Tucson Rally Wrap

The Sunsets and Saguaros Rally is in the rearview mirror and man, it was a fun one!

Like many of you, we were excited and ready for it in March, 2020.  It would have been our first seminar presentation.  I practiced and practiced for weeks on two different topics, boondocking at a rally and using the microconvection oven in the RV.  We were ready.  Even our Marlee dog was ready.

Then the world went crazy.

FMCA quickly regrouped and put together an online rally, complete with seminars.  It took a few days for me to get them right but we added ours to their website.  Boy, were they bad!  I talk fast so I concentrated on slowing down and saying all the words clearly.  In the end, I sounded like a robot.  Even though it was awful, it was good practice and I think it helped get me ready for presenting live in front of people.

We were happy happy when we found out it was back in Tucson for 2022 and prayed that the darn virus wouldn’t derail it again.  We were also happy it was only a 115 mile drive.  That short drive came in handy on Tuesday.

The men and women of the parking crew are the unsung heroes of any rally.  They are a well oiled machine of efficiency and can pivot when needed.  Sunday night a storm rolled in with lots of wind and rain making some of the parking areas muddy.  No problem, they shifted areas and parked people in the less affected lots.  Our dry Arizona weather had those lots dry and ready for parking in no time.

A fellow Tiffin owner set up group happy hours every night and lucky us, he was only two rows away.  It was nice to meet new friends and see our old friends every night.  There were 80 people one night!  Thursday night was a potluck with more food than a Thanksgiving buffet!

After my normal walk/run around the facility, I set to work on my final run-through of our seminar.  This time we presented two cooking seminars, talking specifically about the micro-convection oven, Instant Pot and induction cooktop.  I read through it, checked my timing then started again with the Instant Pot because I wanted to make sure I talked about all the parts and pieces.  My heart stopped.  I didn’t remember loading it IN the RV.  We didn’t bring a car since we weren’t going to need it.  OH NO.  Thank goodness my in-laws were a few campsites away.  I called and asked if I could borrow their Jeep to go home and get the Instant Pot.  Running to the store to get one just for the seminar wasn’t an option because it was the accessories that I wanted to showcase.  I left a little after one and was back before Tucson traffic.  Whew.

My little mishap meant I missed the New Member Orientation and the Chapter Fair.  My in-laws said it was a good turnout for the orientation and there were more chapters represented than last summer in Gillette.  Yeah, we’re starting to get back to normal.  I did, however, make it back in time for the Tiffin happy hour.

A new item this year was the basket silent auction.  The Miracle Mile on Friday raises money for a local charity and now there are TWO events raising money.  All monies raised from the silent auction went to Casa de los Ninos of Tucson.  There were lots of interesting baskets and fabulous “non basket” items in the auction.  We put together one using an ice chest as the basket.  We filled it with items that we talk about at our seminar plus RV related items.

The Magic Mile continues to grow and it makes me smile seeing all the people joining us.  There were many runners and more walkers.  I snapped this picture of these two running and talked to them later.  They are in their late 70’s and seek out “fun runs” wherever they are visiting.  Such a great idea and way to keep moving.  All monies raised from the Magic Mile went to Casa de los Ninos, just like the silent auction.  The grand total for this rally was over $8,000!  That money is going to make a huge difference for the program at Casa de los Ninos.

Also back in full force was the Ice Cream Social featuring ice cream sandwiches and chocolate fudge ice cream bars.  I may have had two ice cream sandwiches.  While everyone was enjoying their cold treat on an unusually warm March day, the Mr. Whiskers contest was held on the Central Park Stage.  It’s always fun to see the different mustaches, goatees and really long full beards each year.

In case ice cream wasn’t enough of a sweet treat, you could enjoy coffee and donuts every morning of the rally!  This year there was quite the selection to choose from, plain glazed or cinnamon or chocolate glazed and even powdered sugar!  This donut loving girl was in heaven!

We walked through every single new RV on display, it was nice to see so many back.  The vendor building was another hopping place where you could get everything your heart desired for your camping life.

Charlsanne Miskel is doing a bang-up job bringing the youth program back to life.  She had activities everyday for the kids including a daily scavenger hunt.  We were on the list one day, we had several kids tap us on the shoulder for a picture so they could check off that item on their list.  She is going to do great things with the FMCA families.

Jim Pelley emceed the nightly entertainment, he is just so funny.  We met up with him early in the week, he and Mark exchanged silly RV jokes.  Mark opens our seminars with a joke, always a bad one and I was hoping he’d use some of Jim’s funny ones.  He opened every night’s entertainment at the rally.  If you ever get a chance to see him, jump at it.

My first ladies luncheon was last summer at the Gillette Rally.  I didn’t want to miss it this time.  Last year we had a writer talk about her experience and how we too could get published.  I was expecting something similar this year.  Little did I know the treat that came after lunch.  A traditional Mexican dance troupe from a local Tucson high school brought the house down with their dancing.  They performed dances from several regions of Mexico, each dance better than the last.  Their costumes were bright, their smiles huge and their feet were in constant motion.  I took 68 pictures and 9 videos and could have doubled that amount.  Living in Arizona, seeing people dance like this isn’t unusual.  The faces of the other ladies around the dance floor told the story of just how awesome this was, getting to share in the culture of these teenagers.

We led two cooking seminars this rally.  One on Wednesday and one on Friday.  As with other rallies, the Wednesday seminar was packed.  Friday was busier than I expected.  We shared tips and tricks for cooking success with the micro-convection oven and the Instant Pot.  New this year was the induction cooktop.  That took some studying on my part since we have a propane cooktop.  I read a lot, watched many YouTube videos and cooked with my fabulous mother-in-law in her RV using her induction cooktop.  Also new this year, we made spinach and artichoke dip in the IP!  We started the class with it and the IP did it’s magic while we talked.  People asked so many good questions in both sessions.  Thursday, several people stopped me to tell me they’d finally used their oven and they didn’t burn the food!  One couple even went to the store to make one of the recipes we shared and were so happy it was a success!  These make my heart smile.

All too soon it was time to pack up and go.  We’ll miss the summer rally in Nebraska.  I’ll live the fun vicariously through the FMCA pictures.  For those going, cheer extra loud for Jim Pelley and have an extra ice cream for me.

We’ll see you in March for the Perry Rally!