Travis' Trails: Vintage Trailer Rally - Montello, Wisconsin

Whew, what a weekend! I'm telling you these vintage trailer rallies are a blast. Last week we took a break from working on Ilean at Aluminum Acres to go to the rally in Montello, Wisconsin. The wagon masters, Kimberly & Gibb, really put on quite a deal. It is held at Buffalo Lake Camping Resort, in Montello, Wisconsin and was the first rally that Norm & Jules had ever attended and that was in 2007. The paint on Bob was still wet. This year marked the tenth anniversary of the rally.

The first night is the progressive cocktail party.

What better way to start a rally than to go from camper to camper with everyone, enjoy a tasty beverage and some appetizers and to catch up with old friends while making new friends?

We brought Bob this year. Norm & Jules "rotate" campers each year for each rally so nobody feels left out.

I was just chilling in the morning when I made a new friend. I thought it was a baby dinosaur at first. He said his name was Barney. Since he wasn't a strange shade of fuzzy purple I figured he was ok.

He asked if we had any flies around 'cuz he was hungry. I told him we might have fries and he corrected me and said, "No, flies." He said he ate flies. How weird is that? I told him we didn't have any in the fridge.

Norm said that it was a baby snapping turtle. During the weekend they were spotted all over the campground. Anytime someone found one crawling around we picked it up so they would be safe. Gibb collected them throughout the weekend and had 13 of them. He planned to take them down to the lake before we left and release them.

I really think these little guys are direct descendants of the dinosaurs.

Enough about the critters. The campers are a bit more spread out in Montello than some of the other rallies. I think there were nearly 40 different campers this year.

This year there were even four big vintage buses and a pop-up.

Some trailers arrive being pulled by vintage cars & trucks.

Of course Gunther was there with his family. The girls, Holly & Gabriella, wanted a picture with us good looking guys. (Or was it the other way around with good looking girls, I don't remember.)

One of the many highlights of any rally is the pot-luck dinner. Kimberly puts a different spin on it and has a burger contest one night and the pot-luck dinner the next. The entered burgers are cut up and everyone samples them. Then everyone votes on which one is the best.

Jello deserts were also entered into the competition this year. Jello scares me so I used Julia's famed recipe for M&M salad for my dish to pass, but I modified it a little. I added tootsie rolls for visual enhancement.

It was a BIG HIT too!

This was the burger table with the competitors getting ready to be carved up for sampling. Its a lot of fun to see what everyone does to make their burgers special.

This was the Jello table. One of the jellos actually was moving all the time! It kept spinning like it was possessed or something. It should stop moving at some point, RIGHT? One of them even had Spam in it. I didn't try that one! I told you that stuff scares me.

During dinner I was assaulted by a Packer. I kept my cool and didn't punt his scrawny bottom across the room. He thought he was all that and a bag of chips. I never understood what set him off or why he chose to attack me. Considering that I towered over him I figured he was just not right. Who would pick a fight with a giant? (How cool is that? ME, a giant!) I just couldn't hurt the little guy, he was so confused and full of himself. Favre was the name on his shirt. I could only guess that he was starving for attention.

Dinner BOTH nights was fantastic. This plate of yummies was Saturday night's pot luck. Just bring meat to grill & a dish to pass. I love steak.

Ok, Holly is going to choke me for this photo, but Alex would be happy. The other photo, where Holly is smiling nice only had Alex's ear. Sorry Holly. Your other photo was stunning though. I guess you could blame Gabriella 'cuz she took the picture.

After dinner Saturday was the big fun. Not only did we get to pick some cool stuff during the door prize part when our names were called we got to be entertained too!

We got bubbles for Brock

The entertainment was special. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the rally in Montello a couple that went by the stage names of KG and The Ranger performed. They were really good. I thought for sure during the rope trick part someone was going to get tangled up and fall. But they didn't. If you like old time movie songs about cowboys it would be right up your alley. I enjoyed it. I thought about adding a video, and YES smarty pants I got permission from KG, but the quality of it wasn't that great. I didn't want to do them an injustice. This is their website http://www.kgandtheranger.com/

I felt like such a grouper.

Oh, sorry, groupie. Grouper is a fish according to Norm.

Duh, everyone knows that. I just had a moment, that's all.

Hokey smokes I almost forgot and missed this picture. How silly of me.

During Saturday's show & shine I met Jean. I really liked her hat! I am a big fan of hats. Jules on the other hand does not like them. I think that is the only point that we disagree on.

It turned out that Jean was "The Birthday Girl" and since she was celebrating her birthday at the rally some of her other friends got her a hat to wear. What would we do without good friends?

I better get to scooting. This rally stuff is too much fun.