Have you ever wondered what would happen if your wagon master broke down en route to a rally? If a lot of the food and swag is on that coach? The person running your activities has no coach to join you? Well, the FRVA Travelers Club knows firsthand!
On the way to the July Gillette, Wyoming rally, we learned the hard way. We got as far as mile marker 220 on I-90 in the middle of South Dakota. Speed went from 75 mph to zero as we climbed a hill, driving on the shoulder! Luckily, there was a “ranch road” exit before the top, and we coasted down it to our parking spot for the next 20 hours.
There are some lessons and bright spots to this experience:
- Since we knew we were trespassing on the flat spot we could reach, we called the county sheriff to notify them of our location and why we were there. Within two hours, they conducted a wellness check to ensure we were safe, had water, and had a way to stay cool, since it was 100 degrees.
- We used the Roadside Assist Program offered through FRVA, an add-on member service, to be towed 299 miles back to Sioux Falls to the nearest Mercedes-Benz Sprinter service. All $1900 was reimbursed. The trip interruption, a benefit included in your FRVA national membership fee, paid for some of our food and lodging bill.
- The tow truck had the tool needed to remove the drive shaft, allowing a Sprinter to flat tow, but it only had one passenger seat, and we had two people! One of us was getting left by the side of the road. So LTVers to the rescue. We knew we had friends and chapter members in the area and told them about our dilemma. Two couples, diverted from their sightseeing, arrived just ahead of the tow truck. Between their two coaches, we offloaded some of the rally food and a couple of camp chairs just in case. They kept me company as I watched our traveling home being towed away.
- Some of you know, Randy and I are big volunteers with FRVA. We work in a variety of Area and Chapter offices, serve as chairman for a National FRVA committee, and as Information Captain during the conference. Because of this, we are part of an advanced team of volunteers who arrive early before the conference and help set up their rally. So, we really had no choice but to get there one way or another. We let FRVA know we were delayed. To my surprise, another FRVA friend, a national officer’s wife, drove four hours each way from Gillette and rescued me from the side of the road. I headed to a motel across from the event grounds for two days while we got the prognosis of our ailing LTV, and Randy left it for 12 days of repairs.
- Overnight, it dropped to a high of 50 degrees! I had FRVA friends contact me to take me to meals, offer sweaters, give me rides to work assignments, and generally cheer me up! Once the convention portion started, even more FRVA-ers invited us to happy hours and fed us enough appetizers to count as dinner!
- RVers, regardless of their coach type or brand, are the friendliest, most helpful people you could ever meet. That’s why we volunteer our time with FRVA and LTV. We believe strongly that the FRVA membership benefits are both valuable and a very reasonable price for what you get. Whether you travel across the country, join this Travelers Club, or ever attend our pre-convention rally or International FRVA Convention.
We had a very small rally group because we’d been to Gillette before and knew the summer heat would reduce our number. I was going to cook one of our meals, so we quickly switched to personal pan pizzas and used our rental car to pick up other items from the grocery store.
Everyone was flexible and understanding of the situation. Our group spent one afternoon on a bus tour of a major coal mine in the area, seeing strip mining up close. Amazingly, everyone had been to one of our rallies or knew each other through other LTV Travelers Clubs. Most of our time was spent relaxing together and catching up. With all the issues, this turned out to be the best camaraderie of any rally we’ve hosted, and friendships were deepened.
So come join us for the next Pre-Convention Rally, March 15 through the Convention ending on March 22, 2026, in Perry, Georgia! Go to LTVFMCAChapter.org for more information.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://leisurevans.com/blog/frva-gillette-rally/