and then to replenish the reserve!!!
And, an added bonus – the Huitlacoche crop was extreme this year, and we left with some of THAT in the freezer as well!
If you don’t recall from previous posts, Huitlaoche, also called Corn Smut, is a mushroom-like delicacy, and the only kind of Smut legal in Iowa!
Prairie Dog Blues! As we were considering our next destination – New Jersey, I realized we had a few days in the “schedule.” Almost on que, the Facebook Algorithm realized it too, and started displaying ads for the “Prairie Dog Blues Festival” in Prairie Du Chien, Wi. Now, we LOVE music festivals, and I love the Blues!! And the dates worked, so I went online to book an RV spot on the grounds.
What I discovered was…the website was broken! It would let me add a site to the cart, but would not let me purchase it. Fearing an AI personality check was happening, or our reputation preceded us, I decided to call. Todd, the organizer, said actually he thought they had ONE site left, and rather than trying to fix the website, he could book it for me over the phone. He did, and we had an AWESOME couple of days!!!
One worry we had, though…the festival is held on an island in the Mississippi…and the Muddy Mississippi had been at VERY HIGH LEVEL’s VERY VERY recently! In fact, the street you approach the park on was under water, along with most of the park only a week before the festival started!!! As they were showing us to our spot, I asked how hard the ground was, not wanting to sink like a permanent lawn ornament into the field.
He looked at 44k lbs of GOOD TROUBLE, then at the MicroLite trailer across the field and said:
“I am 90% sure you won’t get stuck, but I am 100% sure I won’t be here Sunday when you (try to) leave)!”
Friends with Benefits. Now it was time to actually head east, towards New Jersey. Along the way, we experienced “Friends with Benefits,” BlueBirdBrain style! In rural Pennsylvania, near Altoona, live Kelly and Shane Fedeli. Shane (the friend) has an almost identical bus to ours, and has been a willing and gracious source of information for me.
He also has a large garage with a PIT over which one can drive a Bluebird and work underneath (the benefit!). He willingly offers this facility to transient bus-livers like us!!!
As it happens, there were a couple of things I needed to put hands upon. The main “thing” was the old Starter, which sometimes seemed like it did not want to turn over. This was eventually going to strand us somewhere, so I ordered a new one…a modern, geared starter that uses far less power. When we got there, Shane pulled the bus in over the pit, and then we proceeded to drop the old one (about 150lbs) and install the new one (about 30 lbs).
While over the pit, Shane noticed a wet area –wet with what we realized was transmission fluid. We both agreed this was not “serious” in that there we no puddles or trails. I decided to monitor the situation. Eventually, I discovered the source of the fluid – a hose that had come a little loose. After tightening, the leak all but disappeared, but ultimately I will need to replace that (and several other) 40-year-old hoses!
More Pennsylvania Friends. On the way thru PA in each direction, we managed to catch up with friends we had not seen for a bit…Fran and Mike McDowell and Bruce and Chris Lane.
NYC!!! We finally did make it to NYC…as before we stayed right across the river in Jersey City. This is a fantastic location – 3 blocks from the Path Train directly into Manhattan. This trip, we visited Ellis Island, Koreatown for BBQ, Chinatown for Noodles, The East Village for Drinks with an old friend, Times Square just for the energy, and we even made it to Coney Island on a SPECTACULAR, clear Blue day for a Nathans Hot dog!!! The latter was underwhelming for folks steeped in Chicago Hot Dog Tradition, but we did at least have some multicultural entertainment…
“You had ONE job”
As we sat at a communal picnic table eating our hot dogs, a trio of tourists…they spoke French, so I think from Quebec, sat down next to us. Two of them left to get a beer (I think), and the third was on her phone; their hot dogs on the table directly in front of her. SUDDENLY, swooping down upon them like a missile, a huge sea gull – it grabbed a sausage right out of one of the buns and flew off with it. This was all in a fraction of a second – this was OBVIOUSLY not the first hot dog that expert bird had enjoyed! The woman stared at the empty bun, with mouth agape, and said something in French …IDK what, but Google refused to translate it… The fellas arrived back with their beer, and saw the empty bun. Now, though, we all laughed as I wondered how to say, “You had ONE job” in French!!!!
It turns out that, pretty much across the street from Coney Island is the Brighton Beach neighborhood. We took a walk thru, and noted that there were DOZENS of produce stands, grocery outlets and all manner of small commercial establishments. The signs were about 75% Russian and 25% Turkish. Those were also the languages we heard spoken around us. The vibe was really good – we enjoyed strolling.
As we were doing so, we happened on a Hairdresser who looked kinda lonely, and Liz had been looking for a place to get a haircut. She asked the women if she would do a walk-in. The Russian woman said she didn’t speak English… I don’t know if she meant that as “no,” but Liz was having none of it. Soon she was sitting in the chair browsing for online Pics somewhat like what she had in mind. At one point, I took off my hat, pointed to my bald-ish head and said, “Not like This!” and she seemed to understand! Anyway, after a negotiation in 2 languages and lots of smiles and many pics, Liz seems happy!
And, of course, we spent several days with Liz’s sister!
We LOVE NYC. To visit, not to live, for sure, but it is very energizing to us!!!
Transiting Baltimore From NYC, we headed down towards Washington DC for a couple days. There is a story about Mineral Rights that I need to tell, but first the travel struggle! You may have read about a little incident involving the Key Bridge…this disruption was the preferred path to WashDC from NYC. Now, there ARE other routes, but most involve tunnels – and Propane such as what we carry on GOOD TROUBLE is strictly verboten in said Maryland tunnels. Our GPS, which normally keeps us out of such trouble, was having grave difficulties. Ultimately, we found a way, over surface streets and directly thru downtown Baltimore (with our 40’ bus towing our car). A stiff scotch was necessary upon arrival!!
Mineral Rights! So, we were headed to WashDC to visit Cousin Joan, which was gr8 fun. She volunteers at the National Cathedral, and after lunch she took us on a guided, sort of “back stage” tour of that spectacular (visually and historically) building.
We also had to sign some papers with regard to Joan’s mother Marilee’s long settled (I had thought) estate. Marilee passed 4 years ago now (I have written about her several times on this blog), yet it was recently discovered that apparently she had owned some mineral rights, and said rights were trying to pay her dividends, which were now residing in the Washington DC office of Lost/Unclaimed Assets. The dividends could not be moved to Marilee’s surviving Trust for Joan (managed by my sister) because they were owed TO MARILEE. The Asset manager would not even talk to us to tell us what the asset was (and what it was worth).
It seems that the ONLY way we could “fix” this stupidity was to reopen Marilee’s estate; and it also seems that, in Marilee’s original will, I was designated as her “successor Personal Representative” (the actual Personal Representative having also passed). Thus, I (me, only, and personally!) could petition the court to get the estate reopened to deal with the assets. For this to happen, my sister had found an Attorney in DC (from the same firm as the now-deceased previous attorney), and said attorney needed a WET SIGNATURE on a petition to the court. Since we, by complete coincidence, were in DC, this was easily arranged.
At the end of such convening, the attorney said that he could handle as much as ALL of the subsequent contact with the City, the Court and the Asset Manager, or NONE if I wanted to handle it. I said “ALL” sounded good to me!!!
At which point, he shook my hand, smiled and said, “Good, you and I should never need to meet again!” I guess I have that effect on people, tho I wish his relief had not been quite so evident!!
State Fair! Ultimately, we returned from the East Coast again, with the intention of attending the Minnesota State Fair. Our partners in crime for this visit to the land of all manner of greasy fried food on a stick (mostly with Bacon attached) were college buddy Keith Cambre and his sister, Kathy, from Brisbane, Australia. Kathy had hosted us down under awhile back, and it was good to see her again.
While at the fair, we had hoped for a visitation from America’s new Plaid-Dad: Tim Walz, but we missed his plaidness by a couple days.
While at the State Fair, Liz and I were dragged into The eternal war between Darkness and Light, Good and Evil, Ketchup and Mustard! We had to have a Corn Dog (because, well, it’s the STATE FAIR!).
Let’s just say, it is AMAZING we have been able to stay married for 33 years with such a chasm between us…wars have been fought for less!!
Stormy night. During our residence near St, Paul, there was an evening with pretty ragged weather. In the middle of the night, power went out, which we hardly noticed as we spend nights at Walmarts quite often with no power. But there were sirens alerting of high winds (tho no tornado warnings), so campers in less substantial RVs spent awhile in the Cement-block bathhouses – in the dark!
Since there were no tornados, we rode out the storm in our bus, which really hardly rocked…confirming what we already knew: Blue Birds are built like the Brick Sh*t Houses others had sheltered in.
Huntley Brewery Stay… On the way back to Chicago, we called old friends Terry and Steve Sawatski, who live in Del Webb/Huntley. Usually, they are out and about, galavanting around and therefore unavailable to visit…but this time they had a couple of hours to meet for a beer at the local microbrewery and Steve’s home-away-from-home, apparently. You know you spend too much time at an establishment when Dan and Liz can call, drop your name and the owner allows us to park in their lot overnight…ANYTIME WE WANT!!! Not only was the beer and conversation excellent, there was a food truck…serving Pierogis!!!
Chicago Magnificence! The main reason for this orbit thru Chicago was to enjoy an evening celebrating the Wedding of a dear friend’s son. Sandy and Howard Sturt had put the date on our calendar months ago, and the event came to fruition as an evening/dinner cruise on Lake Michigan. Now, we have ALWAYS loved Chicago, but that evening was absolutely MAGICAL. The weather was absolutely perfect…the dusk and nighttime skyline from the lake, spectacular. The number of boats, ranging from huge megayachts and dinner boats like ours, to squadrons of lighted kayaks on the lake and river, awaiting the final fireworks show of the season…complete with a way-cool drone show…words cannot describe the magnificence!
The news presentation about crime-ridden Chicago (or any city, for that matter) are incomplete at best…The lakefront was bustling and Chicago has never looked or felt better!
And, Finally… Liz became OFFICIALLY OLD!! She completed her Medicare Applications in anticipation of falling off the old-age precipice in 3 month’s time!
“The Russian woman said she didn’t speak English”
That one made me laugh out loud. It was going to go one of two ways….lol
I’m glad it worked out….