By Cal and Irma Leckington, F400780
June 2015
Our FMCA experience began in 2007 when we purchased our first motorhome, a 40-foot, 2008 Winnebago Tour. We joined FMCA without knowing much about the organization, except that it represented many people who were active RVers.
We spent the first few years of our early retirement taking short trips and learning about our coach and what the RV lifestyle is all about. Having never owned a trailer or fifth wheel, let alone a Type A motorhome, we had a lot to learn. After two years of RVing on our own, we were fortunate enough to discover the essence of FMCA and the motorhome lifestyle. And it is that experience we would like to share with new and experienced RVers alike.
Living in Oregon, with its wet, cold winters, we naturally were drawn to a snowbird schedule. Around November we started drifting south. We have always enjoyed meeting other RVers in parks by strolling by their units and asking about equipment, outside decorations, or other unique things at their site. Not only do we get an education, but we meet some really nice folks as well.
On a December day in Menifee, California, we happened to walk past a nice Mandalay motorhome with a large sign in its windshield. The sign — an emblem, really — was for the Lewis & Clark TT chapter of FMCA. To those of us born and raised in Oregon, the names Lewis and Clark are attention-grabbers, so we dropped in on the couple as they were reading in the warm California sunshine. Ken and Mary Jo Ayers are full-timers, with a base at a relative’s home in Eagle Point, Oregon. They were eager to share their experiences and enthusiasm about FMCA, and the Lewis & Clark TT chapter in particular.
They told us that the chapter was based in the Northwest, and that its common attribute is that everyone must be a member of Thousand Trails (which has more than 80 RV parks in the United States and Canada), which we are. More than 20 member families in the chapter travel to Southern California or Arizona each winter. This “southern contingent” stays in touch and some coordinate rendezvous at parks throughout the winter.
Excited by their enthusiasm, we asked how to join. Ken and Mary Jo printed out a chapter membership application for us and said that if we were in the Palm Springs area, we could meet others in the “southern” group. As it happened, our next stop was the Thousand Trails park in Palm Desert, California. We took this as a sign and decided to join, or at least see if the others were as friendly as the Ayerses.
The next week, after settling in at the Palm Springs RV Resort, we looked up Ken and Mary Jo, who promptly invited us to a happy hour. This was really a potluck celebration for a small group that was leaving to go east. We met so many people, we could not possibly recall all their names. We immediately felt part of the group. They included us for dinners at local restaurants, shopping at the College of the Desert Street Fair, and game nights at the park lodge. After three weeks, we felt like we had known these wonderful people for years.
Some of the southern contingent folks spend winters in Yuma, Arizona, and we did not have the chance to see them, but most stay in California’s Coachella Valley, from Desert Hot Springs to Indio. So even while staying in different parks, groups get together for breakfasts, or the Palm Springs VillageFest, a nighttime street party every Thursday on Palm Canyon Drive. It runs for a mile or more, with vendor booths, music, and food, and must be seen to be appreciated. They also coordinate their stays in the Palm Springs area with the FMCA Western Area Rally in Indio, California, in January.
Also in January, our new friends introduced us to the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show, in Quartzsite, Arizona. More than 150,000 people attend this event, most of whom park their RVs in the desert. We made the two-hour drive from Palm Springs to see it, but next time, we may “circle the wagons” in the desert for a few days. It looked like great fun.
All too soon, springtime brought sad partings as our new friends drifted away to head north again. Some wandered through national parks in Utah — Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches — and, of course, the Grand Canyon in Arizona. In the Pacific Northwest, summer cannot be counted on until after the Fourth of July, so we decided to take our time and see Yosemite National Park.
Before we returned to Oregon, we received the official rally schedule for the Lewis & Clark TT chapter. Rallies are held once a month, from April through October, at Thousand Trails campgrounds around the Pacific Northwest, where we enjoy a mixture of new and old friends. The chapter maintains a membership of slightly more than 100 families.
We don’t know if ours is a typical FMCA experience, but we are thankful to the organization that has developed such a family-oriented, moral, and fun-loving system. We are evangelical about the values and enjoyment an FMCA chapter can provide. Even though we enjoyed RVing alone, sharing the experience with a like-minded group is a thousand times better. See you RVing!