The First South East Truck Camper Rally could not have been better! The weather was beautiful with daytime temperatures in the 70's to low 80's and night time was in the 60's and just cool enough for a fire in the evening! We were thrilled to see that we had 25 truck campers attending this weekend, two other RV styles and four couples (whom are considering TC's) attend the rally.
We arrived on Monday to the campground to find that there were issues with power on some sites and the wireless internet system was down (this is a new campground still trying to get up and running). The campground staff were trying their best to keep up with the influx of registered campers as the week drew closer to the start of the rally... another rally for Good Sam's Citrus County was scheduled to run concurrently with ours and the campground was filled to overflow on non-powered sites.
Our weekend started on Thursday evening with a fireside social with roasted apples for the early bird arrivals, which was about 90% of those registered! Each attendee received a gift bag, which was a shoulder sling back-pack designed with an I-POD accessibility port, filled with information of the local area and Peanut M&M's... mm-mm!
Friday was a relaxed day with a hotdog social sponsored by Lazy Days RV from Seffner and Lance. William Hill, the Lance representative, had his plans dashed for the give away to Lance owners, as the box of Lance coffee mugs he ordered for the rally arrived completely shattered! Only one or two mugs were intact... so, each of the Lance owners should have received their mug in the mail by now. If not... contact William at Lance...
Friday night we had use of the clubhouse for our pot-luck dinner and the food was great! I am not sure if the Jalapeno poppers or the chocolate covered apples were the best! The food was great and I believe everyone ate until full. After the dinner, Randy Fife of Nature Coast RV, gave a Power Point presentation of how he beefed up the suspension on his truck, which included his conversion from a single-wheel truck to a dually... quite interesting. Then there was a somewhat interesting discussion on how not to get towed, problems others have had with different tow services and of the different types of insurance coverage available out there for the truck camper. Sounds like some real nightmares have occurred for those of us unfortunate enough to have broken down with our rigs while traveling... the consensus is that there is no perfect road service provider’s out there for the truck camper.
Saturday most campers went in to Cedar Key to attend the annual seafood festival and many liked the availability of Bobby MaCabe's Two Buccaneer Tours transportation service arranged so they would not have to drive in to town. All I want to know is this... how do you fit several tens of thousands of people on an island where only about 1,200 people live? I don't know but I know that Cedar Key does manage it somehow!
Donny, whom planned to be up to help start the smoker at 4:00 a.m., was surprised to find that, Andy Harmon, our Barbeque Pit Master Extraordinaire and newbie to the truck camper lifestyle, was up at 3:30 in the morning and had it already started. I think Andy did not want Donny to learn his barbequing secrets! By the time most everyone else was up, the mouth watering smells from the Boston Butts and the smoked chicken were permeating the entire campground. It was near torture to have to wait until the late afternoon to start eating the food! Meanwhile in the clubhouse kitchen, volunteers were helping to prep the coleslaw for the dinner…
Tickets for the Chinese Raffle were being placed in the jars starting in the afternoon after the items were placed on display. I can tell you that the hottest items were the set of Torklift Wobbl-Stoppr gift certificate, the pop-up canopy, the tool set and the chocolate gift basket! But, then again, there were several whom were after the collapsible pet carrier, the wicker basket filled with wine and wine glasses and the pot holders hand crafted by Karen Moore. There was very nice selection of raffle items indeed… something for everyone! Randy Shrimplin (Vanna White incognito), was great as he jumped in to help Donny with the handing out of items for the Chinese Raffle. He really helped keep the drawings go fast as the bluegrass band was strumming to get the music started. The bluegrass band was a hit, so much so that there were listeners from the Good Sam’s rally lurking in the shadows cast by our tent… they found out that our rally was by far more fun than their own! We heard whispers that some of the Citrus County Sam’s big-rig diesel pusher owner’s were looking at the truck campers on display and considering converting to our lifestyle! Go Truck Campers!
Sunday morning had some up at 3:30 in the morning to get the Baked Stuffed French Toast in to the oven and others came to the clubhouse kitchen at about 5 to help with the bacon and eggs… coffee was certainly a basic human need at that time of the morning. Breakfast was great but I think next year I will put the men in charge of making it!
After breakfast the truck camper rigs started pulling out and the campground emptied. It was sad to see the rally come to a close as the time at the rally went past in a flash! Thank you to all whom attended as your attendance made this rally a complete success. Special thanks to those whom helped with many of the background chores that needed done, including the packing up at the rally’s close… we could not have done it without you!
Many thanks to our sponsors for everything they did to help us out.
TORKLIFT
NATURE COAST RV & TRAVEL LITE CAMPERS
LAZYDAYS & LANCE CAMPERS
CEDAR KEY RV RESORT
TWO BUCCANEER TOURS
CANTEEN VENDING
RINGLIFT
NATCOA
In closing, and after reviewing the results of the email “satisfaction” surveys, have decided that in spite of the hard work and early mornings, we will be hosting the rally again for the 2nd Annual South East Truck Camper Rally. Location and dates to be announced… we look forward to seeing the many new friends we made over the weekend next year! Until then…
Humbly Submitted,
Lucy and Don Seijas
