“He isn’t an eligible player! He’s not a Good Sam member!” The captain of one of the teams in the beanbag baseball final was crying foul. The beanbag baseball tournament was the featured event at the Samboree. After the admission of non-membership, play was stopped and a meeting ensued as the rain pounded the metal roof of the pavilion turned sports arena. Ultimately, the team with the non-Good Sam member forfeited and the game halted declaring the remaining team the winner. “Really!?”, I thought? “You have one big hallmark event for the weekend and you cancelled it on a minor technicality?” I had left Chinctoteague and some of the best fishing and crabbing I’d ever experienced there for this!?
The infamous beanbag baseball event occurred in 2010 at the Harrington, Delaware fairgrounds. The Samboree was our second organized RV rally and we were talked in to attending by friends. When I had first heard the term RV Rally the Samboree was exactly what I pictured: A bunch of old people milling about playing things like shuffleboard. No thanks. If this had been our first encounter, we’d probably never have gone to another but thankfully it wasn’t.
Rewind another couple years to 2008. We owned our first motorhome which was our little 23′ Itasca Navion. Itasca, being a Winnebago brand (think Ford and Mercury), made us eligible to attend Winnebago’s Grand National Rally (GNR) 1 held near the factory in Forest City, Iowa. The Itasca Navion and Winnebago View has always had a very loyal ownership base and, even back then in the very beginning, it was a tight-knit community. Normally GNR attendees were parked by state row but sometimes exceptions were granted. We petitioned Winnebago and were given our own row. Fully expecting a week of beanbag tossing and bocce ball, we sent a big check to the Winnebago/Itasca Travelers and set out for Iowa in mid-July.
Driving from Pennsylvania to Iowa is not necessarily the most exciting venture unless you like Interstate 80. We watched roadside billboards go from advertising the benefits of clean coal and natural gas in Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, to the wonders of corn-based ethanol as we made it further west. At some point in Indiana or Illinois, I-80 simply turns into a road through the corn. Roadsides became points of interest because otherwise the view was . . . corn. I remember seeing a blue “local interest” sign advertising a radio station where one could tune to acquire local tourist information. We didn’t bother tuning in but I could only imagine what it would say. “To your left there is corn. To your right there is corn.”
Somewhere in Iowa, we departed I-80 and headed south. As we did, we caught a big “Ice Cream” sign on a local business. Ice cream sounded good and we decided to pull in and refuel ourselves and our motorhome. While I was scraping the cup of the last bits of mint chocolate chip, a beat up old farm truck pulled in with home-made plywood sides on the bed. Written on the plywood in spray paint was the words “Sweet Corn”. As soon as the truck stopped it was set upon by a waiting crowd. The scene reminded me of a shoobie sitting down in their beach chair with a cardboard tray of Boardwalk Fries and being pounced on by the laughing gulls. After seeing nothing but corn along the highway for the better part of a day we decided to get some.
If you are from the Midwest and easily offended please skip ahead to the next paragraph. Being from South Jersey which is known for sweet corn and tomatoes, I can tell you that we wouldn’t have even fed that Iowa “sweet corn” to our cows. It was tough, chewy, and very salty. We even tried some from a different farm later in case we just got a bad batch the first time. All the same. Yuck.
Moving on, we finally made it to the Winnebago rally grounds near the factory. The reception was rather grand. We entered the grounds cruising between rows of RVs and equipment along with banners welcoming us. There was a great hubbub of people but the event was well organized and we were checked in, given a packet and a briefing, and directed to follow our parking escort. It was kind of exciting to see all those motorhomes (all Winnebago made at the time) and then to finally arrive at a row filled with Views and Navions. Our escort guided us to our spot which was a section of the grassy field with a power pole. It was a bit sloped so they left to retrieve some hunks of wood for us to use to level. We would have our own electricity hookup for the week and would share hoses with nearby friends to fill our freshwater tank from the end-of-row spigot as needed.
Once setup, our plan was to walk around and get oriented with our nearby friends and the grounds in general. But Mother Nature had another plan. As we extended our slide out, and shifted our RV from travel mode to camping mode, I looked out the window and noticed a thick black cloud headed our way. It got darker and darker like the start of a coming apocalypse. Suddenly the sky turned green! Here we were right in the middle of an open field in the middle of Tornado Alley. I grabbed the wad of paperwork we were given at check-in and frantically looked for “storm shelter” finally tracking down the information. “In the event of severe weather, the cement bath houses are storm shelters”. I think there were 2 or 3 bathhouses. I looked around at the 1300 or so RVs around us and realized, if needed, it would be a tight fit. Hopefully everyone had small lunches. Fortunately, it rumbled for a bit and the wind blew but the skies quickly brightened and cleared. Phew.
After catching up with friends, we hopped on one of the shuttle buses provided by Winnebago to tour the town and see where things were. It turned out that the metropolis of Forest City, Iowa is neither a forest nor a city. The area is mostly open fields and the “tour” of town took all of 5 minutes. The driver asked if we wanted to loop around the factory and we all agreed. It took longer to drive the factory than the whole town! Winnebago definitely has a captive workforce. It is the quintessential mid-western small town.
Upon our return from the bus tour, I reviewed the agenda for the week. I had no expectations of the rally being anything I would enjoy and intended to spend most of the time hanging out with the View/Navion crowd but the agenda showed promise. There were vendors one could shop and schedule service with, lots of informative discussions from experts on both RVing in general and our rigs and equipment. There were also fun activities listed and some pretty good music and entertainment planned for the evenings. Winnebago also had all the new models available to check out. There were several meals provided by both Winnebago and the local RV dealer who had close ties to our View/Navion group.
Some of the highlights from the week that stick with me all these years later included the state row parties where each state row had a table or gathering point featuring things from their state. Participants walked from state to state enjoying food, wine, products, and games highlighting the best of each state. It was a great idea and a fun experience and very informative. It turns out North Dakota has more than prairie grass and snow. Who knew?
Another highlight was the motorhome backing contest. In this event, one partner was blindfolded and put behind the wheel of a full-sized Winnebago-provided Class A motorhome. The other partner was given a radio to guide the driver back into the campsite. The site was depicted by an array of traffic cones. Results were entertaining and eye opening. One couple featured the wife directing the husband back and they whipped that big RV into the spot in a few seconds without hitting a single cone. Another couple hit nearly every cone with the partner on the radio eventually giving up and saying “Just come on back.”
Another humorous moment was at one of the free ice cream events. Bear in mind the free ice cream, were just the little dixie cups like we had as kids. You remember: they came with the little double ended wooden paddle to eat it with. It was rather funny watching the older retired couples leave their expensive diesel pushers and get in line one behind the other with both asking for an extra ice cream “for their spouse”.
Perhaps the most cool event of the week was the Winnebago factory tour. To say it was impressive is an understatement. At the time I thought it was the apex of RV building with 3 big assembly lines with miscellaneous chassis rolling along getting parts added as they went. Manufacture of wood, fiberglass, and plastic panels, parts, furniture, etc. was all in house done by skilled hands and state of the art equipment. Everything was serialized and placed on the appropriate assembly line to be installed as the specific unit came through. All these years later, it was still impressive, but I realize now that when an installer has a minute or two to install a roof vent and fan and if something goes wrong, oh well. The dealer can fix it under warranty later. This is “lean manufacturing”.
That first rally all those years ago passed by really quickly. We spent the week talking to old friends, making new ones, learning about our little RVs, getting service done from Winnebago and the myriad of vendors present, and shopping from many others. We were entertained by some really good bands and other entertainers in the evening. I remember feeling like I was part of something and a bit sad at week’s end when it was time to start the long journey home. We held on to the camaraderie of the rally for a few miles on the highway as we encountered other departing RVs with their WIT license plates, passing each other with a friendly wave. Eventually the corn-lined highway sucked us in and the magic of the rally ended and we were just normal people again.
- The GNR is now known as Camp Winnebago ↩︎
Bring it On 