Hello friends, welcome back to our
story. Our last episode concluded on Saturday, July 26th,
when we arrived at the Seven Feathers RV Resort in Canyonville,
Oregon. We traveled there with our friends Ray and Suzie Babcock and
were going to be there to be the wagon masters for a rally of the
Full Timer's Chapter of FMCA.
Sunday, July 27th, the first
official day of our rally. We didn't have any events planned until
4:00 because today was the arrival day for most of the participants.
Nonetheless, we had lots to do to get ready for the rally. The plan
for today was a social hour from 4:00 to 5:00 and then we were
serving everyone a Fiesta Taco Salad meal, along with rice and beans.
Ray Babcock is a retired firefighter and he was the house cook for
much of his career. One of the great things that he makes is a taco
salad. We have had it at get together's with friends for a number of
years now. We had calculated what groceries it would take to make
enough for 40 people, our original estimate for the rally, and bought
the supplies when we were down by Medford the other day.
Ray spent a big part of the late
morning, early afternoon, cooking 21 pounds of meat, hamburger and
sausage, for the salad. Jackie was doing other things, like dicing
tomatoes, and we were busy getting everything ready for the party.
During the afternoon I went over to the covered BBQ pavilion where we
were having the group tonight and did some decorating with some
cheesy Mexican decorations we had been finding at dollar stores over
the last few months. The pavilion was right across the road from
where we were parked, so it was pretty easy. Over the afternoon we
watched as our group started arriving and getting parked. Our other
assistants for the rally, Peggy and Vernon Bullock arrived and parked
right beside us. |
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At 4:00 the rally got started and
everyone showed up for social hour at the pavilion. We have a total
of 18 coaches at the rally, which is 36 people. Some are friends we
have known for years, like Bob and Gloria Baron, who we knew back in
Indio way before we went full time. Some are friends we have met on
the road or at rallies, some are people we have met once somewhere,
and some were strangers to us until today. It was a really nice
group of people and everyone had a great time socializing and getting
to know each other. As part of our preparations we had made name
tags for everyone in the rally, so everyone knew who they were
talking to. I gave some welcoming remarks and kind of went over the
schedule for the rally and then just went out and socialized like a
good President should.
About 5:00 we and the Bullock's and
Babcock's brought out the food and set up dinner. It seemed that
everyone enjoyed the dinner and liked the food. Everyone ate and
then hung around for another hour or so before drifting off to their
own coaches for the evening. We then cleaned up the pavilion and sat
outside with our three couples and chatted for a few minutes. The
first day of the rally was done and seemed to be a success.
Monday, July 28th, we had a
busy day scheduled. We had made arrangements to have the big meeting
room at the resort for the entire day's activities. Our first
activity was at 10:00 when I held a meeting for the Full Timer's
Chapter. Although we had ten couples there who were actually members
of the Chapter, it was still not enough for a quorum for an official
meeting, so we had an informal meeting. I still had some things I
had to cover regarding chapter activities at the Redmond FMCA rally a
week from now. The Chapter always hosts the ice cream social at the
big FMCA rallies, and I had to try to get volunteers for that. I
also wanted to get our members to come to our seminar that we host on
Full Time RVing. It is always good to have a big turnout of members
to show support. We also had our National Director delegate talk to
the group about what was up for consideration by FMCA at the Board of
Director's meeting in Redmond. The Board is made up of delegates
from each chapter of FMCA and they serve as the governing body for
the organization. The meetings can be a bit unwieldy as there are
over 500 chapters, so there are a lot of delegates.
After the meeting we broke for lunch,
coming back at 1:00 for a Bunco tournament. Bunco is a fun dice game
for large groups which is very easy to learn and play and is a great
way for everyone to participate in a fun activity. We were fortunate
that among the couples at our rally were Warren and Marla James, whom
we met last year at a rally of the Beat the Odds Chapter in Pahrump,
Nevada. That was our first rally with that chapter and they always
do a Bunco tournament and the James' are the ones that put it
together. They have all the equipment with them in their coach and
they volunteered to do Bunco for our group. We ended up with 24
people playing, which gave us six tables of four, a perfect number
for Bunco. We played three sessions which took about ninety minutes
and everyone had a really good time. We had set a $5 per person
buy-in for the game so that we would have some money for Warren to
give out as prizes later in the rally.
After the Bunco game everyone was on
their own again until 4:00 for the social hour. I used that time to
bring over the equipment for music and karaoke later in the evening.
At 4:00 the entire group gathered in the room for social hour.
Again, everyone seemed really happy to go around and talk to
different people. At 5:00 we took a half hour break so people could
go back to their coaches to get stuff for the pot luck dinner we had
planned for 5:30. Everyone brought something and we had some really
outstanding dishes. The meal went well and no one went away hungry.
About 6:30 I started playing music and
doing some karaoke. Besides me there was only one other person who
sang, LuVerne Underhill. She is one of the members of the Frustrated
Maestro's Chapter of FMCA and is a singer at all the FMCA rallies.
However, as the night went on the audience started collectively
singing along with the songs, which I had up on the big screen TV, so
I started doing songs that were familiar to the group and which they
would enjoy singing. We partied until about 9:00 when everyone
finally wandered off to their own coaches for the rest of the
evening. It was a very busy, but very fun day and I think most
everyone enjoyed it.
Tuesday, July 29th, was on
the schedule as a free day for the rally, when everyone could go off
and do their own thing. One couple, Judi and Clark McKay, drove down
to Grants Pass to take one of the jet boat rides on the Rogue River.
We had done that a few years ago and had a lot of fun. Other people
went out and explored the area, the Underhill's did some geocaching,
and some people just stayed around their coaches for the day. Our
only scheduled activity was a social hour at 4:00, at which we were
going to have some prize drawings.
We made arrangements to use the meeting
room again because it was quite warm and humid outside, and everyone
gathered around 4:00. Jackie and I had been working over the last
few months to solicit donations from various RV related companies for
prizes that we could give away at our rally. We got a fair amount of
response and had a number of fun and nice prizes. We just put
everyone's name in a jar and drew names until we were out of prizes.
The “grand prize” if you will was a refund of the $130 per rig
rally fee that everyone paid. We had enough money left in the kitty
after expenses to be able to give one rig their fee back. That was
won by our friend Gloria Baron. We had also been selling fifty fifty
tickets since Sunday afternoon and had managed to collect $175 with
that. This meant a prize of $87, which was won by Marla James, and
$88 going to the Wounded Warrior Project charity.
As with most rallies we also had an
appointed “sheriff” who watched during the rally and levied
twenty five cent fines for violations such as not having a name tag,
or not singing like Sinatra (me) and other silly stuff. Ed Molinsky
was the sheriff and he collected $5.25 in fines, which also went to
the Wounded Warriors. Gloria donated $20 of her prize so we are able
to make a donation to Wounded Warriors of $113.25, not too bad for a
small rally.
After the social hour broke up a bunch
of us went to the restaurant in the truck stop for dinner. The food
was quite good and we had a nice relaxing dinner. We then went back
to the coaches and sat outside for a short while before retiring for
the night.
Wednesday, July 30th, the
last official act for our rally was to provide coffee, juice and
sweet rolls for people before they left. We brought everything over
to the pavilion about 8:00 and most of the rally participants came
over, even if just for a few minutes. We only had this “breakfast”
for about an hour before we started getting packed up ourselves. We
left the RV resort about 10:00 and were on our way west to the
Florence Elks Lodge on the Oregon coast, a trip of about 125 miles.
We were traveling with the Bullock's to Florence and arrived around
noon or so. The Babcock's and the King's were also going to come to
Florence, but the King's had some work that had to be done on their
coach, so they had gone up to Harrisburg, Oregon on Monday to get the
repairs. They missed most of the rally. The Babcock's decided to
stop for the night in Harrisburg to make sure the King's were going
to be OK.
After we got settled into the Florence
Elk's RV park, we stayed around the coach and mostly rested and did a
little clean up. That evening we had cocktails with the Bullock's
and then did some BBQ with them. By 8:30 we were resting in front of
the TV. Finally a time to rest.
Thursday, July 31st, the
King's, with their coach fixed, and the Babcock's arrived at the Elks
around noon, just as we and the Bullock's were going out for lunch.
We left them to get set up and the four of us went to old town
Florence and a place called Mo's for lunch. Mo's has a great
reputation for their food, especially the clam chowder, but it was a
little disappointing today. The chowder was gritty, or mealy and
didn't have much flavor. Jackie said the same about her fish tacos,
very little flavor. I had the fish and chips, which I thought were
good, but Vernon thought were too spicy. I guess everyone's taste is
different.
After lunch we drove around and did
some sightseeing in the area and also tried to get some geocaches.
We ended up getting one as all of the others we stopped to look for
were too far out in the sand dunes for us to look for. We weren't
dressed for trudging around the dunes. We then made a stop at the
local Fred Meyers store for some supplies before heading back to the
RV park. We had cocktails in our coach with the whole group,
Babcock's, King's, and Bullock's, and then we did another BBQ meal.
We chatted and enjoyed the relaxed time until they left to go back to
their coaches about 8:00. We then watched TV until bedtime.
Friday, August 1st, another
month gone by. Jackie and I went out after lunch to do a few
geocaches. We were able to log eight new finds and one new DNF.
After caching for a few hours we headed back to the coach and
relaxed. Around 5:00 all eight of us loaded into two cars and drove
into town to the Elks Lodge for dinner. Friday is the big dinner
night at the Florence Elks and the menu for tonight included prime
rib. We have eaten here before, but it has been about five or six
years. We had told everyone how great the dinner was and so forth.
I had called yesterday to make a
reservation for eight at 6:00. When we got to the lodge I checked
with the hostess and she had my reservation on the sheet. However,
it was not destined to be a good night. It started with cocktails.
We went to the lodge early so we could have a drink. When we went to
the bar we found there was one server at the bar and there had to be
a couple hundred people in the lodge, many of them thirsty. It took
twenty minutes to get the first drink. At 6:20 we still hadn't been
seated and I checked with the hostess who told me she would make sure
they set up our table. About 6:30 I went back to the hostess and
while I was standing there waiting I saw another host seating people
that had just walked in the door. That really ticked me off and I
said so to the hostess. I told them that if they couldn't
accommodate us we could go somewhere else.
Finally, about 6:50 we got seated at
two tables of four. We never did get our big table. We were sitting
with Peggy and Vernon and the King's and Babcock's were at the other
table. They took our order and forgot to bring the soup and salad
for the table. They finally did get our prime rib to us and I have
to say, at least that was tasty. Unfortunately, the other table got
their salads, but never got their food. For some reason the server
never brought their meals out. By the time we were done eating Ray
was telling the server and the club manager that they could go ahead
and just cancel everything because they were leaving and weren't
going to pay for the salads. They finally walked out when we did
without having eaten anything but their salads. The whole night was
a disaster and I was very sorry I ever suggested eating there. We
drove back to the coach and watched TV until bed.
Saturday, August 2nd, We
left the coach about 10:30 with the Bullock's in our Jeep and headed
south about 20 miles to the town of Reedsport, Oregon. We were going
to do lunch, some geocaching and see what was going on with the Dune
Fest event in Reedsport. Dune Fest is an annual event for the area
and is centered around the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.
This area of huge sand dunes runs about 40 miles along the Oregon
coast, from Coos Bay in the south to Florence. Much of the area is
open to recreational use, including dune buggies and bikes.
We got into Reedsport and settled on
the Main Street Cafe for lunch. It was a nice place right on the
main road in the middle of Reedsport. They had a nice menu with lots
of selections. I had a Reuben that was very tasty, as well as a cup
of pea soup and apple pie for desert. Jackie had chicken fried steak
which she said she enjoyed a lot. We were quite happy with both the
food and the service. After lunch we drove down to Winchester Bay,
the little port town just south of Reedsport, which is one of the
entrance areas to the Oregon Dunes. This was where the Dune Fest was
centered, however, none of us really had much interest in dune
buggies or dune riding, so we just started some geocaching.
We were able to get eight new finds in
a couple of hours of caching. Peggy and Vernon got to number 2,300
with the last find of the day. Yea! After caching we drove back up
to Florence and the RV park. About 5:00 we all went over to Ray and
Suzie's coach for cocktails. It was us, the Bullock's and the
King's. About 6:30 Ray served some of the taco salad stuff that was
left over from the rally and we all pigged out again. It was just as
good the second time! After talking for a while we finally headed
home around 7:30 and just relaxed the rest of the evening.
Sunday, August 3rd, Jackie
and Peggy went to Fred Meyers before lunch to do some shopping. They
were having a big clearance sale. When they got back the three of us
drove a couple miles north of the RV park to pick up a geocache. The
caching website, geocaching.com, has a challenge for August to get
six different types of caches. Normally we don't go after different
varieties of caches except traditional and virtual, however, I did
find a puzzle cache nearby that was pretty easy to solve. We needed
one of this type for the challenge, so we went up and got it. It was
a quarter mile hike in and out to get it, but we did score the find.
Yea!
Once we had this cache we went back to
the RV park and then went to the Florence Elks annual family picnic
being held on the other end of the property on which the RV park is
built. They had several hundred people there and were charging only
$5 a person for all you could eat hamburgers, hot dogs and BBQ
chicken, beer, wine and soda. Quite a bargain. We got there late
because of our other activities, so the food was a little cold, but
they still had lots of everything. In fact, we all went home with
extra chicken because they had so much. We stayed down there
socializing until about 3:30. The girls had bought raffle tickets
for some gift baskets, but no one in our group won anything. After
we got back to the coach Jackie and I were wiped out, so we just
stayed in and vegged for the rest of the night.
Monday, August 4th, another
travel day and another rally. We were packed up and out of the
Florence Elks by 10:30 and on the road to Coos Bay, another Oregon
coast city which was about 50 miles south. We were headed for the
Mill Casino RV Park, the site of the rally of the Monaco
International Chapter of FMCA. We like going to Monaco rallies
because nearly everyone there is a Monaco coach owner and they always
have great food, drink and entertainment. Since this one was being
held in an RV park we even had full hookup sites. Yea! On the way south to Coos Bay we were passed by a caravan of Volkswagens. They had VW's of every type and there must have been 50 of them, all driving south to somewhere.
There wasn't anything much going on
today so after we got all setup we went down to the laundry in the RV
park and did our laundry. We did visit with the Bullock's for a
little while and say where all the rest of our group is parked. We
are scattered all over the RV park. We are parked right across from
our friend John Ham, who is in charge of the parking for the rally.
John and Rita are full timers but have a place in Yuma that we have
been to several times. John is a big time geocacher so when we saw
him in the parking lot we had to talk caching for a while. He did
tell us about an event cache on Wednesday, which is one of the types
of caches we need for the challenge, so I guess I will be getting up
for a 6:00 in the morning event Wednesday. After we got our laundry
done we went back to the coach and just relaxed the rest of the
night.
Tuesday, August 5th, is
still one of the early parking days. Not too much rally activity
going on today. I left the park about 10:30 and drove to the Coos
Bay Jeep dealership to get the car serviced. Vernon went along with
me because he wanted to look at the Jeeps they had for sale on the
lot. While I was gone Jackie went down to the activities area to
sign up for some craft classes and a luncheon we want to go to. She
also walked through the vendor area for the first time since they
just opened today.
The dealership was pretty quick and
Vernon and I were on our way back home shortly after noon. I went
down to the activities area to pick up Jackie and walk through the
vendors too. There were only a dozen or so and half of those were
selling satellite dishes, so there wasn't a whole lot to look at.
Jackie and I went out and tried to do two geocaches, two of the types
we needed for the challenge. We got one, but struck out on the
other. About 5:00 we went to the outside area where the new coaches
were on display. There were only three new Monaco Dynasty's out
there, but they said there would be a couple more later in the week.
Since Monaco was sold to Allied
Specialty Vehicles (ASV) they have only been building Dynasty's and
Diplomat's, and most of those only on customer order. The market for
RV's is nothing like it was in 2005 when we bought our coach from the
“original” Monaco. ASV also owns Fleetwood RV and American RV,
so what is badged a Monaco today is not really a Monaco. Different
chassis, different design and engineer teams and different people
building them. Not to say it's not a good coach, it probably is, it
certainly costs enough. However, it is not a Monaco.
They had drinks and sandwiches for
dinner tonight outside in the parking area, but unlike past rallies
the drinks were not from an open bar. When you came into the rally
they gave you 15 drink tickets each for the entire rally and if you
wanted more they were almost $7 each. And the drinks were tiny,
exactly one ounce. That's what happens when a casino takes over a
rally. We had a couple of drinks and then went home, not even trying
the sandwiches they had. Peggy and Vernon came over and Jackie put
together some chicken enchiladas with the chicken we got from the
Elks Lodge on Sunday and we had that with some rice leftover from our
rally. We had a great dinner with just the four of us. They went
home around 8:30 and we just watched TV until bedtime.
Wednesday, August 6th, I was
up and out of the house by 6:00 a.m. There is a geocaching challenge
going on for the month of August that requires us to find at least
one of six different types of caches, one of which is an event cache.
Well, we knew that we could probably get the other five types
sometime during the month, but event caches are not that frequent and
you have to be in an area where there are a lot of caches. Lucky for
us one of our caching friends, John Ham, is here at the rally and
knows one of the local cachers. He arranged for this group's monthly
coffee get together to be listed as an event on the caching website.
Therefore, if you go to the coffee meet and sign the lot, you get
credit for an event. Vernon went along with me since he is an early
riser anyway and Peggy wanted to complete the challenge along with
us.
The coffee shop was only a couple miles
from the RV park and Vernon and I had a cup of coffee and chatted
with some of the local cachers. They were a very nice group, very
friendly, and there were a couple dozen that showed up for the
coffee. About 7:00 we were done and headed back to the Casino with
an event cache in the bag. Yea! I took a quick shower and then
Jackie and I headed down to the event area for a meeting of rally
mentors. The Monaco International group always sets up mentors for
the first timer's at their rallies. We meet with the new people on
the morning of the first day of the rally and then have dinner with
them that evening. The idea is that they have someone to talk to
right away and we can introduce them to other people and let them
know what is going on with the rally. It is a nice way to get people
involved right from the get-go. Right after the 8:30 meeting for the
mentors we went down to the food and entertainment tent in the
parking lot for the meeting of the first timer's. This was were we
got to meet and talk to our mentee's. We had two couples assigned to
us, but only one was at the first timer's meeting.
Bob and Madeline Flynn were a couple
from Massachusetts, about 40 miles west of Boston. He is in the
business of selling mini-buses, and they have been RVing for a lot of
years. They recently bought a Monaco coach and joined Monaco
International. They are our age or maybe a few years older and very
nice. We chatted with them for a while and introduced them to some
of our friends. After the first timer's meeting Jackie had to go to
the Monaco International Chapter Board meeting as she is one of the
Regional Director's for the Chapter. I went back to the coach and
took care of some housekeeping and administrative issues.
When Jackie finished with her meeting
she came back to the coach and had a quick lunch, then we went out to
do some geocaching. We were trying to get the last couple of the six
different types of caches for the challenge we are doing. We took
Ray and Suzie Babcock with us and Peggy followed in her car with Bob
and Joyce Mackay, a couple that had come to our Full Timer's Rally
and had expressed an interest in caching. Our first cache was one we
had tried to find yesterday. The cache owner happened to be at the
coffee this morning and he verified that we had solved the puzzle
correctly and had the right coordinates for the cache, but we just
missed it, looking in the wrong place. With the new information we
quickly found the cache container and logged the cache. We have now
successfully completed the August challenge. Yea!
We went out and looked for a couple of
other caches, finding one and having to DNF the other. Then the
group decided we needed to go back to the RV park because some of
them had things they had to do. About 5:00 we went down to the
casino for happy hour and then dinner. Most of our group was at one
table, but we were committed to dinner with our mentee's, so we were
closer up front to the stage. Bob and Madeline were there and our
other couple, John and Joyce Caruso, also came and sat down. John
and Joyce are a little older than us, but also very
Thursday, August 7th, not
too much going on for us at the rally today. We don't go to a lot of
the seminars they have because we have been to most of them once or
twice at other rallies. Jackie went down for a craft class about
2:00 and I went with her and walked through the vendors once more.
We picked up some free gifts they were giving away, some small Monaco
engraved glasses, and also some larger glasses that we bought with
the $10 vendor credit they gave each of us. After that I went back
to the coach and spent the afternoon doing odd jobs.
We were supposed to go to a keg party
at 4:00, but the wind has been blowing 40 mph all afternoon and the
party was outside. Way to cold and uncomfortable to go out to drink
beer and wine that neither Jackie nor I particularly want. We went
down around 5:00 for cocktails and dinner. We sat with the Caruso's
and a couple of other people for dinner and had a good time. Dinner
was chicken or tri tip which was very good. I have to say that the
food so far is excellent. The entertainment tonight was a group
called The Young Bucs. They were a 50's do wop band and, although
none of them were young, they were outstanding. We and the Babcock's
were one of the dozen or so couples who stayed for the entire show,
leaving about 9:00. The group also announced that they would be
playing at the FMCA rally in Redmond, so we will get to see them
again. After we got home we watched an hour of TV and then went to
bed.
Friday, August 8th, Happy
Birthday to my mom. She would have been 88 today. At 11:30 we went
to the dining tent for a luncheon and meeting of one of the chapters
we belong to. The Monaco's in Motion chapter is a caravan chapter.
The members put together caravans to various places which are usually
a lot cheaper than the commercial caravan companies because there is
no profit or salaries built into the cost. We haven't had a chance
to go on one of the MIM caravans because the one's we would be
interested in have not been in places convenient to us yet. One of
these days we will go with them.
After the luncheon we relaxed at the
coach until cocktail hour when we went back to the dining tent. We
sat with our little group for cocktails and dinner, which was a
Mexican fiesta tonight. The entertainment tonight was a group called
“The Coats” and it was an acapella group, four guys who put on a
wonderful show without a single instrument. It was probably one of
the best rally entertainment shows we have seen for a long while.
Tonight probably 80 percent of the people in the tent for dinner
stayed for the entire show. That is unusual. Usually almost
everyone is gone when the show ends. After the show we went back to
the coach and watched a little TV until bed.
Saturday, August 9th, the
last day of the Monaco International rally. Jackie and I went down
to the event tent about 8:30 and got in on the last of the breakfast
food. We had to be there for a 9:00 meeting, so we decided we might
as well enjoy breakfast too. At 9:00 the business meeting for Monaco
International began. Jackie had to be there because she is one of
the elected Regional Directors for the chapter. The meeting lasted
about ninety minutes and then Jackie had to go into another couple of
meetings. I just hung around the casino and did a little gaming
while she was busy with meetings.
Jackie finally finished all her
meetings a little after 2:00. We left the grounds and went to
Walmart for a few supplies before heading back to the coach. At 5:00
we went down to the dining tent for cocktails and then dinner.
Dinner tonight was baked salmon. The salmon was a little dry, but
tasty. There was no entertainment tonight, so we were back in the
coach watching TV by about 7:30.
Sunday, August 10th was a
travel day. We are traveling to the FMCA Rally in Redmond, but it is
about 250 miles over some narrow, winding roads, so we all decided to
break the trip up into two parts. We went today from Coos Bay across
the coastal range of mountains to the town of Coberg, Oregon, on the
I-5 just north of Eugene. This was about 115 miles. We, along with
the Babcock's, Bullock's and King's had reservations at an RV park
there. We didn't even unhook the car as we knew we were leaving in
the morning for the rest of the trip. The King's have been having
trouble with their coach overheating and the Babcock's had to go to
their assistance this afternoon just to make sure they got to the
park OK. We had a quiet evening in our coach.
Monday we all left the park in Coberg
and started over the Cascades to Redmond, about 125 miles east. The
King's have decided not to go to Redmond but instead took their coach
across the road to the Cummins Service Center in Coberg. The engine
was still under warranty and we found out later that they have a
couple of problems that will take a few weeks to repair. We learned
that the King's just left the coach with Cummins and took the car
back to their home in California.
We made it to the fairgrounds in
Redmond a little before 1:00 and we were parked and set up pretty
quickly. We were lucky to get a parking spot right near the main
entrance to the fairgrounds and all the activities. The Babcock's
and the Bullock's were supposed to park in the handicap area, but
they tried to park them right next to one of the big power generators
they have set up for the rally and they didn't want to park there.
They ended up bringing them over to where we were and they are now
parked right next to us. Not planned, but it couldn't have worked
out better. Although we are in the electric area, the power doesn’t
come on until tomorrow morning, so we are running our generator for
power. It is pretty hot, so we need the A/C. We got together with
the group for cocktails, but everyone had a late lunch, so we didn’t
do any dinner. We just relaxed in the coach until bedtime.
Tuesday, August 12th, the
only activities at the rally for today involved the members of the
Governing Board of FMCA. The Governing Board is made up of
representatives from each of the nearly 500 chapters of FMCA. Each
chapter elects a National Director who then attends the annual
Governing Board Meeting on behalf of their chapter. Jackie and I
have both been to one Governing Board meeting over the past years,
her's in Pomona, mine in Minnesota.
However, Jackie and I stayed busy
working on the ice cream social volunteers and the Full Timer's
Seminar. Both of these activities at the rally are reliant on the
Full Timer's Chapter. As President I have to make sure things go as
planned. I had to go over to the FMCA office this morning and pick
up the volunteer ribbons and pins for those that have agreed to help
with the ice cream social on Friday. I need to get them out today,
however, because at 6:00 tonight FMCA is hosting a dinner for all
volunteers and I don't want ours to miss out. After we got the
ribbons we spent an hour or so running around the fairgrounds
tracking down people who had been at the Full Timer's rally and
agreed to help serve ice cream. I was also contacting the people who
were going to be on the panel for the Full Timer's Seminar on
Thursday. By mid-afternoon we had handed out all the ribbons we
needed to and were able to relax for a couple hours.
We got together with our group for
cocktails about 4:30 and then at 5:30 we went over to the building
where the volunteer dinner was being held. We were fortunate that we
had parking very close to the entrance of the fairgrounds because
while we were having cocktails in the Babcock's coach some storms
moved through and it was raining cats and dogs.
We made it to dinner without getting
too wet, thanks to good umbrellas, and had a very nice dinner. We
had about 30 people from the Full Timer's Chapter there who were
recognized as the Ice Cream Social volunteers. After dinner we went
back to Ray and Suzie's for another drink and talked until about 8:00
when everyone went back to their own coach's for the rest of the
evening.
Wednesday, August 13th,
Jackie and I were headed over to the activities area just before
10:00 for a seminar about the upcoming FMCA rally in Madison,
Wisconsin in the summer of 2015. We are considering going to that
convention and wanted to see what they had to say about the venue.
It turned out to be pretty much a waste of time. The young gal from
the Madison Visitor's Bureau showed a brief video of sights in
Madison, showed a couple of slides and talked for ten minutes. At
the end we didn't know any more about the rally than we did to begin
with.
About 12:00 we went out to lunch in
Redmond with Ray and Suzie and Clark and Judi. Peggy was in the
Governing Board meeting and Vernon didn't want to go without her. We
went to a nice little breakfast and lunch place called One Street
Over in downtown Redmond. The food was very good, as was the service
and we enjoyed the place very much. After lunch we hung around the
coach and got a few chores done. At 4:30 we walked over to the
activities area again for the opening ceremonies. They didn't amount
to much, a welcome speech by the National President of FMCA, but it
was the official start of the rally.
After the welcome ceremonies we walked
over to the meeting of Military Veteran’s Chapter which was
followed by the Elk's International Chapter meeting. The two groups
were co-sponsoring a reception after the Elk's meeting, but we and
the Bullock's were the only one's of our group that came to the
meetings, and we decided we would go back to Peggy and Vernon's coach
for a cocktail and some snacks. Peggy and Jackie put together some
cheese and cracker plates and we just sat and talked until about 8:30
or so at which time we went back to our own coach. The rain that had
been threatening all afternoon never really came. We had a few light
sprinkles, but nothing more.
Thursday, August 14th,
Jackie and I left the coach and went to the vendor display area about
10:30. Today was the first day for the vendors, so the place was
pretty busy. At first we thought we were just going to do a quick
walk through today just to see what vendors were around. However, we
ran into our friends Bob and Gloria Baron who told us that they had
just bought a new mattress for their RV from one of the vendors.
When Jackie and I looked at it and lay down on it, we decided to buy
one too. We still have the original mattress, which is now nine
years old. It wasn't a really good mattress to begin with, and we
have been talking for a while now about getting another. We have
been looking at the Sleep Number air beds, but they are really
expensive. We really liked the mattress they had on sale at the
rally and it was only a little over $500. Plus, here in Oregon there
is no sales tax. Yea! They are going to deliver it tomorrow or
Saturday and haul off our old one for us.
We decided to drive off the fair
grounds for lunch. The food booths at the fair are too expensive for
the crap food that they serve. We went to Arby's in town and ate
lunch and then I bought a bunch of Arby sandwiches to put in the
freezer. They keep great and make good, quick lunches. After lunch
we went back to the coach and started getting things together for our
Full Timing Seminar this afternoon.
A little after 2:00 we took our stuff
over to the seminar room and waited for the earlier seminar to finish
to we could get started. By a quarter to 3:00, when our seminar was
scheduled to begin the room was so full the monitors were not letting
any more people in. We actually had to ask some of our friends, who
were just there for support, to leave so the regular rally attendees
could get in. I was the moderator for the panel and we had Jim
Goetzinger, Howie Bates, Mike Neighbours, and Jackie as panelists.
These are all members of our chapter. We talked for a little over an
hour and had a very good response from the audience. I think we
signed two new members for the chapter at the rally and a number of
people took applications with them.
After the seminar Jackie and I went
next door to a social that the International Area Executive Board was
sponsoring for chapter officers in the International Area. They gave
a little talk and handed out some nice coasters with the FMCA logo on
them as gifts. They had cheese and veggie snacks after, but Jackie
and I decided to just head for the coach so we could rest. It has
been a busy and stressful day and we wanted to just veg out, which we
did for the rest of the night.
Friday, August 15th, Jackie
and I were up early and went to a 9:45 seminar on tinnitus. The
seminar was presented by a local PhD audiologist and his wife. I
have had tinnitus for many years and, for the most part, it doesn't
bother me. It is worst at night, when it is very quiet, but
generally it doesn't bother me unless I think about it. The seminar
pretty much confirmed what I already knew, that there is no “cure”
for the syndrome, and they don't even really know what causes it.
After the seminar we walked over to the
vendors and walked around some more. Other than a tee shirt we
didn't buy anything. Around 12:15 we walked over the middle of the
fairgrounds where the Ice Cream Social was to be held. As usual, the
Full Timer's Chapter was providing the volunteers to hand out the ice
cream. We had a really good turnout of members, actually way more
than we needed, but we never turn anyone who wants to help away.
Before we handed out ice cream we had a quick, two minute business
meeting because I needed to get a nominating committee elected. We
started serving ice cream about ten minutes early since we had a big
line and the volunteers and the ice cream were ready. We handed out
1,500 ice cream sandwiches in less than half an hour.
After the ice cream social we went back
to the coach for a while. Around 2:30 they came and delivered our
new mattress and hauled off the old one. Yea! About 5:00 we had
cocktails with our little group outside and started to do a BBQ since
there was no food at the rally tonight. Although we cooked the food
on the BBQ, we ended up going inside the Babcock's coach because the
flies were so bad. I guess being at a fairgrounds the week after the
county fair leaves a lot of flies with nothing to do.
After dinner we all headed off to the
evening entertainment. Peggy and Vernon had gotten everyone VIP
seating for the show tonight through their contacts with the sponsor,
Fantasy RV Tours, so we were seated in the front row center. The
entertainer was William Florian, a name I didn't recognize, but he
was a former member of the Folk Rock group The New Christy Minstrels,
a group that I do remember from the 60's and 70's. It was just him, a
bassist and a drummer, but they put on a really good show. He was
very interactive with the audience, talking a lot between songs and
talking about his life journey. He played mostly stuff from the folk
genre, but it was a really good show. After the entertainment ended
just before nine we went back to the coach and watched TV until
bedtime.
Saturday, August 16th, the
last day of the rally. There were very few seminars scheduled for
today. They did have a general business meeting of FMCA starting at
9:00, but I had no reason to be there and no desire. About 11:00 or
so Jackie and I went down to the events area and spent a couple hours
walking around looking at some of the new motor homes on display and
also making one last run through the vendor area. Although we looked
at a lot of coaches, most in the half million range, I didn't see any
that I liked well enough to be interested in, even if we had the
money. The motor home industry today is way different than it was
just eight or nine years ago, when we bought ours. Then coaches were
selling and manufacturers were making a dozen a week in all different
floor plans and decor. Now they make very few coaches on spec, most
have to be ordered first, and the one's they do are all only in two
or three basic floor plans. Very little innovation or imagination
among any of the RV manufacturers that are left out there. Kind of
disappointing.
After looking at coaches we headed back
to our coach and sat outside in the shade with some of our group and
just chatted. About 6:00 or so the eight of us drove into town to a
Mexican place called Mazatlan. We had been there the last time we
were in Redmond, about four years ago, and remembered pretty good
food. We got seated right away because we didn't try to wait for a
table for eight. We took two adjacent booths and split up. The food
was excellent and the service was outstanding. We were very happy,
and very full, when we left there and headed back to our coaches for
the rest of the evening.
Sunday, August 17th, another
moving day. We were packed up and ready to leave the fairgrounds
around 10:30. We are leaving Redmond and driving about 21 miles east
to the town of Prineville for the last rally of this series, a two
day event by the Three T's chapter. The three t's stand for “to
dump, to wash, to relax” and that's what the rally is all about.
They always have a two day rally immediately after any of the FMCA
conventions and it gives members a couple days to decompress after
what is for many, two weeks of rallying. They always have the rally
as close to the convention as possible so that there is not a long
drive. They go out for dinner the first night and on the second day
they do a breakfast and then a pot luck in the evening. The rest of
the time you are on your own to do whatever chores you need to get
done.
Since it was such a short drive Jackie
just followed in the Jeep and we were at the Crook County RV Resort
before noon. We got checked in and setup and spent the rest of the
afternoon cleaning the inside of the rig and taking care of chores.
At 4:00 the group, which consists of eight rigs, sixteen people, had
cocktails and chatted. There were only two couples that were new to
the group that we did not already know. Peggy and Vernon were the
only one's of our Redmond group that came to 3 T's. The Babcock's
and the McKay's decided to stay another night at the fairgrounds
before heading back south to California. We will probably not see
them until winter in Indio.
After cocktails the group drove into
Prineville to a restaurant called Dillon's. It was mostly a sandwich
and BBQ place, but the service was great and the food was excellent.
I had the rib sampler which had two beef ribs that were almost as
good as Cactus Jack's in Indio, as well as three St. Louis bones and
a half rack of baby backs. The St. Louis were wonderful and I had to
take the babies home because I was too full. Lunch tomorrow, yea!
After dinner we drove back to the coach and watched TV until we went
to bed.
Monday, August 18th, we were
up and out of the coach at about 9:00 for the breakfast being put on
by the 3 T's chapter this morning. This is a very short rally with
few activities, so we thought it was important to try and
participate. They had eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes and juice, as
well as some fruit, so it was a full breakfast. After breakfast the
chapter had a short business meeting, after which everyone was on
their own for the rest of the day. We would come back together for
cocktails and then a pot luck dinner tonight at 5:00.
After the meeting was over we packed up
our laundry and headed into town to wash clothes. Before we were
done with our laundry three other couples from our group showed up as
well. It seems there was only one coin laundry in town. While the
laundry was working Jackie and Peggy went to the Verizon store in the
same shopping center to see about upgrading their phones. Peggy was
able to get hers, Jackie was told she had to wait another 30 days
before she could do an upgrade deal. Once the clothes were done we
did a couple of other errands around town, including finding one
geocache in Prineville, and then headed back to the coach for the
day.
At 5:00 we joined the group at the
ramada for cocktails and then a pot luck dinner. Jackie made a
Chinese chicken salad which was quite good. Even though there were
only eight rigs at the rally, there was a great variety of really
good food. About 7:30 dinner was over and everyone drifted back to
their own coaches for the night.
Tuesday, August 19th, the
rally cycle was over and it was another moving day. We and the
Bullock's were leaving Prineville and heading north to a Corps of
Engineers RV park located where the John Day River comes into the
Columbia River. The trip was about 135 miles and we arrived at the
RV park about 1:30 or so. We pretty quickly got setup in a nice spot
with a view of the water and the Bullock's right next to us. The
only problem with the spot is that the phone service is very poor and
the satellite is iffy when the wind blows. There is a tree that
blocks a little of the satellite view when the wind blows the leaves
around. We are going to be here for five days, but the Bullock's are
only staying for two.
We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon
at around 5:00 and then we did some steaks on the BBQ. We had a very
nice dinner and some quiet conversation with them, which was great
after three weeks of being around eight or more friends. About 8:30
or so Peggy and Vernon went back to their coach and we watched TV
until it was time for bed.
This close of the rally cycle for 2014
marks a good time to post this episode. We will be working our way
back towards our “home” in Pahrump over the next couple of weeks
and will post again once we get there. Until the next time, enjoy
every moment of your life. Remember the words of Abraham Lincoln,
“and in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, it's
the life in your years.” Bye for now.
