Maybe nothing to this new breed of computer geeks is outstanding but for me and a pile of you other aging geeks this is awesome…. bringing home my 500 gig hard drive which BTW would have taken a truck not too long ago, I can now sit at the house, have all of the doodads I had at the shop, process pics too…. I think…. and interface with the web site, do Email, Facebook and it all including spell check… still working on a font change but still man technology is turning us into having so much flexability… we’re all coming off the leash soon too. 
Like I said not much to the young folk but for 18 years I’ve been pretty much been “cooped in” tied to one computer and one way to post to the site…. this could be interesting. Truly it’s a brave new world. Hardly feels like work… I like it…
Looks like Tropical Strom Erika is no more but now through the marvel of new weather tools that’s Fred herding over. I broke free from my Hoarder affliction and blew out a pile of stuff I just should have gotten rid of so keeping our heads low most of next week will probably allow us to kick some more “stuff” out…. remember again look for silver linings.
In that we have Miss Piggy stripped now… windows and vents out and all 
if we’re lucky, the body will soak up and maybe just fall off! At the least it will be easier for the forks of the fork lift will do it’s damage easier. Something I’ve always wanted to do was to yank off one of those toasterbox motorhomes off of one of those heavy duty chassis with only 65,000 mile and do something with it. This is a 37′ front gasser 454 Chevy extended P-30 chassis with a Goodyear rubber torsion stabilizer axle system. 
How about an “SUTRV”, putting a stretched GMC with a truckbed at the back? Sacrilegious maybe, meggasized for sure a door in the back would make you a porch…
As a rule, we do not build “spec” projects having so much going on for our customers it is a god idea however to have a “shop project” when that 4 letter work “wait” comes up. First, the fish will be fileted only leaving the cab section and taking the rest off. This way we can update the running gear and drive it for road testing. Now a pic of THAT should be interesting… driving that will be interesting too! Starting the dream now, we may have a shell together for showing by the April 1st Vanstock rally next year.
Lemme talk about “Vanstock 2016” for a bit. If this is totally uninteresting to you just skip the blue print:
The mission of Cooperative Motor Works has always been to support the movement toward reinventing the classic RV word back to reliable use today. It started out with the GMC motorhome for me which logically took the company and myself to an all new place that have grouped with many others to make a lifestyle change to exploring our roads, scenic places and interesting venues possible. That’s a lengthy way to say “Do It Now”. Our explosion in intellectual technology, communication and knowing more about the world around us has opened all of our opportunities. But…they are only opportunities if we don’t use them. Use and grow ourselves with them and do things that we now see is making all of our lives better.
Wow, pretty lifty stuff… sorry bout that but really a TV is no longer a cube… it has 2 dimensions which is an epiphany for interior layouts in small places. That along with just all of it… no need to numerate them because by the tie you read this there will be new ones!
So, you young whippersnappers are our legacy.. along with global warming and the pollution of the planet I know but if anything comes out of a race so wasteful and well, stupid of the truth it could be you guys understanding just how bad we made things and stop doing them!
I used to think it was so cool how my Dad could throw a Coke bottle at 70mph over the roof of the car and hit a speed sign….Please we weren’t bad people… our Grandad taught us but through understand of it’s ending effects we don’t at least do that anymore. There are plenty of “hey you’all watch this, hold my beer” moments still out there and hey… please try to be carefull… they will continue.
With the value and thus the cost of the things the world today says we must own and conquer in our lives to make it rich…. there are many of the next generation that are saying STOP! “Status Symbol Land with everyday being a “pleasant Valley Sunday” is no longer attainable for most.
We have traded the time we live completely to the time we work and finally someone has looked up and ask what are we doing… Hold on, the beer will wear off in a second… remember the van clubs in the 60’s thru the 80’s? Well hopefully not those double knit 3 piece leasure suits but the van craze is back and is even more exciting than ever!
There are now “classics” in the industry. Anyone out there havs an Explorer, Sherrod, MarkIII? I had the first Chevy Astrovan topper conversion I ever saw… never heard of it… saw one at Artie Grendle’s Tropic Traveller conversion van corral… the retail spot in Orlando for outfitted vans…. we were driving by in our 1976 Ford Squire option 9 passenger stationwagon, I hammered the brakes … pulled in there and drive out with it! I told him I want that one… how much… and just like that I had an in family! Our family of 4 traveled well with appropriate mileage of the day. Janie got used to looking down at traffic and to this day she at lest drives a 4 door truck.
That van shaped my life and I bet many of you out there too. Well guess what, we were not wrong, travelling and fussing over a van was not silly… and they are doing it again!! Hey, we can say we were there….. today they have taken the van concept farther than we could ever do. Flat screen TV’s… need I say more but I will…. small, powerful generators that sip fuel…. AC systems that can be small, powerful and energy efficient, did I mention quiet? Communication, OMB I was in the consumer electronics industry in the late 70’s and 80’s… It blows my mind when I have a lucid moment and think back…. L cassette, Cassette DBX, Dolby C, Quad phono cartridges…… all of it.
All of you young bucks and buckettes have sooooo much opportunity as far as mobile lifestyles. It’s not a bunch of longhairs in a beat up school bus…. it may be some of those folks hair now gone along with more and more of this generation saying I can be happy with a 2″ thick wall if there’s insulation in it….. In the immortal words of Benjamin Franklin, “When it rains , you get wet” and that’s not always a bad thing!
Having mail forwarded is pretty reliable, you need to stay vigil but GPS is pretty good and if you have a strong signal and 4g you have the world. I have a Klipsch sub woofer sound system I could never afford that will make me dream in colours … it’s small and cheap!
So as Twisted Sister… was it Guns and Roses no.. it was AC/DC said… “For those about to rock, we salute you… FIRE….”
Vanstock 2016
is coming! Some of you start to snicker but hey, I’m not planning this so it may just work! Vanstock has been a brainteaser for many in the van revival community. There is a long standing get together which has kept their flame alive and now along with that interest this new explosion of vanners and clubs, full time vanners, RVers, weekend warriors and just folks interested in alternative lifestyle interests need to come together and see just how much we really DO have in common!
It may sound like the makeup of the talkabouts in the song “I love this bar” but it’s true, we enjoy being around folks who like some of the things we do, could be called a primal nature.
We here at the Co-op have been involved in what we would like to think of as a forward edge of this new popularity and it has proven to be true that the GMC has stood the test of time that must be endured to be called a vintage classic RV. It too has been updated to be on a style trend along with the internet and technology cutting edge as well and I’m proud but also humbled to be in this new community. I used to be the “whippersnapper” of the community now I take the roll of an old fart but it’s OK as long as I don’t loose sight of things that can be.
And to that end, I am also proud to be the first names sponsor of Vanstock 2016 to be held March 28th – April 2nd in Orlando Florida at the Orlando Speedway just east of Orlando actually in Bithlo
This will be a dry camp event, this 6 day event will welcome anyone who proposes to have something they can live in…. sustain a style of living… on the road. Heck, that in itself points to a huge number of interesting people but wait…. there’s more!!!! The annual Motorhome Drag Race Rally will also happen that week. “Run–what-ya-brung” will be exclusively for attendees on Wednesday with the exciting “test-n-tume” night doing 1/4 and 1/8 mile timing for whatever and whoever you want to race. Oh yeah, that’s fun….. Then Saturday night you will get to see real drag racing, your ticket buys the whole seat but you’ll only need the front edge! There will be sanitation, no spa but hey there will be a hole… there is Taco Bell along with others kinda close, the grass will be mowed and you will have your own spot so what else in life is there…..
You can see the size of the property a bit in a couple of shots of past drag race rallies:
and fun….Oh Myyyyyyy….
Barefoot Bob has the record to beat and my bet is he’ll be there 
So put this foolishness plus all the stuff the van world can throw at us and I feel April Fools all need to be in Bithlo in 2016 at Vanstock… period, exclamation mark can I get an Ah Men………………………..
I hope to post you a flyer here next week to plaster the word with. We need to let our brothers and sisters know abut this fun coming and make plans stay stand by for that. You need to start early for something this big and we will need your help.
Well look at that, Vanstock 2016 was all I talked about today…. so if you feel somehow unfulfilled go back and read the blue print now and you guys that did read it… read it again over a beer and consider the possibilities. It will be something to see.
Talk to ya later…
