Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The End Of The Rally

The Rally is over and we currently spending the day today at Camping World for service on our Montana.  Gene made an appointment for service before we got to the Rally to have the wheel bearings repacked and the brakes checked.  It was a good thing because many folks who were at the Rally want to get service done before heading to their next destination.

In addition to the wheel bearings, we had a slide issue come up while we were at the Rally.  You may remember when we were at Carlsbad, the wind blew and blew.  We had some damage to one of our slide awnings.  An awning repair service was at the Rally and we ordered a new awning for that slide.  After it was installed, the repairman asked us to run the slide in to be sure the awning was working properly.  The awning worked just fine, but the slide did not.  We are hoping to have that slide inspected today.  With any luck, we can have it repaired today.  I expect, however, we will have to wait for a part to be ordered.

We are all mustering up as much patience as possible and hoping the wait won’t be much longer.

My final thoughts on the Rally are these.  A major drawback was being parked in a different location from the exhibits and seminars.  Too much time was spent traveling to and from locations and standing in line waiting for the shuttle.  We did not know that it was to be held in different locations until after we had made our reservations.  We probably still would have come, placing all faith and hope in the shuttle system.  We won’t do that again. Many of the seminars were infomercials and we did not like that.  However, that may appeal to others.

Our primary issue was water.  Because of the length of time (6 days) we planned to be on the rally site, we reserved a spot with electricity.  A fresh water truck and a honey wagon would deliver and take away (for a fee of $20 each).  We put our cards out for water and sewer service on Saturday morning.  To get the maximum for our dollars, we both had showers that morning, leaving very little fresh water in the holding tank.  The sewer man came, but not the water man.  Sunday morning we went to the desk at the registration booth to inquire about when we would get water.  There was no one there, but a sign announced that they would be there at 10 AM.  We checked back several times during the morning, but no one appeared.  At the information desk, the lady was most helpful in providing a number for the company.  There was no answer, but the message gave an emergency number.  When Gene dialed that number, he got the man in the water delivery truck.  He told him he was currently on row 13 (we were on row 11) and was working his way toward us.  That phone call took place about noon.  We went back to our RV and about mid afternoon, we saw the water truck on row 12.  Gene went out and talked to him, even took him cookies, but by the time we went to bed, we had not received water.  By that time we were out of water except for a couple gallons of distilled water which we had to make tea.

About 11 PM we were awakened by the beeping of a truck in reverse.  The water man had just driven by our rig.  I waited for the sound of running water, but it never came.  I got up and noticed out the window that the water truck was working his way down the row, but he had passed us by.  I pulled on jeans and my jacket and literally ran after the water truck.  He had passed us because our water compartment was locked.  Apparently, Gene had locked it just by habit without thinking about the water man coming.  We got it worked out and I had water by midnight.

They are calling our name.  Gotta go.

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