Rally #2 Gillette WY

Well, technically it's not a rally, it's a convention. Our second event was the 50^th Anniversary of Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) at the CAM-PLEX facility in Gillette. The FMCA is a large national organization of motor homes (no trailers allowed!). They have a national convention once or twice a year at various venues across the US. This was the 88^th renunion. Many smaller RV clubs frequently schedule pre-rallies and post-rallies around the FMCA event, explaining Rally #1 and Rally #3. In years gone by the FMCA national conventions have drawn as many as 8000 coaches, but in the past few years 2000-3000 coaches have been the norm. At this event there were 2288 member coaches and 351 commercial coaches. It's not easy to find a venue capable of parking this many coaches and to accommodate the vendors, display coaches and seminars. The CAM-PLEX is a large state agricultural fairgrounds which fit the bill very nicely.

 

To arrive at Gillette we left Cody the way we had come and headed east across Wyoming towards the Bighorn Mountains. Instead of taking US 14, we took US 14A, a little steeper, featuring a very long 10% uphill grade. We spent the night at Sibley Lake CG in the Bighorn National Forest at EL 8500' on the top of the mountain. Sibley Lake CG has a loop with 10 electric sites and another loop with 10 non-electric sites. As expected, the electric sites were all full, but there were 2 sites in the non-electric loop that would hold us. There was no electricity, TV, cellular, or Internet, so we had to rough it. We made a traditional campfire, and the overnight low temperature was 34 degrees.

 

Dorcas is never happy when I take photos while negotiating a winding 10% grade.

The next morning, Sunday June 16, we caravanned with the group from Safari International (SI), the parent organization for our TREK club. Well technically we didn't actually caravan with them, but we met them in a holding lot before entering the grounds, so we could all park together. There were about 32 coaches in the SI group who had been attending their own pre-rally in Hardin MT. Most of our group got pretty good sites, but we ended up in a dirt pit. It was obvious that when it rained (it always rains at FMCA conventions) we would be in a deep puddle. Noel, our next door neighbor, was actually in soft sand, and as he extended his jacks, his jack pads disappeared into the sand, never to be seen again. The parking crew moved Noel and the coach next to him to a better, grassy spot. After 5:00 when the parking crew left, we moved ourselves about 150' to a much nicer grassy spot close to some friends. It looked like, when (not if) it rained, it would drain pretty well here. This also put us closer to the SI group happy hour that occurred every evening at 4:00!

There were four restored Flexible coaches on display at the convention, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary. The Flexible is the coach featured on the FMCA logo.  Jeff Daniels drove one in the movie "RV"

FMCA conventions are all about seminars and vendors. There are 14 seminar rooms, each hosting 6-7 seminars a day. Seminar topics run the gamut from technical stuff on engines, transmissions, heaters, refrigerators, etc., to travel topics, cooking, crafts, exercise, you name it. Dorcas and I each attended 3-4 seminars a day, usually splitting up and comparing notes later. The other biggie is the vendors. All kinds of vendors are present, and some also provide on-site coach service. We bought some fire extinguishers and smoke and CO detectors from Mac the Fire Guy, some new window awnings and fabrics (more on that later), and a number of smaller doodads. We had the HWH guy come out and look at a problem we're having with our air leveling system, and we had our waste tanks pressure cleaned. The guys at the WiFi Ranger trailer were giving away free Fat Tire Ale, so that was a regular stop several times each day. All in all it was a productive event.

They also have entertainment.  There is daytime entertainment throughout the complex, but also evening entertainment every night.  The headline Saturday night was Marty Stuart.  It was a good show.

Check out that hair!

It was very warm and windy throughout most of the convention. On Tuesday a storm came through, and I noticed that the fabric on one of our slide topper awnings was separating at the stitching. CRAP! Our awnings are made by Carefree and a Carefree dealer had a booth, so we went to talk to him. We asked him about re-stitching the canopies; Dorcas carries a sewing machine, and I know how to remove the canopies. But the guy talked us out of that; said it just doesn't work well with all the new needle holes. And finding a durable thread would be difficult. We then decided to order new canopies, not just for the torn one, but all the way around. They could take the order today, cut and sew the fabrics in their shop in California, and ship them for installation the next day. That's one of the neat things about a big rally: speedy on-site service. We didn't order that day, because we couldn't decide on the color. Our favorite choices were linen tweed, a tan slightly darker than our current fabrics but with some texture, and a burgundy that would match nicely with the burgundy paint on our coach. It was a good thing we waited. On Thursday a major storm hit very suddenly. I had been walking Matilda (and harvesting Fat Tire Ales from the WiFi Ranger guy) and had just returned to the coach before it hit. There was hail and 65 mph wind gusts. The temperature dropped from 73 to 47 degrees in about an hour. And our slide awnings were shredded. CRAP! But wait maybe this was an opportunity. The Carefree guy came and looked and observed that we had some broken and bent hardware. Our Eclipse II models (which are of a very poor design) are no longer made and parts are not available. Most insurance companies will authorize replacement with the current (and in this case superior) model. So ultimately we decided to replace both slide awnings altogether, with the newer model and order replacement fabrics for the other awning on the curb side, which I would install myself at a later date. We chose the linen tweed fabric, but I regret now we hadn't been bolder and chosen the burgundy. By now the Carefree folks were really hopping; there were a lot of other folks who had awning damage. However, the Carefree folks would also be at Rally #3, so we ordered the goods and made arrangements to install the new awnings next week in Rapid City, when they would not be so busy. Sometimes things just work out.

So sad!

Hail from the "Big One"

The big storm brought a lot of rain (big surprise) and it rained some more the next few days. We were in a good spot and standing water was minimal. Others were not so lucky. On Saturday and Sunday folks began pulling out and a number of rigs were stuck. Within sight of our rig we saw perhaps 15-20 rigs pulled out by tractors and tow trucks. We were lucky; the water around us had drained away and we had a clear path to the hard road. We were able to leave the complex without incident.