will it ever end?

Saturday:

We spent another day doing seminars, and making the rounds of exhibitors to buy sale items and other stuff we need. Prices at the rally are usually better than you can get anywhere else, and since Oregon has no sales tax the savings are just that much more.

$200 later we had our coach outfitted with LED lighting all around, and we bought a fire extinguisher for home and a bunch of chemicals for our holding tanks. The best seminar today was on solar systems for RV’s.

As we walked home it was clouding up to rain out the show again, and we just got home ahead of it. But like last night it cleared up and the show was able to go on as scheduled. Tonight it was Herman’s Hermits, a name that is vaguely familiar, but not compelling enough to get us out again. Besides, we can hear it from our campsite.

Tomorrow is the last day of the rally and we’ve made our water and holding tanks last throughout the week without dumping or filling our fresh water. We’re getting pretty good at this!

A Perfect Ending

Sunday:

We spent the last day of the rally attending a few seminars and making a final round of the vendors and exhibitors. Our efforts resulted in good information on our insurance policy, and we booked a trip next fall to see the Albuquerque, New Mexico Balloon Fiesta. It is something we’ve always wanted to do, but the event is so popular that everything for miles around Albuquerque sells out years in advance.

We’re not into RV caravanning, but this one doesn’t go anywhere. It just stays in Albuquerque and the trip company has some premium RV campsites booked right in the middle of the event grounds. It’s worth the extra cost to get access like that, and we won’t have to put up with the usual caravan madness of a road trip with a lot of old people.

Our final seminar was the coolest of all, and it was the perfect way to end the rally. It was an outdoor cooking demo put on by a guy who is the U.S. distributor for a unique product called Auspit. The product is a battery operated rotisserie that enables you to do rotisserie cooking over an open campfire. It comes in a handy dandy carrying case, and it is ridiculously easy to set up and use. It operates on two D cell batteries (which are included) and they are supposed to last for about 80 hours of cooking time before you have to change them. The spit can hold up to 18 pounds and attachments are available that let you cook fish filets, hamburgers or brats, and shrimp.

There are canisters of various sizes that allow you to cook veggies, and the guy says you can even roast coffee or bake bread in them. He set up over a fire pit and he used a combination of hardwood and charcoal that gives a stable fire with some good smoke quality. The wind was blowing hard and it looked like rain. He had some trouble getting the fire going in the wind, but once he did he cooked a chicken and a tri-tip roast, which he rubbed with olive oil and seasoning. The chicken takes longer (an hour and a half to two hours) but the tri-tip cooked in an hour and he carved off samples that were to die for.

We skipped the evening entertainment which was some band we never heard of. Sunday night found a lot of the rigs pulling out and getting on the road, but we stayed put and just relaxed. The rally turned out to be a good one. We got to do some entertaining ‘people watching’ and we learned a lot.

We got our interior lighting changed over to LED’s which save energy and are a lot brighter. We got our holding tanks onto an enzyme treatment that is clean and odorless, and environmentally friendly. We upgraded our fire safety dramatically, and we got a good quick connect for our water line. We bought chairs that have built in back support, and even did a little gift shopping. We heard a great Vince Gill concert, and we reaffirmed our conviction that we love our little Winnebago, and wouldn’t trade it for a big Class A for anything.

The week has gone fast and we had a good time, but we’re rallied out and we’re ready to move on to Mt. Hood!

Jul 17, 2011

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