It's A Grand Design Thing

I am so out of practice with this traveling thing. It has been almost a year since I hit the road. Life...and death.... sort of got in the way of the road. Yes, I did drive the new fifth wheel back up to Minnesota, but that was just a cross country dash. I don't think it really counts in the grand scheme of things.

I am the first to admit it – I am a lousy packer. Who else packs a steam iron to go on a weekend trip? I have. I just never seem to get it right. If I am traveling someplace warm and it is minus degrees as I pack, I pack nothing but cold weather clothes and vice versa. This wasn't going to happen to me again – as I got ready for this trip, I packed just about everything in the house. My nice new-to-me spacious, roomy fifth wheel? Not so roomy now. Oh well.

This time I'm traveling with multiple companions. There is, of course, Miko – the dog who loves to be there once we get there but is terrified of riding in a vehicle. Also along for the ride is JoggerCat – my Bengal cat. Jogger is not terrified of riding in the truck – he is just plain ornery and has to yell at me every time the radio comes on or I speak or even if the speed I am traveling down the highway changes. I think I may soon go deaf. He does settle down eventually, at least for a moment or two.

Our first night out, we stay at a Walmart in Ottawa Illinois. I have never been spent the night in a Walmart with such a crowded overnight crowd. I counted 30 semis and about 6 Rvs. Granted about half of the semis were just the truck part, not the trailer part, but they all kept their trucks running all night long. For those people who like to sleep with white noise, this would be Nirvana. I'm not one of those people. I was a little worried about my RV battery. It doesn't seem to be getting charged from the truck as we drive down the road. I keep getting a 'check trailer wiring' message on my truck.

I am heading to Goshen Indiana for the national Grand Design RV Rally. Grand Design is the maker of my fifth wheel. We are at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds where they have crammed in over 500 Rvs. That means that there are probably over 1000 people here. This is not my usual scene here being the quiet, unassuming child that I am. This is my very first RV rally put on by a manufacturer. I'm thinking that there are way too many old people here until I realize that they are all my age. Ouch. But...I'm here for the experience and we shall remain open to the experience.

In the center field of the racetrack

Another section

This was my parking section.  All the other sections were parked all nice and in neat, tidy rows.  

My section was sort of a free for all.

That is Not me in the picture

The first hurdle is parking this rig. They put me on the end of a row but as I'm parking I am blocking the entrance to 'C' section. I am supposed to hurry up and disconnect my truck so all the people that are now waiting to park can get past me. Remember that 'check trailer wiring' message that I was getting. What that meant was that my Fifth Wheel battery was not getting charged as I went down the road. So when I tried to lower my levelers there was not enough battery power to lower them, which meant that I could not disconnect the truck from the trailer which means that that ever growing crowd has to wait to park . Talk about pressure. They had to call a service technician to see if he could help. Evidently there is a wire in Chevy trucks that needs to be hooked up to the truck battery so that the Fifth Wheel battery will charge. He had this fixed in 20 seconds.

The thing about Grand Design Rallies is that you can put in service requests to have items fixed on your rig and in most cases they will fix them free of charge. These are not minor little issues either. Fridge doesn't work? We will replace it for you. Your springs have flattened out? We will put new springs in.

I was a little late to the game – I only had one minor thing that I wanted fixed. One minor thing until I realized what was possible. Even so, I was one of the lightweights in the group as far as maintenance items go. I had the following fixed/replaced

• a brand new water pump -old one wasn't working
• a brand new air doughnut that goes on my hitch
• a brand new solar connector where you plug in your portable solar panels

I probably spent way too much money but I was able to put slide toppers on two of my three slides. I also upgraded my TPMS(Tire Pressure Monitoring System) and bought some SnapPads for my levelers. I had to buy these because they were discounted Rally prices. What else could I do?

The Rally was interesting. There were seminars on RV Life, field trips and I learned a lot just hanging around people's fire pits. Because I was stationary for a week I did a lot of maintenance items that you just never seem to get around to when you move around a lot. I am so very impressed with Grand Design, the products they put out and the service techs. Every single one of those techs from the cute young Amish boys to the roughneck grizzly old rednecks were so incredibly talented, helpful and polite. Although I am a little disappointed that I did not win any of the spiffy door prizes. 

They fed us each night - as I said Masses and Masses of people

A note on the fairgrounds:  The fairgrounds were very much into stuffing jeans and boots with flowers.  They also had mannequins all dressed up in various places.  It was a little disconcerting at times.