The 2024 Alliance Rally is in the books and it was epic! I've been trying to figure out how best to summarize what happened over the past couple weeks at the pre-rally and the rally. We had about 325 RV's there, mostly Alliance, and the owners and their families as well. The Ally's raised $19,014.19 for the Boys and Girls Club, plus another $780 for the Humane Society. We reconnected with great Alliance friends and employees, and made new friends from all over the USA and Canada! The Alliance technicians worked so hard to fix items identified in advance by the owners, and that does not happen without Brenda Rock-Arms & the parts team, and so many others! We are so very thankful for this opportunity, all made possible because Ryan and Coley Brady, Bill Martin, Curtis Carlson and the Alliance owners and leadership team who had a vision.
So this morning at 0748 hrs we broke camp at the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds Campground and said goodbye to some great friends that are more like family - FamAlly! We hopped up on the Indiana tollway and headed eastbound towards Port Clinton OH south of Toledo. The Indiana portion of I-90 is atrocious - one of the worst portions of interstate highway we have drive on recently, Even Doreen made comparisons to I-10 in Louisiana.
Once we crossed the state line the difference was night and day. I don't know what Indiana is spending their money on but it surely isn't their interstate highways.
At 1130 hrs we rolled into Camp Perry National Guard Joint Training Center after driving a short 177 miles today. So why Camp Perry? Well, it is a military campground which we will usually prefer over the more expensive commercial campgrounds. It is also home of CMP-North Store. CMP is the Civilian Marksmanship Program, which is a national organization dedicated to training and educating U.S. citizens in responsible uses of firearms and air guns through gun safety training, marksmanship training, and competitions. They also sell old military firearms that have been refurbished and accessories to qualifying citizens. I own several old military firearms and am interested in the history of these weapons as they played a huge role in our various conflicts such as WWI, WWII, Korea, etc.
Racks of primarily M1 Garand and M1917 Enfield rifles
Refurbished air rifles for sale that had been used for competitions
Some ammunition and accessories I bought today
While I shopped in the store, Doreen and Liberty walked around the area and enjoyed the great weather. We then made our way to the conference center where we were assigned our camping site and paid the fee.
Our huge back yard
Huge side yards, too!
Tomorrow our great friend and military comrade Ernie Reid is driving up from Granville OH to see us. Ernie and I served together in the active duty Air Force in northern Maine back in the 70's. It will be great to see him!
Ernie (white shirt to my far right) at my military retirement ceremony
Then tomorrow afternoon Doreen and I are driving to Toledo and having a late lunch with Deni and Jeanie Powers, Jeanie and Doreen are cousins. Looking forward to seeing them again.
We are only here for one more night after tonight and then Monday we make tracks to a campground on Lake Ontario north of Buffalo NY
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