It all begins with an idea.
My name is Gary LeCount and I grew up in Northern Indiana. My siblings and I spent most of our time in the garage with our dad. We tinkered with anything we could get our hands on; dirt bikes, go-carts, lawn mowers, etc. We didn’t have much growing up, so if it broke, we fixed it. If we needed it, we built it. We even converted a 1968 Ford Econoline van into a camper for a family trip to Florida.
As my brothers, sister and I got into our teenage years, our dad showed an interest in classic cars. He purchased a 1928 Chevy 1 ton pickup, which we all helped him disassemble, catalogue all the parts and reassemble. In high school we worked on several 40’s and 50’s era cars. My first real project of my own was a 1948 Plymouth 4 door sedan.
After high school graduation, I attended Nashville Auto Diesel College in Nashville, TN. Just before college graduation, on a weekend visit home, I met Misty. We were married a few months later. A year after that, we welcomed our daughter, Alexis. Then came our sons, Nick and Joe.
In the next few years after college, I worked in heavy truck repair, while Misty stayed home to raise the kids. My dad had a small excavating side-business to keep my sister, brother, Misty and I busy on the weekends. We contracted mostly concrete work, septic system installation and demolition. Demolition was our favorite because there was always cool old stuff that nobody else wanted. One of the best things we salvaged from an old barn was a 1937 Kozy Koach camper. It wasn’t in great shape, so we did a quick restore on it. Just enough to make it useable. We camped in it a few times and as usual, life got in the way and the Kozy Koach went into storage.
Misty and I were busy raising our family, my sister Gale was working on her career and my brother Barry moved to Florida to start his family. After my father’s passing, my mom gifted the shell of a brick one room schoolhouse (circa 1881) to my brother, sister and I. We worked together on the interior construction which resulted in a 6 bedroom, 3 bath, multi-family home. We always joked that we needed an old school bus to park in the driveway.
In 2000, I started working as a heavy equipment mechanic at an excavating company, which I still work at today. Over the years, through this company I have had the opportunity to help restore and engineer a wide range of projects, including a 1951 miniature train, 1927 Auto Car 5 ton dump, a 1/2 scale Port Huron Steam Engine and various other projects.
Our kids were nearly grown, Gale moved to her own home and adopted a son. Barry returned from Florida with his boys. Misty and I spent so many years running from ballgames, band competitions and robotics meets that we didn’t know what we would do when the kids were all out on their own. So we decided to start looking for that school bus we always joked about.
in our search, we happened upon a 1947 Greyhound Bus. It was a PD3751. We didn’t know anything else about it, except that it was PERFECT. We had it trucked home from Texas, cleaned out all the bugs, sand and poison ivy and started the build. We had been working on it for a few years when we finally got to start camping in it. Gale and her son along with Barry and his boys joined us on several camping trips and finally decided they needed an old camper of their own. So we dug the old Kozy Koach out of the back shop and began the restoration on it.
We have been to a few bus rallies and more recently a skoolie meetup and a vintage camping rally, and we always have a blast. We love meeting new people and getting the opportunity to see all of the creative visions they have for their buses. We have taken our bus and the Kozy Koach camping and to local car shows. People seem to enjoy checking them out. Whenever we camp, we are always searching for other unique campers in the park. It doesn’t matter how random the camper is, there seems to be a kinship among owners.
That is what inspired the idea for the Random Acts of Camping Rally in Nappanee, IN. Gale, Barry, Misty and I got together and discussed hosting a rally. We envisioned one that included buses, vintage campers, vans, skoolies and really any unique camper out there. We secured a venue close to home and are working to accomplish our goal of getting creative or unique campers and people together to share a camping experience.
-Gary LeCount