International T@B Rally at Sunset Lakes

Millie, Mom, and I just returned from the 3rd International T@B Rally out in the Quad Cities. About 44 trailers attended-- many folks I had already known from previous rallies, but I also got to meet some new folks too. I gave a seminar on various technologies for the road (portable TV, wifi, & cellular), and also took the group photo above. Others gave seminars on dutch oven cooking, T@B electrical systems, and various modifications made to their trailers. Each night we had great food and/or entertainment (one night even featured an outdoor movie of Lucy & Desi's "The Long Long Trailer" which was fun).

The rally was held at a pretty RV resort called Sunset Lakes-- which really lived up to it's name one night with this spectacular sunset--


Most of us got big shady sites along the lake which worked out great for me as I could launch my canoe right from my campsite and could paddle around to see the other T@Bs from the water.

Millie had a great time as well playing frisbee every morning in the dew-covered grass and going swimming every hot & humid afternoon to cool off. After a swim, she'd come in to lay down on her raised canvas bed to drip-dry-- what a perfect dog vacation!

Midwest T@B Rally at Starved Rock

Judi, a retired teacher from the Iowa Quad Cities, was one of the original people to buy a T@B when they first came out in 2004. She previously had a VW Camper Van and loved how much the T@B's interior reminded her of that. When we first met out at the Minden Rally, we both were amazed at how many other Midwest T@B owners we met, so we both commented that we should do a Midwest rally in the Fall.

We finally got serious about rally plans in late August. Judi suggested Starved Rock State Park in Illinois as it was about 1/2 way between both our homes and would also be fairly easy for others to get to being right off of I-80. So, we agreed on a weekend in mid-October and posted the rally information to the Yahoo T@B forum.

For the first week or so, no one signed up. We both started to think we'd be the only ones there! But, soon enough, folks started signing up--- so many, that we feared we might not find sites for every one. It all worked out in the end and the weekend was a delightful time for the 12 T@Bs, 1 Tent, and 24 T@Bbers who attended!

Starved Rock Lodge was having their Oktoberfest, so we planned our first night's dinner there...

The next night we had the traditional rally activities of a T@B Tour (where even some non-T@B folks from the campground came to take the tour!), followed by an enormous pot luck dinner, gift exchange, and campfire. Here are Millie and I showing off our tent during the tour (more rally pics are posted on the Shutterfly T@B Rally site)...

All and all, it was a terrific time with folks of all ages attending from as far away as Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois. We all vowed to meet up again in the Spring for our next rally....so now it's just a matter of Judi and I finding a place, setting a date, and getting it all planned out again!

Bit by bit...putting it together

One would think that after my hellish vacation experiences with my first Subaru, that I'd be looking for new cars the minute I came home. Well... Jody, the Subaru customer service manager who I'd been talking to daily during my car problems out West, also anticipated this. The day after I got home, she called to say "I'm guessing that you might not ever want to see that black Subaru again. Am I right?" Of course she was!

So, she pulled a few more strings at Subaru headquarters in New Jersey (where she works), and put me in touch with another dealer in Chicago who was tasked with getting me a replacement car. I told him I was flexible on the options and almost any color...except for black! Within a couple weeks, he found me a beautiful blue and silver Outback.

One night, I decided to make a formal portrait of Mom, Millie, and I in front of the new car to print and send to Jody at Subaru as a thank you for all the hard work she did on our behalf.

So now with the car problem solved, and a beautiful Labor Day weekend on the horizon, I was starting to go through serious camping withdrawls! I had gone out to my T@B dealer hoping I might be happy with buying one of their models off the lot, but none of them were quite right, so I ended up placing a special order for a new one....and would only need to wait about 12 weeks for delivery!

To make the wait more bearable, I decided to do two things: 1. Buy a tent so I could still do a little bit of camping this season, and 2. Plan to co-host a T@B Rally with a T@B friend I had met out at Minden. I figured if I couldn't have a T@B myself for a while, the next best thing would be to hang out around them and their owners for a weekend.

I decided to go with an LL Bean tent that matched my new blue car. Millie and I took it out to White Pines State Park for Labor Day weekend to christen it. Tent camping again was fun, but I had forgotten what a chore it was to pack and unpack all the camping gear into the back trunk (with the T@B "always packed", I had only needed to hitch it up and go). But it was sure better than not getting to be outdoors at all!