Friday, 3-6-98

W e started our day with our usual visit to the Blue Bird tent for a sumptuous breakfast of a doughnuts and hot chocolate. I read a few articles in my complimentary USA Today newspaper. Some of our party went to seminars or classes this morning. So Kay and I headed over to the vendor tent.

Starting the day with a Blue Bird breakfast

I checked in with the service center and found that the part I need for my awning would not be available at the FMCA convention. So I was given a phone number to call when I returned to California. We spent the remainder of the morning visiting the vendor booths BIG time. We made several purchases of goodies we’ve seen at no other place. Kay bought a set of interesting color pens. She will use them with her craft projects. I bought a set of rubber brush-squeegees. I saw one a couple of months ago being used to effectively remove water from a motorhome that had flooded. After seeing all the vendor booths, we headed for the motorhome display area.

We found some of our group as we were walking toward the big motorhomes. We checked out a few motorhomes, then it began to rain, so we scattered to different motorhome models. This allowed us to get out of the rain and see the inside of the motorhomes. Just when we thought the rain was over and we were outside again, the rain began again. We all headed for the tent in the center of the Monaco Motorcoach display area. The area under the tent became somewhat crowded, but the rain came down for only 10 or 15 minutes. After the rain let up, we were free to wander around the carpeted display area.

Dave and Barbara were looking for a class A motorhome with a side entrance, but they found many motorhome companies are now favoring the bus style entrance.

Check out all that carpeted dirt

Kay had a 2PM ribbon-embroidery class, so we went our separate ways for the rest of the afternoon. I headed over to the campus bookstore to use the ATM. I needed to replenish our supply of cash. Between the purchases at the vendor booths and the various class fees, our bundle of money had shrunk. I tried to get the maximum amount of money allowed by the ATM at our bank in California. But the ATM in New Mexico had a lower limit and refused to give me the money. So I entered a lower amount and was surprised when I retrieved the cash to find nearly all tens with 2 fives. It is the first time I’ve seen ten-dollar and five-dollar bills dispensed by an ATM. In California the ATMs put out only twenty-dollar bills. After getting a new supply of money, I walked back to our motorhome. It was a long walk because the campus bookstore is a place on campus that may the farthest point from our campsite.

After the long walk, I had about an hour to rest before time to start the fire for cooking the evening meal. As it turned out, Kay, Nora, and Dorisdean were late returning from their class, so Barbara and the men prepared the evening meal. The class attendees returned just in time to sit down and eat the potluck meal we threw together. We ended up in a bit of a rush to get ready for the evening’s concert. We all rushed off to the Pan Am Center to watch the Glen Campbell concert.

We listened to a lot of speeches before the concert

We arrived a little late to get a really good seat location, but the seat we had gave us a good view of the stage. We watched a series of political speeches, FMCA speeches, and FMCA award presentations. It became very obvious that the best seats in the house were reserved for the FMCA officials and volunteers. Finally the show began and we were treated to a selection of familiar Glen Campbell music. He still sounds pretty good.

We had a pleasant surprise in the form of Glen’s pretty daughter Debbie. She sang along with her dad for a while before he left the stage for a break. At that point she performed a solo session. She ended with a variation of "Coal Miners Daughter" where she had changed the words to say, "I’m proud to be a rhinestone cowboy’s daughter." Glen then came back onstage as his daughter was leaving. Of all things, Glen was carrying bagpipes. Yes, he played the bagpipes and did a pretty good job of it. The concert made a fun end to a busy day. We all walked back to our camping area and called it a day.

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