A Couple of Rallies

When you read this, I don't want you to think that we are charging around the USA sort of scampering from one rally to the next. That's not our style at all. These two rallies just happened to be on our way from the east coast to Texas, the timing was right, and one of them uses our products. Read on… 


Thinking of RVing…

To North Carolina
We were coming out of Canada, down the east coast, visiting family and friends, and ended up in Marion, NC, at Tom Johnson Camping Center, for their annual rally. This rally is for their customers, however, we are not a customer, but they asked us to come by and present seminars to the rally attendees.

Tom Johnson has two sales locations and they are in Marion and Concord, NC. When a customer purchases an RV from them, Tom Johnson gives them one of our books. The book entitled, "All the Stuff You Need to Know About RVing" is an excellent gift to new or (what I call) "used" RVers. It helps them understand the various systems on the RV and how to operate them. After all, "You don't know what you don't know!"

The people involved in putting on this rally invited us and Rob Lowe (my co-author) in and both of us presented various seminars. This was the first time for "educational-type" seminars in addition to the normal "vender" seminars. We were not there selling some specific RV-associated product.

While the seminar turnout could have been better, it was a good start for the first time. The followup comments were excellent and the attendees said they would be back. Next year will be better.

To Alabama
We went from there to a totally different type of rally called the "Eastern Come Home Rally" at Prattville, Alabama. This one was sponsored by Monaco and Navistar (their parent company). What was unusual was that everyone—including ANY type or brand of RV—was invited to this rally! What was even more unusual was that everything was free, yes, FREE!!!

The rally was held at a huge golf resort. All attendees were invited to attend the LPGA Golf Tournament that weekend—totally free. There was a free shuttle bus to the tournament. There was plenty of excellent food and drink with breakfast each morning, and happy hour followed by a catered dinner each night. With the free passes and shuttle to the golf tournament, it was hard to beat. Alliance Coach (Wildwood, FL) was there with their big parts trailer and to offer on-site service at a really good labor rate of $50.00/hour!

This rally was all boondocking, about 150 coaches were there. I really don't remember if they had a water truck or "honey wagon" available because we don't use them. I also don't believe they had a dump station.

I was totally impressed with Prattville. It was my first time there. The whole area was definitely upscale, clean, with tons of restaurants and shopping.

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