Last day of 2022 FMCA Tucson Rally

Saturday was the last day of the 2022 FMCA Tucson Rally.

We started with coffee/tea and doughnuts and listening to the Frustrated Maestros...

I think we were told that the saxophone player is a new member of the Maestros and that he had previously worked at Walt Disney World in Florida.

We visited more of the vendors, and then went outside to see some of the show coaches.

Carl wanted to be able to look at the inside of this class B (van) with pop-up area on top.

This was the area on top - it is hard to see in the picture, but it was a roomy area!

Carl says, "Our next toad!"

It was nice... but I don't think it is going to be a toad... You can kind of see the pop-up area from the outside.

... at $94K+... nope!

We had a couple from the Frustrated Maestros come and share music with us at devotions. They sang a Johnny Cash song, "Over the Next Hill We'll be Home" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uQztudzJIQ)

After devotions, we stopped to see some of the big Class A Entegra coaches... I didn't think to take pictures of them inside (or outside) - suffice to say they are very nice looking...

I did take a picture of the locking mechanism on the refrigerator because we could use a better solution and I wanted to get the brand and model information!

We saw a 44B Anthem (~44' long)...

... and a 40P Aspire (~40' long

This was the price on the 40' Aspire... the Anthem was north of $450K show price...

We are very happy with Gracie!

Some other pictures from the rally:

There was a "Picture Yourself In Tucson: Magical Photo Machine" where you could take a picture of yourself automatically with the provided backdrop:

We did this one on Friday, and didn't realize until we looked at the picture later that, unfortunately, the lighting made a bad reflection on our glasses...

So we went back on Saturday and tried various ways of holding our heads to avoid light reflection on our glasses...

... no reflection, but we're not looking at the camera...

... ok, we're kinda looking at the camera...

I am not certain what about the lighting made any whites look so bright -- my teeth are definitely not that white, and neither is Carl's beard.

In appreciation for our volunteer efforts with the parking team, we were given a copy of the "official aerial photo", taken on Thursday afternoon from 400 feet up by a DJI Mavic 3 drone. Fifteen photos were magically combined into one:

Pretty cool, huh?

By the numbers: The family count for FMCA's 104th International Convention & RV Expo came to 1507; this figure includes 1,373 family RVs and 134 family Passports (day visitors, not staying onsite). The total commercial RV count was 230 (I think this includes RVs of the vendors as well as the show coaches). Overall total RV count for the convention was 1,603! The average number of people in an RV is 2, so there were 3000+ family attendees.

We have enjoyed the convention / rally more than we anticipated -- not that we weren't anticipating to enjoy it, but we weren't sure what to expect, and it has been great. We've met new friends, reconnected with old friends, and have felt it was well worth the time and money invested -- even the additional work that volunteering for parking involved!!!