I'm at the Good Sam Rally. Lordy, what a setup! The RV's are all parked at Balloon Fiesta Park in the NORTH end of town, up I-25. The Rally is at the EAST end of town. We have to take a shuttle bus and ride for 25 minutes. You can't just "hop a shuttle" and go back to your RV for lunch. I'm guessing that was planned on purpose, if you go back to your RV for lunch, you won't spend your money there. Well, the lines for the eating places are LOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGG so you end up cheating by stopping at the booths that are demonstrating neatsy new gadgets for cooking and they give you a bite, or you stop at the "check out this great dip" booth, and you eat pretzels and "sample" each and every dip, 25 varieties, the key lime dip was fantastic with animal crackers!

Plus, it's raining, mixed with snow.

Then, when you need to go back to your RV, you wait in line for TWO AND A HALF HOURS for a shuttle bus (I'm not kidding, I got in the LOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG line at 2:00 and didn't get a bus until 4:30 because the line was way too long).

FOrtunately, the "entertainment" (Neil Sadaka one night, Rita Coolidge another night, 3 of the 5 Osmonds a third night.....) is near the Balloon Fiesta Park, just ride a tram over.

Speaking of the Trams, I was told to "remember your Tram Color." Ok, the Tram is blue and red. Ok, ALL the Trams are blue and red. They forgot to tell us to look at the "colored dot" on the windshield of the truck pulling the tram.

Rumor has it that they will add more busses tomorrow.

I am at an "electric only" section. This will be a trick, making my water tank last the entire time of the rally. Well, I do plan to go to the boondocking seminars.....


JJ

I hope you and everyone else is having a great time, but I have to say we would be absolutely miserable in the conditions you have described. It does not sound very well organized to me. I know they can't control the weather, but they should have adequate transportation and eating facilities available. But getting to see Neil Sedaka might be worth the aggravation.

Hi JJ,

Just try to have a good time--and be sure to share any boondocking tips with us!

I suggest one of those folding stools that double as a cane! It would sure help when standing in line--and a good book too!

Lot of grumbling about having to ride the shuttle busses for 25 minutes and the long freaking lines. Heard from another person that when it's in Redmond, OR, you only have a five minute shuttle ride. Next year it's in Louisville, KY, reps have a booth at the ABQ one, and I heard people go to the booth and say, "don't do it like they are doing it here, this is ridiculous!"

JJ

Weather is better today, starting to warm up. Plus, they got their act together on the shuttle busses, I only had to wait 5 minutes for a shuttle bus and another one was right behind the one I got on.

JJ

Well, I realize it's a couple of months down the road, but I just thought I'd add a few lines to what's been said above.

The decision to have the rv's park at Fiesta Park, and to have the rally vendors/seminars at the Expo park was very, very poor indeed. This information was not available to all of us until less than a month to go and way too late to make changes without penalties. If I had this info back when I made my reservations, I would never made them....maybe that's why they kept it a secret!!

However, the vendors and seminars were great (as they have been in the past). The shuttle schedule at the beginning was a joke and became better as it went along. We chose to use our toad for transportation which allowed us to pick some very fine restaurants for lunch and diner rather than paying exorbitant prices for a hot dog at the park.

The shows were also very good, except I have to complain a little about the building it was held in. The folding chairs were small, latched together and all on a level field. I, unfortunately, was seated behind a really tall guy, and the lady next to me could have used two chairs (of which she was trying to do with mine) . I also am a hearing aid user, and the speaking acoustics were not within my hearing capabilities. In spite of that, the shows (and performers) were fantastic..

As mentioned in a post above, the Redmond Rally was a perfect location with all the vendors/seminars located in the center of the park and all the rv parking in a large circle around them. Shuttle time was less than 5 minutes. With the '10 rally to be held in Louisville (pronounced "lou-ville"), I will NOT make ANY reservations until I know exactly where everything will be located.

Ron