Beaver Rally Day 3

Ok I agree 8am is too early, it’s 38 degrees and I can see my breath, but the whole coffee thing is drawing everyone out, breakfast this morning is biscuits and gravy, with scrambled eggs, and some juice. Everything was good but there was a breeze making the chill seem just a little cooler.

Today’s morning seminar was on general coach maintenance, and some things to look out for, a few phone numbers, for specific items and or some guidance for repairs. I was pleased to find out most issues I have run across that I had found the same names such as the Amish in Indiana for our cooling unit in our refrigerator. But there were some tips that will come in very handy.

Our afternoon seminar was put on by FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) it is an organization that offers a number of different programs and discounts. While it offers a number of benefits, these are very limited in value for Canadians, and with everything else costs are driving up prices. There road side assistance is doubling in price and at $150 a year in US dollars is not a good value for us, and while a large organization, I think they are struggling to prove their value, having just recently opening up to all forms of RV’s not just coaches.

This afternoons beaver games were beaver races with paramutual wagering on the outcomes, we were assured it was all above board with Arizona’s gambling regulations…but I’m a little suspect.

There has been a breeze all day and while in the seventies, the breeze has been cool when out of the sun, there is a storm heading across the country and we had some cloud today but that was all. Dinner tonight was the taco stew, served with taco chips, salad and desert, while very good was more the consistency of soup than stew, again with the breeze and the cool night we retired to the warmth of the coach. The announcement this evening was that breakfast would be pushed back to 9am from the regular 8 o’clock, see it pays to complain.

Beaver Rally Day 2

Day 2 of the rally was our day to help with meal preparation, so at 7am I’m off to try to help, breakfast this morning consists of French toast, scrambled eggs, ham, served with coffee, and fruit. Because there is only four rally days, there are four work crews, of about twenty five which other than a few key players at cook stations there was a lot of us just being spectators. Breakfast seemed to go off well although there were a few complaints about the 8am mess call, keeping in mind in the desert at sunrise the temperature is high thirty’s low forty’s.

Today was diesel Dave’s seminar, a lot of the Beaver coach’s have Caterpillar diesels, Dave is a factory trained technician that worked up until recently, but retired at age 69 and now just presents informational seminars of a few things to keep our Cat power plants running well. He also still maintains his diagnostic equipment and offers to do diagnostic readings and make any recommendations. So I had Thunder checked out and found only one small issue with an idle control that showed up last time about 300 hours ago, the diagnostic print out has a plethora of information, but all in all we are in great shape and averaging over 8.5 mpg which is pretty good.

The afternoon seminar was about the BAC (Beaver Ambasador Club) forum, this was the main reason for our joining the club, was to be able to draw on the knowledge of others that had already experienced many of the issues that we were running across. I have mentioned before that it seemed to be of good value in locations issues.

Wednesday brought on a men against ladies base ball match, it is played using a board similar to cornhole only with multiple holes, it was a nine inning game and the men did come out victorious, so rumours have indicated a rematch on Friday afternoon.

Our evening meal was beef stew with biscuits, which brought on the conclusion of our teams duties, deserts were plentiful and we found ourselves heading off to the comforts of our coach after a busy day and passed on the fire side with music