Delaware Bus Rally Information, "Long Post" do not read and drive after!!!

[Gary LaBombard]

OMG.  I didn't think rallies could keep getting better but as each one is held that we get to attend I am first to admit that I am wrong.  I am starting to write this now while everything is fresh in my mind while we are still at Bruce's home.  We were scheduled to leave this morning like most of the rest of the rally attendees that did leave but my butt is dragging, I am pooped out and decided, what the heck, we are taking one more day to just relax and charge my personal batteries.

Everyone knows my post by now and I assume this one won't be much different than any of the others.  So if long post turn you off, or get very boring, just go on to another post below or above this one, I feel this will be a long one too.  Sorry!!!

I have not read any post on any of the bulleting boards since we left SC 7 days ago and have no idea what has been said if anything about the Delaware Rally so some of the things mentioned here will possible be a repeat and again I am sorry!!  No I ain't!!  I wanted to start this post on Microsoft word and continue it through the day in case I put myself to sleep.   

We arrived Tuesday at midnight after driving straight through for 14 hrs, 657 miles.  Never again!!!  I am too old to do that macho stuff anymore.  That had to be the hottest day of the year so far and we were in that heat the entire day with a 1988 S&S that registered 1/8" from the hot zone on my dash temperature gage which I just prayed was working right. Keeping down the highway speed helped to minimize heat on the engine compartment but the road was about 180+ degrees and the day was just an absolutely miserable travel day for comfort as our dash AC went out after the first hour of travel. (Here we go I thought)!  Well even our S&S has a back up and we started the generator and turned on the NEW roof air we just bought but man she worked hard with the heat etc. to keep us comfortable.  Yep, we thought this was going to be one of those trips right from the git-go.  Anyhow back to the rally etc.

Our Magellan GPS we bought from Wal-Mart just a few weeks before we left for this Delaware trip did a great job getting us right here to Bruce's yard.  Thank God for this technology we can now depend upon and have less pressure on our Co-Pilots.  Oh, Yea on that one!!

We were here now two days ahead of the scheduled rally and wanted to contribute with preparations for the rally if we could and also do a few other things while in this area of our country while we were here.  We were informed of the sights here or close by but did not have a toad, (we will next year).  There were a few other early attendees also so the party was already to begin and did.

One of the Delaware locals in Bruce's circle of friends was Ross Carlisle and he offered to take us early arrivals on his pontoon boat for a day trip and we jumped right on the offer.  We all met at the rally point for our day trip and loaded up for a full day on his boat which he took us to a private island on Rheoboota Beach, Delaware.  Those wishing to go on this day trip were, (Nick Badame, Wife Michelle, Son NIki, Daughters Dana & Brianna, Ed  & Daniel Skiba, Gary LaBombard and Grand-daughter Ashleigh Thrift.  We cruised in the bay area, went to this private island and let the kids and adults on board all play in the water etc.  While there Ross attempted to get his sail kite up in the air for us but the darn speed of the wind was down about 2 miles per hour which prevented him from the sail kit / surfboarding we cheered him on to do.

While on our trip Ross planned for us to have lunch at a pier restaurant he frequents which was absolutely beautiful.  Talk about great food and atmosphere as you sit looking over the bay area as you chowed down your meal, you would have to go a long ways to beat this.  But we did which is written below!!

As Ross toured us around the bay area and homes etc. we run along a school of long nose Dolphin's that just made our day, especially the kids, and me!!  The Dolphins would not cooperate by posing for me to take a photo so I don't have any photo's per-say because they dive up and down so fast and my reflexes just do not allow me movement fast enough to keep up with them.  But what an enjoyable experience when maybe 8-10 dolphins just playing next to your boat and personally entertain you for the length of time you wish to watch.  Even the kids got excited about it, but not as much as me.

Ross continued the tour  with us with his boat also around an area that had a ship wreck that was washed ashore after a hurricane or something like that.  These photos are included in my website with all the photo's possible that I took of the rally for you to view.  This boat also has an engine still in it that may interest someone here for a "Spare" for their bus if they need it, but getting it out of the boat will be a challenge. 

Thanks Ross for a really great day from us all that could take advantage of your hospitality on that trip, this is one of the possible advantages of being a true early bird like we were.  Every one of us has good memories of our enjoyable trip because of you.

We did not want our day to end after returning to Bruce's home base so those rally early bird arrivals that wanted to went to Bill & Roberta Glenn's ("R&R Grill N Bar Restaurant") that has been "Converted", (good grief Bill even has a converted restaurant as well as a bus) from a regular adult only bar to a family style restaurant bar & grill that has great, great food and the prices make an evening of enjoyment affordable & something to really look forward to at the end of a day to relax and have a good time.

Bill & Roberta's restaurant is located at (30739 Sussex Highway, Laurel, Delaware) and they have a web site, www.rnrgrillnbar.com which right at this posting is under-construction.  you can visit Thier website for update information on happenings at their restaurant before you go there and also to see what is on the entertainment and food menu before leaving your home.   I stole a copy of Bill & Roberta's restaurant menu from their restaurant so that I could post a copy of it on my web site for you to see the reasonable prices and growing menu list for all to select from.  (No wonder no one invites us to their home's etc. more than once)  LOL.  9 of us went there, we had some drinks, great food again and then we did Karaoke, (what else), Ashleigh and Daniel played pool also and we just started to enjoy our first evening of Bruce's bus rally with some of the early bird arrivals such as us but at a busnut's place of business.  I hope Bill does not mind me raving on about their business any, I feel we have to help any busnut we can with their buses or business ventures.  Mike & Kathy Merril drove us all in their GMC bus to Bills & Roberta's "R n R Bar & Restaurant". .  Age does not slow that bus of Mike's & Kathy's down any and there is no better way to go.

The following still day, which was still an Early Arrival day, a few other buses trickled into to Bruce's, they set up camp and the party just kept getting bigger and more fun for all.  I cannot go much further without saying it was hot, hot, hot out as it was across the country so having a generator was a plus for sleeping at night and keeping our little animals in the bus all safe and comfy also.

Three of our great ladies need to receive recognition here before I go any further, Kathy Merril, Sue Skiba & Linda LaBombard worked their butts off to make & serve all our food meals during the entire rally from the early bird arrivals of (Tuesday) till the rally actually ended, for us on Monday.  Roberta could only be there for two days and after she arrived there was a completed group of women working like bees but having fun together as they did.   I think everyone that attended will also agree that the food was way more than plenty and the preparations were that of a professional catered event.  If anyone, I mean anyone went hungry; they feel asleep for 6 days or were unconscious for that period.  Thanks so much for this ladies, I know it took from a lot of time you could have enjoyed just sitting and chatting like the rest of us did. 

A lot of help was received from all  that attended Bruce's rally on the transferring of the food from the house to the food tent and picked up after, but we all know how much work was involved from these ladies to get it ready for us to enjoy and again we all give thanks that just does not seem like I am saying enough here now to you all.  Kathy in particular, worked for days way before we got together all by her self and when we left Monday she looked pretty exhausted out but knowing her with only a few hours rest she was good to go again.  Thanks Kathy from us all again especially to you.

I have to also mention that more food was purchased, more meals prepared, more appetizers served at this rally than was originally planned for us all to enjoy and that I have ever seen.  I know a lot of food, drinks etc. were provided with out of pocket expenses for Bruce, Mike & Kathy, and Bill & Roberta way above the price requested for the Rally Fee we paid and I only wish at the last great meal we shared I mentioned this so that perhaps donations could have been received for this great hospitality we received and we could give thanks for all this fun out of our hearts before we left.  I do not know of another gathering of any kind in my 62 years on earth that I have eaten, or drink or partied with as much fun as this past week at Bruce's.  As I said before, I did not realize these rallies could continue to offer any more enjoyment than the last one but they just continue to grow on you as you enjoy each one individually as we have.  This is no BULL!!

Thank God that Bruce had a 27 ft. above ground pool for us all, kids & Adults to have to keep going in and out of for the entire rally to make our party more comfortable as the heat index was nearly 104 deg. Day and night.  We all went in I believe one time or other or nearly all. 

We had Karaoke singing available to everyone, thanks to Bill Glenn's equipment and as the evenings went on more and more of us entertained each other and not once was, "Simon Cowel" of American Idol there to criticize us and everyone become more comfortable with getting up in public to sing.  I don't care what anyone says either, you will get a "Natural High" when you do loosen up and get up there and sing your favorite songs you must all have.  The kids too had great time singing their songs and had their times each evening to sing what they want to warm up the adults, (to get their performing courage up).

It was not unusual for anyone to still be singing at 2 AM, Luke ===== & his son also attended our rally and sang a variety of songs representing all the years in past, even country songs!!  Way to go Luke!! 

We were fortunate enough to celebrate 2 birthdays also at our rally and one was a complete surprise.  Mike Merril was to become 50 near the end of August and since we were all here from his busnut family Sue Skiba choose to make Mike a surprise birthday cake and what a surprise it was.  She made 6 individual cakes that were replicas of buses that took her about 3 days to make and decorate and photos of this achievement are also in my web site photos for all to see.  Sue, what a wonderful job you did on Mike's Birthday cakes.  Even more importantly what a great surprise for Mike that we all had a great time sharing with him.  Photos of the birthday wishes from us all are also posted with all our photos of this event.

Howard & Susan Roman also arranged a birthday party for their Daughter, (Francis) who turned 5 years old and decorated the eating tent for her to have a great birthday party to remember which also has photos of on the web site.

Actually, everything I could take a photo of while there for nearly 7 days I did.   I missed a few shots maybe but NOT MANY!!  Anyhow, I will post as many as I can, it will take much time to sort out but as usual I will to make it easier for you to see what you really missed.  Next years rally at Bruce's is a must for us, I only hope we can attend with our Eagle after all this time.  It does not take a whole lot to put a gathering like this together if everyone chips in etc. and the fun far out weighs any cost to us individually.  I do not recommend that arrangers of any of our bus rallies take and put a rally on with their (any of their own out of Pocket expenses) though to make it as successful as this rally was especially.  I will not let you absorb this extra cost next year Bruce and all that did contribute to the extra expenses not planned on at planning time and I hope this has not put a burden on you as I can just imagine what this really cost, No I Can't. !!  Thanks again Bruce, Bill & Roberta & Mike & Kathy.

Saturday Morning, August 18, 2007

Well here it is Saturday morning like I promised, almost noon actually.  Well, all the photos have been submitted for viewing but I have a few more things to add to this post before letting you go.  Hehe.

I have to mention that it was difficult to get everyone together at their individual buses at times to get photo's of the entire families and lord knows how I tried and know I became a real PIA in doing this and apologize.  There is still a couple of families I just could not get together and do not have photo's of them together like I wanted and tried to do.  I am sorry this happened but I sure tried to do right to everyone, you have no idea how difficult it is to do this and have everything come out right or the way you really want it.

There was a lot of buses at Bruce's rally that are still in the (Works In Progress) stage which is great as newbie's can easily see what is involved at all levels of completing our conversions.  I know Frank & Sue Franklin took full advantage of this time and documented absolutely everything they could for their new project on their MCI.  My photo albums show all these various stages of completion but we are all in agreement to all that after a bus purchase is made, be sure it is in safe roadworthy stage for traveling, make it comfortable for your personal use to the limit that you are not sitting home for some ridiculous reason of lack of cosmetics on your bus.  Come and enjoy yourself like we all did last week, make new friends, chip in for the rally with food and or $$ as all the rallies like the ones we have attended so far have all been priceless.

My photo albums of all this and all previous bus rallies show designs of baggage storage bays and set ups, generator compartments, battery storage lockers, air in / out vents, inside cabin compartment living quarters remodeling, full bathrooms, bedrooms etc.  There is a lot of information to digest and consider thanks to this internet, I hope my efforts to support your thirst for information and ideas you can incorporate with your own originality will help you at any level you are at now with your conversion.

Well I am finally out of computer writing energy, I have to post where you can go see your photo's and for those that did not attend, here again is what you missed.  Hope to see you all at a rally soon. 

(1)   My web site has a total of 121 photo albums, each containing nearly 30 photo's each plus or minus a few.
(2)   There are 17 "NEW" photo albums I have posted as of today that should open up at the top of my web page.  Remember, I do not see the arrangements as the Administrator of my site so I only hope you do not have difficulty opening up and viewing. 
(3)   There are a total of 462 photos of "Bruce's Annual Delaware Bus Rally" that I have posted.  I took a lot of duplicate photo's I did not submit and deleted them. 
(4)   All albums are labeled which should have two families photo's on each album so that you can view your own first if you attended etc.  Look at the heading on each of the albums to keep track of where you start and finish viewing these albums.  I made surfing my site as easy as I could for you.
(5)   If there is any mistakes I have made please send me email per my bb'd profile address and I will correct ASAP.  Not today though!!  I am pooped out!
(6)   There is options to have the albums you select viewed as a (Slide Show), you have to look at the top of the menu I do not see on my computer, but when found by you it is enjoyable just to sit back and let her rip. 

I hope you enjoy viewing the fun we all had; I cannot even begin to really show my appreciation for Bruce allowing us to have this rally at his home and all the hospitality he showed us while there for 7 days, (Some of us).  Thanks again Bruce.  I also want to thank Bill & Roberta for their involvement in arranging this rally for us also.  Thanks for all the food & drinks donated by you also and the use of your great Karaoke machine and thanks to Roberta for giving the kids day at the Pizza Boy's Restaurant.  Mike & Kathy, great Plattsburgh friends, thanks so much also and Kathy you deserve to get all the rest up north that you can get.  Sue Skiba, you're a treasure to find at these rallies and we look forward to us coming to your home one day soon during our travels, Thanks for your help in all the preparations for this rally.

If I forgot to thank anyone, I am sorry; I am just so tired out after 3 full days of working in front of this computer I can't stand it. 

Thanks for your patience in this post.  I am enclosing one special photo of us all that was at Bruce's rally and we all got together that I believe is a first but not last group photo of this kind that will just continue to grow.

My web site for you to visit is:
http://community.webshots.com/user/converter101

Thanks for your Patience in this long post.
Gary

[DrivingMissLazy]

Great job Gary. Thanks from those of us who were unable to attend.
The photos are at the bottom of page 3. All are labeled new.

Richard

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Gary,

As usual, your tireless efforts helped make the 07' Delaware Rally even better then last year.

Thank You for all the great Photo's and for being there....

Nick-

P.S. on my way back to Bruce's as we speak.

[donnreeves]

Hey Gary,
You were a royal pain in the a--. A guy had to watch where  he scratched with the photographer always lurking. Seriously, we all thank you for your hard work. I don't think anyone else could document an event quite like you. You are also a fantastic singer.You kept us well entertained.Thanks again.  Donn

[FloridaCliff]

Gary,

Great pictures and commentary!

One again a First Class effort.

Cliff

[Dreamscape]

Thanks Gary for sharing the event with us who could not attend. My only hope is that our Texas Bus Roundup 2007 turns out that well. We will be taking lots of pics to share, although not as well documented as yours I'm sure. You do fantastic work!

Happy Trails,

Paul

Dreamscape

[Ncbob]

Absolutely a fantastic piece of work, once again, Gary.  Just reading your running commentary made me feel that we missed a another fantastic rally again. Woe is me!

One thing for sure, the DE gangs' reputation for doing everything first class has certainly not been impugned and no doubt their rally will grow even larger next year....if not again this year.  They're a partying bunch of super BusNuts.

Haven't gotten to the pics yet but if tradition holds true your efforts will win another BusNut Pulitzer.  You can't imagine what fun we get from viewing your albums.

Thanks again for your efforts and talent.

Jackie & Bob

[Ednj]

Absolutely a fantastic piece of work, once again, Gary.  Just reading your running commentary made me feel that we missed a another fantastic rally again. Woe is me!

One thing for sure, the DE gangs' reputation for doing everything first class has certainly not been impugned and no doubt their rally will grow even larger next year....if not again this year.  They're a partying bunch of super BusNuts.



Jackie & Bob
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Ok Guy's the registration dead line is getting close, if your planning on comming, there are still a few spots available.
remember Gary's review from last year?

[Hi yo silver]

Thanks for sharing, Gary.  Looks like we missed a goodin'.  Oh well, can't make 'em all.  Sounds like you had FUN!
Dennis

[Ednj]

Thanks for sharing, Gary.  Looks like we missed a goodin'.  Oh well, can't make 'em all.  Sounds like you had FUN!
Dennis

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That was last year, there is still time for this years Rally