FMCA Rally

We attended the Family Motor Coach Association rally in Redmond, Oregon.  The published dates for the rally were August 13 - 16.  But as we read the schedule online we realized we were supposed to be there on Monday.  Seems they always publish the dates as Wednesday thru Saturday but you really need to be there on Monday or Tuesday.  This was not a problem since we were in Bend, OR just about 1 hour away.  So we pulled into a large grassy parking area at the Deschutes County Fair ground on Monday afternoon.  We had paid to have 30 amp electrical service but there would be no water or sewer.  No problem as we came in with empty black and gray tanks and a full water tank.  We were happy about having the electrical hook up as the temperature the day we pulled in was in the upper 80s.

We got in and I hooked up the power cord but there was no power!  Turns out that FMCA had decided to turn on power Tuesday morning at 9.  This would save them a lot of money.  So we, along with everyone else that came in that day, ran our generators so we could have air conditioning.

The seminars were very informative and we met a lot of great folks.  We had a fun reunion with our new friends from the Full Timers Chapter.  And we spent a ton of money on stuff to fix up the RV, not that it was run down but we spent money on it anyway.  Most days Diana would attend a few seminars and I would go to different ones.  We'd meet up in the evening and talk about what we learned.  Next day we do the same thing.  As busy as we were we still found time to get to the venders building and buy stuff.  We both attended a seminar on "Safe driving an RV".  We learned a few things but found out we were already following most of the safety tips.

We were planning to leave on Saturday and drive to the Portland area.  By Friday morning we realized we were so tired that there as no need to attend more seminars on Saturday morning then drive for 3 - 4 hours.  So we attended the seminars we wanted on Saturday and left on Sunday.  A wise decision.  In the future we will plan on being at the rally from Monday to Sunday.  Next rally is in March in Pomona, CA.  If it is near our path we'll attend.  It was a lot of fun.