Escapade Rally and Weighty Matters

Tucson, AZ (95 degrees, blue skies, windy)

Boomer BOF Group

Opening Ceremony

We thoroughly enjoyed attending the Escapade Rally (March 14-18th) in Tucson Arizona. This is the BIG annual rally held in different locations with Escapees (click link for more info). We've belonged to this RV travel club long before we started fulltiming and our first Escapade was in Goshen Indiana where we attended a Boot Camp and John took advantage of a RV Driving School (click link for more details. It's a "must do" event in our opinion for anyone owning a RV. 

This rally was held at the Pima County Fairgrounds. This time we are so glad to have opted for full hooks up because it was very hot. Our dog, Jimmy, does not tolerate hot weather very well and since he'd be in the motorhome most of the time while we were attending events it was important to keep him comfortable.  After all, he is a King (King Cavalier) and only deserves the very best. 

After our experience with FMCA we were so impressed with how quickly our rig was parked and pleased with our location. We arrived early to take advantage of a  two day class offered by Geeks on Tour. It was a class all about handling your photos. For years I've organized my photos with Picassa but it's no longer being supported by Google. This class went into depth about a free cloud based product called Google Photos. Now all my pictures regardless of how they were taken can by seen on my Smartphone or computer.  I can edit them easily, post them on Facebook, or get them ready for my blog so much easier.  Plus, they are completely backed up on the cloud. So, if my computer crashes or my phone drowns my pictures are safely stored.

I initially was not happy to hear that Google had abandoned Picassa and concerned about yet another learning curve. However, it was super easy to use and I think it will work out much better. The Geeks on Tour classes are great. This two day class cost me an additional $59 but well worth every penny.  Chris and Jim explain everything so well and I received lots of tools to use for reference in the future.  

There were lots of educational classes included at the rally to choose from and again John and I split up and tried to attend as many as possible.  Some of the classes we attended included:

Understanding RV Electrical Systems

Driving Your RV Safely

Free Camping on Public Lands

It's a Weighty Matter

Autumn in New England

Living a Longer Healthier Life

Travel to Alaska

Are You Smarter Than Your Smart TV

RV Travel to Mexico

Make Your RV More Livable

Volunteering 101

plus much more

Most of the classes were very informative. However, a few were more of an infomercial for a product. I think FMCA does a better job of being sure this is less of an issue.

The entertainment each night was great. We especially loved the first evening performance called Native Spirit  with Indian hoop dancing and the Star Gazer Party. This evening was spent looking up into the night sky and the presenter told us all about the constellations. It was great. 

We also enjoyed "The Row" where you find out about the campgrounds owned or cooped through the Escapees. Plus lots of the bird of a feather groups had  information telling you about what they have to offer. We belong to Boomers and enjoy attending the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta and Quartzsite with them whenever possible. There are birds of a feather groups for everything such as military, quilting, geocaching, travel to Mexico, and much more. 

Star Gazer Party

Now to the Weighty Matters:  At the end of the rally we signed up to have our motorcoach weighed under a special program offered by Escapees called Smart Weigh.  You drive your rig up to their area as you are leaving and go up onto a scale for each tire.  When you sign up a special work sheet is given to you where lots of information is added prior to the weighing to help with this evaluation.

Coach being weighed ahead of us

We attended a class before we started RVing which emphasized the dangers of being over weight. They mentioned at the time just because you have lots of cabinets, closets, and bay storage does not mean your coach can handle all the weight of the items being stuffed into them. When we bought our coach a sticker inside told us we had 3000 pounds of cargo carrying capacity. This weight includes people, food, clothing, lawn chairs, grill, and everything not originally built into the coach. After we bought it and filled it up with our stuff six years ago at the Escapade Rally we had it weighed and knew it was under this limit. Now it's been a few years and stuff drifts in and not necessarily out. We've always been very cautious about weight but not sure how well we were doing.

Smart Weigh states its important to keep in mind three aspects of being overloaded.

•  1st aspect is that the reliability and durability of your RV will be diminished

•  2nd aspect is your personal safety may be jeopardized from a blown out tire and possibly being stranded on a busy highway

•  3rd aspect is you now need to consider the legal aspect. Being overweight could result in a negative verdict in the event of an accident in which you are involved.  

So, how did we do???  We passed!  What did we learn?  We needed to shift a few things around the balance the load better on each axle.  In addition, we learned our front tire pressure was not correct. We also learned a full water tank added 958 pounds. Traveling with a full tank can definitely put you over the limit.

We are considering adding solar panels and wanted to know if our rig could handle the weight. It turns out we can and the renovation being planned this fall will be OK too. This cost us $45 and well worth the piece of mind. If you cannot attend an Escapade they have three locations where you can have this done. Click here for more information. After our renovations this fall we will stop by Bushnell Florida and check again just to be sure. 

This urged us to still go through the whole coach inside and out and  make some "purge decisions" In a week we managed to eliminate another 200 pounds. The added bonus is our cupboards are more organized and we got rid of clutter that accumulates with life on the road.

Tucson is one of our favorite cities in Arizona. Being able to attend this rally was lots of fun and educational too.  Our next blog will be about some more travels in Arizona.