We arrived in Farmington, New Mexico yesterday. We had spent the previous night at Red Rock State Park, just outside Gallup. A very pretty place on the edge of the Navajo Nation, surrounded by--you guessed it--tall, red cliffs. We were able to take a hike up the nearby canyon, right from the campground, which pleased the dogs as well as us, because they haven’t had a lot of chances to be off-leash. From Red Rock, it was just over a hundred miles to north to Farmington. We drove through the Navajo reservation, which is much more scenic here than in Utah and Arizona, stopping in Crownpoint to do laundry. While I was at the laundromat, Steve wandered around Crownpoint looking for the tribal police station where Tony Hillerman’s Joe Leaphorn hung out. Steve was disappointed--it was not what he had visualized. No sign of Joe either.

The rally is being held at the fairgrounds, a few miles outside of Farmington. Farmington is quite scenic. The San Juan River runs right by the campground, and the cottonwood trees along the river are all golden. This is by far the biggest rally (in our limited experience) we’ve ever been too. There are about 500 motor homes here, from all over the country, even though it’s supposed to be for just the Rocky Mountain area. Almost all the motor homes are BIG--mostly 40 footers! There are very very few--less than 50 maybe--under 30 feet, and even fewer that are our size (24 feet) or smaller. Everyone is extremely friendly and fun to talk to. Our name tags have red “first-timer” ribbons attached, and everyone seems to go out of their way to make sure we are enjoying ourselves.

Today was the first day of rally activities. I singed up for the line dancing class, and it was a lot of fun. I learned how to do the Texas Barefootin, the Freeze, the Honkey Tonk Stomp, and the Ragin’ Cajun. Pretty basic dances, but fun. Friday is lesson 2, where we’ll get a little more complicated. I hope we get to do some of the dances I learned on the Mexican Riviera cruise a few years ago. I don’t remember what they were called, but one was to “Elvira” and another to “Achey Breaky Heart.” Yee ha! After line dancing, we went to the First Timer’s Welcome Seminar, and then to the Chapter Fair, where we wandered around checking out all the different FMCA chapters and trying to find one in our area that does things that we like to do. Most of them seem to like to go to nice RV parks, eat a lot, shop, and play cards or golf. We did find one, Cuatro Estados, that likes to dry camp on BLM land or in NFS campgrounds, hike, and 4WD. They are based in New Mexico or Arizona (I can’t remember which), but mostly do fall and winter campouts in Arizona. Our plan is to get to know them a little better this week during the rally, and then maybe meet up with them this winter in Arizona at Quartzsite, Imperial Dam, or Tortilla Flat for one of their outings. We need to check out the Salt Lake group--the Salty City Ramblers--too.

From tomorrow on, our rally schedule is jam-packed. The seminars start tomorrow--everything from how to prevent odors in your holding tanks to RVing in Europe. Tomorrow is also the Pet Parade. Ellie, Tex, and I will be marching, and the dogs will get to show off their tricks for the judges. Many dogs apparently will be in costume. Ours will not. Definitely not. But I’ll have Steve take pictures of the more outrageous ones. The vendor booths also open tomorrow, so that will be fun to wander around and look at stuff for sale.