Sunday, March 22 - back from the Rally in Perry, GA
I know that it has been some time since my last post. I apologize for that. Over the past week or so, we traveled up to Perry, Georgia for the FMCA biennial rally. Our trip began on Wednesday, March 11, as we traveled up to Titusville, FL to get a closer view of the shuttle launch which was to have taken place that evening. However, as the countdown was in progress, a leak forced cancellation until at least Sunday. As a result, there will be no pictures of the launch, since we had to leave for Georgia on Friday morning. We spent Friday night in Tifton, GA, at a place called AGRIRAMA, which is Georgia's historic farming museum. We could not check into the rally field until Saturday, so we spent the night in Tifton, which was quite a bustling community. On Saturday morning we headed off to Perry, and the rally field, where we would spend the next week dry-camping. The rally itself did not officially open until 1:00PM on Monday, so we had 2 days to spend scouting out the area. The photo, above, shows the Perry Hotel, in downtown Perry, where we found a flea market in progress along Main Street.
As luck would have it, it began to rain on Saturday, and it continued to pour right through the weekend, finally giving way to clearing skies on Monday afternoon. There is nothing like dry-camping in a field when it's pouring outside, and all you can think of is "will my coach start to sink into the mud?" I don't know if you've ever seen Georgia's "red clay", but when it gets wet it is like grease. If you get stuck in it, you will need a tow truck to get you out. Fortunately, none of us got stuck in it, and the sun came out on Tuesday morning and stayed out for the remainder of our stay.
What, exactly, is the FMCA rally? It's a lot like a convention, only the attendees are all in motor homes, campers or trailers, instead of hotels. There are seminars on various topics geared to motor homers, and vendor display areas where one can buy almost anything from food to RV/camping supplies. There are also NEW coaches on display, and some really good deals to be had on new coaches. Presumably because the dealers would much rather sell the coaches at the show rather than drive them back to the dealership. There were more than a few new coaches sold at this particular rally. When folks are not attending seminars, or cruising the vendor booths, or visiting the new coaches, they are probably back at their coaches, sitting out in the sunshine visiting with friends (we did a lot of that). All-in-all, we had a very enjoyable time, made a few purchases, got some things on our coaches serviced (free, of course), and ate lots of GOOD FOOD!
But, alas, all good things must end, so, on Friday morning John and Nancy left for Titusville, while K, Kathy B. and Gailsey made one final trip to Tuesday Morning, and the boys, me, Charlie and George, traveled up to Warner-Robins, GA to the Robins AFB Air Museum. This was an excellent trip, and Charlie was most informative when it came to pointing out the various aircraft on display. His knowledge of things aeronautical is phenomenal.
Upon returning to the rally field, we met with the girls, hitched up the cars and got underway. Our first stop was back to the AGRIRAMA, where we spent Friday night. On Saturday, we departed Tifton heading for St. Augustine, FL, where we spent the night in the Camping World parking lot. We made this stop so that the girls could do some more shopping at the Outlet Malls in St. Augustine, while Charlie and I had repairs to attend to on our coaches. I had to repair the water pump on my coach, as it blew a fitting Saturday morning before we left AGRIRAMA. Fotunately, Camping World had the part(s) I needed, so the repair was simple, and only took about 20 minutes to complete.
Finally, on Sunday morning (today), we headed out and began the final leg of our journey to Port St. Lucie. We arrived here at about 1:15PM and promptly got out our recliners and "vegged out" for the afternoon.
Be sure to check out the web albums (yes, I said "albums"). I have two albums for you today. One is from the rally at Perry, while the other is from our side-trip up to the Robins AFB Air Museum. I hope you enjoy the pictures.
http://picasaweb.google.com/chuckb42/FMCARallyAtPerryGAMarch2009?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/chuckb42/PhotosFromTheRobinsAFBAirMuseum?feat=directlink
No comments:
Post a Comment