FMCA INTERNATIONAL MOTOR COACH CONVENTION IN MINOT, ND

We arrived in Minot, North Dakota for the Family Motor coach Association Convention along with over 4000 other rigs at the North Dakota State Fairgrounds. It was a good facility for the convention with lots of seminar rooms, display area for new RVs and scattered concessions. We gleaned very useful information from the excellent technical lectures there. We also had specific items that we wanted to buy from the 1000 vendors. We were successful there also, obtaining a transformer to boost our power in low amperage parks, a GPS that routes for us and gives spoken driving directions, a defibrillator for sudden cardiac arrest (we believe you can’t be too safe), a bathroom vent fan that automatically closes in case of rain, and minor other items. We were also able to solve some problems with excellent technical advice. We are still working on operating the GPS but it is pretty straightforward.

There was no joy in mudville however. We were parked with about five hundred other rigs in a farmer’s field for overflow. It was pretty bumpy coming in over the plowed furrows but we did have electric power via giant generators. On the third night of the convention, there was a heavy downpour of one-and-a-half inches of rain that turned the field into a sea of mud. The shuttle bus to the convention was no longer able to come in to get us and so we had to walk to the main road to catch it. When it came time to leave, rigs were digging deep ruts in the slick clay-based mud and getting stuck. Tow trucks came in and then got stuck themselves. So we saw a tow truck pulling a tow truck pulling a rig. One small tow truck lifted its front-end high off the ground trying to pull a heavy rig. We patiently waited a couple of days and were able to get out okay by driving on the grass instead of the roads. It also helped that most of the other rigs were out of the way.

We are really glad that we went to the convention but we are also exhausted even though we didn’t attend any of the evening entertainments. We now head for Gillette, Wyoming again for the RVing Women Convention. Zoe is to be the keynote speaker. She will probably hit a day or two at the Freightliner Convention also that is being held before the RVW one. As for me, I’m heading straight for the orthopedic doctor I saw last time and with the help of some X-rays and maybe MRIs find a solution to the pain in my hip and shoulder.