Saturday, June 16, 2007
AN IRRITATING WAY TO START THIS TRIP, I HOPE IT ISN'T AN INDICATION OF THINGS TO COME!!
June 13, 2007
I managed to get the 'Bird and the trailer all loaded, just before the afternoon storms hit and I headed down to the local Wal Mart campground, so I could do all of my shopping for the trip. I found my usual parking spot off to the side and to the rear of the Garden center and Auto service department, where I will be completely out of the way. It cooled down considerably so I just opened the vents and windows for the night. I will get up early tomorrow so that I can beat the morning rush and head over to the Bus garage to have them replace the two old hose clamps.
June 14, 2007
I awoke to a beautiful morning, made a cup of coffee fed both Buddy and Cally and took Buddy for a walk, it is nice and cool this morning. I realized that I forgot something back home in the office, so after Buddy's walk I will unload the car and drive the six miles back home and pick them up.
When I got back to the 'Bird, I found a Dodge pickup parked directly in front of me, where I could not drive out forward, but will have to back up to get out of my parking space, remember I said I parked completely out of the way, where I have checked with the store manager before, with his approval. Now you have to understand that this is not the first time that this same pickup has done this, it will be the third time that it has happened, but the problem is we are the only vehicles in this parking area of almost 75 spaces on the side of the building. I shop at this Wal Mart sometimes three or four times a week and I have seen this same pickup parked away from the spot that he likes to park at when I'm there. This time I was really pissed and I went in and talked to the store manager, or the assistant that was in charge overnight and she graciously listened to me and got in touch with the owner of the pickup and asked him to move it. It turns out that this As......er....... fellow is the manager of the garden center. I approached him and asked him just why with all of the other spaces in the lot, he had to park directly in front of me and his reply was that was where he HAD TO PARK, now remember I have seen this pickup on numerous occasions parked elsewhere in the same lot. I then told him that I shopped there quite often and had seen his truck parked elsewhere and he then said that only happened if a Wal Mart truck was parked where I was at, I then asked what was the difference, considering I'm a customer and the Wal mart truck would be an employee. The area where I was parked is not near the loading docks and is just a side parking area, that is not used that much. Needless to say I was getting more upset with this jerk as we went along and voiced my opinion. He then decided that he would not move his pickup since I. was irate.....................................WHAT am I supposed to be happy that this jerk parked directly in front of me when he had about 74 other place to park, or even a few spaces away from in front of the bus? When I finally calm down I will defiantly be writing some letters to Wal Mart about this and sending them copies of all of the photos that I took also. I will download some photos when I get to a WI-Fi spot.
I got over to the bus garage to get the hose clamps replaced and then departed the Columbia area, for my first nights stop at the NEST in ft. valley, Ga at the bluebird factory. I arrived at ft. Valley just before dark after a leisurely drive on the back roads of South Carolina and Georgia and as I was parked in the outside parking area where it is easier for me to park with the trailer, I saw another ‘Bird on their way out, I didn’t recognize who they were. I took Buddy for a walk around 9pm and found the Nest to be almost a ghost town with only what looked like factory coaches parked in the outside lot with me and the lower NEST area, with not one single ‘Bird parked in the upper area and the clubhouse dark. I didn’t check to see if it was open as I had the dog with me and didn’t want to take him inside if it was open and all I wanted up there was to sign in, I will check it out again tomorrow.
June 15, 2007
Well daylight sure sheds a lot of light on the subject, it is fascinating how I come up with these brilliant ideas right off the top of my head.........DOH!!!! I went up to the club house and found out that it was indeed open, the people that had just left when I was coming in were just practicing good power management and they had shut the lights off when they left, so I went in and signed the guest book. On my way back I measured some of the camping spaces and found one that was not reserved for ‘Birds that were in for service, that I could fit in to while still hooked up to the trailer, so I went back and cranked up the ‘Bird and parked it in the long spot for the day.
I decided that I would walk over to the Service and sales building to see if Earl Davis was still up on the other side of the plant and found to my surprise that he now has an office in the service and sales building, I checked on the part that I wanted and found that it would be shipped from Bluebird Parts in Ohio now. I wanted to carry a spare drive shaft carrier bearing with me, as one of mine has about 1/8 inch play in it, which is not excessive, but I would feel better if I had one with me as a spare and I couldn’t find one in the Columbia area before I left, so now if I do have a problem with It, I will have him ship one to me overnight. There is no vibration coming from it, I just wanted a spare.
I did not find anybody else around at Sales ans Service, when I was there, so I didn’t get to ask any questions about the new owners. I will check in there again before I leave tomorrow morning.
Taking a look around it appears that the only thing in production right now is a series of over the road transit busses, but the rumor is that the new ‘Bird will go into production soon, so we will see. The ‘Birds in the lower portion of the NEST are indeed used and new ‘Birds for sale by Coachworks, plus four ‘Birds that are in for service. I almost feel like I have a bad case of BO, as I’m the only one up here on top, after parking overnight in the outside lot, I feel just like the Jefferson’s, you know I’m MOVING ON UP TO THE EAST SIDE, but in this case, it would be the NORTH SIDE and yes I did turn the lights out in the clubhouse before I left.
I managed to get the 'Bird and the trailer all loaded, just before the afternoon storms hit and I headed down to the local Wal Mart campground, so I could do all of my shopping for the trip. I found my usual parking spot off to the side and to the rear of the Garden center and Auto service department, where I will be completely out of the way. It cooled down considerably so I just opened the vents and windows for the night. I will get up early tomorrow so that I can beat the morning rush and head over to the Bus garage to have them replace the two old hose clamps.
June 14, 2007
I awoke to a beautiful morning, made a cup of coffee fed both Buddy and Cally and took Buddy for a walk, it is nice and cool this morning. I realized that I forgot something back home in the office, so after Buddy's walk I will unload the car and drive the six miles back home and pick them up.
When I got back to the 'Bird, I found a Dodge pickup parked directly in front of me, where I could not drive out forward, but will have to back up to get out of my parking space, remember I said I parked completely out of the way, where I have checked with the store manager before, with his approval. Now you have to understand that this is not the first time that this same pickup has done this, it will be the third time that it has happened, but the problem is we are the only vehicles in this parking area of almost 75 spaces on the side of the building. I shop at this Wal Mart sometimes three or four times a week and I have seen this same pickup parked away from the spot that he likes to park at when I'm there. This time I was really pissed and I went in and talked to the store manager, or the assistant that was in charge overnight and she graciously listened to me and got in touch with the owner of the pickup and asked him to move it. It turns out that this As......er....... fellow is the manager of the garden center. I approached him and asked him just why with all of the other spaces in the lot, he had to park directly in front of me and his reply was that was where he HAD TO PARK, now remember I have seen this pickup on numerous occasions parked elsewhere in the same lot. I then told him that I shopped there quite often and had seen his truck parked elsewhere and he then said that only happened if a Wal Mart truck was parked where I was at, I then asked what was the difference, considering I'm a customer and the Wal mart truck would be an employee. The area where I was parked is not near the loading docks and is just a side parking area, that is not used that much. Needless to say I was getting more upset with this jerk as we went along and voiced my opinion. He then decided that he would not move his pickup since I. was irate.....................................WHAT am I supposed to be happy that this jerk parked directly in front of me when he had about 74 other place to park, or even a few spaces away from in front of the bus? When I finally calm down I will defiantly be writing some letters to Wal Mart about this and sending them copies of all of the photos that I took also. I will download some photos when I get to a WI-Fi spot.
I got over to the bus garage to get the hose clamps replaced and then departed the Columbia area, for my first nights stop at the NEST in ft. valley, Ga at the bluebird factory. I arrived at ft. Valley just before dark after a leisurely drive on the back roads of South Carolina and Georgia and as I was parked in the outside parking area where it is easier for me to park with the trailer, I saw another ‘Bird on their way out, I didn’t recognize who they were. I took Buddy for a walk around 9pm and found the Nest to be almost a ghost town with only what looked like factory coaches parked in the outside lot with me and the lower NEST area, with not one single ‘Bird parked in the upper area and the clubhouse dark. I didn’t check to see if it was open as I had the dog with me and didn’t want to take him inside if it was open and all I wanted up there was to sign in, I will check it out again tomorrow.
June 15, 2007
Well daylight sure sheds a lot of light on the subject, it is fascinating how I come up with these brilliant ideas right off the top of my head.........DOH!!!! I went up to the club house and found out that it was indeed open, the people that had just left when I was coming in were just practicing good power management and they had shut the lights off when they left, so I went in and signed the guest book. On my way back I measured some of the camping spaces and found one that was not reserved for ‘Birds that were in for service, that I could fit in to while still hooked up to the trailer, so I went back and cranked up the ‘Bird and parked it in the long spot for the day.
I decided that I would walk over to the Service and sales building to see if Earl Davis was still up on the other side of the plant and found to my surprise that he now has an office in the service and sales building, I checked on the part that I wanted and found that it would be shipped from Bluebird Parts in Ohio now. I wanted to carry a spare drive shaft carrier bearing with me, as one of mine has about 1/8 inch play in it, which is not excessive, but I would feel better if I had one with me as a spare and I couldn’t find one in the Columbia area before I left, so now if I do have a problem with It, I will have him ship one to me overnight. There is no vibration coming from it, I just wanted a spare.
I did not find anybody else around at Sales ans Service, when I was there, so I didn’t get to ask any questions about the new owners. I will check in there again before I leave tomorrow morning.
Taking a look around it appears that the only thing in production right now is a series of over the road transit busses, but the rumor is that the new ‘Bird will go into production soon, so we will see. The ‘Birds in the lower portion of the NEST are indeed used and new ‘Birds for sale by Coachworks, plus four ‘Birds that are in for service. I almost feel like I have a bad case of BO, as I’m the only one up here on top, after parking overnight in the outside lot, I feel just like the Jefferson’s, you know I’m MOVING ON UP TO THE EAST SIDE, but in this case, it would be the NORTH SIDE and yes I did turn the lights out in the clubhouse before I left.
# posted by John Finn & Buddy & Cally Cat @ 1:59 AM 
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