RV-Dreams Rally At River Bend RV Resort in Harrisburg Oregon

Tuesday - Sunday:  September 18 - 23, 2012 

What a great Rally!  We met so many people from a lot of places.  RV-Dreams with Howard and Linda is sort of a fun RV cult.  Howard and Linda Payne started this club from nothing but their desire to show people how to fulfill their dream of living this free RV lifestyle.  RV-Dreams is a very loose club as there are no membership dues or real rules.  You belong by wanting to live your dream by RVing full time.  Howard and Linda derive their living expenses from these rallies and by promoting RV stuff like insurance, inflatable boats, weighing rigs, and workamping (camping for a free site and/or wages).   Their reputation is what sells for them.   Really cool people.  If you are interested, you can see what this lifestyle is all about by going to RV-Dreams.com.

Our site at the rally.

We started off the week going to Eugene to get a new bike rack, a better front step for the RV, and a haircut for me.   We got back in time to actually register for the rally.  The first rally day is mostly signing in and then there is a catered dinner where announcements are made to get everyone prepared for the seminars and activities.  This was our second RV-Dreams rally so we sort of knew the routine.  Our first rally last April in Sevierville Tennessee we didn’t yet have a rig and were not retired yet.  That rally helped us get prepared for full timing.  This rally should help us with the stuff we are now experiencing as real full timers.

Our new front step!

New bike rack that hangs from the ladder.

This couple in their early 40's pull this at 65 feet long from Las Vegas.  They have a smart car, kayaks, and bicycles in the trailer!

Another interesting rig.  They pull a small RV with the Motor home!

Patty playing a game where you have to put both tea bags on the hat with just your head.

The second highlight was the driving school put on by the local RV dealer in Junction City. They had 2 Class A's, a Diesel Pusher and a Gasser.  They also had a Travel trailer and a 33 foot 5^th wheel, both with their own trucks all there ready for us to test drive.  It was in a really big open paved lot.  They put up cones for a back in site and for maneuvering through tight “S” curves.  I was going to drive but it took so long to get through people who had never driven a 5^th wheel first that I decided to skip it.  However, Patty got to do it.  It was a great experience for her to do this here as there wasn’t any pressure and it was their rig, not ours!  I wish I had done this before I had to do it for real.  It is very hard to find somewhere to test drive a 5^th wheel.

RV Dealer in Junction City gave us a BBQ with free wine and beer!  This was after the driving school.

The vehicles waiting for us to test drive with an instructor.

Patty going through the test course.

Patty with the instructor.

Patty getting instruction to start.

We all identified ourselves in the park for the rally.

We finished the rally on Saturday night with a 70s type dinner dance.  After the dance, Patty and I started a fire and about 5 couples joined us to chat until about midnight.  It was a great ending to a great rally and the day.   I was just a little toasted when we got back to home.

Patty at the dance.

Howard and Linda doing announcements before the dance on Saturday night.

Us at the dance.  Note the asterisks on our name tags, that means we are full timers.

Patty blowing bubbles.

Howard with his 70s hair dancing with Linda at the beginning of the dance.

A couple of highlights from the Rally.  I finally found that we have been hitching the 5^th wheel wrong since we got it.  The way the dealer showed us was just wrong.  There was a 5^th wheel hitching demo at the rally that I watched that started me thinking.  The demo was with a different type hitch, a Husky 24k, mine is a Reese 22k.  The Husky has a hook in the hitch head and mine has 2 jaws that come together to hold the king pin on the trailer.  What I noticed at the demo is that they did the hitch very, very slowly.  We were shown to “hit” the hitch with the truck and then put the hitch handle into the lock position.  At the demo with the Husky, it automatically hitched when the truck was backed into the RV king pin.  All they needed to do was to put the lock on the release lever.  I then went on the Internet to the Reese site and found their procedure for using my hitch.  Yes, I am to start with the jaws closed, not open as I was shown, and then back into the jaws slowly until the king pin in fully engaged in the jaws.  Now I feel like a real idiot.  We haven’t tried this yet but it should work much better than what I was doing!

We finished up the event with a great breakfast on Sunday.  Linda and Howard played an emotional song about living your dreams and having a smile as you go, got some people tearing up ;) We said our goodbyes and headed to our RV home to write this and then take a nap J

Tomorrow we go are going to Junction City so Patty can get some physical therapy for her arm that that she broke back in Ohio.  Then we are going to take a drive up the coast and over to Portland so Patty can get some “coupons”:()

Stay tuned!