FMCA Rally & Puppy Fix

The past couple of days we’ve spent getting settled in the new Alpine 5er. All of the boxes we (Barbie predominantly) had packed in the motorhome and transferred to the 5er, are emptied, contents put in their places and the boxes disposed of. We’ve got a few more items out in our storage “utility trailer” to bring in but for the most part we are settled in. We went to Walmart to pick up a couple of items for the 5er. Interestingly, the bathroom in the new 5er had no toilet paper holder hung anywhere. So we picked that up along with a couple of hand towel holders. Again, there were NO towel holders anywhere. Of course, we noticed that up front and it actually allowed us to buy the style we wanted and mount them where we wanted them. Barbie also got some new king size sheets at Belks yesterday for the new bed. Over the course of the last few days we’ve also had the chance to test out the heat pump to take the chill off the other morning when in dipped into the upper 40’s. Then yesterday afternoon it was in the upper 70’s and muggy so we turned on the A/C briefly. Yeah, I know, eat your heart out our northern friends and those in Texas that have had the cold, ice and snow! As I write this, it is a cool, damp 60 degrees outside here at RCC so the windows are open and it is comfortable inside.

Thursday we drove down to Brooksville to spend a few hours down at the FMCA’s Southeast Area Rally being held at the Hernando County Airport until Sunday. As I said in the previous post, we have been regulars at the rally for the past 6 years and have worked the rally as volunteers in the past. We paid the $7 per person fee for the day pass. We primarily wanted to visit the vendors tent and check in with some friends that still volunteer during the rally. We didn’t need to walk through the coach display obviously, having just made our “jump” to the new Alpine 5er. We also passed on attending any of the seminars and it’s probably was a good thing because we surely would have gone thru the same hassle that Karen and Al went through. For an organization concerned about declining memberships they certainly need to change some policies I’d say. I do know that the philosophy changed for an upcoming rally as they have announced that the FMCA will welcome not only motorhome owners but also owners of other types of self-contained RVs when the group meets in Perry, Georgia, in March 2011 for FMCA's 85th Family Reunion & Motorhome Showcase, which will be held at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry, Ga., from March 14 to 17, 2011. We made it through the vendors tent without dropping too many $$$. We did buy an RV Power Protection device like we had in our motorhome that will protect the rv from power surges, improper grounded systems and low power. It will not allow the problems into your rv where it could cause major damages. In the 6 years we had it in the motorhome it saved us on several occasions and more than paid for itself. We also picked up a couple of small canvas fabric “pouches” that can be velcroed to any type of surface. We also stopped at their booth and chatted briefly with folks from River Vista Mountain Village in Dillard, GA, where we own an rv site. It was good seeing Richard, Jim & Mary, and Steve & Judy. They seemed pleased they weren’t up there dealing with the snow, ice and cold temps. We also saw Roamin’ Rigs chapter members, Sandie, Pat, Jim, Wilma, and Ted, as well as former members Gary and Arlene. We then drove down the two runways where the vast majority of motorhomes are parked. It is always interesting to us to look at the rigs and some of the folks set-ups. These two folks cause you to do a double take as there are NO hook-ups at all on the runways. Maybe they just want to believe….?

     

I also marvel at some of the custom paint jobs… Click on them for a larger view.

   

   

   

We still managed to get out before the annual “parade” was to begin. My favorite part of these large rallies was to walk or ride around with my camera and check out the people-there are all kinds of folks for sure.

   

 

 

 

Ah, we have had fun at rallies. If you’ve never attended one you need to for sure.

Good friends, Pat and Sandie, who are working the rally drove up to RCC yesterday to see our new Alpine. They stayed and chatted for a couple of hours. We may not see them until spring as they will go work the Perry rally and then they work for a couple of months at Dollywood. They own an rv site in Franklin, NC, just about 20 miles north of us in Dillard. So we will see them up “north” in the spring at Dollywood, or Franklin, or Dillard.

Finally, as some of you know, we had dogs for many years but after our corgi, Korkey,  died in 1996 we have resisted getting any more pets. With both of us working we didn’t think we could put the time in to train a new pet etc. Well, since we are both retired, we always take note of dogs pictures in the papers and announcements of animal adoptions everywhere we go and visit shelters, humane societies and the like. Barbie calls it “getting a puppy fix.’ Well, we got another puppy fix this morning at the Pet Supermarket store in Inverness. Each Saturday for a few hours an adoption organization brings some dogs there to be adopted. A few weeks ago “Matti” stole Barbie’s heart and today it was “Scooter’s” turn. Don’t know how many more “fixes” there will be before we rescue one of the dogs. Oh well, that’s what we’ve been up to.

‘Til next time……