Happiness or Fat Pills?

Today was the first full day of the Western Gypsy Gathering Rally we’re attending in Yuma. It began at 7:30 am with Coffee & Donuts provided by one of the vendors. Behind-the-scenes, it really began at 6:15 am for Miss Terry, who got up early to start the coffee pots perking and get things organized. The rest of us volunteers started at 7 am setting up the donut line. Mmmmm. Those donuts sure looked good, so we had to sample one before the customers arrived – you know, research. All went as smooth as silk and everyone had a good time and got their morning sugar and caffeine rush. Before we knew it, it was 9am and time for the seminars to begin.

"What's in that one?"

Chuck and I both attended the Electrical Management Systems seminar given by Daryl Lawrence. He was an excellent instructor and really made it easy (at least for me, Chuck’s an old pro at this stuff being an Electronics Technician all his life) to understand the difference between things like Amps (think of amps as a gallon of water – the amount of power you have to draw from) and Volts (the quality of the power you’re getting). He also explained why you can’t rely just on surge protectors to keep your electronics safe, telling us that an actual surge is something that is exceedingly rare and that one has more risk from open grounds and reversed polarities at campground electrical connections. I could go on with an entire article based soley on his presentation – it was that informative (sample handout). And I didn’t fall asleep or forget it all! That’s saying something, as it seems like most presenters of the more technical subject matters either assume you understand it all already, or seem as if they’re reading verbatim from a college text book. Daryl brought it down to the laymen’s level and made it interesting as well. Great class!

One of the many seminars in progress

For the rest of the day, Chuck and I took a divide-and-conquer approach to the several seminars offered and each attended different seminars simultaneously with the idea of sharing what we learned with each other later on. Chuck went on to Improving Engine Performance by Major Wingfield, followed by The Perfect Alaska RV Adventure by John Holod, and ended the day Geocaching with Barbara Westerfield with her two-part Geocaching and Outdoor Demonstration classes. Chuck said he got a lot out of her seminar and now finally knows how to use our Delorme Earthmate PN-40 GPS to find caches! Turns out the Geocaching seminar was immensely popular and had the highest number of attendees from any other seminar of the day.

Cheryl & Nick enjoying the donuts

I attended Inside Information From Your RV Service Center by Keith Shumaker, a For Women Only Roundtable, and Honey, Let’s Clean the RV by Janet Trannum. It didn’t seem fair that Chuck got to play hide-and-seek in the Geocaching seminar while I got the cleaning seminar, but it actually worked out great. I can go Geocaching anytime, but I learned a lot of great tips for cleaning the RV (inside and out) that are perfect for anyone RVing – or living in a stationary house. The tips I learned will make cleaning easier in the long run, and more environmentally friendly and GREEN. I’m a BIG proponent of natural products vs chemical, so that was a plus.

After a long day, we met back up with the entire group for some more door prizes and some fun with Nick. He’s such a nice man and a really funny guy! David Bradley gave another concert tonight as well. So far, this rally has met our expectations and then some. We’re looking forward to more seminars tomorrow.