Ray & Kathy Dyer (22237)
North Carolina Tarheels – President and Secretary

Hello everyone from the North Carolina Tarheels. We are on the road for 2023. We started with the Tampa Super Show and as always had a good time.

We are not full timers, but this year it will seem like it. We visited the Battleship USS Alabama Museum in Mobile, Alabama with the Failmezger’s.

We continued to Louisiana for a Cajun Rally. This was very educational on the growing and harvesting of the crawfish. We rode the harvest boats during some of the harvesting which is all done by hand. Later we watched the sorting by size with a machine and manually. We ate those harvested that evening at the rally. Each person started with 5 lbs. in a crawfish boil with red potatoes and corn and if you wanted more there was plenty. During the rally we had crawfish etouffee, delicious! We had crawfish gumbo one night and crawfish jambalaya another night.

We toured the Martin Accordion factory. This is a family owned and run business. We learned the history of the accordion from the construction to the internal parts and repairs. Never knew they had metal reeds which are tuned by hand. They make about 40 accordions a year and repair many more. We also learned about the several types of accordions and the styles of Cajun music. Every evening we were treated to accordion lead bands. Each band had their own style, and one style is called Zydeco, a rock style.

Leaving the Cajun Rally, we will be staying at two Navy Family Camps. I hope to see plenty of Navy jets training. Then it is on to Ft Rucker, Alabama, the Army’s helicopter training center. Kathy has never been there, and it has been several decades since I graduated from U.S. Army Flight School. I hope there is plenty of helicopter training for Kathy to see. We will also visit the US Army Aviation Museum while there.

Then it is on for service on the Ventana in Gaffney. Following is the North Carolina/South Carolina Rally in Fayetteville. Then home for a couple of weeks, soon headed to the International Rally in Sedalia, then over to the Outer Banks for Region Five. Then in July is the Rally in Mayberry. If time allows, we want to attend the Iowa State Fair. A must is to visit Kathy’s nonagenarian parents and other relatives in Iowa. The summer rallies finally taper off and we end with Christmas at the Beach in December.

We wish everyone safe and enjoyable travels. We can be reached at rodyer1@gmail.com / dyerkj@gmail.com 804-691-3309 / 804-691-9419.