Bussin' 2010

We are once again at the Turner Agri-Civic Center in Arcadia, Florida (map), where we were this time last year. As then, we are here for the annual rally of converted buses and the people who convert them.

Our attendance this year is being sponsored by Bus Conversions Magazine, where Odyssey is the December centerfold. The publisher thought it would make for a nice package to have us do a Q&A session and open house here at the rally, where they will be handing out copies of the December issue. We arrived Sunday evening, after a pleasant drive from Fort Lauderdale, and have been cleaning the bus more or less since we arrived to be ready for the open house.

Truth be told, we had not planned to arrive until yesterday, but our plans to spend Sunday night at the Wal-Mart here in town were foiled by a new no-overnight policy implemented since last year, apparently due to problems with trucks abusing the privilege. It turned out to be fortuitous, though, since the extra night gave us a head start on cleaning, starting with a long-overdue pressure wash. As long as we dragged a hose over, we also filled the hot tub, which felt really nice last night after a long day of washing and prepping. The scooters also got sorely needed baths.

Today was a similarly long day; we set out a dozen or so "for sale" items that have been languishing around the coach, and a "free" pile as well. I also polished up the wheels and put a coat of dressing on the tires for the first time in five years. Since we'll be doing an all-around tour, I also spent a few hours cleaning out the bays, which tend to degenerate into chaos over time, and get grubby in the process.

Tomorrow we should be able to relax a bit. Other than a technical round table at 2pm, we have nothing on the schedule until dinner. Thursday will be our big day, with my electrical seminar at 9am, followed by Louise's seminar on ferreting out overnight stops at 10:30. At 2pm we start the Odyssey Q&A in front of the bus, and we'll be open for tours until 4ish. I expect we'll be bushed by dinner time.

One of Odyssey's sister coaches rolled in earlier today, an '80s vintage German Spaceliner also originally converted by Pegasus. We had a nice chat with owners Lou and Renea and are looking forward to touring their rig tomorrow; like us, they also completely stripped their coach and converted it over from scratch. Their coach has only two axles, making for a somewhat different arrangement in the driver area.

The rally runs through January 1st, after which we will head down to Port Charlotte to visit friends there. We'll be back in Arcadia on the 3rd for the workshop I'll be helping with all that week.