My first RV Rally (180)

We have joined several RV organizations, but had never attended a rally. What exactly is a rally? That’s what we wanted to find out!

When we purchased our Newmar Bay Star, we joined the Newmar Kountry Klub at the same time. That’s the Newmar organization that plans rallies. Rallies can be organized around a local chapter, a state, area (group of states), or International attendance.

A local chapter, the California 49ers, were holding a rally in the Sierra foothills a couple hours away from us, so we thought we’d check it out.

Unfortunately, a couple days before the rally, Deb couldn’t make it, so I had to decide to attend alone or forfeit the cost of the rally (about $400). While attending alone was definitely outside my comfort zone, so was losing out on something I had already paid for, so I chose to go it alone!

I had a nice drive there and was set up in my site a few hours before the rally began. A chapter is the smallest segment of the club, so I was surprised to see about 40 motorhomes there ahead of me at the Black Oak RV Park in Tuolumne, CA. It’s a very nice park.

There was a full itinerary, that included meals, seminars, social time, and a few local excursions. Sounded like fun.

I arrived a little late to the first event, a social hour before dinner. I registered and received a goodie bag, and found a seat around one of the many tables.

I was warmly greeted and I could tell right away that this was a good group. A bunch of friendly people that enjoyed RVing and being around others that did too.

Over the course of 3 days, we shared many meals together, played a few games, enjoyed a few seminars related to our excursions, and had plenty of time to talk about RVing.

One of the things I liked is that everyone signed up to help with the meals that were not catered. I find it easier to get to know people when you share an activity like that. I signed up to help with a breakfast and ended up cutting fruit and making pancakes with a group of about 8 others.

One couple was interested in buying a Bay Star, and so they came over for a tour of my RV. Most (80%) of the motorhomes were large diesel pushers, so it was fun to talk to someone wanting to downsize into a gasser.

We had two excursions. One to Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, and one to see a local production of Little Shop Of Horrors (which I didn’t attend but heard it was great).

We had a large enough group that at Railtown we had the train and tour to ourselves.

I really enjoyed the tour, which included the roundhouse and the train barn. So much history going back to the gold rush.

In addition, over 200 movies and TV shows have been filmed there, including Back to the Future and the Petticoat Junction. This is the train used in those films, though it’s currently undergoing major refurbishment and will be out of commission a couple years. The directors loved the relatively small size (66 tons) of the locomotive.

I loved this machine room. All equipment was driven by belts from a single motor at the back of the room. Probably NOT OSHA compliant these days!!

We also enjoyed a short train ride through the motherlode. You could look out the window to see where gold was first discovered in the area.

Near the RV Park is Covers Apple Ranch. If in the area, this is a must stop for the great bakery items of all things apple. Yum!

I enjoyed attending the rally and hope to include more in the future. It turns out I was not the only person attending by myself. There were a few others without spouses who liked attending for the friendships they had made over the years.

I could see this as a good way to explore an area and make or renew friendships at the same time.

I appreciate all the folks who made my first RV rally a positive experience.

Al

Note that a couple photos were captured by other attendees and posted to the Facebook group.