Chris & Cherie | The Phase Place

Today was the opening day for the 54th Escapade, the 6th time the Escapade has been held at the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds. This is our third Escapade. Our first was in 2010 at this same fairgrounds and our second was last summer at the CAM-PLEX in Gillette, Wyoming. The opening ceremonies were held at 3:00 PM, but there were things going on starting early in the day.

The 54th Escapade banner displayed in the hospitality area.

Parking for arriving rigs resumed at 8:00 AM and the registration and vendor areas opened at 9:00 AM. The vendor area also included “The Row” where the SKP Chapters and C-BOFs have tables with information about their groups. A group of musicians who like to jam gathered at 1:00 PM to do their thing. The speakers and seminar hosts also gathered at 1:00 PM for an orientation meeting. First time attendees gathered at 2:00 PM for the first-timers orientation. On our walk over we ran into Chris Dunphy and Cherie Ve Ard, of Technomadia / Two Steps Beyond, who were headed to the 1st-timers orientation. We knew they arrived yesterday because they checked-in to the Escapade on RVillage, but we had not yet located their converted bus. It turned out that they were parked fairly close to us on the other side of the fence surrounding the infield, but obscured from our view by low trees.

Most of the attendees gathered at 3:00 PM for the opening ceremonies, which started with a video on Escapees RV Club founders Joe and Kay Peterson followed by two “blast off” door prize drawings for $500 cash each. The local American Legion chapter provided a color guard, after which we were all welcomed and received a lot of information about the upcoming week. The opening ceremonies concluded with the Chapter, C-BOF, and SKP CO-OP parade of banners. We photographed as much of this activity as we could.

Immediately following the opening ceremonies the attendees went to the ice cream social in the Heritage Park green space just outside the assembly hall to enjoy a free ice cream bar, courtesy of FCIS Insurance. We photographed the crowd enjoying their ice cream and then headed over to the other end of the building where Paul Everts RV Country was hosting their 4:00 PM happy hour. Free wine and beer (on tap), and chili covered corn chips, make for a fairly happy hour. We each had a small glass of wine and a few chips, sans chili.

We went back to our coach and off-loaded photos to our computers and transferred them to our flash drives. Butch came over and we connected his radiator pressure tester to our Aqua-Hot, which appears to have a leak, and pressurized the system to 17 PSI. We had to get our photos over to Lou before the evening activities, so we left the pressure tester hooked up to be checked later. We skipped dinner because the heat and humidity had subdued our appetites and dropped our flash drives off en route to the evening door prize drawing and entertainment. We got there early to see the slide show Lou had put together from photos that he, Sue, Linda, and I had taken on Saturday and Sunday.

Drawings for door prizes started at 7:00 PM. We did not win anything but did try to capture a few photos of the drawings and prize winners. At 7:30 PM Johnny Counterfeit and his three-piece band took the stage. Johnny impersonates singers, mostly country and country-rock, and mixes in some stand-up comedy. The group was good and Johnny was funny and entertaining. The acoustics were less than ideal, but that is usually the case in the buildings found at county fairgrounds. I tried to get a few photos, but the lighting was also less than ideal, which is usually the case in the buildings found at county fairgrounds. It was also difficult to get close to the stage with a good angle.

We stopped at Lou and Val’s 5th wheel so Lou could capture my photos from my Compact Flash card. Our photographic work done for the day we headed back to our rig and had a light dinner, watched a little TV, checked the weather, and turned in for the night.

The Tin Can Tourists (TCT) winter rally was being held at the Sertoma Youth Ranch about 15 miles southeast of Brooksville, Florida. It started on Thursday, February 20 and was scheduled to conclude on Sunday, February 23. TCT rallies almost always include a public open house. For this rally the open house was Saturday, February 22 from 11 AM to 3 PM.

I left WCRV Resort around 10:15 and took the fast route down US-27 to I-75 and then south to exit 293. From there it was a couple of miles on back roads to get to the Sertoma Youth Ranch. There was a $5 charge to park, which I knew about in advance and gladly paid. This is the second TCT open house that I have attended. Although smaller than their main gathering in May at Camp Dearborn in Milford, Michigan (10 miles from our house) they had good participation with more than 50 rigs. (I could have been as high as 70, but I didn’t count).

There were a few folks there that I knew. Cherie Ve Ard and Chris Dunphy (Technomadia) were there with their 1961 GMC 4106. Forrest and Jeri Bone were there, of course, as Forrest runs the TCT organization and planned the rally. Hunt Jones, who I met at the Arcadia Bus Rally, was there, and so was Al Hesselbart, the historian for the RV/MH Museum in Elkhart, Indiana. I had a brief visit with Al and a longer visit with Chris and Cherie. I learned that the super secret project they are working on (RV social network) is scheduled to “go live” on March 1^st. Assuming that happens, I will have more to say about in my post for that date.

Almost all of the rigs were available for viewing. Some allowed visitors to go inside; others had the door open but blocked so you could see in but not enter. Many of the units were beautifully restored and others were somewhere in the restoration process. Most were “staged” for display with table settings and items arranged on counters. The owners were all very welcoming and enthusiastic about their vintage RVs. I photographed most of them and have include some of those photos in the gallery at the end of this post.44

Al invited me to join him and some friends from Breezy Oaks RV Park for Chinese buffet in Brooksville, but I decided to pass, a combination of still being a bit tired from my long day on Thursday and not wanting to over-eat, which I tend to do at buffets. I left at 3 PM, the end of the public open house, and returned to Williston via US-41, a longer but more scenic and relaxing drive than I-75. I made a sandwich for dinner, caught up on some e-mail, and headed over to the fire pit around 7:15 PM. We had our usual group of 20+ people. John played his guitar and sang, and another man brought his guitar and joined him. There was plenty of singing along, but folks were more conversational than at many of our previous campfires.

Photo Gallery: Click on thumbnail images to open for viewing. Maximum dimension is 640 pixels.

: Entrance sign.

: The entrance to the Sertoma Youth Ranch camping area.

: TCT fills a special niche in the RV world.

: Tehnomadia’s bus – a 1961 GMC 4106.

: Forrest & Jeri Bone’s Spartan trailer. Forrest started and runs the reincarnated TCT.

: Forrest Bone (left) chating with some fellow TCTs.

: Al Hesselbart (seated) listens to an accordian played through a midi synthezier so it sounded like a theater organ!

: This 1965 AirFlot was featured in a TV program on RV makeovers.

: A trailer interior to match any luxury motorhome.

: One of the nicest RV interiors I’ve ever seen.

: Towables come in a wide range of sizes and styles.

: The GMC motorhome was way ahead of its time. Linda and I wanted one years ago but could not afford them even used.

: The classic Airstream trailer.

: Not an Airstream. I had never heard of Silver Streak before seeing this unit.

: A 1953 Pontiac Chief. It’s 45 feet long but designed to be towed with a Pontiac sedan of the same vintage. The rear overhang was longer than some of the small trailers at the rally!

: At the boundary between tent camping and RVing, this Scotty had an outdoor kitchen.

: One of the smallest trailers at the rally. The owner said it was 13 feet long, but it didn’t look a foot over 10.

: TCT is not just about vintage RVs. Many rigs are towed by restored cars from the same period.

: Another vintage combo.

: A shiny car to pull a shiny trailer.

: Hunt Jones’ classic Airstream and pickup truck.

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2014/02/22 (S) Tin Can Tourists Rally