Cincinnati Tailgating

The very first real tailgate with the Hokie Hoopty (last year's miami game was with the pre-pimped Hoopty) took place this past weekend for the Cincinnati game. There was some last minute work to be completed Friday night. Here Colette gets the back window ready for its Virginia Tech sticker.

Nine of us made the early morning trip from Lynchburg to Blacksburg Saturday morning. Sophie secured the only bench seat with a seat belt.She somehow convinced her Aunt Cathy to pass the time with some cards. I think they work better if you look at the side with the numbers.Jeanell, Steve, and Colette mug for the camera while Brandon concentrates on a photo album of previous tailgates and general debauchery.Ellen and Rob seem suprisingly happy despite Robs sour stomach or some other mysterious illness that, as usual, results in strange abdominal noises and the constant threat of explosion.Happy driver at 65mph - I guess I should concentrate on the road.
Let the tailgating begin. Note that most of the pictures are from the post-game tailgate. We were too excited and forgot to take pictures from the early tailgate.The matching chairs certainly looked nice and the table/chair cart performed flawlessly. Those stainless coolers kept food and beverages nice and frosty.The photo album gets passed around.Lance, Cathy, Steve, and Colette enjoying some those chips and dip. Oh yeah, and a beer too.Cathy was quite animated in this particular discussion. Either that or she was about to smack me.Brandon, a friend that works with Jeanell at the restaurant, was enthralled with Cathy's soliloquy. Let it be known that Brandon is one chatty guy. We couldn't get him to shut up the whole day. He must have dropped at least 10 or 12 words.Janet is also listening intently but it seems like she isn't really believing whatever Cathy is saying.
I think Cathy has Colette and Steve either confused or just plain scared.
Why does she look annoyed?
Standard Ellen and Rob pose.Grillmaster Chip wielding his tool of choice.
Dude, are those burgers done or are you trying to make us sick? Our second grill failed miserably but Chip's ol' faithful bailed us out. One grill is definitely not big enough for 12 or 14 people. I'm still working on the super-grill. Hopefully it will be ready to cook for the Ga Tech game.
Family friend (that seems the simplest way to explain a girlfriend- in- law- twice- removed- by- marriage) Jilian dropped by with her friend Jill and they took part in our post-game tailgate. Sorry I don't have a better picture - the only other one I have shows Jilian shoving some seven layer dip in her face and I figured I should keep that out of public view.The Hokie Hoopty tailgate isn't all just hedonistic fun. Here's our charity table for Hospice. I hope to add a seperate page to explain what this is all about so keep your eyes open.Sophie had to be indoctrinated in the details of proper tailgating and tossing football is a key activity. She's a leader so she opted to direct the offense.
Look at that arm! Look at that form! That's a Mike Vick-like frozen rope.Aaaaah, but alas, throwing football isn't the only tailgating activity. Here Sophie takes part in the age old tradition of waiting on a blue room to open up. Nobody likes "ocupado" when nature is calling.
So, the first Hoopty tailgate was a definite success! A good time was had by all and the win over Cincy ensures that there is no bad Hoopty juju. The loss to Miami last year was not, in any way, tied to the presence of the Hoopty. Whew, now everyone can go back to believing their lucky hat, lucky shirt, lucky drawers, lucky stuffed hand-glove-thing (brandon), or lucky socks are directly tied to the abililty of the Hokies to win.
post-script: Please note the matching shirts! With lots of help from High Peak Sportwear in Lynchburg we have official Hokie Hoopty t-shirts. They're a very nice touch for our olympic synchronized tailgating team. Heck, we even got Janet to wear Hokie colors for about the first time ever. I'll get better pictures of the shirts at the Ga Tech game. A big thanks to Ralph and High Peak for making us look much better than we actually are.

Getting Game-Ready

The clock was ticking a lot faster than normal. Saturday was approaching and the Hoopty had to be ready for its inaugural run. Thursday and Friday was a mad, mad, mad flurry of activity starting with the final dress-up of the exterior.

Exterior
Let's talk about the most obvious change first - the mirrors. Alright, maybe not the most obvious but they do make a difference. New stainless mirrors on the doors help me see who I'm passing while the refurbished white mirrors let me ensure I'm actually taking up only one lane at a time.

Ooooh, now the lettering. Roberta at Bruce Signs was great to work with and very helpful with getting the final, but most important touch on the Hoopty. Vinyl lettering now adorns the front, sides, and rear of the bus. Man, that lettering really makes the Hoopty stand out. Thanks to the Diehls for footing the bill on this one.


The steps were finally installed and a little cherry cover plate for the non-functional step light.

Driver's Throne
With all of the interior work mostly finished, Jeanell thought the driver's seat should get some of the same love that has been showered on the rest of the Hoopty. After several attempts (which I unknowingly botched) she was able to put together the greatest of surprises. While I was at work she ran the Hoopty down to Fears Upholstery in downtown Lynchburg and those guys worked some abbreviated-schedule magic. In a half a day they turned the ugly brown driver's seat into something amazing and beautiful. Jeanell you're the best - thanks. Check it out.....
That orange really sets off the dark, cherry, black, and maroon interior.

Trimwork
The last bit of trimwork was installed on the ends of the benches...
....and around the rear door opening. Also note those groovy orange accent pillows courtesy of Colette Walker. Definitely a nice touch. No, the rear curtain did not arrive in time, but we have to leave something for future blog updates. You can also see the chair cart neatly tucked into the cargo area.

Entertainment
The electronics/entertainment panel above the passenger door was installed (credit to Colette again for making the anti-head-banging cushions and credit to Steve for installing them). Our nice sony radio/cd player and the sirius satellite radio are both mounted on the panel. To the right of the satellite receiver is a general storage box that is sized just big enough to hold cd cases. Two accessory outlets were installed in the back of the box and will be used to charge cell phones and power mp3 players, etc. The two toggle switches at the bottom of the panel are for the 12v power supply. In the down position, the left switch powers the radio and satellite receiver from the bus battery while we're driving. With the switch in the up position the radio equipment is run off a spare deep cycle battery stored in the back of the bus so while we're tailgating we won't drain down the starting battery. The right switch does the same thing for the three accessory plugs. Three plugs?.....Yes, the third plug was located around the corner on the wall facing the bench seat (top left of the VT). The hope is we can have an ipod dock plugged in there and the passengers can easily pick the music they want.

So there it is. The Hoopty 85% complete and ready for its first tailgate. Strangely enough, the first tailgate has already gone down, but you'll have to wait a couple days before I get that posting up. Thanks again to Colette, Steve, Ellen, Rob, Cathy, Lance, Jeanell, and Sophie for various contributions over these last two days getting the Hoopty ready. We're ready to roll and here's our new view of Hokie happiness....

PAINT.....enough said.

Whew, I'm tired. That was a long four days, but oh what a difference four days can make! I'm too exhausted for lots of words, so we'll let the pictures do the talking.

Dubs. Let's start with some dubs. Ok, not exactly 20" rims, but they're our wheels and they used to look like crapola with layers of flaky black paint. Jeanell picked up where Rob left off scrubbing.
After lots of toxic paint stripper, wirewheels, and hand scrubbing, just about all of the paint was removed.Taped up and primed.
Now we're rolling in style.The back bumper also looked like poopy-doop so that was stripped down. In hindsight I should've stripped the front one as well.
Those white wheels look badass, but we've gotta do something about that yellow.And so it begins. Tape, tape, and more tape. Let's not forget about the tape.I am now the doctor of mixology. Not the bartending kind, although I can throw together a margarita when the need arises. Four parts primer, one part reducer, one part hardener. Time to say goodbye to the scout troop 99 transport vehicle. The Hoopty is about to be reborn.Pimped and primed.The first of about a million coats of color are starting to get sprayed. Before we move on with this, allow me to rant a tad. The paint is not nearly maroon enough. More like a dark red. It turns out picking car paint is the same as picking house paint only more expensive. In order to choose a color to cover about 60,000 square feet of bus, I have to look at a paint sample that is the size of a hummingbird booger. But hey, this one looks just right through the microscope but let's check the name because paints usually have cryptic names like "angry ocean amnesia". Turns out this paint has a reasonable name - "MAROON". Yes, maroon. That's what I'm looking for. Strangely though, the name was indeed cryptic. By "maroon", they really meant "dark red that hopes to grow up to be a real maroon one day". It looks better in low light so we can only go to night games and 3:30 games......well maybe.After two days of painting, the Hoopty is ready for its unveiling, or at least an untaping.The Hoopty is taking shape with all the tape and paper removed (except that little piece above the windshield). So I really should do a final buffing/wet-sand to remove all of the orange peel, fish-eyes, and bugs stuck in the paint, but I just don't have it in me so it will have to do, as is. So here she is in all her glory. Trust me, the pictures are better than the real thing, but it sure is better than the yellow and what do you expect for a $650 short bus.
The rear bumper has some maroon overspray, but we'll just pretend I meant it to be that way, and I got a tad overanxious and taped up the bumpers too early so the tape pulled some of the gloss off of both bumpers - still looks going down the road.
So we're getting much closer to being ready for Cincy next weekend. Hopefully we can get some signage on, and I still need to install the mirrors. I'm not sure if there will be another posting prior to next week's game, but there will definitely be one showing the fun of the tailgate. See you there.

Regarding football - two words - "Western Michigan".