The Escapade begins |
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Well, I finally made it: I'm here at the Escapees RV Club's 37th Escapade in Van Wert, Ohio. I went to bed early last night and slept till a little after seven this morning—I really needed to do some catching up! Then I showered and had breakfast and spent an hour reading and replying to an unusually large number of emails—what a wonderful feeling it is to hear from my friends while I'm on the road! Finally at about 9:30 I pulled out of my tiny space at Grand Lake St. Marys State Park and headed for Van Wert...or attempted to. Actually, I didn't get out of the park until close to 9:40...I spent about ten minutes driving around looking for the exit! This was one situation where Street Atlas didn't help me. It's detailed, but not that detailed. Once on the road, it didn't take long to drive the 27 miles to Van Wert. I was monitoring channel 4 on my CB walkie-talkie, as instructed in the information packet Escapees had sent me when I registered. As I approached Van Wert from the south on Rt. 127, I began to hear welcoming announcements from "Snowplow Five," a cheerful SKP who was the show's official greeter. Every five minutes or so he'd come on and explain what to do and where to go when I reached the Van Wert County Fairgrounds. 
Soon I joined a line of other RVs waiting to enter the fairgrounds. It was quite a sight—rigs of every shape, size and kind were streaming into this intersection from all four directions. I wish I could have photographed it from the air! I wondered how the locals were taking this. "They're probably cussing all the goldurned out-of-staters clogging their roads," I thought. But I found out later that I was wrong: this is Van Wert's fourth Escapade, and the local businesses at least are enthusiastic supporters. The lines of RVs were long but moved pretty steadily, so it only took about twenty minutes to get into the parking area—far less than the hour or more I'd expected. SKP volunteers in orange vests directed me each step of the way until I found myself pulling into a nice flat space in the boondockers' area. Wide access lanes spaced the rigs apart, so I had more breathing room than in some commercial campgrounds I've stayed at. The weather was overcast and decidedly cooler than 27 miles away at Grand Lake, to my surprise. I got Gertie leveled and then, following the instructions from the ever-cheerful voice on the CB, walked to the "Commercial" building to register. Since Escapees already had all my information (and my $85 fee for the four days), that didn't take long; it mostly consisted of a volunteer handing me a pale blue ribbon signifying that I was a first-time Escapade attendee, and a rather heavy "goody bag."
I took inventory of the contents when I got back to Gertie. They included:
I wandered around the commercial vendors' area...well, actually I got good and lost, despite having a map of the fairgrounds in my Escapade guidebook. But I managed to see most of the vendors. There were rows and rows of large rigs with displays out front, selling everything from holding tank treatments to folding canoes and kayaks. (The boats looked very nice, but at $800-$1,100 apiece they were out of my range.) One of the cleverest products was the "Patio 4 Pets," a nifty fold-put cage that mounts on the outside of your rig and lets your pet enjoy fresh air while parked, yet folds flat against the rig when you're driving. I picked up one of their brochures and was amused to note that the "3 Easy Steps to Install" failed to mention that before screwing the unit on, you must first cut a hole through the side of your rig for the included pet door! (Note: As of March, 2004 I can no longer find this company on the web. Too bad.) 
Everywhere I got smiles and friendly greetings from other SKPs. This is a group with an "instant family" feeling to it, and they go out of their way to make newcomers welcome. As I wandered around, I noticed a certain agricultural aroma that suggested the flyswatter would be a necessity at such upcoming fairground events as the "Tri-State Goat Show" and "Cows & Plows Day." Van Wert is an agricultural county whose main product is popping corn. In fact, I noticed that one of the horse trailers parked over by Harness Barn #1 bore a "Cornmaster" logo, and the fairgrounds are right across the highway from the local John Deere dealer, which is replete with bright green combines and tractors. At 3:00 I slipped into a hard metal folding chair in the Commercial building for orientation—a welcoming session tailored for first-timers like me. First we got a few practical tips from Ginny Harris, who with her husband Ken has spent most of the past year organizing this Escapade—a task whose magnitude is suggested by the 166 (!) volunteer staffers listed in the guidebook. Then Kay Peterson, SKP #1, took the stage. She and her husband Joe founded this group 25 years ago as a way for full-time and serious RVers to keep in touch; the club's motto is "Sharing and Caring." Kay told us a story from her own life: how she had left an abusive marriage and moved to California with her kids, shy to begin with and shyer still after years of living with an alcoholic in a situation where, as she put it, "You kept your thoughts to yourself and kept your mouth shut, or you might end up on the floor." She had no friends or family on the west coast and felt terribly isolated, until an acquaintance finally persuaded her to attend a Parents Without Partners meeting. At the meeting it seemed as if everybody already knew everybody else, and after sitting in the back of the room for half an hour Kay prepared to slink out—when a woman approached her and said "You look as if you're feeling a little out of it. Well, if you give us another chance and come back next week, I have a job for you that will let you meet people. OK?" Kay agreed, and when she returned the following week, the woman came up to her and asked "Do you still want that job?" Then she pinned a badge on Kay that said "Official Welcomer." It was her job to greet every new member! Kay said that wearing the badge seemed to magically give her the confidence to approach strangers, something she would never have been able to do before. The terminally shy young woman gradually became the confident, silver-haired lady who now stood before us, leader of the world's first and largest club for serious RVers. (Good Sam Club has more members, but they are a commercial operation catering mainly to vacationers.) Kay's a very good speaker in her low-key way. It was pretty inspiring stuff. Oh, and by the way, the first person she greeted with her new badge was Joe Peterson, who became her husband and cofounded Escapees. Oh, and also by the way—the Petersons, who by this time can afford any RV they want, travel in a Lazy Daze motorhome like Gertie. :-) When I left the building I found that the gray skies had produced a gentle drizzle. No problem; I was wearing my windbreaker and had my umbrella in my backpack. I found my way back to Gertie after another prolonged spell of wandering, and by the time I got here the rain had stopped and a little blue was peeping through in places. I climbed up on Gertie's roof with my camera and tripod and shot a panorama of the rigs around me. 
Then, feeling suddenly very tired, I heated up a pan of corn chowder and paged through the guidebook, marking seminars that I want to attend. Frustratingly, there are no repeats, and several of the talks I want to go to are in the same timeslots. I'm going to have to pick and choose...and there are great swaths of time when there's nothing I'm interested in. There's also a slew of crafts workshops, and I notice that every single one is taught by a woman...except for woodcarving. What is it with men? Do they think creative work is for sissies? Feh! It's only 8:45, but I'm about ready to turn in. I'll miss the ice cream social and the Kettering Banjo Society show, but I'm just too tired to go. Hopefully after a good night's sleep I'll feel more energetic. |
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