The TTTC Tour ....

[Ray Davis]

OK, maybe not as original as the Taco Tour (I and II), but this one is the Third Time's the Charm Tour!

Kathy and I left last Friday around noon, driving our Honda Pilot from Southern CA to Marathon in Florida. We stopped Sunday afternoon and had a great afternoon, dinner and evening with JDUB and Rae.

We arrived at Marathon around 230P on Tuesday. After several little things which needed to be finished up, we finally hit the road Thursday (yesterday) afternoon around 1PM heading for the ORA in Hilton Head Island, SC.

Unfortunately, they don't let you park after 7PM here (you'll understand if you've been here), so we had to spend the night parked in the registration area. We got parked in around 10AM, and are taking it easy today.

Tomorrow we head off for two days at Debi and Bob's ranch in Landum, SC as we make our way up to West Point in NY the following weekend.

Here's the first place we've parked this bus. 45 IS bigger than 40! Sure feels good to be back in stainless again. The third time is the charm!

Ray

[adamdegraff]

Nice Bus! Clean too:-)

[jasperjr]

Congratulations, that sure is one beautiful coach. You sure knew how to plan picking it up-drive across country, get orientated and then go on trips in it immediately. I'll need to remember that next time I get into a new one. Have fun, be safe and enjoy.

[garyde]

Hi Ray. Life is good. Enjoy.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

You rascal you. Tell me, ya gonna park in that same hanger with the guy that caught fire on ya:eek:

[dalej]

Ray,

We are proud of you two! Can't wait to see you guys. You have got to be the happiest two people.

[MangoMike]

Ray,

Nice Bus.

Can't wait to see you and Kathy for some Jerk Chicken at Mango Mike's.


mm

[truk4u]

Looks great Ray, keep the pictures coming..

[dale farley]

Ray, That bus is a beauty. You should swing back by the Mobile rally next week so we can all see it before you go back to the West Coast.

[Loc]

Congratulations Ray. The bus looks great. Tell Debi and Bob we said hi. Sorry that we missed you in Houston.

[Ray Davis]

Thanks all. So far trip is going pretty well. We're parked at Debi and Bob's farm last night, and tonight. A minor problem in that the webasto is not working (more in another thread).

Kathy and I, Bob and Debi drove up to Hensonville, NC to meet Fast Roger and Micki last night for dinner. It was a great time, and I hope that Micki or Debi post a picture from our evening at Outback!

Bob and Debi have a beautiful spead here, but I had to attend the Bob school of backup driving to get situated! I'll try to post a picture later which will make more sense of that. Those of you who have stayed here before probably understand.

Well, off to Biltmore Estate today!

Ray

[BrianE]

It's a beauty Ray. Last Tuesday I'll bet we passed on I-10, you in the Honda before you turned south for Marathon and me in the Royale with toad on the way back home. Hope you guys have a wonderful trip. I guarantee you can't witness a cadet review with a dry eye. Safe travels.

[Ray Davis]

HI Brian,

Yeah, I think we probably did pass. By the time I got back on a computer (we drove 4 straight days without stopping for this), I noticed you had already stopped in Pensacola.

I hope you love your new coach. I'm going to try to arrange another west coast mini-rally this coming spring, so hopefully we'll get to see yours!

Ray

[Ray Davis]

An update ....

Sorry for the delay, but we've been really busy making our way up to New York.

Just wanted to let you know we spent the last two evenings at Cherry Hill RV Park in College Park MD. It is about 40 minutes from Mango Mikes. Kathy and I (and two friends) had dinner with Mango last night. What can I say? The restaurant is really something, and the food was incredible.

Mango, thanks for a wonderful evening. We loved it!


One note to all traveling on the east coast. DO NOT visit Walnut Hills RV park in Staunton VA. The park is really nice, but it is not a place to bring a bus. The roads are unpaved, unlevel, rocks and trees are on the sides. If I had seen the park before driving to my slot, I never would have stopped.

I don't want to ding the park, as it's nice, and the people were wonderful, however it's just not built for buses.

We leave this morning for West Point. This is the day I'm concerned, as it's not following the simple GPS instructions. But, I've got my co-pilot, and we'll get on the road in about an hour!


Ray

[Ray Davis]

Well, it's been awhile since I've updated. I just haven't had time to catch up on the forum (I've got about 40 threads to catch up on!)

Well, so far, pretty good, but not without a couple of issues.

We made it up to West Point last Thursday after spending the evening with Mango. That part went smoothly.

The issue! Saturday it starts to rain. First lightly, and then pretty darn hard, and lot's of window. It's raining outside the coach. Then, I notice it's raining inside the coach too. In fact, it's pouring into the coach, right over the entry door, coming down from the cabinet above!

I spent 6 hours that night sopping up water with beach towels, alternately wringing them out, and then trying to dry them in the dryer, before I needed to make another change. Needless to say it was an awful night.

Sunday dawns clear, and we're good, except the water polo team lost the championship game.

SO, Sunday evening, I check the internet for weather. We're due to head east across I-80, stopping at Denny's, Dale and Jan's, and Coloradobus' place over the next 4 days of traveling. Weather report talks about cold-front coming in big time, rain and snow expected all through that area! Yikes.

I have determined by Sunday AM (I think), that the leak is coming in from the window above the entry door. The glass seems pulled-away from the body, and I'm guessing as water is rushing down that side of the bus, it's coming in through the window.

I cancel the trip to all the POG guys houses, and hurry down to Prevost in New Jersey. They don't want to pull the window, and re-seat, because they generally break them when removing, and they didn't have a spare. So, instead, they removed all the current sealant from top and sides, and re-seal the window with Sikalfex. The service manager jokingly comments that "what's the matter, it's not raining?"

Well, after waiting around at Prevost for about 6 hours, we hit the road, heading east a little further south than originally planned. Within 1/2 hour I run into rain, and it rains almost non-stop for the next 8 hours! Finally exhausted I'm trying to find a place to stop for the night, but every truckstop and rest area throughout the edge of PA into W-VA is totally packed with trucks.

We find a large commercial area and parked in a Cabella's parking lot, along with one other 5th-wheel for the evening, in Wheeling W-VA.

The rain continues for another 3 hours during the night, but the good news is that the seal seemed to be the issue, and we made it dry through the night.


Tuesday we drive from Wheeling to a nice RV park just north of St Louis in St Charles, MO. Nice place to stay if you ever need an overnighter. All paved roads and slots. The place is called Sundermeir RV Park, and is listed in the Big Rigs Book.

Today we drove 1/2 day to Branson MO, and will be taking in a show and some dinner tonight, before heading to Amarillo tomorrow AM.


That's it for now.

Ray

[dalej]

Ray, Today is the day you should be here in Nebraska having barbeque with Dale and Jan! Sitting on the back porch having a brew or two while we talk about how fun it is to travel by bus.

We miss you two! Have safe travels.

We were parking you, had you arrived, in front of our bus barn. Photos show the view behind your bus (if you were here) and what you would see looking out your front window.

[Sid Tuls]

Hi Ray, If your in Amarillo I recomend staying at Oasis RV Resort!! I stay there every month for a week. They only charge $25.00 a nite. It's all paved pull thrus. There in the Big Rig Book. Went to Branson,Mo last week spent last two days in Columbus,NE and now on our way to Salt Lake City to look at some loader tractors. Hey it's a great time to travel filled up in Columbus for $ 3.12 . Have a safe trip and hope to hook-up in the future. P.S. Ray just look @Love's website fuel in In Amarillo $2.99

[Ray Davis]

Dale,

Sorry we were not able to come. I imagine you saw the snow report early this week from New York/New Jersey. We just missed that! Hit the rain instead. I hope we can hook up next trip.

Sid, just paid $1.99 for car fuel (regular), and saw diesel in Branson (regular station) for $2.89! Stopped at a Flying J enroute today. Cash price was $2.99, but credit was $3.08

Still I'm not complaining, it's much better than 6 months ago.

Made reservations at the Amarillo RV park, since I'd been there before, but Oasis sounds very interesting.

Ray

[rickdesilva]

Ray
What route did you ultimately decide to take though New Jersey to West Point? Whichever way you chose I hope it was "stress-less" as the NJ/NYarea has the ability to push you over the edge. Last night we ventured from NJ to an area not far from West Point with our sons families and 5 grandkids in the coach to see a halloween/jackO'lantern display at an historic mansion. On the way home the bridge was shut down and we had to wind our way down to NYC to go over the George Washington Bridge to get home. Although I was born and raised here, driving under the elevated train tracks on Jerome Avenue in NYC made me a little edgy. But we made it home OK. I had the same leak with my XLII and the guys at Prevost in NJ took care of it also. Carl Boulet the serivce mgr. and Judy at the service desk have always been very accomodating. Were you able to stay on West Point or did you have to find a place off site? I hope the rest of your trip is great.

[Ray Davis]

Sid, thanks for the suggestion regarding Oasis. Stayed there last night. Great new park, and NO-ONE there! Beautiful paved streets and spaces, reminded me of Kerrville.

A must stay for anyone needing to stop in the Amarillo area.


Rick, we went up (and back out) via the west through PA, up to Scranton, and then over direct (84?) to 293. It was a very easy run without issues.

We camped at North Dock, on the Hudson river at West Point for 4 nights, which other than the rain (inside and out), it was wonderful.

We went back down the outside to Prevost NJ again (east side), and then got out of NJ just before the snow started coming! Phew!


We're now in USA RV Park in Gallup NM for the night. We'll make Havasu AZ tomorrow where the coach goes into storage. The 3 week adventure is almost over.

I'll have to total all the mileage (and fuel costs) over the course, but it's roughly 7000 miles from start to finish!

Paid $2.92 for diesel in Amarillo this morning.


Ray

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Glad to hear you are having a good trip Ray. Your bus looked real fine in those Live Oaks in HH.

:)JIM

[garyde]

Hi Ray. Sounds like you guys are having a good time crossing th US. We're going to have to plan a trip together soon.

[Ray Davis]

Well, we finally made it back to CA. Dropped the bus off in Arizona in it's new storage location (hopefully temporary!).

All in all around 7000 miles in 24 days.

Way too many miles to travel that quickly. But, we've made it safely.


Thank you for everyone who hosted us, or met us along the road. It was certainly a wonderful trip, one that we will not forget.

Sorry to those we had to miss due to the weather and the window, but we'll do it another time.

Now we're getting ready for Oklahoma! But, I guess we'll have to plan some local mini-rallies first.


Ray

[Denny]

Ray,
Glad you made it back safely.