We’re not ‘rally’ people.
But there’s one large scale rally that we keep coming back to, and that’s the Escapade – organized by the Escapee’s RV Club. It has a special place in our hearts.
But honestly, the thought of going this year sent us into tremors several times leading up to the event. We signed up twice and promptly canceled.
We were asked to be major presenters and just had to decline.
It’s not that we don’t rock at presenting (and we do enjoy it). We just don’t like having too many firm fixed events on our annual schedule, and we don’t like having to be ‘ON’ for an entire event.
And, we really just wanted to… attend.
Just be there as us. As Chris & Cherie. If we could.
Up until late June, we were still canceled for the event.
But when we hooked up with our friends Forrest & Mary on their way up – we decided we could do it. We would camp together off on our own, attempting to create a safe place for us to hide out.
So on Saturday morning, we reluctantly left our sweet sweet spot at Scaroon Manor, drove a few miles east, boarded a ferry across Lake Champlain (fun!) and met up with our buddies.
We arrived to the Champlain Valley Expo Center and scored a fairly secluded boondocking spot in the ‘horse barns’.
This gave us a lightly trafficked little nook to call our own. Perfect!
Ahhhh.
Maintenance & Services
One of the reasons we do like to attend larger scale rallies is having some general maintenance done.
First, Blue Ox, the makers of our tow bar for our Mini Cooper, usually attend. For just $30 they’ll come out and do a full service. As it had been 2 years since we had that done, we made a point to get in line on the first morning of the expo floor opening to get on their list.
We also wanted to have our bus weighed. When we bought it 5 years ago, we had to have it weighed to register in South Dakota (our state of domicile at the time). But we hadn’t re-weighed since – particularly not since last summer’s renovations.
For just $45, the Escapee’s offers their SmartWeigh service – which they had on site. They place a scale under each wheel so you get an accurate weight for each corner of the rig. Very important to making sure you have your tires properly inflated.
We weren’t at all concerned about our overall weight. As a former commercial service passenger bus, our GVWR is somewhere around 32,000 lbs, and at our last weigh-in we were a slim 24,000 (an all aluminum body helps so much!).
We were pleased as punch that even after moving all our crap in and doing tons (well, apparently not literally) of upgrades over the past 5 years – we weighed in at only 26,000. And nicely even between the left and right side.
(Sweet.. we have 6000 pounds to go and still be safe. Hmm… hot tub???)
This was with a full fresh water tank (112G), empty holding tanks, 1/2 full fuel and us three passengers on board (the cat accounting for most of the weight.. I’m sure.)
Not bad at all.
Friends & Connections
One of the truest blessing of an event this size is an opportunity to meet back up with friends we might only see every so often. And of course, making new friends.
There are so many folks we got to hang out with, that I’m not even going to attempt to name names – for fear I’ll forget someone.
We so treasure the deepened connections we came away with (and hey, y’all DID delete the video from the bar that one night, right??)
But the crowning joy and likely our biggest reason for attending was Travis & Mel Carr.
We’ve been ‘in the know’ for a while that they’d be officially handed the torch as President and Vice President of the club – taking the reigns as the 3rd generation since it was launched in the late 70s.
We’ve worked along side these guys launching Xscapers and have formed a deep lasting friendship with them, and just couldn’t NOT be there for this moment. And yes, there were tears in our eyes as Cathie handed her son the gavel.
The leadership now consists of a lot of new and young energy in Travis & Mel’s hands, combined with Shawn Loring taking over as CEO last year. This should ensure the club carries on for decades to come. A score for the entire RVing community.
And Cathie & Bud?? Go rock retirement!! You’ve done the community proud with your service through the years!
Xscapers
At the 55th Escapade in Tucson last March, we helped unveil Xscapers – the new club within a club aimed at the ‘working aged’ RVer.
It’s mission is to bring Escapees back to its roots – of serving all RVers. So many of the services and outward face of the Escapees had grown with the club, focused more on retirement.
In the last year Xscapers has partnered with RVer Insurance to help bring resources for health insurance for those of us too young for Medicare, launched a Job Board to help keep those still in the earning phase of their lives employed and Full Time Families to serve the needs of those raising families on the road.
And there’s so much more coming!
This Escapade would be the first time that Xscapers would have a major presence at an Escapee’s event, even having their own camping area and facility for activities. A major milestone.
And it was very well attended. I don’t have the official count, but it was very impressive to us. There were likely over 30 kids in attendance, a new record for the organization (and something to be managed in the future – as not all Xscapers are families.)
Travis & Mel also shared with us that there are now over 3000 registered Xscapers households (that’s over 6000 members!). Pretty darn impressive for such a young organization.
To say we’re proud, would be an understatement.
Video Walk-Thru
Curious what an RV Rally is like? Want to meet some Escapees & Xscapers? Want to tour some of the demo RVs on display at the rally and get our impressions of them?
We turned on Facebook Live for about an hour during the the rally, and took our viewers on a tour.
You can view the walk-thru archive here (sorry for the ‘square’ video – that seems to be be a Facebook Live ‘thing’):
How’d We Do?
I have to be honest, our goal of ‘just’ being attendees? Yeah, not so much.
The first two days, we couldn’t walk more than 10 steps without being approached and thanked. It’s humbling. Absolutely humbling.
We never started this blog with any aspirations of having readers other than family and friends. And to know that we have played a small role in so many’s paths to hitting the road themselves – it’s overwhelming at times.
Going to events like these, it kinda hits home – we have somehow achieved a semi-celebratory status in a small niche community.
It makes it tough to just attend, to just be us.
And of course, it’s especially confusing as last year we WERE at Escapade as presenters and on staff with an official presence.
Most folks we encountered were incredibly respectful (and please forgive us if we don’t remember your names next time we meet.) And we were pleasantly surprised by how few just ‘dropped’ by our bus.
Thankfully, the number of folks who hadn’t quite figured out that we were just attendees this year were few. Some of the most frequent questions we fielded where ‘Where’s your booth’ and ‘When are you presenting?’.
We did as decent a job drawing the line of being on vacation, and pointing to the word ‘Attendee’ on our badges with a huge smile.
And we tried our best to be polite when some folks interrupted us to pick our brains while trying to enjoy our time with friends, or even during seminars we were attending.
But towards the end of the event – we were definitely DONE with being ON.
Us introverts just aren’t well suited for all this concentrated attention.
But knowing we had an open ended parking invitation in a nearby hide-away spot kept us going. We knew relief was forthcoming.
Make Your Plans: 57th Escapade in Tucson
Considering attending an Escapade? The next one is in just 9 months in Tucson next March.
And even better, they have made arrangements to hold an Escapade there every odd numbered year. This makes it super easy for folks to plan their winter travels in the southwest for the foreseeable future!
Even numbered years will continue to be at spots around the country (2018 being in Missouri).
Will we be there? Nope. We have new adventures we’re planning to embark on come this spring.
Next Live Video Chat: Attending an RV Rally
We’ve scheduled our next live (and free) video chat for next week:
When: Thursday, August 18
8 pm EDT / 5 pm PDT
Topic: Attending an RV Rally
Every year, there are dozens of organized RV meet-ups that happen around the country — some large, some small. RV Rally’s are generally hosted by some of the larger RV organizations (FMCA, Escapees, Good Sam, etc.) and there are many smaller regional gatherings too focused on a special interest.
In this chat, we’ll talk about what you can get out of attending them, and some tips on getting the most out of your time.
We’re honestly not rally people’ and have a like/dislike relationship with them — but yet, we keep finding ourselves at them.
You will need to create a quick free account with Livestream to view the video cast. Just click the link and setup an account in advance… a couple minutes ahead of time should be sufficient, but you can do it anytime. At the end, we’ll be happy to field questions. And if you can’t make it, you can catch the archive later.
Thank you for all you do! After buying an RV, some preparations and several shake down tours under our belt, we needed something to get us to a date! Looking at your ‘book’ on the ‘Going Nomadic, No Excuses’ was timely and almost simultaneously we asked: When is the next Escapees event. We looked at it and the timing and location is is nearly perfect to start out: Tucson March 2017!. We are signed up and will be there! Thanks for the example and consistent access and dialog. Let’s see: House sold: check, Ebay a great deal of things: check Establish a date: check. Quite a few things to do, but with nearly 6 months we should have it down to right sized storage. We will be starting out from the Everett Washington area and going south for some earlier warmth!
Thank you for the tour of the Escapees rally. I hope to attend the next one. I now have a Casita 17’Spirit Deluxe and am slowly learning. I have the propane tanks filled, but have not used any propane yet. I don’t have water in my water heater either, but if I intend to dry camp, I will have to use more of the systems. I am in Lubbock, TX for two weeks visiting family and plan to drive up to Michigan to visit good friends. I may even make it to Virginia Beach VA and to Ft Myers FL. Every time I check my water tank, I think of some of your thrifty tips on saving water. Thank you for all your great information you provide. I really enjoy your blog and the videos, too.
Happy Travels.
Pamelab in Lubbock TX for now
Love the walkabout and especially Chris occasionally humming along the way which made me chuckle. I agree with you guys on your comments about “RV industry pay attention” – I love looking at RVs but have the same comments (so I’m not as weird as I thought). Glad to see the younger folks there and the kids – remembering that those camping kids are our RVers of the future. Keeping the Escapees moving forward to the future. It’s a good thing!
Haha.. guess I missed the humming being ahead of him most of the time. I got a chuckle out of the sales guy accusing him of walking around filming my butt 🙂
And yes indeed, it was fabulous seeing so many families there and participating. It was just a LOT of concentrated vibrant energy on one street 🙂
Didn’t watch live, but enjoyed it. The only RV Rally we’ve been to was the Montana owners rally. No daily happy hour there 🙁
I wonder about the induction cooktops in RVs, I have induction in my home and love it. I thought they took too much ‘juice’ to be viable in an RV that is hooked up to regular hookups in an RV park. (That’s the idea I got from a presentation at the Montana Rally)
I know you have solar, which gives me hope for adding induction to our fifth wheel.
We’ve been using a single hob induction cooktop for 5 years now, and absolutely love it. Yes, it takes power.. but our electrical system handles it just fine. Some of the dual hob built in ones are now designed for 110, so they would be RV-electrical friendly too.
Enjoyed your video walk-thru, and especially your tours and comments on new coach layouts. My wife & I totally agree with you about issues like TV placements vs. seating, 2 baths(?), lack of solar and total lack of working space. After years of research, and visiting many shows & dealers we found and recently bought a 2005 Winnebago model mainly because of it’s unique floor plan that includes an office desk in the BR. This Adventurer model 37b has 2 slides in the BR to offer more floor space as well as enough room to have a decent “home” office. I plan to customize ours to make the desk area even larger. While it’s essentially a 38′ they only built in a single bathroom with a split-out toilet “closet” separate from the shower/vanity, so rather than building in a 2nd bath in the back they devoted this space to a larger BR – which we love. They only produced this floor plan from 2004-2008, theoretically because the GM Workhorse chassis used ceased production in 2008 with the bankruptcy of GM at the time, forcing a total re-design of the Adventurer line on a Ford chassis after that.
We also discovered that the unit we bought included a previous owner installed partial solar system (3 large roof panels + Solar converter), missing only the extra house batteries. So I hooked it up to the single house battery that they left and it seems to work great. When we are ready to hit the road full time I will then buy a proper set of new batteries but is has been great to already see some of the advantages of solar.
Continue to enjoy your blog and videos, and hear more about your New England adventures. With so much to see and do there we hope you can make it to Acadia this year before it gets too cold.
Sounds like you have a sweet setup! There’s a Monoco Knight layout around with a rear dedicated office space that we’ve always respected. Do wish more RV manufacturers would recognize the need. Heck, just offer it as a customizable option – extra bath, office space or kid’s bedroom?
Loved the video. As introverts ourselves, who get scared at even the thought of all the humanity at a rally, it’s helpful and encouraging.
It was funny listening to Chris try to stay polite while expressing his opinions about the design features and build quality of modern RVs. 😀
If there’s one rally where it feels ‘safe’ for us introverts to be at, and politely withdraw when needed.. it’s the Escapees. Even still, there’s a limit on our reserve tanks. 🙂
Do you know when the March 2017 registration opens? The link has an error when the online registration is clicked. Also, did they mention the timeframe for Missouri?
Registration for 2017 is supposed to be open, I believe. I don’t recall when the Missouri one is being planned for, other than 2018. I would imagine spring time.
Neither my husband or I are rally people and never would have joined Escapees/Xscapers if it hadn’t been for following your blog. Just didn’t think it was someplace we would fit. I was in Tucson by myself when Xscapers was launched, attended (went to your talks) and joined. You have been a good promoter of the club! Not sure when we will do a rally, but probably some time down the road.
Thanks for putting yourselves out there and sharing so much!
We only share the things we believe in 🙂 It took us finally showing up to one of their rallies to appreciate that we did in fact fit in, especially with their renewed focus on reaching out to younger demographics. Glad you joined!
We enjoyed the video of the rally, especially seeing Forrest and Mary!
It’s always so good to reconnect with them. Speaking of which, it’s been far too long since we’ve seen you guys!
Thanks for the share! Love reading your blog.
Thanks for another great post. We love VT. Hopefully you get a chance to visit the Shelburne Museum – only 13 miles south of you. A great museum of early Americana / New England.
We heard great things about the museum. Unfortunately, our limited time & energy didn’t allow for it to happen.
So exciting to hear of Travis and Mel “taking over” the club. They’ll do a wonderful job. Glad you had fun as attendees. I’m always surprised when people follow the adventures, and use the services, of others and don’t pay attention to the preferences for privacy which are clearly mentioned numerous times. Alas humans are imperfect 🙁
Well, we do make it clear that if someone spots us ‘out and about’ to absolutely do come say hi. We just ask folks not knock on our closed door and catch us while we are outside or drop us a line to ask to meet up.
And that, was pretty much respected at Escapade.
David,
I have no official insight on the location in Missouri, but I’d bet that it would probably be in Sedalia.
That sounds correct… all I remember is it started with an ‘S’. 🙂
Good post, enjoy all that you two do. Boy both of you look rested and healthy. Cherie you are looking great.
*blush* Thank you for starting my day off with a huge smile!
Thanks for the post. I can only imagine how it feels when everybody knows you. I’m sure it’s great on one hand, but it would get old in a hurry. I bet it gives you a bit of insight as to how it is with pro athletes and actors. (Although with the kind of money they make, I don’t feel too sorry for them) You said that the 2018 Escapade is in Missouri. Do you know where? I’m from Springfield, and I’d love to attend the one in my home state.
As introverts, it is a mixed blessing. On one hand, we hardly ever are doing the scary task of approaching someone – we’re usually being approached. And, we can usually skip introducing ourselves in a lot of situations.
Thankfully, it’s just in a niche community of RVers where we are recognized so often – but that also means that where we live and most desire having ‘at home privacy’ (campgrounds) is where people are most likely to know us.
Oh well.. if only the fame came with the paycheck. Hah.
I seem to recall the Missouri location started with an ‘S’.. someone mentioned Sedalia in another comment, which sounds familiar.