1976 Palm Beach
TZE166V100710
To save time here I'm going to use Tim Brown's write up of the "The Rain Rally" here. I hope he doesn't mind:
From: Tim Brown
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2001 2:17 AM
To: gmcmotorhome@mailinglists.org
Subject: GMC: GMCMI Grand Island Report & Pics
Well we're back from Niagara. Had a great trip, saw lots of GMC's, did the tourist thing, met lots of great folks, learned a few things, got a few ideas, ate a lot of ice cream, slept through a few seminars, and we all participated in a week long program of finding leaks in your GMC. Gary from Livonia, Richard Waters, and Kathi & I convoyed over on Sunday. Monday the rain started. The Buffalo TV station said if all the rain was snow we'd have gotten 12 inches. So a lot of time was spent trying to find "the knowledge at the bottom of the bottle", as my Arkansas uncle would say.
One program was a GMC trivia type quiz, and I discovered I'm hanging around with the right people. Richard Waters, Paul Bartz, J.R. Wright, Paul Doan and Max Pardy all got top honors out of a couple hundred entries. One multiple choice question was what the letters GMC stood for, Generous Motors, etc. The correct answer was actually the "Grabowski Motor Company". Seems that when old Alfred Sloan was putting General Motors together in the 20's, they decided they needed a line of trucks to go with the Chevrolet's and Buicks. So they bought a leading truck manufacturer at the time, and kept the initials GMC.
Gary organized a GMCnet Pot luck one night, and Arch made good use of his new cooking system. I had grilled a few brats when we first arrived, and that seemed to get the attention of Tom Warner's dog, Boomer. Kathi and I did get to do the Falls, and even got to Buffalo for wings at the Anchor Bar.
Several people had said they crossed the border without delays, so we decided to go home across Canada. When we reached Sarnia, we were stopped dead in the middle of the Blue Water Bridge, and it took two hours to inch our way down to the customs booth. The actual inspection took 60 seconds, the officer asked our citizenship, if we had any weapons or animals, stuck his head in the door, and said goodbye. The delay was entirely due to the amount of traffic at the time, which if you think of it, is actually a good sign.
Tim B.
78 Royale (With pool table)
I had a great time at the rally even though it rained and was cold for four of the five full days that I was present.
I had a few problems on this trip:
I discovered more water leaks than I thought possible.
My original 2-way refrigerator decided to stop running on the way to Grand Island.
One of the two cheap ice chests I bought to store my food in, leaked and caused the cabinet door under the defective refrigerator to delaminate.
Also during the trip to Grand Island I lost one of my Alcoa hubcaps and a lug nut cover.
Another leak started to delaminate my counter top.
On the way back home, I also went through Canada, but my wait at the Blue Water Bridge was only about 20 minutes and that included a customs agent looking through my drawers!
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| Tim Brown and Kathi Cagney in front of "Roy" | Gary Mills and his "Tangerine Dream" | The very wet view out the window of my coach. | Walking to the "Big Top" where the seminars were held. |
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| This may be the first picture ever to show combatants Tom Warner and Richard Archer together. They are the two in the middle. That's Tim Brown on the right and Gary Mills on the left. | Tim, Tom & Arch. Kathi Cagney is on the right. | Kerry Pulaski, Gary Mills & Arch. Arch is using his hands to describe a large fish he said he caught. | Smoking turkeys at Arch's |
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| John Massy and Kathi Cagni. | Kathi Cagni, Tim Brown and Marcus McGee. | Arch making some very good lemonade. | Tom & Marjorie Warner, Arch and Gary Mills. The Galovic (Motorhome Marketplace) family right rear and Sue from New Hampshire on the left. |
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| Herm & Olga Beeck in front, Paul & Josie Bartz in the middle. That's Peg Giem in the rear. | All that was left of the turkey for Dave Campbell and Max Pardy who came late to dinner. | A broken GMC. I don't know what was wrong. | Same GMC with neat under hood gages. |
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| Richard Archer, Dave Campbell and Tim Brown discussing the world situation in front of Dave's legendary 23' coach. | Open house time at Arch's. | Dave Campbell having Ken Fry install a remote transmission dip stick. Like Dave really needs more gadgets. | A few of the many that were seen talking about GMCs. |
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| Nice looking Palm Beach | I like this paint job. | My Palm Beach during a rare appearance of the sun. | My Palm Beach at the far right with its neighbors. |
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We saw lots of these and Canadian flags too. They were a nice sight. |
This was the "Best Original 1976" and it belongs to Jim and Monica Cote from Alden, Michigan. | George Beardwood's 1976 Palm Beach with a neat matching trailer. | Pretty 1976 Palm Beach GMCs all in a row. |
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| Seminars | Dick Patterson holding court during one of his very informative sessions. | Getting ready to serve ice cream. | Ralph Luby seeing to last minute details of the Chowder Fest. |
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| ..More seminars | A good seminar on how to add rear disk brakes to a GMC. | Winners of the GMC Trivia contest. We got GMCMI hats. | Seminar audience |
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| Nice looking | A row of nice GMC's | Ken L. Fry's vendor booth | Nice paint |
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| Beetle toad owned by Roger Binns. | I have not seen one of these in a while. | I used to have a Corvair, maybe it would be a cool toad. | Lots of Jeep toads were on hand, |
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| Gary & Jeannie Chambers fantastic stretch coach. So much was replaced, that it was titled as a 2001 GMC! | This coach has about everything you could imagine. Another Buskirk masterpiece. | Max Pardy, Gary Chambers, an unknown assistant and JR. Slayton tweaking the EFI system. | Gary Chambers getting real interested in the work being done to his coach. Above his head is the screen housing (36") for the projection TV system. |
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| The bedroom area of the Chambers coach. | Imagine an electric compartment done in Cherry wood. | Chambers galley area. They have both a gas and electric cooktop in the Corrian counter. | Looking back from the galley. |
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| What could be cooler than seeing in person, the famous "Me and My Shadow" coach. | Dallas Jenson giving a GPS Seminar. He's as funny in real life as he is on the web. | Looking at the possible source of my numerous water leaks. | This is a close as I could get to the Falls because of parking concerns. |
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| I think this is Ralph Luby's Palm Beach. | A coach with wooden bumpers! | A GMC and some toys. | Ron and Susie Tase's stretch GMC that was for sale. |
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| Black grill | another black grill | I like this grill | I might do my Palm Beach with this grill |
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| Another of the dozens of nice Palm Beachs that were at the rally. | I think this is John Clements Royale. | A wet and soggy GMC garage sale. | Still wet and selling GMC stuff. |
Page was last modified: 09/07/2009 09:04:01 PM
