We left Kansas City late in the afternoon of August 1 for our trip to Zimmerman, MN where Spontaneous Combustion is going to play at the 30^th Annual Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Festival.  My brother Roger is driving his 1967 270 and I’m driving my ’73.  Scotty, the Mandolin and Banjo player in our group, left with his family earlier in the week in his newly purchased ’74 Mahal 2 +2. 

        We decided that we should break the trip up, so we planned to stop at a KOA campground just west of Des Moines, IA for the night.  We arrived there about 10:30 and were escorted to our sites by the grumpiest KOA campground host I’ve ever met.  But that’s another story. 

        On the way in, Roger called to me on his radio that he had spotted another Travco.  Not only that, but it was towing what looked like a miniature Travco.  After we got ours parked, we walked over in the dark to take a look at what turned out to be a Mahal.  We estimated it to be somewhere in vintage between Roger’s and mine. 

        The next morning, we met the owners, who turned out to be Dan Simmons and his Family from Upstate New York.  He and I have had an indirect conversation through the myTravco.com site.  They have been on vacation for a couple of weeks and were on their way home.  The trailer they were towing was a U-haul camper that looks a lot like a Travco in its contours.  He had even painted it to match his Mahal.  His unit turns out to be a ’70 Mahal.  He said he’s owned it for ten years. 

        Dan was having a little trouble with his carb, and we stuck around for an extra hour or so to see if he was going to be able to get it figured out.  After a phone conversation with a local mechanic, the darn thing fired up and we all left the campground together. 

        We drove the rest of the way to Minneapolis today, and arrived at our location late this afternoon.  We play our first set tomorrow morning.

        The site that we rented (at the last minute) had plenty of room for two Travcos, but unfortunately, only enough electricity for one, and just barely enough at that.  Rose and I decided to let Roger and Deidre and their family have the electrical hookup.  We figured we could take turns, cooling the Motor homes off alternately.  Also, there are “generator times” when it’s permissible to run the generator, two hours in the morning and two in the evening.  Last night, it wasn’t too bad, but the really hot weather we hoped we had left behind in Kansas City caught up with us today, and it’s been a little warm.  We used the generator to cool the Guppy and to recharge the computer, Camcorder and cell phone batteries.  Fortunately, the fridge is running on gas, so there are lots of cool beverages on hand. 

        We slept good and the rest of the band showed up on schedule.  Scott and his family have rented space at a KOA campground about 15 miles away as the camp sites here at the festival are all full, so he drove over this morning.  Our first set at about noon went very well, and lots of people came by afterward to visit and buy CDs.  We spent the rest of the afternoon participating in workshops and clinics and watched some other bands perform. 

        Late in the afternoon, Scott drove his Travco over to our site so that we could help celebrate his daughter’s third birthday.  For a while, we had his ’74 Mahal, Roger’s ’67 270 and my ’73 all parked together, and I took some pictures. 

        Tomorrow’s the big day.  This is the 30^th anniversary of the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Festival, and their last at this location, Camp in the Woods Resort northwest of Minneapolis.  They invited many of their favorite bands back to celebrate this big year, and it was a big honor for Spontaneous Combustion to be included in the lineup.  Next year, the resort will be closed and re-developed as 3-5 acre home sites. 

        Our last show of the Festival is at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, and it’s expected that the largest audience to ever attend the festival will be on hand at that time, as many as 5,000 people.  Wish us luck. 

        We are home from our five-day, 1000 mile round trip.  The past two days were so busy that I haven’t had time to write. 

        First of all, the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Festival is a hoot.  Bluegrass people are the best anywhere, and a bluegrass festival always feels like a big family reunion. 

        While we were there, I was approached by a gentleman who was amazed to see not one, but three Travcos at the Festival.  He said that he and his wife had purchased a Travco many years ago, and while they didn’t have it at the Festival, he said his son still used it and that he would send photos. 

        News:  When Scott showed up at our campsite with the Minnow, he was having some problems keeping the generator running.  He and Roger did a little work on it and had it running pretty well.  The fuel filters were clogged.  Scott left Minnesota on Sunday morning.  Apparently, his generator stalled again, and when I called him from the Guppy this afternoon he said he figured out what was going on.  He has two tanks on his 2 + 2.  The generator gets its gas from the reserve tank, and like a lot of other Travcos, the fuel line is attached to the tank at a higher location than the feed for the engine, so that you can’t run the tank dry by running the generator.  So, when the gas in the reserve tank fell below the fuel line feed for the generator, it died.  Duh!  Anyway, his trip home was uneventful.  Said he ran about 70 all the way home.  Keep in mind that the temps were in the high nineties, but he had no problems.

        Roger’s Travco, Moby Dick, on the other hand, had a few issues.  We both left the Festival on Sunday.  Roger took his family to visit the Great Mall of America, and we arranged to meet Sunday evening at a KOA campground about 150 miles south of Minneapolis.  When we left there this morning, he told me on the radio that Moby had been running a little hot.  So, we were taking it easy, trying not to push too hard in the high temperatures.  We stopped twice to add water, and the second time, it ran out as fast as we put it in. 

        Blown radiator hose.

        The place we stopped was right at the Iowa/Missouri state line, a small town called Lamoni.  There was no place to buy a radiator hose there, so we jumped into the Guppy and headed north 6 miles to an auto supply store.  We couldn’t find an exact match, so we bought one that was close and returned to put it on.  We got it attached, poured in about three gallons of coolant and cranked it up.  Unfortunately, when the hose warmed up, it relaxed just enough to come into contact with the fan hose pulley and we immediately lost another radiator hose and three gallons of expensive coolant. 

        Fortunately, there was a wrecker there, and the driver gave us the phone number of an O’Riley’s in Bethany, MO, about 22 miles south of where we were.  We called and bingo!  He had the exact hose.  We just had time to get there before closing, so we made the round trip, installed the hose and got Moby started again. 

        We took it real easy the last 100 miles, and by the time we got home, Moby was laboring.  Tomorrow, a mechanic.  We’ll see what happens.  The important thing is that we all got home, safe and sound, and nothing broke that we couldn’t fix. 

        Next trip for all three Travcos is the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas in September.  I’ve been going to this festival every year since 1975 and Spontaneous Combustion has performed there for each of the last fifteen years.  This will be our 16^th appearance at that Festival.  I know for a fact that there will be at least one more Travco there, perhaps two.  I’ll send pictures.