25-26 May 2026 NSTR - Rally Events

Our fearless leader, Mr Bill Martin, 

Alliance VP of Customer Service 

and one of the best humans on this planet!

 I am going to take a "tactical pause" on the blog until after the rally here. If you are not at the rally, what I might post might be of little interest anyway.  We have events throughout the day from sunrise to sunset - long days and very rewarding days but not conducive to staying up past midnight to create a blog entry. 

The rally concludes Friday night 29 May  and then we are staying Saturday to make sure all of our rally materials get inventoried and packed away in bins for next year.  Doreen and I will depart here Sunday morning, spend one night in Illinois and then land at Griff's RV Park near our home on Monday 1 June.  

I am absolutely humbled and will be eternally grateful for the opportunity to be involved with FamAlly Cares Inc, and the opportunity to engage with an unbelievable family that makes up Alliance RV -  the best RV family there is.  It's not just a brand;  it's not just a company, it's a FamAlly.  

Thanks for tagging along with us as we travel the USA, reconnecting with military comrades, friends and family, and live our dream.  .  

24 May 2026 - NSTR Memorial Weekend at the Fairgrounds Campground

 

Yesterday we heard somewhere around 50 RV's rolled in and today they have 177 projected in.  The rally parking crew is ready to rock!  These guys work long, hard days and are sometimes under-appreciated.  They will ultimately park nearly 375 or more RV's by the time the rally starts.  This morning we were near the service desk and caught Bob Mitchell and Tom VanderHeiden, pictured above, in between parking coaches.  They are just two of the many parking crew volunteers and they have been doing this for many rally's!  Nicely done, gents!  Thank you for everything you do!

Brenda Rock-Arms and Curtis Carlson at the helm of the Alliance RV Rally Service Desk

The Alliance RV service desk is also gearing up for the influx of rally attendees and each can submit up to three service requests when they register for the rally - things they need repaired or adjusted on their coach.  Once registered, most several months ago, then the Service and Parts teams figure out likely what needs done and what parts will be required and they are ordered.  They also assure adequate service technicians are on-hand to do the work.  When the rally attendees arrive here, they have a form they have to bring to the service desk.  I did not have anything that needed repaired, but we brought our form up and turned it in here this morning.  It is always great to reconnect with Brenda and Curtis.  We have known them since before the very first rally seven years ago!  Thank you for everything you do!

The welcome bag team set-up to prepare the bags

This huge building will be packed full of vendors displaying their products

Many of the volunteers here spent the rest of the day with various parts of the set-up process for the Welcome Event.  This will continue tomorrow (Monday) and Tuesday, culminating with the Rally Welcome Event from 4pm to 7 pm Tuesday afternoon.  Each rally attendee will get their welcome bags, be fed a welcome meal compliments of FamAlly Cares Inc, and have the opportunity to play various games to win raffle tickets.  They will deposit these tickets in buckets to win prizes that have been donated by the many vendors that will be here.  We also have volunteers that will be organizing the raffle.

Also during the day we were able to tune into the Game Changer app and watch grandson Calvin play two games of baseball.  They won both games 9-2 and 13-0.  Calvin had seven at-bats with 3 runs, 3 hits and 3 RBI's.  He is having a great season.  Soon his school baseball season will start as well.  

Doreen and I enjoy walking around the fairgrounds and reconnecting with old friends and making new ones.  We also enjoy seeing all of the Alliance RV's that have arrived.  There are so many different front caps now and so many different vintages of coaches!  And there is only a portion of the campers here so far - many more to arrive!

That's it for today.  Some very busy days ahead.

23 May 2026 - Arrived at Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds Campground for the 7th Annual Alliance Rally

 

Today early we pulled chocks at the Elkhart Campground and drove about 20 miles south to the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds Campground in Goshen IL.  We will be here for the next eight nights attending the Alliance RV national rally.  Each day the activities ramp up and the agenda is incredible.  More about the agenda later.  We also sent out some happy birthday wishes to our grandson Calvin who turns 13 today!  He is in a baseball tournament that we can watch remotely using the Game Changer app.

  

After arriving and getting set up here. Doreen and I departed and headed about 45 minutes north to Three Rivers MI where we met our daughter Jennifer and her family to include son Lucas - that's Private First Class Lucas Buehner!  We were so surprised to find out he was coming home on leave from the Army.  Lucas is stationed at Ft Hood Texas as a Combat Medic.  

At Three Rivers MI is a restaurant called Hank's on the River and we have met them there several times over the past few years.  It is about half way between where they live in Battle Creek MI and where we are in the Elkhart/Goshen IN area.  

Lucas, Ed Doreen, Jennifer and James

It was so great to see Lucas and hear about his experiences as a Combat Medic in the Army, since he graduated from his Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Ft Sam Houston TX back in March.  He has spent quite a bit of time "in the field" using his skills to assess real-world as well as exercise medical scenarios.  When not in the field he treats "sick call"  patients in his unit, and soon he will be headed for FT Knox in Kentucky for an ROTC exercise.  

Before we left, Jennifer gave us 16 dozen eggs her chickens had recently produced!!  She suggested we share them with our camping friends and we surely will!  Her "girls " have been busy!

After returning to the campground we walked around to visit with other rally attendees here.  We talked with Bob Mitchell and his wife Lorraine who are on the "Parking crew" for the rally.  They are expecting 177 rally attendees to arrive tomorrow and everyone  of them has to be parked.  They are all set up with golf carts and very efficient!

We finished up the evening, after our walk around the park, with a campfire and a little bourbon tasting with our friends.  

Good times with great friends!  That is it for today.

 

22 May 2026 - NSTR Last Day at Elkhart Campground

 

Our last day at the Elkhart Campground.  We started to button things up in preparation for our departure tomorrow morning.  We took a leisurely stroll around the park one last time and talked to many of our friends. 

Later we met up with The Ellis's and Ralph & Lindy and then headed down to the VFW Hall in Goshen to meet Chaplain Wayne Haun. Their post is doing some amazing things helping Veterans in need.  FamAlly Cares Inc will be making a donation to the Goshen VFW Post 985 next week during the Rally. 

We finished up the evening enjoying Mexican dinner with our friends.  Tomorrow we move to the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds Campground with the 7th annual Alliance Rally will be held.  Then after we get settled we head up to Three Rivers MI to have lunch with daughter Jennifer and her family including a surprise visit by our US Army Soldier grandson PFC Lucas Buehner who is on leave from Ft Hood TX!!    Yeah!!

21 May 2026 - NSTR Another Days Pre-Rally

 

Today we stayed put and got caught-up on a bunch of stuff on our to-do list.  

• I cleaned the bugs off the front cap. The front of these RV's catch a lot of air and get plastered with bugs going down the road.  You have to stay on top of this or you will have a mess on your hands and will possibly /have permanent damage to your front cap.  .  
• I replaced my CO/Propane leak detector.  They have a five year life and mine was on borrowed time.  Thanks to Amazon my replacement was delivered here yesterday. So today was the day. A 2-wire connection, some solder and heat shrink and we were done.
• I washed our windows, inside and out.  Just another one of those housekeeping things that needs done periodically.  I have a nice squeegee device and a painter's pole that makes this easier. 

Several times during the day we took a stroll around the campground and greeted those we met. It is so fun to connect up with Ally's from all over the country.  Today we met a couple from Greece NY, a retired firefighter and a retired school teacher,  We talked with them for an hours or so and then invited them down to our coach and Doreen gave them an Alliance dish towel she had embroidered. 

That is about it for today.  Tomorrow afternoon we will meet with the Chaplain of the local VFW post as they will be the recipient of a FamAlly Cares Inc donation this year.  

Saturday we will move to the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds Campground and later go out to eat with our Daughter Jennifer and her family including our grandson Lucas who will be home on leave from the US Army!  

20 May 2026 - NSTR Day 3 at Elkhart Campground

Before things get crazy busy here Doreen got us caught up on laundry today.  I fueled the truck and picked up a few minor items at the local Meijer's Grocery store.  Back at the RV I knocked out a little project involving removing the TV and installed an additional AC power outlet.    

Alliance rally attendees continued to roll into the Elkhart Campground today including our great friends Rachel & Mike Ellis from Arkansas.  They traveled down from a relative's house in Michigan.  After they got settled Rachel came over to see us and gave Doreen a beautiful lighthouse cross-stitch she had done. 

Later a group of rally attendees gathered near Mike's coach and an impromptu bourbon tasting happened.  It is interesting trying different bourbons as each has a unique flavor.  You never know when you are going to find your new favorite.  Plus it is great to meet new people.  The couple right behind us are both Air Force Veterans and we have many common experiences at military FamCamps.

Tonight we watched grandson Daniel's first Varsity baseball game of the year,  Daniel is a freshman and started at shortstop.  The whole team's bats fell silent and they lost the game 0-1 against last year's state champions, so it was a great game even considering the loss.  

Not much going on tomorrow.  We are wishing our daughter Jennifer good luck with her ankle surgery follow-up appointment at the surgeon tomorrow.  

19 May 2026 - NSTR Day 2 at Elkhart Campground

 

NSTR (Nothing Significant to Report).  We had another a nice day here at Elkhart.   More of our Alliance friends showed up from all over the country. 

I am honored to serve as the vice president of a non-profit called FamAlly Cares Inc.  The 501 (c)(3) nonprofit was organized and supported by Alliance RV owners.  We are dedicated to helping children and families in the Elkhart, Indiana community, as well as children and families associated with the larger camping community through various fundraising events. FamAlly Cares Inc exists to serve the RV community and to help when there is a need. Not just within the Alliance family, but across all brands because RVers belong to one united family.

At the Alliance national rally FamAlly Cares facilitates the Welcome Event for rally attendees to include welcome bags, food, and games,  We also run the rally raffle and silent auction fundraiser.  This fundraiser enables us to provide several scholarships and charitable donations each year and help for families in need

So today we met some new friends, Kim & Jason Anderson, who volunteered to help us with the rally raffle table.  We get significant RV-related items donated by our vendors.  Rally attendees will get raffle tickets in their welcome bags as well as earn them playing games and visiting the vendors.  They place ticket stubs in the chosen buckets we provide for each item and at the end of the rally we will draw from each bucket for the winners.  

I also provide board interface with the volunteers that assemble the rally attendee welcome bags, provide the rally welcome event dinner and the games.  The planning for the next rally starts right after this one ends, and there is a lot of  behind the scenes work to make all this happen.  Well the time is near and it will be great to be a part of the 7th annual Alliance Rally.

Nothing big planned for tomorrow.  More friends arrive.  We plan to fuel-up before the weekend when we move from here to the Fairgrounds in Goshen.  We will also have lunch with daughter Jennifer and her family to include grandson Lucas who will be home on leave from the US Army!  Can't wait!