This slideshow contains over 800 photos of our coach conversion from start to finish. It is still being completed and new photos will be added as we add the finishing touches to our home on wheels.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Hello Apopka, Florida
The last few weeks have left us a little bedraggled and I've finally succumbed to a minor cold. We left PA October 17 and drove down to Silver Spring, MD that day to park the coach at the General Conference Office parking lot. From there we flew out to Tucson, AZ so we could give a concert at the Tempe Church 65 year reunion celebration weekend. From there, we flew back to Silver Spring, MD, filmed for a day at the Hope Channel, then jumped in the coach and drove down to Apopka, FL over a 2 and a half day time frame. Along the way, the coach overheated twice and shut down in the middle of the road. Then while we were driving, the generator exhaust pipe came loose and was sticking straight out the side of the coach into the next lane. When we finally arrived, we were more than thankful to have made it safe and sound. These are some photos of our current location...and our home for the 
next 6 months.
Saying Goodbye to PA
4 months have trotted past without so much as us noticing. And the piece of private, wooded ground we've called home during that time is about to be left vacant as the winter approaches. Truth is, we're ready for a change. We're headed to Florida in a couple of weeks and will be traveling there for the first time together. Up until now, Heather had to follow me in the car as I drove the coach since the coach didn't have a hitch, we didn't own a tow system for the car, and the coach wasn't equipped with a tow lighting system. Now that all three hurdles are overcome, we're ready to enjoy this 1300 mile trip together. Translated, that means I can now ask my sweet wife to pretty please make me a sandwich while I drive on :-) That's going to be pretty neato I must admit. We're anxious to get on the road again, but will miss our little quiet piece of heaven on earth here in Hamburg, PA at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Thank goodness for memories.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Odd and Interesting
Friday, Heather and I were out and about in Hamburg, PA and noticed this interesting work of RV art. Not sure exactly what we thought of this beast, but found it interesting nevertheless. Took these shots out of a moving car with a cell phone camera so the quality suffers:
People love to have homes on wheels...we all do it differently I guess. On another note, we've had so much rain in the last 24 hours (between 3 and 4 inches) and the shale beds here in the mountains cannot absorb the water. So the gravel drive we use to get to our coach everyday is now officially a river. It's so washed out, our Camry is scraping bottom as we try to navigate through the ruts to get in and out. I saw a guy driving a backhoe around here last week. I think I'll track him down and ask him if he would be so kind as to level this out a bit...or we have to get a 4 wheel drive.
People love to have homes on wheels...we all do it differently I guess. On another note, we've had so much rain in the last 24 hours (between 3 and 4 inches) and the shale beds here in the mountains cannot absorb the water. So the gravel drive we use to get to our coach everyday is now officially a river. It's so washed out, our Camry is scraping bottom as we try to navigate through the ruts to get in and out. I saw a guy driving a backhoe around here last week. I think I'll track him down and ask him if he would be so kind as to level this out a bit...or we have to get a 4 wheel drive.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
First Stop: Hamburg, Pennsylvania
Next task on the list was to install our newly acquired Sears/Kenmore 30 gal 110v single 1650 watt element water heater. I had all of the cold water plumbing completed, but the hot water side wasn't done. Once we brought the water heater back to the coach I plumbed it in a day and had hot water that night. Here's a shot of the water heater installed in the water bay. Ignore that hanging loose wiring. It will be run through metal conduit, so stop cringing you master electricians.
So up to yesterday, our solution was to open the dump valve, and then together we'd work the sewage down the hose into the sewer connection. Yuck. Super yuck. If you think I'm being wimpy, imagine holding a thin hose that is sludging your own waste through it. I have new respect for the septic tank emptying guys *shiver*.
There are, on the market this cool little slinky-like sewer hose supports that will create the gradual slope, but we didn't like them nor their $36 price tag. I wanted something better, so I (with Heather's help and brains added to mine) decided on a simple solution of cutting a 4 inch dia pipe down the middle, nesting the two halves inside each other for telescoping action, and resting the sewer hose inside of them using a brick or two to create the gentle slope. Works perfectly! Now, I just lift the dump valve, and viola, the "stuff" drains without me having to feel it travel through the hose in my arms. Did I say yuck?Some of us in life love the rut. We love the familiar and predictable. We love to know that "some things just never change." Yet some of us love just the opposite. We get excited just driving by an airport. We tingle when we plan a vacation. We can't sleep the night before a big trip. That's us. We love making new places home...and before long, we begin to itch to make an even newer place home...and so on.
Hamburg, PA will be our home for 3 months as we tour the area and share our inspirational concerts with as many as we can before heading south to Florida in November. We'll make a quick, car-only, dash to Arizona for a couple of weeks in October before returning to PA and then on to Florida where we'll be until May of 2012.