[tcb] Re: Trip Report Eureka Springs 2004 (long)
- From: "Denis" <coocoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 08:11:55 -0500
"An empty pool and a woodstove" That's hilarious. It puts this summer's
weather in a nutshell.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Martin" <danandkatrinamartin@xxxxxxx>
To: <tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <buskatiers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <type2@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Mike Martin" <drsewnsew@xxxxxxxxxxx>; "Kathleen (KM) Pieper"
<Kathleen.Pieper@xxxxxxxxxxxx>; "KAREN STONE" <stoney19018@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 7:09 PM
Subject: [tcb] Trip Report Eureka Springs 2004 (long)
Greetings Fellow Bus Pilots,
Wednesday 25 August 2004:
What a trip, After being "ready" for about 3 or 4 days we finally
got to roll about 10:45 am Wednesday morning. We met up with fellow
T.C.B. ( tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ) members Ronnie, Mark S, and Bob & Mary
Beth at the Home Depot parking lot in The Woodlands at Noon. After a
few minutes of radio checks and chit chat the Texas Coalition of Buses
was on its first official road trip! We saw a super beetle at the
traffic light from the parking lot right before we pulled out, as soon
as I got on I 45 there was a cream over orange late bay getting on at
the next ramp. We went I45 N to Huntsville, then north on hi-way 19. We
made pretty good time up to the Pilot at Sulphur Springs. We stopped
there and fueled up. When we went to start up Mark S had the first
problem, his Vanagon would not start. He opened up the HUGE hatch over
his wasserboxer and looked inside. I did the same and saw a BUNCH of
stuff I only vaguely recognized as car parts. I was thinking this is
not good. Mark has me crank it over to see if he has spark and fuel,
checked good. He says maybe the ECU is hot? (it was hot the last time
temp. unit we passed said 98) He whips out one of 2 SPARE ECUs he keeps
nice and cool inside, plugs it in and we are off in 10 minutes! We got
to the park at Cooper Lake about 5 minutes after the office closed at
6. We found the camp ground deserted and picked 2 spots Ronnie had
reserved and already paid for. We popped the window unit a/c in and set
it on 60 and waited for Homer to cool. Mark busted out the Carbachi and
we went to work cooking hot dogs and burgers for the 6 of us. We hooked
Bob up with Mark's EXTRA window unit a/c. We ate and showered and got
ready for bed, I got a unexpected call from Paul S. I was so excited to
see his number, I was thinking he had talked his Dr. and wife into
letting him go. But bummer, he was just calling to see how we were
doing. It was cool to hear from him. I know how bad he wanted to be
there.
Thursday:
When we got up we were surprised to see a beautiful morning, we
had been told at the Pilot that it was expected to rain over night.
Ronnie had a minor disaster with a catastrophic failure of his coffee
pot. Bob and Mary Beth had been invaded by ants overnight. We were able
to perceiver and all enjoyed some breakfast. I got a call from Neil. He
was waiting for Steve and Sharon and Shirley who I talked to later, and
were on their way. I few more phone calls later we all met up in
downtown Cooper. Katrina gave out her party favor fans and piece sign
necklaces, everyone was wearing their tie dyed shirts. We were greeted
by a local news paper reporter (we parked right in front of their
office) and the MAYOR. They got info from all of us and took some
pictures. We are going to get copies of the paper sent to us. We
stopped to fill up Shirley's little gas tank and saw a pretty nice
(from across the street) Karman Giha at a used car lot. Katrina took
some grief for not buying it, but she wants a early convertible HAH. We
went north on hi-way 19 after a little navigational error south to make
sure we were line up right. We made our way north after a break or two
and some radio swapping we got to Talimena State Park to eat the lunch
Katrina brought for everyone. (sorry I guess I did not make it clear
that we had it) I took some grief for not going fast enough from some.
I tried to go a little faster after lunch. We made our way over the
mountains and up thru Poteau, Fort Smith and up the long hills of I 540
to Springdale. (the home of the longest red lights and the screwiest
hi-way intersection in Arkansas) We lost Steve and Sharon along the
way, but they caught up later. We got to Denis' around 4:30 for
PsycoBilly I. Denis' piece of property is beautiful and his house is
coming along nicely. He was a great host and made us some wonderful
fajitas. (after I yelled at him, sorry dude) We had a blast hanging
around drinking and eating and shooting bottle rockets (sorry Neil) I
can tell you one thing for sure Jan makes one killer brandy alexander.
I thought Katrina did a good job with decorations, the glow in the dark
cups and strobe light gave it the perfect party feel. I hope everyone
had as much fun as I did. Jumpin Joe made it in around 1 am. The party
wound down and we got some sleep. I have to admit I don't have a clue
what time it was.
Friday:
We woke to another gorgeous day. Ronnie and Denis made breakfast
tacos for everyone, we lounged around for a hour or two then packed up
for the short drive to Eureka Springs. The drive over to Eureka from
Denis' was a blast all by itself. We had everyone lined up, rolling
thru the hills, the weather was perfect, it was really a great drive
for me. We got to Eureka Springs with plenty of time to look around,
drop Thor off at the doggie daycare, check into the hotel, lounge
around and relax before we went back to the host hotel and realized we
LATE for early check in. We enjoyed hanging around the host hotel,
seeing old friends and making new ones for a couple hours. We then had
to head out to the KOA and party with the Dallas Air Coolers for a
couple hours. We washed "some" of the bugs I had been killing for
everyone off Homer on the way back from the KOA. We watched some of the
weather forecast Saturday morning, It did not look good.
Saturday:
We got to the show grounds before the registration people, got a
good spot right in-front of Steve and Sharons room. The show was great
(after the lighting and rain spectacular, at one point I saw 5 bolts of
lightning at one time) Steve and Sharon got busted making food for
everyone. I still don't see what the problem was, I guess they just
wanted us to HAVE to buy food from them. There seemed to me to be more
people watching the parade this year and it was BIG fun. I was pretty
stoked when Joe and Mark both won awards, and Steve and Sharon won too,
I think, I left before they were finished. I did not get to meet as
many BSKA as I wanted too, but there will be more chances. I hope this
counts as my introduction for them, the rest of the TCB should sign up
for their e mail list, it is great, just nearly all about stuff too far
for us to go to. We really had a great time at the show, got to see the
44 and the 49 Hebmuler, the baja with the 911 motor in it and allot of
cool buses. Katrina and I went out to a nice dinner together saturday
night and turned in early.
Sunday:
We got up at 5 am to go get Thor, and it was COLD outside! Now I
know why Denis has a empty pool and wood stove. We met up with the
return crew (us, Ronnie, Joe and Mark) at around 7 and headed south.
The trip home was pretty nice, the cool weather made easy to just keep
going and going, We had 1 ECU over heat and a stop or 2 for oil and 1
flat tire. All probably didn't set us back more than 1 hour.
For our first "official" long trip with more than one bus I think it
went real well, we had a couple little cliches, but nobody got
seriously hurt, and I think we are all still friends. I want to
personally thank everyone for their help and not bitching too much when
it did not go the way you wanted. We had a blast !
Here is a list of who went and what they drove:
Dan and Katrina Martin - 71 deluxe (hou) +1 HUGE dog (Thor)
Ronnie Hughes - 71 hardtop westy (hou)
Bob and Mary Beth Perring - 70 westy (hou)
Mark Sawyer - 84 vanagon westy (hou)
Steve and Sharon Chamberlin - 66 convertible bug (dal)
Neil McGlothin - 69 bus (dal)
Shirley Hall - 67 westy (dal)
Joe Barnett - 73 westy (hou)
Thanks again to those that went, thanks to the rest of you for reading
all this. (now you know why it took so long)
Dan & Katrina Martin
1971 VW Bus
H.B.B.
T.C.B.
BSKA
Houston,Tx.
Other related posts:
