A camping bus rally? I think I need to go!

Hi gang, it's Bill Blakeley again, I am the one who bought that Custom Coach that was in the September 2023 issue of BCM and is online in the Feature Article section called The Gypsy Queen. In that story, I mentioned wanting to go to a bus rally called Random Acts of Camping (RAOC), in Nappanee, Indiana, September 21-24.  I was to meet up with some of the Bus Nuts, who gave me advice when I was looking for a bus, especially Walter a.k.a. “DoubleEagle” on the BCM bus forum.  

I had given him an appreciation trophy for inspecting and driving the bus with me from Ohio to Texas in January of this year. This was an All-in-One Rally, with campers, tents, Skoolies, and larger over-the-road buses like mine, as well as antique buses and campers.

I wasn't sure about taking the bus at first, so I investigated flying in for the rally and just renting a camper up there. That was going to cost quite a bit, and when I was talking with the camping place in Nappanee, about renting a unit from them. I casually mentioned that I own a bus conversion.

The young lady on the other end said, “Then why don't you just drive it to the rally?”  I told her that I didn't have that much experience driving it just yet and that it was over 1,000 miles away, but what she said rang a bell in my head. So, I talked to my wife about it off and on for a couple of months, even before BCM ran the story on our bus in September.

She thought that it would be better for me to fly in and enjoy in my own bus for the first time.  As I waited longer, the cost of flights increased. The guys over on the BGM (Bus Grease Monkey) bulletin board, which most are on the BCM board as well, were all ribbing me for bringing the bus to the rally, and I guess I wanted to prove myself to them, so that was the plan.

Pre-trip working on the taillights, headlights, oil change, filters, and belts.

As I mentioned in the earlier article about my bus, it had been sitting for quite a while before I bought it, and the previous owner had never really done any maintenance on it, besides replacing the drive tires, and batteries, when he first got it. So, with about a month and a half to go before the rally, and with temperatures above 100 degrees here in Texas, I worked on the bus some in the evenings, and on the weekends.

I changed the oil and fuel filters and fixed the lights, including buying new brake light bulbs, and new lenses for the others. I changed the fan belt and compressor belts, replaced the huge air filter, topped off all the other fluids, and checked the tire pressure, etc. The steer tires needed replacing, they are 2015, and only have about 5,000 miles on them, but they are eight years old. 

Editors Note:  Once you have about seven years on bus tires, it is time to replace them with new tires.  Tires weather crack over time and it is not worth gambling with running on older tires.  They may look great, but at that age, the chance of having a blowout increases dramatically.  A front tire blowout can cause you to lose control of your vehicle, sending you off the road and causing serious damage to your bus or other vehicles.  Click HERE to watch a video on what to do if this happens. 

Rear tire blowouts generally will not send you off the road, but repairing the damage from a rear tire blowout can cost thousands of dollars of damage, and can also tear off a brake line, causing your brakes to lock up in the middle of the highway.  It is just not worth taking a chance on running tires over seven years.  Covering your tires when parked and keeping them clean will extend the life of your tires, but most people who travel frequently do not bother with that.

My son Jeremy, wired in some LED headlights for me as well, and they work great, a whole lot better than when Walter and I were driving it to Texas from Ohio, we could hardly see the road with the halogens that were in it.

My friend Jerry Hensley came over one weekend and charged my three basement air conditioners, and we worked on the over-the-road air conditioning system too, but I don't think that we got enough freon in it, so it still needs some work.

I then turned my attention to the generator, since I now had a working A/C unit.  Well, it was a mess. My friend Charlie Howard came by, and we started the generator up, but within a few minutes it started overheating, we figured out that it was a bad engine thermostat, and we got that changed.

We started it up again, and I watched the temperature and oil gauges inside the coach, to make sure that it was doing good, and it was. Sadly though, since it had sat so long, all of the gaskets were dried out, especially the oil pan gasket, and it had a pretty good leak into the catch pan underneath.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to just run down the highway, with it leaking oil like that.  So, my friend Aaron a.k.a. “twochain” helped me find a lower gasket kit for the Perkins 4-108 diesel engine, and the weekend before I was to leave for the rally, my son and I got the oil pan gasket changed out, and we did an oil change. I went and fueled up the bus, so everything would be ready to go. 

All of that was quite a chunk of change, and I started thinking, “What are you doing?  You have grandkids that you are raising, and all this expense is taking away from the family.” I even mentioned it to my wife, “Should I be doing this?” She said, “It is something that you want to do, and by the time you get back home, you will be more comfortable driving it.”

She had already gotten my clothes together, as well as food, and toiletries for the trip, she hadn't even been for a ride in the bus yet. Don't ask me, I don't know what to tell you about that. Some of it has to do with things that need fixing, the electric toilet not working being the main thing. Figuring out the water compartment is another. All we've ever had is campers hooked up to city water, and a light pole, the bus is much more complex than that.

In amongst all of this going on, I got a call from two different Bus Nut friends, on the same day. The first was Bryce, you'll know him as “Busted Knuckle” or “BK”, and he mentioned wanting to go to the rally, and that he'd make it worth my while, if I could swing by and get him, on the way up, we talked for a while, and me being the old softy that I am, agreed to it.

That same afternoon, I received a call from my friend Jeff, you will know him as “2storygreyhound”, he knew that I was nervous about driving that far and mentioned that he could get a flight to Dallas and help me drive the bus to Nappanee. Well, the coach only has the master bed, and a jackknife sofa sleeper, and I had already told BK he could go, so I had to tell Jeff the bad news, “Thanks all the same Jeff, perhaps another time.”

On Wednesday the 20th, I had to leave for work early as I had taken some time off for a rally. However, I was feeling exhausted and hadn't slept well the previous night, so I left work early to take a nap before embarking on the first leg of my 566-mile journey. The destination was BK's shop in northeast Memphis, Tennessee, where I planned to spend the night in the bus at his shop.

I woke up from my nap and spent a little bit of time with my wife, before leaving by 6 PM, plugged in the address in the Google GPS, with only about five hours of experience behind the wheel, and that, as I would soon find out, was a terrible idea for a newbie (driving at night, and using Google instead of a truckers GPS). By the time I got to Texarkana, it was very dark, and storms in front of me, pretty much throughout Arkansas, with that real wild lightning that goes all the way across the sky.

The bridges going north on the Interstate were atrocious, there was a dip before and after every bridge, which gave my airbags quite a workout.  It made me think that I might need new shocks That wasn't enough though, as it seemed that every 18-wheeler from three states was present that night, construction zones down to one lane, or two lanes with concrete walls on both sides and not near enough room for a newbie driver like me, next to an 18-wheeler. I talked to the Man upstairs quite a bit that night and asked Him to please watch over me.

As I was driving towards my destination, somewhere near Memphis, Google Maps directed me onto a narrow, single-lane bridge that went high up in the air and over all the roads below it. I was already nervous about driving such a bridge during the day, so you can imagine how I felt driving an 18-ton bus at 2 AM.

My knuckles were white as I slowly made my way up the bridge, and I was going at a speed of only 30 MPH. I was praying that there wouldn’t be a 10-foot tunnel at the other end, and thankfully, there wasn’t. When I finally got back on the highway, a few drivers let me know that I was #1. I couldn’t help but laugh and wonder why anyone would be out at that time of night. Finally, I reached BK’s shop and parked the bus there. It was 3:55 AM, and I was ready to call it a night.’’

I was back up by 7 AM and standing on my last step, brushing my teeth, when a man in a pickup pulled in and asked me what I was doing there. I told him that I was there to meet up with BK so that we could head to Nappanee Indiana for a bus rally. He said, “Who is BK?” He told me that he was the co-owner of the shop. After a little bit of interrogation, he figured out that I was telling him the truth, and then BK pulled in, and the man wished me luck and drove off. 

We got BK loaded up and headed out to get fuel.  Once the tank was topped off, I went in to pay, BK said, "Your money is no good here” and he paid the nearly $500 tab. It was getting warm, so I hit the start button on the generator, to kick on the A/Cs, and it would not start, then the battery had run down.

We had to make a stop to get some Amish fried pies, that BK was going to take to the rally for a dessert at the potluck dinner, that they were going to have on Saturday. We met up with a young man who had brought the pies, and he tried to jump-start the generator but had no luck, and we needed to get some miles behind us.

Now BK is a big man, and he said that he would help me drive, so he got behind the wheel, and off we went. After just a little while though, he was very uncomfortable, and his leg was bothering him, so he pulled over, and I got back behind the wheel.

We made it to Indianapolis and stopped for a bite to eat. Once we got done eating, we headed back to the bus. I hit the key, and the starter just spun, it would not engage.  We tried to jump across it and it just sparked. I hit it with a hammer a few times, and still, it just spun. BROKE DOWN!!!

After a few minutes, I made a call to Dan a.k.a. “dtcerrato”, up at the rally, we discussed the problems with the starter and the generator, and he was talking to the guys around the campfire about it. Gary LeCount said he was going to make a phone call, and that they would call me back.

As I was walking past the restaurant, I noticed a large truck repair shop behind it. It was still open, but I won't mention its name as I don't want to defame it because of one bad employee. I decided to check it out and walked in. A man sitting behind the computer noticed me and rolled his eyes before asking, "Can I help you?"  I said, "Yes, I am from Texas, and I have a bus conversion over here, that I can’t get started.”

He rolled his eyes again, and said, "What kind of bus" I told him an MCI MC-9, to which he said, "It’s got a Detroit Diesel in it?" I proudly said,” Yes sir.” He sat back down, looked at his computer screen, and told me that he couldn't help me, “We don’t work on Detroit Diesel engines.” I said it was a starter issue, he said I can't help you, there is another shop behind us, but I'm pretty sure they are closed. JERK!

As I was walking back to the bus, my phone rang and it was Dan. Gary had contacted Scott, the owner of BGM, who then called his son Tyler, who lives in Indianapolis. Tyler texted me and asked for my exact location so that he could come and take a look at the problem with the bus the next morning.

We exchanged a few texts and I felt much better about our situation. However, due to the breakdown, we lost a lot of time and were only about two and a half hours away from Nappanee. Tyler Crosby formally of Bus Grease Monkey, got us back up, and running the next morning.

Tyler Crosby helped me get the bus running.

Tyler showed up, the next morning and I got out a tarp to lay on the ground. He said, “Let me try something first.” We were talking, and I was looking at him, he looks so much like his dad. I was pretty excited to meet him, and just kept rambling on, while he was getting his toolbox unlocked, he reached in, grabbed a 1-1/2” socket, and a breaker bar, put the socket on the crankshaft pully nut, and gave it a slight turn to turn the flywheel. Then told me to go give it a try, and the thing fired right up. I could have hugged him, LOL!

I asked him how much I owed him, but he said, “Nothing” and that he was off for the weekend, I said, “No. I insist,” and gave him some money. I asked if he could take a look at the generator really quick, we slid it out, and of course, the battery was weak, but he noticed a leaking fuel line. He said,” Let me go get some new fuel line, and clamps, and then hook my battery cables up, and see what we can do.” So, I offered him some more money for the parts, but he wouldn’t accept it.

He was back in no time and had enough lines for both hoses. He changed the leaking fuel line and hooked up his battery cables, but we couldn't get it started. I thanked him and asked if I could get a picture with him, he agreed, and then we parted ways. He even texted me to make sure that we made it, later that evening. What a stellar human being he is, and so nice. Thank you, Tyler.

We didn't stop again until we got to Nappanee, I took a video not long after we turned onto HWY 6 for the last stretch coming in. Unfortunately, my phone fell over, and didn't record the drive into the fairgrounds. We missed the turn and had to turn around in a large lot, but I had seen Misty, wife of Gary LeCount who put on the rally, sitting in the Gazebo. By the time I turned around, she was gone. We pulled in, and Gary and his brother Barry met us in a side-by-side vehicle and motioned for us to follow him.

They put me right up front and center, in line with the information tent, which made me feel special. Before BK and I could get out of the bus, Gary had my generator bay door opened, as well as his toolbox, and went to work trying to diagnose the problem. Within minutes, a whole swarm of Bus Nuts gathered around and dug right in, they had a new fuel filter installed, and had it running in no time, and I left it running.

Gary even had an extra extended generator tailpipe, so as not to gas out my neighbors. He and his wife, as well as their extended family, were such great hosts, and Gary even told me that he would run me into town the next day, to get things that I needed, one item was a Tyler Famous 1-1/2" socket just in case. LOL!

Gary treated me like an old high school buddy. He took me on a quick tour of the town of Nappanee the next morning, and then to one of the shops that he works in. The shop was full of old tractors, and quite a few were steam-powered, lots of cool memorabilia, he was awesome. He even used his discount at the parts store, to get my socket. Thanks, Gary.

Walter and his wife made it in not long after we did, and I had already talked to a couple of the guys about doing a presentation, to present Walter with my appreciation trophy later that evening. They were also taking up donations to give to Walter for his help getting another Bus Nut's Eagle bus, back on the road, to which we all chipped in, but that is a story that should be told by the man himself, as well as those who helped with the project.

Walter is quite a human being, they all are. After the presentation, there was a huge fire pit, that Gary made, and he even cut the letters RAOC into the side of it. John a.k.a. “Pinetop”, and Ted a.k.a. “Goshawk” were playing a few songs on their guitars, and just good comradery all around. I was the last man standing at the campfire that night.

Anyway, time went by very quickly and I didn't get a chance to do all that I wanted to do. Getting there a day late, and driving a bus that far, for a newbie, I think had me in shock. I wasn't myself. I did take some pictures and toured a couple of the many buses there on Saturday. If I get to go again, I will arrive a couple of days early, and add an extra day on the way back.

Anyway, I zig-zagged all over the grounds looking at buses and talking to people all day Saturday. I spent all day taking pictures until I finally figured out that my plan for doing a story about RAOC, with names, etc. wasn't going to happen. Sorry, Gary Hatt.

Saturday evening came, and there was a potluck dinner, with all kinds of goodies, and delicious food. I was still over talking with Jon and Di in their Prevost, when BK came sliding up on his scooter, and said, "Two things Bill, it's time to eat, and your generator just died." Oh crap, it had been running for more than 24 hours. So, I went over to inspect it and realized that it had drained the main tank down past the generator fuel line pickup.

Luckily, I had a full auxiliary tank, so I flipped the switch to pump it over and went to grab a bite to eat. I lost track of time.  I think it was Jason, that told me that my pump was running dry. Ahhhhh! So, I ran back to the bus and shut the pump off, took a look at the main tank, and it was full to the brim. Tried to get the genny to start, but it had lost prime.

The band that was playing that night for the entertainment had already played one set while I was gone, so I just went back over to enjoy the music, it was classic rock, and they sounded good. After which was another gathering around the fire pit. The guys said that they would help me with the generator in the morning before we headed back south. I knew this was the last night, and I was just getting comfortable with everyone, I sure didn't want to leave so quickly, after such a long drive.

Sunday morning came around too fast. I got up early and was checking tire pressure, oil, etc. Rick a.k.a. “Ricks74” stopped by, and said, “Let’s get that genny going again for you.” He taught me how to bleed the fuel lines, and the injectors, Gary brought his Jeep, and some jumper cables, and after a few tries, she finally came to life again.

Several of the campers and buses were leaving, as I was scrambling to tell everyone bye, and nice to meet you. Got BK loaded up, shook Gary's hand one more time, gave his wife Misty a hug, and thanked them all, for a wonderful time. I forgot to mention, that each attendee received a gift bag, full of all kinds of goodies, and information about the town of Nappanee and the surrounding area, which has a lot of history and is an Amish-type town. Also included was a wooden camp sign, with our name custom painted on it, and a nicely welded rod to hang it on, these people went above and beyond.

So, with the goodbyes behind us, we hit the road and had a full main fuel tank, which was a good thing, as diesel in that state was $4.69 and up. BK and I were talking about the weekend when we topped a hill and saw two of the buses from the rally on the side of the road.  It was Ted and Dan, I shut it down, pulled over way in front of them, and backed up on the shoulder. I backed up a good 1/8th of a mile, using my mirrors, with all kinds of traffic whizzing by.

Ted's bus just died going down the road at 65 MPH. Dan already had his tool bay opened and was cutting some wire for a jumper, which worked perfectly and got him back on the road. I wasn't needed, but I wasn't just going to sail on by without making sure that all was okay.  They would have done it for me, like some kind of unspoken Bus Nut law.

After that, it was pretty smooth sailing, we made it to Kentucky before we stopped for fuel. It was about dusk, and we still had a lot of miles to put behind us to get back to the northeast side of Memphis.

I've got to say that it was a pleasure having BK with me, he had story after story and kept me in stitches for half of my journey. His family owned their own charter bus business back in the day, and then BK became a truck driver, so you know those stories were good. We became brothers on that trip.

We finally made it back to his town at around 9 PM, and I wanted to stop, and top off the tanks, so that I could just make a beeline for home the next morning. We got all his stuff off the bus, and we shook hands, he said, "Oh, by the way, you will want to be up, and on the road, to get through Memphis before 5 AM, or that road is a parking lot." Grrrrrreat, LOL!

So, I went around the bus looking it over, then sat down on the step, and thought about what time I really had to get up. Memphis was over two hours away, it was already 10:30 PM, and I wasn't sleepy at all, but I made myself lay down. I had set the alarm for 3 AM, and then just before I nodded off, reset it for 2 AM. I must have slept with one eye open, because at 1:55 I woke up, and said, “Okay, let’s do this.”

I made it through Memphis, and to Little Rock, Arkansas before the sun was up, so I stopped to stretch my legs. I had sent my wife several texts the night before, and that morning, but she wasn't getting them. I knew that she was worried about me, so I pressed on, a quick stop in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. 

I didn't realize it when I exited the ramp, but it was the same truck stop, that Walter pulled into before he let me drive, on the way home from Ohio when I bought the coach. This made me smile big. I could see him in my mind from that day, and I parked in the same spot that he did.

I didn't stop again until I was almost home, except for fuel, and I tried to call my wife once I was back in Texas, but it wouldn't go through.  Really strange. Anyway, I pulled into the driveway at noon, and my wife came out the back door, I hit the air horns and the siren, which put a big smile on her face because she knew that I had made it to the rally and back safely.  

I jumped off the bus and gave her a big ole Texas-sized hug. It was so good to be home. We figured out how to reset her phone, and then all the text that I had sent started coming to her phone. Technology, sheesh!

In closing, let me say, that this journey was quite an undertaking for me, and a milestone in my life that I will never forget. I learned a lot of newbie lessons along the way, and know, that I have many more to learn, but with the kind of folks that you meet in this Bus Nut community, you always have someone to reach out to and so many have already helped me in so many different ways.

I have had the coach for less than a year and have been in the bus for over 3,600 miles, 2,400 of those was all me, and I have never driven anything as big as a bus. By the way, my starter gave up the ghost, and never started again, once I pulled in the driveway. Plans are to fix the original starter but put a 39MT starter on it.  They use less power and spin faster, and I will have a backup with the rebuilt original.

My suggestion to newbies wanting to get into this lifestyle is first getting a bus with good bones, and then know right off the bat that they are a complex piece of machinery, and expensive to bring back around, but once you get everything dialed in, with regular maintenance and upkeep, they will outlive you. I still have a way to go, but I just keep pushing forward.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story.

Here are some pictures in video form, and there is also a video from Richard Burner with the names of the owners:

Richard Burner’s video