April 2022
We had two more trips before this- 4 soggy, soggy days at Lake Hartwell Army Core of Engineers Campground- the Core Campgrounds are some of the most best in the country, and always worth a try. The other was a Hipcamp, which was interesting, but we had some electrical issues with the truck and so we bailed early. But let’s talk about Silver in the City Part 2….
Before we get too far into that though, I’d like to point out that we’d spent a lot of time polishing Tess to a mirror finish before this event. Not because we wanted to show off, but because Tess had been polished some years before we got her and was beginning to get dirty and tarnished. So we decided to give her a quick buff, get her back to about 80% full polish. We weren’t going to worry about impressing “that guy” that always seems to show up at at car shows (or Airstream rallies) who is super picky and points out every little flaw…. but after 200+ hours of polishing, re-polishing, cleaning the black buildup and then polishing every single rivet (1542 of them, for the curious) I had to come to the shocking conclusion that I was, in fact, “that guy”, at least about my own rig. But Tess was looking extraordinary!
But back to the original story:
We were still unsure if we were rally people….but we’d had so much fun at the 2021 event that we decided to try it again… I mean it couldn’t hurt, even if we did edge a little closer to the cult of Airstream, right? So we arrived Thursday, at a time we consider early enough to get a good spot in town the next day. We did not arrive early enough. We were near the back.
To make matters worse, as evening came on and we were quietly congratulating ourselves for having one of the shiniest rigs there, off in the distance I saw an incredibly shiny Caravel making its way into the row behind us. Competition had arrived. We debated our options. I suggested we take some of Tess’s leftover yellow paint and go spray the word “Wannabe” all over their camper- I mean no one would put together it was us that did it, would they?
Melinda had a different approach, that perhaps we should go and introduce ourselves and tell them how nice their Caravel is.
“Yeah” I said, “then when they’re not looking, we’ll paint their trailer, right?” To which Melinda shook her head in despair of her choice in boyfriends, took my hand, and drug me down to meet a wonderful couple who have since become good friends. I guess the Kool-Aid has kicked in a bit..
The rally drill is the same as last year, and just as well run. We were staged outside of town on Thursday, early Friday morning starts with free local coffee and donuts, then we parade into town with remarkable precision for a weekend of jolly good fun. We see people we met last year and slowly we get drawn in a little more…..
