Rally Life

May 20, 2018

Saturday was a quiet day most of the day for us. We didn’t find any exciting seminars in the morning, so we stayed in and puttered around. Toward noon, Joe and I went over to the vendors’ building so he could look at the URB-E, the cute little electric scooter that I’d thought he might make use of. We both went for test drives--it was a lot of fun! But he says he doesn’t think he’d use it inside for support, he says it’s still too much strain on him. He was more interested in it as an auxiliary vehicle for when we are parked in a campground and need to go into town. He’s also thinking that an electric bicycle would do the same thing and be less expensive. So we have to have some more discussion and thinking on the subject.

Also at the vendors, we bought some new LED light bulbs for the coach, and some cute little items for our kitchen, both at home and in the RV. I got a couple for gifts.

While I walked Cassie, I took photos of some of the RVs set up in our “village.” Many people do make themselves quite at home and settled-- some may even be here for several weeks, I guess. There are signs, mini-gardens, patios, lights, etc. There are SO many “big rigs” here-- 38 foot and larger Class As abound, as well as large 5th wheels. I know a lot of folks are full-time RVers, so I guess if you are going to live full time in one of these rigs, you want some extra room.

In the afternoon, I went to a seminar on “Boondocking.” I learned a lot about some places out west where you can stay on public land for not-much money (such as $40/two weeks, or $180 for the entire winter season.) I also learned ways to save on water so it would be possible to be without hookups for a longer time (we’ve gone for 3 or even 4 days in the past, but no longer.) I would love to go out to Arizona next winter for maybe a month and live off the grid a little bit. The biggest expense is the gas to get there!

At about 5:30, we joined up with several hundred other folks in a huge pot-luck dinner. Joe made his macaroni salad. We sat with some nice folks and chatted for a while before going back to the rig. There was a band set up to play around the Firebirds, but we are so close to them, we could hear the music from our camper! So we “stayed home” rather than sit in the uncomfortable plastic chairs outside... we are not much for chatting anyway. And we really enjoyed the music while Joe was able to lie down. We both took showers sometime during the evening as well--a great time to do that, since no one else was using the bath houses, which can be crowded in the mornings.

These folks have a business making yard signs.

Now it’s Sunday morning. We had planned one more day here, but we are leaving for home today instead, because of the sad loss of mom’s cousin Jerry. We were both very fond of him, and want to be home for the funeral on Tuesday. So I am going to upload this blog as fast as possible. We want to leave at 11:30 so we can stop at Bontrager’s, an RV surplus store which is about 22 miles from here but right on our route home. And then we’ll hit the interstate and plan to drive as far as the Pennsylvania state line tonight (almost exactly half way home). That will leave us 6 hours to get the rest of the way home tomorrow.

Our trip has been VERY successful-- it is great to be back on the road, and we still love traveling as much as ever. Having done it now for the first time since Joe’s surgery and retirement, we are convinced that we can do more, and are looking forward to future adventures. It was a good trip.