Monday, Apr. 4
We were up early today, and away in the Honda a little after 7:30 headed for Ocala, about 53 miles north of here.  Our destination was the E-One fire truck company.  We wanted to take their 9:00 tour.
 

I really like their receptionist's desk! She even has control of the lights.

We arrived in plenty of time as there was little traffic on the route we chose.  We were issued a radio receiver and headphones and a pair of safety glasses for each of us.  On the tour with us were 6 people from Portugal who are over here for a few days.  It was not clear if they ore looking to order, have ordered, or are here on general interest.  They discussed engines they already have and are going to another E-One factory tomorrow.

E-One manufactures the entire truck including the frames, cabs, whatever configuration body is needed, and many of the accessories.  All their trucks are custom made to order, and about the only time they build identical trucks is for a department who wants multiple trucks built to the same specs.  They purchase items such as pumps, engines, transmissions, and the other running gear.

Our tour guide Ron, who wore the transmitter that talks to our radios, first took us to the fabrication building.  Here a lot of the individual piece parts are made.  These include most of the aluminum panels from which the cab and the body are made, trim pieces, and items like the running boards and compartment doors.  The entire cab and body of the truck is made of aluminum.  They use a lot of aluminum extrusions as they are stronger than formed and welded pieces as well as being able to provide a slot in the basic shape for anywhere a flat plate joins it.  They never simply butt weld a plate, it is always in a slot, and then is welded.  This results in a much stronger and more fatigue resistant construction.  We saw a girl making the bends on the "tread plate" running boards.  Where ever someone will walk on the "tread plate" they punch holes that leave edges turned up.  This gives a good footing even when wet or icy.  We also saw the machine that sands swirls in the aluminum plates that remain exposed.  Ron pointed out that this is not just for looks,  although it really looks nice, but will reflect the heat better than plain aluminum, keeping the parts cooler around fires.
 

Ron shows us a cab which has been welded together from heavy gauge aluminum.  There is a roll bar assembly of 1/2 inch wall box section aluminum welded inside. The windshield is cut out except for small tabs.  Leaving the section in during fabrication prevents distortion.
	We are being shown a wide variety of their trucks.  The one in the foreground is as close as they come to a "standard" product.

We saw things in a little mixed up order, so my descriptions my seem a little out of order - bear with me!

We saw the outside of the paint shop.  They sand, clean, and repair any imperfections in the aluminum surface.  Then they use an etching type primer, then a white primer.  They then put 3 coats of acrylic enamel followed by a clear coat.  They guarantee their paint for 10 years!  We saw a great variety of paint schemes.  He said they have only one color of red, but they have 147 shades of it!  They will paint any color and any scheme the customer wants.  We saw a truck going to Pennsylvania that was a mustard yellow over forest green.  Most of the trucks were red or white over red.  There were a few yellow ones and some white ones.  I am not sure if the white ones were going to be delivered white, or if more finishing work would be done.

Ron said they have painted just about all colors.  Often the odd colors go to corporations who need a truck of their own to satisfy the insurance companies.  They did a pink one for Mary Kay, A powder blue one for another corporation, and have done just about all the colors including purple.

We saw the building where they put the body on the frame.  They use overhead hoists and carefully lower the body down over the frame onto blocks.  They then maneuver the frame to the exact spot and attach them.  As the frame is steel and the body is aluminum, they use thick pieces of neoprene to isolate and insulate them.  This avoids any dissimilar-metal corrosion problems.

We saw a number of frames being built.  They start with huge channel sections and machine them to the required shapes, drill all the needed holes, then, using a large jig to hold them accurately in place weld the center members including any pipes or other special needs.  After the frame is completed it is sent to the frame painting area where it is all shot-blasted and painted.

We saw the chassis assembly building.  Here the frames are fitted with the axles, engines and transmissions, wiring, plumbing for the basic truck, and finally the cab.  They use mostly Cummins and Detroit Diesel engines and only Allison transmissions.  Most trucks use 330 to 350 hp. engines, but some go to 500 hp.  The cabs tilt forward for maintenance, so they are attached tipped forward while the front hinge pins are installed.  Then while it is still tipped, they install the cab lifting cylinders and lower the cab into position using these.  Once a truck is through this area, it is capable of being driven, and ready for the body to be put on.

They have their own injection molding and plastic shaping equipment, so virtually all the cab interior is made by them - even the air suspension seats.  We did not see these areas as they are at another location.

We were then taken to the final assembly building.  The trucks come to this area after the body is mated to the cab/chassis combination.  There are several "lines" here.  Ron explained that as all their trucks are custom built to unique specifications, there is no real assembly line.  Teams work on each truck and finish it per the drawings for that specific truck.  We saw wiring and plumbing being installed.  Any lights, mirrors, or other accessories that have not previously been installed are put in here.  This is the area where anything that is still needed is done to make it a finished truck. 

We did see one "almost exception" to the totally custom statement.  There is one line that builds nearly standard trucks.  These are on a conventional truck chassis with a truck type cab.  These are also custom ordered, but the options are quite limited.  This does allow better efficiency during construction and a lower resultant price.  Most of their production, however is the fully custom, totally E-One built trucks.
 

We saw one truck with a genuine fire bell.  Old traditions die hard! The very deep front bumper holds emergency equipment.  In heavy traffic areas, it is much safer for the firemen to get supplies from the front of the truck, where the whole truck is a shield from approaching traffic.
	This truck is returning from a test drive.  At Ron's request the driver turned on all his lights.  Unfortunately the picture only shows the ones that were on at the instant I snapped the picture. The three rotating light assembly just under the windshield is only built by one man, and is very hard to get.

On our way back to the visitor center, we went past a large number of trucks essentially ready for delivery.  We stood aside as a completed truck came back in after one of its several test drives.  Ron put his hand up and made a circular motion.  The driver turned on all the lights.  There were flashing lights everywhere!  The neatest light was a rotating group of 3 lights on the front, 2 red and one white.  They really showed up!  He said these are made by one man in a garage and are very hard to get, although they are very popular.

He took us by a repair area where a truck had run into another fire truck and rolled.  The cab was somewhat distorted and there was a lot of superficial damage, but everyone escaped without injury.  The massive roll bar built into every cab had done its job!  He described another truck that rolled off an embankment and did three complete rolls.  The only injury there was a broken arm, which would have been fine if that man had been seat-belted as he was supposed to have been.
 

The Bronto truck allows the firemen to be suspended over the top of a roof and down the other side.  This is much safer than the conventional ladder truck up one side with manual ladders hung from the roof peak. Unfortunately it is much more expensive than a normal ladder truck.

It was a very educational and enjoyable tour.  We were not allowed to take any pictures in the factory buildings, but were able to photograph the trucks themselves outside.  That may explain why most of my pictures are of completed or mostly completed vehicles.

On our way home, we stopped at an official Disney visitor center.  We had some questions answered and bought our tickets for tomorrow's trip to Epcot Center.  It's really obscene what they charge for admittance to any of their parks now!

Tuesday, Apr. 5
Today was the day for Epcot Center!

We left about 8:20, and arrived a little after 9, the opening time.  We were about to park well down the first row of handicapped spots when a car left near the road.  We parked in the 2nd closest spot in the entire parking lot!
 

	The giant entrance ball is quite impressive!
There are a number of beautiful fountains spread around the grounds.

Epcot is designed in two major sections:  The first section is a little of everything.  There are static displays, movies, thrill rides, gentle enjoyment rides, and gentle educational rides, along with many, many souvenir shops, food shops, and restaurants.  The accessibility guide for the various attractions shows whether a person can stay in their motorized scooter or wheelchair, whether they need to transfer from a scooter to a loaner wheelchair, of if a person needs to transfer out of the wheelchair.  In some cases a person even needs to transfer first from a scooter to a wheelchair, then leave the chair.  As Betty was in her wheelchair, the scooter part was irrelevant.

The very first attraction we came to was listed as needing to transfer out of her chair.  We asked the attendant who was directing us to the handicapped entrance about what she transferred to, and if there were any steps.  "Oh, there is just a gentle ramp." was the reply.  Upon getting there, the cars had about an 8 inch step through a very narrow opening.  There was no way Betty could step up, or even sit on the seat and pull here feet in.  They stopped the ride saying that of course she could get in.  We finally convinced them she could not!  We did not even try any other "out of the wheelchair" rides.

We did do a very lot of things!  We watched about half a dozen 12 to 30 minute movies.  Some were in theaters, others were a standing area in either an open room or in rows with rails to lean against.  Some were conventional wide screen, some were 180 degrees of panorama, and a couple were 360 degrees.  All had spectacular sound systems!

In one of the two places called Innoventions we attended a short talk about the history of home entertainment.  He showed a number of standard TV and audio systems, working his way up to HDTV and surround sound.  He then took us next door to the "ultimate" home theater.  It was spectacular!  There was a 60 inch projection TV using a silk screen and 3 microchips which vibrate microscopic mirrors to modulate each of the 3 light colors.  The audio was powerful, to say the least, with very strong sub-woofer and super fidelity surround sound.  It would have been much better if we had not been stuck in the front row.

I rode the Test Track, another "out-of-the-chair" rides, by myself.  I don't think Betty would have enjoyed it anyway.  It simulated test driving a car during the design phase.  The started by panic braking with the anti-lock turned off (we swerved all over the place), then again with ABS and we stopped fully under control.  They took us over a rough road simulator, did evasive maneuvers, did some up and down hill high performance driving, and finally to the roof of the attraction where we got to 65 miles per hour around their fairly sharp track.  I thought it was fun!

One of the rides that we took that was a lot of fun was the Kodak Imaginations ride.  This was listed as a "stay in your chair" ride, but when we got to the loading area, the cars looked almost identical with the first ones.  I asked the attendant about it and was told the wheelchair boat would be right along.  Several boats later came one with a large open rear area.  I got in, the attendant rolled Betty onto the back between two railings pointed sideways!  Then she pulled a lever and rotated the whole section, Betty, bars and all forward.  It worked great!  We were wondering why they could not have done the same thing on the first ride we tried.  Later, reading the description of the rides, we found out.  It was a "thrill" ride and a loose wheelchair would never have worked!

Back to the Kodak ride:  The ride started out with a movie presentation given by a Professor "someone-or-other".  He was constantly interrupted by a cute purple creature named Figment.  Figment was forbidden to interfere, so of course the rest of the ride was really hosted by Figment.  It was a fun (and gentle) ride.

One of the most exotic rides was the Universe of Energy.  We started standing in a room with a 180 degree screen.  Ellen DeGeneres hosted it, and was watching Jeopardy when she was visited by her next door neighbor Bill Nye, the Science Guy.  Ellen doesn't know much or care about energy and Bill tries to teach her.  Ellen falls asleep and has a dream (nightmare) in which she is on Jeopardy, and all the topics relate to energy.  Of course she is losing badly  At this point we are ushered out of the round theater into an area that has a couple of large boats.  Each boat had two drop-down back doors that made ramps for the wheelchairs.  I sat next to Betty on a regular seat like everyone else on the ride.  The lights dimmed and the nightmare continued, first on high screens as before where Bill invites her to come back with him to see the origin of our current energy sources.  Then the boats moved to a jungle where huge scale animatronic dinosaurs roamed and the vegetation steamed.  Of course after this experience, Ellen was now much smarter and more aware, and won her dream session of Jeopardy.  No matter what you might think of Ellen, she was very funny and did a good job!
 

	During Ellen's nightmare, we went back in time to the era of the dinosaurs.  There were dozens of life size animated animals.
We missed seeing any manatees at the Manatee Center, but we got to see them at the Living Seas attraction.  Everywhere you looked at the exhibit, there was another aquarium.  This pool contained two manatees that were being used in a study project. Sorry I couldn't get him (her?) to be more photogenic.

One of the most fun movies was "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience".  This was a 3-D movie with some "added effects".  during the course of the movie, a pet mouse runs into a "duplicating" machine which starts making it multiply rapidly.  Later, the huge flock of mice runs "into" the audience.  We started hearing screams from the front of the theater, then something whisked my leg for a few seconds.  (No, I didn't scream!)  Later the family dog, which had accidentally been made very large, sneezed toward the audience.  We were all hit by a brief spray of water!  (I hope it was water!)  It was a lot of fun, and my 3-D perception still works!

After finishing everything we could in the first section  (I never did find a name for the first section.) of Epcot, we moved to the second section, The World Showcase.  This section consists of a large lagoon which is surrounded by small villages from each of about a dozen countries.  They are very realistically done.  Even the workers are of the proper nationality, with the proper accents.  Several of the movies we saw were here.  Canada, France, Japan, the USA, and China all had very well done movies giving a cross section of their country. 

The United States had a pre-show singing group doing Stephen Foster songs and others of that era.  They were excellent!  Next we moved into a large theater and had a 30 minute movie narrated by Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain.  They took us through the history of the US with visits from many other animatronic figures.
 

	Near the end of the presentation, Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain discuss the continuing future of the United States.
There was topiary nearly everywhere!  Here we see Eeyore and Piglet.

China also had a pre-show consisting of some Chinese acrobats.  Unfortunately, they were all working at floor level up front and the audience was sitting in the front and standing in the rear.  I doubt many could really see them, I know we could not!  I would occasionally see a bobbing head, and Betty was much lower than I.

Mexico had a boat ride, which again had a special boat for wheelchairs - same idea, differently done.  We took a tour through the history of Mexico with many video displays as we progressed.  At one point we were passing a market place and a couple of the vendors followed us from screen to screen trying to get us to buy.  It was fun.

We finished up around 7:30 or 7:45.  We decided it was not worth waiting until 9:00 for the fireworks show.  As we were leaving, many, many people were entering, probably from other parks with multi-park tickets.  Epcot has the fireworks display for all the parks.  I had not realized it, but Disney has many parks in the area, all grouped under the name of Disney World.  You can buy tickets for 1 day/1 park, 2,3,4,5,6 or 7 day tickets for 1 park per day, or with the "Park Hopper" option you can enter and exit any park for the duration of the ticket.  Normally you have to use the ticket totally within 14 days of its first use, but for another add-on fee you can make it non-expireable.  You can use it a day at a time until you use all your days.

As tired as we were, I cannot even imagine buying a 7 day ticket and using it up in a week!

We stopped at a nearby Cracker Barrel and had dinner.  There were a lot of very sleepy looking children there, not to mention many of the adults!

Wednesday, Apr. 6
We slept in this morning.  As we had not even decided where we were going today, we got the maps and tour books out.  We considered Gainsville, but there was not much in the area that interested us, and it was too close to here.  We decided to head to Pensicola, with an over night stop in the Tallahassee area.  This would be about a 250 mile drive, followed by about a 150 mile one tomorrow.

We finally left about 10:40.  After an uneventful drive we pulled into the FlyingJ west of Tallahassee a little after 3.  It was like a zoo in here, and we took the only available RV spot.  Several rigs have left and been replaced by others since.  This is a poorly designed station, with only one driveway servicing the auto and the RV side of the station.  Shortly after we arrived, a pickup towing a trailer was in line for one of the auto pumps and had the driveway pretty well blocked from our side, both in and out.  Cars started driving with 2 wheels on a curb to get past.  The lady from the rig was out back directing vehicles past the rear of the trailer.  Finally the pump cleared and he pulled his rig forward and cleared the block.  We have seen several big-rigs pull in her (we assume by mistake).  They drive around to behind us and back out.  They then turn left and go to the next driveway which services the trucks.

I drove 967 miles on this tank.  I thought that was a new record, but in reviewing my gas records I find that on 3/17/01 I drove 968!

We will fuel in the morning.

Thursday, Apr. 7
We woke up to rain and thunder this morning at around 5.  At 6, I went out and looked at The Weather Channel.  They showed a band of severe T'storms just crossing over us.  I estimated they would be clear in an hour or two, and went back to sleep.  I got up at what I thought was 7:30.  When I got out front, the clock said 8:45!  I secured things quickly and drove over to the RV pumps.  It was a very slow pump!  It took almost 15 minutes to pump in almost 120 gallons of fuel.  Betty got up and dressed while I was pumping.  The rain had pretty much quit.

We headed out for our Passport America campground in Holt, FL, about 30 miles east of Pensacola.

I was going to close this report before this, but as I was preparing my webpage and this report, The Weather Channel was reporting this morning's damage.  There were several tornadoes that touched down in Ocala. causing extensive damage.  That's where the E-One factory we toured is located, and where we drove through yesterday en-route to Tallahassee.  That's just too close!  There is currently a tornado warning for St. Lucie County, where we saw the nuclear power plant.

That's enough for this episode!  I'll report on today's tour of the National Air Museum in my next report.

You can see this and my other reports along with a number of photos at: 

http://myweb.cableone.net/rsmason

'Till next time,

Dick and Betty

Thursday, Apr. 7
Last report I jumped ahead and told you about the terrible weather damage in Ocala and some of the other areas we just visited.  Now I'll go back and fill in.

We drove from Tallahassee to about 30 miles east of Pensacola without incident, arriving around 11:30 (after gaining an hour passing from the Eastern to the Central time zone).  We pulled into a Passport America park in Holt, FL  After relaxing a short while, we headed for Pensacola to the National Museum of Naval Aviation.

What a drive!  I had no idea Pensacola was so large and there were so many transitions needed to stay on the same highway.  We finally found the main gate for the Naval Air Station.  After I told the sentry where we wanted to go, he stated that the entrance for the museum was now at the west entrance.  He gave us a small map of directions.  About 20 minutes later we found that gate and were allowed to drive in to the museum.

This was a fascinating place!  In one section were the antique planes, up to about the end of WW1.  Then there was a section of aircraft from WW2 through the Korean War, and then modern aircraft.  There were also a number of exhibits and tributes to the Blue Angels who are based here.  There is an IMAX theater and a free tour of the flight line based display aircraft.  We arrived too late for the last tour and decided against the IMAX presentation.
 

	One of the first planes we came upon was a Sopwith Camel.  If you look closely enough, you will see there is even a pilot in the cockpit.  Why, it's Snoopy, of course! In the foreground is a 130 hp. Clerget rotary 9B engine (the cylinders rotate while the crankshaft remains fixed) as used in the Camel.
The JN-4 "Jenny" is a very well known plane mostly because so many were made.  It was not used much in actual combat, but was used as a trainer by about 95% of the WW1 pilots. The example shown here has much of the covering removed so you can see the wood and wire construction of the frame.
	This was one of the more spectacular WW1 planes we saw.  It is the NC-4 giant flying boat built starting in 1918.  It was completed just as the armistice was signed. It has 4 engines, one on each side and a middle nacelle that has 2 - one pulling forward and 1 pushing from the rear. This was the first plane to cross the Atlantic!
The F4U Corsair had an enormous 13 foot propeller on a 2100 hp. Pratt & Whitney engine. It had several poor flight qualities initially, but became a very popular and effective combat airplane with a kill ratio of 11 to 1.  It had the longest production run of any WW2 fighter from 1942 to 1952.
	This Link Trainer is like the one Gene Wilkison and I bought and refurbished many years ago.  We gave instrument flight instruction in it for several years.
The atrium had a spectacular display of 4 Blue Angels McDonnell-Douglas A-4F Skyhawk aircraft.  These planes were flown by the Blue Angels from 1974 to 1985.

After wandering around looking at aircraft for about an hour and a half or so, we reviewed the gift shop where Betty found a new friend (his name is "Fly Boy") and we headed home.  After an extra 30 or so minutes waiting and moving at about 1 to 2 mph. on I-10 east through a construction zone, we finally reached two lane road each way, and quickly made it back.
 

This is Fly Boy! He came equipped with helmet, goggles, silk scarf blowing over his shoulder, a Top Gun tee shirt, and a fur collared leather jacket. Now all we need is his plane!

After I had gotten ready for bed and Betty was just finishing up, the unthinkable happened:

Betty fell !

It was a soft fall, and she ended up on the floor next to the bed.  She tells me that she was in the process of sitting on the corner of the bed, and slipped off to the side.  It took quite a while, but she finally was able to get up and into bed with a lot of my help.  She seems to be OK, but is sore.  She had pulled a leg muscle getting into a restroom a couple days ago, and that probably contributed to her unsteadiness.

Friday, Apr. 8
Betty seems fine, but is very sore and only able to move quite slowly.  We decided to extend our stay here for a couple of days and just let her relax, hoping the soreness will get better quickly.

Saturday, Apr. 9
Betty is still very sore and only able to move slowly and with help.

It is a beautiful day here without a cloud in the sky!  It is already 73 degrees at 9:20 AM.  I'll try to do some routine things around the motorhome today and get ready to head for home tomorrow.  I'm afraid we will be in "sprint for home" mode again this time.  I was hoping to avoid that this trip.

You can see this and my other reports along with a number of photos at: 

http://myweb.cableone.net/rsmason

'Till next time,

Dick and Betty