We Are FamAlly!

We arrived at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds Monday, May 29, two days prior to the 2023 Alliance Owner's Rally to get settled in before the official Wednesday start. And much to our surprise, the fairground venue was already buzzing with activity. Approximately 85% of the Rally attendees had shown up already! When we talked to many of them, they told us that Sunday was crazy busy, so I'm glad we scheduled our arrival on Monday afternoon instead.

Our first scheduled item upon arrival was to get the truck and trailer weighed; this only took about 15 minutes. From the weighing station, we drove to the check-in area and were escorted to our site in the northeast area of the fairgrounds. The site was on grass and quite spacious compared to some other full hookup areas. We had 30 amp electrical and water but no sewer, which is never a problem for our rig's capacity. We were parked between Sean and Kathy from Erie, PA and Mike and Maggie from Indiana; two lovely couples who we would see and occasionally hang out with over the next 5 days.

Even though the Rally didn't officially kick off until Wednesday morning, the playful spirit of this RV community was evident throughout the fairground. There were RV's parked side by side as far as the eye could see, We saw E-bikes, golf carts, flags and banners flying along with many rigs circled with clusters of folding camping chairs around fire pits. We heard and observed groups of gathered friends and acquaintances in happy conversation with laughter filling the air throughout the energized fairground setting. The anticipation was electric as "Allies" got ready for the 2023 Alliance Rally.

On Tuesday afternoon Karen and I picked up our welcome bag full of "goodies" and had a light lunch of pulled pork sliders and "Texas style" margaritas courtesy of a group of Texas Allies...yahoo! Wednesday morning we headed to the main event building for the first breakfast. Upon entry into the building it became clearly visible just how popular the Ally Rally has become as we looked for a table; ots of people from one end of this massive building to the other. According to Alliance hosting staff, 288 RV's were on the property with 600 registered attendees at this Rally event.

For the next three days we attended owner empowerment workshops, shopped for RV items we didn't need, ate some great catered meals and hung out with old and new friends. We met Dave and Donna from Cape Cod, Mass and connected again with Brad and Bonnie from Battle Creek, MI. Friday night was the "Hawaiian" themed potluck dinner. We had enough food to feed three times the number of attendees. During dinner the two team finalists competed in the corn hole competition on the stage. Following dinner, the Alliance staff announced that this years attendees helped raise over $16,000 for the Elkhart County Boys and Girls Club during the silent auction event. The evening ended with the rally raffle numbers being pulled including Karen's raffle ticket and she won a Magic Bullet personal kitchen assistant...so I guess I'm off the hook!

Finally, a big shout out and thanks to the Alliance RV team! The company management, customer service, factory and maintenance staffers who put on this complex and comprehensive event treated us well. While we were all having a great time eating, drinking and making merriment, an army of trucks and golf carts from the service team ran from one RV to the next addressing equipment problems, large and small, to one and all in attendance. Alliance RV staffers YOU ROCK! You really live up to the company motto, "We do the right thing".