September, 2011 Rally

Ed & Sylvia Plaisted and Lee & Shirley Moore pulled a rabbit out of a hat to find and get a site for our rally at Jim's RV Center for September.

Visiting Jim's RV in Nichols, NY for their annual customer appreciation rally turned out to be fun for all.  They had something going from Friday afternoon to after breakfast on Sunday. In addition, they provided service to coaches while we were there, charging little or no labor.

 

Caricature Art

17 coaches attended with 12 arriving on Thursday. Also, there were 20 or so units from prior customers of Jim's attending. Games abounded with hog calling, rodeo, best western outfit, BS contest (ask someone there about it) and more.
With competitive line dancing being a sport, we chose teams to compete, one led by Ed Plaisted and the other by Millie Worden.
In spite of competing with other guests, Pen-NY Mixers fared well. Nelson Hansen won the Hog Calling, Larry Kotar was the best BS'er, while Millie's Studs won the Line Dancing (if you can call it that).
Food was abundant with hot appetizers Friday night, full breakfast Saturday and Sunday, a chili cook off Saturday lunch and a beef briscitt dinner on Saturday.

Millie & Lori practice for 
Line Dancing

Thanks to Ed, Sylvia, Lee, Shirley and Jim's RV for a great weekend.

ONE FINAL THOUGHT: Nickols is on the shores of the Susquehanna River and saw the ravages of the floods earlier this month.  Most of the sewage treatment plants along the river were under water and that polluted water flowed through the first floor of many homes, ruining folks belongings.   Homes that had stood for over 100 years were in as much as 10 feet of water.  In addition, many trailers and double wides near the river were knocked off their foundations due to rapidly flowing water.

Our hearts and prayers go out to them. 

As I finish this on the 29th of September, I have heard that there is flood warning for parts of the area again!

Another Update from Bainbridge, NY

Walt Linden sent the following pictures from the General Clinton Park (Bainbridge Labor Day Rally site) after the floods last week. The stand of trees are where many Pen-NY Mixers park. Below is the view of the exit ramp from on I88

Remember, you can always see a larger view of a picture by "double clicking" on it.

More Flood Updates

Walt Linden has forwarded the following notes from folks in the flood area along the PA/NY border.  
From Ed & Sylvia Plaisted:
Walt & Beryl,  We did get some water in our cellar, but it is nothing compared with    what happened just a few miles east of us in Athens, PA and Owego, NY.  It is very bad.  We are so thankful that we did not get any river water.  What we got was surface water and it was very minimal.  Thanks so much for thinking of us.  Sylvia
From Barb Kotar
We finally ventured out today. We were on the mountain since Wednesday and I was getting cabin fever.  Part of the road going down the mountain is washed out but still passable. The only thing is when you get to the bottom that road is closed. The bridge that connects to town is out ( the road is washed away) so we now have a detour that is about  20-25 miles up over the mountain and down another way to the only bridge that is opened at this point.  The downtown is a mess as most of it had at least 4 to 5 feet of water and now they are dealing with mud. They are not letting anyone go into town unless you have a home or business there, and can produce proper identification. This is going to a long long clean up. I hope everything goes OK for your trip in a week or so. Take care and be safe in your travels.

Barbara

Bainbridge

Many Pen-NY Mixers were at Bainbridge for the annual Labor Day rally.  Here are a couple pictures from September 8th. The one below is from the 206 exit off I88.  There one to the right is Bainbridge Park.
These photos were done by a photographer with the Evening Sun (the local Norwich paper).

Here we go again

Those who did not get enough rain from Hurricane Irene got even more from the remnants of Lee. The heart of PenNY Mixer country got hit with as much as 9 inches of rain.
Walt Linden reported the following:
.......the Candor school has the boilers underwater now.
All the roads are closed into Candor. I just spoke with Barb, who said that all the fields around their house are flooded like a lake, but their house is OK.

They have had some surface water in the basement causing some minor problems, but George and Barb spent the day trying to save other people with his boat. The fire dept. got an airboat from Ithaca to save quite a few people.

All the roads and bridges in Owego are closed and the streets are all flooded, as is Hickories. They moved the RV's out of the park and closed it down for the season. I spoke with the Jenkins who were parked in the Town Hall parking lot in downtown with 3 other RV's. There is no way out since all their roads and bridges are closed. 

Route 17 is closed and the river is just under the bridge. We have a friend who has a blueberry farm in northwest Owego, but the blueberries are under 9 feet of water. He had a flock of sheep that all floated away while the neighbors were trying to gather them back in.
In Binghamton the river overflowed the flood walls at 10 AM, and everything has been flooded since. The water is flowing very fast. Oneonta is closed and most of the towns along the Susquehanna are also. 

Unbelievable! Worse than hurricane Agnes in 1972.

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Below is a short video from the Huffington Post about Oneonta. Just click on it. You can come back to blog by clicking on the PenNY Mixer tab above. Tom

Video From Oneonta

September, 2011 Rally

Remember, our September Rally has been changed to Jim,s RV Center. 

Dates: September 22-25, 2011

Cost: $40

Registration forms were mailed earlier. If you have not registered for the September Rally yet, it is not too late. Contact Ed and Sylvia Plaisted. (607-529-3353)

Ed Plaisted says we can come in on Thursday that weekend. We will have a better chance of parking together if we come in on Thursday.You are still welcome to come on Friday.

See the agenda under our next event tab.

Hurricane Irene

Many PenNY Mixers live near or in the path of Hurricane Irene that rolled through August 26-29th.
Seneca Falls, the site of our last rally was on the fringe of the storm.
A week after the storm, many folks are trying to recover from the torrential rains of the weekend.  A few pictures show the effects and what folks saw.

The 2 pictures to the right were taken in Margaretville, NY in the Catskill mountains.  Amazingly, the stop light is the top picture is still working.

The pictures on the left are from Windham, NY.  
Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone trying to recover.

PenNY Mixers in Madison, WI for 86th FMCA International

The week of August 8th brought members of the PenNY Mixers to Madison, Wisconsin for the 86th annual FMCA rally.  Many PenNY Mixers were parked in front of the dome at the Alliant Energy Center.

Almost perfect weather and a warm welcome from Madison made the event a great week.  The event was visited by all the local tv stations.  Northeast was highlighted on channel 15, NBC as Ed Smith (NMA Vice President Barb's husband) & Tom Roule were interviewed.  Click on the link below to see the video.

You may need use the "back" on you keyboard to return to this blog after you've viewed the video.

Madison channel 15 FMCA video

NMA chapter members got together twice in open forum discussions led by President, Paul Dubois.
The first one was on Tuesday before the Governing Board meeting on Wednesday where Paul and Ed Hoag led review of the upcoming elections.  While they could not advize area directors how to vote, considerable discussion centered around experiences with national candidates.

Walt Linden - Bev Brown

Election results from Wednesday, August 10th were as follows:

• National President:  Charlie Schrenkel
• National Senior Vice President: Allen Rein
• National Secretary:  Vicky Ferrari
• National Treasurer:  Wil Young

As always, Walt Linden represented us during the Meetings.

PenNY Mixer Governing Board Members

In other business, Hutchinson, Kansas was chosen for the 2013, 50th FMCA anniversary rally.  National Directors will not reimbursed for 2012 87th International.  Consideration is being given to combining one of the winter regional rallies with the winter international.  Currently, the plan is to cancel the 2012 and 2013 winter rallies.

Our second NMA get together was a general discussion led be Paul Dubois, Barb Smith and Lorie Hoag (Ed was under the weather).  Paul was soliciting ideas for improvement within the area.  Some folks expressed interest in moving the rally to different venues.  Essex Junction more than meets our needs with great facilities and reasonable electric, but an occasional alternative would make returning to Essex Junction "new".  The challenge for the area is finding a location that is open to vendors from out of the area.  Paul asked for help finding and securing a location that meets the area's requirements.
Much discussion also centered around how to include trailers and 5th wheels to foster growth of the organization. This topic will be on future agendas.
Finally, we had a brief visit from our new board officers.
Coach count was 1810 family units.  Total coaches exceeded 2200.  The vendor building was loaded with a variety of products and it seemed busy all the way through Saturday.
Restaurants were great and reasonable.