Northern Exposure--Day 41

We wrapped up the Monaco International rally last night. Today the coaches that are going to the Family Motor Coach Association rally in St. Paul are forming up to travel together, caravan style. There are well over 200 coaches that will be traveling the 100+ miles to the Fair Grounds in St. Paul. We are just sitting around waiting for them to leave before we get on the highway north.

The rally did not end without a little excitement. Last night, while sitting awaiting dinner, the storm sirens went off in the town of Willmar. We were located on the northeast edge of Willmar at the Civic Center. We had approximately 350 luxury Monaco coaches parked all around the buildings. These included some 30 brand new units that had been brought from the Monaco factories and were on display for sale. The moderator was able to calm most folks down while someone went to check on what was happening. The building we were using for our meetings and meals is the towns hockey arena. The locker rooms were built out of solid concrete and are used as storm shelters. It was not long before we were asked to very orderly file into the locker rooms, which almost everyone did. (After all the years we've lived in Oklahoma this was the first time either of us went to a storm shelter.) Instead of moving into the shelter a couple of guys went outside to take pictures. This is a picture of what was just a couple miles south of our location.

One of the things that I did during the rally was get another "plaque" for the back of our coach. Most RVer's have plaques attached to their coach indicating the RV clubs of which we are members. We have plaques for our three largest clubs. I had a new plaque made to show those following along behind who we are. We also had a sign made for the front of the coach. This one is only put up when we are parked and is held on by suction cups.