FasterLaster.com

July 21, 2008 through July 29, 2008

Well another HCBF has come and gone. In Short 3,324 miles, 8 days, 7 states, 6 people, 3 quarts of oil, and a lot of gas.

We had a fantastic time, Thanks so much to Jamie for putting this on again, and to all of our FMBC Family for the fun and great time with all.

The trip started out on Monday with Steph and I traveling alone. The kids were all in Tennessee visiting grandparents so this was our last two days sans kids. Somehow we managed to get up very early am (2ish) and headed out on time. The bus was pretty packed down, but not to much. We headed east on 70 with nothing to report, and managed to drive as far as Columbia, MO. The evening was getting late and we were both pretty hot as the temperatures were over 100F. We settled down in a small state campground in Graham Cave Park . There were only two other vehicles in the campground so we pretty much had our pick of the lot. We settled in a spot close to the bath house. Unfortunately we had left our fan at home so getting a electric site wasn’t worth it, in spite of being very hot. A quick shower didn’t help much and we headed to bed hot and sticky, but otherwise comfortable in the bus. It took me a long time to go to sleep, but early am a huge thunderstorm rolled in and really shook the bus. However it really cooled things down, so the remainder of the night was spent in a deep slumber.

We woke a bit later than we planned because the weather had turned so nice and cool, it was just too easy to roll over and rest a bit more. We managed to finally get up and headed east again. I did take the time to check the timing and found it was a bit retarded. A quick adjustment to put it back and we were on the way. Naturally the sight of a Starbucks sign got Steph all excited, so we made a quick stop and with some expensive java in hand headed on. We rolled in to Nashville that evening and got a well deserved shower and a bit of air conditioning. The next day was spent gathering the remainder of the kids and their assorted gear. Olivia also celebrated a family birthday while we were in TN.

89488Early Thursday morning we headed out to meet with Slaymaker in Knoxville. Once we gathered the remainder of our supplies, and met with Lauren in her sage green westy and the three of our buses headed east. The trip was nice and before long we were heading into the area of the campground. Unfortunately none of our group seemed to have a good set of directions, and while wondering we stumbled across Mark Dearing and friends traveling the other direction. A bit of discussion later somehow we decided that we were heading the correct direction, so we all kept in our direction. Now at a carabus of 6 we found that the choice of direction was a bit misguided, as we found a sign that actually said “You have reached the end. TURN AROUND” With that hint we all revered direction and wondered a bit longer. Soon we managed to get our bearings and we were pulling into Twin Rivers Campground with a sigh of relief. I paid for our site and we headed towards the groups. As we pulled in we found that Ric had saved us a spot near the beginning of the groups in the electrical hook up area. There were more primitive sites further down, but we decided to stay with friends. Naturally it took us a while to decide how to set up the buses, and our trailer. Once that was done we all settled down to rest and visit. One new addition to the group was Pam and her daughter from Georgia.

The remainder of the days at Twin Rivers was spent relaxing and visiting with old friends. I didn’t get around near as much as I wanted to visit, but did enjoy what socializing I was able to do. Two evenings I was able to be part of a primitive sweat that I have heard Ric and Chris talk about for years, what a fantastic way to relax. Steph even joined the second night. Saturday evening we were presented with the Long Distance Award, and got a chance to enjoy a great bluegrass band. Apparently I missed some more music as the band found a campfire to pick at till wee hours of the morning. Like all gatherings the weekend was over before we knew it and goodbyes were said. By midmorning we were all loaded up and starting to point the buses west again.

In Roan Mountain we took a bit of time to see the shop Ric is building. He really has it going on with that shop, which will be a great place for his collection to get out of the weather, or even out of the basement of his house. After a bit of blueberry picking 89851 we were on our way. Knoxville soon came into view and once on the west side we peeled away from Slay and kept the bus rolling. By late in the night we made it to Nashville for a quick lay over and sleep (the shower didn’t hurt either). Much later than we planned to we got going the next morning and rolled on through a few states quickly. As the sun started to hang lower in the sky we reserved a room in Kansas City to rest our heads. Tigerbus rolled in to the hotel at nearly midnight so everyone was pretty tired and ready for some shuteye. A great sleep later we found ourselves having some good breakfast food at the hotel and headed to the bus. Unfortunately the bus didn’t want to help much with that. I had grown a bit perturbed with the wondering timing of the bus since moving from my busted Pertronix unit to points. I decided the best thing to do was readjust the points. After that the bus didn’t want to start. I monkeyed with it for nearly an hour and finally after many removals of the unit got it running again. I’m still not exactly sure what the problem is although I suspect the points had become dirty and not making a great connection. This lack of a consistent spark really has me thinking of the Mallory distributors that use optical pickups.

Once back on the road we continued west across Kansas with a few stops here and there. One thing that made this drive much more pleasant that previous treks was the overcast sky kept temperatures very nice. Soon we were back in Colorado with just a few hours to go. There was a headwind that really was spiking my engine temps and I spent the last few hours watching the cylinder temp gauge pretty close. Finally we pulled in front of our house and everyone poured out and headed right to bed. What a fantastic trip and great visit in North Carolina. We are all back safe and sound ready to start school in a week or so. Photos of the trip are:

HERE

Some additional notes regarding the bus. The transaxle now has developed more whine in the 1 and 2 gears at low rpm, I need to check the fluid. The engine is still leaking and I will need to pull it go fix most of them. I believe I managed to also gain an exhaust leak but that’s a bit hard to tell. The biggest pain is the timing. Something about it is just not right. The CDI system worked much better when I triggered it with a Pertronix than with the points. I’ll need to dig into each of these and see what happens.