Holding an RV rally is a lot of hard work, and as I have said before, there is no way we could do it without all of our dedicated volunteers. There are a hundred and one details that have to be handled as they come up, everything from a seminar presenter who needs a quick lesson in how to operate a digital projector, to reuniting somebody with their lost car keys, to listening to a rally attendee vent because they wanted a full hookup site and none are available, to finding the maintenance folks to tell them that the ladies room is out of toilet paper. I know, because I dealt with all four yesterday.
But with all of the hard work, there is still plenty of time for fun. I really enjoy getting up on stage, acting like a goofball, and passing out door prizes. Somebody said maybe I want to be the next Saint Nick. Now that’s a job I could handle – everybody loves you, you only have to work one night a year, and people give you milk and cookies!
One of my favorite parts of an RV rally is having the opportunity to socialize with so many of our friends, as well as making new friends of the people we meet here. That’s what it’s really all about.
When I wasn’t putting out fires and giving my Highway History And Back Road Mystery seminar yesterday, I had a lot of time to just visit with folks. We cross paths with most of the vendors that are here at different rallies across the country, and it is always fun to get together with them. We met Ben and Gay Miller, from Coyote Sales, at our very first RV rally, back in 1999, and we have run into them everywhere from a small bus rally in Arizona to mega-rallies all over the country.
Daryl Lawrence, from Lawrence RV Accessories, has a warped and twisted sense of humor, and I always enjoy bantering with him. Another vendor with a good sense of humor is Butch Williams, who is here with his lovely wife Fonda, selling their convection cooking hot plates and pots and pans. Yesterday I stopped at the outside food vendor and bought myself a brat for lunch, and as I walked past Butch’s booth, he just reached out and snatched it away, and had his own lunch! I’d have tried to grab it back before he sunk his greedy teeth into it, but I know better than to get my fingers in front of his face when he’s in a feeding frenzy. It was safer to just go back and buy another sandwich, which I took into a corner to eat, away from any other predators.
One special friend here at the rally is my buddy Carey McGleish, who we first met when he was a student at Life on Wheels. Back then Carey was a total greenhorn and very unsure of himself in his new fifth wheel, but he’s come a long way in the last few years. He was helping distribute door prizes last night, and I told the audience that I had raised him from a pup. Everybody got a big laugh out of that, including Carey himself.
That’s how it goes at an RV rally. A little learning, a little nonsense, and a whole lot of fun.
Somebody said yesterday that we should change the names of our rallies from Gypsy Gatherings to Gypsy Journal Family Reunions, because he feels that way when he comes to one of our events. Yeah, we kind of feel that way too.
Thought For The Day – Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
OK Nick – You do know that it takes one to know one. And I was just gonna’ tell you what a pleasure it is to be here again, and what great hosts you and Terry are! Thanks for tuly caring about the vendors and all the attendees!
Nick, we do hope that you spend more time visiting and schmoozing with the rally attendees than you do with your vendor friends. You see them all the time, you’ve said, but you don’t always see the rally participants. They are the ones paying the dollars to be with you.
Nick & Miss Terry
Thank you very much for an excellent rally. This was our very first rally ever, & you spoiled us for any others we may attend in the futurew! The seminars were wonderful, we dropped a lot of money with the vendors, and loved the door prizes. Miss Terry, you are even more beautiful, gracious and amazing in person than your swain depicts you in the paper and on the blog! We can’t wait for the next Gypsy Journal rally!!!!
We had a fantastic time at the rally! Met lots of new friends, saw some old ones, spent way too much money at the vendors, and learned so much at seminars that our brains hurt! Kudos to all of your volunteers and to you and Terri too for putting this together. We’ll be back!