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.