BOCI Rallies
"Oregon Trails"
BOCI's Second Annual Rally, Hammond, Oregon
July 24 - 27, 2005
View photos from the Oregon Trails Rally
Our outgoing first couple, President (and club founder) Ric and Linda Allen, ended their two year reign with a terrific rally that took months of effort to accomplish. With 70 sites filled this year, we doubled attendance from our first rally, "California Dreamin', held in Temecula, California last year. Since we now have about 1400 total members internationally, it was impressive that so many of us were able to gather in one spot at the same time! We came from 10 states (the furthest was Florida) and two Canadian provinces (British Columbia and Alberta).
The weather was perfect and Oregon was green and gorgeous. The Astoria/Seaside KOA treated us royally and we made lots of use of their facilities for our seminars, activities, displays and entertainment. We began by bussing to Seaside for dinner at -- where else -- The Bigfoot Steakhouse. Sculptures of Bigfoot greeted us and the food was great. For the rest of the rally we were spoiled with catered breakfasts and huge, delicious dinner buffets.
Our seminars were excellent and so informative. Fred's RV World provided us with lots of good information and was available to us throughout the entire rally, as were most of the other presenters. Fred's also had about eight new Bigfoot campers, trailers and motorhomes on display, including the new 4000 series Kodiak, a Class A in disguise. What a rig!
Excellent seminars were presented by Banks Engineering, who also offered special rally pricing, as well as "Banks Bucks Certificates" for the raffles. Onan's Canadian OEM Manager, who works directly with Bigfoot Industries, explained generator operations, applications and maintenance of the genset. Miller RV Insurance gave us some useful facts of life; Schwab's Tire taught us much about tires and treads for comfort, performance and safety; Xantrex explained inverter systems; Bigfoot Industries answered lots of questions; and All Pro Water Flow was a fountain of information on maintaining black, grey and hot water tanks. Their special camera allowed us to peek into Ric's holding tank and quite a few of us requested their unique Hydro-Jet tank cleaning service so that we could resume our journeys afresh with clean tanks and monitor sensors that worked . Fantasy Tours tantalized us with a presentation on Baja California, and offered us a special Bigfoot caravan in 2007. They also provided a marvelous gift worth $700 for our raffles. Speaking of raffles, lots and lots of nifty items were raffled off every day and one lucky Bigfooter won a $500 cash prize!
Our four-legged friends were included, too, when an impromptu dog show took place. It was so much fun that we'll surely have to plan one for the next rally. Besides going to the dogs, some of us took the opportunity to visit historic Ft. Stevens, located directly across the road from us. Others explored Seaside and Astoria.
At our business meeting, we installed and welcomed our new President -- Michael Greenlee -- and passed a motion recommending that next year's rally be held at Mt. Rushmore (That recommendation is currently being considered by the board of directors).
The Dance Machine was a good and lively musical group that got us up on our feet and dancing. Hey, Chuck, besides being a talented artist photographer and all around interesting person, you sure can cut a rug! And, Big Al, we can't wait to see all the video you were shooting ... or do we pay ya NOT to show it?!
This splendid event could not have been accomplished without an army of helpers. We thank Ric and Linda Allen, our great leaders. And thanks to Linda Johnson and Mel Kanner for helping to find this good site. Our hard-working Rally Committee (Al Sandberg, Mike Holmes, Del Chase, Audrey Yager, Pat Maloney, Charlie Beauchamp , Linda Allen & Al Enger), plus Jan Romero, Elaine & Jack Willoughby, Jack &Louise Throne and Pat Thorp, plus all the terrific folks who later volunteered to clean up, sell tickets and fill in where needed. Great job, Gang!! A special mention to Louise Throne for the many hours she contributed doing graphic design and producing all the name tags and other projects.
Last, but not least, thanks to Bigfoot Industries and their supportive staff for continuing to sanction and support BOCI and our activities.
See y'all next year. Better yet, see ya at some of the mini-rallies!
BOCI Roving Reporter
Dolores Westfall
View photos from the Oregon Trails Rally