We got to Raquel's place and found that
three of Josh's four kids from previous marriages were also staying
with them while Josh was on ten days leave. We visited for a while
then we all drove into Fort Wayne, which was another 45 miles
southeast. We went in our car because we figured that we would
probably leave before the end of the game because we had over 60
miles to drive back to the RV park. We arrived at the nice, new
stadium for the Tin Caps, picked up our free tickets and got into our
seats just as the game was starting. Rusty and his wife Nichole, as
well as Rusty's son Brayden from a previous marriage, met us just
before we went in. We had a great time watching the game and talking
a little bit, but with the game, the crowd and all the kids, it was
fun but not much of a visit. Fortunately, we still have three days
here to catch up. We did get one geocache that was hidden inside of
the ballpark. They were able to hide it inside because the ballpark
is an official city park and is open to the public whenever there is
no game or other paid event going on there. We left during the
seventh inning stretch, which was about a quarter to ten. It was
just getting completely dark so we decided we should leave. When we
left the score was eight to four with the Tin Caps losing to the
Chicago Cubs farm team from South Bend, Indiana, but we later found
out that the local team rallied and won twelve to nine. We didn't
encounter too much traffic going home and got back to the coach about
11:30 and went to bed.
Thursday, June 29th, we
drove into Bremen after lunch to pick up a few things at the grocery
store for dinner tonight and while we were there we did a couple of
geocaches in town. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the coach,
doing a few chores and relaxing. About 6:00 Raquel, Josh and all the
kids came over to visit and have a Mexican feast. I had made a bunch
of taco meat and we also had some carne beef and chicken, along with
the usual rice, beans, salsa, chips and guacamole. Josh and the kids
took advantage of the huge grass area around our coach to play some
ball. About 7:30 we had dinner and everyone seemed to enjoy the
food. It was a great visit with family again. About 8:30 they
packed up and headed back to Warsaw, just in time as it seems since
just after they left a few mild storms blew through and got
everything wet. We watched TV until bedtime.
Friday, June 30th, we left
the coach after lunch and drove back to Warsaw so Jackie could get a
haircut and pedicure and we could do a Walmart run. We also thought
we could visit the Warsaw Elks Lodge. By 3:30 or so we were done
with all our chores and we drove over to Raquel's place to say
goodbye since we are leaving the area tomorrow. We didn't stay long,
maybe 15 minutes, but when we walked out the door it was pouring down
rain. We decided to not try to go to the Elks in Warsaw, but instead
headed for home, worried that it was raining as hard in Bremen and
concerned about possible leaks in the coach. As it turned out, it
had just barely sprinkled in Bremen and coach was fine. We put away
the groceries and then decided to visit the Elks Lodge in Plymouth,
another small town about 19 miles southwest of Bremen.
The Plymouth lodge was located in a
country club area and was right adjacent to a very nice golf course,
although the lodge didn't have anything to do with the golf course.
It is a small lodge, less than a hundred members, but on Friday they
do a full menu dinner and the restaurant and bar is open to the
public. It turns out to be a very poplar place for the locals and
the within an hour or our getting there the lodge had at least a
sixty customers or more. The members we were sitting with at the bar
were very friendly and we met the lodge secretary and one of the
chair officers. They didn't have any lodge pins, but the secretary
said they were on order and that she would send us one when they came
in. We gave her a card. We decided to stay for dinner and both of
us had fish. I had the all you can eat and Jackie had the fish
basket. It came with a salad and the fish was outstanding, some of
the best I have had. We left about 7:30 or so, went back to the
coach and relaxed the rest of the evening.
Saturday, July 1st, half way
through the year already! Today was another travel day and we were
packed up and on the road by 9:30. Today we were going about 132
miles southeast to Celina, Ohio, just across the border from Indiana,
to attend the Monaco International Chapter rally at the fairgrounds.
We made a fuel stop on the way and had an uneventful trip, arriving
at the fairgrounds just before 1:00. The parking crew quickly took
us to our parking spot, which is on grass, as are all the spots at
this venue. This could be troublesome if the rains continue, but we
are going to be here at this rally for eleven days, so we have plenty
of time to figure things out. It is unusual to be at a rally that
long, but it is because we took advantage of four inexpensive days of
early parking. The rally organizers set that up so that people
wouldn't have to travel over the holiday weekend. The actual rally
doesn't start until Wednesday, the fifth. We spent the rest of the
afternoon getting set up for our stay and then relaxed for the
remainder of the afternoon and evening.
Sunday,
July 2nd, I went out and got a Sunday paper and we enjoyed the
morning with the paper and coffee. After lunch we went out to do
some exploring and geocaching. Celina is located on the western
shore of Grand Lake St. Mary, the largest inland lake in Ohio. Grand
Lake St. Mary is a roughly rectangular, man-made lake about 8 miles
long by 3 miles wide, covering some 13,500 acres. Grand Lake St.
Marys was constructed in the early 1899's as a reservoir for the
Miami and Erie Canal, which connected the Ohio River with Lake Erie.
At one time the lake was the world's largest man-made lake and was
dug totally by manual labor. For this reason it's average depth is
only 5 to 7 feet. The canal system thrived for about thirty years in
the mid-to-late 19th century before it was replaced by the railroads.
In the 1890s oil was discovered in the area, and oil derricks were
set up in the lake sometime around 1891. This made Grand Lake the
location for the first off shore oil drilling to take place. The
lake is now a thriving recreation area.
We did some geocaching, getting four
new finds and one DNF, as well as exploring the area. We drove the
nine miles east to the town of St. Mary's, which sets on the eastern
shore of the lake and explored that town as well. After we got back
to Celina we stopped at Walmart for a few things, then went back to
the coach for the rest of the day. We sat outside in the shade for a
while and enjoyed the nice day, then ordered some pizza from a local
place. We hung around the coach the rest of the evening.
Monday, July 3rd, we went
out after lunch and drove to the local community hospital so Jackie
could go into the ER and see about her knee pain. She thought just
maybe she could get another cortisone shot. The last one she got was
in April back in California and her knee pain has been acting up
again the last couple weeks. The hospital was in a neighboring town,
Coldwater, Ohio, and was a very nice facility. There was no wait and
she got right in. They examined her, gave her an ultrasound of her
lower leg to rule out a blood clot, but would not give her a
cortisone shot because she has had three already this year. They
gave her another prescription for an anti-inflammatory and
recommended ice and elevation. We went to Walmart and filled her
prescription, after getting one geocache for the day in Coldwater.
After the Walmart run we went back to the coach and relaxed. At
happy hour we went out and visited with a large Monaco Chapter from
the Southeast Area that is here at the Monaco International rally.
They are the Monaco Travelers and they seem like a really fun group.
We are going to join, just so we can party with them during this
rally. We visited with them for a while, then walked around the
campground and visited with other friends before going back to the
coach and watching TV until bedtime.
Tuesday, July 4th, Happy
Independence Day! Since the rally here actually starts tomorrow, and
we go straight from this rally to the FMCA rally in Indianapolis, we
decided to do our laundry today. We figured that the laundromat
wouldn't be busy today and we were right, there was only one other
couple there when we went after lunch. By 3:00 we were finished with
our laundry and back at the coach putting stuff away. At about 4:30
we went for happy hour with the Monaco Travelers after giving them a
check and joining the chapter. We had a nice visit and about 6:00
they brought in pizza for the group for dinner. Everything was
finished about 7:00 and we went back to the coach and relaxed the
rest of the evening.
Wednesday, July 5th, the
first actual day of the rally. At 9:00 we went down to the events
area and visited the vendors, which didn't take long as there are
only a half dozen or so at this small rally. I also signed up to get
the waste tanks emptied on Sunday, the last day of the rally, as we
are going right to the FMCA rally in Indianapolis on Monday, and we
have no hookups there either. We took care of a few other admin
items and I picked up a couple of Monaco shirts from the
manufacturer's booth. We went back to the coach and had lunch and
then Jackie went to a seminar at 1:00 on women in RVing. At 2:00 we
both went to a seminar on slide floor rotting. It seems that Monaco,
because of the way they constructed there slide-outs, is prone to
having the plastic laminate on the outside of the slide floor come
loose and allow water in to rot the plywood floor. It was a little
scary and I signed up to have the guy come out and inspect our coach
to see if we had problems brewing. At 5:00 there was a BBQ outside
sponsored by Paul Everett, the RV sales company that comes to all the
Monaco and FMCA rallies. They had hamburgers, hot dogs, beans and
slaw and the food was really quite good. We sat and ate and talked
with some friends and had a good time. About 6:30 everything was
done and we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the
evening.
Thursday, July 6th, we went
down to the dining hall a little after 8:00 for breakfast. The rally
fees for Monaco rallies includes breakfast for the four days of the
actual rally and we decided that we were going to start to take
advantage. After breakfast we went to a meeting of the volunteer
mentors, something that we have done at most Monaco rallies. At
Monaco rallies if you are a first time attendee they assign you a
mentoring couple that meets with you the first day of the rally and
kind of shows you the ropes. We had some very nice people mentor us
in 2006 at our first rally and we have been doing it since. We had
two couples, one from Georgia who were new to RVing and another
couple who have been members of FMCA for a while but are just new to
Monaco. After the first timer's meeting we went back to the coach
and relaxed for a while. At 12:30 Jackie went to the Ladies Luncheon
and at 2:00 I went to the Monaco International Board of Directors
meeting. As a Regional Director for MI, I am part of the board. We
were both done with everything by 3:00 and went back to the coach for
a bit. About 5:00 we went back to the dining hall for the social
hour, dinner and evening entertainment. 
The first evening they set
up the tables so you sit with the couples you are mentoring, so we
had our two couples with us at our table. We had a good time getting
to know them during the social hour and dinner. As usual there was
an open bar and salad bar first. About 6:00 they had announcements
and then dinner. The dinner was good, beef and chicken, potatoes and
peas. About 7:00 the entertainment started and it was a trio of a
father and his daughter and son. They were outstanding musicians and
singers and put on a great show of 50's and 60's music and country
music. The dad was one of the best guitar players I have ever heard.
At many shows at these rallies people start to leave as soon as the
show starts. Tonight I don't think anybody left early. They
finished the show around 9:00 and the room was still packed. Lots of
dancers and everyone had a great time. We went back to the coach,
watched an hour of TV and went to bed.
Friday, July 7th, we again
went to breakfast about 8:30 and then back to the coach for a little
while. About 10:00 we went to a briefing by some of the executives
of REV Group, the company that now owns Monaco Coach. REV also owns
Fleetwood Coaches, American Coach, and several other smaller
motorhome companies. They bought Monaco and Holiday Rambler from
Navistar several years ago, about three years after Navistar had
acquired the Monaco brands from bankruptcy. The execs talked about
their future plans for the Monaco brand, which is to make it their
premier luxury brand. There will be no more lower level Monaco
Knight's like ours or even the Diplomat's and Camelot's that most of
our friends own. Monaco will only offer three very high end luxury
models. The Holiday Rambler line will provide the slightly less high
end diesel pushers. Of course, they are really not Monacos any more
because they don't have the proprietary Roadmaster chassis and are
built completely different. Monaco's as we know them are no more and
never will be.
After the REV briefing we went to the
Monaco's in Motion luncheon and meeting. This is another chapter of
FMCA that is kind of a sub-chapter of Monaco International. They do
member generated and operated caravans. We have not been on one yet,
we haven't found one we wanted to do that was also convenient to our
schedule. We are considering doing one ourselves next year, but only
thinking about it right now. After the luncheon Jackie went back to
the coach and I went to a seminar on route planning with Google maps.
We relaxed in the coach until 5:00 when we went down to the dining
hall for happy hour and then dinner. Dinner was pretty good again,
chicken or pork with the trimmings. The entertainment tonight was a
local classic rock and roll band out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. They
were no where near as good as the group last night and we left after
about a half hour. They had no personality and the songs all sounded
the same. After we got back to the coach our friends Geoff and
Johana came over and we sat and had cocktails and talked for an hour
or so. They are vendors, with Geoff doing satellite TV stuff and
Johanna selling LED lights and crystal nail files. After they left
we watched some TV and then went to bed.
Saturday, July 8th, we had
breakfast about 8:30 and then went back to the coach to relax. At
11:00 I went to a class on inverters, which turned out to be a waste
of time since the guy didn't present anything I didn't already know.
Jackie went to a 1:00 session on the FMCA Governing Board Meeting to
be held at the FMCA rally in Indianapolis. Jackie is the National
Director for the 3-Ts Chapter and will be at the Governing Board
Meeting. This should be an interesting one since they are
considering opening up FMCA to all RVs, including trailers and fifth
wheels. At 2:00 we went to the business meeting for Monaco
International and then I went to a meeting for the Monaco
International Regional Directors. Jackie stayed in the dining hall
for the caravan meeting. Generally Monaco International organizes a
caravan for members going to the FMCA rally which almost always
follows the MI rally. We have been on caravans in the past and found
them interesting. At 5:00 we went down for happy hour and then
dinner. Tonight was prime rib and fixings and it was very good.
There was no entertainment per se tonight, but they did have a lady
from the Mercer County Visitor's Bureau who gave a very interesting
talk on Grand Lake St. Mary's, much of the information is what I put
in this blog when we first got here last Saturday. After the talk we
went back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime.
Sunday, July 9th, the last
day of the Monaco rally. The only “rally” activities today were
a brunch at 11:00, which we went to and enjoyed. At 1:00 there was a
car show on the fairgrounds, along with an outside craft beer vendor
and a BBQ trailer. These events were open to the public and arranged
through the Mercer County Fairgrounds staff. Volunteers from Monaco
International were manning the beer trailer and the Chapter got to
keep any proceeds. After the brunch we decided that we were going to
try and move the coach to a different spot. When we were parked last
Saturday the fairgrounds had experienced a couple of days of pretty
heavy rain and the ground was quite soft. We had only had a few
light showers since we got here, and nothing in the last three days,
but there was possible heavy rain forecast for tonight. We were
unsure if we could get out today because of the soft ground, but we
knew for sure we wouldn't tomorrow if we got a lot of rain tonight.
We packed everything up, started the coach, and the back wheels just
spun. I didn't try very long because I didn't want to bury the coach
down to the frame.
I called Coachnet, which is the towing
and roadside service program we have for the motorhome. It has the
best reputation of all the service companies for large rigs. We have
had it since 2007 and never used it, so I called them. The service
guy told me that they covered winching service, which is what the
call it when you are stuck, but only two hours and only if we are
within 100 feet of a paved road. I knew it would only take ten
minutes and we were ten feet from the road, so I told them to send a
truck. We got a call that the truck would be there within two hours,
so we went down to the car show and did our hour of volunteer work on
the beer truck. Within 90 minutes a huge triple axle tow truck
arrived and I showed them where the coach was. They hooked chain
under the front, I started the coach, put it in gear and he pulled me
smoothly out onto the pavement. Yea! No damage to the coach and
deep ruts in the grass. This was the same tow truck that had been
out here off and on for the last three days pulling people out of the
mud, all of the parking here is on grass. After we got free I went
to the dump station and dumped the tanks, then we found a nice spot
at the fairgrounds on pavement with water and power and pulled in
there for the night. It was actually where they had put the show
coaches for the rally, but the dealer had already taken them away, so
the place was empty. We just stayed in and watched TV the rest of
the night.
Sunday, July 10th, travel
day. We were up at 5:30 a.m. to get the coach ready for the caravan
at 7:00. Right at 7:00 we were put in line by the parking crew,
hooked up the car, and just waited for the caravan to depart. About
8:00 the caravan of 22 coaches pulled out and started the 114 mile
trip to Indianapolis and the FMCA rally. Unfortunately, we were the
third to last coach in the line, and the first half of the route was
on state highways, there were a number of stop lights, stop signs and
turns at uncontrolled intersections that ended up leaving us way
behind the caravan. After 40 miles they had raced off and we were on
our own. I missed one turn and had to take a detour, which ended up
putting us at an intersection right after a bad accident had
happened. We sat for a half hour while they took care of the injured
and cleared the scene. We had a good trip the rest of the way on our
own, although the directions for entering the fairgrounds in
Indianapolis were bad and we had another little detour before we
ended up on the fairgrounds. The parking crew quickly parked us, on
pavement! Yea! The power was turned on already, so we spent several
hours getting set up. We took a little drive in the afternoon around
the fairgrounds, getting familiar with where the various activities
will be held. Most of it was familiar as we were here for the FMCA
rally five years ago in 2012. We had cocktails on our own, and
cooked dinner on our own, for the first time in a week. We then
relaxed and watched TV until bedtime. We will be here at the FMCA
rally for six nights, leaving next Sunday.
Tuesday, July 11th, turned
out to be a stay at home day for the most part. I had just finished
my morning walk when the rain started and we had thunderstorms
rolling through the area for most of the rest of the day. There were
a couple of times when we had ten or fifteen minutes without rain,
but we got a lot of rain, thunder and lightening. Fortunately,
around 5:00 it started to clear up, just in time for us to walk over
to the activities area for the Volunteer dinner. Every FMCA rally
relies on volunteers for a most of the work, security, parking,
trams, seminars and most everything else. There are only a couple
dozen paid employees of FMCA, everything else is volunteers. At all
the big conventions they have a dinner, which is served by the
Executive board of FMCA and their significant others, for all the
volunteers. In addition to the craft seminars we are doing, we
volunteer for the Ice Cream Social, so we got our ribbons and went to
the dinner. It was quite good this year, fried chicken and fixings,
and we had a great time sitting with a number of friends and
acquaintances. By 7:30 we were back home, the rain now down to
occasional sprinkles, and we watched TV until bedtime.
Wednesday, July 12th, we
were up early, about 5:00 a.m., because we had a full day. Jackie
had to go to her Governing Board Meeting, which was pretty much an
all day thing, and I had to be in the Information Center by 7:00 to
do sign ups for our craft classes. We set up our station at the
craft sign ups area and Jackie went off to her meeting. I spent all
of the rest of the day sitting or standing behind the counter trying
to get people to sign up to make a lanyard out of pop tabs. In March
at the FMCA rally in Chandler Jackie and Peggy sold out two classes
with more than 20 in each, and another 10 or so at the Escapees rally
in Tucson. Today was very disappointing, as very few people were
interested. I was only able to get seven people to sign up with
maybe one or two more indicating they might just come to the class
without early sign up. Jackie was done with her meeting about 3:30
and came over and stayed with me until almost 5:00, when the
Information Center closed.
After we left the Information Center we
walked over to another building for a business meeting of the
Military Veteran's Chapter of FMCA. I joined this chapter as a
charter member when it formed about six years ago. At this meeting I
found myself being elected as Vice President. Other than my work
with Monaco International as a Regional Director I have not had a
Chapter officer's position for about three years, but now I am back
in the saddle again. This is a large chapter, with over 300 members
and growing, so it will keep me busy. As the meeting broke up about
6:20 it had started to rain lightly again, but we made it home pretty
dry. Since it was late we decided to go out and get something to eat
rather than cook. We don't know the Indianapolis area at all and
found that all of the nice places to eat seemed to be in a yuppy area
north of the fairgrounds called the Broad Ripple neighborhood. There
were dozens of restaurants, but very narrow streets, almost no
parking and very heavy traffic. After striking out finding anywhere
to park near several restaurants we tried for, we just went back to
the area around the fairgrounds, which was mostly fast food type
places. We found a burrito and taco place that had good Yelp reviews
and went there. It was a taqueria, but the food was pretty good.
Certainly not up to Southwestern Mexican cooking standards, but
edible at least. We had a light dinner and then went back to the
coach where we relaxed with the TV until bedtime.
Thursday, July 13th, we went
over to the activities area after lunch in the coach. At 1:00 we had
a meeting regarding the ice cream social on Friday. The Full Timer's
Chapter has traditionally provided the volunteers for handing out ice
cream at the FMCA conventions. For some reason this year FMCA
decided to give that responsibility to a chapter from the local
Midwest Area. In addition, they decided that this year instead of
ice cream bars or sandwiches, they are going to provide scooped bowls
of ice cream with toppings. Instead of 30 people being able to serve
4,000 in fifteen minutes they were going to have 100 people serving
3,000 in an hour. After the ice cream meeting Jackie and I went into
our seminar space to put on the Pop Top Lanyards class for the four
people who signed up. The class went well and only one person had a
bit of trouble with the craft. We were done at 4:30 and got in the
car, left the fairgrounds and drove north a few miles to do a Walmart
run. On the way we stopped and picked up three geocaches. While we
were in Walmart it started to rain and it turned into a real gully
washer. When you looked out the doors in the front of the store you
couldn't see the parking lot. Fortunately, by the time we checked
out it had let up significantly and we were able to load the car
without getting too wet. We stopped at a nice Mexican Restaurant
called Cancun on the way back to the fairgrounds for a good meal. I
had a shredded beef chimi which was very good and Jackie had fish
tacos, which she said tasted good, but the fish was a little dry. By
the time we got back to the fairgrounds the skies had mostly cleared
up again. It also didn't look like it rained near as hard at the
fairgrounds as it did a few miles north. We watched TV for a while
and went to bed.
After the ice cream we walked over to
the vendor area for the first time since we have been here. The
vendor area gets smaller with every rally. We only had an hour or so
to shop, so we did a quick walk through just to see what was here.
After shopping we took a tram over to another seminar building for
the Full Timer's Chapter seminar on full timing. I was again a
member of the panel that talked about full timing. The seminar was
well attended and went well. When the presentations were over and we
went to the Q&A part I left and caught a ride over to pick up the
car before the place closed for the night. I then came back just in
time for the Full Timer's Chapter business meeting. That meeting
ended about 6:00, we went back to the coach and had a cocktail
outside, then at about 7:00 went over to the coliseum building for
the evening entertainment. Tonight was a singing duo of two women
who did mostly country songs and light entertainment. They sang some
songs, told a few jokes and were OK. They were not fabulous, more
Holiday Inn lounge type entertainment, but we did stay until the end.
We then went back to the coach and relaxed with the TV until
bedtime.
Saturday, July 15th, we left
the coach about 9:15 and walked over to the coliseum to go to the
FMCA membership meeting. The main reason for the meeting is that
this is when the newly elected officers for the FMCA Executive Board
get sworn in. They have a big ceremony where each officer is
introduced, then gets his credentials from the previous office holder
and gives the departing office holder his “Past whatever”
credentials. Once all of that is done the entire board is sworn in.
Most people show up for the drawing of ten $250 prizes, including us,
but we didn't win anything. Boo hoo.
After the meeting we walked over to the
vendors and had our first chance to slowly walk through the vendors
and buy things. We bought a few small items, signed up for some
drawings, and spent about ninety minutes doing the vendors. We then
went back to the coach and drove off site to have a late lunch at a
very nice, upscale Chinese restaurant. The menu was huge, one of the
largest I have seen and had all kinds of exotic dishes. Jackie had
lamb with onion and I had orange chicken. Everything was ala carte,
so we both ordered a small soup and got a HUGE bowl of soup. The
only thing that was a little disappointing is that they only had
small spring rolls that were kind of tasteless, no nice pork egg
rolls. We had as much in leftovers as we actually ate. After lunch
we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. About 6:30 we
walked back over to the coliseum for the evening entertainment. This
was billed as “Circus Palozza” and we thought it would be a take
off of Circ de Sole. It was really more old style circus acts meets
vaudeville. There were a couple of acts with pretty girls doing
aerial acts, some comedy and a hand balancer. The production was a
little rough around the edges, but for local talent it wasn't too bad
and we were entertained or ninety minutes. After the show we walked
back to the coach, watched a little TV and went to bed.
Sunday, July 16th, travel
day. Coaches started pulling out of the fairgrounds about 6:00 a.m.
and by the time we were packed up and ready to travel at 10:00 we
were the only one's left in our row. We left the fairgrounds,
wandered around the Indianapolis streets for a while trying to find a
route to the freeway, then found it and headed east on I-70 75 miles
to the little town of Richmond, Indiana. We are here for the last
rally of this series, a three day rally where four chapters, the
Military Veterans, Full Timers, Elks, and 3Ts, all combined for one
after rally. Most of the 25 rigs here belong to more than one of the
chapters, we belong to all four and either hold, or have held, office
in three of them. Richmond is small city of less than 40,00 in East
Central Indiana, right on the border with Ohio. It was founded in
the early 1800's by Quakers from North Carolina. Through history it
has mainly been a farming community and later a railroad town.
We are camped in a place called
Grandpa's Farm Campground and it is pretty primitive. Our spot is
very pretty, and along a nice creek, but we have 30 amp and water
only and couldn't get the roof satellite to work because of trees.
The electric is pretty poor too. I was cranky for a while, but I got
our power booster out and hooked up which I think took care of the
electric, I got the outside sat dish set up and working, and we had
been able to dump the tanks before we parked, so I think we are
settled in for a four night stay. At 4:00 the group got together for
happy hour and everyone introduced themselves. About half of the
attendees are people we already know and everyone seems pretty nice.
At 5:00 they served dinner, pulled pork, beans, potato salad and a
few other things. It was all included with our rally fee and the
food was quite good. After dinner the 3Ts Chapter had a business
meeting and then we went back to the coach and watched TV until
bedtime. About 11:00 a series of thunderstorms moved through the
area and we had two hours of endless weather radio alarms, rain, a
little small hail, and some winds. No problems with leaks and after
the weather cleared out we had a good night.
Monday, July 17th, we woke up to clear
skies. The creek which runs behind the RV park, right next to our
site, was up about two feet because of the runoff from last night's
rains. However, it was no where near flooding, so we just enjoyed
the sound of the running water. After lunch we packed up our clothes
and headed into Richmond to do laundry. There seems to be only one
laundromat in Richmond and it was a little trashy, but everything
worked and we got our clothes done. After the laundry we did two
virtual geocaches in town. One of them was very interesting as it
took us to a monument downtown that commemorates a tragedy that
befell the town. On Saturday, April 6, 1968, in downtown Richmond,
there was a double explosion which occurred at 1:47 PM. The
explosions killed 41 people and injured more than 150. The primary
explosion was due to natural gas leaking from one or more faulty
transmission lines under the Marting Arms sporting goods store,
located on the southeast corner of the intersection of 6th and Main
(US 40) streets. A secondary explosion was caused by gunpowder
stored inside the gun shop. Gas had been smelled leaking in the area
for days before the explosion, and local stores would open doors to
allow the fumes to ventilate out and leave buildings.
After getting the two caches we went
back to the coach and put everything away. At 4:00 we were back on
the patio with the group for happy hour. Around 5:00 everyone left
the park and headed to the Richmond Elks Lodge for dinner. The
lodge, which is south of town, is quite large and has a huge swimming
pool and golf course, all owned and operated by the Elks. We had
another cocktail then the Elks provided a great dinner of spaghetti
and lasagna with salad and bread. This was all part of the rally fee
we paid, so we only had to buy the drinks. Unfortunately, the lodge
did not have any lodge pins, so they are not going to be on our
banner. We had ridden to the Elks with our friends Don and Norma
Preston, so we sat with them as well as the Area Vice Presidents for
the Rocky Mountain area of FMCA, Jack Mayberry and his wife Connie,
and the Midwest Area, Gary Milner and his wife Glenda. About 7:30 we
went back to the campground, visited with Don and Norma at their
coach for a while, then went back to our coach and relaxed until
bedtime.
Tuesday, July 18th, we left
the coach about 11:30 and drove into Richmond to have lunch at a
local place called Little Sheba's that was mentioned in a lot of the
Chamber of Commerce literature about the town. It is located in one
of the historic districts, the Depot District, where the railroad
passes through town. They have an extensive lunch menu, but no
breakfast. Jackie had a burger, supposedly their best seller, which
she said was good, but nothing special. I had an Italian sub that
was also good, but ordinary otherwise. After lunch we got on I-70
and headed east towards Dayton, Ohio. Dayton is the town where the
Wright Brothers lived and worked while developing the powered flying
machine. It is also the location of Wright-Patterson Air Force base,
home to the Museum of the Air Force. John Lee, the wagonmaster for
this rally is the immediate past president of the Military Veteran's
Chapter of FMCA and suggested the Museum as a place for people at the
rally to go visit. He also arranged for us to have dinner at the
Dayton Elks Lodge tonight. I didn't have a lot of interest in the
Air Force Museum, nor did Jackie, so we just went over to spend the
day exploring, caching and then being there for dinner at the Elks.
Dayton was less than an hour's drive
and our first stop was Costco. We wanted to get the gallon jugs of
water, but they didn't carry them. We bought a few other things and
then went out to do some exploring. We drove around downtown and
went through a few neighborhoods looking at houses. We also did a
few geocaches, getting three finds. We discovered that there was
another Elks Lodge in Xenia, Ohio, a neighboring city, that opened at
3:00, so we drove over there for a cocktail. It was a very nice
lodge, with friendly people. They didn't have any lodge pins, but
the bartender said they were on order and took our information,
telling us she would mail us one. We then drove back to Dayton, to
the Dayton, Elks, Lodge 58. They have a very nice building and were
very welcoming to the 40 or so people in our party, many of whom were
not Elks. Tonight was pizza night and John Lee had arranged for our
party to get pizza and one free drink. After dinner the lodge put on
“horse racing”, a floor game with wooden horses which are moved
according to dice throws. There is wagering and a lot of yelling.
We only stayed for three races out of the seven scheduled because we
wanted to get back to the RV park before it got too dark. We were
back home by 8:30 and spent the rest of the evening relaxing.
Wednesday, July 19th, we
left the coach just before 8:00 a.m. and went to a nearby Bob Evans
restaurant for the final rally “event” of this series of rallies.
This was the farewell breakfast for the four chapter rally. Nearly
everyone showed up for breakfast and we had a very nice meal,
chatting with friends and checking to see when the next time we would
see various people. About 9:30 we were back at the coach and,
although we were staying at this park for one more night, the rally
was over. About 1:00 we left the coach and went into Richmond to do
some exploring and geocaching. We got ten new finds, and two DNFs
for the afternoon. After we were done driving around we stopped at
Meijer's, which is kind of a Midwest version of a Fred Meyers or a
Walmart Supercenter, groceries as well as clothes, sporting goods,
household and other shopping. We then went back to the coach and
sat outside for an hour or so with three other couples for cocktail
hour. After happy hour we went in the coach and watched TV until
bedtime.
Since the rallies are done for now this
is a good point to close this chapter our and get it published.
Until the next time remember that life is easier if you work to be
decisive. Make a decision, right or wrong. The highways of life are
full of flat
squirrels who couldn’t make up their minds. See ya soon.
squirrels who couldn’t make up their minds. See ya soon.
