HDT Rally 2010 Ends

Thursday morning found Gina up early and heading out for a day of shopping with all of the ladies here at the HDT rally. Their first stop was in Buhler, Kansas. Buhler is a small town with unique shops.  From there they went to Yoder, Kansas, which is a small Amish community for lunch.

First table of the ladies

(looks like their waiting on food)

Second table of the ladies

(this table looks like they have finished their food)

While Gina was gone I sat in a discussion on tires.  Once that was over I walked over to the horse arena here at the fairgrounds. They are having the Kansas Cutting Horse competition this week. I met a Dave and his son-in-law Ryan on Wednesday as they were admiring all of the trucks here for the rally. After talking to them for a few minutes I learned that Ryan trains cutting horses and was also competing in the professional category. As I was walking into the arena Dave saw me and we walked over to his motorhome. I had the pleasure of meeting his wife Sue, their daughter Cody and their two grandchildren Rydan and Chloe. A beautiful family that I'm sure our paths will cross again.  I then walked inside of the arena and watched a little of the competition. It was quite impressive. I knew that Gina should be getting back soon so I told them goodbye and wished Ryan the best of luck on Friday. Just before walking inside of our home I noticed that Rick had just bought a pressure pro system for his truck and trailer.  I decided to help him install them so he wouldn’t have to keep climbing in out of his truck for each sensor. Perfect time because as we finished installing the pressure pro system I saw Gina arriving.  I then walked back home where Gina showed me what she had bought. Around four o’clock it seemed that everyone was gathering around Mom & Pop’s motorhome for happy hour. We grabbed our chairs and joined in and had a great time.

Our large group enjoying social hour

Gina and I having a great time

With nothing planned for Friday other than the truck photo shoot and bring your own meat dinner we just relaxed the morning away. I did cook and serve breakfast in bed to Gina. We decided we better get our showers and cleaned up before morning is gone.  Once we were dressed I drove our truck over so it could be in the truck photo shoot.

The 2010 HDT Rally Truck Photo

We even posed in front of our truck

Once that was over we came back home and relaxed some more until around four o’clock. Gina made a watermelon tray along with some Mexican dip for appetizers tonight before dinner. After dinner they gave away a lot of door prizes.  We won the very first prize, three food covers that you can use outside to keep the bugs away from your food. All of the prizes were finally given out a little after eight o’clock at which time we walked home. We had a lot of fun and just a great time with everyone tonight. We are leaving sometime today heading north to the Excel factory service center for our appointment on Monday to have our slides adjusted. However, first we are meeting up with everyone this morning for breakfast and then we’ll all say “see you down the road” as we all head out in different directions.


Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Truck Show Off Day

Welcome To The National HDT Rally

Wednesday morning found me up early. Gina decided to stay in bed and watch the news. I walked over and enjoyed coffee and donuts with a few guys. Around nine o’clock Jack started his presentation on Solar power and off grid electrical systems. He did a great job and was very informative. Around 11:30 I walked back home and Gina was sweeping out the truck’s storage compartment. She knew that I was going to show off my electrical system today. Open house started around two o’clock, which means the ladies toured some of the trailers and the guys toured some of the trucks. Mostly, it was for all of us to see how some of us have modified our trucks and why we did the modifications. Here are a few pictures of our afternoon.

Looking down a row of trucks

A very nice four door Freightliner

How about this truck motorhome

This truck has a flat bed that carries a PT Cruiser

This truck has a garage for a ford focus SVT

This is a very neat setup

How about carrying your jeep this way

Here's Jack and I discussing my electrical system

Showing off the inside of my Midnight Solar E Panel

My Electrical System
Magnum 4024 inverter mounted on a Midnight Solar E Panel
Xantrex XW Solar Controller
Midnight Solar Combiner Box
Not shown but below all of this are eight L-16 batteries with a capacity of 740 amp hrs @ 24 volts


My Solar Panels
Three 170 Watt BP Solar Panels
Mounted in a custom frame which is raised and lowered with an electrical linear actuator

These guys had a lot of questions

This is Mike's elevator lift 

Here I am being raised up.  This is just the coolest thing

Mike even installed a small crane on the back to carry a golf cart

Mike's wife JoAnn has some difficulty with her knees but that doesn't stop them from enjoying this wonderful lifestyle of fulltiming. You can do anything to these trucks if you have an imagination.  Every truck here is unique because each one has been set up to fit the owner's individual lifestyle.

After we had seen enough trucks if that’s possible we headed off to a Freddy’s restaurant with some other couples. The food was good but the custard ice cream was fantastic.

Freddy's Frozen Custard, The custard ice cream is excellent

Here's everyone enjoying dinner

We left Freddy’s stuffed and after we told Mom & Pop’s good night we walked home. We had a wonderful day and hopefully a few guys got some ideas today of what can be done to their trucks. We had another wonderful day.


Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Angel & Zoey Gets Groomed

Tuesday found Gina and I sleeping in a little late. Gina wasn’t feeling well and I was just tired. However, I did get up early and post a blog then I crawled back into bed. We did finally get moving around nine o’clock. Gina called Petco and made an appointment to have Angel and Zoey groomed. We dropped them off at 11:30 and then did a little walking through the mall here in Hutchinson. We didn’t see anything we couldn’t live without. We saw a Wal-mart so we stopped and bought a new weather station. We had just bought a new one in Colorado Springs and when we left there on Monday morning I ran over the outside transmitter making the whole thing useless. It was all my mistake since I had only laid it on the tire instead of mounting it outside like I should have.  I just chalked it up as learning another lesson.

We made it back home at two o’clock and Gina visited with Mom & Pop’s while I walked around and met a few guys here at the rally. There are about 40 trucks here this year, which is almost twice as many as last years rally. There are a few other couples here that are considering a Heavy duty truck.  Ed and Paula who is a couple that we met here last year was only thinking about getting a big truck is back this year with a heavy duty truck. It was great to see them again.

For dinner we enjoyed a catered bar-b-que meal. It tasted wonderful and we all left stuffed. We met back up with Jack & Danielle and took our dogs for a long walk around the Fairgrounds. Earlier today we met Rick who is a salesman for Truck-lite. Around eight o’clock he gave a bunch of us a demonstration of some of their new LED lights. Gina and I both were quite impressed. I’m sure you’ll be seeing some new LED lights on our truck. We finally made it home at ten o’clock and called it a night. We enjoyed a wonderful and very relaxing day with fellow truck friends.

I apologize for no pictures we just didn’t take any yesterday. I'll have pictures tomorrow of all the trucks here.

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

HDT Rally in Hutchinson, Kansas

As I said in yesterday’s blog we were traveling east today. We finally got on the road a little before nine o’clock making our way to the Heavy Duty Truck Rally in Hutchinson, Kansas. We chose the scenic route down Highway 50 instead of I-70. We really like scenic drives because it's America at its best.

There are no fancy welcome signs on America's backroads

Anyway, everything was going well even through all of the road construction. However it turned south when the highway was shut down due to an overturned 18-wheeler. I was real hesitant about taking the detour since it was down a one-lane dirt road through the middle of all these fields. After we spoke to the sheriff deputy for a while I decided to go ahead. The directions went something like go south four or five miles then east eight or nine miles then back north four or five miles. That little detour was a huge delay for a long travel day. Once we turned back onto Highway 50 we could just barely get a glimpse of the overturned 18-wheeler.

Hopefully, the driver was alright

By this time it was after four o’clock and we knew that it would be dark by the time we could make Hutchinson, Kansas. We continued on and finally arrived at the Kansas State Fairgrounds at 8:22. Overall it was a good and safe drive. Here are a few pictures of the what we saw during our drive today.

A lone tractor chopping dried corn stalks

There was a lot of Milo in the fields

This was one of many wind farms along our drive

We ended up driving 471 miles in ten & half hours. We had our home set up pretty quick and went to bed soon thereafter.

Our children have adopted grandparents and somehow Gina and I missed Paw Paw Jack’s birthday on October 3rd. So as they say “better late than never” Happy Birthday Paw Paw Jack. We love You!!

Happy Birthday Paw Paw Jack

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Catching Up with A Great Shipmate

It’s already Monday morning where did this week go. We have enjoyed ourselves this week in Colorado Springs. However, it’s time to move east this morning toward Hutchinson, Kansas for the Heavy Duty Truck Rally. It officially started yesterday but there were just some things that Gina and I wanted to do while we were here. At the top of that list was visiting with a good friend and shipmate in Brighton, Colorado. He and his wife, Robin moved there after they retired from the Navy.

Ken & Robin

We headed out a little after twelve and drove through rain the whole way there. We finally arrived at there house around two o’clock and what a reunion we had. I had not seen them in over twelve years.

A Happy Reunion between two shipmates

After a lot of hugs were exchanged we walked inside and began getting caught up on all our happenings for the past twelve years. Ken landed a great government job while Robin works for a local school. Ken finally announced that it was time for dinner. Ken had cooked a brisket outside on the grill for dinner while Robin made a potato casserole and spinach salad. We really thank you guys for a wonderful dinner.

Ken, Robin, Chloe & Connor

They also have two children, Chloe and Connor. Today was Connor’s seventh birthday. For his birthday I took Connor for a ride in our truck and he couldn’t stop smiling as he kept saying, “I’ve never rode in a big truck before”. I’m sure he had a great time and I’m sure he’ll be telling all of his friends today of his ride in a big truck.

Look at that "SMILE"

Happy Birthday Connor

Around six o’clock we finally had to acknowledge that all good things must end. After numerous goodbye hugs & tears we got back on the road heading home. We finally made it home around 7:45 and relaxed for just a few minutes before going to bed.


Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Horse Ride Through the Garden of the Gods

Gina and I woke up to clear blue skies Saturday morning. After we posted our blog we were in a hurry to get dressed and get off the base. The Air Force was having a home game today and there will be no way off the base after eleven o’clock. We were in the truck and heading off the base by ten o’clock and it still took us 30 minutes but we made it off. We ran a few errands before heading to the Academy Riding Stables. We arrived there at 11:45 and our ride didn’t start until one o’clock. We walked around for a little while until it was time for us to find out the horse we would be riding. Gina was riding Sox 2 and I would be riding Indian. Soon after, we met Katy who would be our guide for the next three hours. She gave us a short safety brief and then we mounted our horses and headed out into the Garden of the Gods. We hope you enjoy the pictures. These are just a few. However, click this link for the other 70 plus pictures. online photo album

She's in the saddle

Can you tell we're having fun

I believe with views like this I could ride a horse all day

That's Pikes Peak in the middle

This is Kissing Camels

Siamese twins

After we arrived back at the stables these are the pictures that they took of us so we could remember this day for a long time to come.

Gina finally getting that horse ride on Sox 2

Myself & Indian

Gina said she had a great time and ranks up there near the top of our most memorable moments since we began our travels. She really had a great time and the scenery was just gorgeous. We rode over ten miles of trails and if you’re going to see the Garden of the Gods then we both highly recommend seeing it via horse back. It was just fantastic!! Having a good guide was a definite plus. We really thank Katy for giving us such a great trip through the Garden of the God’s.

Our guide, Katy

We arrived back home at 5:15 and after eating homemade pizza for dinner we just relaxed for the evening. We’ll be driving north of Denver today to visit with Ken & Robin. They’re friends from our Navy days. He retired from the Navy a few years ago and is now working in Denver.

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.