Perry, Ga., 2011 Convention Questions

[ploiselle]

I am interested in attending FMCA's 85th Family Reunion & Motorhome Showcase, which will be held at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry, Ga., from March 14 to 17, 2011, but have a few questions. IMHO, for those of us who will be attending our first convention, there should be an FAQ section that explains terms such as Passport, etc., instead of just the refund policy.

The convention is from March 14 to 17. What are the arrival and departure times and dates? Do you arrive the day before? Can you leave the day after it closes?

In the generator section(s), is there room to put your awning out, or are you parked so close you can't? If we are parked close, can someone please make a recommendation for a nearby campground for a 40-footer?

What are generally the nighttime temperature in Perry at this time of year? I don't want to listen to generators all night, but it beats temperatures that are uncomfortable to sleep in. Low 70s or less, I will go with the 7 - 11 generator; above that, the 24-hour generator.

Is there enough to see and do for four days?

I will be towing ... is there a parking area for the toad?

Is there a tentative list of participating vendors and activities online?

Is there a dump station?

I will have been on the road for a couple months before coming to Perry. Any other suggestions or hints would be greatly appreciated. We have been camping for many years, but this will be my first convention.

Thanks for any help.

Paul

P.S. I have been an FMCA member for a lot longer than "Joined: 7-December 09." What is that all about?

[Guest BillAdams]

There is a campground directly across the street if you make reservations early. They fill up fast since it has rained nearly every year that there has been a rally in Perry during that time of year. Hopefully, that will not be the case this year, but getting towed out of the grass is not a lot of fun. I know they have improved their field drainage, but rain, grass, mud can lead to getting stuck.

There is nearly nothing to do in the surrounding area, but the idea is to give you plenty to do at the rally itself. Seminars, coach displays, vendors, manufacturer reps, entertainment and on and on.

Some parking areas will have room for slideouts or awnings, but likely you will not have room for both. You can arrive early and you can usually stay an additional day, but there may be a charge for the extra day.

You will be assigned an arrival date when you register for the rally. There will be parking for your toad. Usually this is beside your coach, but not always. There will be several dump stations available when you leave but not when you arrive. Arrive full and empty, and if you choose to use the dump when you leave, be prepared to wait in very, very long lines.

Your joined date is when you joined this forum and has nothing to do with when you joined FMCA. Otherwise, my joined date would be back in 1994.

More detailed info will be provided, but I thought I would give you an overview.

[tbutler]

I will supplement what Bill has already said with just a few comments. We always stay at an RV park the day before a convention. It gives us a chance to empty all waste tanks and fill the fresh water tank. There usually is a waste tank pumping truck that you can sign up for during the convention. They charge about $10 - $20 to pump out your tanks. This will help a little with the gray water tank. We've found that we can go through any convention on our black tank. Even so, if you don't have a fresh water source, you will likely run out of water before the end of the convention unless you use extreme measures to preserve the water - like bathing every other day! At Bowling Green, Ohio, several years ago they had shower trailers set up. That helped tremendously. They were clean and pretty readily available during the convention. There was no formal notification of their presence; we simply discovered them one day on the way from one place to another.

We were at the FMCA Convention in Hutchinson, Kansas (our first in 2002, I think). It rained for three straight days during the convention. Not rained, stormed! We had to wade our way through the fairground streets to get to workshops and sessions. Some of the rigs near us were completely surrounded by a shallow lake. The waste pumping truck we signed up for wasn't able to get to our rig, so we got a refund. We were parked on the baseball fields. Most people were parked on grass somewhere.

One of our neighbors had been at Perry a year or two before and left as soon as it started raining. We stayed and were pulled out by a wrecker. Everyone in our section was pulled out by tractor or wrecker. If you tried to drive, your rear wheels would immediately dig in. It was completely hopeless. That was a show to be seen. Every farmer for miles around was there with their John Deere! We had signed up for a towing service when we started RVing. We were absolutely amazed when the wrecker showed up about 30 minutes after we called our service. We got out at no cost and felt lucky to have done so. The farmers were generally charging $100 (donation) for their service.

Now to be fair, we've had fantastic conventions in Redmond, Bowling Green and Minneapolis/St. Paul. There was never a need for additional outside activities. There is so much going on at the convention that you'll find yourself wishing you could divide yourself to attend more sessions. This is especially true of your first convention.

One other aside. In Minneapolis/St. Paul, we were parked in the RV Park section of the fairgrounds. This happened purely by chance. We signed up for electrical service, which is usually provided by large generators serving 20 or so coaches. Instead, we plugged into a pedestal (30A) and turned on the electric as soon as we arrived instead of the next morning. Just 200 feet from our rig was a real shower house (these are generally available somewhere on most fairgrounds). We took showers each day, sometimes twice a day. We could pick our time at our convenience because we were so close. It was as good as being in a regular RV park.

You can look up typical weather for any area of the country on the www.WeatherChannel.com Unfortunately, this is the average of past weather and is only a fair predictor of what you may encounter in any given year. No one can tell you now what the temperature or precipitation is going to be next spring. They can't even tell you that a week in advance sometimes! So, like life, you pays your nickel and you takes your chances!

If you want no generators but want comfort of having the air conditioning available when you need it, sign up for electrical service - and hope you don't get the spots right next to the 24-hour master generator.

[ploiselle]

Bill and Tom, thank you, that is what I needed to know. I am sure that this will help others as they make plans to attend FMCA conventions across the country.

As many times as we have dry camped, I forgot about having to drive a couple hundred miles from my last stop to the fairgrounds with a full water tank. (My wife will have already flown home.) Another reason for a FAQ.

I will be making a reservation in a campground in Perry in the next day or so. Anyone have the name of the campground across the street that Bill mentioned or a recommendation for one near the fairgrounds?

Again thank you for the help.

Paul

[Guest BillAdams]

Fair Harbor RV Park

[czarsty]

I will try to answer your questions in the order that you gave them.

The Perry convention is a Tuesday through Thursday convention. Family member arrivals generally begin 2 days prior to the start of the convention. When you sign up you will be given a drive in day or arrival date. You can comes after that date but FMCA prefers you not come earlier. If you must get in the area before your assigned arrival date, there is a lot called the "Holding Area" where you can park the night before your scheduled arrival.

The holding area is strictly dry camping. Your registration packet contains information on how to get to the holding area as well as how to get to the site and which entrances to use.

Convention activities begin on the morning of the 14th. People usually depart on the day following the last night's entertainment, which for this convention will be Thursday. So departures will be on Friday the 17th. You might be able to stay an additional night if you make arrangements with the GA National Fairgrounds.

You make a good suggestions regarding the terms and defining them. The term passport refers to members who choose to park off the grounds and come in by car to see the exhibits, vendors, seminars and other events, including eventing entertainment. You cannot come on the grounds in your motorhome. The cost is almost the same as if you stayed on the grounds.

I understand there is a new "Preferred Parking: available at Perry for this convention, It is water, sewer and 30 amp shore power but the number of sites are limited. It costs about $65 more than getting just electric.

There is ample room to put out awnings in any of the parking lots. FMCA has years of experience parking motorhomes -- even the 45 footers. This year I understand FMCA is looking at increasing the size of each parking spot to allow even greater space. You should not feel crowded.

As you know, weather is unpredictable but I looked up the highs and lows from 2007 to 2010. In '07 it was 80 and 56, in '08 73 and 51; in '09 54 and 44, and '10 60 and 41. We have used our generator during the 7 am to 11 pm time and then put our furnace on around 55 degrees for the night. That usually works well and we have sufficient electric to cover the night time usage.

Toads are usually parked either along side or immediately behind or in front of your motorhome.

There will be a list of both seminar topics and vendors available on the web but it is way too early for that to be posted. Information should start showing up on the web site sometime in mid to late Jan. and early Feb. it is updated as things change.

There are two (2) dump stations on the GA National Fairgrounds property.

There are only a few historic things in Perry, but there is a lot to see within less than an hour or so driving.

Warner Robins, GA (less than 30 minutes from Perry) his supposed to be the fastest growing military aviation museum in the Southeast. With over 85 historical aircraft and exhibits of aviation memorabilia dating from WW I through modern times. They have an original Norden bombsight, the "secret weapon of WW2", Rosie the Riveter, the WWI and WW2 Ace Gen. Frank "Monk" hunter collections; German Luftwaffe items and on and on.

About 35 miles form Perry is the Andersonville National Cemetery and Historic Site. It includes 13,669 graves in the cemetery. Prisoner of War Memorials, a partial reconstruction of the prison stockade of the Confederate "Camp Sumter" and a Civil War Museum. Also there you can visit the Civil War Village of Andersonville, Pioneer Farm and Drummer Boy Museum. There were audio cassettes/cd's available when I took the self-guided car tour. It was very good.

There is the Massee Lane Gardens about 16 miles from Perry. There are 9 acres of camellias under towering pines, a Japanese Koi pond and rose gazebo. This location also features an Edward Marshall Boehm porcelain collection -- the largest of its kind in the world, featuring magnificent works of art in porcelain.

Perry is located at the crossroads of Georgia in the Historic Heartland Region. It is an important part of the Georgia Antiques Train the Golden Isles Parkway, the Peach Blossom Trail and the Andesronville Trail. This tourist information came from the www.georgiaonmymind.org site. Go there for a lot

more information on things to see and do.

Judy Czarsty, F79148

[bobnshirlene]

Along the same topic we have a question. We are members of FMCA, but live close to Perry and plan on driving our car to the convention at least one of the days.

What is the cost of attending for just one or more days?

Is there a separate charge to park our car?

Thanks.

[maureen]

We are members of FMCA, but live close to Perry and plan on driving our car to the convention at least one of the days.

What is the cost of attending for just one or more days?

Is there a separate charge to park our car?

You can attend the convention on a Daily Pass for $7 a day per person that allows you to view the exhibits only, or you can purchase a Daily Passport for $55 a day per member and this permits you to view the exhibits and attend seminars and entertainment. The Daily Pass and Daily Passport are sold at the gate only.

You can also register for a Passport, which costs $145 for FMCA members (if purchased by 2/7/11) and is good for two people. Passport includes admittance to exhibits, seminars and entertainment for every day of the convention.

Car parking is available for all of these passes, at no charge.

Also see the Perry Frequently Asked Questions page.

FMCA Convention Staff

[jaselton]

We are thinking of attending Perry also and it will be our first event of this type. Since it is so expensive to buy this "Passport", would someone please share your experience and say how to best use a day at an event like this. Without knowing which seminar is when (looked over the list - see several that would educate we newbies), about how much time does a seminar take, how long should we expect to spend in the exhibit area (I know "looking time" is relative, but, in general, how many are there - is it just motorhomes to go through or are there other types of booths to visit also). I guess if you have never been, you just don't know what to expect or how to plan to wisely use your time there!!!

Judy & Jerry Aselton

Ellijay, Ga.

2006 National Dolphin LX 5355

2008 Jeep Liberty

PS: glad someone explained the "Member since" date in one of the posts. I was curious about that also.

[wolfe10]

We are thinking of attending Perry also and it will be our first event of this type. Since it is so expensive to buy this "Passport", would someone please share your experience and say how to best use a day at an event like this. Without knowing which seminar is when (looked over the list - see several that would educate we newbies), about how much time does a seminar take, how long should we expect to spend in the exhibit area (I know "looking time" is relative, but, in general, how many are there - is it just motorhomes to go through or are there other types of booths to visit also). I guess if you have never been, you just don't know what to expect or how to plan to wisely use your time there!!!

Judy & Jerry Aselton

Ellijay, Ga.

2006 National Dolphin LX 5355

2008 Jeep Liberty

PS: glad someone explained the "Member since" date in one of the posts. I was curious about that also.

If you only have one day to devote to a Convention, you will sure have to make some decisions about what seminars are most important to you. There will be a schedule out well before the Convention here on the FMCA Website.

And there is no set time it will take you to go through the exhibits-- depends on how much you shop/what you are shopping for. Same for coach exhibits-- if you are only looking for a certain model or kind of coach, it can be done in a couple of hours. But, if you also want to drive those at the head of your list (a great advantage of coming to a Convention) it will certainly take longer.

Brett