We had a very full schedule today. Breakfast was provided from 7 to 9 AM by the catering branch of Das Dutchmen Essenhaus restaurant as part of the rally fee. We went over at 8 AM with the Canadian contingent of our GLCC chapter. Breakfast was eggs, potatoes, and ham, so we had potatoes along with coffee and orange juice. The potatoes were OK, improved by ketchup and Tabasco sauce, the orange juice was excellent, and the coffee was acceptable except that they ran out. Yeah, they ran out of coffee at an RV rally breakfast.
We walked over to registration at 9 AM to find out our pavilion assignment for the social this afternoon. They put us in Building 17, about as far from where most of us are parked as possible. Oh well. We walked over and put up our chapter sign and then started spreading the word as this was a different location than we had the last two years. With the help of Vicki Lintner and her bicycle we managed to get the word to everyone, including those chapter members that we knew were at the rally but not parked with the chapter.
The vendor buildings were on our way back to our coach so we walked through those. We stopped at Daryl and Cheri Lawrence’s booth and paid them for the TireTraker repeater Daryl gave us to try when we were in Quartzsite, Arizona this past winter. We were able to use our volunteer “vendor bucks” to pay for half of the repeater. Daryl also confirmed that we should be able to back the dill valve stems out of our inside dual tire extensions slightly (1/4 turn) to get the TireTraker sensors to activate more reliably.
Josh Leach was there from Coach Supply Direct so we chatted with him a bit. He can order the Flexsteel 1341-CH barrel chair with the Lambright fabric we like and can order the Flexsteel captain’s chair for the passenger position in the same fabric. He estimated delivery at five weeks. He can also get Corian countertops made and had a good assortment of sample pieces so we are going to try to get him to the coach with the samples and select something.
We also stopped at the MCD shade vendor and at one of their competitor’s booths. We are thinking about replacing the two shades in the bedroom with the duo-style roller shades. The MCD vendor also gave us a great tip on how to adjust our AutoMotion motorized windshield shades using layers of painter’s tape to get the fabric to roll up onto the spool correctly. The shades from either vendor are custom made and shipped. The MCD guy will ship them for free. The other guy is local to Elkhart so we could pick them up if needed, although there is certainly a real cost to the 300 mile round trip.
Back at the coach I returned a call from Mike at Suburban Seating and called Rick Short at ISRI USA but was not successful in reaching either of them. There was a meeting of GLAMA chapter presidents, national directors, and alternate directors at 1:30 PM with GLAMA President Jane Roush so I went to that. FMCA National President Charlie Adcock and Senior National Vice-President Jon Walker were also there.
While I was at the meeting Linda and Karen (Gerrie) left at 2 PM to pick up the food and sundry items for our GLCC chapter social. My meeting ended at 2:30 PM and I went back to the coach to get our chapter banner. Bill Gerrie agreed to help he put it up. He grabbed two chairs and I grabbed the banner and Scott Bruner, who was on golf cart transportation duty, drove us over. Bill and I got the banner tied up where it was visible and then sat and talked until Linda showed up in our car with the food. She had the air-conditioning on full blast to keep it cool. She’s a clever girl.
By 4 PM almost everyone had shown up so we had a moment of silence to allow folks to practice their individual pre-meal traditions. We were just getting in line to get our food when the photographer showed up and wanted a group picture. We gathered on either side of our banner and she apparently got what she needed although I only saw her take one photo. A few more members showed up and joined the food line. When everyone had their first helping, and a chance to eat some of it, George Myers asked if we could start the meeting and he could have the floor. No problem. I called the meeting to order and gave him the floor.
Besides being a member of our chapter George and Sue run the golf cart transportation service for the rally. George is also the GLAMA VP for Indiana. Since there was only one geographic Indiana chapter (the Hoosier Cruisers) all of the multi-state chapters, like ours, were put under the Indiana VP. Thus George had five chapters that he was responsible for assisting and had to go visit the other four. The main thing he wanted to cover was the FMCAssist program which is included as part of a full or associate membership in FMCA.
The rest of the meeting went smoothly enough. Of equal importance to me was that everyone seemed to enjoy the food. We had pizza the last two years so we were not sure how well our food choices would be received. We had at least 30 people there. Jane Roush, Charlie Adcock, and Jon Walker were supposed to drop in and speak to the group. I gave them a 5-to-6 PM window but they did not make it by the time our social broke up at 6 PM. Several folks helped clean up the pavilion and divide up the leftovers, some of which got loaded into our car.
Most of us are parked together and we ended up with a big circle of chairs back at our rigs. After putting away the leftovers Linda, Karen, and Vicki went to play card bingo while the rest of us talked buses and travel. I tried one of the Shortt’s Soft Parade beers we had in the fridge. To the extent that I like beer at all, which isn’t very much, I prefer fruit beers and lagers and do not care for the bitterness of hops. Based on that our daughter had suggested I try the Shortt’s. It had an orange citrus taste but also tasted too much like beer for me. But you don’t know if you don’t try. Eventually people drifted back to their coaches until the four of us who were left were chased indoors by darkness, bugs, and the chill of the night air.
Linda and I stayed up a while longer but we got word during the social that our older grand-daughter (Katie) had secured two tickets for us to attend her high school graduation ceremony tomorrow night. We were excited that she was able to get two more tickets but it also meant we would have a very long day tomorrow.
