April 20, 2003 - Branson, MO - 5 2/23-28/03 - San Antonio & Borene MDT rally, TX)

HAPPY EASTER!  He is risen!  Ya-Hoo!  Where would we be without Easter?  I shudder to think about it.

Holy cow, we're in San Antonio, touring with Dean and Bettye.  Seems like some cities have used the same plan to gather more money for their civic activities.  Several years ago we were in Norfolk, VA, with friend Eric (his wife Martha still hadn't returned from a trip) and took pictures of the mermaids they had "sold" to people after an artist had painted them all up.  Well, the same deal for the cows apparently.  "If you paint them, they'll sell" seems to be the byword.

Remember the Alamo?  Well, the church is still there.  On the left is the path leading from the church to the barracks where the troops and their families stayed.  And also the gift shop.  And on the right, of course, is the face made famous by Hollywood.  The true story is quite different from the movie story, but isn't most of life that way?

Now, I want you to look at the date and time of these shots verses the shots of the Alamo.  That's right.  Two days later it's 23 degrees and everything is frozen solid.  The ice storm shut down Hwy 10 for a couple of days for the first time in history!  Sort of slowed us down as well.  Didn't stop us, because we were already parked at the campground in Boerne, TX, for the MDT rally.  That's medium duty truck rally for those who aren't familiar with Moby Dick's family name.

Kinda makes you sick to see ice on the boat, and sheeted on the windshield too, doesn't it.  Groan!  Next winter we're going south!

One last shot of the ice hanging on the mirror as I watch Barb in her cute little white hat, and then it's two days later again.  Yup, short sleeves and sunshine.  We're all lined up right on time for the show 'n tell session.  Or is it the drag 'n brag session?  Anyway, those who wanted were able to line up for an informal show to trade ideas.  There were several people who were considering buying a MDT and wanted to see what others had done.  Most of the trucks there were all built according to somebody's personal specifications.  Moby Dick is pretty much a variation of a standard truck that Stalick International in Springfield, OR, builds.  And then of course, we all gawk at each other's trucks to see what ideas we like that we can steal, uh, er, "incorporate" into our own truck.  It was our hope, of course (and the main reason for us to attend the rally in the first place), that somebody would fall in love and want to buy the truck at least, and maybe the whole rig. That would let us make the switch to a motorhome so we could pull the Jeep and travel together again.  Not much fun traveling separately.

That's not me in the middle (sort of to the right) drooling on a little mini-bike, is it?  Surely that's not me with the big grin sitting on it, is it?  Well, alright, it is.  Cutest little 50cc Harley-Davidson wanabee we ever saw.  Lots of fun to ride too, I discovered.  The guy had it as a model for sale, as he was a dealer for them.  Since we're thinking about selling our DiBlasi folding mini-bikes because we just don't use them that much, it was all just fun for me.

On the left is an ATV that lives up on the rack and goes up those ramps to get there.  Yeah, right.  And of course, Moby Dick all washed up and open for showing.  Even pulled the cover off the genset to brag about its power.  I still can't believe we got a 12,000 watt generator when all we really needed was about 7,500 watts.  Ah, you can't ever have too much power can you?

Who has too many toys, eh?  That boat setup was great.  The whole thing was run by electric winches.  He must be a more serious fisherman than me, that's for sure.  We're even considering selling the boat, engine, trolling motor, etc., because it's spending way too much time riding up on top of the truck.  And then a shiny new BIG truck.  That's not a MDT by any stretch of the imagination, but we love it anyway.

Some newbees who went all out and got a full sized heavy duty truck.  Barb chatted with them for a while and said they were as excited as anybody could be with their new status as full time RVers.  Not sure what they're pulling with that big truck.  And looky there.  There's that ATV up on its rack.  Actually, he was parked right next to me and took that rascal up and down several times to show others how it worked.

There's another BIG truck, but this one is called a Crew Chief, and is designed and built for hauling RVs.  And there Barb is with Phyllis and Howard.  They were among the very first we talked to about buying a Stalick truck back at the Escapade in Chico in 1999.  We still trade e-mails, and Phyllis sends out a newsletter of their travels.  Like us, they have a second vehicle that they use to run around in.  At first they wanted to sell their rig and buy a motorhome, but now they've cooled on the idea a bit.  They still look at motorhomes, but don't seem as bothered as much as Barb and I with the arrangement of traveling in separate vehicles.

There's Barb with Pat.  We met Pat at the Life On Wheels conference in Moscow, ID, in July 2000.  She was driving a 1 ton dually, and not happy with its performance and the safety issue.  She came by where we were parked, and I let (made?) her drive Moby Dick.  It was love at first drive, and shortly after that she bought a Stalick as well.  She travels with her mom, and they're great folks.  And then the rally was over, and we took off for Houston.