POG / TGO Rally has started

[ajducote]

POG people have started to arrive here at TGO and they brought good weather with them. The weather forecast for the rest of the week is 80 and mostly sunny with a very low chance of rain.
Details and pictures to follow.

[phorner]

Yes, and started, of course with a cocktail party hosted by Parliament Coach.

Thanks for a great party. The margaritas really hit the spot!! :D

[ajducote]

We had a good turn out at the cocktail party hosted by Parliament Coach and we even picked up a new member. Ken and Rick form Parliament Coach put on a real nice time for us tonight. Forgot to take pictures, to many margaritas. Oh I am feeling GOOD!!!!

[0533]

Hello Andre,

I will be arriving at the rally area this afternoon around 2PM. Been delayed by business. Anything I can do?? What is the schedule??

Bruce

[ajducote]

Hello Andre,

I will be arriving at the rally area this afternoon around 2PM. Been delayed by business. Anything I can do?? What is the schedule??

Bruce


When you check in they will give you a brown tote bag that has a letter in it with the schedule. For today, it the Wine & Cheese Social from 4 to 6 PM. An invitation with address and directions will be in the bag. My cell phone number is also on the letter. Call if you need anything when you get here.

[0533]

Thanks Andre,

I am alone on this trip, can you arrange a date for tonight??

Cell: 561-512-6181

[truk4u]

Andre and Ann pulled out all the stops for this mini rally! When we checked in, we were given this nice canvas bag full of information goodies, hand made by Ann and her Mom.;)

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[0533]

Ann and Andre are outstanding hosts and great spokespeople for TGO.

[mike kerley]

Andre, My apologies, but Karen and I will have to cancel our mini vacation with you and the POGGERS this weekend. Duty calls at work. I must stay close to the stations because of some computer changes.

We'll certainly miss seeing everyone and hope a good time is had by all.

Darn, I had some new jokes!

Mike and Karen Kerley

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Mike, just type away with the jokes. We all enjoy a good one!

JIM

[merle&louise]

Two drunks walking down the street, one says to the other one "If my old man gave me a dollar and your old man gave you a dollar how much would we have?" The second drunk thinks a minute and says, " a dollar". The first drunk says, "you don't know your arithemtic" the second drunk says "yeah and you don't know my old man!"

[truk4u]

Here's a few pictures from the Wine & Cheese tasting today thanks to TGO. It was held at one of the their open houses and the food was great.

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[JIM KELLER]

Andre, My apologies, but Karen and I will have to cancel our mini vacation with you and the POGGERS this weekend. Duty calls at work. I must stay close to the stations because of some computer changes.

We'll certainly miss seeing everyone and hope a good time is had by all.

Darn, I had some new jokes!

Mike and Karen Kerley

Mike, Sorry you and Karen can't make it. Karen and I were looking forward to seeing you guys. I even brought some of my Cubans for paybacks.

[ajducote]

Happy Hour at TGO on Friday was from 2 to 6 PM and was well attended. As expected all the food that was brought in by everyone was delicious and it seemed like a good time was had by all.

[phorner]

Andre was kind enough to provide everyone with name tags. Including enough for special guests.....

Even had a delivery from Prevost Parts :D

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I see we have an impersonator.

That's OK, I've been up in Bristol all week selling cars and keeping the money.

Anybody want to buy a nice (empty) paved parking lot?

[Joe Cannarozzi]

They forgot to include the local wildlife in the photos.

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Periscope depth
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[phorner]

In all fairness, the King was the target of an as yet unidentified prankster.

Granvil Tracy was generous enough to treat several POGGERS to wonderful views of our Titusville Rally area from his chopper.

[jelmore]

The group that stayed for dinner . . .

[ajducote]

Well almost everyone has left. The rally was a lot of fun and we sure had a chance to meet a lot of nice POG members.

A collection was made for a local charity that Ann (my wife ) supports. We collected $310 to donate to a sewing group here that makes "Wish Pillows" and other soft goods for sick children that "Give the Kids the World" organization uses. There is large group here at TGO that donates their time to this cause and they always need cash to buy supplies. This will be a big help to them.
http://www.gktw.org/

We really enjoyed putting on this rally and had a great time. Thanks to everyone who came and participated. It was great to meet you all. A wonderful bunch of people.

A view of the rally lot where some of the POGgers were parked. Granvil getting ready to load the 2nd group for a flight.

[ajducote]

And it would not be a POG Rally without work being done and properly supervised. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

We have to mention Ken Robertson and Rick May from Parliament, they were an amazing help for the Rally. The person "working" in these pictures is Rick, he was suppose to be on the road by this time, but stayed to help Tuga determine what the problem was. ( Blown air bag)

[merle&louise]

Karen and I would like to thank Andre' & Ann for their hospitality and hard work in making this rally a great one. Also thanks to all the gals who cooked for the pot luck supper; it was delicious. Additional thanks again to Andre & Ann for letting us use their Royale to get online; Karen worked and I read on POG.

Like Andre said it would not be a POG rally without some problems. It was my turn this time with a blown air bag and a front AC control board that failed. Fortunately, I had a spare air bag and a spare AC control board in the spare parts bin. The air bag failure could not have come at a better time or place. We are parked in the rally lot with 50 amp & water and the RV repair shop is across the street. They will change out the air bag tomorrow and we should be on our way home.

A special thanks to Rick May of Parliament Coach & Jim Keller; they replaced the AC control board. Then Rick jacked up my coach and confirmed that the drive axle air bag was done. We are so blessed to have friends like these guys. Thanks again Rick & Jim.:D

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Tuga..........I certainly hope you post this in capital letters on the Newell site. Let those folks know about Parliament and Prevost folks.

If one air bag failed, may we assume you have 7 more ready to pop, or was that one the only one you had not had a chance to replace?

BTW, notice my 10 year projected life of air bags.

[phorner]

We can echo Tuga's remarks. Andre and Ann (Ma ma, too) went all out to make this rally the success that it was. The folks at TGO also went out of their way to give us a very warm welcome.

We're already looking forward to our next visit there.

And we can't say enough about how well our group is supported by Parliament Coach. Thanks to Rick, our front door is now adjusted so that it doesn't need to be slammed each time to close it!

Kudos to everyone who pitched in to make our rally a special event..... even without a launch!!:eek:!!

[Jamie Bradford]

We had a GREAT TIME!!!

I was nice to see everyone and meet some new folks............


Jamie & Debbie:cool:

[truk4u]

The mini rally was great and we appreciate all the efforts from Andre, Ann and Mama. Many thanks to Ken and Rick from Parliament, they're a class act.

Here's a few more pics...

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[rfoster]

Micki and I wish to express our thanks and appreciation to Andre, Ann, and Muma Ducote for all the work, effort, planning, and energy they put in to the Mini Pog Rally at TGO.

We certainly had a good time and enjoyed seeing everyone plus meeting the new to me POG members.

Looking forward to the next one.

A picture for JDUB;
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g31/parkwayautoofbristol/CIMG4351-1.jpg

Paul and Janice Horner sporting a bra at TGO. Seems to be the new look!

[jelmore]

Linda and I had such a great time. Glad we made it and really good to meet so many bus people and their rides. Thanks Andre and Anne -- great rally. We're looking forward to the next one. Here are pics http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimelmoreiii/sets/72157613813871130/ (some are not very good, sorry) of those at the Saturday night pot luck. Feel free to leave behind comments. See you all down the road.

[ajducote]

The Rally Lot

[rbeecher]

Andre, Ann, and Boss Ducote,

Thank you for being such great hosts!

Andre for checking on us every chance to make sure we were all being taken care of and Ann and the Boss for making Andre look so good.

To Jim Keller for providing the tools from his great collection all neat and tidy in their proper place. What good are they if you can't find them or better yet if you didn't bring them!

To everyone who came to the rally lot to hang out, work on busses, supervise the work, eat, drink and be Merry.

To old friends and new ones. We hope to see you in Oklahoma.

Richard and Barbara Beecher

[merle&louise]

Tuga..........I certainly hope you post this in capital letters on the Newell site. Let those folks know about Parliament and Prevost folks.

If one air bag failed, may we assume you have 7 more ready to pop, or was that one the only one you had not had a chance to replace?

BTW, notice my 10 year projected life of air bags.

Jon,

I thought that I was doing good because I had 2 different size air bags in my coach inventory. When the tech removed the bag that burst we discovered that NEITHER of my bags were the right size. Newell is overnighting 2 bags that will fit the drive axle front (one for a spare). You are right on with the 10 year life of air bags; I am changing the other 7 as soon as possible. The tech and I looked at the other bags and they look o.k., but I am still going to change them.

I can't emphasize enough the need to carry spare parts.:D

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I too carry spares, but there are some things I will have to deal with via preventive maintenance such as changing brake chambers and air bags prematurely. The cost of having items like that fail while on the road far exceeds the cost of replacing good parts.

There are other parts that are going to fail and I don't worry about it because I can live without the item, or because it is imposible to predict what parts are required. What parts should I carry for a refrigerator, or the engine? I got along just fine with a failed alternator because I ran my generator (and inverters and battery charger for the chassis).

On the other hand I carry a generator watchdog, a Webasto control, guts to rebuild an inverter (even though I have a bypass), a spare generator fuel pump, two Norgrens and some solenoids. Also a drawer full of relays, switches, light bulbs, circuit breakers, fuses, and sensors.

I arbitrarily selected 10 years as the replacement of my air bags. I arrived at that based on my own personal experience with a failed air bag, but also the experience of two other POG members who had one fail at 10 years. Theirs did not burst, but they both had leaks. Another POG member let me have an air bag he replaced at 10 years and his showed extreme dry rot or cracking supporting my theory. My 5 year life on brake chambers is based on my experiences and in that case I had a failed emergency brake diapraghm. Stuff like that is anecdotal, may not bear any relation to reality, but absent other information I am willing to do preventive maintenance on my terms, on my schedule, and not on the terms of a far away mechanic who has me at his mercy.

[Orren Zook]

You're right about spares (and routine maintenance) Jon, I had a customer pick up a 2424 piggyback Saturday for a spare - he had one fail on a USMail delivery truck that was on a scheduled delivery run. He paid $143 plus the road service call for one at the Mack dealer in Cleveland ended up with a $478 bill, I sell them for $37.12! You're at the mercy of the service provider when you're away from home. Most feel they'll never see you again so anything goes.

[rfoster]

More on the TGO POG. For those of you who have never met my new two best friends: Granvil Tracy on the left and Andre Ducote on the right.
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g31/parkwayautoofbristol/CIMG4366-1.jpg