FMCA RV Rally

This is the FMCA 81st International Convention sign..the Great GA Getaway in Perry, GA

The official FMCA seal.

Yep, here we are....some of the YOUNGEST attendees!! People using things from "The Scooter Store" were everywhere, along with Segways, electric 2 wheel scooters, golf carts and bikes. Buddy and I relied on our feet....or we caught the tram.

Note that we're wearing our official nametags. The brown ribbon on the bottom let everyone know that we were first timers and was their clue to welcome us and offer any help or directions that we might need. The yellow ribbon below it said that we were volunteers.

The rally was held at the agricultural center and fair grounds in Perry....that's why the statue of the mule was there. Although mules probably did pull some of the first "RVs" or was that a covered wagon?

This is one of the trams.....and what I volunteered to ride in as a guide or aide. My first tour of duty was Sunday afternoon. It was very cold and rained the entire time. Water would pool up on the top until it became too heavy or we hit a bump and then it would pour off and the wind would blow it in all over you. I called our friends to bring me another poncho which was big and really helped. Buddy's phone was in his pocket and never worked again...it got too wet. The trams were really necessary to get people that were parked in the very back up to the convention areas.

I know this picture isn't very good but it shows some of the rows and rows of RVs.

Here is another row of RVs....somehow I never got a picture made of where we parked but it looked just like this one. The tow cars went up and down the aisles ....mud was everywere.

These three pictures were emailed to us by our friends that attended too. This is a view of our row of RVs. Ours is the tan and white one that is second from the left. I always thought it was huge but looking at it parked next to the others I realized it was actually much smaller. Our friends were parked to our right.

It rained the first 4 days that we were there. This is a large puddle of water we had to wade though near our coach. We were so thankful when the sun came out on Tuesday and things began to dry out.

Being a kindergarten teacher I've really learned how to tie shoes well.


I wish you could see these fans....they were in the cattle barns where some of the seminars were held. They had 10 blades and were called "BIG ASS" fans.

Buddy and I recently went on a trip in our RV to an International FMCA RV rally. It's something that he's always wanted to do and I was happy to travel along with him. FMCA means Family Motor Coach Association and to be a member you have to have to have a vehicle that is "self-contained" to camp in. In other words, you have to be able to drive the thing. So, no pop-ups, trailers or fifth wheels. Buddy's parents owned several RVs over the years and attended quite a few of these rallys. Actually, this one ended up with a somewhat smaller attendance...there were only around 3000 RVs there...down from the 5000 or so that they usually have in attendance. But, since this was my first exerience, I was pretty impressed at the number of coaches there. We belong to FMCA National but we don't belong or camp with a local club in our home state.

We caravaned down with friends who had been before. They had talked us in to being volunteers....assured us that we'd have more fun being involved! And they were right. The four of us were assigned to "Tram duty". We had 2 assigned 4 hour shifts of riding on the trams.

Ok, I guess you're wondering why anyone would want to go to one of these rallys. Well, lots of the folks travel with their local FMCA chapters so there were groups of RVs that entered together and camped near each other and were friends. There were seminars you could attend teaching you everything you might want to know about RVing...from being full timers to caring for your electrical systems. There were craft activities too....bead making, painting, basket making, quilting to name a few. Then there were several buildings full of venders selling just about anything you might need...and a few you probably never thought of. Have you ever seen "sticky feet" shoes?? It's sort of like Post-it note glue on a shoe sole that you just step on and it sticks to the bottom of your feet...over and over again. No, I didn't buy any but I know where you can get some if you're interested! There were also RV dealers that brought in lots of the newest RV coach models from the very small to some that were worth over 2 million dollars.

We had a lot of fun...and I'd probably do it again. But I enjoy camping with our regular camping club the best. We typically camp with a group of people that are from another camping club about once a month during the nice months. They are called FCRVers....which means Family Campers and RVers. They are more family friendly and kids and grandkids are welcomed. And you can camp in anything from a tent, a trailer, fifth wheel, pop-up or RV. We've made a lot of good friends there.