Wayside_Wisdom Heard Along the Way
Fall Escapade and New Horizons Owners Rally
From Sunday, September 25 through Thursday, September 29 we were in Du Quoin, Illinois, for Fall Escapade, 2005. The event takes its name from the sponsoring organization, Escapees (SKPs), a national organization R.V.ers. The rally was like a huge support group for the RV lifestyle!
DuQuoin IL State Fairgrounds was home to 755 RVs of every type, size and description and 1511 people of every type, size and description who live in those rigs! Many, if not most, of the attendees live in their RVs full-time on the road so the event was geared to their needs. The overall organization of the event was amazing! There was, however, one inconvenience the planners could not have organized: on Sunday, opening day, as Hurricane Rita made landfall in TX, it rained continuously for 12 hours in IL. As boondockers (dry campers, needing no utility hook-ups), our assigned parking spot was on the infield area of the practice track. We got in without difficulty. Twelve hours of downpour, however, had transformed the area into a swamp! Many late arrivals got stuck on their way in!
During the four days of the event, dozens of educational seminars were offered, with topics ranging from "Adventures in Mexico" to "Women’s Tech Talk"; from "Investments for R.V.ers" to "Star-gazing for Beginners." Bruce learned about "Basic Battery Maintenance," "Emergency Services" and "RV banking tips" among others. Mary Sue spent time in seminars about "Diabetic Meal Planning," "Writing on the Road," and "Habitat for Humanity, Escapees’ Chapter."
In addition to the daily seminars, there was entertainment each evening in the grandstand, a "hospitality center" offering snacks and free coffee; dozens of vendors selling everything RV-related from TV satellite systems to RV insurance and from magnetic "pain relief" jewelry to permanent RV sites in developed communities. There were shiny new motorhomes and fifth-wheels available for sale, motorized scooters, fancy cutlery, books on every aspect of the RV life, T-shirts, name badges, hitches, stabilizer systems, and stuff I don’t even know the name of, none of which we bought! There were door prizes – $15,000-worth – given away; meetings of various small interest groups and informal social events and dancing – both ballroom and square – on Saturday night! What an education!
Our parking area did dry out a bit but the weather forecast for Wednesday night sounded ominous: severe thunderstorm warnings! Bruce followed his instinct and joined many other rigs moving out of the track infield up onto the track. It’s a good thing he did! The rains came, the winds blew, thunder and lightening surrounded us, the temperature dropped, and the infield of the track became a flooded muddy swamp once again! If we hadn’t moved out before the storm hit, we’d probably have been stuck here until Hallowe’en!
Our final send-off – for which we were not prepared! – began about 11 pm, about an hour after we had fallen asleep. A parade of police cars and volunteer fire vehicles, all with lights flashing, was led by a fire truck with siren shrieking. They drove very slowly up and down every road and lane throughout the Fairgrounds! Wakened from a sound sleep, we had no idea what was happening. Was it a fire? A medical emergency? A terrorist attack? A warning of an impending serious storm? A major crime? Nobody had a clue!
The next morning, bleary-eyed and sleep deprived, we learned that the noisy parade was a local tradition to say "Good-bye and thank you" to visiting groups! Wouldn’t there have been a quieter way to express their appreciation?
About 8 am we left DuQuoin and headed for St. Charles MO, a suburb west of St. Louis, where the New Horizons Owner’s Group rally was to be held. We arrived about noon at Sundermeier’s RV Park, an up-scale campground that caters to big rigs and offers a meeting room, banquet facilities, laundry, propane, and all the amenities!
There are about 40 New Horizons fifth wheels and travel trailers (the brand we own) and 70 people here for the event, and it’s Oktoberfest in St. Charles! Best of all, the park is just across the street from the Katy Trail State Park, a 225 mile long biking and walking trail along the abandoned Katy Railroad line! The old historic section of St. Charles – where the Lewis and Clark Expedition began – is just about a mile down the Katy Trail from our campground, a great incentive for exercise!
From Saturday, October 1 thru Tuesday,
October
4, there were informative seminars on suspension systems, weight ratios, tow
vehicles, RV maintenance and housekeeping tips, and a computer program designed
for travel journaling. We ate well at the restaurant at the RV center, an
outdoor Bar-B-Que and a carry-in dinner. We enjoyed making new friends who had
come from California, Maryland, Florida, Washington State and points in between.
On Sunday, we did not go on the scheduled tour of St. Louis. Instead, we enjoyed sharing communion with the members of St. John United Church of Christ in downtown St. Charles.
At an Open House time on Monday, we toured each other’s wheel estate. What a variety of rigs: tow-behind trailers and fifth-wheels, from 26 feet with no slides to 36 feet with 3 slides in the newest display model, simple wood floors, oak woodwork and direct lighting to deluxe carpet, cherry woodwork, indirect lighting and bay windows!
Tow vehicles also ran the gamut from three-quarter ton pick-up trucks to heavy duty trucks (the size of a semi cab!). Several of those heavy duty trucks not only pull the RV but also tow a car behind that, a train at least 70 feet long!
We laughed a lot in the evening forums on "Favorite Destinations" and "My most embarrassing RV moment." Of course we had to re-tell our "Arrested in Jennings, Louisiana" story!
As with all good things, this event, too, had to come to an end. After breakfast, we left Sundermeier’s RV Park about 8:45 am headed east. We should have checked the map before we hit the road because we ended up going straight thru downtown St. Louis instead of by-passing it as we had intended! We got a good view of the St. Louis Arch but also suffered through some frustrating rush hour traffic jams on Interstate 70. But once we were out of the metropolitan area, our trip went very smoothly.
We arrived about 2:00 p.m. at Lincoln Trail State Park near Marshall IL. We had stayed here one night about 12 days ago on our way to the Escapade.