Three Rallies In A Row–August & September, 2012

It was not a strenuous drive to Monticello, Indiana and we had the benefit of mostly clear skies and fairly cool temperatures. The GPS was having one of her dumber moments and she refused to accept the address I was trying to give her – no matches found, she claimed.  We tried some trickery but in downtown Monticello we missed the turn that would take us to White Oaks RV Resort and found ourselves on a dead-end street.  Luckily there was room to make a wide U-turn and head back to the highway from which we’d strayed.  To further complicate matters, the coordinates used in the Resorts of Distinction catalog were seriously incorrect and we soon found ourselves heading due north with nowhere to make a U-turn.  Buffalo, Indiana was not on our itinerary!

Eventually we found our way to the campground and got settled in.  Having the benefit of full hook-ups and 50 amp service, we got to work immediately on long-neglected household chores.  There’s not much down-time during rallies and so everything needs to be tended to prior to kick-off.   We were parked amid several coaches sporting FMCA “goose-eggs”; they weren’t attending the Full Timers Rally but were just killing time before moving to Indianapolis for the “big” rally.  One high-spirited couple, John and Rose, decided to attend the Full Timers Rally and by the time the rally started they’d also decided to become members of our merry little chapter.  What fun folks!  As you’ll soon see, they impacted our post-rally travel schedule a fair amount.

Monticello is a small city near Lakes Freeman and Shafer, a pair of man-made lakes created by damming the Tippecanoe River.  White Oaks Resort turned out to be a fine spot for a small chapter rally such as ours.  There was a nice lawn by the water’s edge where we could play our outdoor games – corn hole and snakes ‘n ladders – and a clubhouse for indoor games like dominos.  Some of us take these games very seriously; we may be white-haired and wrinkled but the competitive fires still burn.  Or was that last night’s chili?  One of the evenings was set aside for dinner at the upscale (for Monticello) Sportsman’s Inn followed by a cruise on Lake Freeman aboard the Madam Carroll, a party boat if ever there was one.  We greybeards grabbed chairs on the open top deck and prepared for our cruise.  The enclosed lower deck housed the on-board rock band and representatives of The Younger Set.  Those who ventured below found the music loud and the room very smoky; some of the smoke might even have come from Marlboros.  A number of smaller watercraft hugged Madam Carroll’s sides like so many pilot fish, probably to enjoy the music blaring out the open windows without paying to be on board.  Lakeside homes dot the shoreline, everything from mini-mansions to cottages, and many of the homes are rigged to blink their lights when the Madam makes her stately way down to the dam and back.

The most looked-forward-to event of the Full Timer’s rally is the final dinner when the Sheriff hands out his fines for all high crimes and misdemeanors committed during the rally.  Citations run from being without a name tag or ratting on someone who isn’t wearing a name tag to more “serious” crimes.  The 25 cent fines pile up and, in this case, went to a local charity selected by the two Wagonmasters.  I got dinged for having a bad hair day.  It’s a good thing the Sheriff is only in office four days a year or I’d be well-nigh broke!

No sooner had the rally been gaveled to a close, Cousin Gloria and her husband Jerry and their traveling companions, Trudy and Bob, checked in and set up camp nearby.  They’d been in Wisconsin to attend Cousin Judy and Dave’s 50th wedding anniversary and were wandering around a bit before returning to Iowa.  Trudy was feeling poorly one day so Bob stayed home with her and the rest of us went off to Delphi to visit the Wabash and Erie Canal Museum.  Staffed by volunteers, an experiment was underway to see how many visitors would show up on a weekday, they are usually only open on weekends. They had a dozen or so visitors by the time we checked in mid-morning.The mayor, Randy Strasser,  even stopped to chat and filled us in on some of the town’s plans to keep moving forward during these hard times.  

Jerry is a retired fireman and really wanted to buy this wonderful wooden fire truck but in the long run decided he didn’t have any place to put it, either in their 5th wheel or in their condo in Des Moines.  After checking out what the museum had to offer, we stopped for prime rib sandwiches at the Oakdale, a restaurant boasting a dam-side location.  After filling up the two lakes, the Tippecanoe is but a trickle at this point.

The next day, Howie’s brother Rick and his wife Linda traveled down from Cedar Lake to spend the day visiting.  The RV lifestyle fosters these mini reunions and it is always great fun to catch up with folks here, there and everywhere. We all went back to the Oakdale for lunch so nobody would need to do kitchen chores.  Imagine that!  Eating out two days in a row.

We decided to move to the Indiana State Fairgrounds two days before the FMCA Reunion kicked off.  As soon as it was announced that the rally would be in Indianapolis in August, we made the decision to reserve an electric hook-up so we could at least run the air conditioner and perhaps ward off heat stroke. Things got off to a poor start when the seminar I most wanted to attend occurred during an enormous early-morning downpour which flooded some of the tunnels to the infield where we were parked.  At least we didn’t lose our power as some folks did, nor did we end up with waterfront sites.  One of the big draws at these rallies is a display of new coaches.  Everyone is always excited to see what’s new and nothing ever is – same old same old, not even different colors.  You have to wonder who the coach builders are designing for:  why would you need a residential-size four-door refrigerator when you have only a two-burner stove and one square foot of counter space?  You might be able to  freeze the fatted calf but you can’t defrost and cook him.

With completion of the FMCA rally, we made a quick hop up the road to the 3T’s Rally at a full-service campground in Anderson.  Howie had worked one summer in Anderson back in the dark ages and claims that absolutely nothing looked the least bit familiar.  The main purpose of the 3T’s group is to recover from four or five days of boondocking at the FMCA rally, to take long hot showers without worrying about the grey tank exploding, get the laundry and ironing done, restock the larder and, of course, visit with those folks you haven’t seen since this time last year.  Eating is also a major item on the agenda. 

Hurricane Isaac may have been down-graded to a Category I by the time it made landfall but he traveled north, then east, trailing one rainstorm after another.  We had some very heavy rains but thankfully not much in the way of thunder, lightning or high winds.  Other areas weren’t so fortunate and several tornados were spawned along the storm’s route.

We had already planned to head southwest along the Natchez Trace Parkway as we begin our journey back to Arizona.  So it didn’t take much to convince us to make a little side trip to attend the Cruisin’ Cajuns rally in Patterson, Louisiana in mid-September.  Our new friends Rose and John insisted we’d have a wonderful time and it took only one glimpse of the rally menu to convince us that the trip would be worthwhile.  So we sent off our check and we’re on our way…laissez les bons temps rouler!