"The Beginning"
I must tell you about how great the Tin
Canners were, after the accident. We were to attend the TCT
Spring Meet in Milford Michigan
the week after the accident. We called and told them we were planning to
attend but we would stay in a hotel, since we had no camper. Terry
and Michelle Bone offered us their Avion trailer to stay in and Ken and
Lana Hindley offered an electric cart for Hardy to use since he had a
broken ankle. So we went to the meet and explained all the accident
details, brought a Wayzalot book which people signed condolences and we
posted an obituary for the Wayzalot on the bulletin board. There, we
explained to everyone what happened and now that chapter was closed… or
so we thought…… On Saturday night after the dinner, we went to the Avion
and were getting ready for bed about 10pm
and Diane Flis knocked on our door and said “don’t get undressed, come
on outside for a minute“. We walked over to the empty campsite
where the Wayzalot always had been parked, and most of the Tin Can
Tourists members were standing there with lit candles and a Blue Grass
band was playing music. People spoke about the Wayzalot and Forrest Bone
said he would hold the camp space until the new Wayzalot could appear.
We sang songs and had a candle light service for the our dead Wayzalot.
It was a very nice gesture from our club. We even had new postcards
describing the Wayzalot (we were to use them on a caravan later that
month) which we passed out like “mass cards”. As the band was
leaving, I asked them if they would like a card about the Wayzalot? They
all wanted one and the band leader asked for two. I asked him “
Have you ever played for a dead camper funeral before?” and he said “No,
this was a first“. It was a very nice gesture from a great group of
people. (The Tin Can Tourists now have different branches on the
east and west coast, in addition to the Midwest
so if you are a vintage camper or have a new camper and just like the
old campers, make an effort to go to a TCT
meet, you will not meet a nicer group of people anywhere.)
We went
to Elkhart, Indiana and learned that many frame companies were now out
of business, since the economy was and still is in the toilet, so
we went to Trail Air and met with the owner, Dale Fenton, . He had
installed our AirRide hitch on the Wayzalot. He said he could
customize a frame for us and he took a forty two foot display
frame and cut it down to twenty one feet. That made the new
Wayzless almost eight feet shorter than the Wayzalot. Out thinking
was that since we aren’t getting any younger, maybe the next one we
build should be a little smaller and easier to pull with a one ton truck
instead of a tractor. We brought the frame home in the fall 2010,
and started planning how to build again. At Christmas, 2010, we
received from our daughter, two new signs, titled “The Wayzless”, done
by John Rich Signs, who did the original Wayzalot signs.
Basically, the new Wayzless is similar to the Wayzalot. It’s a fifth
wheel with a three foot back porch instead of a five foot porch, and a
much smaller space inside. Hardy build a trolley top roof with a green
metal roof and added a bay window in front. It is unique and will
be the “Wayzless“………not a remake of the Wayzalot. It has a garage space
in front and has a basement under the floor which will hold all our
camping equipment and tools that we carried in the tractor. The only
windows which didn’t break on the Wayzalot were the stained glass
windows my sister had reinforced…so those windows are now in the new
Wayzless. We also saved the back door which is already hanging.
We will have the outside done this
spring and the Wayzless will have its first outing at the Tin Can
Tourist May Meet 2012 in Milford.
We probably wont have the inside all done but it has a bed, toilet and
sink so we will be on the road again in a Hardy Home, the WAYZLESS.
Happy Trails!
Wayzless Construction Photos
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