Great BBQ and great company, what better way to spend a few hours on a Saturday. The SNU lunch at Carolina Kitchen in Sparks was well attended and as usual we had a good time catching up with what everyone has been doing. SNU members at the lunch included Gary & Anita, Roger, Janet & Jennifer, Jerry & Dyann, Randy & Vicki, Diane, Gene & Kathy, Eric & Terry and Brian & Jeni. Eric is having fun learning about shoveling snow. He & Terry just moved up here from Southern CA last spring so this is a new adventure for them. Even out in Fallon, Jerry & Dyann have gotten more snow than they have seen before and still have some on the ground in the shady areas. We all got a laugh from Melissa’s recent facebook post that she has so much snow there is no place to shovel it to so she was considering putting a post on Craigs list for free one week old snow. Wonder if she would get any takers? Gene & Kathy just got home from a trip to Colorado. Brian & Jeni are looking forward to some cycling adventures this summer. All of us are keeping busy with various projects and looking forward to warmer weather. The only business we discussed was the nominations for Region 12 officers. We spent a little time sharing some ideas about upcoming rallies both 2017 rallies and some possibilities for 2018. I think we are all getting anxious to get the Airstreams out of hibernation. We are looking forward to campfires, shared meals, new adventures, and spending some time in some of our favorite rally sites. In the meantime, we are looking forward to trying out a new restaurant for our February luncheon.
Yummy! The SNU lunch at El Aguila was great. This was a new venue for the SNU and I think everyone agrees, we will schedule future luncheons here. Wheels & Doris were great hosts. They greeted everyone at the door. We had a nice big room to ourselves. The food, as you can see from the picture was plentiful and delicious. SNU members who enjoyed this lunch in addition to Wheels & Doris, were Kevin & Sherry, Jerry & Dyann, Anita & Gary, Randy, Diane and new member, Susie. We were missing a few people who were under the weather. The Lemmon Valley contingent almost didn’t make it because it had been snowing all morning. We called Wheels and he said it was sunny and no snow in Gardnerville. Sure enough, the weather cleared the further south we got. It was great to meet Susie. She is new to Airstreaming and we are all looking forward to helping her learn about and enjoy her new Airstream. Another enjoyable lunch with good food and good company. Now it’s time to start getting the Airstreams ready for the rally season and be ready for the March rally at Lahontan.
The SNU Spring Breakout Rally at Lahontan was a success. Nobody sprung a leak, all systems seemed to be functioning, and nobody left any critical items at home. Before heading to the rally Eric put numbers on his and Terry’s Airstream. Eric also had to tighten a few screws and rivets. Bryan & I got to test out our new Buddy heater. Bryan has it set up to run off the trailer propane supply as well as portable bottles. It worked great and we were wondering why we didn’t get a Buddy heater years ago. Jerry & Dyann have made the biggest changes. Among other upgrades, they replaced the carpet and upholstery in their Moho. They sanded and refinished the wood flooring and polished the wood cabinetry. I think they also installed a new water heater. During the rally, several other projects got taken care of. These included replacing the kitchen faucet, replacing the fuses in the new captains chairs and fixing the kitchen light. We all got to enjoy Jerry & Dyann’s “new” Moho since it acted as the SNU mobile club house and provided a nice place for dinners. The weather at Lahontan turned out great despite some ify forecasts. Thursday in particular was almost perfect. Sunny, warm and almost no breeze. Friday evening a little system went through which didn’t amount to much except some wind. This was a rare SNU rally with waterfront parking. We were all amazed at the amount of water in Lahontan and it’s still going up. One of the entertainments at the rally was watching the water level rise on our little overflow area pond. Water rose almost a foot a day while we were there. Meals as usual provided another entertainment. We had pizza on Thursday. Friday & Saturday were our usual shared meals. A lot of the weekend was spent relaxing, enjoying the views and catching up on news, adventures, and future plans & projects. I think we are all set, ready to go and looking forward to the rest of the rally season
We had a great April rally at Fort Sage near Doyle, CA. As always, good food and great company. Participants in this rally included Gary & Anita, Wheels & Doris, Jerry & Dyann, Randy & Vicki and Bryan & Diane. Also as usual, we had some stimulating intellectual discussions. These included Randy’s in depth study on toilet paper, which is best for use in an RV and why. Randy even offered to create a Power Point presentation for us. We also had a discussion on coffee mugs which touched on thermodynamics, insulation properties, ease of use, stainless versus ceramic and other critical items. Randy had searched for several years to find the perfect mug that met his exacting criteria. Now he might have to order some for the rest of us. Weather for Friday dinner was just about perfect. Doris put out her beautiful pink flamingo table cloth that she got as a door prize at the SNU Holiday dinner hosted by Brian & Jeni Root. Saturday Dyann’s sister and daughter drove out for a visit. They stayed for dinner. Saturday it was a little blustery so we used Jerry & Dyann’s Moho for a wind break and set the food tables next to it. Other than holding on to your plate, dinner outside was pretty nice. Speaking of pink flamingos, Doris showed off her newest flamingo solar light. It’s really pretty. It seems we may be expanding our yard art collection. Dyann has a couple of solar light bears. Randy came across a solar frog he couldn’t pass up. A green shell is covered by patterned metal work. At night the green glow highlights the pattern. It’s really neat. Needless to say, our rally sites are pretty well decorated and lighted up. Two flamingos have been retired. These were given to Jerry & Dyann by the manager of the park at Unionville years ago. The plastic is getting old and a few cracks have appeared. They just aren’t flexible enough to travel anymore. It will be interesting to see what Jerry comes up with for replacements. Friday was a good day on some of the ham radio bands and Bryan was able to hear stations in Japan and other far flung destinations. Rallies at Ft Sage bring up memories of SNU friends Bruce & Kathy. Their first rally with the SNU was at Ft Sage in 2013. The following month tragically, they both died when their vintage Cessna crashed near Auburn, CA. After leaving the Ft Sage rally, Randy & Vicki will be heading up to Lassen RV Resort to begin making plans for our September rally there. Already, little hints indicate this rally is going to be special. In the meantime, we are looking forward to the May SNU rally at Eagle Lake.
What a weekend!! Perfect weather, great location, great food, and of course, great people. Russell had arrived early and made friends with the camp host so the rest of us had a warm welcome. Friday we had our sandwich and salad dinner. Randy had gotten a variety of meats and cheeses and Diane brought a variety of breads. Others contributed a variety of salads. A special treat after dinner was a guitar concert by Russell. He played and sang all the favorites. Check the website for a sample of his singing as well as photo galleries of the rally. It was a great way to end the day. Saturday was our special Mexican Fiesta. Eric and Terry outdid themselves. Eric BBQ’d skirt steak for tacos and Terry made her special fresh guacamole and salsa. Put that together with beans and other condiments in a crisply fried flour tortilla and you have something pretty extraordinary. Add to that, fruit salad, chips and dip, and Mexican cookies and it was a feast to remember. Needless to say, we all stuffed ourselves. We even had a pinata to decorate the table. That hasn’t been used since a May rally in 2005. We had several visitors at this rally. Gary & Anita’s friends Milo and Arlene joined us for dinner on Saturday. Russell’s friends Ted & Cynthia stopped by overnight on Friday on their way North. Russell’s son Derek, his wife Kristen and their kids Travis, Audrey & Reagan also came up on Friday and joined us for dinners. Phil and his wife Wendy, the camp hosts also joined us for dinners. This campground is not used much which suits us just fine. Phil said we were the largest group up there in a couple of years. He enjoyed morning coffee and conversations with us and now is trying to figure out how to turn his motorhome into an Airstream. This rally was the first time Gary tried out his new alternative fuel tank for his generator. There are a few glitches still to be worked out but the basic concept was a success. Eric is having a hard time with s’mores. We have the campfire, Eric has the ingredients but for one reason of another, it just doesn’t all come together. I guess we might have to make s’mores a highlight of one of our upcoming rallies. Saturday after dinner, Randy gave a short presentation on plans for the SNU rally at Lassen RV resort in September. This is definitely a rally you don’t want to miss. In addition to a fantastic campfire concert, we want to thank Russell for helping to promote the Unit. This includes posting photos and comments about the rally on the Region 12 facebook page. Russell has always been a big supporter of the SNU and his desire to help promote us is greatly appreciated. We can all follow his example and promote the SNU in various ways. In addition, as a member of the Washington Unit, Russell invited any of us to come to one of their rallies. As a big unit, they can put on some interesting rallies and some pretty fantastic feasts. I think the sign that Terry got at a craft fair is a good way to wrap up this rally. It says “Welcome to our firepit – where friends and marshmallows get toasted at the same time.”
A rather smoky beginning to the SNU rally at Weed Heights, though most of it had cleared out by the weekend. Between smoke and hot temps, being able to run air conditioners in our Airstreams and having a nice cool club house were much appreciated. I’m not sure if Bryan & I have the same A/C that Tom mentions in his Visit to Jackson Center but the original unit in our 1975 Ambassador, although the compressor sometimes takes a little encouraging to get going, still works just fine. The highlight of the rally was our Friday Nevada Surf-n-Turf dinner provided by Jerry & Dyann. Marinated and smoked tri-tip and grilled tilapia. In addition we had roasted corn on the cob and root beer floats for dessert. Everything was delicious. Needless to say, we were stuffed. The great thing about doing our big dinner on Friday was that we could feast on left-overs Saturday without having to do all the work. Carmen provided a little variety by adding a nice chicken and rice dish to Saturday’s menu. Anita had sent me a recipe for ice cream in a bag. I had to try it out. It’s simple, it turned out great and it was delicious. The recipe is on our website. It was a great weekend for relaxing, enjoying the views across the valley and catching up on everyone’s projects and plans. No major repair or maintenance issues this time. Just things like getting newer water hoses for Gary, adjusting the leveling system and installing TPMS for Jerry and checking electrical output for Gene. Good company, good food, good weekend!
Beautiful weekend at Green Creek. Much nicer temperatures than in Reno. Our preferred spot was staked out by other campers so after checking some other possibilities, we decided the best bet was close to the creek. We are all friends so being parked a little closer together than usual was no big deal. We were delighted to have Ed & Eileen join us for the rally. They are members of the Iowa Unit and the Four Corners Unit. They were on their way from Southern California to near the Idaho/Canada border. Their dog Jackson is a very friendly big Swiss Mountain dog. He greeted everyone as soon as he got out of the truck. Speaking of dogs, Eric & Terry’s dog, Reagan had a medical emergency just before the rally so he came complete with a cone on his head. Friday afternoon we had visitors from the Los Angeles area. Tim & Jeannie were on their maiden trip in their 2018 Serenity FB Airstream. They have had other RV’s but this is their 1st Airstream. They had seen that there was a rally at Green Creek and knowing the road, had to drive up and see if we were really there. We had a great visit with them and hopefully we have encouraged them to join a WBCCI Unit.
Friday we had a great shared dinner. We were test subjects for Ed’s first effort at cooking a pork roast in the convection oven in their Airstream. It turned out moist and delicious. Ed and Eileen have done some pretty extensive remodeling in their 2009 Flying Cloud. They took out the dinette and put a couch along the side wall with a table on a single pedestal that can be swiveled around as needed. This configuration really opens up the central space of the trailer. They also completely redid the kitchen area which included installing a larger refrigerator. Eric and Terry had stopped by Doughboy’s Donuts on the way to the rally so Saturday morning we had a special treat with our coffee. For brunch Eric fried up some bacon and scrambled some eggs that I had brought with a few extra ingredients. They were all double yolks. Just about hit the spot. Eric had noticed when they arrived at Green Creek that one of his trailer tires was low. He decided to switch it out with the spare, which also needed a little air but was drivable. On the way home from the rally they stopped at a gas station and got air in the tire. We joined Eric & Terry at Jolly Cone in Bridgeport for an ice cream treat. Then we all hit the road.
This rally proved one thing – there are pink flamingos in Hawaii. At least in the SNU Hawaii. Along with flower leis, palm trees and pineapples, pink flamingos fit right in. For a group that isn’t into costumes, we had some fantastic attire for our Saturday Hawaiian theme dinner prepared by Phil and Jasmin along with their friends Gerald and Shirley. Someone did mention the incongruity of wearing jackets and leis, but again that’s the SNU Hawaii.
Back to the beginning. Along with Randy and Vicki, some of us arrived at Lassen on Wednesday. Randy and Vicki got right to work decorating the screen house. The SNU banner that Phil and Jasmin had given us was set up to welcome everyone to the park. The frame that Randy had made for the banner worked great. Vicki has added a new Airstream to the SNU. A cute little bird house she found at Penny’s. Vicki also found a string of blinking pink flamingos. The two new acquisitions added to the screen house decorations. The diorama had it’s special place in the screen house. There have been some additions and tweaks to it since last year. Pretty amazing that 11 years ago it started out as a simple disposable cake decoration. Jasmin made some delicious salads for our impromptu dinner. Thursday morning Russell helped Randy set up the Lighted Wonder. By the time everyone arrived and all the solar lights were out, we really had a very nice nighttime display.
Thursday afternoon Russell and Doris entertained us singing some of the old favorite songs and playing guitars. After dinner we gathered at the fire table near the Bistro for another concert and hot tea provided by Jasmin. The lights on the Russ Bus made it easy to find our rally site after dark. Friday we had a nice leisurely morning and then headed down to the Bistro for lunch. Before the lunch we enjoyed an informative history presentation by Will Snyder. He is writing a book about this area and has done a tremendous amount of research. His wife Mary helps him edit the book. They were both educators before they retired. So you get the full effect, I have listed the lunch and dinner menus at the end of this article. After lunch we headed back to our Airstreams to recuperate. Later we did have our usual shared dinner although it was a little on the light side after that wonderful lunch.
Saturday was the big day. We started off with Randy’s world famous waffles. They definitely lived up to expectations. Doris and Diane cooked bacon and Anita cooked sausage. There was a variety of toppings including strawberries and blueberries provided by Gary and Anita and cherries provided by Doris. After that and in anticipation of a very special dinner, we skipped lunch. Phil had loaned Randy a golf cart for the rally. Randy had a great time shuttling people and other things back and forth. I think we missed something though. There was no grass fringe or flower leis on the golf cart. Next time! Late afternoon, everyone dressed up in their Hawaiian attire and headed down to the screen house. Phil and Jasmin with assistance from their friends Gerald and Shirley, once again provided us with a memorable dinner. After dinner we adjourned to the Bistro for a “formal” concert and dessert. Russell’s singing and guitar playing provided a perfect ending to a very enjoyable day. Check the website for some videos of Russell and Doris singing along with photo galleries of the rally
The SNU members participating in this rally were Randy & Vicki, Gary & Anita, Russell, Bryan & Diane, Jerry & Dyann, Susie, Wheels & Doris. Gene & Kathy and Gene & Carmen. We were very sad to learn that Eric and Terry lost the transmission in their tow vehicle so they weren’t able to come. Randy & Vicki’s friends Bob & Charlotte who live in McArthur joined us for various meals. Always great to see them. Along with the people, there were 9 Airstreams, 7 dogs, 1 cat, 1 bird and 2 tortoises.
Sunday after morning coffee most of the participants, packed up and headed home. A few of us stayed over till Monday. We couldn’t have asked for better weather over the weekend, although a little warmer would have been nice. A great location, great facilities, fantastic food, great company, and the best RV Park owners we have ever met. What more could you ask for. A unanimous vote made it clear that the SNU will hold a rally at Lassen Pines RV resort in September 2018. Randy and Vicki are already working on ideas. Mark your calendars, plan to join us in 2018.
Finally, after trying to fit it in all year, we had s’mores at the Boca Rally! In addition we also got to sample Eric’s pizza that we have heard so much about. We enjoyed these treats on Saturday, along with our usual shared dinner. The weather provided it’s own version of pot luck – a little wind, a little rain, a little snow, a little fog and quite a bit of nice sunshine. Typical October SNU rally. The wind, rain and snow went through on Thursday night so it didn’t really impact the rally except we had our Thursday dinner in Jerry and Dyann’s motorhome. It was great to see Don & Gail. They have been traveling most of the year so we had a lot of catching up to do. They came to Boca after attending the Urban rally and the Region 12 rally at Jackson. Others at the rally included Gary, Bryan & Diane and Jerry & Dyann. Eric & Terry had gotten their transmission fixed and were able to join us on Friday. Saturday, Eric, Terry and Gail, headed into to Reno to a craft fair which they all enjoyed. Saturday and off roader stopped by in need of some oil. He had hit something which created a leak. Don and Jerry got out their tools and oil and soon had him back in business. Over the weekend, we discussed the SNU in 2018. Some good ideas for rallies are beginning to take shape. Some ideas for officers and carrying out the key tasks of the SNU were discussed. With a little help from all of the SNU members it looks like 2018 could be another great year for the SNU. I think everyone has their list of projects to get done over the winter pretty well defined. If all goes well, every rig should be in great shape for the 2018 rally season. Hopefully we can all relax and enjoy the rallies without having to get out the tool box. In the meantime, we are looking forward to our November and December luncheons.
The November luncheon at Black Bear was well attended. Fred and Wanda were among the participants. They have had a busy summer which included a lot of work on their Airstream so it has been a while since we have seen them. Also at the lunch were Randy and Vicki, Wheels & Doris, Susie, Bryan & Diane, Jerry and Gary & Anita. We missed Dyann who was home sick. Roylaine also stopped by for a short visit. Lunches are a great way to stay in touch but it is hard to spend much time with people catching up on news and activities. We did our best though. It looks like there might be a good representation of the SNU at the Salem rally in June 2018. There might even be an SNU caravan going to the rally. The SNU rally at Lassen RV Resort in September should also be well attended. Everyone knows from past rallies there that the Lassen rally should definitely be on your schedule. An enjoyable lunch, great company and a beautiful day for a drive to Fernley. A pretty good way to spend a Saturday.
The last luncheon for 2017 was held at J.T.’s Basque Restaurant in Gardnerville. This was the third holiday luncheon the SNU has held at this location. We were delighted to be joined by the newest SNU members John and Joan Lapham. Other SNU members enjoying this lunch were Eric and Terry, Wheels & Doris, Jerry & Dyann, Susie, Gary & Anita. Gene & Kathy and Diane. The restaurant was nicely decorated for the holidays which along with the great food made for a festive occasion. Diane handed out a letter from the 2018 SNU president, Don Williams. Among other things he reminded people to plan on attending the first SNU event for 2018. That is scheduled for January 20th although the location hasn’t yet been solidified. SNU members aren’t letting winter inhibit their Airstream adventures. John & Joan will be going to Las Vegas and then to Death Valley over the holidays. Eric & Terry will be heading to Southern CA to visit family and then attend the Rose Parade rally. Gene and Kathy will also be heading out of town to visit family. A lot of changes for the SNU will happen in 2018. Everyone is looking forward to an exciting year with lots of new adventures. The biggest event will be our annual September rally at Lassen RV resort. Mark your calendars The dates for the SNU rally at the Lassen RV Resort are September 20 to 23.
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