From Georgia to Florida

Well we had a great time at the Family Motor Coach Association Rally in Perry Georgia and now we are on our way to the Freightliner Chassis Owners Club Rally at Lazy Days near Tampa Florida.

There were a total of 3,297 coaches at the FMCA rally, including the exhibitor coaches and all of the attendees. That was a pretty nice turn out in these economic times, but the fuel prices being low was a great help I am sure.

We volunteered for early security at the rally, that was very nice, we arrived 2 days earlier and were able to park closer to the exhibits and seminars, so that was nice and we worked our security shifts prior to the start day of the rally.

We attended all of the seminars we wanted, and visited all of the vendor booths. We saw a lot of people we had met at some of the other rallies we have attended, and we met some new people too.

FCOC had a rally scheduled in Florida and we had not planned to attend, but since we were all so busy at the FMCA rally, we decided to go to this rally also. We will have more time to visit with some of our friends there in Florida as this is a much smaller group. We attended one of these rallies in Illinois last year and we had a great time, so I am sure that we will enjoy this one too.

We have an appointment on April 7th in Gaffney SC for an oil change and lube for our motor home, so will have more than enough time to get there. Then we have friends we plan to visit in North Carolina.

Arlington TX to Perry GA

We spent two days at a nice campground, Treetop RV Park, in Arlington TX, we found an Elks Lodge about a mile up the street from us. We went in there and had a couple of drinks, everyone was very nice there, Joe found out they had a golf course, so of course he had to play golf too.

We went to Stockyard Station in Fort Worth, and had a good time there. Nice shopping area, old restored buildings, restaurants and saloons. We had lunch there at H3 Ranch a nice restaurant in a beautiful hotel in the center of this old town.

Then about 4 pm they close off part of the street and have a "longhorn cattle drive" go through town for all of the tourists to watch. That was a lot of fun.

We headed out the next day to continue our journey to Georgia.

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We left Texas after what seemed like a month, Ha Ha !!

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This is a picture of the sun setting in our mirror as we leave Texas, on our last night in this big state.

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Went into Shreveport Louisiana and stayed at Barksdale AFB for 3 nights, they have a good fam camp there and the price was right at just 14.00 per night. We went out to eat, and Joe had to have Gumbo since we were in Louisianna. In fact he ate Gumbo everywhere we went, 4 times in all.

We stayed at an Ameristar Casino in Vicksburg Mississippi the next night, that one was a little more costly, especially if you count the money we spent at the casino. They did give us a free breakfast the next morning though. Ha Ha

Our next stop was at Maxwell AFB near Montgomery Alabama for one night then headed for the fam camp at Fort Benning Georgia.

This campground is called Uchee Creek Campground, Ft Benning and is, 75 campsites, 45 cabins, all in the forest. This was a great place and we wanted to stay for 4 nights, but we got an email asking us to volunteer at the rally we are going to, so we cut our stay down to only 2 nights.

We have now arrived in Perry Georgia on March 12th and will be a part of the early security crew here at the rally. We are looking forward to this next week, lots of fun and lots to learn.

Traveling toward Georgia

We left Southern California at about 1pm on the Friday the 27th of February, our first day took us to Phoenix Arizona. We spent the night at a Flying J Truck Stop and then called our friend Gina Minkin (Kyle's wife), she was happy to hear from us and we met her at a restaurant for lunch. It was great seeing her and hearing about Kyle's daughters Fallon and Kayleen, they each have a baby now, so we saw pictures and enjoyed our visit with Gina.

Then we were off again, to Lorsburg New Mexico this time, we stayed at another Flying J and met a couple in a motor home from Canada. They told us to make sure check out Old Town Mesilla near Las Cruces NM. We took their advise and drove there that day, we parked the coach at a Truck Stop in Las Cruces, and unhooked the car to drive the short distance to Mesilla, this place was well worth the stop, beautiful place, well restored buildings, cute little shops and a great Mexican restaurant.

We were here for 3 hours, and then hooked the car back up and headed for Pecos TX to spend yet another night parked in a Flying J Truck Stop. Then got up early Monday, had breakfast, and headed out to see how far we could get through Texas. We stopped at Weatherford Texas for the night (at a Pilot Truck stop this time - we wanted a change -Ha Ha).

We had to check on getting our window tint on the car replaced on three windows, so stopped in Arlington Texas (near Fort Worth) to see if we could get the work done. Well, we found that they use a different type of film here, so Saturn of Wichita (where we bought this Aura in Sept '08) is checking on where we can get this done on our way to Georgia, or after the rally. We may decide to stay here in Arlington for a night or two to relax a little.