FMCA Tucson 2022: the convention

After the RV driving classes, we moved to our campsite for the FMCA “Sunsets + Saguaros” annual convention.

Here’s a satellite image of the Pima County Fairgrounds, with our dry camping location marked by a grey pin on the left of the map, and our convention site marked by the same pin on the right of the map:

Pima County Fairgrounds

Here’s our coach, as I was following Jenn to our site:

Coach

The goatheads were just as prevalent over this side, including sticking in the tires:

Goatheats in tire

We really lucked out with our site, on the end of the row, so nobody next to us on the door side:

Site

Sunset:

Sunset

This site had 50 amp electricity, but no water or sewer. So since we’d already been dry camping for four days by this point, we signed up for the septic pumping and water refill service for a couple of days later:

Signing up for septic and water

Our site again (with a Tiffin Allegro Open Road behind us, and a Tiffin Phaeton next to our Tiffin Allegro Bus, and another Tiffin Allegro Bus further down; there were a lot of Tiffins nearby, among others:

Our site

Looking down the row of RVs:

RVs

The Phaeton next to our coach:

Tiffins

Someone put a note warning of some ground-nesting baby birds:

Baby birds

We attended the session for first time attendees:

First timers session

I attended a “Don’t Call a Tech” talk on easy RV fixes:

Don't Call a Tech talk

FMCA offered mail service, and we got several deliveries:

Mail

On the appointed day, we put out the septic and water signs:

Septic and water labels

We didn’t really need it, since we still had 20% water, and our waste tanks weren’t very full, but it was more comfortable not having to worry about it:

Water gauges

The truck turned up late that evening; here’s our coach, with the ceiling accent lights visible through the Magne Shade, and the blue ground effect lights and under-slide lights on:

Coach at night

The septic truck:

Septic truck

Septic pumping:

Septic pumping

They filled our water tank via the gravity fill port:

Water fill

Happy gauges:

Water gauges

A cute tiny trailer behind a scooter:

Scooter trailer

We attended a talk about emotions and “positive intelligence” with RVing:

Sorry for what I said while parking the camper talk

Gyros food truck:

Gyros food truck

Gyro and Greek fries:

Gyro and Greek fries

A long line for the ice cream social (which we didn’t bother with):

Line for ice cream

A talk on boondocking (by podcasters I listen to, StressLess Camping); before the talk, they complimented my beard, and I complimented their podcast:

Boondocking talk

A bunch of exhibits (I didn’t take any photos inside):

Exhibits

Mariachi band:

Mariachi band

They held a “Mr Whiskers” contest for beards and mustaches, which I stayed away from, since I don’t like public attention… and I clearly would have won, so nice of me to let some lesser beard have a chance:

Mr Whiskers contest

Finally, an aerial photo published by FMCA, showing the hundreds of attending RVs (we were over on the right side; see the map above):

Aerial photo

Having attended two rallies so far (Xscapers and FMCA), we are coming to the conclusion that rallies aren’t for us. We’re not into the socializing or partying, and the talks are generally low value. It is nice to have easy access to a bunch of vendors, though, and to look through RVs from multiple dealers.

We have another couple of rallies coming up this year: a Tiffin rally in June, and the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in October. So we’ll see how those go. Next year, we might not bother with rallies, or might go in with different expectations and goals.

Video

Video: FMCA Tucson 2022: RV Driving School lessons

A timelapse of driving the coach for the RV Driving School backing and driving classes, and moving sites at the FMCA Tucson 2022 convention.

FMCA Tucson 2022: RV Driving School lessons

Around when we first bought our motorhome, we signed up for a couple of RV Driving School classes, held before the FMCA convention: the first on backing an RV, the second on driving an RV.

Of course, in the intervening months, we had plenty of practice in working together to back into sites, and Jenn had plenty of driving practice, so the lessons weren’t as useful as they would have been at the start, but we did pick up a few bits of information and techniques.

Outside the classroom:

RV driving school classroom

The backing class, a bit less than an hour:

RV driving school classroom

Immediately after the classroom part, we did the practical, where we took our coach to a parking lot on the grounds, and did backing and parallel parking between cones, with Jenn driving and me directing, as usual:

RV driving school backing

Our instructor:

RV driving school backing

Perfect alignment; we didn’t hit any cones:

RV driving school backing

Paladin supervised from the back of Jenn’s chair:

Paladin

RV driving school backing

The next day, we did the driving classroom, a four hour lesson:

RV driving school driving class

Then the following day, the driving practical for four hours, with the same instructor:

RV driving school driving practical

Paladin on the desk, a little confused by me sitting in a living room chair opposite:

Paladin

We practiced navigating an empty church parking lot:

RV driving school driving practical

And a second church parking lot:

RV driving school driving practical

Paladin looking contented:

Paladin

Watching out the front:

Paladin

Cruising down the freeway:

RV driving school driving practical

FMCA Tucson 2022: dry camping for driving lessons

We attended the FMCA “Sunsets + Saguaros” annual convention in Tucson, Arizona, but before that kicked off, we attend a couple of driving classes from the RV Driving School, on backing and driving skills. More on those later.

While doing those classes, we dry camped on the Pima County Fairgrounds, i.e. we parked the RV without any power, water, or sewer hookups. RVs are self-contained, so this isn’t a huge hassle; we just have to run our generator for a few hours each day (typically in the morning when making coffee, and in the evening for dinner etc), and try to minimize water usage.

Here’s our truck and coach, dry camping (they had cones spaced out to mark available place to park):

Truck and RV

A rare picture of the tow bar connected, with the lights on (as the coach engine was still running while Jenn put out the slides):

Tow bar

The coach and truck were super dusty from driving over the dirt of the fairgrounds; so glad we just washed them a few days earlier:

Dusty truck

Other RVs dry camping for the classes:

Other RVs

FMCA set up large generators and power outlets for convention attendees; initially mostly empty, but these filled up as the start date approached:

Empty sites

Sites

The fairgrounds, and especially the dirt we were dry camping on, was full of goatheads, nasty little spiky pods that snuck into our coach; this handful was collected from the mat in our cockpit. Trust me, they are not fun to step on!

Goatheads

More stuck to the bottom of my shoes:

Goatheads on shoes

A sunset:

Sunset

The weather was mostly warm and sunny, but a couple of days in, the clouds rolled in:

Clouds

And we experienced some rain and thunderstorms:

Rain

Once we finished the lessons, we moved our coach to the campsite for the convention. More on that later.

Travel from Picacho to Tucson, AZ

We attended the FMCA “Sunsets + Saguaros” annual convention in Tucson, Arizona, so we drove 69 miles, just over an hour, from Picacho, Arizona to the Pima County fairgrounds just south of Tucson, Arizona.

Here’s the route map, going from top-left to bottom-right:

Map route

There was a tumbleweed by the side of the road, just before getting onto the freeway (made me think of CGP Grey’s excellent video on tumbleweeds):

Tumbleweed

Heading down I-10, with mountains in the distance:

I-10 and mountains

Picacho Peak:

Picacho Peak

Paladin squeaked once, then settled down in his safe space next to my chair (barely visible here):

Paladin

Trucks passing trucks passing trucks:

Trucks

I enjoyed the artwork on overpasses along this route:

Overpass artwork

Passing downtown Tucson:

Tucson

Half of a manufactured house; we moved over to avoid the wide load:

House

Approaching Pima County Fairgrounds:

Pima County Fairgrounds

Our exit:

Our exit

The road to the fairgrounds:

Road to fairgrounds

RV driving school sign:

RV driving school sign

Arriving:

Arriving

We dry camped here for the classes, before heading to our electric-only site for the convention. Stay tuned for more on the lessons and convention!

Travel from Lake Havasu City to Buckeye, AZ

We departed the Xscapers Annual Bash near Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and headed to a one-night stay at Leaf Verde RV Resort near Buckeye, Arizona.

Here’s the route map (top to right); 165 miles, about four hours drive in our coach (including a lunch break):

Map route

A fairly familiar route, having been along I-10 a few times this winter.

But the trip had a bumpy start; we couldn’t bring in our front driver-side slide-out, or move the driver chair, due to a disconnected wire underneath the chair:

Disconnected wire

This stop was the first time we had rotated that chair around to face the living area, so we guess the wire didn’t have as much slack as it should, and got pulled out.

Obviously this is a big problem; we can’t drive with the slide out. The reason the slide was affected is the switch to extend or retract it is on the side of the chair, to help ensure the chair is forward enough to not get hit.

Fortunately there is an emergency retraction button in the fuse bay in the basement, so I was able to use that to bring in the slide:

Emergency rectraction

Also fortunately we had an appointment at the National Indoor RV Center in Phoenix the next day, so we only had to live with this issue for one day.

That issue worked around, we moved the coach to a clear space at the Xscapers Bash grounds to hook up our toad (tow vehicle); you can see our truck and the neighboring coach (nice folks, that we enjoyed meeting and chatting with):

Xscapers General section

Our coach, ready to hook up the truck:

We’re on our way; a bridge over wetland:

Bridge over wetland

Wetland

Colorado River:

Colorado River

Hilly highway:

Hilly highway

Our coach has an RV-safe GPS, that knows the height and other info about our rig, so it doesn’t route us places we can’t go (we also have a label above the GPS as a reminder for low bridges):

GPS

A fun and handy feature of the GPS is the ability to mirror the output to the (otherwise pretty useless) TV above the windshield — useful so I can see the GPS more easily (it just displays grayscale for some reason):

GPS on TV

TV and windscreen

In Parker, Arizona we encountered several VW buses, probably leaving a recent gathering of them at London Bridge in Lake Havasu City:

WV buses

Highway:

Highway

Quartzsite sign:

Quartzsite sign

I-10 freeway:

Highway

Mountains:

Mountains

Cacti:

Cacti

We would have liked to stop at the first rest area on the I-10 portion of the route, but it’s been closed for a while for renovations:

Closed rest area

So we continued to the next one, half an hour later:

Open rest area

Crackers, summer sausage, and cheeses for lunch:

Lunch

Paladin wasn’t thrilled when we started going, but settled down in one of his nests during lunch:

Paladin

When we got underway again, he was a little happier than earlier. We do hope he gets more used to travel days eventually:

Paladin

Our exit:

Exit

We had a one-night stay at Leaf Verde RV Resort; I won’t bother doing a separate post about it, since we basically just stopped there to dump our tanks after dry camping for over a week during the Bash, to catch up on laundry, and as a location fairly close to the National Indoor RV Center:

Leaf Verde RV Resort

The map:

Map

From the little we’ve seen of it, I wouldn’t call it a resort; while the transient campsites are mostly pull-through, they are fairly tight “buddy” sites, where pairs of RVs face opposite directions, and thus their doors face each other. Not very nice:

Campsite

Notice that we didn’t extend the front driver-side slide-out, since the switch wasn’t working:

Campsite

We didn’t bother unhooking our truck, since it’s just an overnight pitstop (an advantage of a pull-through site):

Campsite

A timelapse of this travel is coming tomorrow. Please subscribe to the Sinclair Trails YouTube channel; I need a bunch more subscribers to be able to get a nicer URL.

Video

Xscapers Bash video: drone flight

Flying my drone over the Xscapers Annual Bash, held in the Lake Havasu Rodeo Grounds, Arizona. Hundreds of RVs attending the annual celebration of working-age RVers.

Xscapers Bash: aerial photos

It’s been months since I last flew my drone, in part due to not being permitted in some locations, or just not thinking of it. But at the Xscapers Bash seemed like a good opportunity, so I had a quick flight. Actually two: the first was just vertically above my coach, the second was a little further.

Let’s head up:

Aerial

Looking towards the main event area; all the Bash events were held in the structures beyond the arena:

Aerial

Looking towards the entrance, and the mountains beyond:

Aerial

Back down:

Aerial

I think our solar panels may be a bit dusty:

Aerial

My second flight, the next day, I flew from one end of the Xscapers Bash site to the other. But first, a closer look at the dusty solar panels:

Aerial

The nearby mountain:

Mountain

A view of the rodeo grounds from the entrance, and flying towards the back, looking in various directions:

Aerial

Nearby BMX course:

BMX

Aerial

Stay tuned for a video flyby tomorrow!

Xscapers Bash: swap, BBQ

On the last full day of the Xscapers Annual Bash for 2022, we dropped off some stuff we no longer wanted at the buy/sell/trade tables; letting our junk become other people’s junk:

Buy/sell/trade stuff

Some people were selling things, but most of the items were free to whoever wanted them. We got rid of a mop and bucket (quite nice, but too big), a couple of solar-powered keyboards, an Apple TV device (actually taken by our neighbor before we left our site), a power extension cord, shelving, and other things. All fine stuff, but there’s no point lugging around anything we don’t use, with our limited space.

That evening, we attended the farewell BBQ:

BBQ prep

BBQ

Eating

Jenn had a beer:

Jenn with a beer

The evening’s entertainment was a highlight of the event, neon night with performances by Lyte Bryte and Boom Bandits. But we’re such old fogies, not into loud music and dancing; we just went back to our coach (and could hear it just fine from there):

Boom Bandits vehicle

Boom Bandits rave rocket

Xscapers Bash: talks, dating game, talent show, fire

On Thursday at the Bash, we attended an interesting talk on RVing with cats (since we do):

RVing with cats talk

Then a talk on traveling to Mexico (in an RV) for beginners:

Traveling to Mexico for beginners talk

That evening, we had dinner from a food truck (I had a burger and fries), then got a bag of kettle corn from another food truck:

Kettle corn food truck

Here’s me, wearing my thick fleecy sweatshirt, as it gets cold after dark:

David

Everyone had to provide proof of vaccination or negative test when arriving here, but inevitably there have been a couple of positive COVID cases, so they literally shut the barn door to the enclosed meeting space, and spaced out the seating in the open-sided tent for social distancing:

Social distancing