Travelogue #2, International Airstream Rally, Bismarck, ND
June 26, 2000 - July 5, 2000

June 26, 2000

To begin this travelogue we must state that we joined the WBCCI (Wally Byam Caravan Club International) after we bought our 25 ft. Safari Airstream Trailer in 1997. We have paid dues by mail but have never attended any local functions. Wally Byam was the inventor of the first Airstream travel trailer and the one who founded an organization for people who enjoyed travelling in their trailers. A large part of the organization is centered on caravan travel.

This will be an attempt to present an objective overview of the 43rd WBCCI International Rally in Bismarck ND. We needed to be in the Midwest for a family reunion in July, so this seemed like a good opportunity to check things out.

We left Mitchell, SD, on 6/26/00 driving on I-90 to Highway 281 and straight north. The road ranged from good to very narrow with no shoulder to bumpy. However there was very little traffic, so the road was not a problem. We did drive through wind and rain intermittently. Karen had never been to ND, so it was interesting to note that the farms and fields seemed bigger and more prosperous as we drove north through SD to the border. There were huge fields of grain, corn, and bright yellow Canola, or as Jim likes to say, genetically altered rapeseed.

We saw many of prairie birds as we drove along. The roadsides seemed to be used for drainage, with lots of cattails and birds like yellow-headed and red-winged blackbirds. When we turned onto I-94 we found many small lakes long the Interstate. At one point we looked up to see probably a hundred white pelicans sailing the thermals so high up you could barely guess what they were as the sun glinted on their wings. They live on the lakes of the region in the summer.

We overnighted at the Jamestown KOA, along with three Airstream Caravans and numerous other travelers. This was a pleasant friendly place. It was modem friendly for $1.00 to download. It was here that we heard the first reports of MUD in the rally parking area. Some of the planners and worker bees have been at the site for two weeks already. Much rain made for a real mess. Apparently at one time they had Airstreams parked all over town wherever they could find a parking spot. The field for parking by the Bismarck Airport was so muddy that they hauled in 77 trucks of gravel to make some roadbeds. Suddenly Jim turned apprehensive about damaging the trailer.

The last time this group had a rally in Bismarck they created a new brand of Airstream called the "Bismarck" because there was a rather dramatic hail storm on July 1, 1993 that pock marked all of the trailers that were in attendance. There are several of these in attendance at this rally that apparently never had their trailers repaired.

We arrived at the site following red & white WBCCI signs from I-94. You arrive at what is called the Bullpen. There are a number of people on scooters (officially known as the Scooter Patrol). You are led to your campsite by the Scooter Patrol. Four large weed fields, designated gold, red, green and blue are each separated by a row of trees. The ground is still somewhat soft, but there was no danger of getting stuck. The new roadbeds are a distinct asset.

About 10 rigs are put into one row in each of these fields. There is a total of 1200 plus rigs, quite a sight. You are provided with enough electricity to trickle charge your battery and with water on a continuous connection from RV to RV in each row. Each RV has been told in advance to bring a Y connection (without valves) and a 25 ft potable water hose. (Amazingly good water pressure. The volunteer utility people only had to run several thousand feet of water pipe to supply the site. (Last year they ran three miles of pipe.) Utilities were set up quite efficiently, as each row filled. Parking spots were exactly marked in advance with a spray of orange paint and several people made sure you were in the correct position. A couple of guys came around to check how you were hitched up and to give safety tips regarding hook-up. You are allowed to let gray water run on the ground by directing it under the trailer with a short hose. A honey wagon is scheduled for black water collection.

Camping areas are divided as to people with pets, people with children, people with disabilities, people with generators and regular people with no special needs. We fit the latter category.

After setting up we drove into Bismarck to the convention center to register. After registering there were many activities one could sign up for if you wished to participate. You were instructed to just show up for the many seminars. We were instructed to wear our badges all the time so that the town was aware of our presence. As "first timers", we had an additional yellow ribbon denoting our status so WBBCI members could recognize us. We later found many locals were extremely friendly, welcoming us to their city when they saw our badges.

June 27, 2000

The rally was not officially started, so we chose to drive 125 miles to the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the Jeep. An early historic visitor described the South Unit as, "hell with the fires out". This trip was to satisfy Karen's curiosity regarding comparison to the SD Badlands. It was a pleasant sunny day for a drive. We drove a 35 miles scenic drive through the park, stopping to picnic and hike a bit here and there. This park is definitely not crowded. There are many bison wandering around loose. There were baby bison to be seen. Prairie dogs are in huge numbers at the several Prairie dog towns along the route. We saw a big Bull Snake about 4 feet long at one point that just wanted to get away from us. The landscape is definitely rugged with bizarre rock formations. The Little Missouri River winds its way through the park. It is Karen's observation that these badlands seem more benign than the SD badlands because there is a lot of grass, wild flowers and small trees that add green to the landscape. It would, however, definitely be a challenge to cross the land by foot or horseback.

There is an interesting Visitors Center that gives an overview of the park with a lot of attention paid to Teddy Roosevelt and his time spent trying to be a rancher in this area. At one point he hired two Maine fishing guides to come west and run one of his ranches. This was not the best judgement in our opinion. Fishing is a far cry from ranching! At any rate, obviously Teddy went on to bigger and better things and abandoned his ranches eventually. He was known to have said that he would not have been President if it were not for the time he spent in ND.

Just before you get to the park entrance there is a little "Old West" tourist town that was probably worth exploring if you had more time. There is a theatre here that has summer musicals featuring local area talent. We noted lots of gift shops and eating-places.

There is also a northern unit to the park that supposedly has more trees and elk herds, but because that would have been over a hundred-mile round trip to the entrance to get back to I-94 we chose to explore that at another time. On I-94 near New Salem, ND, there is a statue of the world's largest Holstein on view from the highway, which is a little startling.

ND is in two time zones. We entered Mountain Time just a bit West of Bismarck. The days are very long here in mid-summer. It is still light at 10 p.m.

June 28, 2000

At 9:15 a.m. there was a WBCCI Band concert prior to the opening ceremony. Musicians, some former professional musicians, come early to the rally to practice so they can perform at the various events. The opening ceremony consisted of welcoming messages from the President of WBCCI and local Bismarck/Mandan officials. After that there was a flag procession. WBBCI has twelve regions throughout Canada, Mexico and the US. Within those regions there are Units. Each of these entities has a unique flag. First the national flags (USA, Canada and Mexico) were presented with each national anthem. After that each region and unit presidents were presented along with their flag which was carried forward to the stage. The end of the ceremony found 165 flags displayed. The WBBCI band played throughout the ceremony.

This is a good place to state that there are an immense variety of seminars, games, and activities to pick and choose from everyday at this rally. There is no way you participate in everything that is offered. Morning devotions are offered every morning at 7:30 a.m. At 8:00 a.m. there is Line Dancing. After that there are social meetings, educational seminars on some of the finer aspects of RVing, tennis, golf, bird watching, sewing, knitting, Bridge, etc, etc, etc. We chose to attend all of the seminars pertinent to trailers that we could fit into our days. Each evening has special entertainment.

Most of the activities take place in the air-conditioned Bismarck Civic Center. This is a very nice facility for such a group. School buses run from the parking area to the Civic Center about every ten minutes with remarkable efficiency, so you do not have to drive to everything.

There is an Airstream store for buying parts and accessories, and there are vendor booths for things like Fantastic fans, satellite TV, water filtration, solar equipment, etc. Vendors also do work for you on site while you are here. Of course, there are also Airstream coaches of a wide variety available. (Airstream calls both trailers and "driver buses" coaches.)

There are arts & crafts and photo contests, contests of any game you can think of, tennis, golf, dancing, and square dancing, along with lessons for neophytes and seminars in financial planning. There are special seminars on caravans and for full-timers. There are also organized activities for the teens and children. There is a talent show for them and a WBCCI Teen Queen contest. There are about 85-90 young people here, mostly grandchildren it would appear.

A reception and seminar for first timers filled in some of the blanks concerning what this rally was all about and offered some practical hints concerning trailers.

We visited the Airstream store and toured most of the new coaches on display, coming to the conclusion we are happy with what we have.

In the evening there was a variety show BEST OF BISMARCK by Bill. Bill happens to be the mayor of Bismarck. He was master of ceremonies and also did magic. It was 2-1/2 hour program featuring ND talent, a folk singer, comedians, singers, and, of course, magic. After the program there was ballroom and square dancing, which was also scheduled after the evening programs on Friday, and Saturday.

June 29, 2000

We attended a seminar on the finer points of AJL Solar Electric and Trace Equipment. Here we learned about the Sun Extender battery that never needs water and has a life of ten years. It is $160.00, however. We also learned that there is now an apparent monopoly for inverters, which does not bode well for future prices of this equipment. (We do not have solar, were just curious.)

Mid afternoon we joined the group from our local Texas Unit for a ride on the Lewis & Clark fake paddle wheeler for a one and a half hour ride on the Missouri river and dinner at Meriweather's, a rather quaint restaurant overlooking the river. We had run into some of these folks at the opening ceremony and they were kind enough to include us in their plans. We enjoyed ourselves.

The evening entertainment at the rally was a Festival of Music by the WBCCI band.

June 30, 2000

We attended seminars on Propane and Trailering safety. Dennis Chapin, Popular Organist, put on the evening program. We should point out that the WBCCI members are noted for eating ice cream. It seems that every other person you see is eating an ice cream cone.

July 1, 2000

This was Canada Day. Everyone was to dress in red and white. We attended an entertaining program on the Physics of Towing and caught the tail end of a Full-timers seminar. There was a Hobby Show and Photo Print Contest Show that we viewed. This pointed out the diversity of this group. Canada's WBCCI put on the evening program. We were treated to performances by a number of diverse Canadian cultural groups. The program opened with a parade of the performers through the audience led by the Manitoba Police Bagpipe Band. Groups that performed were the Magdargat Phillipines dancers, Miss Angela Jill Guingcangco, vocal soloist, the Hinode Taiko Japanese Drummers, Licanantay, a group of Andean and Latin American musicians, the Irish Tavern Singers, the McConnell Irish Dancers and Zirka, a Ukrainian Dance Ensemble.

July 2, 2000

We took a break from the rally and toured both the state capital and the ND Heritage Center. The capital building is good example of Art Deco design. It was built just before the Great Depression started and is a very utilitarian looking 19 story office building that dominates Bismarck's landscape. The Heritage Center had interesting displays about the flora, fauna and history of the state, along with some artwork.

There was a Teen Queen Pageant, followed by a Teen Sock Hop and Ball this evening, which we did not attend. There were between 80-90 young people in attendance at the rally, most of whom were brought by grandparents, as near as we could tell.

July 3, 2000

There was a Flea Market and Craft Sale of items that the members had brought. We wondered where everyone stored the stuff they displayed.

The evening program was a Patriotic Pops Concert by the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Wellin, conductor. There were several solos by Gregory Lorenz, Tenor, a Julliard grad.
This program was followed by Installation of Officers for 2000-2001 and an Inaugural Ball.

July 4, 2000

Things are winding down. The Mandan 4th of July Parade with some WBBCI members participating and an indoor picnic at the arena were on the agenda. The evening program was put on by The Lettermen, followed by a brief closing ceremony.

We did not begin to take in everything that was offered at this rally. There were 163 committee chairmen listed for any activity you could imagine. There were also fund raising activities-about 4500 warm caps were donated to the community and about a ton of aluminum can tabs for recycling were given to the local Ronald McDonald House, as a fund raiser. These two projects went on all year. Pocket change of about $5000.00 dollars was donated at evening performances. This was given to a local child who needs multiple transplants. People donated blood to the local chapter of the Red Cross and several hundred stuffed toys were collected for local children needing medical services. The Rally church services (Protestant, Catholic and Jewish) collected over $5000.00, which was given to several local community services (Big Brother, etc.)

Volunteers fill all WBCCI positions. There was constant CB communication available (Wally Byam Control - Channel 14), with special instructions for emergencies. There was also free blood pressure checking and Prostate screening available. Free shuttle bus service provided by Bismarck, went daily about every 15 minutes to and from the camping area and the civic center. The buses ran from 7:30 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. every day, so you did not have to drive if you did not want to.

The total cost for the rally, which included the nine days of a campsite, was $176.00 for both of us, which we think was a bargain by anyone's standards.