Northern Exposure--Day 39

Just a quick post to bring folks up to date on our travels. We are at the Monaco International Rally in Willmar, Minnesota. We arrived here this past Sunday and have been enjoying the rally. The only WiFi connection is in the main building and we are limited in the amount of time we can spend at a time to make room for everyone. There are just over three hundred coaches here at the rally. In addition, they have all the normal vendors here to sell us all the little "extras" that RVer's buy to make their coach unique. We have been able to see many old friends from previous rallies and our travels.

Although we have been to many rallies we have never attended a Monaco International rally. This is another of the clubs sponsored by Monaco Coach Corporation. This club is much larger than our Monaco America club. Since this is our first MI rally we are considered First Timers and are expected to wear this little red ribbon on our name tags so everyone can welcome us here. On the lanyard that I have my name tag attached to I have all the "rally pins" that we collect as we attend this affairs. I get strange looks with a First Timer ribbon and all these rally pins. One thing I like that they do at the MI rallies is assign a Mentor to each First Timer. The Mentor couple meet with their assigned First Timer on the first morning of the rally and then sit with them at dinner that night. They are there to answer any questions the new folks may have about rallies, who are the officers, how to contact the vendors and suppliers, etc. We were assigned to a great couple but they learned real quick that the First Timer label for us was no totally correct. Anyway, for the true First Timer this Mentor program is a great idea and I plan to suggest that our Monaco America club incorporate it into our rallies. Here is Joanne with our Mentor's, Connie and Joe Monk.