It is always exciting to arrive at a WBCCI International Rally. You are greeted by a sea of shiny aluminum Airstream trailers already on the grounds. By the end of the week, approximately 700 Airstreams were on the fairgrounds in Salem.
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| Arriving at the Salem WBCCI International Rally |
This was our fourth IR, Airstream lingo for International Rally, and it also marked the farthest distance we have pulled Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, since becoming Airstreamers.
It is easy to be anxious over the parking process when you arrive at an International Rally. The parkers assign spaces systematically. While the parkers say there isn’t too much difference between sites on the fairgrounds, anyone having attended an IR before knows that some sites are a long, long, long way from the activities at the rally. We noticed that our escort took us past the trailers parked at the back fence as we were being led to our site. We couldn’t believe our luck as we were told to park in a site close to the buildings being used for the rally. After three years of parking away from things, we had a front row space for the Salem rally.
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| Following the parkers to our site |
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| In line to be parked at the WBCCI International Rally |
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| Our site |
We heard before we arrived that Salem had issues with its water. The levels of algae in the city’s water supply was unsafe and we were told to arrive with a full fresh water tank and plenty of bottled drinking water. To help with the situation, the Airstream Corporation provided a special water filter site that allowed us to fill water bottles for drinking. We quickly learned how to conserve water while there.
As a side note, officials in Salem's city government were saying that the city will have to invest more than $230 million in water treatment plant infrastructure to fix this problem or it will continue to reoccur in the future. Chances are that once the chemical treatments get the current problem under control, talk about actually fixing the problem will fade away.
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| Camping sites at the Salem Fairground |
As soon as we parked, we started recognizing our fellow Airstream friends already in Salem. It is amazing how many people we knew from previous International Rallies and from caravans.
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| Becky meets her "Airstream Twin" |
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| Becky wins First Place in the Watercolors Category for her painting |
This was a different IR for me. I was responsible for three presentations and two meetings. I look forward to going back to being a participant at the next IR.
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| Steve participating in the WBCCI IR Flag Ceremony |
Here are some specifics about this campground:
- Our site had 30 amp electrical service
- Our site had a water connection
- Our site did not have a sewer connection
- A septic tank truck pumped out our gray and black tanks twice while we were in Salem
- Our site was paved with asphalt and was close to being level
- To get 700-ish trailers on the fairgrounds, the parkers had to place them close to each other. We had enough room to open the awnings with a few feet to spare
- The fairgrounds offered a slow and overwhelmed WiFi service in several buildings
- We were amazed at the lack of TV stations in Salem. We were able to see several TV stations from Portland using Rosie’s antenna
The two most common questions we heard people asking in Salem were 1) have you found the showers and 2) how do you exit the fairgrounds? We heard reports of phantom showers in various buildings on the grounds. We finally found a shower facility that appeared to me to be similar to the ones used during basic training in the Army.
Finding an open gate to exit the fairgrounds was a challenge. As a security precaution, only a few gates were open and some people had to drive around searching for one before they the found the open gates.
