Journey In God's Amazing Grace: Last things at the Rally

Friday was the closing of the Newmar Kountry Klub Rally in Sedalia -- catching up on some pictures:

The Fulltimers Chapter of the NKK put on sessions on three different afternoons addressing various aspects of the RV lifestyle

One of the presenters and his wife drive an RV named "Time Bandit" and shared some of their results using the Open Roads Fleet program for diesel fuel discounts. (We use Open Roads too and feel that it saves us a lot, but I don't have all the data calculated! What? A spreadsheet that I have not yet created?!?!?)

On Thursday, since Carl had gone back to Gracie to be there so Bauer could pick up the chairs for recovering, he decided to work on the brake light...

... he got the old one disconnected and found that the one he had ordered was not compatible in its mounting... but he also found that once he had cleaned up the connections on the old one, it seemed to work better. He thought he could get the part number off the back, but when he wiped the dust off, the numbers wiped off the back too. (Also unfortunately, when we were leaving on Saturday, the brake light was back to the same dim lighting... so we are guessing we'll need to order one that fits the mounting.) On a positive note, we found that we could indicate that we were returning the one we had ordered online on Amazon, and then drop it off at Staples, no need to package it in anything more than the box that the light came in, and Staples/Amazon would send it back with no shipping costs required.

At another of the Full Timers sessions, the Time Bandit owners shared a tip on how they keep the cockpit of the rig cool -- they have a tension rod installed just behind the captains chairs and a shower curtain liner to separate the cockpit from the rest of the rig -- and then the dash air only needs to cool the cockpit area.

Sunset Thursday night

On Friday, the seminars were winding up (the vendors all want to present earlier in the week so attendees have time to take advantage of their services during the rally)...

So we attended one on Friday morning entitled "Yoked - You'll Laugh, Cry & Hear of 'Life on the Trail'!" by Kevin Steele. His title slide had a picture of his Corgi showing "Woke Leadership"...

The description of the seminar had indicated:

This workshop/seminar begins with a brief history of my work experiences including a 28-year affiliation with Mercedes-Benz and 14 years in the RV business. Quickly, we'll move into many situations outlining our abilities and disabilities of life. As an avid RVer, I promise this has something for everyone!

So, we weren't really sure what to expect -- but as he started, he changed the text on his title slide to "Yoked Leadership", and proceeded to tell us stories from his life.

He shared this picture as an example of a good leader -- a scout that goes out and discovers the dangers ahead, but then who turns around and comes back and helps the wagon train members get settled in for the night, helping to fix things that have gotten broken or to provide advice and counsel on avoiding the hazards coming.

In his work with Mercedez-Benz, he managed a large project building a new dealership facility in Scottsdale, AZ -- part of that process involved ensuring that the facility complied with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). He hadn't really thought about disabilities and their needs... but became more aware during that process. He asked if any of us travel with someone who is disabled...

He then shared about his wife, Nancy, having a stroke in 2005, and their progress through diagnosis and treatment and their needs for ADA facilities in buildings and campgrounds -- and the varying degrees of support for a disabled person... he talked about getting an RV and then getting one with a wheelchair lift and roll-in shower, the challenges of ensuring that they had oxygen onboard and power for the machines that Nancy needed to maintain her life. And then he challenged us to consider that, in reality, we are all disabled in one way or another, some visible, some not...

Are these disabilities or choices?

He also challenged us to approach folks who are physically disabled, getting down on their level to talk, determining how we can help them in their daily lives.

Hmmm, needs thought!

Kevin shared toward the end of his presentation that Nancy had passed away earlier this year (2023) -- Carl and I were shocked that he would have been able to present this session.

He ended his session with this:

It was quite a different session than others we had attended, but with some great thoughts and things that will continue to come back to mind.

Friday afternoon was the Newmar Kountry Klub Annual Business Meeting and Closing Ceremonies.

A couple of funnies from that... the Fairground Event manager shared with us that he had been out for lunch one day this past week, and another of the diners suddenly started shouting, "I won an RV! I won an RV!" Other folks looked on in interest as she waved her restaurant receipt around. The manager came out and looked at her receipt and calmly said, "It says 'Win a Bagel'..."

The Event manager also asked our group a question: "Does every Newmar come with a complementary Jeep?"

(A side note funny -- there were show coaches inside one of the buildings on the grounds, but there were 4 show coaches which did not fit inside the building, so they were displayed out in the parking lot outside that building. On Thursday afternoon, Carl and I were going into the show coach building to attend a seminar, and as we were crossing the fairground roadway, a man in an older sedan (with a bit of bondo on the back corner) stopped us with a question... "Are they going to be auctioning these RVs off this weekend?" Ah, no, I don't think so...)

Some numbers -- There were 435 RV units and 870 individuals attending the rally. First time attendees accounted for 193 units and 390 individuals. Newmar sent 60 technicians to work on coaches at the rally, and they performed 402 service calls over the 3.5 days that they were scheduled to perform services. The states with the most units attending were Florida and Texas with 37 units each. The Fulltimers chapter had 57 units attending.

The evening ended with the Farewell Dinner: