Having to have our 5th wheel coach repaired due to a blown tire is not the way I want to start out my trip to the International Rally in Goshen, IN. but after repairs, we made our way to Ohio to meet up with Larry and Diane Shaffer and continue on to the Elkhart County Fairgrounds.

After registering we located the Averills, Betzas, Roberts and Shavers in an area very near the “A” building where a lot of activities were. We thought they were lucky until we heard and felt the freight train rumble through each day.

Paul Roberts said that he had to strap himself into bed each night so he wouldn’t fall out, but being so close to everything had its advantages.

After our daily dose of donuts on Sunday we attended the opening of the 44th International Rally and heard about all the activities planned for the week. Most of our members were interested in the State Managers meeting that would explain about all the changes happening at Monaco and the Wakarusa plants.

I hear that quite a few of our members participated in the Carnival Day Games but don’t remember hearing that any received any prizes. There were lots of games to play and hot dogs after from Nelson’s Catering.

On Thursday chapter 499 held its meeting and luncheon. Our President, Maria Donnelly was able to have several speakers present information on new equipment available to us. One was Bob Mater Jr. of 5th Airborne who described the advantages of the new hitches recently developed for 5th wheels, then Larry Ewert of SNAPS kept us laughing as he described how he developed the 8” wedge for leveling the trailers tires and finally Brad McKinney of Monaco, towable sales, gave us a peek at what Holiday is trying to develop for the future.

Among the things we discussed at our meeting were the locations of next years rallies. Everyone enjoyed Turning Stone in June and it was suggested that we hold a joint rally there next June. Another suggestion was to attend the Pennsylvania State Rally in State College, Pa as it was a fairly central location to many of our members. Also on the list was a trip to Maine and the Donnelly’s were going to investigate a festival in Ashtabula, Ohio held in October.

Maria also mentioned that a new membership rooster was available on the web site or via mail and the newsletter was on the site once members log in. Before we adjourned we had elections of officers. The Slate read as follows:
President – Maria Donnelly
Vice President – Jack Hammell
Secretary – Ken Johnsen
Treasurer – Kathy Averill


Thanks to Paul and Carmine who lugged a grill to the building so that everyone could enjoy a great tasting hot dogs for our lunch and thanks to those who provided side dishes for us to enjoy. We all had a great time.

Just a little note from the Hammell’s. We kept tabs on the amount of fuel we used and the price also. Jack who usually has a lead foot when he decides to drive (70 -75 mph) slowed down to 55-60 mph and was surprised at the mileage he got. Towing the 5th wheel at that speed gave us an average of 11 miles per gallon.