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Spring 2007 Escapade
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| March 14, 2007: Gwen and I will be Chapter 37 representatives at the spring Escapade in Stockton, California. The Escapees RV club sponsors a spring rally each year and all national chapters are located on one row so visitors can check the activities of each chapter |
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| easily. Gwen and I will be giving a book titled "Guide to the Best RV Camping in Southern Oregon" to all those who pass by our table. This is a book Gwen and I are currently writing and will eventually publish as an eBook. The readers of RVeCafe get a special treat because I am publishing pages from our book before the rally. The first campground in the book is Emigrant Lake Recreation Area. The photo above is of Emigrant Lake. Click here to download the description of this great southern Oregon park. |
| March 28, 2007: Today is the day Carriage has scheduled to ship our Cameo from the factory in Millersburg, Indiana. We've heard nothing from the factory or the dealer so don't know if they are on schedule or not. The anticipation is difficult. In the mean time, I continue to prepare for the trip to the spring Escapade. I've added a new park to the guide to southern Oregon camping. This is a popular Oregon State Park, Valley of the Rogue State Park. It is well maintained and right on the Rogue River. However, we've not parked there because it is just off Interstate 5 and has traffic noise. However, most of the RV parks in southern Oregon are located along the freeway and are always at least 80% full so I guess traffic noise does not bother other RVers the way it bothers us. Of all the southern Oregon RV parks located along the freeway, Valley of the Rogue State Park would be the one I would choose, if I was picking a freeway park. The Rogue River is just behind these two campers in the state park. If you would like to download a copy of this page, click here. |
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April 20, 2007: After picking up our new Cameo, we drove only as far as the rest stop on the Klamath River just after the Oregon/California border. Here is where we spent our second night in the Cameo, too exhausted to drive further. Surprisingly, this popular rest stop did not keep us from a good night sleep. |
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| The above photo shows dawn at the rest stop. This day, we drove as far as Lodi, California to visit with my parents, plus Ben and Mindy. The truck and trailer barely squeeze into my parents semi-circle driveway but we manage to extend all three slides to show off the new trailer. |
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April 21, 2007: Early this Saturday morning with meet with Peggy and Fred of Chapter 47 (Northern California) to arrive at the San Joaquin County Fairground for the Spring Escapade. We are representatives of Chapter 37 and arrive a day early to set up and prepare for all the travelers tomorrow. |
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| Gwen registers with Doris, another volunteer from Chapter 37. It looks to be a great rally according to the schedule. We spent this first afternoon walking around the many RV's already parked and visiting. I finally find all the Internet gear and I'm able to go online again. The Internet Satellite dish is to the right of the Cameo surrounded by the other chapter RV's. Our Chapter 37 banner is displayed in front of our trailer. Note the new electronic awning I've deployed. It used to take me 30 minutes to deploy the KOTR awning but only a few seconds for our Cameo awning. |
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April 22, 2007: Today was the first day of the Spring Escapade. The opening ceremony was a 3 pm. Since we are representing Chapter 37 on The Row, we were part of the parade of banners during the ceremony. Each chapter represented carried their banner |
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| across the front of the group when their chapter was announced. Most of the first day was greeting the first travelers to walk The Row and touring the vendors at the show. In the evening, Scott and Karen gave away door prizes for nearly an hour before the evening entertainment. Frank Sternett was the evening entertainment. He is a karaoke style entertainer singing various tunes made popular by Barry Manilow, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and other. The room enjoyed his improvisations and singing style and many were humming the tunes when leaving the building. |
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April 23, 2007: Our neighbors are John and Dianna from the Park of the Sierras in Coarsegold, California. This is a Co-op park in the Escapees system. We have learned much about how a Co-op park works. Your name must go on a wait list with a $1,000 deposit. For this park, the wait is about 6 years. When your name comes to the top, you pay $15,000 to lease the space, essentially for life. Maintenance fees amount to about $100 per month. When you decide to leave the park, the $15,000 is returned. |
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It was especially important to John that anyone visiting the Park of the Sierras also visit Pete's Place restaurant in Oakhurst. "The very best hamburgers" stated John.
Our entertainment tonight was goofy-funny. Jimmy Travis came from Tennessee to sing and do stand-up comedy. He was so funny he had many of the Escapees rolling out or jumping out of their seats. Many of his songs, stories and jokes were directed at our age group and our special interest (traveling in an RV). That made his show just that much more professional and entertaining for this group. Jimmy's topics included teens, children, professions, other entertainers, his own experiences and family, plus, of course, aging. |
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April 24, 2007: Part of going to an RV Rally such as the Spring Escapade is attending some of the numerous "How-To" seminars. One seminar unique to the Escapade is the RVers Book Camp series of seminars. This is usually attended by those new to RV travel but you can learn something even if you've been doing it for a while. Gwen attended a couple of the boot camp series yesterday so I attended one today. This was instructed by Mark Nemeth, an RV expert. I learned to be more careful with water pressure at strange parks. I knew our RV was set up to handle about 40 lbs of water pressure and no more but after watching this seminar, I decided to get a new water pressure regulator. I'll illustrate it in a future post. |
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| April 25, 2007: This afternoon was time for a social meeting combining Chapters 37 and 47. 37 covers southern Oregon while Chapter 47 covers northern California so many social meetings and a few rallies are combined between the two chapters. This meeting included many snacks and a time to share what has been learned at the Escapade. There were about thirty in attendance. |
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April 26, 2007: Approaching the closing ceremony, Cathie (on the left) and Angie Carr visit our Chapter area on THE ROW. Cathy, SKP#3 and Angie, SKP#7 are park of the founding family which began the Escapees nearly 30 years ago. Cathie is the club President while Angie is the Executive Director. Budd and Cathie are handing over the day to day operation to Angie and beginning the fulltime RV lifestyle. |
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April 27, 2007: This is the day to return to Howard Prairie Lake Resort in southern Oregon from the Stockton Spring Escapade. Our first stop is at Flying J where you can get Diesel, Propane and dump the holding tanks at the same time.
We actually left the Escapade after the 3 pm closing ceremony and drove as far as Corning, California on Thursday night (last night). We enjoy the Rolling Hills Casino free parking and the Thursday night two-for-the-price-of-one buffet.
When leaving Corning, we stopped in Redding to get a cat door to allow the cat into the basement of the new Cameo. We intend to have the cat food |
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and litter box in the basement just as we did in the King of the Road. We don't want Morgan eating the cat food and certainly don't want the litter box in the house. The installation of the cat door is top priority after arriving at Howard Prairie.
We stopped in Weed, California for a drink and walk around town. We found this statue of Abner Weed who established the town in 1901. After leaving Weed on the famous Highway 97, I had to get this photo of the new Cameo with Mt. Shasta in the background. |
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