The "Rally"

WE MADE IT!!!!

Did you notice I changed the font to ‘Georgia’?

It was one a one night stop in Columbus GA, to do the laundry and then on to “The Rally”. So this should be the last entry in this section of the ‘Trip Journal’.

We drove through Perry around noon and straight on to the fairgrounds. The first thing you encounter at one of these events is the parking of all the RV’s and tow cars. It’s not easy parking 4 or 5 thousand RV’s and making it flow well and satisfy everyone. This is where I seem to get angry every time. Parking doesn’t seem to go well and of course I can do it better! “Or so I think!” But I suppose the volunteers do as well as can be expected. Anyway after getting shuffled around and waiting for a while we finally got parked OK. Except that this time we are right next to one of the big generators used for providing electric to the RV’s. And it’s noisy!!!! In fact one of the techs told us it was one of the worst and if we and the neighbors complained we could get it replaced. We didn’t complain but it did later break down and with a wink and a nod the tech kind of asked Kat if we had done anything to sabotage it. We hadn’t, but maybe we should have sooner, because the new one was ever so much quieter.

“The Rally” consists of educational seminars, RV related vendors and demonstrations, RV dealers and their coaches and trailers, and nightly entertainment, all in the atmosphere of a fair. That’s of course where they’re held; fairgrounds. The first two days are ‘early bird’ and everything isn’t in full swing yet but we did get some ‘fair’ food and walk around and see what we could. The entertainment starts on the first night and this year it was all good. We had Frankie Valli, the Vogue’s (Special Angel, Turn Around) and Bobby Vinton (Blue Velvet) and a couple of others, who were also very good.

Every year, or at least the last two, there is a world record attempt at something. Last year in Redmond OR. it was the largest ‘whoopee cushion’ sit, which failed. Oh, but you should have heard the noise. That was lots of fun even though we didn’t break the record. This year it was the most couples dancing at one time. The record was held in Venezuela at 452 couples. The rules were that you must be doing a recognized dance step and dance for at least 5 minutes. We were to dance the Foxtrot. First though we had all signed in and filed in to the grand stand and sat waiting for the count to be verified by the Guinness people. That took some time so we did the ‘wave’ a few times and did what you do when bored and waiting. Then we all went to the arena (dance) floor and were shown the Foxtrot. The band played and we practiced a little. When we all had the hang of it, or not (!), the band played some more, we danced, and there was a countdown. I don’t think a lot of folks were doing the Foxtrot. I watch “Dancing with the Stars’ (hence I am an expert) and they do the Foxtrot and what I saw wasn’t that. I include us in that. Kat and I aren’t dancers. We try, and we have fun, but we recognize our limitations. But anyway we were all having fun in spite of the bad joints and sore toes and all and we did make the five minutes, plus some more. Not only did we break the record; we shattered the record! We had 1178 couples dancing for the requisite 5 minutes in somewhat the right form and we own the ‘World Record’. It’s back in the good old U.S. of A. You may not see our names in the Guinness Book of World Records but now you will know that we are part of it anyway. Hoo Wah!!!!!

We didn’t make much use of our galley (kitchen) during the Rally. I guess we didn’t do much in the RV except sleep (in spite of the generator). There was too much to do and too much ‘fair’ food to eat. There were seminars about RV travel with the ‘experts’, cleaning and protecting your RV, 15 minute meals, how to keep your holding tanks smelling pure and fresh (really), tech tips on most everything, staying healthy, even how to back your RV. We went to several including the one on ‘backing’. Quite honestly we could have written and conducted that one. We are pretty good at backing our RV as a team. We went to one called “How to avoid the brain drain” but it was too much of a drain on our brains and had to leave. I didn’t say they were all good! There was a child behind us (one of few) who was bored too and Kat turned around and said, “I’m with you kid” and we left. We probably stopped to get Kat a ‘funnel cake’ or a hamburger for me. We ate ‘fair’ breakfasts, ‘fair’ lunches, ‘fair’ dinners, and lots of ‘fair’ junk food. Considering how much ‘fair’ walking we did and how many RV’s we climbed in and out of I guess it really wasn’t so bad. I was pretty much ‘grounded’ on one day because of my knees and all the walking, especially ‘in and out’ of RV’s. I even had to put on my knee brace. Kat went to look, touch, and ‘turn over’, everything in the vendor area one more time while I sat some.

We didn’t spend all of our money this time. We did get a surge suppressor and a window vent to allow us to leave the cat inside, while we are gone, with a little more comfort for us both. We got some ‘Cord Pro’ cord keepers to wind our electric and coax cables. They work great and I should have got a couple more. They look like great big yellow donuts. And we got some small stuff, but we didn’t really blow our wad like we did last time in Redmond.

And get this!!! We even won a new camera. The “Trailer Life” people were showing off their new website and having a drawing for a camera for all folks who went on the website and posted some pictures and opened a blog. I said “I can do that”, and did. The girl we were talking too said there were very few entrants and this was the next to last day. So while I was laid up with a sore knee I did the posting and Kat did the leg work. She was on her way to the “Trailer Life” booth to ask a question on another matter when they called her. So we won a brand new “Canon Power Shot 570”. Cool huh? And there were very few entrants I think? When I was posting our stuff there were no other pictures or blogs being posted. It almost seemed unfair. But then, I didn’t make the rules and we ain’t giving our camera back.

A nice way to end “The View Toward Perry”!