|
Angela, Harley, and I talked, ate, laughed, and just generally had a blast for our four days at the Mid-Atlantic Truck Camper rally. Here’s what was so fun, and funny. ... ... ... ... ... ...
Thank you Ron and Michelle Humphress for hosting what was my favorite Mid-Atlantic Truck Camper Rally yet. It just gets better and better every year. Once again, you guys did an outstanding job. Thank you!
For my rally report this year, I wrote a more personal account of my experience. That means more of my twisted humor and odd ball observations. Yes, in the true spirit of the Mid-Atlantic Truck Camper Rally, I had some fun writing this rally report.
Rally Within A Rally
Every year the North-East Jamboree clan celebrates the first rally of the year with a rally within a rally. This is a must attend event where old friends and new friends gather for food, drink, and good conversation.
The hit of this year’s North-East Jamboree rally within a rally was Anne and Joe Brown’s brand new 2011 Chalet DS116 parked right next to all the revelry. They had just purchased the camper from Bill Penney at Truck Camper Warehouse. Anne and Joe had Bill sworn to secrecy about the new camper so it would be a big surprise at the rally. This camper give new meaning to big surprise. I lost count how many people toured their new camper.
Mikeee Fire Starter
Some guys just can’t wait for lighting to strike. Rubbing two sticks together is too much work. The flint can’t be sparked fast enough. Magnifying glasses are too heavy to hold. Matches are passe. And lighters are just so obvious. No Bic is chic.
Now we may or may not be talking about Mike Tassinari, aka Mikeee (he obviously owns stock in the letter ‘e’), and the Chief, Cook, and WagonMaster of the North-East Jamboree. To start his Jamboree “campfire”, Mikeee brought out a TurboTorch TX504 self-lighting propane gas hand torch with patented swirl combustion, trigger lock, and heavy duty piezo ignitor. This is the kind of guy who goes fishing with dynamite. Don’t get me wrong. Next time I need to start a fire, or catch a fish, I’m calling Mikeee. He’ll get it done.
Palomino Party of Five
During our industry tour last year, we encouraged the industry to attend more rallies. Gene Cronin, National Sales Manager for Palomino RV, clearly took it to heart and drove his entire sales team 729 miles from Colon, Michigan in a convoy of Palomino truck campers. They brought two pop-ups and two hard sides including a new Bronco Max.
Before you think the Palomino team was there just to sell campers, think again. These guys came to party and have fun. Angela and I spent a few hours with them around the fire laughing as they gave each other an increasingly hard time, about everything, and anything, as good friends like to do. I could start a sitcom with this crew.
The rally was the first time some of the guys had camped in a truck camper. This gave us the idea to do a story with them on their experience. What was their experience like? Did they learn anything about their products? We’ll have that story in the next few weeks.
Flying High Above the Rally
ABOVE: Look closely to the left of the Palomino campers and above the Lance Campers and tent and, what’s that? !t’s a bird! It’s a plane. Nope, it’s just a helicopter.
How can you have a truck camper rally without a helicopter? Flying high above the rally on Friday, rally attendees were enjoying the views of the festivities below. I’m sure we all looked like little ants.
To the best of our knowledge, MATCR 2011 is the first truck camper rally in the history of the solar system to feature helicopter rides. It’s going to be tough to top this next year. I’m thinking hot air balloon for 2012.
ABOVE: These photographs were taken by Morris Arvey. Thank you, Morris!
ABOVE: These photographs were taken by Bruce Scott. Thank you, Bruce!
Friday Night Island Party
On Friday night, Outdoor Express RV sponsored a Hawaiian Luau complete with island music and fruity drinks. This was something different for the rally and, as you can see in the pictures, it was a huge success.
Now what you can’t see in these pictures is that a cold front had moved in sometime in the late afternoon putting a chill on our otherwise warm Friday. Throughout the campground, shorts and T-shirts were giving way to jeans and sweatshirts. Did that stop the Hawaiian shirts, sandals, and leis from coming out to play? No way Jose. This is one crowd that likes to party. Look out limbo. How low can you go?
Never to miss a good party, William Hill of Lance Campers (top left) was there giving away Lance branded ceramic mugs, travel mugs, shirts, and hats at the Luau. One lucky rally attendee won a Lance ice chest, two Lance jackets, Lance mugs, and Lance pens. What? No Lance boxers or briefs? Maybe next year.
Happijac Seminar
Early Saturday morning, the cinderblock building began to fill for Happijac’s product seminar. Don Payne, Happijac’s Product Manager, had flown in from the factory and was eager to present to the rally attendees and answer their questions.
This kind of interaction is incredibly important as it allows for industry and consumer to exchange ideas, information, questions, and concerns. In response to questions from the audience, Don gave some very straight answers including solutions for repairs and maintenance. Don was also quick to admit when he didn’t know the answers and directed folks to call Happijac for more detailed technical support.
Many of the points Don brought up were touched upon in an article we did with Don in 2008 titled, “Meet Don Payne: Happijac’s New Product Manager”. If you have questions about Happijac products, start there.
Panoramic Pals-a-Plenty
We had the pleasure of meeting Benoit Sanfacon, an enthusiastic champion of truck campers from Quebec, Canada. Benoit showed me this amazing app on his iPhone 4 that allows him to take a series of pictures along a horizontal or vertical plane that are then instantly stitched into a single image. My first thought was, “Damn, this guy has something cooler than I do”. My second thought was, “We need to do this for the interior of campers”. My third thought was, “I wonder if I can talk Benoit into sending me these pictures for TCM”.
While I didn’t tell Benoit about my first thought, the responses to the second and third questions were an an immediate, “Yes!” and “Yes!”. Like I said, very enthusiastic. Even better, Benoit followed up and sent his panoramic pictures as you can see throughout this article. We need more positive people like Benoit in the world.
Click on the panoramic photos below to make the thumbnails larger. They are so cool!
And just when I thought we had all the panoramic pictures this Publisher could possibly procure, Bruce Scott sent in his own pretty panoramic picture. Thank you Benoit and Bruce for widening our views of the rally. I’d complement you further, but that would be really stretching it.
All Aboard With Skip and Linda
On Saturday afternoon, Skip and Linda Bosley were holding court by the water, just to the starboard of their trusty Lance 1121. Skip and Linda are about as friendly and generous as they come and, naturally, the entire rally seems to know them as dear friends.
We threw a slippery sphere of yellow dog saliva (there was a ball in there somewhere) for their trusty four legged companion Marley, talked sailing, John Lennon, and a few other subjects not entirely fit for print. These are the moments that make the Mid-Atlantic Truck Camper Rally much more than the sum of it’s parts. The community, and the characters that make it, are truly treasures.
When Don Payne stopped by, Skip introduced himself and proceeded to pull Don aside for some insights and suggestions on Happijac products. I couldn’t quite hear what Skip was saying, but I’m sure Don got some helpful ideas.
Above: Skip and Linda's dog Marley in their Lance 1121
The Storm Approaches
All day Saturday, the entire rally was buzzing about the approaching storm. Since it’s 2011, folks were bringing up weather radar and reports on their iPhones, Droids, and Blackberries. God forbid we ever get beyond cell phone internet range. Oh the horror.
By late afternoon, the storm clouds grew dark and ominous and the winds began to howl. Angela, Harley, and I howled back as we dropped our camper jacks for stability. We even cleaned up the camper just in case we needed to make a hasty exit. Of course where would we go that wasn’t also in the raging throws of mother nature? Anxiously I pondered this thought and hit reload, reload, reload on my computer’s weather radar. By dusk, there was a red tornado warning box edging over us. Yikes.
On the other hand, it was time for the “big do” under the tent. Be damned red tornado box, there’s hors d’oeuvres (horse-doovers as my dad calls them) and endless delicious deserts to devoured, friends to be mingled, and Ron’s annual spectacular of bounty, loot, plunder, spoils, and swag (those be prizes and give-aways for ye non-pirates). It’s like Truck Camper Christmas, on steroids.
Now you can’t let a little weather keep you from the biggest truck camper evening this side of the Rockies, can you? We have to go. It’s a truck camping imperative. Take care of the camper Harley, we’ll be back in a few hours. Hop in the fridge if it gets nutty.
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Storm?
On the way to the main event, we learned that the night’s festivities had been moved from the big tent to the cinderblock walled building. One look at the tent told the tale. The weather was doing it’s best to huff, and puff, and blow that tent down.
How many truck camping fans can you fit into a medium sized cinderblock building? At least a hundred and fifty. Whatever the head count was, there were a lot of people under that roof. It was standing room only and everyone was talking, laughing, and hungry. That’s a good thing as you’re about to learn.
The sheer volume of food on display inside that concrete bunker was something to behold. The instructions given to the attendees was bring an hors d'oeuvre or a desert. Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that Ron and Michelle seemed to be missing a course or two. Even with this intentional oversight, all of the food groups, and a few it actually might take a rocket scientist to identify, seemed to be represented. Angela and I ate our faces off, and then went back for brownies.
Tradition Calls
The whole time we’re in the pavilion the Mid-Atlantic faithful couldn’t help but wonder how this evening would progress. The tradition goes like this; on Saturday night we gather under the tent, we eat under the tent, and then Ron and Michelle give away lots of stuff under the tent. The prizes were already under the tent. We were still in the concrete building. How is this going to work?
Clearly the tradition was tugging hard at Ron as he eventually called us all under the tent for the prize drawing finale. Without hesitation, we all followed Ron through the storm. As Ron led the way, the rain seemed to part and the wind subsided. Finally, there we were, under the tent. All would now be right with the rally. Or so we hoped.
The weather started getting rough. The tiny tent was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless Ron, the rally would be lost, the rally would be lost!
Seriously, Ron was trying to read the tiny tickets with little more than some colorful mood lighting and a flashlight. Without a sound system, Ron had to shout the six number ticket winners over the increasingly agitated storm. I was standing in the back of the tent and could hardly hear him, much less understand six numbers.
Then the unmistakable bright blue flashes of lightning in the distance brought the night to a hasty close. After all, there were two metal poles in the middle of this tent just begging to make the East Coast truck camping community that much smaller (or at least give us all some smoking new hairdoos). To cheers from everyone, Ron asked us all to safely and quickly return to our campers. Bravo Ron. That was one Mid-Atlantic night none of us will soon forget.
Here Comes the Flood
To be completely honest, the big storm was a bit of a let down. We had some strong winds (who doesn’t), a brief period of pounding rain, and some decent lightning and thunder. It’s not that I wanted a bigger storm, but it didn’t seem to measure up to all the hype.
Or did it? It seems that sometime shortly after midnight the water started to rise, and rise, and rise. Dog bowls, plastic flamingos, and casually discarded adult beverage containers were swept away, never to be seen from again. The water line on our tires and the tires of our fellow neighbor campers was about six to eight inches high. The way I see it, we were briefly the proud Publishers of Truck Marine Magazine. Obviously I can publish that magazine in my sleep as that’s exactly what I did.
ABOVE: Taken from the rear door of Catherine Porrer's Eagle Cap camper around 1:00am. The surge protector is totally immersed in the water.
The Goodbye Breakfast
The next morning brought back the warm sun that we so enjoyed on Friday. As everyone hatched from their camper nests, the line began to form for the Sunday breakfast sponsored by Tall Pines Harbor and Xtreme Campers (soon to be joining TCM).
Breakfast this year was excellent with french toast, pancakes, sausage patties, and scrapple. Now if you don’t know what scrapple is, here’s a definition from a Philadelphia suburbs born and raised (that’s me). It’s what’s on the floor of the slaughter house swept up and squeezed into a cube, then sliced, and pan fried. It’s delicious with a slathering of syrup. Sounds nasty right? Yes, it is. And yet, it’s a favorite of mine, in “healthy” moderation. Hey, I was brought up eating this stuff. It’s not my fault.
The Big Do, Part Two
No one was going home until Ron had given away every single prize. Come “H-E-double-hockey-sticks” or high water, those prizes were going home with rally attendees. You didn’t think we were all there just to have fun, did you?
To begin the ceremony, Ron once again gathered up under the big tent and began drawing numbers. As is part of the tradition, Ron and Michelle had their children and their friend’s children running the prizes out to the lucky winners. Child labor laws evidently allow an exception for truck camper rallies. At least that’s what Ron told me.
As the numbers were called, I walked around the tent just to soak in the wonderful community of friends one more time. Charlie Sheen would have been thrilled. Nearly everyone was, “Winning” and “Winning” again. I was just happy to be there, in that moment, with so many good friends.
ABOVE: Harley is unsure about meeting Taz McDonald.
The Party’s Over
It’s really hard for me to leave the Mid-Atlantic every year. As I watch the truck campers leave one by one, I get this sad and sinking feeling. I would get a similar feeling at the end of every semester in college as my friends would finish their exams and leave for home, before me.
ABOVE: Anne and Joe Brown leaving the rally in their new Chalet DS116 double slide.
Why does the party have to end? Why can’t we all just stay in our beautiful Mid-Atlantic world and hang out together? Come on everybody, let’s just stay and have some more fun!
I’m sure that sounds silly, sappy, or even immature to some folks, but the camaraderie and spirit of the Mid-Atlantic Truck Camper Rally is truly incredible. Other rallies have their own amazing qualities, but nowhere else are there this many truck campers in one place at one time. For my truck camping life, this is home. It’s truly special.
Electrons on screens may be consuming every aspect of our lives, but they will never replace in person human interaction. That may sound funny coming from someone who makes his living with electrons on screens, but this is just a mere representation of what’s real. The time we spend with our truck camping family at the Mid-Atlantic is very real and we treasure and savor every moment of it.
We miss you guys. Take care this season and live your truck camping experiences to the fullest. We’ll see you next year.
|
