Welcome to the Wild, Wild West

September 2, 2006

Welcome to the Wild, Wild West!

That's the theme for this campout. Let me back up a bit. We belong to Family Campers and RVers organization. It's a national club with local chapters. Twice a year our state club sponsers a "campvention." The fall one is always held over Labor Day weekend. This year we're meeting at Tonganoxie, Kansas up by Kansas City.

So welcome to the wild, wild west is the theme for the campout. We always choose themes but it's more about people just getting together. So what I'm trying to say is the theme has very little to do with the rest of the campout.

Campouts are always unique and are something that when you try to describe them to outsiders come off sounding just a little bit kooky. The weekend begins with a flag salute and a prayer which in itself is pretty kooky now days. We have a flag raising ceremony every morning and schedule is full of biscuit and gravy fund-raiser breakfasts and potluck suppers.

We play beanbag baseball, horseshoes and washer toss with great enthusiam and pay $2 to complete whatever craft has been designed to entertain us. More fun is the flea market, where the different chapters peddle different camper-related stuff.

There is always a 'teacup' or 'basket' auction to fund our membership booth at the state fair. Several people donate small items and each item has a ticket tub in front of it. You buy a multitude of tickets and drop one (or twenty) in the tub of the item you want to win. This years offerings run from a beaded K-State Powercat hanging, candles, a tea and cookie tray, a stack of video tapes, kitchen stuff and other neat and not so neat stuff. Before the end of campvention there is a drawing for the items and everyone waits on the edge of their seats to see if they win their coveted items. There will be much verbal harassment when Lucky Larry wins more draws than anyone else (overlooking the fact that he has five times the tickets of anyone else.)

A special delight at this campout is our nametag police (AKA the teens) If you get caught without your nametag, you get ticketed and have to appear in Kangaroo Court. We'll see what the penalty is when I appear befor Judge Justin later today!

In between scheduled events, we visit and catch up with old friends or play cards or dominos. If someone gets a new camping unit, a campvention is like open house. This is our second state campout with this motorhome but we've held plenty of tours this weekend. (There's also a danger with new units- it's a camping tradition for them to get tee-peed, where your fellow campers descend upon your camper while you're gone and decorate it with toliet paper!)

Another fun aspect of campvention is hospitalities. There can be any number of reasons for hospitalities - a club anniversary, new club, new officiers or just 'cause. They dress up the serving table and sometimes themselves to a theme, provide a small snack, a drink and a small giveaway or swap. All the rest of the campout attendees line up and go through, shaking hands and socializing.

The evening program of the last night is the most anticipated event of the year - the teen queen pageant! There's a king and princess contest too but we don't always have contestants for them. But there are always girls who want the chance to compete on the big stage at nations and become Miss FCRV. This year's contestants are Katie, who's mom ran when she was a teen and Jamie, who is a past queen and has a sister who is outgoing queen and a past queen cousin. Katie and her mom know how to do the contestant thing but Jamie has great talent. We always tell them though, "On any given day, any one of them could win; never take a win for granted."

So that's my wacky weekend, come along anytime.

Photo #1 Beverly & Elna serve bisquits & gravy

Photo #2 Florence dishes it out!

Photo #3 Reverend Vic helps the preteens raise the flag

Photo #4 David provides sound for the programs

Photo #5 Swaps from queen contestant hospitality

Story ID:	868
Written by:	Shannon Marie Hyle (bio, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Diary/Journal Entry
Location:	Tonganoxie Kansas USA
Year:	2006
Person:	myself