supposed to have been there, but ended up on jury duty instead. We were very happy to see Jim because early last year he was critically ill and most were not giving good odds on his recovery. He is now doing quite well and they are traveling in their RV again, so we are very happy for him. He is one tough old MARINE! Semper Fi, Jimmy.On February 5th we left Desert Hot Springs for the great town of Joshua Tree for the first stop on our "Spring 2008 Rally Tour." We went up there to attend the rally of the Full-Timers Chapter of FMCA. This chapter is made up of folks who live full-time, or at least most-time, in their RV's. There were about 20 rigs in attendance. The rally was held at the Sportsman's Club in Joshua Tree, up in the high desert North of the Coachella Valley. There were a lot of games and activities, and one day we took a
bus tour of the 29 Palms Marine Corps Base. We had a Marine guide who showed us around the base, took us to the PX for souvenirs, and lunch at one of the mess halls. The food was surprisingly good, much better than I remember from my Marine Corps days in the 60's and 70's. We also visited the Yucca Valley Elks Lodge for a couple drinks and a lodge pin. We tried to visit the 29 Palms Lodge, but they were closed.On the last night of the rally I set up the karaoke system and we did several hours of singing. There were not a lot of singers, but those that did sing did so with gusto and often. During the rally we celebrated both my birthday (the 5th) and our fourth anniversary (the 7th) with the group. Both nights the cooks came up with celebratory cakes! All of the dinners were provided at the rally and most were cooked by volunteers from the chapter. Very good food, good company
and a lot of fun. All in all we had a great time and look forward to the group's rally in Minnesota in June.On Saturday the 9th we left Joshua Tree for Hesperia, a town near Victorville on the I-15, North of San Bernardino. We had four days between the Full-Timer's Rally and our next rally stop in Lancaster, so we decided to spend a couple days in the Hesperia/Victorville area since neither of us had spent any time there. We did a little sight seeing around town and visited both the Victorville and Hesperia Elks Lodges. Both were very nice and very friendly lodges.
On Tuesday the 12th we headed over to Lancaster and the Lancaster Elks Lodge. We will be attending the rally of the Elks International Chapter of FMCA being held at the Lancaster Lodge. The Lodge has a very large RV facility. We have stayed at this lodge in the past with the RV club from the Indio Lodge. The last time we were here was about four years ago and we had a great time. The Elks International Chapter is composed of members of FMCA who are also Members of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. While the Chapter has no official affiliation with the BPOE, the members of the chapter must be members of an Elks Lodge somewhere. We arrived at the Lancaster Elks Lodge a day early so we could get set up and settled in before the rally starts on Wednesday.
The Elks International Chapter rally runs for four days and then we will be moving on to the Monaco International Chapter rally, also being held in Lancaster, at the fairgrounds about four miles from the Elks Lodge. I will try to post another entry after we finish the Elks and Monaco rallies, before we head down to the big FMCA Convention in Pomona.
Adios for now.
