We enjoy coming to the Monaco rallies because they always provide good entertainment, catered meals and an open bar every night. Not to mention the natural camaraderie that comes from hanging out with folks that drive the same brand of motor home. They also have good seminars and interesting meetings with the executives from the Monaco company.
Since we were only a couple of miles away at the Keizer Elks Lodge, we got to the fairgrounds early and were set up and ready to go before lunch. Because we got here early we have great parking, only a few hundred yards from all the activities - easy walking distance. We have no water or sewer, but we knew that coming in, so we had
our waste tanks empty and our fresh water full. We do have good 30 amp electric, so we should have a comfortable rally. There were no organized activities on Monday - it was strictly an arrival and parking day, so we ran a few errands and relaxed most of the day. In the afternoon we visited with Ray and Suzie, and Gary and Ramona, who also have Monacos and are here at the rally. They are parked in the handicap area, which is on the other side of the activity venues. Later in the evening the six of us went out to dinner at the Olive Garden restaurant here in Salem. We had a very nice dinner and then went back to the coach for the rest of the night.Tuesday, August 3rd was the first official day of the rally, although nothing was scheduled until after 1:00 p.m. We met over at Ray and Suzie’s coach for lunch. Ray had leftover taco salad fixings from our dinner last week, and they were just as good the second time around. After lunch we walked over to the vendor area to look around and do some shopping. All the big rallies attract a variety of vendors selling motorhome parts and accessories, clothing, jewelry, insurance, you name it. The Monaco rally usually attracts a couple of dozen vendors. Our first stop was at the “Monaco Wearables” store, which is the Monaco company selling clothes and trinkets with the Monaco logo. Jackie and I bought a couple of things that were on clearance. I also bought a built-in fire extinguisher system for our refrigerator compartment. The guy had to order it and I will get it in Redmond at the FMCA rally next week. Knowing the danger of fire from these RV refrigerators, and our experience last Fall in Casa Grande, I will feel better to have an automatic fire suppression system in place.
There were also a number of new and used RV’s on display at the rally which were brought by a couple of the local RV dealers. We spent a little time looking at the RV’s. They had scheduled a little party outside by the RV displays for late in the afternoon and we were asked to help out, so from 4:30 to 7:00 Jackie and I manned a table giving out hot dogs and chili. We had a good time meeting all the people that come through our station, although I would have preferred it not be for such a long time. After that I was ready to go back to the coach for the rest of the night.
Wednesday, August 4th we left the coach about 10:00 a.m. in time to go to one of the seminars. One of the perks of the Monaco rally is that they also provide breakfast every day, however, since we prefer to relax in the mornings with our coffee in the coach, we don’t take advantage of the breakfasts. I went to a morning seminar put on by Allison Transmission, which is the brand of automatic transmission in 99 percent of all diesel motor homes. I have been to these seminars in the past, but I almost always pick up some little nugget of information regarding operation or maintenance issues. Jackie went to a seminar on cleaning products and then part of one on cooking. After our seminars we went to the luncheon meeting of another one of the FMCA chapters that we belong to, Monacos in Motion. This is a chapter that is organized to do motor home caravans, similar to the one we took last year to Alaska. The difference is that these caravans are organized and led by members of the chapter so they are much less expensive than the ones from the commercial caravan companies. We haven’t been on any of the caravans yet, but only because none of them have worked into our travel schedule. Since membership in the chapter is restricted to owners of Monaco brand coaches, they always have their meetings at the Monaco International rallies. The lunch was only a sandwich box lunch, but it was OK.
After the luncheon I went to a seminar on Cummins engines, which is the brand of diesel engine I have and which is in nearly all Monaco coaches. I was in the seminar about fifteen minutes when I got a call that the Monaco service tech was at my coach to do some work. One of the other perks of the Monaco International rallies is that Monaco usually brings their parts truck and a number of service technicians to the rallies to do service work for people who request it. Prior to the 2009 bankruptcy of Monaco they used to provide the labor free and you only had to buy the parts. They are not so generous now, they only give a discount labor rate of $80 per hour, but it is still convenient to have service work done at the rally where you don’t have to move the coach. They only do relatively minor stuff. I had them replace a broken screw in one of my lower body panels that I couldn’t get out. The service guy also spent some time adjusting our street side front slide which has been very difficult to retract over the last year or so. We had the motor replaced in Tucson last Fall, but it didn’t seem to make too much difference. Hopefully the adjustment will help.
At 5:00 p.m. we headed over to the meeting hall for the first open bar happy hour and dinner of the rally. We had a couple of cocktails and sat with some of our friends and some people we had never met. Meeting new people is one of the great things about all rallies. The dinner was simple, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and veggies, with a salad, but it was pretty tasty. They also had a chicken entree. The entertainment was unusual in that it was a movie rather than live entertainment, but I think they had to cut back a little on the budget because this rally has four nights of dinner and entertainment rather that the three that all the previous rallies have. Nonetheless, it was a very enjoyable video entitled “The Many Faces of Glory” and was a video of a live presentation by a guy named Vane Scott outlining the history of the American Flag. He had a full orchestra proving musical background and displayed a huge number of flags while providing a very interesting, and sometimes humorous, narrative about the history of the flag. The video ran about an hour and very few people left the room.. After the dinner and entertainment we went back to the coach for the rest of the night. I spent about an hour just sitting outside chatting with people walking around the coaches. The weather was just perfect, no wind, mid seventies and perfectly clear skies.
Thursday, August 5th we stayed around the coach for most of the morning since there were no seminars that we wanted to attend. After lunch we walked around the vendor area and the new coach display for a little while. At 1:00 p.m. I went to a seminar on the Silverleaf engine electronics reporting system. Regular readers may remember that I bought this system back in April when we were at the FMCA rally in Albuquerque. The system monitors all the engine and transmission functions on my laptop and provides much more accurate information than the dash gauges to. I just wanted to go to see if I learned anything new about the product. Later on in the afternoon Jackie and I both went to a seminar about the Monaco International rally at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in October. We are signed up for this rally and the seminar was being put on by the wagon masters for that rally. We learned a lot about what to expect and got some important hints, like get to Albuquerque a couple of days early to do sightseeing because once you get onto the balloon fiesta grounds for the rally you won’t want to leave. Mostly because of the traffic jams, but also because there is so much going on at the rally. We are really looking forward to the rally.
After the seminars we went back to the coach to rest and to change clothes. This was the “sock hop” night and they were encouraging people to dress in 50's garb. I just put on my jeans, white tee shirt, black motorcycle boots, black leather vest
and black leather hat and went as the biker type guy. Jackie had on peddle pushers, pink Keds she found at the Goodwill store, white bobby socks, and a large man’s white dress shirt. She also put a pillow under her shirt so she looked like she was “expecting” and I was the baby daddy. She also had a purse she found at the Goodwill that was just
perfect. It was black with pink trim and on the side was written “A - is for Angel” in pink letters. A black silk scarf in her hair topped everything off. There were a number of people in costume at dinner, although none of our friends at our table got dressed up. Oh well. We had a good cocktail hour and dinner and then had a DJ for dancing. They had costume contests that both Jackie and I were in, but we didn’t win. It was a good night, we danced a little and had fun. Both of us drank a little more than we probably should have, but we didn’t have to drive anywhere. Friday, August 6th Jackie got out early to go to a 9:00 a.m. seminar on cleaning the inside of the coach. The seminar was put on by one of the vendors that deals in microfiber cloths and Jackie just loves microfiber stuff. After lunch we went to a 1:00 p.m. seminar put on by a vendor from Florida that does coach renovation. Although there is some stuff we would like to get done, like replacing the carpet with hard surface floors, and replacing our old TV’s, we will probably wait a year or two. We primarily went because this vendor comes to every rally and gives away a TV during the seminar. You have to be present to win the TV. This would make the third time we have sat through their seminar (twice at previous rallies) but we had signed up for the drawing. They guy drew two names that were not present and then drew Jackie’s name! Yippee - we won a new 26" LCD HD digital TV worth about $500. It is a little too small to replace our up front TV, but it will make a great TV for the under coach bay for outside TV watching. We were really happy with our good luck there.
After a little rest we headed over to the dining room at 5:00 for happy hour and dinner. We had a pretty good dinner and hung around for the entertainment, which was a live band. We listened to them for about 30 minutes and decided they were kind of bland and we were tired, so we left, went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the evening.
Saturday, August 7th I went out at 9:00 to attend the business meeting of the Monaco International Chapter. Every Chapter of FMCA has to have at least one business meeting per year and Monaco International always has their’s at their rallies. After the meeting they had another brief meeting discussing the caravan from Salem to Redmond. Monaco International always tries to have their rallies end on the first day that people can go into the FMCA Convention. They also try to set up a caravan from where ever the Monaco rally was to where the FMCA rally is being held. This time the trip is about 140 miles East from Salem to Redmond. People like to caravan because that ensures that everyone will be parked together and many of the Monaco folks like that. We already know that we are going to be parked in a special area for Governing Board members since Jackie is a National Director for the 100%ers Chapter. The Governing Board parking is very close to all the activities at the convention, so it’s a pretty good deal. I just wanted to go to the caravan meeting to see what route they would be using and find out what time they are leaving so we don’t get tied up in their traffic. They are leaving Salem around 8:00 a.m. and we won’t get out until about 9:00 or a little later, so there should be no problems.
At 11:00 we went to lunch with Ray and Suzie and Gary and Ramona at a Salem microbrewery called Rams. Gary and Ramona had told us about it and said the food was wonderful. We went and I agree, the food was very good. I had a Philly Cheese Steak that was as good as any I have ever had. If you are ever in Salem, go to Rams on 12th Street. Its right across the street from the Salem train station. After lunch we did a quick stop at Walmart and then headed back for a seminar at 1:00 put on by the head of Monaco design. The guy’s name is Pat Carroll and he always puts on a very entertaining seminar. He basically just listens to suggestions and complaints about designs, floor plans and accessories and always has snappy funny comebacks to complaints.
After that seminar we went back to the coach to clean up some things and start getting ready for our travel day on Sunday. I took down the screens and outside decorations and got our new outside TV snuggled into the storage bay below.
Went to dinner and cocktails at 5:00 again. The dinner was roast beef, tasty but a little dry. They announced that they had sold six coaches at the rally, no where near the ten percent that used to be the norm five years ago when we first started coming to Monaco International rallies. After dinner the entertainment was a followup video by the same guy, Vane Scott, who did “The Many Faces of Glory” which appeared to be pretty much the same history. We decided that we would watch our own entertainment and we left and went back to the coach for the night.
Sunday, August 8th was a travel day. We left Salem about 9:30 a.m. or so and started East towards Redmond, Oregon, where the FMCA Convention will be held. We had about 140 miles of travel and the majority of it was over two lane mountain roads, so we knew we couldn’t get in a hurry. Nonetheless, we arrived at the
fairgrounds in Redmond about 12:30 and were immediately parked. We have wonderful parking for a rally, right outside the main gate to the fairgrounds. We are within easy walking distance of all the displays, seminars and activities. It will be nice to not have to rely on the trams to get around. After getting setup we headed into Redmond for some quick shopping, then went back to the coach to relax for the rest of the day and evening. The rally doesn’t really start until Wednesday, so we have a couple of days to do other things, like caching and laundry.Monday, August 9th we decided we would have a little dinner party in the late afternoon for some of our friends here. The Babcocks and Wilsons, who were with us in Salem, were coming into the rally today, as were the Bullocks, our friends that we met on our Alaska trip in 2009 and with whom we have traveled quite a bit over the last year. We told everyone to come around 5:30 p.m. After lunch we decided we needed to do our laundry so we wouldn’t have to worry about it during the actual activity times of the rally. We went into Redmond and found a laundry, finished that and then did a little last minute shopping for the dinner. We were going to do some caching too, but it was getting late and Jackie needed to start dinner. She is making her fabulous risotto, which takes quite a while to cook, and she wanted to get home and get started.
Just as we got back to our coach Peggy and Vernon Bullock drove up and came in to say hi. We had not seen them since the Albuquerque rallies back in April. They went East after the rallies and we headed West. We visited with them for a while and then Jackie started getting dinner made. I spent some time cleaning up the coach and hooking up our new outside TV that Jackie won in Salem. Works very well, great picture. Our guests arrived about 5:30 with the Babcocks bringing their friends Jerry and Bev King along. We met them in Salem. Jerry is a retired Los Angeles firefighter like Ray, although he retired in the 70's. Bev is the Secretary
of the newly formed Military Veterans Chapter of FMCA. The Bullocks brought some friends of theirs as well. We ended up with 13 guests for dinner. Fortunately, several people brought snacks for the cocktail hour and the risotto recipe that Jackie uses makes a huge batch. We had a great cocktail hour, a wonderful dinner, and a lot of good visiting. There was plenty to eat and everyone left satisfied. Not too long after dinner everyone left because the wind came up and it got chilly. Once we cleaned up after dinner we relaxed in the coach for the rest of the evening.Tuesday, August 10th Jackie headed over for a briefing session on her FMCA Governing Board meeting on Wednesday. The Executive Board likes to get the Governing Board members together prior to the actual meeting so they can go over the rules and procedures for the formal meeting. After her meeting we had some lunch and then went out to do some caching in the Redmond area. We figured that once the rally got going we wouldn’t have time to do anymore caching, so we wanted to get some in. We were able to find nine caches in a couple of hours. We went back to the fairgrounds for dinner and then went onto the grounds to see the Debbie Reynolds show that was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. We got there about 7:00 and found that the room was completely full. For whatever reason the rally organizers had put her show in a room for a few hundred people and there were a thousand that showed up. We found out later that the Debbie Reynolds show was added to the agenda late in the process and they didn’t have any other space available. Apparently her son had contacted FMCA and said that she was going to be in the area at the time of the convention and would be glad to put on a brief show, so they signed her up. I think they misjudged how many people would want to see her. Since we couldn’t get in the show we headed back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.
Wednesday morning Jackie had to get out early for the start of the Governing Board meeting at 9:00 a.m. Jackie is the National Director for the 100%ers Chapter. The Governing Board of FMCA is made up of the National Directors elected by the various Chapters of FMCA. Each Chapter elects a National Director and Alternate National Director who represent the Chapter at the Governing Board meetings. Although the Executive Board of FMCA handles day to day management and governance of the Association, the Governing Board has final approval authority for major changes to the by laws and approving the budget. The Governing Board only meets once per year, at the summer Convention of FMCA. Since there are over 500 chapters in FMCA, the Governing Board meetings are quite large. As an incentive for the National Directors or Alternate National Directors (one or the other, not both, can attend) to attend the Governing Board meeting FMCA rebates the rally fees (parking only, not electric) for the National Directors or Alternate National Directors who attend the Governing Board meeting. This means we will get our $130 rally fee back for Jackie’s attendance. While Jackie was at the meeting I stayed around the coach catching up on some minor repair and maintenance items that needed attention.
The last time Jackie was at the Governing Board meeting was in 2008 in St. Paul, Minnesota and she was there until after 5:00 p.m. Today she finished up at about 2:00 p.m., so we went out to Walmart to do some shopping for the post rally we will be going to on Sunday, when the FMCA rally ends. One of the chapters we belong to, the 3T’s, always holds a two day post rally immediately after each FMCA Convention. We have been to several of these post rallies, which are always held at full service RV parks near the FMCA venues. They are designed to let people decompress from the hectic schedule of the FMCA Convention and to do their laundry, dump, and rest. Jackie offered to help the rally master for this rally and had to do some shopping for the stuff for happy hour and breakfasts.
Later on in the afternoon we headed over to Ray and Suzie Babcock’s coach for a cookout. The whole gang was there, Ray and Suzie, Gary and Ramona Wilson, Peggy and Vernon Bullock, and some friends of the Babcocks and the Bullocks. We ended up with eleven people for a pot luck steak fry. We had a great time, some nice steaks and side food, and had a great visit. About 8:30 we went back into the fairgrounds for some karaoke. There were only a couple of dozen people at the karaoke, which was pretty disappointing, but I got to sing a couple of songs. A lot of the singers were kids, who were at the rally with their parents or grand parents, but that was OK. After karaoke we went back home and off to bed.
Thursday, August 12th was the first “official” day of the rally, although they did have some seminars on Wednesday, none of the vendors or new coach exhibits were open. We didn’t have any seminars we wanted to attend - we have been to so many conventions and rallies now that we have seen most of the seminars we would have any interest in. We didn’t do too much in the morning and in the early afternoon we had to hang around the coach while a mobile service guy serviced the transmission on our motor home. We were about a year overdue for a filter and fluid change. It took him about two hours and cost us $450, but we are now good with the transmission for another three years. After the service guy finished we went over and walked around the vendors for a while. At 3:00 we were back at our coach hosting a business meeting for the 100%ers Chapter of FMCA. I am the President of the Chapter and Jackie is the National Director. This Chapter was formed about 25 years ago and membership was restricted to people who lived in their motor home 100% of the time. No one who lived in a “sticks and bricks” house is allowed to be a member. At the time it was formed there were 100 members, the maximum allowed under the bylaws, and a long waiting list of people wanting to join. When I came into the Chapter in 2006 there were only about 25 members and it has been dwindling ever since. Although Jackie and I brought in about a half dozen new members during the time I was Vice President and then President, it wasn’t enough to offset the number of older members who were leaving the full time lifestyle. This year we were down to 12 members, which is under the minimum required by FMCA for an active Chapter. We had tried to have a business meeting in Albuquerque back in April and couldn’t even get four members together, the number needed for a quorum. This time we had five coaches represented, so we were able to hold a meeting. After a lot of discussion the members present finally voted to dissolve the chapter, so there will no longer be a 100%ers Chapter. I will no longer be a chapter President, however, I was immediately recruited to be the Vice President of the Full Timer’s Chapter of FMCA. Just when you think you’re out, they drag you back in!
At 4:45 p.m. we went to a chapter meeting of a small chapter we belong to called MIME. This stands for “Mouse In Motorhome Experience” and it is strictly a social chapter that exists only to have a pot luck or get together at FMCA conventions. The one today was poorly attended and they didn’t have any real food, only snacks. We stayed for a while after the chapter business meeting and socialized, but then headed out to get some dinner. We found a Mexican restaurant a mile or so from the fairgrounds called Madeline’s. The place was packed, but we found a couple of seats at the bar so we didn’t have to wait. The food was excellent and they gave you plenty of it. I would highly recommend the place, Madeline’s Grill on Highway 97 in Redmond, Oregon.
After dinner we hurried back to the fairgrounds so we could get over to the evening entertainment. The scheduled act was the Texas Tenors, which had been one of the finalists on last year’s “America’s Got Talent” television show. We had loved them
on the TV show, so we didn’t want to miss the live show. We got to the outdoor arena a little on the late side and it looked like all the good seats were taken, but Jackie spotted some friends of ours working security down by the stage and they found us two seats in the second row, right in front of the stage. Jackie was very excited. The Texas Tenors are three pretty good looking young cowboy types who have formal operatic training. On the TV show they mostly sang popular songs and they
had very good tenor voices with fantastic harmonies. The live show was Great! They came out and did an hour and a half with a mix of country, pop and opera singing and it was all very entertaining. After the show we hung around for the album signing and photo op session. We bought one of their albums and Jackie was able to get up and get it signed by all three performers. After the show we headed back to the coach for bed.Friday, August 13th we went to a seminar on geocaching at 9:45 a.m. Didn’t learn too much that we already didn’t know, but we had told Peggy that we would come with her. We have gotten her interested in geocaching and she has already bought her GPS unit. After the seminar we spent a little time at the vendors then went to the ice cream social to work as volunteers. The Fulltimers Chapter was founded to meet the interests and needs of people who are full timing, or even most-timing, in motor homes. The Chapter always hosts the ice cream socials at the FMCA conventions. We have helped with the ice cream social at the last four conventions we have attended. Basically we stand there and hand out ice cream bars or sandwiches to people as they walk by. Since the ice cream is free, nearly everyone attending the convention shows up. They actually start lining up a half hour before the thing starts just to be sure they get a free ice cream! Our friends the Bullocks, the Wilsons and the Babcocks also helped out. They are all members of the Fultimers Chapter too. Immediately after the ice cream social was over we quickly went over to another location to attend the business meeting of the International Area. FMCA is divided into ten areas and each area has an elected Vice President who serves on the FMCA Executive Board. All Chapters of FMCA are associated with an area. Nine of the areas are geographical (Eastern Area, Western Area, Etc.) and then the International Area is for Chapters that are national in scope and not limited to a specific geographical area. Almost all of the chapters we belong to are in the International Area. We know the Area Vice President, Sonny Gillespie very well. He is a retired California Highway Patrol officer.
After the INTO (acronym for International Area) business meeting we had a little bit of time to hit the vendors again. After a little bit of shopping I went to the business meeting for the newly formed Military Veteran’s Chapter. I am one of the charter members of this group which was formed in Albuquerque back in April. As the name implies, it is for veterans of the armed forces of the U.S. and Canada. Not just retired, but any person who honorably served in the armed forces, including the National Guard and Reserves. After the business meeting the group adjourned and car pooled to the local VFW hall, which was only a couple of miles from the fairgrounds. Friday night was prime rib night and the Chapter secretary had made reservations for our group, about 34 people. We drove over there and got into the VFW about 5:30 p.m. or so and the lady selling tickets was panicked and told everyone that they were out of food and she wasn’t selling anymore tickets. There was a big hub bub and complaints from people, including me, and a number of people left to eat elsewhere. We were just ready to leave when the manager of the kitchen came out and corrected the lady, telling her that they were expecting our large group and there was plenty of food. So we stayed and had the prime rib. We sat with other folks from the chapter that we knew and had a good time. The food was good - probably not $15 worth of food, but it was a good cause. After dinner we went back to the coach. We were going to go over the entertainment, which was a Jimmy Buffet tribute group, but we decided we were tired after chasing all day, so we stayed home. Good thing, because we heard later that three quarters of the audience walked out after a few songs.
Saturday, August 14th was the last day of the FMCA Convention. I got up early to get to the 9:45 a.m. general membership meeting of FMCA. Although I had some interest in what was going on with FMCA, the primary reason I made sure I was there was that they were giving away ten $250 prizes to members attending the rally, and you had to be present at the business meeting to win. Money is a great motivator. After that meeting I hurried over to another seminar room for a seminar being put on by the members of the Fulltimer’s Chapter on full time RVing. I was part of the panel putting on the seminar. My topic was “Staying in Touch and Technology”, covering mail services, email, computers, banking, internet and other techy topics. Jackie was going to be the “mike lady” going around the audience with the mike for questions, but they had a wired mike instead of a cordless one, so she became unemployed.
After the Full timing seminar we hurried again to get to another room for the business meeting of the Elks International Chapter. This chapter is for those who belong to the Order of Elks. You must be a member of an Elks Lodge to be a member of this Chapter. After the business meeting they usually have a happy hour and Jackie and I have usually volunteered to help. This time I was going to be running the bar. I worked to set up the bar while Jackie checked in people for the meeting. After the meeting was over Jackie came back and helped me tend bar. We had a good time. One thing about tending bar at a hosted happy hour is that you surely get to meet everyone in the room because they all show up at the bar. After the Elks social hour we made one last visit to the vendors, and then headed out to dinner with Peggy and Vernon. We went back to Madeline’s Mexican Restaurant because they love Mexican food and we had told them how good the food was there. It was just as good and we ate way too much. Once dinner was over we went back to our coach and pretty much collapsed. We had wanted to go to the entertainment, which was a MoTown group, but we were just too tired. We were in bed and asleep by 9:45 p.m.
Sunday, August 15th was departure day. I heard engines starting and coaches driving around by 6:00 a.m. At each convention there is a safety group that you can arrangements with to get your coach weighed. They weigh each wheel separately to give you an exact picture of how your weight is distributed. This is very important, especially for tires to make sure you are not overloaded and you have the correct tire pressure in each tire. They always weigh on departure day as people are leaving and the weigh station was just down from our parking spot. We got to watch the parade of coaches pass our front window. We were not in a big hurry to leave because we were only driving 21 miles from the fairgrounds to an RV park in Prineville, Oregon, just Northeast of Redmond. We will be going to a post rally there with the 3T’s Chapter. The 3T’s always have a two day rally right after the FMCA rallies. We finally left about 10:00 a.m. and got settled into the Crook County RV Park about 11:00. We have full hookups with 50 electric, water and sewer. We weren’t able to shower at the fairgrounds before we left because we ran out of water. We have a 100 gallon water tank, but we had gone eight days and finally ran out. We don’t do a lot of dry camping like we did at the FMCA rally, and when we do we usually don’t go a week or more. We didn’t have any problem with electric - our generator, batteries and invertor work great, and we were able to have the honey wagon dump our waste tanks, but there was no fresh water close by where we were parked.
After getting settled in and cleaned up Jackie starting cooking stuff for the 3T’s rally. The pot luck is on Monday, but Jackie was making Halibut Chowder and she likes to make it the day before to let the flavors seep through the soup. She was also getting stuff ready for Monday’s breakfast. She had all this responsibility
because she is the assistant wagon master for this little rally. About 4:00 we had a happy hour with the group, which is 27 people, not too bad for a small chapter like the 3T’s. After happy hour everyone car pooled to a local restaurant which had been recommended to Jackie by the manager of the RV park. The place was called Brothers Diner and it was very good. They had a very large, eclectic menu and the portions were huge. Nearly everyone took something home, including me which is very unusual. After dinner we went back to the park and crashed for the evening.Monday, August 16th we had to get up early to get ready for breakfast. Although Jackie and I are not breakfast eaters, most everyone else we know is, so, as wagon masters it was our responsibility to provide it. Jackie cooked her chili rellano casserole, which also makes a great breakfast dish, as well as a big pan of hash browns. The breakfast was at 9:00 a.m. and we had everything ready in time, thanks to the Bullocks who cooked one of the breakfast casseroles. Everyone had a great breakfast and then visited for a while. The chapter also held its business meeting after the breakfast. After we got the breakfast cleaned up we did some chores and then I went over to Peggy and Vernon’s coach to help Peggy learn the technical aspects of geocaching. I downloaded the software she would need, showed her how to use it and to get caches from the website. I also worked with her on her new GPS receiver, which is just like the one we bought Jackie earlier this year. We spent about three hours learning the process and then went to look for a cache which was just across the street from the RV park. We had Peggy lead us in and look for the cache, although it was Vernon that actually found it.
Late in the afternoon we had another happy hour and then a wonderful pot luck dinner. Jackie brought over her Halibut chowder and it was a big hit. We didn’t have too much left over. There was just too much good food and I went away uncomfortably stuffed. After dinner everyone visited for a while and then we
cleaned up. We decided to go down for a quick visit at the Prineville Elks Lodge, which was only about a half mile from the park. Peggy and Vernon, who are new Elks just this year, went with us. We had one cocktail, got our lodge pin and then left. We drove around Prineville for about a half hour, just looking around before it got dark. We also stopped to get one more geocache. After we got back to the park we relaxed in the coach the rest of the night.Tuesday, August 17th - the end of the 2010 rally season. We got up early again to get rolls and coffee out for a quick continental breakfast for the group. Wilma Jean Alexander, the wagon master for the rally, got up at 4:00 a.m. to bake the rolls! She believes in providing fresh baked stuff. Most of the group is leaving today, although there are a couple of rigs that are going to stay over another day. While at breakfast Jackie was recruited to be the Vice President and Alternate National Director of the 3T’s Chapter, so it looks like we will both be Chapter Vice Presidents next year. After breakfast we packed up the coach and headed out for La Pine State Park, just South of Bend, Oregon. We only had about 63 miles to drive so we weren’t in too big a hurry to get out. Gary and Ramona left early, and Peggy and Vernon got out about an hour before us. We are now on our own until we get to Albuquerque in October for the balloon fest. We got out of the Prineville park at 10:30 and by 12:00 we were pulling into the La Pine State Park. We have a great site, full hookup 50 amp, and, although we are in the woods, we are in a clear area and even the roof satellite dish works! Yea. We didn’t have any satellite in Prineville because of the trees, but for only two days we didn’t worry about it. The only thing iffy here is the phone and internet service. We have Verizon service, but it is weak.
We will be here for one week before starting our journey back across Oregon and down through Nevada to our home base in Pahrump. With the end of the summer rally circuit, I am going to end this episode of our story. I will publish again in a few weeks when we get to Pahrump. Until then, stay safe, be happy and enjoy every day God gives you.
