Its " WOW " been a year!

Its " WOW " been a year!

A little over a year ago on new years eve/day I got the idea to hit the road and go on tour again. We have come along way since then. This time last year we were making arrangements to bring home Mrs. Jones. We have learned so much and we still have a lot to learn! Building a Bus Conversion in 90 days has its good points and bad points. Just to touch on this, the good thing was that we got to use the bus for touring right away without missing out any comforts of home, Like our large TV, king size bed, full size refer and lazy boy couch. The bad thing was/is that we are not set up that good for Boon docking, mostly the TV reception, inverter for power and we don't have high capacity holding tanks. Oh, and we happen to have the generator from hell, 120db's. OUCH! We moved out of our house into the bus and got on the road on June 1st, 2009. We have put 8,000 miles and explored the western united states. We have done a bunch of shows at FMCA rallies, fairs, clubs, theaters and RV resorts. We have meet some fantastic people from all over the world at the shows and on the http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php, Bus Boards. Christi and I are now in CA for the next 2.5 months, then were head off to CO for a 4 month stand in Estes Park.

If we had it all to do again, I don't know if I would change much. Christi probably would have cracked the whip a little more to get more done. All in all I think we did pretty good. It beats the crap out of the bus sitting in the yard rotting away and that knot in your gut when you look at it!

It has been a real adventure learning to drive this beast. Now when ever Christi hears a Detroit Diesel fire up, she start putting things away and securing the inside of Mrs. Jones!?! I think she turning into a Real Bus Nut!

All the Best, Michael & Christi See our other Blog;http://michaelhargisshow.blogspot.com/

RV'ing 101 anyone?

RV'ing 101 anyone? Have you had the pleasure of this type of RV'er? We manage a RV resort here in Ramona, CA (San Diego). We get new RV owners that spend big bucks for an RV and get no training from the dealer how to set up all the systems and much less, DRIVE IT! They show up at the gate and demand that "WE" do it all for them. They hold their keys out and say they have been on the road for 3 days an something smells like sewer!!!???!!! Then they get all red faced mad when we offer to help but only instruct them what to do. Now we own a bus conversion and we are still learning. We ask for help from the "Bus Yodas" but we do the work, you have to, to learn. I find this very odd that anybody would buy one of these RV's and not ask for training or pay for a class! RV'ing 101 anyone? We will always help out everyone that comes to our resort but you have to do the work or maybe you need to go back to tent camping and use the comfort station. Hey, this Ranting stuff feels pretty good!?! I would love to hear BOTN's take on this. He is a fellow blog'er, Busnut and good friend. You can read his blog @ http://travellingwithgeorge.blogspot.com/ . Good stuff! All the Best, Michael & Christi See our other Blog;http://michaelhargisshow.blogspot.com/

The Trip, Quartzsite Bus Rally.

The Trip, Quartzsite Bus Rally. We left last Thursday morning in a driving rain from Ramona Canyon RV resort that we manage in Ramona,CA. We rendezvoused with fellow Bus Nuts from the MAK board, Mike and Lisa, aka, Loosenut in east San Diego along Hwy 8. They pulled up in a very nice 30' Neoplan. The rain and wind kept coming as we made our way to El Centro where we had lunch at the famous Mexican restaurant Camachos. We found the service to be a litte slow, the food was good but the portions were small. The waitress actually whined a bit that we didn't order their special; a handmade puffy quesadilla! Not a place to go if you are in a hurry. We waited 10 mins at the counter for the check! At least we had good company in Mike, Lisa and Lisa's mom, Mary Lou. When we pulled up in front of the restaurant, the parking lot was under a foot of water, so we had to park directly in front of the restaurant which is a little small for a 40' bus and toad. As we left, I tried to turn around onto the road but both front tires went on to the shoulder. Mrs. Jones slid in the mud about 10' and settled with her bumper and exit door up against a dirt embankment just missing a large wooden pole. Christi's eyes almost popped out of her head! The bus was blocking the whole road and part of the parking lot and I could see the large field trucks heading our way. I hit the door button but the door only opened 6 inches since it was lodged against the dirt. I pushed it open another 2 inches and squeezed out to frantically unhook the toad and survey the damage. We got the toad off and both bus drivers (rear tires) were still on the pavement. The front end was 18 inches deep in the mud. I got back in the bus, put her in reverse and she muscled right out of the muck. I love my bus! We hooked back up right in the middle of the road! There was no way my tires were getting off the pavement again. Back on I8, the rain and wind kept pounding us. As we went through the Imperial Sand Dunes just west of Yuma, we were sandblasted. The wind blew from the south, mixed with rain and the sand was sticking to everything. We made our turn on Hwy 95 in Yuma and headed north. We stopped for cheap fuel at Barney's Truck Stop. We started fueling and Loosenut pulled in. I asked, "What do you think of this trip so far?" He said, "At least we have lots of good stories to tell!" I think Lisa and Mary Lou are at their wits end it being their 1st long trip in a bus. I bet their last too! LOL We finished fueling and continued North on Hwy 95. The wind had calmed and I could relax a little driving Mrs. Jones. However this was short lived. After about 15 miles the wind and rain began pounding us once again hitting us broadside; but this time out of the east! Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse we had to deal with all the washes that cross the highway. In the desert, the ground saturates quickly and the washes flow. Because it seldom rains in the desert, the State Road Dept. doesn't seem to think there is much of a need to construct bridges or culverts over the washes. Therefore we had to contend with water running across the road. We counted 7 washes that flooded the highway. The depth of the water started at 4 inches and just got deeper and faster as we got closer to the "Q". The last 2 washes we crossed were well over a foot deep. About 5 miles outside of Quartzsite the sky turned black and the clouds were swirling and dumping rain in buckets. We heard a tornado warning had been issued for the area. We pulled into Rice Ranch and parked in the middle of the bus rally grounds. Bob Evans (Bob of the North) met us in the driving rain and proceeded to temporarily lose his hat to a gust of wind. He was all arms & legs running after it! A moment later Larry Hall arrived in his PT Cruiser and advised us to stay there until the rain subsided a bit. We made a run for it to Larry and Carol's bus and waited out the deluge. Good Hugs! Soon the rain stopped and we were able to get parked. Look honey! Look at all the buses! Is that "Pappa Bus?" It's rally time, Oh, Ahhhhhh BUS... All the Best, Michael & Christi See our other Blog;http://michaelhargisshow.blogspot.com/

Mrs. Jones roars to life!

Mrs. Jones roars to life! There is something exciting about the sound of a Detroit Diesel starting up. The hum runs through my body, the hiss of the air system reaching its peak. Mrs. Jones stating, "I'm ready now". We discovered the strange thing that happens when we are parked for an extended period. When another bus rolls by, we get that yearning to get on the road again. I have had the roar in my blood all my life. I've hitchhiked and driven across this country more times then I can remember. The far away places from my 8-3/4 Navy years and later the RVing & touring time. Christi & I had a house in Tombstone, AZ and thought we would never leave it, but the travel bug constantly gnaws at me. So we built Mrs. Jones. What was totally unexpected to me was that the travel bug bit Christi! And her case is much worse than mine. Now we are managing a RV resort in So. Cal. and now our blood boils every time we hear a Detroit Diesel screaming by. The only cure is to batten down the hatches and press the button. Mrs. Jones roars to life! "Honey, it's time to go." Oh wait, she's already strapped in! Here we go. North, South, Beach, Desert? We love our Bus! HUMMMMMMMMMMM. All the Best, Michael & Christi See our other Blog;http://michaelhargisshow.blogspot.com/

2 Weeks till "The Q"Rally

2 Weeks till "The Q"Rally We can't wait!!!!!! 400 buses, 1,000+ Bus Nuts and all the MAK board chatters. We plan on getting to "The Q" on Thursday the 21st. We hope to trek over with some fellow Bus Nuts, Mike & Lisa, aka Loosnut. They would like to take the southern route along US Hwy 8, pick up a bite of Mex food then up the 95 to "The Q". We hope it works out. Until then we will be working on Mrs. Jones. Christi is busy making new curtains and I am scratching my head working under on our non-existent boondocking systems. I need to meet the Yodas of the Bus world! I have a ton of questions and hope they take pity on my ignorance. Did I say "We can't wait!!!!!!" All the Best, Michael & Christi See our other Blog;http://michaelhargisshow.blogspot.com/

Meeting & Greeting (michael)

Meeting & Greeting It is a very strange phenomenon living with a bus around you. Not just the fact that you built it to suit you and your needs and with the turn of a key, or flick of a switch in our case, it will take you to all points of this great continent. I am talking about the strange thing that happens every time we park. People, mostly men, stop and just stare at her. Not Christi, the bus! They just stand there looking up and down at her like they have been pulled back into their past or lost in a dream. Then the haze is gone from their eyes and they are at the door asking about her and reminiscing about the good old days driving for some big tour company. Their eyes light up as I take them through the bus. We talk about the past; theirs and ours, and the hours pass like minutes and before you know it, we are just like old friends. Now, can someone tell me what it is about an old bus? It does not seem to matter what year, make or model of bus you have. People seem to love looking and talking about them. We have made some great friends since we built Mrs. Jones and I am sure that we will make many more. It's a crazy life, but we sure feel safe with 15 tons of metal around us. All the Best, Michael & Christi See our other Blog;http://michaelhargisshow.blogspot.com/

I know it has been awhile. (michael)

Hello All, I know it has been awhile. Christi and I have been very, very busy. After building Mrs. Jones, moving out of our house, a 4,500 mile, 9 states tour, we are now in Ramona, CA managing an RV resort for Western Horizon Resorts. While we were in Blue Mesa we were offered the job. Christi and I gave it alot of thought. We love being on the road touring but the "Pass the Hat" plan for our shows could not support the tour. So we took the job. We started on Sept. 21st, 09 and boy are we knee deep in it now. Well, we have done all kinds of jobs in our life time but nothing like this. This is like running a small city. Christi is the General Manager and runs the admin. side of things and is responsable for everything. I am a co-manager and deal with the resort systems and grounds. Thank goodness we have a great staff here to help us. With all this we are still doing shows within 100 miles of here. Every day we learn and then we learn that we need to learn more. One plus is that our son Jared can come down to see us on the weekends. All in all we are having a great time. All the Best, Michael & Christi See our other Blog;http://michaelhargisshow.blogspot.com/

Elk Meadow Lodge Dinner Show

We received an email from some guests at the Elk Meadow Lodge Dinner Show: Michael: "You asked us to send one of the pictures we took to your email. So here ya go. The best one of the group. We sooo enjoyed the show at the Elk Lodge on Aug. 14. We had a great time. Our two birthday girls were thrilled with the Birthday Song. And serenading our mother . . . she absolutely loved it! It made our Mother/Daughter Retreat especially memorable for her. Thank you. We all definately plan on catching your show again. Happy Trails", Jana Gregory...................... We also had a great time! We hope to see all of you again. All the Best, Michael & Christi See our other Blog;http://michaelhargisshow.blogspot.com/

KUDOS to DALLAS (michael)

Hello All, I just want to say "THANK YOU" to a fellow Bus Nut. THANK YOU DALLAS! You helped Christi and I with our conversion of a charter bus into Mrs. Jones. The advice you gave freely to us not only saved us thousands of dollars, your expertise enabled us to complete this task on a "MUST" 90 day time line. Christi and I didn't know a thing about buses when we started, but with the kindness given to us by the people of this website, Nick,Cody,Larry,Tom,bill,Scott Paulx3,BOTN,Sean,HTredneck,mike,Buswarrior, I could go on and all the other "Bus Yodas", you know who you are, we are learning.

A specal heart felt thanks goes to Dallas. You above all helped change our life forever and gave us the confidence to do, what seemed, the impossible. We are proud to call you our friend. There are not many opportunities in ones life to make a profound difference in anothers'. If you are not here, what is the next guy to do? All we know is that we feel we couldn't have done it without Dallas. All the Best to you sir, Michael & Christi Hargis and Mrs. Jones

And Cat, Dallas's wife answered in a Personal Message: I just saw your post and read it to Dallas. He said "cool" which for him is a mouthful. I watched his face as I read and I could tell he was very touched. Thank you for taking the time to post that. It meant a lot to us both. I am really hoping he will be willing to come back to the board soon.Cat

All the Best, Michael & Christi See our other Blog;http://michaelhargisshow.blogspot.com/

I'm a lazy Man (michael)

I'm a lazy Man

What happens when you get on the road? One seems to fall into a routine of sorts. At home, everything is in place. You know all your surroundings. You have your perma-list of responsibilities and you do the grind without hesitation. The Blah Blah everyday life engulfs you.

But something happens when you hit the road. Things change. The fresh and new sights and sounds stir the adventurer in you. Everything changes. Your senses tune in to a new environment, new people and you have to explore.

I found there are not enough hours in the day. By the time we walk, fish, eat, play poker, golf, sing, shop, meet & greet, show off Mrs. Jones and a hundred other things, it's time for bed. That "honey do" list keeps getting longer and longer and I just get more lazy by the day.

I think it's just that we don't want to miss anything. Why work today when you can put it off until tomorrow? I guess we just joined the procrastinators club.

So what's so bad about that anyway? Why did we hit the road in the 1st place? We wanted to see the great USA and take in all its' wonder. Putting a couple of things off for awhile is not going to hurt anybody! We need some time off.

Then I ask myself," How long is too long?" I don't know. The new has to wear off sometime, right! This can't go on forever. I'm sure boredom is just around the next corner. Then I'll get busy. Yea, that's the ticket, I'll do it then. I'm not lazy at all......Right?

All the Best, Michael & Christi See our other Blog;http://michaelhargisshow.blogspot.com/

Negative into a Positive (michael)

Negative into a Positive We arrived in Greeley, CO, we had a dark day (a day with no shows) so we wanted to be close to the next show and visit our dear friends Ann and Herb that live there. Greely RV Resort did the trick. I drove into the spot, hit the brake, perfect. Level? Check! Bay doors aligned for utilities? Check! Aligned to concrete slab? Close enough! We are good to go. I did the hook up ritual and removed the toad and Christi did her thing inside the bus. In record time we were ready to go to town. Christi handed me some stuff and out to the toad I went. About 30 secs. later it happened. Christi let out a blood curdling scream! She was on the ground and in pain. I rushed to her side and found that she had mis-judged the last step to the concrete slab and caught the edge of it and heard a crack in her foot and went down. OOPS, not close enough! Long story short, server sprain to her left foot. It appears that she tore the cartilage between her metatarsals. That means 4 to 6 weeks of hopping around. We are thankful it did not break a bone. So Christi was on her back and I had to figure out what was best for her and the show. We need to stay put for her foot to heal. We had called Loveland RV Resort a few days earlier and offered them a show, I found a voice mail from them saying they would love us in Loveland! I called back and booked a 2 show stand with them. Mr. and Mrs. Jones met us at the office. Chuck Jones is the manager for the park system, they have 5 or 6 parks. We checked in and I gave them a complimentary album and went to set up. We got settled in and I got called over to the Jone's house to talk about more shows in the other parks. After listening to the album Chuck stated that our show would be perfect for the lodge in Estes Park, CO in the summer season of 2010. We talked a little more and Chuck said we should go up and look at the resort. We did and it was beautiful! The Lodge, the park and the town was indeed "perfect" for our show. We got back and talked terms and Mr. Jones said we should get a final approval by October 1st. We did the 2 shows at the Loveland RV Resort with great reviews. Then we were off (40 miles) to Terry Bison Ranch for our next gig. I did some more calls in the greater Denver area so we could stay in one place. I received a call from Mr. Jones asking for a meeting. The owner of the resorts want to see us in person. We set it up for the following day. The meeting went well, then took an even better turn for us. They offered us an 8 show stand in their lodge in Estes Park, CO for the month of Aug. 2009. That's next month! When the gods offer you something to help, don't ask! Just take it and be grateful for it, and we did. We are very excited and can't wait to start setting up the new stage. I'll post some picks on the next post. All the Best, Michael & Christi See our other Blog;http://michaelhargisshow.blogspot.com/

Jack and Bea Good (Christi)

Jack And Bea Good (Christi) We've fallen behind in our blogging since we haven't had internet access for about a week. Our experience this past few days, and lack of TV, has inspired me to sit down and blog. We spent the last three days in Denver with our dear friends Jack and Bea Good. (I love her name.) Michael has known them for many years. I've only visited with them about three times in the last five years. The story of Jack and Bea's friendship with Michael started many years ago when Michael was working as the general contractor for Western Horizon Resorts. Michael was working up on a roof and singing, as he often does. A lady came by with her little blind dog and stood listening. When he finished the song he was singing, she asked him if he knew anything by Ray Price. He did and started singing again. This went on for a quite some time. After awhile, the lady said she was on her way to the ice cream social, but if it was OK she would come back later and bring some of her friends to hear him sing. Well, what could he say? Before long she was talking to the Activities Director and he was doing shows in the clubhouse. The Michael Hargis Show was born, thanks to mama Bea Good. I met Jack and Bea about 5 years ago in Puerto Penasco, Mexico. Michael and I had been married only a short time and there was a whole group of his friends meeting down there, so we joined them. We only stayed a few days but had a great time. If you watch Michael and Bea together, you see their connection clearly. These are two souls who love each other dearly. Jack calls it their love affair. She's his biggest fan and he adores her. We learned at this time that Bea had just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Since then we have seen them twice and have witnessed the slow destructiveness of this disease. We just spent three days with them in Denver. Bea's face lit up when Michael walked into the room and he told her he was going to do a show in her honor. She still tells how she got him that job singing at Blue Mesa so many years ago. As I spent some time with her while Michael and Jack ran errands, I realized how far advanced the disease had gotten since we last saw them. We talked about her grown children as if they were still running around the house making a mess with their toys. She told me about people and places and things that must have happened thirty or forty years ago, but to her it was yesterday. At times she just seems to stare into space. Michael's show was at Jack and Bea's church. We didn't know what to expect, we've never done a show in the part of the church where they actually hold services. Jack wasn't sure if anyone would even show up. About 60 people attended, many of them walking up to Bea, giving her hugs and reintroducing themselves. It truly was a sight to behold. Michael dedicated every song to her, which got pretty funny after awhile. The show was mostly upbeat and at times thoughtful. It spoke to the heart. From where I ran the music, I was able to see Bea's smiles. As I watched Jack lovingly care for Bea, I can't imagine what it must be like to watch the woman he has spent 58 years of his life with just slip away. He takes care of her day in and day out by himself and worries that if he had to put her in a home, it would kill her. That kind of love is rare these days. When you look at the big picture and see what millions of people like Jack and Bea deal with everyday, you realize that truly, you just can't sweat the small stuff. It really is small stuff. No TV? No internet? So what! Michael and I have each other and we are both in good health. We are travelling in the bus we built together. We are seeing beautiful places and Michael is singing and making people smile; if just for an hour. We are visiting old friends and making new ones. We are truly blessed for all that we have and for knowing Jack and Bea Good. We love you Jack and Bea. All the best and don't sweat the small stuff, Michael & Christi See our other Blog;http://michaelhargisshow.blogspot.com/