The GMC Rescue

On the Friday before the rescue mission, I had to work until 10:30 pm. I had to coordinate and organize all of us which included having Cleon's daughter spend the night at our house. He was still at work 2 hours away.
On Saturday we set out for our adventure. Spence and Bob set out with their rescue gear in their Rescue Rig (a Big Jim reference here).
We arrived and set to work. The widow could not find the keys. The suspension would not air up. These GMC Motorhomes are very low to the ground so proper inflation of tires and suspension is crucial for boarding a tridem gooseneck trailer. The lack of keys meant the steering wheel would have to be pulled apart and the transmission Park link would have to be released.
Spence spent several hours troubleshooting and jury rigging the air leaks. Then we had to pull it out of her yard without scratching the newly painted gates. Then we had to straighten it to be square with the trailer. Then we had to pull and winch it onto the trailer. We had to stop and re-air the suspension while it was on the trailer ramps. Once it was upon the trailer, Cleon chained it down. And then we were off. 5 kilometers into the return trip, Spence called us to tell us that the chains were loose. We pulled over on the side of the main North/South highway through the city to retighten the loose chains. An hour later we were able to pull into a truck stop for lunch/supper and to check the chains.
The drive home was an uneventful 3+ hours except when someone flagged us down to tell us that the roof air conditioner cover had blown off and into a thousand brittle pieces on the highway.
We arrived home at 9 pm. The suspension had to be reinflated, wooden ramps had to be improvised to reduce the descent angle. And Cleon had to avoid driving on my neighbour's lawn. And we had to have the noisy work done before 10 pm. Fortunately for us the offload was quite straightforward until the last 6 feet. The trailer ramps created a decline for the motorhome; my driveway created an incline for it. I was steering, so the lads had to grab 2×4s, 2×6s & 2×10s to lever it up the driveway! Alas they were more than up for this last hurrah/challenge.
A wonderful day, trip, recovery and relocation were the result of this rescue mission. Now the real work begins.

The GMC Motorhome Adventure Begins

It all started in a Nova Scotia campground in 1975. It was our first summer of RV ownership as a family. We had a 19' Prowler trailer and a 1970 Chevrolet Kingswood station wagon. A GMC Motorhome pulled up next to us with Georgia plates. We had never seen such a marvellous machine! There were Winnebagos in our town, but nothing thateven remotely close, except for 1 Airstream.
The child in the GMC was our age; he told us his Daddy owned a goober plantation. I have no recollection of colour of that machine. We had no idea what a goober was either.
A lifetime later my wife told me her sister had had a Barbie motorhome and really liked the real ones back in the day. When my neighbour, Spence, showed up with a real one my wife and I both gawked (one of us was leering) with delight and a touch of envy. A few years later I was talking to Spence and he encouraged me to look for one. The ones I could find were way out of our price range. UNTIL I looked on Craigslist and found one for $1000 o.b.o. I showed my wife; she said No! When my wife left for vacation I drove 3 hours to see it.
The widow's husband had started to remodel the cockpit and the fore cabin in 2000. He had passed away 12 years ago. She told me I could have it. I refused. She said $200. I took pictures and went home to talk to Spence. He said that if I didn't buy it, he would. I called her while walking home to tell her that I would be mailing her a cheque in a few hours.
I joined my wife on vacation and told her what I'd done. She was upset but warmed up to the idea and asked if we could do a beach theme. I agreed (I would have agreed to a goth theme).
When we returned home from vacation I assembled a rescue team. Spence and his brother, Bob, for their experience with rescuing relics from fields and driveways, my friend Cleon, who had the truck and trailer to tow it home, and our daughters because our spouses were working that weekend.
We set out at 8:30 on the Saturday of the Labour Day weekend. The adventure begins.

My First Blog EVER

Background
There are many things running through my mind at any given time. I have no semi-private place to rant, complain, whine or voice a dissenting opinion. This is frustrating. Enter Blogger. This blog addresses a huge lifestyle change.
I commute 19 kilometers by bicycle to work each way.
Necessity and the Mother
What started out as a necessity became an addiction/obsession/point of honour. In 2013 the 1.6 L engine in my 1988 Toyota leaked oil and seized. My other option was to use my GMC pick up with a 6.0 L engine. The gas costs started to cripple me. So I decided to use the $150 bike I purchased in 1999. I had done little or no maintenance to it by I joined Edmonton Bicycle Commuters and started to go to Edmonton Bike Works North to address the steep learning curve.
The Piper must be Paid
From this experience I learned how to replace parts and to tell which parts were worn out. 190 KMs per week will destroy an old, cheap Mongoose. When looking at a $150 parts bill for a drivetrain replacement, I decided to buy a real bike. In the winter I went to Mountain Equipment Coop and dropped $800 on a 29" Ghost mountain bike.
The lighter bike, the 29" tires, the working gears and NewBikeItis made the commute a real pleasure and less of a chore. Enter the addiction.
This One Time (at Band Camp)
One day one of the residents of my residence left the garage door open. An unidentified and unauthorized party entered this garage and removed my Ghost and $60 of recycling cans bottles. By this time I had replaced the GMC with a 1989 Mitsubishi but had not replaced the urge/need to bike to work. The Mitsubishi was subsequently replaced by a 1997 Chevrolet pick up.
The pick up and I landed at a bicycle store and a lime green Norco road bike followed us home.
A Whole New World
I realized that a mountain bike was no longer required because I had stopped traveling on sidewalks; I was now using the busy streets and avenues. The bike store employee warned me that I was about to cross over to a new dimension in bike land. He missed the mark on that one!
The mountain bikes and the commute had strengthened my legs and my endurance and my fitness level. I found out that my core had been sadly neglected; the Norco was kind enough to point this out to me.
The Transformer
The aforementioned lime green Norco was a faster bike with 700 cm tires and a carbon fiber frame; it also required becoming comfortable in the crouch position. These factors combined to reduce my commute time by 15 minutes, my waist by 2 inches, my shirts from XL to L. My body weight started at 100 KGs and is currently at 90 KGs.

This was an overview of my current health situation. In subsequent blogs I will address winter cycling in a cold northern Canadian city, Toastmasters and woodworking.