In the summer of ’06, we went to Salem, OR for the Wally Byam Caravan Club, International (WBCCI) rally. Since the rally was a week long, we didn’t have too much time to sightsee on either side of it.

Our first night was in Redding, CA at the Premiere RV Resort campground. It was interesting to ‘return’ here. My parents owned this campground as a KOA from 1971 until 1980. A lot has changed in that time but it was fun to look around. Here is what you see when you come in:

What you don’t see is that it hit 122° on the day we got there. It was hot all the way up the valley. I was concerned about tire temperature so I did not go much over 60mph. The first thing we noticed was that the refrigerator was not working well. I was suprised since the refrigerator was about 2 years old and had not given us any trouble. That was a point of concern. We also noticed that the plastic tab that keeps the medicine cabinet above the bathroom sink had broken. It was now swinging free.

The next morning didn’t prove much cooler but I knew we were going to a higher altitude. We stopped at a few RV shops to look for the elusive part for the medicine cabinet. We used a bungee cord to keep the door closed. We didn’t find the part. So we headed north.

The next stop was the KOA at Sisters, OR. Sisters is a cute little town. It appears that many come up there from the Portland area for R&R. We saw a few Airstreams in some of the other RV parks. We noticed that some of them had dates and times stuck in their windows. We didn’t know what this was all about, yet.

Driving back from ‘downtown’ Sisters that evening, I noticed a weigh station that was showing zero on the display. Someone left it on! I had always wondered about the weight of our rig but never had the time to check it out. I had weighed the both the truck and trailer together in Bakersfield one time and the total weight was 15,000 lbs. I was surprised since I knew the GVWR of the trailer was 6300 lbs. This meant my truck was close to 9,000 lbs?!?!? I was able to weigh it that night and, yes, the truck weighed around 8,500+ lbs. WOW!

After that it was to the rally.  One of the reasons for going to Sisters the night before was to make sure that we were at the local fairgrounds BEFORE 4pm.  That was the latest of each day that they would park you on the grounds.  If you were there after that time, you had to spend the night there (or elsewhere) and get parked the next day.  You see, 4pm is the magical ‘happy hour’ time.  One afternoon I rode my bike over to the ‘bullpen’ at 4:15 and saw no WBCCI officials but a few trailers getting ready to spend the night.

We got there around 2pm and after a very brief interaction showing our registration, etc., we were parked.  We were in the blue section and the end of a row.  One side of our trailer was on dry grass and the other was on asphalt (I have a shot of this in the photos section).  We DID have power (30amp) provided by a very large generator down the row.  However, it would shut off sometimes which was not good for our DirecTivo unit.  We also had water in a daisy-chain fashion (trailer to trailer).  Sewage was pumped out once when we were there.  A truck came around and they attached to your drain and essentially sucked it out.

At the top of this page is a panorama shot from our trailer.  We had very nice people parked by us, one was Rich C. that very graciously had a wireless hotspot setup in his trailer and invited all to use it that wanted to.  So in the evenings I would go outside, sit down with my laptop and get on the ‘net.  We made it to most of the evening programs where they had a lot of ‘old people’ entertainment.  It was OK to sit there and watch because we got to sit.

Airstream had about half of their service department there running around on golf carts and fixing people’s trailers.  They also had a parts store going.  Great!  I can get my cabinet latch from them.  I went up to the parts manager and she said she knew exactly what that was but they don’t make them anymore.  No source for a replacement.  Alas, I am still looking for a replacement and we are still using the bungee cord.  George M. Sutton RV was there to sell new and used Airstreams.  We got to see a few models but did not get to see the Front Bedroom Classic since someone bought it the first day and removed it from the floor.

There were things to do at the rally but very few that attracted our interest.  There was one talk about wheel, axle and trailer loading that was very good and made me realize that I was running my tires at too low a PSI.  Since the activities were so slow, we took a few afternoons to go visit some other sites.

First up was the Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Aviation museum:

Next was Silver Falls State Park:

The last full day of the rally was the 4th of July (Wally Byam‘s birthday).  All that we saw going on was the WBCCI parade and an Elvis impersonator at the evening show.  We decided that we would pass and leave a day early.  By doing this we changed a single day 400 mile drive to a 2 day, 200 mile each day drive.  Much better.  We also got to camp right on the Rogue river at the RiverPark RV resort.  We even talked with a few vintage owners there.

The next day we travelled to Humboldt Redwoods State Park (below) for a couple of nights.  Along the route we saw many other Airstreams, probably heading home also.

We made a stop at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield.  We were going to take the tour but the line was too long.  We made it to our last stop, the Stockton/Delta KOA for one night.

Headed home the next day.  Why does the last 100 miles seem to take the longest?

All in all, I am glad that we went.  We will NOT be going to this years rally in Perry, GA.  Summertime in Georgia does not sound like a good idea to me.  We will plan to go to the rally in 2008 in Bozeman, MT.  The last time the WBCCI, in 1989, was there, they had around 5000 trailers and LOTS of MUD!