FMCA RALLY INDIO AND GOLDEN SPIKE

 

It is time to catch up on my blogging again!

January 2014 was my 14th year to attend the Family Motor Coach Association regional rally in Indio CA. This year about 1125 motorhomes were parked for the rally in the spacious fairgrounds. The rally is the occasion of the Golden Spike chapter having its own rally within a rally.To park together we assemble  the day before we enter the fairgrounds at a nearby closed Sams Club and caravan to the fairgrounds

 An early activity of the chapter is to set up a table  at a Chapter Fair to seek more members for our group.Our rallies feature railroads, some old, some new, railroad museums, and depots. Jo and I led a rally in Colorado in September to ride three railroads in a week.

Here  at the table are Dottie and Bob Poole and, back to the camera, Conductor (President) Kurt Simon.

The club cooks tri tip roasts for one of the group’s evening meals. Here is the lineup of the grills.

 

The theme of this year’s rally was Dogpatch Days. The rally parade floats featured interpretations of what the mythical town of “Lil Abner and Daisy May” and its citizens may have looked like.

Our chapter had a great turnout for the group picture. I am in the back row with a white hat and Jo is in the front row.

Our group volunteers to distribute the ice cream for an ice cream social on Friday and Saturday. Here is the operations center of our activity – the ice cream truck. The guys carry boxes of ice cream bars or cones to tables at each end of a walkway to be distributed by the ladies to the eager eaters.

 

 

One of four distribution tables.

 

During four days of the rally trams consisting of a small farm type tractor pulling a trailer carry attendees around the grounds. Here the tram is going through the area displaying coaches for sale. Twenty five were sold at the rally!

Food vendors with colorful booths provided meals and snacks for attendees.

These motorhomes of members are parked along the long tree- lined street of the grounds.