Sunday, June 15, 2008

Missouri State Rally: June 6-8




The Missouri Coachmen State Rally is at Higginsville Mo. in June every year.
Bob and Cindy Byrne do a most excellent job of organizing and running the rally.

This trailer is loaded with door prizes that Bob was able to garner for the rally.

Cindy calls him a great beggar! I for one am glad he is a good beggar!

This is Bob introducing the Higginsville volunteer fire chief.

Two years ago two 5th wheels caught fire and we are told that these guys did a suburb job not only with the fire but with helping the victims after the fire.

Since that fire the rally group and the fire department have grown to rile on each other. We support them with donations when they have a fund raiser and they watch out for us. An example of that attitude happened on Thursday evening before most rally goers arrived. A few coaches always arrive early just to relax before the rally or to help setup as well as those there to setup and get things organized. On that Thursday night there was a sever thunderstorm rolling through the area that looked like it might turn into a tornado. The firemen dropped of an emergency radio for the rally goers and showed them the way into a school that is located across the street. Luckily the storm was just that a storm and not a tornado! The firefighters were scheduled to cook on Friday evening for us and they did a real nice job and of course we all donated to their fire department. It is a good arrangement with some really fine people.


I had to show you this! It is a 40 foot Sportscoach Crosscounrty. I forgot which year, but I believe it was a 86 or 88. The couple that own it bought it on the Internet and have been working to restore it. He told me that they had the interior just about done and were getting ready to start on the outside.

Of course on Saturday we played our games. This is bean bag baseball. My team got second. The other team had two outs two strikes in the last inning down by three with bases loaded and the batter got a home run! A walk off Grand Slam! A great game! Oh but I got first in the cookie licking contest!

We always eat good at this Rally!


For our Saturday night entertainment we had The Dirt Road Rascals, a good band playing older country music. The man third from the left is not a band member but a rally goer. We had met John and his wife Friday evening and ate dinner with them. We had no idea what a star he is! At the end of the show John joined the band and sang and played as well as if not better than the band members. He is good!

Sunday morning BS session! BS and coffee on a Sunday morning, life can not get any better than that!



Higginsville Mo. is near Kansas City. Rather than drive I70 and try to either get out of every ones way or try to drive fast enough to keep up, we drive over on old US 24. Driving US24 we can drive slower and enjoy the ride. You also get to see sights like the worlds largest pecan! US 24 goes right through Missouri pecan growing area. This pecan is just outside Brunswick Mo. which is the pecan capital and home of Sherry's Diner.

Other things also happen when you drive back roads. We had stopped at a nice small roadside park for a snack and to stretch. While we were stop a man on a bicycle road into the park. He looked over at me so I nodded and he decided that I was friendly and came over to chat. He looked exhausted, and dirty. He told me that he had just left Hannibal Mo. that morning and was on his way to cut a friends grass. We were at least 45 miles west of Hannibal near a little town called Madison! No wander he looked tired and dirty! After we talked a while it became obvious that "Bob" was a few bricks short of a load upstairs. We gave him a drink and a sandwich. All this time he kept talking about the possibility of rain and if he should go on or not. He borrowed my cell phone to call his friend and told them it looked like rain and he would ride back over on Tuesday to cut the grass. That is of course if we would give him a ride back to Hannibal! What can you do? We put his bike in the jeep and him in the front passenger seat (so Cindy could keep on eye on him). We had not traveled very far when we found out that he lived in Quincy and that is really where he needed to go (we never did figure out how Hannibal played a roll in his story). Shortly after that conversion "Bob" fell asleep and slept the entire trip! After we dropped "Bob" off on front street I got to wandering who the smarter person was! We feed him, we drove him, and he slept! Eh?

Ken F.

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