Hey, y’all! You have, no doubt, already heard all about this year’s 35th NKK International Rally in Lewisburg, West Virginia – so we won’t go into the details. We would, however, like to extend our sincere congratulations and appreciation to our International Directors, Ron & Wanda Llewellyn, and our Members-at-Large, Evan & Debbie Hughes, for their relentless efforts in planning and implementing this amazing event, especially within added pressures of COVID.
Our volunteer duties at this year’s rally were minimal (new coach displays and putting up, updating, and taking down the bulletin board), so we had time to attend some of the seminars and volunteer to help in several of the other areas. Ice cream social photo here We also co-hosted an “All American Apple Pie & Ice Cream Social” with Mike Vreeland (Virginia State Director) and the Virginia Wheels Chapter where 100 individual apple pies and 4 gallons of ice cream were quickly devoured! GREAT TIMES!
After leaving Lewisburg, we spent three days at the FMCA Campground in Cincinnati, Ohio, and thoroughly enjoyed the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum in nearby Kentucky. We left there heading to Bradd & Hall in Elkhart, Indiana for new furniture, but were waylaid by the dreaded “STOP ENGINE” light when we stopped for fuel. Luckily, we had pulled into a parking space to unhook the toad (instead of doing so in the fuel line), because we had to wait until the following day before we could be towed to Freightliner in New Haven, Indiana. Long story, short … it was the SCR (part of the exhaust), which has a current “Campaign” by Cummins so the cost of the part itself was covered. Of course, that doesn’t cover the cost for the tow-truck and five nights at a hotel! Oh well … that’s part of the adventure.
As we prepare this article, we are at the Newmar Service Campground for service on Pegasus (our coach). We arrived nine days ago, and with the long list of repairs and upgrades to be performed, we expect to be here a couple more days. Pegasus is a 2012 Dutch Star 4342, and while we enjoy looking at the new ones each year, we love it and have decided “it’s cheaper to keep ‘er.”
Gayle & I hope each of you are well and enjoying some beautiful travels. We’ll see many of you at the Region Five Rally (October 12-17) in Dillard, Georgia and/or the South Carolina/North Carolina Christmas at the Beach Rally (December 7-10) at Ocean Lakes Family Campground, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
As always, please reach out to us if we can answer any questions and/or address any chapter concerns you may have. We can be reached at dc3carl@gmail.com or younggrammygayle@gmail.com 704-225-7442 or 704-619-1851.
Safe travels, y’all … to wherever your Newmar takes you!
Carl and Gayle Webber (20143)
The Carolinas (NC/SC) – State Directors
