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adamdegraff
05-04-2008, 09:38 PM
Dear New Friends,
Just wanted to take a minute to say hello, thank you all for the wonderful resource you have created, and to introduce myself. Looks as if many of you will be at the POG Rally in Nevada starting tomorrow. Hope you all have fun and learn a lot.

My family and I decided to buy a Prevost because of a tour I have coming up next season. I am a musician... half of a touring musical duo called Pianafiddle. No doubt you have heard of us. (Just kidding... but if you want to learn more about us, feel free to visit our website: www.pianafiddle.com) I couldn't bear the idea of being without my wife and two kids for an entire season, hence the Prevost. We have over 200 concerts throughout the 2008-2009 season and will be traveling nearly 50,000 miles. At times we will be in cold places during the winter and warm places during the late spring/summer. So this should be a really interesting trip. We will be full timers for 9 straight months... which is, in my opinion, a big deal since before we bought our bus, we had never even stepped foot in RV, let alone a Prevost. Nevertheless, I did a ton of research (somehow I missed the POG site) and quickly realized that there really was only one good choice... plus, I didn't feel like flushing our money the drain... again, hence the Prevost.

We bought a beautiful 1996 Marathon. Besides Marathon's excellent reputation (they do make one of the better conversions, no?) it had a number of features that I was looking for. It appears to have been VERY well maintained, it has the big rear carousel closet (which now has a really nice full sized memory foam mattress on the floor for my 2 and 4 year old), a series 60 engine, Allison 6 speed transmission, Asko stacked washer and dryer, auto reals for electricity and water, and an automatic sewer line with air seal. It does not have slides, nor did I want any. We will not be in any one place for more than two days during the tour so slides seemed to be unnecessary. For this same reason, we do not plan to tow a car. (Feel free to try to convince me otherwise.) We will almost always be parking at the venues, Wal-Marts, Flying J's, etc. Not to say we won't hit an occasional park during the rare day off.

Since I bought the bus, four months ago, I have encountered a few problems; some minor, some a little bigger. Nothing really major thus far, and I hope to keep it that way. I will be happy to post all of my problems and fixes in a separate posting. I am relatively handy... even for a violinist. I still have a few issues I hope to work out... with your help if you will all be so kind. I'm not sure that I'll ever got to the point where I can reciprocate, but if any of you need help with a fingering on a hot fiddle tune, just let me know.

So, until those future posts, I leave you all with my gratitude for this place to share and learn, my best wishes for a wonderful rally, and a few pictures of our new bus.

Sincerely,

Adam DeGraff and family

shookie
05-04-2008, 10:16 PM
hello adam..."shookie" (mark) here in pennsylvania....good luck with the tour and the coach...will try to attend your show...will check schedule....saw itzhak last year in sarasota....front seats...wow...you guys can certainly make that little guitar do tricks....lol...well anyway, continued luck and success....best, linda and mark

tdelorme
05-04-2008, 10:46 PM
Welcome to the forum Adam. I love your bus and hope she serves you well. This is a very special bunch of folks whose willingness to help each other beats anything you could ever imagine.
So, you gonna keep us up to date on where you will be performing? Oh, a bit of advice, don't let Shookie sit on the front row. Itzhak ain't been the same since.

truk4u
05-05-2008, 08:24 AM
Welcome Adam, great looking bus. We're here to help in any way we can, so let the questions fly. Like Jon says, if we don't know the answer, we'll just make something up!:p

MangoMike
05-05-2008, 08:46 AM
Adam,

I see you migrated over from Stuff.com. Congratulations, and you'll find, with exception of the funds spend tuning the violin, the best $100 you'll ever spend.

Mango Mike

adamdegraff
05-05-2008, 08:59 AM
Already worth the money just to meet great people who realize the value of a Prevost! This is a wonderful forum.

rmboies
05-05-2008, 08:39 PM
[QUOTE=adamdegraff;28766]Dear New Friends,
Just wanted to take a minute to say hello, thank you all for the wonderful resource you have created, and to introduce myself.

Welcome Adam and family! You have chosen a wonderful way to travel and how fortunate that you can keep the family with you on tour. I looked at your tour schedule to see if you were coming to the upstate of SC but so far, no listings. If you do, please let Bob and I know, we would love to meet you and attend your performance!

Debi and Bob-05 for now:D

adamdegraff
05-05-2008, 10:20 PM
We'd love to have you at one of our shows. I think Gastonia, NC is only a little more than an hour away from you. We're there on January 22, 2009 and I'd be happy to set you up with a pair of tickets. Just let me know if you are in town. You can also dry camp next to us if you like:-) Of course, we are playing all over the place starting in September so maybe our bus and our bus will cross paths. Until then,

Adam

dalej
05-06-2008, 11:40 AM
Adam,

Welcome aboard! What a talent you are, I just watched a youtube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmF9k7tfQxc, You guys really have a gift!


Will look forward to meeting you.

adamdegraff
05-06-2008, 12:40 PM
Thanks Dale. I look forward to meeting you all as well. When I was inquiring about signing up Jim joked about us playing at a POG rally one day. Heck, our manager always says our audience is the NPR crowd. Maybe he meant the POG crowd? Regardless, thanks for watching that video, but you really should watch this one... this was our big show in Nashville last summer where we ended up booking with this tour company.

http://www.shastacommunityconcerts.com/2008-2009%20Season/pianafiddlevid.htm

Hope you like it.

See y'all on the road.

Adam

dalej
05-06-2008, 03:16 PM
Adam,

Where do you call home? If you want on the map, let me know.

adamdegraff
05-06-2008, 09:05 PM
We live in Lewisburg, WV (24901) I grew up in Chicago. Map? What map?

JIM CHALOUPKA
05-06-2008, 10:05 PM
Adam, you and Lynn have quite a good thing going there. I also would definitely enjoy hearing you and Lynn perform. I enjoyed your web site thoroughly.
There is a place in western New York state called the Chautauqua Institute.
http://www.ciweb.org/
Endeavors such a yours are enjoyed in it's 9 week summer season by many from across the US, and around the world. I think that you and Lynn would enjoy visiting there, and possibly performing as well.

adamdegraff
05-06-2008, 10:13 PM
Jim,
nice to e-meet you. We know all about Chautauqua and in fact are playing in Lakeside, OH this summer... which is one of the Chautauquas. Actually I didn't know that until our manager told us. Must be like Carnegie Hall. The one in NYC is the one everybody knows about, but there are two others still in operation as well. One happens to be in the town where we live, Lewisburg, WV.

Glad you liked the website. All you POG folks are really kind. I'll have to get a special Pianafiddle POG concert pass printed up and laminated so you all can get into the concerts, sneak back stage, and score some of that nice food they put in the green room for us:-) Yummy.

dalej
05-06-2008, 11:35 PM
I knew there was somthing about you I liked :) "sneak back stage, and score some of that nice food they put in the green room for us"