2016 Mississippi River Rendezvous Sept 30-Oct 2

[thoer]

Rules? They are kinda like Dave's poetry. But basically three lug nuts and the contestant with a breaker bar tries to torque one at 40 ft pounds, next at 70 and the third at 95. Then we checked what they were actually at with Dave's expensive Proto torque wrench.

[gbaglo]

Got it. So, it had nothing to do with how many beers you had consumed.

[thoer]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

Got it. So, it had nothing to do with how many beers you had consumed.

Task master Paul made us start at 10am to prevent the drunken brawls

[Nindy]

A few more photos showing the official scorekeeper/referee and the grand prizes. (For some reason, vertical photos don't go vertical for me on here. I'm sure someone will flip it for me.)

[HABBERDABBER]

Kudos to maestro Paul for initiating, organizing and re-organizing this event. I ate too much, drank too much, laughed and talked too much and just had too much enjoyment. I'll recover in time. Osage orange, Eric? What's that? A new Fall color being featured in Vogue magazine?

[float5]

Good for you for beating the wimps! Go, Linda!

Originally Posted by Nindy

a fun Torque Your Nuts contest but you really need to make it harder for us women, haha! Congrats to Maureen who was right behind me with torque finesse. (I'm really not one bit competitive. )

Thanks for the prizes for the contest. What was really impressive is that they came complete with batteries installed!

Hope to meet up with you all again sometime. I will certainly have to attend this event next year to defend my title! Safe and happy travels to all.

--Torque Queen Linda

[LeonW]

Some more photos of the Torque Off Contest. It was a close race. you had to torque 3 nuts, one to 40 ft lbs, one to 70 ft lbs and one to 95 ft lbs. Dave and Eric did the judging of the contest. It was a close race with 2 contestants a total of 15 ft-lbs off and 4 contestants a total of 20 ft lbs off. Then Linda the Torque Queen showed up and cleaned everyone's clock (or torque wrench by torquing each nut to the exact specification. She claims she did not practice but .....

A good time was had by all. Much coaching by Red Dog and his friend (Larry? -- I may have gotten that name wrong).

In addition to the many prizes won by the Torque Queen a genuine Harbor Freight Torque wrench was given away in a drawing.

The word is that Linda is offering a Torque off summer camp next year where she will help folks develop the delicate touch needed to tighten a nut to the exact specification.

[thoer]

Dave's new Torque Your Nuts contest test rig will be available for rent. Rental fee is patiently waiting to get a word in edgewise between stories.

[Lorry & Rich]

Good times, great people & food! Thanks Paul for all your work. Looking forward to next year! Lots of tall tales!!!!

Lorry & Rich

[rbryan4]

Man that looks like it was alot of fun Dave. Maybe one of these years we can head east.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[emers382]

Great photos, great time had by all it looks like, I feel a bit jealous of course since we had planned to attend but had to cancel due to my "valve job" in July, meaning health insurance to travel to the US became prohibitively expensive, at least for one year. We hope to join you all for the 3rd Mississippi rally next fall.

Adrian

[thoer]

Adrian, you were missed

[Iowa Dave]

We missed you as well. We had a real nice
time and I showed some of the photos around that I took at the St Malo Manitoba rally. Hope you can join us next year, looking forward to when we camp with you again.
Dave and Rita

[gabeck]

Nice to see a few photos of this rally . Prairie Schooner looks awesome .....to new , needs to be broken in more !!

[cpaharley2008]

taken by Iowa Dave.....

[Nindy]

Originally Posted by float5

Good for you for beating the wimps! Go, Linda!

Thanks, Cathy!

[gabeck]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

taken by Iowa Dave.....

Looks great , we thought the new models look a lot larger.....

[fudge_brownie]

Well, the fire has been extinguished on the 2016 Mississippi River Rendezvous and it was a successful rally. The fireplace was the happening place for the rally. It became clear when I walked by at 6:30 Friday morning and someone had already stoked it up and added wood. They were sitting and enjoying it at that hour. Several admitted to staying up past their bed time to enjoy that fireplace. That truckload of firewood had high entertainment value.

We had 36 units in attendance. Sorry no break down by brand but Scamp, Casita, U-haul, and the habitual Escapes were present. I estimate there were 6 day trippers in the group. Someone announced that we had 59 in attendance for the pot luck dinner.

The rally was a squeaker in several ways; first, escaping from the flood waters of the Big Muddy days before the start of the event, second, finding a campground that would hold us at the last minute (thank you Iowa Dave) and finally fitting us all in. Under pressure because the Scott County Parks do not take reservations we were at the mercy of other campers and their willingness to camp in fiberglass heaven. On Friday night the last rally camper arrived at 9:00 pm taking the last spot. Saturday we had CPAHarley arrive and getting a spot only because someone left early. Whew!

As last year, the visitors arrived on Saturday with their clip boards, build sheets pocket folders and tape measure. They poured over their model of choice and asked question after question. It was great to see their enthusiasm and the patient answers given by the owners. The tours started early and ended late.

The crowd was definitely Mississippi River folks with Iowa and Illinois well represented but so were Wisconsin, Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas, Indiana, Tennessee, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Manitoba was conspicuous by its absence, eh! What a great group to spend a weekend with. Thank you for making the rendezvous the success it was.

See you next year.

[Iowa Dave]

Hi Paul
Very nice write up. Thanks for all of your hard work on this rally. Better mention that there was one boler in attendance, the granddaddy of most fiberglass campers today. At 42 years young it's still going strong including the original refrigerator. This is a great indication of the durability, resilience, value and capability of the fiberglass travel trailer. And that newly redecorated interior was beautifully done by its millennial owners. Who else is running a trailer ten years older than the owner?
Thanks again
Dave

[Teresa M]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Hi Paul
Very nice write up. Thanks for all of your hard work on this rally. Better mention that there was one boler in attendance, the granddaddy of most fiberglass campers today. At 42 years young it's still going strong including the original refrigerator. This is a great indication of the durability, resilience, value and capability of the fiberglass travel trailer. And that newly redecorated interior was beautifully done by its millennial owners. Who else is running a trailer ten years older than the owner?
Thanks again
Dave

Thanks Dad for not forgetting about the B&B. Newly decorated interior would just be a heap of fabric without the Viking sewing machine (that, coincidentally, is about the same age as the Boler...) and the master seamstress!! She thought she was done... but I sent her back home with fabric and a new sewing project...

Great to meet all of you at the rally!!