On the Road: Gillette Wyoming

We attended our first motorhome rally, the 88^th Family Motor Coach Association Rally in Gillette, Wyoming this week. What an experience. I’ve never seen so many motorhomes in all my life. Literally, there were thousands of motorhomes – conservatively I would estimate there were over 3,000 there based on the number of attendees. Everything from little Class B (van type motorhomes) to million dollar rigs with marble floors and granite countertops. It was hard to keep our mouths from hanging open when we toured some of the new models on display. Plush!

The rally lasted five days. Each day seminars were held on every topic imaginable. Mark and I had to split up to get the maximum amount of information. Armed with your new information, you then could trudge on over to the vendor hall where stuff was on sale – everything from things you thought you needed to things you didn’t know existed but now that you do about them, you need those too. We had a ball shopping and YOLO is now tricked out to the max!

The Buckinghams (Kinda of a Drag) provided entertainment one night and there was another headline entertainer, but we left a day early because we were approaching maximum overload. Winston was a big hit at the conference. He now has 500 new fans and thinks he’s all that and more. While at the conference we experienced more of the famous Wyoming weather – no consistency whatsoever from day to day. The first day we were there it was blue sky and sunshine. The second day, the wind blew like crazy all day and night. The third day it stormed – complete with motorhome shaking thunder, tremendous lightening, hail and torrential rain. The last day it was cloudy with intermittent showers.

We went into town for a look see – but not too much in Gillette to see. Apparently, Gillette’s claim to fame is being the energy capital of the U.S. We did spy some huge coal mining operation along I-90 as we headed eastbound toward Devil’s Tower National Monument. Kind of disturbing actually. The train cars are lined up as far as the eye can see waiting to be filled with coal and then they are off to deliver their load to the 37 states Wyoming supplies.