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Monday, September 5, 2011

Hurricane Irene

Description: Description: Main St. in Margaretville, NY.
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.

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

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.


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.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Sherry Miller's Award

Sherry is very excited as she won first place in the open division quilting at the NYS Fair. 
The quilt will now compete for best in show. They are going to go to the fair on Friday while they are at the rally.


GOOD LUCK, SHERRY !

Sunday, August 14, 2011

September, 2011 Rally Change

Good news for the Robbins, problem for the Pen-NY Mixers.  Lee and Vivian Robbins decided to place their house "for sale".  And-----they got an offer in a week with the stipulation they close before August 31st.
Neither Lee or Vivian are easily flustered, but this is close.  As a result, they have asked if an alternative site could be found.
Thanks to Shirley and Lee Moore and Ed and Sylvia Plaisted, we will be going to Jim's RV in Nichols.  We will be part of Jim's Customer appreciation weekend, September 23-25.
The deadline is August 19th. 
Price is $40 with Thursday arrivals being ok.

 Please have checks made out to Jim’s  RV Center but Mail to Ed Plaisted.

Ed's email is  
Esp365@yahoo.com
Phone:  607-529-3353

Happy Travels.



Friday, August 12, 2011

Preliminary Madison highlights

A number of  Pen-NY Mixers are visiting the 86th International Convention in Madison, Wisconsin.  On Wednesday, the local NBC news affiliate visited the governing board area we are staying to capture the flavor of  1911 family coaches visiting.
Admittedly, this is a little self serving, but below is the link.  The story is about 3 minutes in length.  So, I would suggest you have a high speed connection before trying to view the segment.
http://video.nbc15.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=6137803&h1=VIDEO%3A%20Tim%20Travels%20Mini%20City%20Motors%20into%20Madison%206am%208/10/2011&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=40656&LaunchPageAdTag=News&fvCatNo=&backgroundImageURL=&activePane=info&rnd=22299924

We had rather high expectations for Madison; and, so far, results have exceeded those.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Walmart Information

We noticed that our local "Walmart Superstore" seemed to have fewer items then previously.  Then while traveling through Montana, we stopped in a store that had "most" of the items we usually saw but without the "Superstore".
When asked, we were told Walmart is reducing inventory to increase "turnover" rate in some superstores and removing the "Superstore" name.
So, at least we know it's ok to look elsewhere.
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Some good news about Walmart:
Most of  us have IPADS or laptops, and find that Walmarts can be found on map programs along with address and phone number.

  • So, Sharon locates a Walmart where we want to stay
  • Calls the phone number
  • Asks for customer service
  • Asks if it is ok to "park overnight"
So far, they have been extremely willing to answer our questions. So, we know where to stay several hours in advance.

August 2011 Rally plans

The Wordens, Lindens and Millers have finalized plans for the August rally.  Check out our "Next Event" page for information.
Below is a map of the location.