Hello from Albuquerque, NM

Hello from Albuquerque, NM

Tuesday evening March 23, 2010 (Third travelogue of this trip).

We are currently parked in the vendor dry camp area at the fairgrounds (map). This is the sight of the FMCA International Rally. In the “good old days” these rallies would attract over 7000 motorhomes. In the last few years, that number has dropped to perhaps 2500 motorhomes. It is rumored that there are only 1600 motorhomes here. We will get the official numbers in the next day or two.

When we last posted there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground. By noon, most of it has melted and later in the afternoon, I was able to wash the bus and service truck. Since then the weather has been very nice. However, it is supposed to rain late tonight and most of tomorrow. There is some mention of snow as well.

Sunday we moved from the Hollywood Casino to the fairgrounds. The parking went very smoothly (not always the case). In the afternoon we got most of the work done setting up the booth. Yesterday Pat was at the welcome center selling tickets to her two craft classes (sales were not as good as has been the case in the past). I did quite a bit of running around and a bit of rubber necking of the new motorhomes.

Today was the first day of the rally for vendors. In spite of the reported small attendance, the vendor area was pretty busy. We had a few sales and several good contacts with customers who are interested in our fire detection and suppression system. Pat did the first of her two craft classes. There were 15 people in the class including one man. Tomorrow I will do my seminar and Thursday Pat will have here second seminar.

We have two more days of vending and then we tear down on Thursday evening. We will pull out on Friday and head back to the Hollywood Casino. We will then pace ourselves to miss some storms that are predicted for the Denver area. We do not have to be home at a certain date, so we will make sure we travel in good weather conditions.

Sunday we had dinner with Gary and Karen – great friends. We then went to the Kirkland Air Force base where they are camped in the “Fam Camp” for retired military personnel. They have a beautiful Prevost bus conversion that is new to them. It is an amazing bus!

One of our readers, and best friend, pointed out that I spelled Pat incorrectly in the first post of this trip I spelled it Par. I often spell her name Pay (I think that is a Freudian slip {{{big grin}}}).

That is all for now.