My Wife and I are discussing perhaps setting up a Rally here in Minnesota.  There are many excellent County Fair Grounds available that are set up as camp grounds in the off season.  Where we live for instance the Dakota County Fairgrounds in Farmington is really nice.  It has a very large Heritage Village composed of many old buildings that have been moved in and restored.  Ther is a bank, post office, church, school, black smith shop, newspaper, jail, fire dept., and many more.  Also the fair grounds is just half an hour from the Mall of America.  (Women seem to like that).  There are many more out in the country further as well.

Is there any interest in something like that?  I can also arrange for pig roasts and the like.

Moved this post to the new Rally forum

Cooperhawk, when are you thinking for this? It would be great to come up in Spring. I've never spent more than a day in and around Minneapolis and we have friends who recently moved up there.

Talked to a member of the Dakota Village today. There are two events this Summer that could work well with a rally. One is an old classic car rally and the other is a blue grass rally. On both occassions the heritage village is open and maned.

Yea, usually the ice is off the lakes by the fourth of July. Just kidding.

We start serious camping in the last half of May. In fact my family schedules a huge family fishing trip the third weekend in May. It can be cold and windy, or in the eighties by that time. By June we're usually into air conditioning.

Of course the perma frost never does thaw.

I had a place on lake Andrusia which is party of the Cass Lake Chain on the Mississippi. If I remember right, Fishing season ( God bless the Walleye) opens on the 15th of May. I also remember it could be pretty cold for a Flordian. Had most of the canvas up on the ol Lund and a Mr. Heater on high.

I'm doing the Georgia rally in April and might just mosy north if the timing was right. I have a brother on Round lake near Nisswa I need to visit.

Yeh - sure - you bet chah

Long drive for the little Peanut. I need better seats! 

Don't know how many members we have now in the Midwest or at least close by, however, The Dakota County Fair Grounds is located in the old farm town of Farmington, Minnesota.  The area is quickly becomming part of the Twin City Metro area, but Farmington still retains the old town feel.

The fair grounds is set up for rallys with quite a few full hook-ups and lots of room.  Some of the local attractions would include The Mall of America, (bout half an hour away), The Twin Cities, (45 minutes), The mississippi river and various other places.

In July, in fact the 12th and 13th they have old time Blue Grass in the park.  There is a Heritage Village which includes many old buildings that have been restored and during events are manned.  Such as the Blacksmith Shop, Newspaper, Drug Store, and so on.  Very nice.

If anyone is interested chime in.  I'm sure we could arrange a nice rally around all this.

http://www.dakotacountyfair.org/ind...w&extid=36

I did note the "No Pets Please", but not sure if that applys to rallys.  See, there are livestock barns for the fair and so on.  It probably is just for the Blue Grass Area.

If we had enough Rallyiers I could probably arrange a pig roast.

Sounds interesting Coop.  Don't know if I could make it or not, would have to see what dates it would be.  Sounds like a neat place though.

Tip.

PS:  See the thing is, I think I got the wife talked into a fishing trip for vacation this year!  What are the odds of that!

Actually, my wife likes to go fishing.  Trick is to get her to leave her work for a while.

This last week we attended the FMCA Rally in St. Paul, Minnesota.  It was very large.  over 2400 units and another 600 units for venders and dealers.  This really is a land of VAST Prosperity!  We felt a little out of place however.  Our rig is something we consider a hobby.  We upgrade and repair and polish, whereas these folks go to rallys and let the venders and dealers fix their rigs. 

Yep, there some fancy rigs there.  Some over a million dollars.  We were in one that actually had a slide out veranda.  Magine that!  Only $750,000.00 would let you drive that little baby home.  Oh, not so little either.  Over forty feet long with a Cat diesel engine.

We were there because a good friend and his wife were in attendance and we parked side by side and had a great time.  He has a Beaver with four slides and so many systems that only a computer can control all of them.  Nice rig, but they more or less full time with it.

With all that said, I would rather rally with people who, like me, consider their rigs a work in progress.  Instead of huffing and puffing about how much our rigs cost, my friend didn't do that by the way, we could discuss the how to's and show off our handiwork.  I would like that a lot better.  We now have over 800 members on this forum.  Let's talk about maybe some small local rallys to get started. 

How about a Midwest Rally.  Somewhere in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas or such.  Maybe plan for next year.  How about it.  Got any ideas???