Getting started

We, Pat and Dick, are taking another trip out to the western US starting August 13, 2014 to attend two different RV Rallies.  The first Rally will be in Gillette, Wyoming running from August 26th to September 1st and is the Discovery Owners Association Inc. (DOAI) National Rally.  Dick is the National Treasurer for DOAI.  He is also the President of the Mason Dixon Chapter of DOAI.   We very much enjoy our many friends that we have met through the club and they are all like part of an "extended family" that we enjoy whenever we get together.  Membership in DOAI is only for folks that own Discovery Motorhomes by Fleetwood.  Ours is a 1999 Model 36T and we start this trip with about 103K miles on our RV and towing our 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan.

The second rally is the Special Military Active Retired Travelers (SMART)  RV Clubs National Rally (in SMART we call rallies "Musters") being held in Hemet, California, north of San Diego from September 21st thru 26th.  SMART is a nation wide organization with chapters in many areas.  We are members of the SMART Keystoners Chapter of SMART and Dick is the Northeast Regional Director (NERD - great acronym!) for SMART.  This makes him a member of the Board Of Directors for SMART, a position he has held since appointed at the 2013 SMART National muster held in Sedalia, Missouri.

In route to the DOAI rally we will visit Barb and Jack White, some friends in Williamsburg, Michigan who are cherry and apple farmers that we know from our winters in Florida.   They have spent the past several winters in the same resort and RV park that we have our RV lot and spend our winters.  We will also stop by Dick's sister Maryanne's home in Carol Stream, IL located just northwest of Chicago.

In the three weeks between the two rallies we intend to visit Glacier National Park and then go to the Portland, Oregon area where we hope to see several friends and one of Pat's cousins before proceeding to Modesto, CA to visit Pat's brother and his family before we reach Hemet.

After the SMART rally we will spend a few days with Pat's cousin Jan who lives in Hemet. We will also visit San Diego to look at several hotels there so Dick can make a choice from them for the USS Firedrake Reunion that he is planning there in the fall of 2015.  Then we will start winding our way East to our lot in Frostproof, FL where we will drop off our RV and then return home to PA.  Of course along the way from California to Florida we will make several stops to rest and to visit with friends.

We hope you enjoy following us as we travel and look forward to sharing our trip with you!
You can view our earlier blog of Alaska and others by going to our blog of our 2010 Alaska trip and finding other links there.  http://travelintracys.blogspot.com

Dick & Pat