Ang and I arrived at the FMCA rally yesterday morning after a beautiful drive from Harrisburg to Redmond over Hiway 20. The drive ended up being very uneventful, but we were a bit nervous with all of the truck restriction signs during the beginning of the trip. Was it a warning for anything large? A warning because of tight turns and steep climbs? Nah - ended up being just sign of beautiful things to come...

The drive was incredible - awesome enough that Ang stayed awake for most of the trip! Another amazing factoid - we hit the road at 8 am!!! This was truly amazing.

More amazingness on the click...

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Arriving at the FMCA Rally in Redmond was a bit amazing itself. We got in line at the staging area, along with 60-70 other coaches. The line went pretty quickly, and once we were moving in our group, we buzzed along some surface streets to the fairgrounds. To help things along, there were police officers at each corner stopping traffic so the bloated parade of coaches could easily make it to the fairgrounds.

As we closed in on the Deschutes County Fairgrounds, there was much more Wow to be had. We passed by hundreds and hundreds of parked coaches, past the barns and exhibit halls, and out to Parking Area 16. Going over the hill to the parking area met with more deep Wows, as you could see the rooftops of thousands of coaches. Amazing to see all of these beasts in one place.

After getting parked and settled (which means setting up two satellite dishes), we lounged and napped a bit before walking over to Seminar Room 7 in North Sisters for the rv.net forum gathering. Brett and Dianne Wolfe, regular technical contributors to the Class A forum, hosted an informal Q&A session, then munchie and visit time. It was nice meeting them, as well as some of the other rv.net regulars. It was quite funny how the discussion was much like a forum posting, where Brett would be asked a specific question, he would discuss, it would start to go off topic, and he would essentially "post" - "Off Topic - moving to Technology Forum. Back on topic...". He was a great moderator, and extremely knowledgeable about all things diesel and RV.

Today, Monday, was a pretty slow day, as the Rally officially begins tomorrow. After a half day of work, Ang and I headed over to a seminar (we found the shuttle system to be a bit easier on the feet) - me at Diesel 101 and her at Purchasing and Caring for Fine Jewelry. Right after a hot dog and beer(s), we headed over to the opening of the New Coach Display to, again, walk through some beautiful coaches we could not afford

Tomorrow is the official start of the Rally, which means the Hall of Vendors will be open for business, and the list of seminars grows significantly. So, this evening saw us having a nice meal outside, giving Mal a walk around the grounds, and retiring for some Tivo catch-up. We must save ourselves for Seminar and Vendor-gorging tomorrow.

That, and we can't get too burned out. Tony Orlando is the entertainment for Thursday night. Should be a party

--kev