Trailer Rally in Alabama

You probably have questions. What is a trailer rally? Why would you go to one? Why in Alabama? All in good time.

Before we bought our travel trailer, I did a lot of research on the web. One place I still use is a the Fiberglass RV Forum. I saw a post there in November 2016 by a guy named Dean May about how he was interviewed on a podcast about his quest for an RV. Like me, he did an immense amount of research on the web, and like me, he decided that molded fiberglass trailers has a lot to offer. In the podcast he talked about trailer rallies and how much fun they are and how much he liked them. Here is a link to the podcast if you want to hear more. They bought a Casita Trailer. BTW, our trailer is an Oliver.

In the podcast Dean mentioned that he is a Professor of Social Work in Kentucky. With that info I located his University email and wrote to him. “Dean, I just heard your podcast, and thought I would reach out, based on our similar affliction. Like you, I obsessively researched trailers. My wife, who is a clinical social worker (MSW) diagnosed me with OTD — Obsessive Trailer Disorder.” He responded with “OTD, LOVE IT!!! 😉 We definitely have a similar affliction.” And thus began a fun email correspondence.

I mentioned this podcast and the idea of trailer rallies to Susan, and we agreed that we were not going to travel to Tennessee for the Oliver Trailer Rally scheduled for May 2017, but maybe sometime in the future.

Last summer there was the Eclipse set to occur in August. Everything I read said Totality was unbelievably awesome, while even a 90% eclipse (like in SLC) is just a meh experience. I wanted to go to southern Idaho, about 3 hours from here, to see the eclipse. Of course the motels and AirBnB’s were all booked up and were price gouging. However, I read that alfalfa farmers were renting space on their recently harvested fields as impromptu campsites. Some were planning on having porta potties, but hey, we have a trailer with our own toilet and shower. Sounds great. But Susan said no. All kinds of reasons, but no.

So after the eclipse, when everyone we talked to said how amazing it was, she apologized and said we could go to the Oliver Rally. Why would we want to travel so far for a rally? I wanted to go to the Oliver Factory (in Tennessee) to get several things fixed, and to get one of options that we had not purchased, a storage basket on the trailer tongue. I now want this basket to carry big water jugs for when we go boondocking (camping without hookups), like on BLM Land.

So we planned our trip. The Oliver Rally was scheduled for May 4-7 at Lake Guntersville State Park in northern Alabama. Susan’s birthday falls in this period, and in advance of the trip she started complaining about having to go to a Trailer Rally. In Alabama!! On her birthday, no less!! I am not saying she complained a lot, just to everyone she talked to.

Our trip out was uneventful. We had a wonderful audiobook called A Fine Balance that takes place in India. I don’t remember who recommended it, but [Edit] The book had been recommended by my wonderful sister Margie, and it definitely kept our attention over long days driving. We camped our first night at Sleepy Sunflower RV Park in Kansas, and then at Blue Springs Lake Campground, in a county park outside Kansas City.

We then went to Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, which stretches between Kentucky and Tennessee, where we camped for two nights. Looking at the map, you will agree that the name is apt. You probably have never heard of this park; I had not. I found about it from another podcast where Dean, the Social Work Professor, had described the park.

 

Piney Campground was really nice. We had a campsite right on the lake. It seems that most of the campers were locals from nearby Tennessee towns, (Paris, Dover), and we decided that Tennesseans are the nicest people. Lots of families with kids having fun, riding bikes, fishing. One teenager had caught a ton of catfish, and his dad stopped by to offer us freshly cooked catfish. Delicious!

The Park had the Homeplace 1850s Working Farm and Living History Museum, where there were people in period clothing going about their daily chores. Farming, making tools, tending heritage breeds of livestock and chickens. We really enjoyed this museum. It reminded us of Skansen, an outdoor heritage museum in Stockholm that we loved.

The blackboard at the visitor center had something about See the Dominiques. We were confused because we read it as See the Dominatrixes. It turns out Dominiques are a historical breed of chicken.

It looked like some of the campers at the Land Between the Lakes campground were planning to stay a while. In addition to a trailer, they might have several additional tents or outbuildings.

Geese at the campground. Gotta have your satellite dish.

The only sour note was that we saw two campsites with confederate flags. The confederate windsock was on a flagpole on a trailer at our rally. These displays left a bad taste in our mouths. But they were the exception.

We left Land Between the Lakes and drove to Hohenwald Tennessee, where we unhitched our trailer and left it at the factory. (There is something about this part of Tennessee, where the GPS directs us onto small windy roads, barely suitable for a car, let alone a car and trailer. But we had been here before…)

We then drove to Hendersonville, NC to visit our friends Kathy and Gary, formerly living in Salt Lake City, for several days. Hendersonville is in western North Carolina, near the Blue Ridge mountains. We had a great visit.

 

 

 

 

We toured the local countryside, and took a day trip to Greenville SC. We wandered through the city center, which was lovely. We had lunch in an excellent bistro overlooking the River. (Gary also wanted to visit the Costco liquor store in SC, I assume for better prices. When we crossed the border from Illinois to Kentucky we saw a bunch of stores selling liquor or cigarettes; I assume the taxes are lower in Kentucky).

Susan posed with a stature of politician Joel Poinsett. One of the offices he held was US Minister to Mexico. You recognize his name because he sent samples of the plant Flor de Nochebuena to the US, and it became known as the poinsettia.

Weird stuff in the shop windows.

And we saw that quintessential institution of liberal arts education….

We also visited the Tyron International Equestrian Center, near Hendersonville, which is for training and competition. Good for taking photos.

We drove back to Tennessee, picked up our trailer, and drove to Alabama. Alabama is different.

The main event, the Oliver Rally, was at Lake Guntersville State Park, which is lovely. The lake was beautiful, and surprise, surprise, the place was full of Oliver trailers.

The area was gorgeous.

There were some group activities, like a cookout followed by a bonfire.

We went on a bike ride around the park, and amazingly, the wildlife included emus!

We met a bunch of really nice people, including Dean and Laura May. Remember Dean, the Social Work Professor who does podcasts?

Oliver has a forum where people ask questions. This forum was extremely helpful to me when we were getting started. Most of the time I could find answers by searching older posts, but I also asked questions online. Since I have OTD, I have done a lot of research, and I took notes and put weblinks in my notes. So sometimes I have posted on the Oliver Forum what I will modestly describe as knowledgeable and well-researched posts, often with links to outside sources. I don’t know if is because my picture is on my posts, or because we had name tags, or because my nametag said Utah and I am the only one from Utah who posts, but probably twenty people recognized me and thanked me for my posts! Susan got a real kick out of this!. She said I had a following!

There are many places on the forum where I asked questions that displayed my complete ignorance, such as about how to grease the suspension or why trailer bearings need to be repacked when I have never needed to do this on a car I have owned. People are always helpful. I have contributed stuff where I have expertise (technology), or where notes from my earlier research had relevant information. For example, for all of you who shop at Amazon, check out camelcamelcamel to find about price changes, and if you use Amazon, Yelp, TripAdvisor or the Apple App Store, check out fakespot to find out if the reviews are bogus.

Susan said no way was she having dinner in the campground on her birthday! So she used TripAdvisor to find the best local eatery in the town of Guntersville (population 8000), and we had a lovely meal at the Rock House Eatery. We learned a new term. While by now we had heard “y’all” many times, our server said the possessive as in “I will bring y’all’s water real soon.”

We had a really good time at the rally. We met really nice people, we learned a bunch of stuff, and we had a lot of fun. And Susan, who did a wee bit of complaining about going to a trailer rally in Alabama, now says she had a good time. Will we travel to Alabama for next year’s rally? I doubt it. But in future we might go to some rally for fiberglass trailers that is closer to home.

And I have researched when Total Eclipses will be occurring in future. Chile in December 2020? Or North America April 2024? Susan knows that she owes me.