Thursday, May 14, 2009

As a continuation to my blog on Meet the Board Members--today I'm sharing a picture I took May 5th at the Board meeting. It shows Holly Bedsole, Executive Director the AACA Museum talking to our own Don Barlup. Don owns his own business and is very active with both the Bus Museum and the AACA Automobile Museum. For many years, Don was the liaison between the AACA Museum Board and our Board--when his tenure was up, we appointed him as a regular member of our Board.

Holly is passionate about promoting and preserving the history and future of automobiles which is perfect for her new role as Executive Director of the AACA Museum. Holly was selected for this position by the AACA Board of Directors following a nationwide search. Holly is always welcome at our Board Meetings and keeps us updated on their happenings.

The person on the left front of the picture of Oliver Ogden, busy at work!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Today is another workday at the Annex---all in preparation for the upcoming SPRING FLING. Today they are starting on trash control and ground prep--weed control and grass cutting. With all the rain in the Susquehanna Valley in the last two weeks--everything green has taken over! Dan Lehman, Tom Mozer, Tom Collins and Oliver Ogden will be at the Annex this morning.

Last Friday, Tom Mozer, Ken McNellis, Oliver Ogden, and Bob Devine worked at the Annex. They got the RV covers that had been taken off the week before out of the buses and laid them out to dry (since it was a nice dry day). They then packed them away for the season. Oliver worked in the shed working with files and on then worked the museum floor.

Bob and Ken installed a destination sign and painted some interior on the AMTRAN. Looks good! Jeff Holland was over for a while and helped also. His father was in a bad accident and Jeff is trying to stay close to home to help him. The accelerator still sticks on the Amtran and you must be careful after air pressure builds up. With Ken's help, Tom moved it to the corner of the stone on the right side of the Checker.

We put chairs around the pit as a safety precaution.

The Harran- Oliver borrowed the gas pump from the car museum and Tom pumped the old gas out of the Harran. Tom put about 30 gallons back in the Harran to get it running. The electric fuel pump didn't work until thesecond 15 gallons went in the tank. Tom put Sta Bil in the one tank and would recommend more for the second tank. Tom also sprayed Carb Cleaner in the carb. The Harran seems to run alright now and does hold an idle. Next time Tom is at the annex he'll clean the carb with lacquer thinner.

So you can see a lot of work was accomplished.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Again, I want to thank the many sponsors we have for our Spring Fling this year.....this is all due to the great work that Board Member Bob Beard has done for us by writing many, many letters and contacting many people by phone and email. Thanks BOB!

American Bus Association, ABC Companies, APTA (American Public Transportation Association), SETRA Coach; UMA (United Motorcoach Association); Lancer Insurance; Prevost; Michaud Buses for Sale, MCI (Motor Coach Industries), and Vernon and Maz, Inc. (If you don't see your Company's name here and believe it should be, contact us through our web site.)

It isn't easy nor is it free to setup a flea market and since we are only charging a minimal $2 entrance fee, we really could not put on the Spring Fling without our sponsors. And I would be amiss if I didn't also thank Wolf Bus Lines of York Springs and Conestoga Tours of Lancaster who provide the transportation bus between the Museum and the Memorial Annex. We also want to thank Wolf Bus Lines for sponsoring our T-Shirt this year! It is going to be beaut!

Monday, May 11, 2009

I wanted to continue my discussion about the Board of Directors. I'm not sure if you all know us and what we do or not--so here goes - not in any particular order (well, yes, there was a particular order--the order I took the pics!):

The first picture is Tom Collins, our President, who works for Capital Area Transit in Harrisburg. He is retired from SEPTA in Philadephia. He is standing next to Oliver Ogden. They are both at the Annex prior to the meeting on Tuesday. Oliver is retired--has had an interest in buses all his life (in fact his mother noted in his baby book that "bus" was his first word). Although he only worked for Hempstead Bus as a young man and persued other avenues later on in life--he has ALWAYS loved buses. He recently authored a book "Fifth Avenue Coach Company" which I wrote about in an earlier blog....it will be published by Iconografx in October of this year.

The second picture shows John Dockendorf, Secretary of the Board, seated at the table and Tom Mozer, standing behind him. Also note Tom Collins standing to the left with his head down. John, an employee of Penn DOT, collects toy buses and has written a book on Greyhound Postcards (which I wrote about in a previous blog--GREYHOUND in POSTCARDS - Buses, Depots and Post Houses, Collection of John Dockendorf). Tom Mozer, Assistant Fleet Manager, retired from NJ Transit (Safety and Training Supervisor), is a newlywed and works hard with the Fleet committee--he is always there when buses need to be moved for the Museum.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the great Mother's out there. What a GREAT day to take Mom for a ride and TREAT her to a day at the Museum--she can wander through the cars, buses and motorcycles and reminisce about her childhood! And best of all, admission to the AACA Museum (http://www.aacamuseum.org/) which includes The Museum of Bus Transportation AND the Antique Motorcycle Club of America for all Mothers on Mother's Day is FREE! So, Mom can enjoy the vehicles and you get to save some money! Tell Mom: Happy Mother's Day from us too! ENJOY.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Let me introduce you to the Board of Directors. I had the opportunity at Tuesday's Board Meeting to take some pictures and I thought you might be interested in seeing who your Board Members are.....watch future blogs for more details and more pictures.

I know you probably think I accidentally uploaded two of the same picture--but look closely--they are different.

On the top picture: Back row, l to r, Ed Wolf, Don Barlup, Dino Mandros, Oliver Ogden, Sharon Ogden; Front row, l to r, Bob Smith, Tom Collins, Dan Lehman, John Dockendorf.

On the bottom picture: Back row, l to r, Ed Wolf, Don Barlup, Dino Mandros, Oliver Ogden, Tom Mozer; front row, l to r, Bob Smith, Tom Collins, Dan Lehman, John Dockendorf.

Somehow, everyone looks happier in the first picture! More about the Board and their duties in a future blog. For further information on the Board, go to: http://www.busmuseum.org/Board.html.

For those of you who follow this blog regularly, you will remember that in the last week we had a problem with our website and the renewal of our domain name--I had to promise these people my first born, send them two 6-page faxes to prove that we actually existed, AND after spending about 8 hours on the problem, finally got it resolved. I said to them--just look at our webpage--you will see we really do exist. I even had to send them a copy of a photo id for myself! The problem seemed to be when we initially reserved the domain name, we were not yet located in Hershey---but DUH! businesses move all the time! My goodness it sure seemed over-complicated.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Four weeks from today! Yes, just 4 short weeks from today is the Museum's Annual Spring Fling. We are very excited about it this year because we will have our doors open for 2 days. We are hoping that the weather will cooperate with us this year and not be scorchingly hot--we already had those hot days the end of April--so perhaps we will get lucky and just have plain old June weather!

Tuesday night before the Board Meeting I had the opportunity to take a few pictures down at the Annex while they were unloading the SEPTA bus (newly painted). One of the buses you will get the opportunity to finally see is the 1972 GM TGH 5308-A Jamaica Bus pictured here.

Hopefully you have all made your reservations if you are staying overnight and planning on attending this GREAT event.

So far this year, sponsorships have been received from (alphabetically): the ABA, ABC, APTA, Lancer Insurance, MCI, Michaud Bus Sales, Prevost Car, Setra, and Vernon & Maz, Inc..
(If you don't see your Company's name here and believe it should be, contact us through our web site.)